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Bruinsdiehard

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Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 21, 2018 at 8:29 a.m.
Thread: Backes and krejci being shopped for Tavares?
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>ON3M4N</b></div><div>Its possible to sign them. With this ACGM the long-term outlook has Boston around $30 million in cap space (assuming an $82 million cap next season). Even using the numbers you and <a href="/users/ngikas" target="_blank">@ngikas</a> have going on (say $19.5 million as you had) and you'd still have $11 million left

<a href="https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/742167">https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/742167</a>

on a side note though, Murphy's sources are Murphy and he's as credible as Eklund, Hackerty and Felger</div></div>

I still laugh at the Andy Strickland tweet "Backes generating more interest than people might think"...lol, well most people think the interest would be zero, so anything above that could be considered "more".

I also think Jimmy Murphy is a freaking tool. When has any of his predictions ever turned out right? Plus his tweet about Krejci garnering interest from STL, Arizona, Carolina and Florida is couched in the fact that he says "in the past", without qualifying how far back he is talking. Krejci has had a 10 year career lol, how far back are we talking here Jim?

Ultimately, I can't see the Bruins being able to move these guys 1). because of their NMCs this year, 2). Why are the Bruins courting Nash, Kovalchuk etc if they are not going to play on Krejci's line? I'm sure they would be happy to have them play with JT if they sign him, but even I recognize signing JT is an extremely unlikely prospect (and I've been obsessed with it since the start of the offseason).
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 20, 2018 at 3:25 p.m.
Thread: bruins
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>ON3M4N</b></div><div>Not sure he would to be honest. I def don't think he'd be interested in ARZ. Who knows though, I think as fan we tend for forget that these players are humans with families and there are many many factors that go into a players decision beyond just chances of winning a cup and contract.</div></div>

I totally agree, and that's exactly why I doubt he would authorize a trade anywhere. He lived for so long in St Louis, and the nature of the contract that he signed ( NMC for first 3 years, backloaded with signing bonus to prevent buyout) seems to signal that he wants to stay put for the duration of this contract. Unless he and his family have a problem living in Boston, I doubt he would leave a potential Cup contender for a team that could afford to actually take his contract (i.e. Arizona, Carolina, Buffalo etc).
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 20, 2018 at 3:08 p.m.
Thread: Boston Bruins Off-season Moves
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>beatonc99</b></div><div>They're getting a veteran presence for a team going through a rebuild plus a decent prospect. Maybe remove the 6th, but Backes isn't worthless. Bruins are getting calls on him</div></div>

LOL!!!!! Thank goodness I wasn't drinking something when I read that. You know who reported that? A beat guy in STL. Why would he know anything about the Bruins trading David Backes? You think he made a lot of significant inroads with B's management on his one trip a year to Boston? Or maybe he's getting his info from a guy he covered for over a decade instead? Think McFly. Think. Backes probably leaked some BS info to him to make himself look better than he is. Why would anyone want to touch him with a 10 ft pole. You'd have been better coming up with a Karlsson trade scenario LMAO.
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 20, 2018 at 2:54 p.m.
Thread: Erik Karlsson/OTT teardown
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>dirtysaucedonny</b></div><div>This is not near enough for the best defenceman in the world. PLUS retaining both his and Duchene's contract?! PLUS adding in the player we gave up a potential lottery pick in next year's draft? Pass, They will be getting a first round pick and a top prospect (with probably 1-2 more pieces) coming back for Karlsson. Hoffman trade is a completely different situation, he was the problem and was a mid-to high range winger, not the best defenceman in the NHL.</div></div>

Lol ok salty Sens fan. Kindof hard to ask for the moon when your team is garbage, your star defenseman knows it and wants out, and every team in the league could just wait a year and not give Ottawa anything. Ottawa would be lucky to get this much. Go look at your own fellow fans and the roster builds they have of dealing Karlsson away.
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 5, 2018 at 2:40 p.m.
Thread: JT + Kovalchuk + EDM 2019-2020
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Propeller09</b></div><div>Take it for what it's worth, but one of the guys from the hockey news podcast basically called Zboril a career AHL'er. Not sure I agree as he is 21 years old. I think his progression has been slower than they wanted despite what they say, or he would be in the NHL. Carlo was taken in the draft. It's the same with Senyshyn. I don't blame them for where they were picked, or who was picked in front of them, but the fact is there are exactly two skaters from the 1st rd of the 2015 draft that haven't played a game in the NHL; Zboril and Senyshyn (Samsonov -G- too) - That is a little worrisome, at least to me. It's not set in stone, but disheartening. Lauzon, I have more hope for as well as Vaakanainen. This is a big year for Zboril and Senyshyn. I know some of it is circumstance, but the <em>vast</em> majority of guys who are going to make an impact in the NHL are there by 22 years old. </div></div>

