It's not terrible, but I'd rather give the time to JFK vs Bonino. Stafford coming back isn't bad, but wouldn't be my first choice. The defense isn't any better than it was last year (barring McAvoy is an beast) and the bottom 6 of the offense is still a liability. I like the idea of bringing in a quality goalie to help Rask, but not sure how realistic Cam is. The draft picks are good, I like Andersson, but not big on the other two.

Not bad criticism, but JFK may need more time. He was bad enough last year to get pulled after one game because the game was clearly more than he could handle. The defense is fine IMO, Chara will be good again, Krug is fine, Carlo will improve and McAvoy will be what you've called a beast. Kevan Miller is a good 5 and Morrow stepped up in the playoffs, so he could be our #6. Our bottom 6 is great, so I don't understand what you're saying. Accari and Beleskey are great energy guys for the 4th line. Nash is defensively responsible. Bonino and Stafford are clearly top 9 players still. The only potential problem could be Vatrano. He was bad in the playoffs, but could amount to something. If he doesn't work we have plenty of options like Heinen and DeBrusk so I don't get why you'd call this lineup a liability. I'm not surprised you're not a fan of Comtois, but I think he's good value for a late first. Norris is just mediocre offensively I think, so maybe your right about him. He was the C I saw that would be available at most sites so I plugged him in. He plays a tough game too and we'll eventually need someone on the team who does that. Backes is out in 4 seasons and we don't have many other Power Forward types. Thanks for looking at my mock

JFK wasn't pulled after one game "because the game was clearly more than he could handle" lol. The plan from the start was to get JFK into 1 game so he could burn a year of his ELC (the only way Sweeney could get him to leave school early) and then work with the team through the playoffs and practice with them. He was never expected to come in the past season and contribute.

The assets of the defense based on no sets backs. Chara is a year old, Carlo is coming off a concussion McAvoy is 100% a wild card and Morrow was a guy that could barley crack the line-up last year.

I disagree on the Bottom 6 mainly because I don't see a lot of offensive production coming from either line. The team is a two line top heavy team and if either of those two lines gets cold were screwed. Stafford isn't a guy that makes players better, Bonino isn't a guy that makes players better, they are support role guys that needs talent around them to be effective. I'll add this about a line of Bonino/Stafford/Vatrano, these guys (Bonino/Stafford) have awful CF%rel numbers with both being -4 to -5. Bonino is a sub 50% face-off man (woof) and Stafford is inconsistent at best.

I don't see JFK getting into the lineup. He needs at least 1 year of pro hockey learning (Providence). At this point, barring a trade, Heinen is a better fit right now for 3rd C.

I think you have a better chance of getting Comtois with #53 and Norris with #29, as Norris is expected to be a late 1st rounder and Comtois is expected to be an early 2nd

Thanks for checking this out. Trying to predict players is very difficult as I kinda had to average out a number of mocks and sites. Comtois has more upside and skill, so I put him higher. Norris is a bare bones player who plays hard. I'm not sure he has enough skill to be taken in the first round and would like to know where you got that from and if you only looked one place. THN has Comtois top 20 and Norris 45th. Draft site has Comtois 36 and Norris 56. NHL had Comtois 30 Norris 34. ISS had Comtois 30 and Norris unranked. Sportsnet has Comtois 24 Norris 33. I literally can't find anywhere that has Norris over Comtois. Maybe your right that Norris won't be around where we pick, but I don't think he's a better prospect than Comtois. Just take out Norris and add in a lesser C prospect if that makes you feel better about this mock or sub in Norris for Comtois and add a lesser Wing prospect with the 2nd round pick. I think RW would be better for us to take than LW anyways, even though Heinen, Bjork and Cehlarik seem to be able to play both wings, I'd rather have them at LW. IF you're a leafs fan then I hope you enjoy Collin Miller if he gets flipped there. He's solid and has upside.

So you're saying that if JFK had impressed in his 1 game he still wouldn't have played at all? That's a conspiracy I haven't heard yet. About Morrow, he was beat out by legit players, so I don't think him not getting time is a bad thing. Which one of Chara Krug Carlo McQuaid Kevan Miller or Collin Miller is he better than? How does not being better than those 6 solid guys make him bad? Carlo had a Conky, but he should be fine by then. Chara is so good he may get an extension. McAvoy is a wild card, but more like a 90% chance he'll be good and 10% chance he'll need to be sent to Providence. No scoring from the 3rd line in your opinion? Stafford scored 8 points in 18 games for us and 38 points in 78 games the season before. That basically equates to high 30s or even 40. Bonino is a high 30 point guy as well and Vatrano has the potential to be one as well. I think if you looked around the league you'd see most teams 3rd lines aren't even as good as this one. Those 3 should be our 7th 8th and 9th most scoring forwards and if those players are getting well over 30 points you're in really great shape. Pittsburghs 7 8 9 were 31 29 26 and they won a cup. Ours were 25 18 17. They were Moore Nash and Vatrano who played 44 games. I can't comprehend how you don't see them as a major upgrade to what we had last year, a year in which we made the playoffs. Stafford and Bonino will easily score 3 times more than Beleskey and 5 times more than Hayes. Thank you for giving your opinions.

