can't believe the isles might have this stud on the 3rd pair this season. Lou doesn't miss

Sebastian Aho. Snipe. #Isles pic.twitter.com/SyfUkYSc9p

— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) March 19, 2021

Imagine if Lou didn't use his dollars saved on deals like Dobson's to overpay middling veterans

Lou just said intent for #Isles is to improve offensively but never at the expense of defense. "I'm a goal differential" guy.

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) August 22, 2022

Lou wants to Islanders to score more goals than they give up.

GENEUIS!

In hindsight what Lou should have done was trade Varlomov and sign a cheaper backup/1b then use the cap space to trade and extend a guy like Fiala.

When has he ever shown he can be a good 3C? He’s unremarkable at both ends of the ice. His expected production is around the low 30s in points based on his career to date. “Prime” Jay Beagle got you 25-30 points, won a lot of faceoffs, and played a big role on the PK: the perfect 4C. ERod is fine defensively I guess, but doesn’t PK. He’s good for around 25-30 even strength points as well, maybe a few more if he’s on your PP2. He’s a little more skilled, a little less good at checking. So he’s a better fit to move up the lineup if your team is injury prone, but not a guy that should be there on merit on a healthy contender, and ideally a guy like that should be PKing imo.

I do agree that he’d be a good fit on Calgary, but as our 4C. He’d work for the Flames because we already have plenty of forwards who PK, so we don’t need to commit to having a 4C that can do that, and he does inject slightly more skill than a typical 4th liner, so if he could get 12-15 goals (note: his 19 goals this season is the only time he’s cracked 10 in his career), from a 4C role, filling in on the 3rd line when injuries happen, and maybe a little PP2 time, then that would be nice, and that’s his ideal role on a contender. I’m not too fussed about if he’d be Arizona’s 2C lol, when I evaluate a player I prefer to peg where they’d be on a contender.

For the record, I don’t consider his 19 goals and 43 points this season to be repeatable, based on 90% of his career to date. The first third of the season is too small of a sample size to base anything on, especially when the last two thirds were below mediocre.

Joke league continues to be a joke.... how does something this important to two teams (EDM/SJS) and a player take this long...

Also, FYI, there remains no date set for the resumption of the NHLPA/Evander Kane grievance hearing against the Sharks.

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) August 22, 2022

Honestly, its embarrassing.

Flames have Adam Ruzicka to do all that. No need for ERod. Plus they only have enough cap space to extend him, not sign ERod

Whole thing should have been solved before the offseason started and Kane signed a new deal with Edmonton as what if that 7mill deal he signed with SJS gets reinstated that would basically mean SJS own him again

That's what makes Rodrigues awesome is such a valuable part of any team is his ability to be a swiss army knife player. Most notable part of his game is the shot and can also be a can be a playmaker and a is a zone entry beast, averaging over 26 entries per game. He is also generating over five scoring chances off the rush, which is up there with Gaudreau and McDavid. Besides the offence, his ability to play defensively is what makes him so valuable. Rodrigues has excelled in both a shutdown role and a top-line scoring role. As defiantly cooled off in the 2nd half of the season but that's also attributed to Malkin coming back and the addition of Rakell his ice-time and usage diminished. He can play anywhere if you maximize the opportunity for him to use his offensive game.

For me Rodrigues compares to: Ross Colton, Colin Smith, Vladislav Namestnikov, Puis Suter types.

I don't see Jay Beagle but that's me

Flames could definitely bring in another 2mil guy (either by running a 22-man roster or trading Valimaki). ERod would be an okay fit, but I agree that Ruzicka can be the 4C. I’d rather bring in Milano, we could use another playmaking winger in the middle six. Kadri, Toffoli, Mangiapane, and Lindholm are all shooters, and Huberdeau can’t play with all of them.

I certainly would like to have E-Rod on the 3rd line for the Avs right next to JT Compher. They would fit well together and also be flexible guys to play up when needed. Avs have their PK set also; but the PP2 could use another player as JTC will probably take Kadri's spot on PP1 as the bumper.

Excelling in a top line scoring role is a bit much. If that was the case, he wouldn’t be still on the market. Cooled off is putting it lightly, and I would call it more of a hard regression to the mean. He’s more skilled than a typical 4th liner, but he’s not skilled enough to be in the top 6 on merit. He’s fine defensively, but he doesn’t kill penalties, and I probably wouldn’t trust him against top lines. Like I see Backlund as a 3C because he can consistently get 40-50 points, while being an elite shutdown guy against top competition. ERod has one season in that range, and isn’t the guy you throw over the boards in every situation. I see him as more of a great pinch hitter, but he’s not in the starting rotation. Malkin coming back pushed him back into his usual spot, but I doubt his production would’ve been sustainable anyway. He was at nearly double his career shooting percentage for those 30 games. The only bright side is he did keep up his nearly 3 shots per game (although it did drop from like 3.5 per game in the first third to 2.6 per game for the last two thirds of the season, which is still more than the 1.5-2 he typically averaged). But like, I still wouldn’t trust him to drive a 3rd line. If you had good wingers and a hole on PP2 then maybe he’d work there, but you’re basing a lot on a couple months here, because he’s never shown anything close to that before, so at best he’s an inconsistent 3C, at worst he’s a 4C that can fill in for injuries up the lineup. I’m more inclined to believe that the latter is the real him, and if you’re signing him for that role then you’ll be fine, but if you expect him to be your 3C, I think you’ll be disappointed a lot (but maybe ecstatic for a stretch). If he’s your 9th or 10th best forward you’re probably fine.

