I like seeing what expansion ideas people come up with. I wonder of one of Eriksson-Ek or Andersson is the Karlsson of the Kraken. Sneaky Swede!

As an Avs fan talking with other fans, I think we protect Compher and expose Graves. Although unless the Avs can ask Johnson to waive his NMC or they pay a pick to convince Seattle to take Graves, the Avs can only protect two of Makar, Toews and Girard.

Gonna be a bad team. Vegas got super lucky with every GM giving them draft picks and prospects to take contracts on.

The pens gave them a draft pick to take Fluery and his contract instead of Murray.

Nyquist, Eriksson-Ek and Mangiapane will all be protected.

Try again!

Available options from the Wild will be Greenway, Foligno, Hartman, Sturm and Rask. Soucy on defense. Talbot and Stalock for Goalies. Not a single one of those forwards will be protected over Eriksson-Ek for the final spot... none.

*Insert coin*

You have one life left!

Rask looked good in Carolina!! What happens if he scores 20 goals again. And 30 plus points. And Ek doesn’t score 10 again and less than 30 points again.

And Minnesota will probably keep 4 D right? And 4 forwards?

I think The Wild will keep Suter, Dumba, Brodin, Spurgeon, Parise, Fiala, Johanssen, and Ek.

Zuccarello will be available then. Or Bonino, or Bjugstad as FA’s

Rask has been barely serviceable as a 4th line center/13th forward. I'll grant him this, he's got a pretty decent shot and has scored some clutch goals for us. But that is completely offset by the simple truth that he's slower than molasses in January and that is the best thing I can say about his skating. For which we pay him $4M/year to do. If Seattle took him it'd be a Christmas miracle! But otherwise we're stuck with him.

Meanwhile, Eriksson-Ek is one of the best young shutdown centers in the league at only 23 years old. He's already borderline elite, and is only getting better. Even if he never develops a scoring touch, he's still incredibly valuable, just as he is. Scoring is overrated when it comes to centers, as their primary job is to win faceoffs and then secondarily to babysit and insure their wingers don't cough up the puck. That's it.

What it ultimately comes down to is this. Whether he scores or not doesn't mean much as he'll be more important during a cup run than a player like Victor Rask.

Finally, Zuccarello has to be protected because Fenton stupidly gave him a full NMC.


Protection list is as follows.

Parise, Zuccarello, Fiala, Eriksson-Ek.
Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, Dumba.
Kahkönen.

borderline elite is a stretch brotha hahahahha come back after this next season I bet you'll be right

Boarderline elite is not true at all.

I know a stat line doesn’t tell you everything and I agree he’s a good young Center with potential. But already boarderline elite?? Lol.

He hasn’t even had 30 total points in a season yet. Lol. And hasn’t even scored 10 goals in a season?? Lol.. elite??

That’s a 4th line forward production. That’s a below average stat line from a bottom 6 forward. And he’s already boaberline elite?? Not even close.

Yes, he has potential. But he has to prove it at some point. Or atleast show he can score 20 goals a season. And 20 goals in a season isn’t elite at all. 40-50 goals a season is. No way he ever does that.

Is it? He's already just about as good as Koivu was during his prime, defensively speaking of course. It's not unreasonable to say he's borderline elite in that area when Mikko was generally considered by other players to be one of the hardest centers to play against during the last 20 years. Frankly, the only guy they typically said was harder to play against then Koivu is Bergeron.

What holds JEE back is his faceoffs percentage. It's too low. He has to improve it and get it around 50-52% before he'll be on an even playing field with Mikko and move into that elite category for shutdown centerman.

But if you're routinely asked to shutdown opposing teams top lines while playing from the 3rd line, and consistently keeping the Connor McDavid's of the world off the score sheet to where they're giving you face washes with their gloves during a postplay scrum out of frustration. You must be doing something right.





Is reading comprehension so hard? I wasn't referring to offensive points production or what you think is appropriate production for an NHL caliber player. I don't particularly disagree that his production is too low, because it does need to come up a little bit. But, when I'm referring to him being borderline elite I am purely talking about his defensive prowess to shutdown opposing teams top lines. Not exactly something that's going to show up in the post-game stats sheet now is it?

Yes, you could use the argument his lack of points production keeps him out of consideration for being a true top six center. Which is fine, his ceiling is very clearly that of a middle sixer. That doesn't, however, mean he couldn't or can't be an elite level player for the role at which he is best suited for. Shutting down and neutralizing opposing teams top lines. You need those types of players if you want to win the cup.

If I had a choice between a guy who puts up 15 to 20 goals a season, getting 30 to 35 points while they're at it. But played mediocre to decidedly average defense at the center position.

Vs.

JEE's defensive prowess.

I take JEE. Each and every time, and it's not even close. There's more to hockey then just putting the puck into the net and being a points producer.

Wow man?? Why the insults?? Geez.

I don’t believe they will leave JEE unprotected. I was commenting on the “boarderline” elite part. And has to bring his production up a bit?? Really?? Hasn’t even scored 10 goals in a season yet. Not even 30 points yet.

I’ve seen him play, but obviously west coast teams I don’t watch as much. Like west coast teams don’t know and watch the Pens or East coast teams that much. But it helps with league pass now.

But when I did watch the Wild play, he didn’t jump out to me as a great defender. I’ll look at his Corsi stats though. And his underlying stats and analytics. See if those are good. Cause they arnt gonna be great. Cause he didn’t even have Selle votes last year. Or ever. Tanev/Blueger/ZAR, all had Selke votes last year. The pens whole 4th line. They were shut-down defensively. They were all tops in league defensively. And the Selke votes prove that. JEE not have any, not even one 5Th place vote, makes me really doubt that is true. That he is boardline elite defensively without any Selke votes.

He just does not remotely compare YET. He shows literally every sign of becoming effective Selke centremen, just not yet.