Lol I stopped reading or listening to what THN had to say a long time ago, but good for him to whoever believes that. I'm sure he's probably taking flights every weekend from Toronto to Providence to watch Zboril play, just like everyone on here who's got this hardened opinion of him. There's no doubt that Zboril and Senyshyn are slow-bloomers, but I think when comparing Zboril to the rest of the 2015 draft, it's only fair to him to keep it to defensemen. It was clear the Bruins had a major need at D after deciding to trade Hamilton right before that draft. They probably evaluated (accurately) that Hanifin could step in and play immediately in the NHL, which is why they wanted to trade for him. When that didn't work out, they were stuck with drafting the next best defenseman at the spot they were in. Clearly Zboril didn't deserve to be drafted ahead of Hanifin, or Werenski or Provorov. But look at the D drafted after him? Who's to say he won't be better than Thomas Chabot, who is getting his opportunity in Ottawa because he's playing for a crap-bag team. Who's to say he won't be better than Juulsen, who is also only getting his opportunity because he plays on another crap-bag team. Look at Carlsson in CBJ? He get's injured last year after averaging like 12-13 min a night (which is horrendously low for a D), and gets overtaken on the depth chart by Nutivaara who was drafted in the 7th round of that draft and now looks like a mainstay on Columbus' defense. So I put very little stock in that stat about GPs as it relates to Zboril. I absolutely agree the time is coming very soon (if not now, then at the latest next year) when Zboril will have to demonstrate whether he is NHL worthy, and then we'll know. But for people (not saying you specifically) who say his development hasn't met expectations, or has somehow regressed in development because he hasn't stolen a roster spot from Chara or someone lol, I think that's a load of nonsense.

<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Propeller09</b></div><div>As for dealing Krug - I really don't think it's a fantasy. This is the last summer they can deal him before his NTC kicks in.<em><strong> If </strong></em>they are going to do it, it's this offseason. I think if they do, what they get in return will tip their hand on how they feel about Zboril and Lauzon, or if they sign a LD in Free Agency. I love Chara, and he has played great, but he will be 42 and have played over 1600 NHL games + another 100 or so lockout/Olypmpic/WC games. That's insane. I just can't imagine he has too much left in the tank at a top pairing level. He might be able to hang on for a couple more but he will need to be around 15 minutes a night. He has played 23m a night each of the last two seasons, and yes, it's down from his 24-25m a night, but he also doesn't play the PP anymore, he is still playing the tough minutes. </div></div>

First of all, Krug's NTC specifies he can submit an 8 team no-trade list. That's hardly a reason to deal him right now and risk "being stuck with him" for the next two years. Second of all, the "trade Krug" thing took on a level of seriousness with the comments Neely had at his post-season press conference in May, saying that Sweeny was looking to address that in the offseason. I thought it was a stupid comment overall by Neely, because he seemed to bend over backwards to clarify that he wasn't criticizing Krug and Grzelcyk's game, and that he thought they played very well. Lol. So they both played great, but he want's to get bigger (GRIT!!!) on the left side by essentially replacing one of them? There was a time the Bruins couldn't find a. guy. to move the puck in their entire d-corps, and now that they have 1 on every pair Neely wants to take them back in the other direction. Stupid.

Regarding Chara's "mileage" - it is insane. You know what else is insane? The way Chara trains. If there is one thing I will never in a million years have to be concerned about, it's Zdeno Chara's fitness level. I think he's more committed to fitness than he is to hockey itself sometimes. We can debate whether he may start to seriously decline in the next few years, or whether he merits taking a role other than #1 d-man. But to suggest he should play 15 min a night in order to "hang on for a couple more years" is so absurd. No starting defenseman (Krug, McAvoy, Miller, McQuaid, Grzelcyk) averaged less that 16 min a night, and you think Chara should play less than all of them???? I'm sorry, but you lost me there.

<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Propeller09</b></div><div>I am not sure how much upside Kovalchuk gives you over Heinen/Bjork/Top six ice time Donato at this point in their careers. </div></div>

In a word: Plenty lol. He's a hall of fame premier goal scorer who has dominated in the 2nd most competitive hockey league on the planet. Any team looking to contend in the playoffs would be lucky to have him, it's just a question of cost. It's not like the Bruins are considering playing Heinen, Bjork or Donato on Krejci's RW (which is undoubtedly where Kovalchuk would slot in if he signed with Boston), as they are apparently courting Rick Nash for a return. I would much rather they bring in Kovalchuk over Nash if I had a choice.
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 5, 2018 at 9:07 a.m.
Thread: Aggressive to contend... hanifin and neal
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Gofnut999</b></div><div>Enough with the hardon for Hanfin. Huge overpay and yet you still don’t meet their needs.