Yeah Valimaki would free up a good amount of space for that; but I think they hold onto him until Tanev returns; unless Mackey really impresses in camp. Think they want Valimaki to make a good showing to increase his trade value.

That might be true as far as his trade value, but Mackey has long since passed him on the depth chart as the 7th D. Combine that with a couple other D on 1-way deals (including Meloche, a RD that played 50 NHL games last year) and it’s really looking like Valimaki is the odd guy out. I’d prefer to get a low pick for him now. I have a feeling he’ll be on waivers by October.

correct - he would likely be traded within said "imaginary week" but it would cause headaches throughout EDM and SJS.

EDM would get hurt the most imo which is stupid as they literally havent done anything wrong

Probably true. I forgot about Meloche being in Calgary. He used to be an Avs prospect back when we were digging out of our "worst season" hole and seemed like a future 3rd pair guy.

Holland and Grier should probably make a gentleman's agreement regarding Kane. Something like should Kane return to SJ due to the contract getting reinstated SJ will just trade Kane to EDM and retain salary to make it look like the exact contract Kane signed with EDM, with SJ receiving a 2nd rounder or so from the Oilers as a compensation for retaining salary.

That, or a swap between Kane and Foegele. Kane is obviously a better player of the two but SJ doesn't want Kane around and EDM is trying to get rid of Foegele.

San Jose has negative room for Foegele - that would be just a negative value move as despite Foegele being a good player he wouldn't be the type of player SJS needs to fill his required role/ ice time. He fits better with a cotender, San Jose however should consider the highest bid. If thats a 2nd + from EDM to have "dibs + retention" then I would be happy. But that should not stop SJS with Kanes trade. I mean the guy was never a bad player - he's one of the most undervalued players in this league.

Yes we know all the 8 billion things you could say to argue against Kane being a valuable asset.

But man Kane (w/ up to 50% retention) if he was viewed objectively - is worth MINIMUM

Morgan Barron · $0 (AHL/JR)
2022 1st round pick (NYR - #30 - Brad Lambert) [Conditional]*
2022 2nd round pick (STL - #55 - Elias Salomonsson) [Conditional]**
2023 5th round pick (NYR)

DOUBLE what Andrew Copp returned from above.

I know thats not the real world but if you can get at least something similar to that in a bidding war if Kane were to hypothetically hit the market. His play shows he's a good bet.

I'm not really sure how any of this would work because I've never seen anything like this, but in a hypothetical world where Kane's contract is reinstated in full - doesn't he have a 3 team trade list? If so, given that he was a UFA and either EDM made him the best offer or that's just where he decided he wants to be, it seems like SJS would be hard up against it to get a bidding war going for him.

Maybe if they're willing to retain enough to bring his cap lower than what he's signed with in EDM they could find some other parties with mutual interest, but other than that...

Either way though, if his contract is reinstated, I'm not doing the Oilers any favors if I'm Grier. Not trading him for pennies on the dollar. With the Sharks not being competitive rn, I'd rather put up with the headache and just keep him as far away from the team as I can. Ownership would probably have something to say about that, but that'd be my preference.

True. Over a gentleman's agreement where Kane gets moved to EDM with retention that would lead him to the exact contract he signed with Oilers, it would mean a total retention of $1,875,000 x 4 for SJ.

Now the question is how much that is worth in terms of picks.

There is apparently a formula to calculate pick value based on that will need to find it

As the last time I saw it used was for the OEL retention

Hasso (owner) is hell bent on competing. Actual evidence of it (at least from what I read).

Many believe it is why Wilson “had to do what was done” with many of his moves.

It’s imo; pretty evident that while Wilson definitely didn’t attempt to change any direction - that it was probably expected for the Sharks to compete year after year, after literally two decades of “nearly” dominant success across the league. And eventually it ends with the Wilson literally handcuffed. He isn’t escaped of blame; but I’m worried that Grier may be under such influence.

I believe Griers direction can be good, but only time will tell.

Anyone down to join espn fantasy league? Draft tomorrow at 4pm . Got some guys from here

Football?

Hockey 🤣🤣🤣