You had 6 mil and you gave it to Bertuzzi…

Flames decline, no interest in POJ or the 2024 1st in a Hanifin trade

I like Schmaltz but that seems like a decent overpay for him, no?

The skaters look good - just a big question mark in net.

Seattle is likely to give Driedger an opportunity to at least start the season, IMO. Don't think there's a goalie move for Seattle before or at the draft unless it's something truly significant perhaps.

Not in the slightest, he's been a borderline 1C, just stuck in AZ so nobody gives him credit, him and Keller are legit, AND Vej on top of that who was legit last yr, if (big if with any goalie) he can continue to be that good he'd be the most valuable goalie on the market other than Saros. And he is the number 1 G I would target bc you're not gonna have to pay a Saros/Helle/Demko/Gibby/Hart price, and he's was better than 3/5 of them, and cheaper against the cap

I like Schmaltz - he's great I'm not saying he isn't, But 14th overall plus a 2nd, 3rd an Pickering for Schmaltz still seems high. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I get Granland is involved - so you have to account for that - but I'd rather just buy him out than pay to dump him. Vejmelka isn't legit - I don't see why Pens fans are so high on him - especially with the way we treat our own goalies lol. He carries no value to me. That good? He had an .899 save% last season - .898 the year before. Most valuable other than Saros - does Hellebuyck not exist? Even Gibson has more value - same with Ullmark and Hart. He's not better than 3/5th of them. He's 6th, last place. Although I would rather get him than pay for Gibson

You're better off just playing Desmith, who's even cheaper than Vejmelka and you don't have to give up any assets for him

Schmaltz is prolly comparable to Debrincat last summer, so I'll say 14+2+3 is prolly close enough for him, agreed on Granlund, that buyout is so easy it's 100% what I would do, but if we do trade him it'll prolly cost ~a 2nd to move. Assuming you value Vej at 0 (I'll get to later) the difference between Pickering and a 2nd in this yrs class isn't THAT big (I wouldn't do the trade for just Schmaltz, but I wouldn't despise it if we did)

With Vej, he was 14th in the league in GSAx/60 last yr, better than Jarry (35th), Desmith (24th), Gibby (44th), Demko (43rd), and Hart (15th). Which is v close, but Hart makes more and will likely cost more trade assets. While he's behind Helle, Helle only has 1 yr left on his deal, then prolly gets a 9+ mil contract, and I just can't justify that for any G, Helle is absolutely better rn, but we'd only be getting him for 1 yr most likely, and making ~3x as much. With Ullmark, he is also def better, but you're gonna have to give him what, 6+ mil for 6 yrs, that's a bit of a yikes contract too, and there's no guarantee that he signs in PIT vs some other team that needs a G. I wouldn't hate getting him, Helle, or obv Saros, who is absolutely the most valuable G rn, but Vej, with his cheap contract and potentially cheap trade value would be up there with them. With the inconsistency of Gs in the NHL, I just really struggle to justify spending big on the position

You could be right that that's what it actually takes to get Schmaltz - but if that's what it takes then I think it's a bad trade. It's too much imo. It's not an egregious overpayment by any means - just seems like you could get him for less. Also, Debrincat was just coming off a 40 goal season - so I don't think Schmaltz has similar trade value.

Vejmelka isn't good. He's been worse than Desmith the past 2 seasons and Pens fans are trying to crucify him. He's the worst of all the goalies you mentioned(maybe better than Gibson) - value is a different argument(definitely better value than Gibson and maybe others). But you can't build a team solely on value. If you want to give up like a midlate round pick to get him, I could maybe see that - but it would be as a backup. If you want to spend no assets and no money on goalies because you think they're too risky that's fine - then your best bet is just starting Desmith and signing another cheap goalie. Ullmark has 2 seasons left btw.

For what it's worth the only goalies I would trade for are Hellebuyck and Saros(maybe Ullmark) - I'm not saying they should go out and trade for these other guys. But signing UFAs is way better than trading for Vejmelka

That's fair on Schmaltz, I agree it's a bit of an overpay but he's not the worst player to overpay for

Agree to disagree on Vej, I think he's the best of the "2nd tier" (behind Helle Saros and Ullmark) goalies, while also being the cheapest $ wise. And I'm not gonna change my mind on that and not gonna try to change your mind on him being ass. I was getting Ullmark and Swayman (RFA) confused, my b, and yeah, I'd take Ullmark too, he's p legit

For sure.

I guess we'll have to lol - because I can't see how I could ever agree that a goalie performing like Vejmelka is even remotely close to a good starting option. He isn't even better than Desmith. At least we are able to come to some agreement that he isn't better than Helle, Saros, or Ullmark. I don't want Gibson, Demko, or Hart, so I wouldn't even argue for them over Vejmelka because I don't want them either. But Jarry, Anderson, Varlamov, Korpisalo are all UFA options that would be better than Vejmelka.

Per Natural Stat Trick, 83 goalies have played 1000 minutes over the past 2 seasons - Vejmelka is 62nd is sv% and 79th in GSAA. Even if you're only going by GSAx - he's 43rd per Evolving Hockey. I assume you're going by MoneyPuck - where he was 59th out of 61 goalies 2 years ago in GSAx and 14th out of 62 last season. Nowhere in these numbers does it show a good goalie - certainly not better than the other options. Not even better than Desmith.

I also don't really want/expect a clearly defined starter/backup, I'd try to get a 1A/1B setup with say Jarry and Vej (or 2 of your choosing between the guys available).

I agree Vej was bad 2 yrs ago, but very few goalies are consistently great, so I'll take a risk with a guy that was good last yr vs a guy that wasn't (also, yeah, I only use MP for goalies bc they adjust for rebounds and arena biases better than other sites)

That I can understand at least - thought you were arguing for him as the starter. Depends on what you have to give up for Vejmelka. I still don't really think he's even an upgrade over Desmith - but if you're giving up minimal assets to bring him in as a backup - I'm not going to argue passionately against it.

Right - but the thing is Vejmelka has never been great. Even his great season last year resulted in a .899 save%. And I'm trying to look at the whole picture too. He doesn't get the benefit of a history of being great - say like a Gibson or a Hart(even a Campbell or Blackwood) where you can say oh maybe it was a rough year or two but he's a bounce back candidate. And he isn't a promising prospect where you could argue there's great upside - he's already 27. It's one metric, from one site, for one year. I just can't see where there's enough to make him look good.

If MP GSAx from last year is all we're going by - then the best option I see is trading for Wedgewood. Then signing Korpisalo. Then trading for Samsonov.