This league’s in trouble, Bedard is finding his consistent rhythm

I’ve wanted Jay gone for over a week but not for this! We are a joke of a franchise.

Bedard's going for Selanne's record lol

After watching OTT vs. CGY

Van and NJ you can have Zadorov lul

Yeah that’s what I thought. Makes no sense to do it after arguably their best game of the season. I’d think they’d do it on a losing streak to wake them up

Well that was a disappointing ending

I mean we at least fought till the very end

I think the delay on firing Woodcroft came due to either visa issues or something on Knaublach's end.

Unless Holland gets canned during this press conference then the whole thing makes no sense.

Holland will be fired Christmas day as a present to the Oil fans

Having multiple coaches but also good players has its benefits.

They’re able to introduce elements from Woodcroft, but since he’s such a young coach, he won’t have a sea of experience for adjustments. He does get a nice resume, paid a year to do nothing, and seemingly positive reviews.

So you bring in fresh adjustments. You don’t lose what you’ve learned. You may forget parts and adapt others, but diversity itself is a tremendous strength. Similar to Dubas. Everybody wins kinda.

Goes to show how few individuals are well rounded enough to solidly their role.

Ilya Mikheyev is so goated

No thanks.

Fine Van you can have him

If CBJ miss the playoffs do you fire Kekäläinen

As the moves that man has made past 2 years = win now moves

Trade for Severson, Provarov, sign Gaudreau, etc

Yet the results have not equaled the expectations

Honestly they should have just stayed the course kept the assets and just continued drafting/developing as thats been their strength

It's hard to know from the outside if those were "win now" moves or "sell tickets now" or "give the kids time to develop" moves. None of them were really needle movers (even though Gaudreau got paid a lot of money) that any playoff contender would have made. They still have a large youth contingent that could pop anytime in the next year or two. Goalie is their biggest question mark however as Tarasov can't be seen as a slam dunk "goalie of the future" type.

Avs updates:

Pavel Francouz is now officially out for the season. LTIR-retired for cap purposes (only had this year left on hi deal); heading back to Czechia. sucks for him to go out like that as he was a REALLY popular guy for the Avs fans whenever he played. "FRANKIE" will be missed, but really hope he heals up and maybe gets to play some international hockey next year.

The Avs will have about $500,000 of remaining LTIR to use if needed during the season; not enough to carry a 23 man roster; but possibly enough to bring in someone like Patrick Kane or Ethan Bear on a slightly more than league minimum deal.

Joel Kiviranta signing is tied to Lehkonen's injury as he will be out weeks. He had previously signed an AHL only deal out of training camp; so this is his NHL contract.

If we look at his recent moves many you can argue were win now moves. You could argue sell tickets for Gaudreau but trading for Provorov and Severson spell win now stuff.

I think they appear that way due to their contracts; but I'm suspicious that many actual contenders were in hot pursuit of those blueliners: Provorov in particular. I mean, we'll never know, but Anaheim did the same thing with Vatrano, Strome, Killorn, Gudas, and Lyubushkin; keeping Henrique and Gibson. It gave the young kids an umbrella to focus on their development. Columbus could be a year away (or a goalie away) from seeing similiar results; unfortunately for them they don't have the tanking Sharks and helpless Oilers/Flames in their division to pad their record.

Sure but ANA is looking pretty good rn not great but good not last in their division anyway. Its a wonder what they can do when they try lul

Honestly I think CBJ pulled a Chicago thought they had something but was a bit to soon.

Yeah, McTavish is a beast, and Leo as well. Cozens Kulich and Thompson are great, Leo does probably have the highest ceiling, but hard to argue against cozens ceiling as well. IMO the difference make for buffalo is having 2 of the top 5-10 Dmen in the league for the next 10 years.

No...

Jarmo said this year, the plan wasn't neccesarily playoffs. It was more see what the teams made out of, and develop guys.

They've made big moves the last 2 offseasons and still have a /THE/ top prospect pool in the league.

Haven't been putting themselves into problems, by making their roster better earlier. (and tbf the one they spent most assets on --Provorov-- leads the team in points.


Feel like Ottawa is a much better comparison for that, and Ottawa did f--- it up, they're now left in no mans land with a bad prospect pool, underperforming mediocre team with cap issues.

CBJ has cap, a great prospect pool, and currently are mediocre but they have easy options for improvement, and IF they don't improve this year, they still end with a top 10 or so pick which just adds to an already stellar prospect pool.

Yeah it is hard to judge; I guess I saw the Gaudreau signing as more "marketing" for other players and to fans that they are on the radar. After their loses of Panarin, Bobrovsky, Dubois, etc they needed a boost really bad; but also time to let the kids grow into the roles.

I really wonder if they use a guy like Kent Johnson to acquire a goalie prospect. Someone like Spencer Knight (who is too expensive for Florida anyway) in exchange for Johnson + defenseman?

Besides Knight who is the most likely of the top tier goalie prospects to get moved, Chicago has a few good goalie prospects as well; the Blues have Zherenko (behind Hofer), or the Rangers have Garand that are in that second tier.

Yeah they have been very competitive to start the season; unexpectedly better on D and in goal. However, the Oilers/Flames collapse caught everyone by surprise too; so we could be in for a correction. Advanced stats so say as well; not that those are a great predictor for teams like the Ducks that are too young/inexperienced for historical trends to measure fairly; especially with a new coaching system also in place.

I'd be kinda shocked if they dealt Kent Johnson, admittingly I'm very high on him, but I feel he's gotta be close to untouchable. Vincent said they sent him down to boost his confidence, while I would've rathered him stay in the NHL, he has gotten his confidence up in the AHL it seems with 5 points in 4 games. I think they're still committed to him.

I don't mind the idea of them targetting Knight though. A lot of teams should be interested in Knight imo. Wouldn't be shocked if Florida was willing to deal him either, Zito feels like he's always game for a big splash, and Bob is likely too hard to move.

Would be rather poetic justice for Bobrovsky leaving in free agency to go to Florida.