Had JFK impressed, they maybe give him a look in the playoffs. The expectation going in though was he'd get a game, burn a year and that was it. Don't you find it odd that they waited till the very last game of the year against the #1 seed in East to get JFK some time and even then they gave him around 8 minutes? They were never counting on him to come in and contribute for the playoffs.

Morrow was losing time to JML and the team elected to use Killer on his off hand over Morrow. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Morrow fan, in fact I have a game worn jersey of his. But unless he has a stellar camp (if he is re-signed) he'll be a 7th d-man again this year.

I know you really like that 3rd line, but I see a ceterman whose below average in the dot, a streaky veteran winger and a young NHL sniper that still hasn't figured it out. Stafford had 8 points in 18 games, great! The problem is 4 of those came in the first 4 games and then 3 more in the final 3 games. That means over an 11 game stretch he managed 1 point...that's 13% of an 82 game NHL season. Stafford production has dropped for 3 straight years and for a guy that goes missing at times, that a HUGE red flag. My concerns with Bonino are around his FO% and his poor possession numbers. You can't score if you don't have the puck and he nor Stafford are possession type guys.

He'll get a look at camp, but I agree, I think he ends up spending a year in Providence.

I don't put much stock into corsi and that garbage, your "possession" numbers. I put stock in who gets more goals because that's what the games based on. You win by scoring more goals than the other team, it's not a game of keep away where time on attack matters and gets you more points. LA had the best Corsi last year and didn't even make the playoffs so advanced possession metrics are foolish. They barely tell half the story because having more possession doesn't mean you have someone who can put the puck in the net, it just means you have less time when you have to worry about the other team scoring. I'd take the worst corsi in the league if we sniped a goal on 20% of our shots and we'd win a cup, even with only 20 shots a game we'd score 4 goals. Stuff like that matters more than advanced possession numbers.

The funniest thing about this is that you're turning your nose up about a guy who's 48% at the face-off dot and calling it a big problem, when in reality he'd be replacing a guy who was under 40%. To me he's better defensively than Spooner and better at the dot. Probably even better than Spooner offensively at 5on5 as Spooner had 39 points, but 18 were on the PP, while Bonino had 37 points with 11 on the PP. The basic point is we are upgrading from Spooner at the 3rd line position all the way around and it's laughable you'd nitpick about small things that are clearly better than what we've had there. The only criticism I would probably respect about adding Bonino and moving Spooner is that we'd probably have to give Bonino a 4 year deal to land him. If you want to debate that, we can, but that'd be a solid point to make. Bottom line is: he's a better player than Spooner and a Veteran who fits our window well. We have a chance at a cup in the next 2 or 3 years and then we might dip a bit for a year or 2 and then he's gone and we roll with Trent Frederic and JFK at C along with the guys we draft from here on out.

On to Stafford, yes you are right about a lot of that, but thats part of the reason we get him for 5M over 2 years. That's a deal like Stempniak got and I think Stafford seemed better for us and is younger. It was more about getting a guy who's short term who can contribute. Again, think of who he's replacing before you criticize. Is Jimmy Hayes in any way superior to Stafford? I consider this as more of an upgrade than Bonino is to Spooner. This is a slam dunk because of the short term and low money. If you don't like him as a player than just imagine we spent 6M over 2 years for Justin Williams. That'd be the highest I'd go for Williams, but I made this one thinking he'd get more from another team. Justin Williams at 3M for 2 years would be equivalent to this Stafford for 2.5M 2Year and also a good signing.

On to Morrow. He doesn't need to have a great camp at all. We're losing Collin Miller to Vegas. In this mock we trade Adam McQuaid as well. Who does that leave in Morrows way as the 3rd pair LHD? The only way I can wrap my head around what you're saying is if we keep McQuaid. If we keep McQuaid then we could possibly go Chara Carlo, Krug McQuaid, Miller McAvoy. I guess thats what you're insinuating but I really think we should move McQuaid as he's a Kevin Miller replica who's more injury prone.





LOL, what? Those statements are conflicting. Which do you want to make? Either you give time to him and he plays in the NHL, or you put him in providence and roll with someone else.