🤷‍♂️ Your loss, Bunting is no slouch

I hope you’re right there. I look at him as a one time bargain buy that Dubas signed cheap and he overachieved that year he put up over 60 points. Now at 4.5 million I don’t see a bargain, I see a player making a good 1.5-2 million more than he’s worth.

In the scope of ppg ufa winger rentals, Guentzel delivered a monster return.

—-He’s painfully mid.—-

Excessively mediocre winger who is about to sign some deal that pays him over 50mil-70mil over term, possibly locking in multiple of those 35+ years - on the oldest team in the league - that’s a big nope from me.

You’d think a winger benefiting from Sidney Crosby would earn some hardware like all star game appearances, see their stats expanded a bit due to the presence of a goat every time they’re on the ice. And he has. His stats are expanded because his center iceman his whole career is a goat. And that expansion pushes him into the realm of extremely mid winger, “good enough to do the job”.

I don’t blame the penguins for not wanting to give him 8 years on his 30th birthday. I wouldn’t give him 4 when considering the team is already the oldest team in the league.

Give that icetime to the next wave. If the draft pick really bothers penguin fans, I’m sure a deal existed where you didn’t get the developing prospects and instead the magic bean. I’d have picked the prospect filled option with a 2nd versus a 1st. The difference between a 20-32 pick and a 40-64 pick is negligible, less than 5% haircut on nhl potential. If that sacrifice gets me another prospect that has an outside nhl shot, yes please. The curve is already flattening when we get to this point.

Pittsburgh got a non-broken nhler with term to replace an overrated guy due for paycheck who was leaving, prospects where atleast one is a a pretty sure fire nhler. That’s a lot for a rental right there. Then there’s more prospects and a pick. This is the retooling process. I can respect a fan saying “well I don’t like bunting”. Yeah, but you aren’t forced to sign him to age 38 and pay him 8 mil. Atleast you didn’t get some cap casualty or roster liability like the rest of us usually get, some Ryan Johansen you fastpass to anywhere but your locker room.

Plus, I mean, so y’all see hyman and Reinhardt right? Those two goal leaders look much more like Michael buntings than guentzels. I can’t be the only person thinking crosbys play around the net plus buntings play around the net equals fun.

I’d be happy - Thrilled - with a return like this for Buchnevich. I’d like the blues to perform the retool they’re talking about instead of getting stuck halfway thru and throwing their hands up.

I dare say the penguins maybe be better this am than they were last am.

I like this for Pittsburgh and Carolina, Carolina adds an elite winger without giving up a quality piece but Pittsburgh adds multiple decent pieces, Pittsburgh prospect pool is so bare I understand why they wanted a quantity over quality package

I bet Kyle thought he was getting Chaz Lucius with that trade…

Carolina fleece.

Calm before the storm

so before the TDL, another proof that Pagnotta has no credibility

https://twitter.com/AGretz/status/1765952633125179562

I am told by an NHL source close to the situation that, as of now, the #NJDevils are not in on #NHLBruins goalie Linus Ullmark.

They're still pursuing goalies, but Ullmark is not one of them right now.

Storylines to watch 👀
> #njdevils Toffoli is No. 1 target. They're also listening on Colin Miller and Brendan Smith.
> Will #Sens make a splash? Chychrun.
> #SeaKraken will extend OR trade Eberle today.
> With Guentzel in fold, no one finds market inefficiencies like #Canes. Plenty in buyer's market today.
> #FlaPanthers also trying to add. Pacioretty?
> Can #Flyers flip Johansen? Will retain 50%
> Goalie market is thin, but wouldn't be shocked if #njdevils make a play for the future and today.
> Will Pat Maroon have a chance to chase a 4th Stanley Cup? That'd be elite company, with 3 different teams.

I mean, we kinda already knew that, Pagnotta should at best be a secondary source

Bruins and Parker Wotherspoon have agreed to a 1 year, $800,000 extension.

David Pagnotta
@TheFourthPeriod
Keep an eye on #VegasBorn today... some noise the Golden Knights pivoted after losing out on Guentzel. We'll see if they can pull off something big. Per
@CapFriendly
, VGK has just over $4.72M in LTIR cap space.

He's really going out on a limb here. Guentzel wasn't their guy, especially with an enigma like Mantha. They tend to go for 2-way players with term.

If the price for Dowd comes down, they might keep Roy at 3c and Stephenson at wing and bring him in.

Elliotte Friedman
@FriedgeHNIC
Washington and Carolina have been discussing an Evgeny Kuznetsov deal. Not sure how it will all work, but it's been moving along

Kuzy to Carolina for a third

Lebrun says :Pending trading call, Evgeni Kuznetsov is being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2025 third-round pick.
Washington is retaining 50 percent on Kuznetsov (one more year next season at a $7.8 M AAV)

This could be a spectacular move with him and Svech lighting it up, or a spectacular failure. Waddell loves to take chances on guys with character issues. I wonder how Brindamour feels lol

I have never seen a worse breakdown of an elite winger. Yikes! Jake is a top 15 winger in the NHL and a top 5 LW. Carolina is getting the best player at the deadline by a mile. He is simply a better player than Buchnevich is and only Blues fans and people who write this nonsense are convinced otherwise.

I couldn’t possibly disagree more.

Buchnevich is as mid as guentzel. I never said he wasn’t.

Neither of these players are elite. They’re adequate. They don’t take over the game. They do their job. They’re given 100% of the good icetime. They have the best linemate, matchups, special teams, and d pairings possible. In guentzels case he literally has one of the best all time nhlers as his center. They’re good enough to do the job and that’s about it.

Those are 2 extremely weird takes, both Guentzel and Buchnevich are very much not mid

They’re the definition of it.

——Buchnevich doesn’t even have 10 5v5 goals this season despite playing 20 minutes a night with Robert Thomas.——

It’s why their contracts are similar. Is why they’re both being moved instead of retained. They look great momentarily because they’re both at the age where they’ll do that, and it’s hard to look mid when your peers are elite (Crosby, Thomas).

Brad Marchand is the opposite, for example. Is elite. Is never traded. Claude Giroux was traded, the return much better. Same with Joe Pavelski, another -elite- winger (center who plays wing cause old).

I really like Buchnevich. I like smart players. I like that he can be mean too. I like him on my team. Being mid isn’t bad, it’s mid. But valuing a player who is mid as if they’re hall of famers is silly. He’s also on the ice 100% of the best offensive moments every single night with one of the leagues perineal leaders in primary assists. Robert Thomas’ offensive metrics are outstanding. Every single good minute possible in the game the Blues give Buchnevich icetime And he’s at 0.75 ppg. Cool. I can find one player on every nhl club who could do the same or better. He’s good enough to fill the role. That’s it. What you lose is that nobody else gets those minutes. You’re settling for average results from extraordinary opportunities. If Buchnevich were great, it would be really hard for stl to have sat dead last in power play results for like 3 months (last season awful too). He was on the ice for alllllll of them. It’s better than bad results, but it is not great results. It would be good results if they were still growing, we’re cost effective. It’s mid when their upcoming price tag is 7-9 million dollars a year.

-Buchnevich has 25 5v5 points this season.

It’s actually worse than I thought.

Toffoli to Winnipeg

Well thats just wonderful. As if the imminent Leafs vs. Bruins playoff matchup couldnt get any better, the Bruins just acquired Pat Maroon from Minnesota. Yay.

People actually wanting to play in Winnipeg? Something I never thought I’d see

Montreal easily wins the TD so far. Getting a 1st for Monahan, meanwhile Guentzel, Toffoli, Duclair, Henrique, all can't get a 1st.