2016/2017 Hockey Thread

[Draevyn]

3 hours ago, Meacon said:

Any non-Canadian team.

Well that's a little rude

 

...says the Canadian who doesn't cheer for a Canadian team

[TGWL]

On 6/12/2017 at 10:01, Doctor Bigfoot said:

I'm gonna try to follow NHL next season. Who should I cheer for and why? (Side question: Who currently compares best to Clay Matthews in terms of having the best hair in the league?)

Stay away for the Leafs, Canadiens and all their fans. They overrate their players unlike any other fanbase... 

Oilers are a team that has hit rock bottom and finally started bouncing back in the right direction. Made it to the semi-finals during this years playoffs. Leafs also had a successful year after a few rough seasons. They won the lottery draft last season and got Matthews with the first overall pick. He was pretty impressive during his first year.

Vegas Golden Knights are a brand new expansion team that can use all the fans they can get. Their expansion draft selections will be announced on June 21st. 

Colorado Avalanche were the worst team in the league last season, so if you want to cheer on the worst team, that would be your option. 

As for Hair, 

Penguins just won the cup, back to back years, one of their players, Car Hagelin, has some nice flowing locks. 

Ottawa Senators have a defensemen, Erik Karlsson, one of the most valuable overall player in the league and nice flowing hair. 

Mats Zuccarello, playing for New York Rangers, has some good flowing hair as well.  They also have Henrik Lundqvist, possibly the most handsome man in the league and pretty good hair to go along with that. 

Mathieu Perreault from the Winnpeg Jets has flowy hair, as does David David Pastrnak from Boston Bruins, unless he cut it. 

Victor Hedman from Tampa Bay Lightning has nice long hair. 

Nylander from the leafs has nice hair too. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Until he retires Jaromir Jagr will have the best hair in the NHL.

At that point the honor gets bestowed upon Erik Karlsson.

[Ruki]

 

 

[TGWL]

Drouin traded to Montreal. 

[gunnar hendershow]

That's a big trade. Some conditional draft picks in there too.

Habs lock up Drouin for 6 years, $33 mil. It's a big gamble to part with a top pick from 2016 and give so much money to a guy who finally emerged as a star last season. But if the Habs are guessing right about his ceiling and that he can play center, watch out.

[Draevyn]

I would have loved for Drouin to come to Pittsburgh but we just have too many players that we need to lock up or do something with that I don't think there's any room for him. Since Montreal is the other team we cheer for in this household, I'm okay because I'll get to watch him play a lot. I still can't figure out why the Habs have not locked up Radulov though. He should honestly be one of the top "To Do" things of this offseason for them.

[Gabriel]

The Flames just acquired Mike Smith from Arizona for Brandon Hickey (who wasn't going to sign with us anyways), a 3rd rounder next year (unless we make the playoffs, then it's a second) and the UFA rights to Chad Johnson.

Thomas McCollum was signed earlier in the season to make sure that Calgary has someone to expose in the expansion draft at the goalie position. It's unlikely that Brian Elliott re-signs with the team as well.

Smith is a slight statistical upgrade over Elliott, with a save percentage just higher than Elliott's last year on a worse team. Treliving is familiar with Smith from his time with the Coyotes franchise, and Smith has historically been a nightmare for Pacific Division teams to face. It's definitely not the move I would have made, but I feel like the return to Arizona wasn't bad.

This probably also means that the Vegas Golden Knights are eyeing Marc-Andre Fleury as the goalie that they ride as their number one right out of the gate. If Fleury was on the move, he would have been a preferable option, which makes me wonder if Pittsburgh was asking for the bank or if Vegas has no intention of flipping him.

[Hewey]

I think Vegas takes Fleury, but I could see them flipping him to a contender during the trade deadline.

[Draevyn]

It's probably a good thing that Vegas can only take one player from each team because there's honestly a lot of good to great players that are going unprotected into this thing.

