Kuzmenko has had one good year at the NHL year... I like him as a player but I just need to see a bigger sample size from him before I can judge him as a NHL player. That defense won't be helped by Hughes leaving

Mikheyev scored 14 goals in 46 games with a torn ACL. That is a 25 goal pace. Kuzmenko may regress, but he will still likely be elite. His play driving is not a one year thing. Garland is not a goal scorer so using goals to measure how good he is doesn't make sense

Which is why the Canucks will do everything in their power to keep him. We still have him locked up for 4 years anyway

Even if he regresses, he can only regress so much when playing with Pettersson

I get the injures with Mikheyev... but he hasn't scored enough at his other stop to make me believe that he's a 25-goals a year scorer
Kuzmenko is a very good play driver but I just don't know if he can keep the production up
I get Garland isn't a goal scorer it's just another proof point that your offensive production is a little too reliant on your top guys to plot goals

Scored 21 goals in 53 games the year before. He will be playing with Pettersson as well so even if he is not talented enough himself, Pettersson will force him to score

So basically the McDavid effect?

Fair on Kuzmenko, but after the season he had I’d say he’s a great 1st line winger
Demko apart from his 15 games he played injured last season has been great for 3 seasons especially considering the defense he’s played behind
Garland is a good second line 45-50 point, two way winger
Mikheyev played really well with a torn ACL last season (partly due to playing with Petey/Kuzmenko but still played well)

I mean yeah. If you watched some of Kuzmenko's goals, Pettersson literally passed the puck and it bounces of Kuzmenko's stick into the back of the net. Literally forcing goals

That totally might be the case with Demko
Garland is a very good two-way winger but his lack of goal-scoring is a very useful plot point in the goalscoring disparity on your team
Mikheyev is a good player... I just don't know if he has the goalscoring chops enough to plot 25+

I suggest waiting for 4 years and getting him for free. That way you keep your assets to extend your window of contention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDz0ldV57gA

A lot of his goals were tip ins. He is super smart because he knows exactly where to go to score goals. The 4th goal against Anaheim, Pettersson passes to Kuzmenko but the puck is in the back of the net before Kuzmenko even reacted

NJ says no. Quinn will come to NJ when he is a free agent.

There were only two NHL Dmen this year that had over 70 points and were on the ice for more goals for than against at 5 on 5. One was Adam Fox, want to guess who the other was? I'll give you a hint, they played on a significantly worse team and had significantly less skilled D partners than Fox... Ill give you another hint, all the D that had 70+ points were on teams with strong goal differentials, (except Dahlin in Buffalo (-4) who was not the other player), expect the other D whos team had a -22 goal differential.

The data is the data. Even his most updated player cards still have him as a fantastic offensive defensemen and mediocre defensively. I’m just looking at what the numbers are saying.

Data is data you say? Didn’t Jack Hughes have one of the worst rookie seasons by a 1st overall in NHL history. You telling me that’s the same player he is today?

Quinn Hughes’ defense has improved big time. Even if he is mediocre defensively, that’s all he needs because given his offensive talent

https://twitter.com/arhockeystats/status/1632290331608711168?s=46&t=Em1kSTrQp8S8RWKcSKV0NA

https://twitter.com/jfreshhockey/status/1654291388266102786?s=46&t=Em1kSTrQp8S8RWKcSKV0NA

https://ibb.co/vZ3YzFM

What player cards are you looking at? Because none of those 3 show Hughes as mediocre defensively, they show him as above average-very good defensively

The funny thing is that Hughes’ updated player cards all show him as above average-very good defensively, he was just trying to say they show him as mediocre because it fit his narrative

Guys - I said he improved this past year. His defensive analytics from 2019-2022 were mediocre at best. Pairing him in this fictional scenario with Hamilton would be a disaster.

https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1371957273237553152

You said his most updated player cards had him as a mediocre defender. The only season he was very bad in his own zone was 2020/21. He wasn’t too good his rookie season either, but he’s been very good defensively the last two seasons. Not mediocre like you suggested

From 2 seasons ago, where everybody knows he was bad defensively. That’s like me bringing up stats from Jack Hughes’ second season and using them now

Three seasons in a row of poor defensive numbers.
https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1495184692940791811

He had a great season this past year and hope he keeps it up. There’s nothing else left to talk about.