Dubas: “We need players with speed and physicality”
Sullivan: “we want good skaters that have speed”
Pens fans: sign Lucic, Toews, and Bonino

CHI declines.

This reminds me of an ACGM I posted about a week ago, speculating on adding Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Toronto's roster, which otherwise consisted of 22 Maple Leafs from last season. One of Toronto's most notorious homers criticized my constructed team as "old and slow." Fortunately for all of us, he had posted his solution to that problem a week earlier: signing Milan Lucic, Sean Monahan and Corey Perry.

Plenty of speed in this lineup. Sid, rust, zucker, letang, poehling, smith, comtois…

Mike Sullivan also speaks numerous times about what “speed” means. The best way to describe his definition of speed is Sidney Crosby. It’s not just about skating speed. It’s about processing, thinking the game, moving the puck.

The actual current team needs size and toughness way more than it needs speed. Have you not seen the last 12 teams to make it to the Stanley cup final?

Yeah maybe. I don’t know why they would though…why would you not want a 2x Stanley cup champion veteran on a 1 year deal to help bedard and other young players for a year or potentially more? You could literally put carter on bedards line to start the season. If it doesn’t click then you move him down and he provides leadership and experience as well as good depth. Chicago needs good experienced players. They should actually be trying to win right away and use bedards ELC to their advantage.

Some team will take carter though if chitown doesn’t so it doesn’t really matter

Cause he’s old, not very good and has an expensive contract. Hawks would take him with a pick attached but he’s a cap dump to the hawks and they won’t take him for free

Yes the teams that have made it to the scf and won since at least 2015 have been teams with speed. And you can never have enough speed. It’s full of old guys who are either slow or are slowing down. And most of those guys were on the team last year and you see what happened when they got put on lines with guys like Carter and Granlund/paired with guys like Dumo. They couldn’t produce and they played like crap. Why because the old slow guys will just bog down the speedy players as they won’t be able to keep up making the whole line or d pair ineffective and they get burnt nonstop.
Sully’s definition of speed is good skater with a good hockey IQ. Sorry hit Lucic, Toews, Carter, Bonino, Petry(to an extent) just don’t fit that mold because they are old and have slowed down considerably. Unfortunately that’s just the facts of life and they won’t be able to play a full season and keep up in Sully’s system.

No it’s been size (especially on D) and speed/skill. You need both to win. Pens get bullied. They need pushback and help in front of net. Graves and Mayfield give that to you. Lucic is elite at it. Jonathan Toews is still Jonathan Toews. Bonino plays physical and is a smart player. Kills penalties. Acciari can skate and is a difference maker.

Carter has lost a step but would still be a good player on another team in a different role.

No it’s been speed. The pens won back to back in 16 and 17 with speed and timely goaltending , not size. It’s only when they tried integrating size into the lineup that they started falling apart.
Lucic doesn’t play defense, he’s a forward so he will be just like Carter and Granlund…anchors for the speedy forwards. Toews is still Toews. Ok and Gretzky is still Gretzky and Mario is still Mario. Let’s sign them too. He may still be Jonathan Toews but he isn’t giving you the same production and skill of the Toews from 10 years ago. Bones is physical and smart, but slow and again is an anchor to the faster players. You can’t say Carter has lost a step and would be a fit in a different role on a different team then sign 3 other Jeff Carters and pretend they’d fit.
As for Graves, Mayfield, and Acciari, I don’t recall mentioning having a problem with them 🤷‍♂️

You realize 2017 was 6 years ago? Look at every Stanley cup team since then. Big, physical, especially on D.

“Have you not seen the last 12 teams to make it to the Stanley cup final?“
Do you remember who said these words? Yeah that was you. Now you’re trying to move the goal posts. And yet you’re still wrong lol.
10 of the bottom 16 teams in hits made the playoffs.
2 of the top 10 teams in hits made the playoffs.
So over half of the playoff field were bottom half of the league in physicality lol.
The Panthers had the 9th fewest hits in the league.
The golden knights were 13th in hits. So middle of the pack. The heaviest hitting teams in the playoffs all got knocked out in the first round by fast teams that were in the bottom half of the league in hits.
Sorry your argument doesn’t hold water.

Because you don't just help teams out of their cap troubles for free because an old hockey player on his way out of the league could possibly be a "help for Bedard". Also, you have to get Carter to waive first. This whole narrative that we need to go load up with veteran "help" for Bedard is absurd. The kid is gonna be fine.

And no, no team is going to take him for free. Any team that does, will not be a rebuilding team and would probably require max retention.

Nah

Yeah. That argument didn't age well.

Idk why Tyler Johnson, AA, Dickinson, Blackwell isn’t enough mediocre/over the hill veteran leadership for Bedard lol. Now add Hall and Foligno, what’s one more over the hill vet? We will throw in a few free walkers if y’all do us a solid for nothing and take him 😂

lol. Honestly, though, they are all perfectly capable players with loads of experience and leadership qualities they can provide to CHI's young players. This idea that they need to load up with talent for Bedard is absurd. The situation is no different than if we ended up at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th, we are still rebuilding.

Yeah it simply sped it up by maybe a couple years. I think it’s cause they are a pens fan and think how it was when we landed Crosby, but we still sucked the first year and we were already coming off two top 2 picks. So the core was set. Crosby and essentially Letang were just the final pieces to start the run.
For chicago, Bedard is the start. The hope is to get another top 5 pick or 2 to build the new core. I just know I’m excited to see Bedard as he comes here for our home opener!!

For sure. It is certainly possible he comes right into the NHL without missing a beat and tears it up on the scoresheet. But, I am not gonna hold my breath. I have no doubt he is going to be good, but he doesn't need to be a super mega star in his first season.

No. It’s not the same. You have Connor bedard. You need to win now on his ELC. This isn’t rocket science

lol. No. No we don't. If you actually think that, your opinion on everything else is automatically invalid.

Why don't you focus on your own team that ACTUALLY needs to win now... Also, how does Carter help us win now?