No Helleson?

Can’t see us making a trade with the Kings

I’m completely out of the Chychrun sweepstakes due to how great both Zellweger and Mintyukov look as they will both be up in the big leagues in the next year or so

Neither of those 2 are ready for top 4 minutes. Sure offensive numbers a great but there’s 2 sides to the puck and they’ll take some time to get the defensive side down much like Drysdale.

And if you think Zell and Minty make the big club there’s no way half the dcore is rookies. Plus I think Helleson has had his struggles down in SD. Could be wrong tho.

As for the kings trade it’s nothing major. Just swapping depth players where both teams are thin. Basically even money.

I think it would be okay for one year of:

Fowler Helleson
Mintyukov Drysdale
Zellweger Mayfield*

*any bigger defensive defenseman

Bedard on the wing is a complete waste of talent, he is miles ahead of Zegras and in a completely other galaxy than McTavish. If that is your plan for him you may as well forfeit the pick!

Calm your ****, it's common practice for rookie centers to start out on the wing as they adjust to the speed of the NHL. Zegras and McTavish both did, and it's not like Anaheim doesn't have the center depth for it.

I'm going to pump the brakes on ya there good buddy, that D core is how we kill Gibson.

I agree with being out on Chychrun, at least for now. A big part of his allure is the sweetheart deal he is on. Let Arizona demand way to much for him and burn that contract until the cap jumps, and we see that he can remain healthy, and then I might think about acquiring, he does play a really solid 200 ft game and if Drysdale can learn that from him he will become the defenseman we are hoping of him.

I'd like to go get Graves for 4 years as Drysdale's partner, I think that would be an excellent pairing. Then we need to find someone for Fowler.

Don't like the idea of moving Tracey, he's the only top 6 ceiling winger we have in our system IIRC.

Yes the best thing to do is always send the 18 year old out as a top 6 C immediately.

Also he’s playing the wing right now in WJC.

Well yeah it’ll only be one year if they all are rookies together lol. But I feel like Verbeek will want to be a lot better next season. He’s already stated he assumed this team would be around .500 for a good portion of the season. In that same interview, he also stated he wanted to see more structure from Minty and Zell.

Chychrun is way better than Graves. Rather give up the assets for him to play top pair minutes and slide Fowler down. And worst case you recoup some of the assets in a year and half if things go poorly for the team.

Perreault not a top 6 winger? Also if they get Bedard, one of him Z or McT are moving to the wing anyways. They’re too good to only play ~15 min a night instead of 18+.

Yes it is common practice for center's of Zegras, McTavish and even Suzuki's level to play wing when they break into the NHL. However, Bedard is in the McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby level of center's and none of them were placed on the wing to "adjust to the speed of the game at the NHL level"

He’s playing wing at the WJC.

And....

You sure about that? I seem to remember Crosby playing wing and Lemieux at center in his rookie year.
During Mackinnon's first season Stastny and Duchene were the top-6 centers, while ROR and MacKinnon played mostly on the wing.
Even McDavid was somewhat sheltered at 2C as a rookie while RNH took on the heavy lifting.

I don't think putting Bedard at wing is unreasonable, even if you'd do it differently.

Forgot to specify left winger, where we've got a pretty heavy need now, and especially after Rico departs.

Yes, Chychrun is a better D than Graves, but Graves is a good, defensively minded physical option for Drysdale's partner. He also can potentially be had for free as he is a UFA this year. My concern is that the asking price for Chychrun is more than we'd like to spend.

And we are pointing out you are being wholesale unreasonable declaring that we should forfeit the pick if we are going to start him off at wing, which he is more than capable of, as he already plays all forward positions, is commonplace for rookies in the NHL, and is currently playing as a winger at the premier tournament for his age group.

Commonplace for lesser prospects but not top end Franchise center's. BTW if you don't like my opinion there is always the ignore button

And you look like an idiot saying he can’t play the wing his rookie season vs grown men but playing the wing vs his peers is okay.

They have assets to add the missing pieces even after a Chychrun trade. Let’s be honest, Zellweger Minty Hinds Luneau and Warren won’t all be ducks. Could even be one of the last 3 mentioned instead of Tracey in the Chychrun deal.

I didn't say he can't, I said it's a waste of talent, huge difference there my friend. Also where specifically did I say it wasn't a waste having him play wing in the WJC?

Yes, true. I loathe the idea of moving either Zellweger or Mintyukov until they are KNOWN quantities, call it PTSD from the Shea Theodore debacle. Warren I would also be furious about loosing. The other two I could move.

I'm wondering though, IF we win 1OA and select Bedard, does it make sense to do a hockey trade, Chychrun for Zegras? Our center core would be Bedard, McTavish, Strome/Lundestom, (Insert 4th line C here) with a few good C prospects still in the tank.

The reason I say this is I am really not happy with what I am seeing from Zegras right now, and neither is the team. The bench was glaring daggers at him last night when he took the illegal equipment penalty at the end of the 2nd. The kid is starting to take a lot of bad penalties, and I think the team is getting rather fed up with his ****. I think being the cover athlete of NHL23 went to his head and he is more interested in being a star than part of the team right now. He started mouthing off to Benn in the third and got elbowed and yelled at by Benn, he looked shook, and no one on the bench even batted an eyelash at it. Letting him hear the branch creak underneath him might scare him straight again. It would be a young star for a young star, similar to the Drouin trade back in the day.

They’re not trading Zegras. This is what happens when you take a young ultra competitive person and put him on an awful team. It’s part of why I’ve said from the beginning that actively tanking this season was a bad idea. Bringing back Eakins was an awful decision it’s showing. I will give Verbeek a little bit of slack because he wasn’t trying to actively tank with the roster tho.

As for Zellweger and Minty, neither of those guys are moved unless it’s for an elite player. They’ll be ducks I imagine. Zellweger probly at the end of the season. The other guys listed plus the couple of NCAA guy could be moved for roster improvements tho.

Quote “And….”

I don't even think it's an Eakins or a system problem, the issue is lack of depth scoring. We have one scoring line in Zegras Terry Henrique right now. Dallas blender with the lines is trying to spread out the talent guys in an effort to get them better matchups. When you've got one line that gets all the Goals, and the Centers name isn't McDavid, it's easy to play against them because if you shut down that one line, you shut down the team.

Now maybe Dallas is hitting the random button too often and there's no chemistry being formed, but for whatever reason, Strome, Vatrano, Comtois, Silfverberg, Kling, etc are not scoring goals.

The system is bad. They struggle in the Dzone which drains their energy for the Ozone. Neutral zone is pretty easy to get thru most nights too. Yes the depth is poor but it’s not this bad.