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2015 NHL Offseason Thread


dlbalr

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Loved the Steve Simmins Kessel Hot-Dog blog...what a maroon! Only thing funnier was an American dude ripping Simmins post and Leafs irrelevance for past 50 years.

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Troy Brouwer and Pheonix Copley and a third-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft for Oshie. OH COME ON! We could have had him easily.

Brouwer has scored at least 17 goals in each of the last six years (including the lockout season). That's pretty consistent; he's a legitimate top six winger. Which of those legitimate top six wingers did you want the Habs to give up here? (They have no need for the likes of Eller and Desharnais as they're loaded at C with Backes, Stastny, Lehtera, Ott, and Berglund). The only shot the Habs had at getting him is if St. Louis wanted a defenceman as the key piece coming back.

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When it comes to trades with big name players, teams when asking for a young roster player always ask for Gallagher.

I hope mb just goes after ward. Ward is money in the playoffs and that's the type of player we need.

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Not a big Ward fan, but haven't followed nor noticed him much. I think he is a much older Pelly isn't he and playoff performer like Briere was eh...and how did that trade play out? :nuts:

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I like the Kassian trade, but so far (and I know it's early)..Bergevin gets an F from me. (Not that the grade will keep him up at night)

The biggest weakness on this team is the Centre position. All this talk about Ward and Sharp.. sign one, get both.. who cares.. As long as Pleks, DD, and Eller are your top three centres, your only hope lies in Price being lights out.

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Habs simply need more offense, if Sharp does that, I am fine with centres as are.

If added a Backes or Koivu at centre might be a good idea, but would be frickin costly.

And if you think Habs mgmt. haven't done their homework on roster options I think you be wrong.

So if has failed to please you, what was the easy move they so obviously failed to make?

Trade Scherbak, McCarron, Gallagher, Galchenyuk, Beaulieu, 1st picks is where a centre upgrade would start with.

Which top prospects/top picks you want to part with?

Or you one of those who want to try to bundle & trade mid-quality assets for an all-star I suppose? :bonk:

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I have no problem with the C configuration in the regular season. The basic problem is that Desharnais, who (contrary to the haters) is a perfectly good regular season player, has yet to show that he can adapt to the intensified interference that kicks in at playoff time. Upgrading at the W is a necessity, but ultimately I think Drive is correct; we will not win the Cup with only one centreman (Plekanec) who plays like a top-6 C at playoff time. It's just not possible.

Is it easy to upgrade at C? No. But that doesn't change the fact that either DD has to figure out how to be effective when the refs arbitrarily put away the whistles in the playoffs, OR we need to replace him with a C who can produce in the dance. That's a fact, as I see it. Maybe that guy will be Galchenyuk. Maybe it won't. But it has to happen. I get that it's hard to do, but ultimately Bergevin HAS to find an answer. His job, after all, is to win us a Cup, not to sadly explain the reasons why we can't do this.

Adding a top-6 W also has to happen. Considering that Frolik and Williams, etc., were signed to eminently moderate contracts, our current situation at W is less excusable than at C. He's got until September to figure out that file. But SO FAR the fact is that he's done exactly squat to improve the team this summer.

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I've stated before.. You have to take advantage of the window given by having Price in net.. so if you need to trade assets that are 2 or 3 years away from being rookies in the NHL (Scherbak, McCarron)... then you do it.

Look at the Kessel deal.. Now every sports website has the Pens "going all in" ...

We have Price. Why not "go all in" for a couple of years.

If you can get a Couture at the cost of Scherbak or McCarron, then why not. In 4 or 5 years when the young forwards are ready to be your star forwards, will Price still be the #1 goalie in the world?

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He re-signed Petry & Mitchell. Nice trade for Kassian. Currently locking up the young depth. Extention for Pateryn. Galchenyuk remains. Once he has all his ducks in a row. I have a feeling MB will do what needs to be done to make this squad a contender. Imo the wings are good enough. Plus, odds are one of Scherbak, McCarron, Hudon, Andrighetto or Thomas will seriously contend for a top 6 slot. Center is what needs to be addressed asap. I don't dislike DD but agree with CC & Drive. Regardless, I hope he doesn't wait until the deadline to make a move that needs to be done. Pay premium and go into the playoffs in sync.

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If you can get a Couture at the cost of Scherbak or McCarron, then why not. In 4 or 5 years when the young forwards are ready to be your star forwards, will Price still be the #1 goalie in the world?

Couture isn't on a trade block in an artificial "must trade" scenario like the Leafs created with Kessel, Blackhawks ended with Saad (he never would have been traded if his agent didn't him) and Hamilton with Boston (I guess he just wanted out).

That said, I'd trade high on a vet like Patrick Marleau. Even if it meant adding Scherbak. Two more years at $6.6M, can play LW or C, everyone on SJ had scoring drops but a big part of that is the Sharks lacking puck moving D that can score. With Subban, Petry and Markov he'd get a kickstart.

