I_Know_Nothing_About_Hockey_Or_Any_Sport2

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Forum: Armchair-GMNov 24 at 7:17
Thread: Killorn on pace for 65 pts this year
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>JTBF81</b></div><div>Nah you're just delusional regarding Gourde, his stats indicate he isn't overpaid, and his play has been solid this year. Yes he's on the 4th line, big deal, the line has been the best on the team thus far and the hardest working. He has far more than an "ahl skillset." I'd question anyone saying Serg is a "3rd pairing weak d zone player" as someone who has no idea what they are talking about and not watching. But please, keep whining about Gourde, it gives me a good daily laugh. You get back to us when he waives that ntc and gets traded in one of these agms you post, lol.</div></div>

I agree that Gourde (who has been a point per game this month, so I have trouble considering him a fourth liner even though that line is traditionally considered a fourth line) is way underrated and honestly worth the money, though I think we probably could have gotten him for less at the time. But Palat has looked great this year, and so has Killorn. And so have Cirelli, Sergachev, Shattenkirk, and Maroon. If Vasilevskiy and our defense wake up we’ll be just as scary as last regular season. We can’t keep all of them given our cap situation, though.

Johnson has been the most disappointing. Joseph is close behind. I don’t know if I can see BriseBois managing to keep Shattenkirk or Maroon given how much their value has skyrocketed recently. But someone else does have to go. I would say Palat, Sergachev, Killorn, or Gourde. I can’t say I would be angry if it’s any of those four. It depends largely on this next playoffs (if we make it). I don’t know what about the NTCs, but all I’m going to say is you should not be shocked if we move Gourde for a terrible return.

Hopefully BriseBois figures out some magic though.
Forum: Armchair-GMNov 23 at 4:48
Thread: Killorn on pace for 65 pts this year
Why would we trade Gourde before Johnson? Gourde is on the fourth line because Cooper wants depth spread, but he’s way better than Joseph, Verhaeghe, Maroon, and Paquette by any standard (and so far, Johnson). Killorn is extremely underrated and would easily get a way better return than a 4th (the only problem is that it reduces his value if our cap situation mandates a trade), but he’s also streaky. I don’t see him maintaining this pace. He’s a ~35-45 point player consistently and I have trouble seeing him going so far up from that. Hopefully he proves me wrong. Obviously if he does, trading him would be a hard move to have to make. At the beginning of the season, I would have said to keep Gourde over Palat. I’m getting unsure now, but I would much prefer to lose Joseph and Johnson rather than lose Gourde to keep the two.
Forum: Armchair-GMNov 18 at 8:00
Thread: CUP 2020- Major Moves Made- Need thoughts
Sixteen teams make the playoffs every year. Some teams may be more likely to win than others, but for every individual team, the odds are that they lose. In this scenario, if we win, great. But otherwise, since Hall and Barrie are rentals, we waste Cernak, Joseph, Verhaeghe, Foote, Killorn, Rutta, Coburn, two 1sts, and two 4ths. We do get Couturier in return, who is one of the most valuable assets there are, and some of those are expendable, but overall that’s a pretty ridiculous risk. Not to mention a lot of these are underpayments from us, especially the return Philadelphia gets for Couturier, the only asset we would get to keep.

Right now, our deficiencies are mainly defensive structure and grit at forward. None of these assets really address that (Barrie is offensive, and maybe these forwards know how to be physical but they’re certainly not known as power forwards). Moving Cernak actually significantly hurts in that regard. I would prefer to address those issues specifically (Kreider + a coaching shakeup may work wonders) and not pay steep costs for big names who merely improve our strengths.
Forum: Armchair-GMNov 5 at 1:02
Thread: Tampa has 5 more games for trades
Do we really want to trade away the 1st that’s probably going to be a top five pick? :)

But while I don’t disagree with these trades necessarily (I think BriseBois could pull off the same returns without paying this much though), I don’t think it’s as urgent as you think. We beat the Leafs, Canadiens, Bruins, and Penguins, and outplayed the Predators and Avalanche at even strength. Even the Islanders game was okay. We seem to rise to the occasion, but we “play down” to bad teams and that’s why we embarrass ourselves against Ottawa and NYR and can barely handle NJD. So I don’t think a hard stretch will be our doom as we seem no more likely to lose to a good team than to a bad team. I do think something needs to change though.

But I would much rather go back to last season’s style and embarrass ourselves in the playoffs than play like garbage in the regular season and not make it at all. Cooper needs to realize these games count and aren’t always the time for experiments.

Also, I disagree on Foote. He doesn’t look NHL-ready yet.
Forum: Armchair-GMNov 2 at 6:36
Thread: Considering TBL Next Year
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>palhal</b></div><div>Don't see Johnson waiving his NTC. Even Killorn can manipulate his 16 team trade list and likely can't be traded. No, until I see could reason why all the Tampa players would want to waive, they all stay put IMO.</div></div>

Most players would waive if allowed to go to a team they like, since the alternative is unconditional waivers as they don’t have NMCs and resentment from fans for screwing the team. There’s no precedent for the idea of weaponizing an M-NTC against the team either. Killorn will likely fill his no-trade list with 16 teams he most strongly doesn’t want to play for, and if Buffalo keeps things up I don’t see them as one of those. Johnson would very probably waive for Colorado because the alternatives are worse than being moved from one powerhouse to another.

