- The Oilers miss the playoffs again but win the lottery. Holland gets a bunch of mid / late picks at the deadline. Did I say "win"? I mean they win the 2nd overall selection. Welcome to Edmonton, Quinton Byfield!
- Neal scores >25 goals / 50 points, recovers a bunch of value and is once again a tradeable commodity.
- Nurse continues to be one of the best 5v5 defenseman scorers in the league (11th in the league over the past 2 seasons) but loses PP time to the youngsters, therefore his point total falls to 35 points... meaning his next contract isn't as huge as some people think it might be.
- Russell has just $1.5M salary in the last year of his contract, can be traded for a similar contract. Still an above average 3rd pairing guy who can spot up the lineup as necessary.
- Puljujarvi recovers his confidence in Finland's Liiga and dominates that league, proving once again that he is a top talent. But he still wants a change of scenery in the NHL.
- Lagesson, Jones, Bear and Persson all play 20+ games and prove their ability to play 3rd pairing comp at this level. There isn't room to keep them all though, so some will be traded. I'm signing them all to the same contract for simplicity, and because I don't really know which ones to keep and which to trade.
- Bouchard also plays 20 games towards the end of the season, proves able to play 2nd pairing and run a power play. This makes Benning expendable, despite the fact that he established his bona-fides as a 2nd pairing defender in 2019-20.
- Benson makes the team at Christmas and scores 20 points in 45 games in a 3rd line role.
- Yamamoto plays the entire season in AHL and scores 30-40-70. He's back on track as a late 1st round pick.
- Chiasson scores 15 goals, is summer trade bait.
- Smith sustains an injury, Starrett subs in and proves capable of handling backup duties, posting a .905 SvP in 15 starts.
SUMMER 2020 TIMELINE:
The trades below are listed out of order, so I'll summarize them here for clarity:
Pittsburgh: Shero makes these moves early, he knows where he's drafting and he knows he'll have a hard time re-signing Justin Schultz. JUNE 2020
New Jersey: the Devils make a decision to walk from Simmonds early and talks aren't going well with Hall, so they make this move prior to the draft. JUNE 2020
DRAFT: Edmonton selects Quinton Byfield with their pick and Jean-Luc Foudy with the Pittsburgh 1st. With their 2nd round pick Edmonton selects Mavrik Bourque
FREE AGENCY: Edmonton signs LW Chris Kreider and RD Jared Spurgeon.
Detroit: this occurs after the Russell $1M signing bonus gets paid, which I think happens July 1st. JULY 2020
Minnesota: this happens after July 1st when Edmonton signs Spurgeon. JULY 2020
Florida: Florida misses out on some of the UFA's that they liked, figured to pick up a stop-gap on a 1-year deal who can score a bit from the bottom-6 and try again next year. AUGUST 2020
THE 2020-21 TEAM:
- The new superstar plays wing to start, just like Crosby did with Lemieux. Kreider gets the other wing... the name of the game here is speed, speed, speed! And Kreider and Byfield are both huge beasts too, and they're all a threat to score at any time. Best line in hockey.
- This bumps Draisaitl down to the Nugent-Hopkins line. Not sure who plays center, but Leon is a huge threat to score on his offwing so I've put him there. Did you know that Draisaitl scores at a higher rate with Nuge than he does with McDavid? True story... Benson gets elevated to the 2nd line because his skillset compliments the others. Ever the crafty strategist, Holland inks Benson to a 3 year x $2M extension before he lets Tippett move him up into the top-6.
- The 3rd line is a hard-minutes checking line that gets a lot of the defensive assignments.
- The McLead-Maksimov gel in Bakersfield and are brought up together to fill the energy role alongside Nygard. Again, speed is the game here, although this line has defensive ability and can score, too: Nygard was a top scorer in the SHL the past 2 years, and Maksimov is a 40-goal OHLer. Maksimov is 6'3 and McLeod is 6'2, so there's some size happening here too. Khaira, Gambardella and Yamamoto could step into this role, too.