Btw, they asked for Pasta when we asked about him last offseason.</div></div>

Yeah, that was Ron Francis who asked for that, and look what happened to him. No team in the league is going to trade a Pastrnak for Hanifin when Hanifin isn't even a top pair defenseman on his own team. Toronto isn't trading Mitch Marner for Hanifin, even though their D needs are desperate. Vancouver isn't going to trade Brock Boeser for him either, etc etc. Just because Carolina asked for that, doesn't mean it was a realistic or fair ask.

I agree that the payment in the trade is too much. I would have stopped after the first 3 pieces in that trade. But I think plenty of Canes fans on here who have reviewed such trades of Hanifin to Boston want and believe they deserve the moon for Hanifin, which they don't. I think the allure for them in a Krug-Zboril-Heinen for Hanifin trade has to be Heinen's potential, having Krug replace Hanifin's potential for a couple of years before leaving in FA, and having Zboril to replace Krug when he leaves.
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 5, 2018 at 8:55 a.m.
Thread: JT + Kovalchuk + EDM 2019-2020
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Propeller09</b></div><div>I still don't see how it works.

You need to add two more players &amp; that D is shakey at best. Don't get me wrong, I hope Zboril is legit, but I am not sure he will be ready to handle a top 4 role 19-20 let alone this upcoming season.

I am not sure Chara has another two years as a top pairing guy left either. Especially not with the amount of minutes he would need to play with Zboril as the guy behind him.</div></div>

Well because it is so borderline silly to predict down the road this far so I didn't bother adding extra guys to fill out a roster. But add 2 guys at the minimum contract (which for 2019-2020 will be 700K) and cut Chara's salary by 500K and there you go.

As for the D being shaky, having Zboril in the lineup at this point is a product of needing to save money while the Bruins are paying Kovalchuk 6M/year. Whatever the Bruins might lose in performance on D they would more than make up for by scoring at will on everyone else by having JT and Kovalchuk in the lineup, along with the Bergeron line intact. But regarding Zboril himself, I'm not sure if you believe this so this isn't directed at you per se, but I don't get why Bruins fans are so negative about Zboril. I had one delightful exchange with another person on here who was trying to use NHLe to explain that Zboril's development has been horrible, which I just laughed at. I personally don't know how he's been looking at Providence because I'm not at P-Bruins games every weekend, so beyond his stat line, I'm not going to comment. I do look at the fact that they retained Zboril and Lauzon and chose to part ways with Lindgren in the Nash trade, which makes me suspect they rate both of those players higher than Lindgren. I also know that Zboril, like Senyshyn and DeBrusk, have almost unfair expectations surrounding them because of the circumstances of how they were drafted in 2015 (3 in a row; higher than most draft profilers expected; in lieu of Connor and Barzal etc), none of which is their fault. Zboril and Lauzon are clearly there to compete for replacing Chara when he retires, and the other might get another chance to crack the lineup if/when the Bruins move on from Krug.

And regarding Chara, Chara's minutes were just fine as they continued to decline from the previous three years. I credit Cassidy with being aware of that, and for giving Chara less difficult minutes than Julien used to (this was the first time in Chara's career in Boston that he started more faceoffs in the offensive zone than the defensive zone for the season - that being said, it was only a shade over 50%). Chara had his best season possession-wise since the year they won the President's Trophy.I think the Bruins will want Chara around as they incorporate Zboril and/or Lauzon into the lineup, and in the "real world" where the Bruins aren't dealing Krug off in fantasy scenarios like 9/10 Bruins fans (including me) have them doing, that probably happens in 2 years. But in this scenario, if the Bruins were to turn to Zboril for 2018-2019, it would certainly be a risk. But as I said, I think whatever that risk is is mitigated tremendously by their offensive potential with this lineup
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 4, 2018 at 10:49 a.m.
Thread: JT + Kovalchuk + EDM
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Propeller09</b></div><div>I like the signings, but you will have no $ to sign anyone (McAvoy, Carlo &amp; Donato) moving forward &amp; the Defense is worse, by lot.