[Hewey]

1 hour ago, Forky said:

It's probably a good thing that Vegas can only take one player from each team because there's honestly a lot of good to great players that are going unprotected into this thing.

James Neal for Nashville is a big surprise, betting Vegas picks him up for sure.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Hewey

[Draevyn]

I figure they take Fleury as well and probably a younger goaltender that Fleury can mentor into a number one. Oshie and Shattenkirk are also up there for grabs as well as Marc Methot. I don't know what their budget is but they've definitely got some great options.

[Hewey]

10 hours ago, Forky said:

I figure they take Fleury as well and probably a younger goaltender that Fleury can mentor into a number one. Oshie and Shattenkirk are also up there for grabs as well as Marc Methot. I don't know what their budget is but they've definitely got some great options.

I read that Oshie was gonna end up staying in Washington, don't know what kind of deal they work out, but he apparently likes it there. 

Shattenkirk is probably Rangers bound. 

But yeah, some good options for Vegas. If they put together a good team and get good goaltending, I don't see them being bottom dwellers. I don't think they will be a playoff team or anything like that, but definitely not Arizona bad.

[TGWL]

On 6/15/2017 at 18:03, Forky said:

I would have loved for Drouin to come to Pittsburgh but we just have too many players that we need to lock up or do something with that I don't think there's any room for him. Since Montreal is the other team we cheer for in this household, I'm okay because I'll get to watch him play a lot. I still can't figure out why the Habs have not locked up Radulov though. He should honestly be one of the top "To Do" things of this offseason for them.

Radulov wants a lot more money. In my opinion, his production doesn't justify the big increase he wants. His come back was very successful, but at the end of the day, he was a 54 point player. 

[Draevyn]

1 hour ago, TGWL said:

Radulov wants a lot more money. In my opinion, his production doesn't justify the big increase he wants. His come back was very successful, but at the end of the day, he was a 54 point player. 

Which was better than at least 90% if not more of the rest of the team though.

[TGWL]

6 hours ago, Forky said:

Which was better than at least 90% if not more of the rest of the team though.

Yeah, but 54 points is still 54 points. Most GM's don't hand over 7million contacts for that.  It's being speculated that he's agreed to a 3 year term which will get signed on Thursday after signing freeze, so maybe he came down on his price.  Although the shorter term makes me think it's a higher cap hit.

[Draevyn]

So Vega's first round is full of a lot of young players. That's a pretty good thing to do but they're going to need some veteran influence as well. I imagine that Pickard is going to be Fleury's back up next year.

[gunnar hendershow]

I felt that if Vegas wanted they could have probably put together a team of veterans that would be able to sneak into the playoffs in year one. Smarter for the long-term to put it together as a young team to try to build up with draft picks and such though. They probably won't have issue selling tickets in year one or two.

[Draevyn]

Two goaltenders even before they get a chance to pick Fleury, if they do. His asking price might be a bit too much when I think about it but it seems crazy not to pick him. I was not surprised they grabbed Neal though.

I knew it was going to happen and I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to him but it's still quite sad to see Fleury go.  

[Gabriel]

If Vegas doesn't sell off all of their currently good players for more picks and prospects, they've built a pretty respectable looking team. Cody Eakin, Jonathan Marchessault, James Neal, Brendan Leipsic, David Perron, Erik Haula, William Karlsson on forward... Luca Sbisa, Jason Garrison, Deryk Engelland, Marc Methot, Griffin Reinhart, Alexei Emelin, Clayton Stoner, Shea Theodore and Trevor Van Riemsdyk on defense... Marc-Andre Fleury and Calvin Pickard in net... they're pretty solid, especially for an expansion team.

If they make moves, they have some wiggle room to play with defense that they selected to try and get more talent up front... but they grabbed a lot of decent to good defensemen to play in front of a multi-time Stanley Cup winner and a young backup that might be able to play 25-35 games if he needs to. Grabbing an experienced goaltender to play in the AHL in case of an injury to Fleury or Pickard would be a good idea though.