Sounds expensive? Yeah sure. But if I want to go deep in the playoffs, I'll take the guy only a few game winning goals away from the all-time NHL playoff record for game winning playoff goals. Position him at the wing to switch faceoffs with Galchenyuk to help him learn the position. I'm far higher on Marleau than most but if we want to make a big impact, improve our PP scoring and get a guy who has got it done in the past in the playoffs? I want Marleau convinced to waive for Montreal.

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Bergy has been pretty good at digging out some small chestnuts. I would not say he has done squat but he has not accomplished his mission. It is all well and good to say we must be patient and build slowly, but the clock is ticking. We have a solid 5 years to win a cup before the current crop of stars begins to decline, Price, Subban, Patches, etc. We have already watched Markov decline significantly. Pleks has a lot of miles on him. I would say that MB has to get the centre/rw situation cleaned up this year. Next year 2017 I am looking for a cup, or he and his friend Le Genius can both hit the road. This is game of results and he has had a reasonable to get it together. I am a big fan of MB and I am sure he is aware of the same things we are.

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Saad gets 6 years, $6 million from Columbus. But with it being that length, he's only buying out two UFA years.

Ryan O'Reilly gets 7 years, $7.5 million per from Buffalo. All but $7 million total of that deal comes in the form of signing bonuses making it buyout proof. Not only do they overpay but it's with almost all up-front money? Stupid.

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Was the 'stupid' bit of contract a guaranteed part of price to attract him to Buffalo in first place? Or do the Sabres see some benefit to this structure of deal?

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Saad gets 6 years, $6 million from Columbus. But with it being that length, he's only buying out two UFA years.

Ryan O'Reilly gets 7 years, $7.5 million per from Buffalo. All but $7 million total of that deal comes in the form of signing bonuses making it buyout proof. Not only do they overpay but it's with almost all up-front money? Stupid.

With the amount of money it cost to sign them on top of the packages it took to get them, I am quite happy MB steered clear of those deals.

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Was the 'stupid' bit of contract a guaranteed part of price to attract him to Buffalo in first place? Or do the Sabres see some benefit to this structure of deal?

O'Reilly didn't have any no-trade protection with Colorado and the Sabres weren't granted permission to talk contract before the deal was done so my guess would be no.

The benefit is solely to the player, not the team. I believe signing bonus money is outside the system in terms of HRR which reduces his escrow. It also guarantees him payment in case there's another lockout when the CBA is up. And, as I noted in my other post, it basically makes the contract buyout proof as signing bonus money is owed in full on buyouts. If they were to buy him out, they'd only save a few hundred thousand a year on the cap.

Buffalo has done this before with Ehrhoff and Myers. It didn't work too well on either of those occasions, Ehrhoff was bought out and Myers played poorly in the early going of his front loaded deal as complacency set in. I like O'Reilly but something tells me the third time won't be a charm.

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Saad gets 6 years, $6 million from Columbus. But with it being that length, he's only buying out two UFA years.

Ryan O'Reilly gets 7 years, $7.5 million per from Buffalo. All but $7 million total of that deal comes in the form of signing bonuses making it buyout proof. Not only do they overpay but it's with almost all up-front money? Stupid.

ROR gets hurt and they will regret that contract. I would think. boy has he ever got job security. Strangest contract I have ever heard of.

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Will Saads contract bring Galchenyuks demands up?

They can try but probably not. Saad has had a lot more of an impact so far than Galchenyuk has and the bridge deals that other players have signed so far are much better comparables.

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The O'Reilly contract is... tough. He's a 55-65 point centre who does all the right things without the puck and is never putting his team in penalty trouble. Seven years at $7.5M without a buyout sounds scary but he's 24 years old. He'll be only 31 when that deal is done and he likely hasn't hit his ceiling. Him and Eichel will make a dangerous 1/2 down the middle in the league.

If he could have been had by the Habs for say Tinordi/Andrighetto/Eller/1st I would have pulled the trigger and paid the price.

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Habs don't have cap room to fit contract in. So would need to do your trade + make another deal off-loading another player.

Starts to get a bit much..no?

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Habs are deep at RW and with Prust gone.. Bournival steps in bottom 6 LW to replace him.

Imo once Galchenyuk is signed. Jim Slater should be brought in asap. Maybe Dan Cleary if nobody steps up after camp.

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Nice to see recent TVA video of Galchenyuk training, but seems a bit odd to be doing it in Belarus, when his pet peeve supposedly is "I am American not Russian!" haha :hyper:

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Nice to see recent TVA video of Galchenyuk training, but seems a bit odd to be doing it in Belarus, when his pet peeve supposedly is "I am American not Russian!" haha :hyper:

PK Subban trains in Toronto. OMG is he going to the Leafs? ;)

Rarely do players summer train in the same city/area they play for. As for Galchenyuk, he goes to Belarus every summer to visit extended family and do some training. Hence why the training footage you watched by TVA was taken by his sister :)

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