https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/443888

I Like your comment about “trashcan” maatta

Seriously though, from what I’ve read, it sounds like hawks are going Turcotte at #3. They’re both gonna be excellent players. Really no “bad” choice

If you trade Gustafsson who realistically plays D next year. Neither Boqvist or Byram would.

Oh I’m not a huge fan of this trade Hahahaha. But yea I know a guy who writes for CSN chicago and he said word on the street byram is the man... prayers that it is cause he’s almost NHL ready and he just turned 18 like a week ago or something lol.

Everything I've heard indicates forward, but Byram is fine too.

Word is that Byram is *potentially* NHL ready. Bo signed last year for the strict reason that he has a legit shot of making this team this year.

I heard this from a reporter for the hawks. We’ll see. I’m hoping it’s not a forward to be honest.

Hawks are already loaded at D but I agree, he is the most NHL ready outside of the top 2.

Byram-Boqvist
Beaudin-Jokiharju
Krys-Mitchell

Man hawks have a loaded group of D prospects

Big problem is Keith and seabs jamming it up. Will be interesting to see what happens with expansion draft. I’m all in on scratching seabs lol. Piss him off and get him to waive his NTC. Byram had Niedermayer numbers. Not saying he will be the next Niedermayer but the stats are the stats. Think you gotta take a potential stud d who’s falling to three because we potentially have the next Crosby vs. Ovi in Hughes and Kakko.

No. He signed for the signing bonus. He even said himself he has to get stronger and better in the neutral AND d zone. The Hawks talked to London about possibly switching him to Forward and they're contemplating sending him back to London.

Nowadays I've learned reporters report less than they speculate. Whether it's Turcotte or Byram I don't think there's a wrong choice.

To each their own. Bo has a legit shot at making this team next year.

I guess we dont need a 4th line RW. Kane will just double shift for 82 games or more

Gus has never played any D in his life, he just puts up points and roves around his own zone listlessly until he is confused as to how that little black circular thing got into the netty thing.

I think legitimate is too strong a word. "A small chance" is a much more appropriate way to put it. The chances of a defenseman who hasn't fully grown into his own frame yet playing right off the bat are slim to none.

Though to be fair, he is one of the best I can recall seeing in a long time... Hence, the small chance.

Colliton had him doing a ****load of it anyway last year...

But yeah, come on @Nick628 just finish the thing out, it really wouldn't have been that hard.

He's not quite that bad. That's David Rundblad level

C'mon that's crazy talk. Gus in the first 3rd of the season defensively was horrible. Gus in the middle 3rd of the season was bad. The last 3rd he was average on D. Bottom line, there is not one player on the ice in a indianhead sweater that improved so dramatically. If Gus picks up where he left off and improves 1/2 as much as he did last year this season, he will be a legit 1st liner assuming he has a stay at home D guy paired with him.

Boqvist is pretty straight forward as well as the head of player development that he's most likely headed back to the Knights. It's the best move for him right now IMO also. Have you watched the guy play? At the Juniors level, while being dynamic with the puck which we expect, he was defensively getting knocked around quite a bit. The kid needs to grow into his frame more and work on his defensive game. It was clear to others and I agree, he's not NHL ready yet.

Hahaha, fair enough. But he isn't too far above Rundblad level...

Wait, how is it now that our metric for projecting that a guy could be a legitimate 1st liner (and that is the biggest "could" I've ever seen in my life) be someone who was, in your laid-out-three-stages:
1. Defensively horrible
2. Bad
3. Average

Starting at 1 on a scale of 1-10 and maybe rising to a 4 does not somehow extrapolate out to the possibility of reaching 8-9 simply by upward trajectory. Dramatic improvement is not an indication of the ability to make it to the level of an elite defenseman. You either have it, or you don't. I agree with you in just about everything, but Gus is a crap defenseman, and will NEVER even sniff a 1st liner's jock.

Disagree with your ratings. More like a scale of 1 to 5. 3 being average and that's about where Gus was at the end of the season, maybe 2.5.

A 1st liner doesn't have to be a defensive d guy. Karlsson is a good example; he's not much more then a 3 defensively BUT he's a 5 offensively.

It's about pairing guys correctly. Why two slow footed defensive shutdown guys should not be on the 1st line together either. Ideally you have a stay at home guy paired with a offensive D guy to transition the zone and play up in the O zone. Same thing with the way Bouchard and Boqvist were paired with the Knights. Boqvist is a nightmare on D....way worse then Gus, but paired correctly he was a breakout talent and people are calling him the next Karlsson.

We can die on our respective hills, and I am totally fine with that. But I disagree with you that Gus was average. At no point did I ever feel that. He was always a free wheeling circus in his own zone. Because he panics, and he doesn't have that split-second instinct that allows him to make the right play without questioning himself or looking over his shoulder. And it will always burn him.

I also think your comparison to Boqvist is a bit unfair. Gus has had 155 NHL games since... Was his first year 2015? Either way, he's had that, and wherever he played before that, to figure his **** out. And I'm not seeing it. Boqvist is a kid playing in a game that is rapidly changing to a speed game. Defenseman take time to develop. as we all know and has been bandied about thousands of times. Let's give him a chance to improve his defensive game in London for another season or two before we really pass judgment on that. Let's just hope you aren't right, and he isn't **** in that department...

Wasn't comparing boqvist to Karlsson or Gus in that sense, was comparing the style of play of all 3 D guys. Karlsson and Boqvist both played with shut down guys on there teams, Gus didn't. That's the bigger issue. These offensive D guys (Boqvist and Karlsson also) aren't defensive studs by any means but that doesn't make them less valuable. Grant it, Gus needs to get better defensively but Karlsson and Gus defensively aren't as far apart as people are making it to be. Karlsson paired with Forsling or Dahlstrom would look pretty bad defensively too.

Understood. But I would offer that, regardless of how offensive minded he is, Karlsson still has the defenseman's instinct that Gus lacks a bit of. I guess that means we have to double shift Jokiharju all next year, and he'll have to carry both Maatta and Gus on his back?

Kidding... I hope.

2 things:
1) dressing 7 d has become a thing
2) you guys should consider reading the description where I say, “Dress 7 d”. Reading is very hard on this website I see!!!

This is an awful argument. Please go to hockeyviz.com. Go to Chicago and see who Gus player next to most of the season. Answer is Keith. Keith has become a stable stay at home dmen. While you bring a great argument, Gus played with stable d most of the year. I think a Gus-Murphy pairing is optimal on many fronts. But what do I know. What do we know. Lol