- Nurse and Spurgeon get together, the new pairing is christened "David and Goliath" just because. Nurse is no longer asked to be a shutdown guy exclusively (as he was in 2019-20).
- Klefbom - Bouchard get more offensive zone starts than the others, Bouchard anchors the PP.
- A new shutdown pairing, Lagesson and Larsson play similar games. Listed as the 3rd pairing, in reality all 3 pairings are going to get similar icetime. These guys will get a little more defensive zone time and PK, although the Nurse-Spurgeon pairing can handle these assignments effectively too, when needed.
I expect the goaltending duo to split the games 50/30 or so, expecting both guys to post league-average numbers: around .911 SvP.
For the Seattle draft I'm going 4-4-1:
McDavid
Draisaitl
Kreider
Benson
Spurgeon
Nurse
Klefbom
Lagesson
+ Whichever goalie appears to have the higher upside going forward - probably Starrett since he's cheaper and younger. I don't think Starrett is going to be a bona-fide NHL starter, but Konovalov will be available for NHL duty in 2021-22 and we should know more about Rodrigue at that point too. So losing the starter a year before his contract expires won't be a huge deal.
Nugent-Hopkins and Larsson are UFA's at the time of the Seattle draft and that's a risk I'm willing to take. Vegas passed on all of the premier UFA's at their expansion draft, and I don't think any team wasted a protected slot on a UFA. If either player leaves (either to Seattle or through free agency) we have internal replacements and enough cap space to sign similar talent.
And at that, I'll leave you with this:
Gazing through the window at the Rogers Place
Wondering will Edmonton survive
Hoping that Chiarelli stops abusing her, sometime
After all there's only just a million of us
And here we are still fighting for our lives
Wishing that history would repeat itself, time after time
I'm just a dreamer, I dream my life away
I'm just a dreamer, who dreams of Eighties days
I watch the sun go down like Connor and Leon
I'm hoping that the draft will bring a star
A better place for those who will come after us, this time
I'm just a dreamer, I dream my life away oh yeah
I'm just a dreamer, who dreams of Glory days
Your higher power maybe Gretzky or Coffey
It doesn't really matter much to me
Without the first round picks there ain't no hope for us
I'm living in a dream of fantasy, oh yeah yeah yeah!
If only we could all just find serenity
It would be nice if we could win the Cup
When will all this Russell, Neal and Koskinen be gone?
I'm just a dreamer, I dream my life away (today)
I'm just a dreamer, who dreams of Eighties days (okay)
I'm just a dreamer, who's searching for the way (today)
I'm just a dreamer, dreaming my life away (oh yeah yeah yeah)
NJD are potentially losing both Hall and Simmonds to free agency, and could use a goal-scoring winger for their good young centers. Cap space isn't a problem there.
MN badly needs defensemen, they have no prospects of note and they lost Spurgeon to free agency. A pick and legit prospect for a couple of young guys who proved their worth in 19-20.
Keep dreaming on Neal trade and getting a first for Pulujarvi.
Russell isn't an above average 3rd pairing defenseman. He's an adequate one, but the trade is fine.
Kreider will likely want more and honestly how is it not obvious to people yet that it isn't a good idea to give term to wingers in their late 20s. That is Lucic number 2. 100%
You want a team that misses the playoffs to sign two UFAs at 6+ million. Do you not see the problem there?
Kreider will likely want more and honestly how is it not obvious to people yet that it isn't a good idea to give term to wingers in their late 20s. That is Lucic number 2. 100%
Um, that's why I'm not giving him more. You can't have it both ways: either he's worth more or he's worth less. Anyhow, I got the number from here:
You want a team that misses the playoffs to sign two UFAs at 6+ million. Do you not see the problem there?
Not at all. Most of the improvement is coming from the youth, the UFA's are complimentary pieces. And if you can afford them and it improves your team, why not?
McDavid, Connor
$250,000)
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