You are giving Edmonton and awful lot for a pick; a 50pt rookie (Heinen) &amp; 60pt Dman (Krug) &amp; a player (Bjork) that earne a 1st line chance out of camp last year, but got concussed and struggled after he returned. He seems like he should be 20 goal scorer. Also McQuaid - who is a perfect regular season 6 or 7 dman.

They need a top 4 LD / Contingency plan for Chara, and a Center to replace Krejci if they have to move on from him in a couple years.</div></div>

As I said in the description, I'm planning on doing a roster build for 2019-2020 under this scenario sometime later. I'll have to see how things look but yes, I'd expect it to get ugly.

Regarding the trade, I think we see things a little differently. Krug probably doesn't have a ton of value to EDM especially if they keep Klefbom (most B's fans do a Krug trade with EDM with Klefbom coming back, but I couldn't do that because of the salary). Given EDM's cap issues, they are highly unlikely to retain Krug when his contract expires in 2 years. So while there is still value there, I think the major value EDM gets in this trade is Heinen and Bjork. For the 10th overall pick, and given the other pieces, I think it probably skews a little towards EDM, but I would do it as a Bruins fan if it meant being able to get JT and Kovalchuk on the roster. I like McQuaid, I just couldn't afford to keep him on the roster because I needed more space.

P.S. Obviously in this scenario, their 2C issues with Krejci are pretty well taken care of lol
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 4, 2018 at 9:25 a.m.
Thread: 3 way with MIN and EDM
I think the thing I question the most is the swapping of 1st rounders between EDM and MIN. At first glance, it seemed like Minnesota wasn't getting the fair end of the deal. But the swap does make it more equitable. The problem is I don't know if EDM would want to drop down 14 spots for essentially Boston's 2019 2nd rounder. Because if you break down the components of the trade, that's what it boils down to right? Krug and Fitzgerald are compensation for Klefbom. Then Heinen, Klefbom and EDM's 1st are compensation for Brodin and Neiderreiter. Obviously Brodin and Neiderreiter are compensation for what Boston is giving up (Krug, Heinen, Fitzgerald and a 2nd rounder). But EDM's 1st is only being compensated by MIN's 1st and Boston's 2nd.

So I think EDM needs to be receiving more and it's likely Boston who needs to provide it. Perhaps Boston's 2nd in 2018? Or eliminate the 2nd rounders all together and instead include Zboril as insurance against Krug leaving EDM in FA in 2 years.
Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 4, 2018 at 9:11 a.m.
Thread: Summer stand pat; resigning only thru the organization
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>ON3M4N</b></div><div>What has Cehlarik done to earn a a starting spot compared to Bjork, Heinen or Donato. If anything Cehlarik starts the year in Providence</div></div>

<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>ngikas</b></div><div>You’d wanna see one of bjork Heinen and donato on the fourth line? Compared to Cehlárik who belongs there on the fourth line when the other 3 are deserving of top 9 roles</div></div>

<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>ON3M4N</b></div><div>Would I rather see one of the better players getting 10-12 minutes a night vs sitting upstairs? yes 100%

Quite honestly, Backes probably ends up on the 4th line as his style of play fits that line and he can add some offense to that line. I think JFK could make the line-up, but with how this team is built (line wise) it would be tough to have him center 2 other rookies.</div></div>

Re: your "Explanation" - I definitely agree that this team as constituted would not be expected right out of the gate to challenge for the Cup. I wouldn't call them a Cup contender with that lineup, but I would disagree that the issue lies with their LHDs. Chara's minutes were just fine as they continued to decline from the previous three years. I credit Cassidy with being aware of that, and for giving Chara less difficult minutes than Julien used to (this was the first time in Chara's career in Boston that he started more faceoffs in the offensive zone than the defensive zone for the season - that being said, it was only a shade over 50%). Chara had his best season possession-wise since the year they won the President's Trophy. As for Krug, he is perfectly suited for the role he is in now. He's not a top-pairing defenseman I agree, but he's also not a bottom pair defenseman either. He's a #4, and that's exactly the role he is in now. My issue with the roster coming back as you have it would be secondary scoring, just like last year. Too much reliance on guys who either have 1 or less than 1 season in the NHL, especially if you're going to break up the Bergeron line.

I could see Cehlarik edging out Bjork during training camp for a roster spot, especially if Bjork isn't fully recovered from his shoulder issues. But mostly it's because Cehlarik has had opportunities at the NHL and seemed to do well, only to be derailed by injury. He also seemed to have some chemistry with Krejci when he did play at the NHL level, and the RW slot on Krejci's line seems up for grabs out of any spot in the lineup if they don't end up doing anything in the offseason.