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A_Habs_fan

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Forum: NHLYesterday at 4:10 p.m.
Forum: Armchair-GMMon. at 8:09 a.m.
Forum: NHLMar. 21 at 1:57 p.m.
Forum: NHL SigningsMar. 19 at 9:51 a.m.
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Wilson_W_Wilson_Jr</b></div><div>Why would Leaf fans not want Hyman at this # for 7 years?

Toronto just recently signed Nylander to $11.5 for 8 years and he'll be turning 36 years old in the final year of his deal.

Hasn't Toronto had Muzzin on the LTIR for the last 3 years, making over $5.5 million a season? This year Muzzin is also getting a scouting contract on top of his LTIR contract.

Even when Hyman was in Toronto, he was more than worth this number. He played first or second line regularly, and if you can get a guy at this #, that can play on your first or second line, that's a deal.

He is born in Toronto and he wanted to stay in Toronto.

This is an all heart type of player, with an endless motor, who just keeps going.


People want to hate on Holland, but he has won, multiple times.

He has assembled a team with solid depth, with guys like Kane, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Perry, and Bouchard all on very good deals, that he signed.

This is how you win.</div></div>

Winning? Signing Cody Ceci to a 3.25 million dollar contract? Signing Darnell Nurse (Not Sarah Nurse) to a <strong>9.25</strong> million dollar contract? Signing Connor Brown to, essentially, a 4 million dollar contract? What about signing RNH to a 5.5 million dollar contract for <strong>1</strong> goal in the playoffs? What about the Lucic deal? What about the Evander Kane contract? Or the Kulak trade/contract?

The way you build is the Yzerman/Sakic way of doing things, not sign everyone at age 29 to 5.5s and hope they preform at age 33

And all those *great* contracts just to have the same number of Round 3 wins as the Toronto Maple Leafs since 2007
Forum: NHL TradesMar. 16 at 11:50 a.m.
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>worldwidesensei</b></div><div>It is interesting the disparities around the world. </div></div>

And the old Russian approach was to use "sticks in the middle" thereby flipping everyone to their offhand side.

Everything can work in a vaccuum when there is a an opportunity to exploit advantages/disadvantages of other teams' systems. Then the competition adapt/adjusts and the advantage is lost until the next one.

There are no absolutes; at least beyond temporary advantages.

Rules of thumb are more for the general mix, not to be applied to the elite performers.

Canadian players do seem to be playing pre-dominantly as lefties (dominant right hand on the knob end of stick) and therefore it is clear that up until the higher level tiers of hockey it doesn't matter so much about handedness because a players talent compared to his competition is the bigger factor. At some point the talent gap narrows and those small advantages take on heightened importance.

The majority of American players, to this point, have not had that type of coaching from such an early age (outside of the elite academies and hockey families); or the American coaches prefer the L/R balance that they try to achieve it at an early age.

Europeans seem to be more lefty dominant but tend to prefer to come from their offhand a lot; so this must be skills that are focused on in their development; perhaps a legacy of the Russian style from the 60s thru 90s; which had such an impact on world hockey especially in places like Finland and Czechia/Slovakia.

Dahlin, Heiskanen, Shea Theodore, etc CAN play exceptionally high level on their off hand. That doesn't apply to every defenseman; and it also doesn't apply to every defensive system/assignment. Which is why the "non-injury" mix of offhanded defenseman in the NHL is 10-11 players out of 192 in the starting 6 after the trade deadline; which is 5%. Even Dallas has been trying to find an elite enough RHD to pair with Heiskanen because they feel that he is better on the left side. But 90% Heiskanen is still better than 100% of anyone else they have on the right side so he remains; and now that Harley has arrived as their best #2 (top pair) D it will probably be that way for a while; just like Dahlin in Buffalo with Byram's arrival. Bo proved that he was not that great on HIS right side; which brings us full-circle to the original point in this thread. Buffalo did NOT put him on his offhand and they have Dahlin who is a rare 5%er that prefers it; and they have Samuelsson who seems adequate at it too for their 2nd pair with Owen Power so perhaps they are going to be a rare team with a fully capable top 4 of lefties; the "unicorn team" for this argument. I'm still reserving judgement on Samuelsson being a top 4 playoff-caliber defenseman on his offhand; versus a really good 3rd pair guy on his forehand.

That still does not mean it is normal in the NHL.

