Assuming Ottawa really wants a high-end right hand shot and Holland is still set on finding a second round pick this year. Math says Mysak could be Pastrnak-lite? I like his scoring touch and two-way acumen. Really like that he could jump into the AHL right away, or at least after the World Juniors. My consensus rankings (McKenzie, Pronman, Wheeler, EPRinkside, FC, McKeen's) has Jarventie in range of Edmonton's acquired 2nd round pick. Late picks include the annual goaltender and gambles.
If the consensus is to be believed, then Edmonton's back end - the blueline and goaltending - needs some form of an upgrade. Wouldn't hurt to get more out of the top-nine forwards either.
Bargain-bin shopping is what led Edmonton into Smith: this philosophy needs to be avoided. The only "cheap" goaltender Edmonton should be interested in is Brossoit, and I imagine that man wants nothing to do with this city anymore. It would appear the club wants a tandem goaltender setup as well: the solution then must be a quality goaltender, and I've grown comfortable with the idea of Greiss or Khudobin. The Kazakh's numbers are better, thus he wins the day.
The blueline is upgraded primarily through addition via subtraction: the modern NHL is not favourable to teams who play more than one stay-at-home defender premium minutes, and Edmonton has previously tried to get Larsson and Russell into these minutes. Russell's departure doesn't break my heart, as the team is substantially apt to perform better with him than without (as per evidence of when he was out of the lineup last season). Larsson's departure is strictly business: the team still needs a key addition up front and I quite liked the idea of this trade. Kempny - in a deal I like that sees Edmonton get SOMETHING after tipping their hand with Athanasiou - comes in as that stable presence and will help anchor Bouchard on the bottom pair. His game is reminiscent of the game Larsson and Russell play, but with more of a two-way dimension. Benning is too expensive of a luxury for this club, and is sold accordingly.
Radulov is expensive. I'm not the biggest fan of his deal, but the scoring element Edmonton would maintain by adding him to McDavid's flank is too good to pass up, especially when the biggest asset Edmonton loses in the deal is still on the fence about a return. I'm not the biggest fan of playing Neal premium 5v5 minutes, but the affordability of the roster begets it and hopefully after some time off he's back to good shape and can contribute similarly to the onset of the previous season. Two lethal scoring lines is going to push Edmonton into contention with Vegas for crown of the Pacific.
Another pressing issue shown in the Chicago series was that Edmonton's bottom-six wasn't strong enough in their own end. Faksa is effectively a defenceman that wins faceoffs: coupled with Archibald's known two-way acumen and Benson's responsible offense, this third line should be a shutdown force without being unable to produce. It's absolutely a step in the right direction.
Nygard and Haas are the more affordable options for the fourth line, and Kassian's lucky to be seeing playing time. There's no way to justify his new deal, and he's going to have to become a quality utility player in order to get a bump to third-line 5v5 minutes. I'm hoping he can use his big ass as a net-front presence on the power play and would pray that he can find some use on the penalty kill and as a fast, forechecking energy player for post-power play minutes.
Jones on his off-side in the top-four is - in my opinion - an experiment worth looking into. Woodcroft ran him on Bakersfield's top unit in all situations on his off-side, and he's shown that he can successfully handle top-four minutes alongside a responsible partner. I don't believe trading Klefbom is worth looking into, and I'd only be open to trading Nurse next season, as there's no better top-four options on the UFA market to replace him.
I think these moves follow suit with Holland's current philosophy with constructing this team: he's clearly interested in developing a strong prospect base (Broberg, interested in trading back for an additional pick in the second round, very high ask for Puljujarvi). The Dallas trade is probably flashier than Old Dutch would like to make, but it addresses every issue with the forwards up front without compromising the blueline. The fixes on the back end aren't sexy fixes - everything is still very much by committee until the money exists - but its continued progress on a team trying to consistently move forward. McDavid was quoted as "Night and Day" regarding the small changes last off-season and how it affected this season's roster: this is year 2 of the right steps forward, and once Seattle takes Neal or Kassian off of Edmonton's hands and the dead cap erodes, more meaningful changes to make this team a consistent contender can be made.
If clockreads2113 likes it, that proves it's a bad trade for the Caps.
Kempny is going to be bottom pairing next season because Siegs will replace him (maybe Dillon) and Fehervary will also be fighting for that spot. So we don't need him and AA is low risk high reward add.
As a Sens fan I don’t hate that trade if you don’t. I assume your thought process is the Sens start with Byfield+Raymond and trade up to snag Schneider? I’m not sure if they bother trading up unless Askarov falls that far and decide he fits the best with their competitive timeline, but Schneider is the 2nd most appealing option depending on how bad they want a 3rd solid option in their pipeline that’ll likely develop into a top 4 RHD. I think it’s more likely they just take Grans though, if Schneider is gone by 21. For the picks, I am fine with that deal if we do decide to trade up. As for Edmonton’s pick, I don’t know how you pass up on Peterka if you trade down to 21 (that was another thing, is there something I’m missing here? Capfriendly’s mock has NYI’s 1st at 21 not 22). But yeah a fast, hard-working, two-way guy with a good shot who can play with skill players or kill penalties and who will likely be motivated to play with Draisaitl sounds like a great fit.
As for the trades, I’m not sure that’s enough to convince Dallas to part with a significant depth piece and a top line player, even though he had a down year. Pulju will be a good top 6 piece long term with Hintz and Gurianov, but I think they need another asset to convince them to trade Radulov.
AA trade makes sense for both teams imo, as long as the Caps are willing to give up Kempny and that’s fair value (I admittedly don’t have an accurate read on Kempny’s current value). He’ll probably be a 3rd liner next year, and then when they lose Oshie to Seattle he can take his spot on line 2 and hopefully get back to his 30 goal days.
Nashville trade makes sense. I assume the Anaheim trade is a cap dump? Retaining on Russell should allow them to trade him on, and Chiasson is worth a pick to some team at the deadline too, so they can get decent value from this trade.
Kempny is going to be bottom pairing next season because Siegs will replace him (maybe Dillon) and Fehervary will also be fighting for that spot. So we don't need him and AA is low risk high reward add.
Yup I'm also a fan of that trade, I don't really understand why they are so opposed to it lol
Kempny is going to be bottom pairing next season because Siegs will replace him (maybe Dillon) and Fehervary will also be fighting for that spot. So we don't need him and AA is low risk high reward add.
At $800K Athanasiou is low risk (no reward), but he will be a $3M empty Jersey. Not what the Caps want or need.
At $800K Athanasiou is low risk (no reward), but he will be a $3M empty Jersey. Not what the Caps want or need.
The Caps can afford him on his QO (one year, 3M) since it's not until next summer that they really have a cap crunch. I wouldn't mind taking the shot, couldn't hurt to add more speed as the stars age and slow down. The alternative's trading Kempny for a 3rd or 4th round pick, and AA's definitely more likely to contribute while the window's still open than that pick.
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