For "shutdown" types it matters much less because they are less likely to be trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone and work across the point; and when they do they need to be on their dominant hand to maximize their reaction times. For elite players like Dahlin, Heiskanen, Theodore their talent can offset that "law of nature/physics" disadvantage. This would apply to guys like Nate Schmidt, Dmitry Kulikov, TJ Brodie, Alex Goligoski, Matthias Samuellson, and sometimes Brayden McNabb (since the addition of Hanifin). Guys like Travis Sanheim are kind of a mixed bag so far and we'll have to see how it goes; he does have enough puck skills/skating to try it out but he isn't in that "elite" level of company in that regard; one would think Philly will re-align pairs in the future and look for a talent balance on the RH side in their top 4 (Drysdale developing is a big factor in that outlook).

I do think that there is plenty of evidence to support that the majority of average to really good NHL defenseman perform better on their natural handed side. Rather than looking at Dahlin; this point is better applied to Jacob Chychrun/Thomas Chabot; Sam Girard/Bo Byram; Weegar in Florida with Ekblad (did OK there but has been dominant on the RH side in Calgary); and Canuck pairing with Quinn Hughes prior to Hronek (Soucy, Cole, etc).

There are many times during games I've seen that you can tell the play was impacted or not able to setup properly because a player was in the right position but playing the puck on their offhand. Elite players can position themselves accordingly in advance so that it doesn't have as much of a drop off; but the majority of NHL players cannot do it that quickly or think ahead of the game at that speed to anticipate it. The NHL game is just so ridiculously fast paced that even a near-elite level talent can struggle in that regard.
Forum: NHL TradesMar. 16 at 2:45 a.m.
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>LuckyMoneyPuck</b></div><div>people grab a stick like they grab a show shovel.
And it doesn't matter if you are right or left handed in how you grab it.
Some people feel they can use the stick better with their dominate hand on the bottom, others on the top.
Why you think your "handed" has anything to do with your stick hand tells me you never played.
I know plenty of people who held a stick "backwards" as you would have it.
Only 10% of the planet is left handed. The people holding left in the NHL are not from such a small group but the rights are from the 90% group. There would be a huge disparity in talent if that was true.
They are right handed people holding the stick left, and left handed people who hold the stick right.
It's about comfort and what "feels" natural to you. Has absolutely F all to do with what your handed is.

I don't know why you would even argue this. Anyone who ever played even pewee hockey knows this.</div></div>

You must have been a real pleasure to play with .

Since you're guessing my life, let's see....

I'm guessing you told many teammates, "THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PLAY THE GAME, I'M RIGHT, YOU'RE WRONG. THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFITS TO THE WAY YOU PLAY"

Must have been a treat to have as a teammate. For someone who played team sports at the collegiate level, you didn't learn much both on the ice or off of it on how to be a team player...and other basic social skills. Like...accepting other ways, and understanding that there is more than one way to skin a cat. And, never assume things.

But, here we are.
Forum: NHLMar. 11 at 2:56 p.m.
Forum: NHLMar. 11 at 7:44 a.m.
Forum: NHLMar. 10 at 10:27 p.m.
Forum: NHLMar. 8 at 8:30 p.m.
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>CantStopWontStop</b></div><div>I really like Edmonton’s moves. I think they already check the blocks for cocaine hockey and toughness, they needed stability. They got stability. Their underbelly is not as soft. I feel the last thing the rest of the league needs is a balanced roster lead by McDavid.

I kinda like Nashville’s approach. Tidy business.

And Calgary getting nhlers (near nhlers) back for rentals 3 times in one deadline is kinda cool.

Carolina giving kuznetsov a try is cool.

Florida getting the best deal in tarasenko is a big boost. Right place at the right time.

Colorado treated this deadline like the offseason and snagged two fairly big pieces they’ll maybe keep for awhile.

I think Pittsburg did well, but I’ve beat that one to death and will stop. I think history will reflect very positively short, medium, and long term.

Biggest loser: my team the blues who didn’t have anything you all wanted :( o well. Can’t fail at making a trade prediction if there’s no trades to predict.

Runner up: Detroit. Same reason as blues except they should have bought imo. You aren’t gonna get Patrick Kane under 3 mil another year. He’s proven he’s worth double that at least or the fact that no matter how good, the years are passing for him. It was worth a stab at a rental I think while you have that power up. Not like the stockpile is low. Didn’t need to go extreme, but I’m surprised they couldn’t find anything worthwhile.</div></div>

Cocaine hockey?