Plus, as of now, we look like utter garbage. That could help incentivize waiving clauses.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct 31 at 1:25
Thread: Great Tampa game tonight and trades
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>TMG</b></div><div>We need a coach with a real defensive structure and system, and we need to package one of our firsts to rid us of Gourde</div></div>

It’s not just about finding someone with defensive structure. It’s about what our team can do. Our strategy for years has been to force the other team (through speed and raw talent) to open the ice, and throw everything into offense knowing that we can dominate when the ice is open and trusting that Vasilevskiy can shut down the other team (if not, just try and outscore them). We’ve seen when that works and when it doesn’t work and know something has to change, but these are things ingrained in people’s play styles. Cooper <em>is</em> trying to implement a solid defensive structure, and Kucherov has looked like a bust since then and Stamkos can only contribute on power plays when that whole thing disappears. I don’t think these players know how structured defense works well enough, and we need to make it a gradual change, and one leading to a system optimized for fast, small players. A coach with an established structure wouldn’t know how to start where Cooper left off before last playoffs and go from there.

As for Gourde, if he waives his NTC, we would have no trouble not only moving him, but moving him for a good return. His stats over the past seasons are hard to deny; he’s an extremely solid middle six winger on maybe a slightly overpaying contract. Depth is a major need in most franchises. If BriseBois packages a first to dump Gourde, that’s just awful GM’ing.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct 26 at 12:16
Thread: Players Id be ok with moving if this isnt the year
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>BOLTLOVER1</b></div><div>Don't disagree on the marketing angle at all .. do his 5V5 .. plus minus .. and playoff performance .. it not pretty .. also the year Tampa lost to Pens .. up 3 to 2 on conference finals .. was done largely without Stamkos ..</div></div>

I mean, I’m not saying Stamkos is good in the playoffs, not that we can’t have a good run without him (it hurts a bit, but as you said, we’ve done it before). Maybe removing the “C” could be a good move. But what I am saying is that Stamkos is extremely talented. I don’t think you can deny that. So if the talent is there, a new coach and some leadership changes could very well be the difference that makes the talent turn into playoff production. Trading a superstar because of a major weakness is bad organizationally; figuring out how to overcome that weakness and maintain star power while improving yourselves overall is the better move, and an improved coaching staff would have a good shot at the latter.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct 24 at 8:26
Thread: Players Id be ok with moving if this isnt the year
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>BOLTLOVER1</b></div><div>Absolutely serious .. Cooper and Stamkos both go if no Cup .. Stamkos game other than a 1 timer is pedestrian... to keep both is just insanity .. and we all know definitiom of insanity ..</div></div>

Cooper should be done if we lose this year, but Stamkos has proven himself to be a star player. He scored 40g last year and leads the team in points right now, with over a point per game. His playoff performance is comparatively disappointing, but a good coach (if not Cooper, his successor) would be carefully reviewing with him why that may be and how to change that. There's no real reason Stamkos can't dominate the playoffs like he does the regular season given the right mentality and coaching assistance. Either way, though, you act as if playoffs are a guaranteed thing. Last time we lost Stamkos for most of the season to injury, even though we were initial Cup favorites, Kucherov had his breakout season and scored 40g, Hedman set career highs, Vasilevskiy and Bishop were the best goaltending duo there was, and we had young talent like Point entering the team, it wasn't enough to earn a playoff spot. If you get rid of all of our depth players and exchange them for prospects, and move Stamkos, there's no reason to think we'd be better than we were in 2016-17; in fact, a lot of these players, based on training camp, haven't looked quite ready for NHL action and aren't necessarily an improvement over our wingers who have proven that they can, at the very least, fulfill the role of supporting players.

Also, from a management perspective, star players like Stamkos provide good marketing opportunities that generate revenue. Stamkos has, for right or for wrong, essentially become the face of the franchise, and moving him would hurt our team revenue. That (along with the NMC) makes him extremely valuable to management regardless of how he plays.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct 15 at 3:55
Thread: 3 elite lines similar to HBK pens 2016
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>pharrow</b></div><div>Like I said. Most of the players you listed before are of no help. They don't go to the dirty areas and when they do they can't win those battles.
So now you rattle off a list of other guys, who frankly, aren't really good and not even regulars. That doesn't bode well for this conversation and it's why I'm done with it.
You want to call this team the HBK line penguins. But that team had a guy on every line willing to battle. Hags was on the 3rd, Rust on the 2nd, and they dropped 5 foot nothing Sheary for Kunitz because much like your line up here he was to small to do a damn thing to help. And when healthy they had hornqvist who despite not being the biggest guy, is know to be a dirty areas player.
This team lacks that kind of help. Period. I don't know why you try to argue it. You can't go out there with 1/2 the top 9 under 6 feet and expect to win many board battles. It just doesn't work that way.</div></div>

I listed the players who are so far willing to do the dirty work. Yes, they’re small, and that has hurt and will continue to hurt in the playoffs. But that doesn’t mean they’re not willing to try, and in the regular season, determination can often overcome size disparity since players aren’t playing a playoff style yet. For the regular season, we have the talent to be successful like this. Playoffs are another story and I can’t argue there. We have physical players who can win playoff battles, but they’re inarguably bottom-six, and our only hope is that they suddenly bring that over to the top six, or that defense/goaltending carry us. Really, a deadline trade for Kreider could push us a lot further too.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct 15 at 12:14
Thread: 3 elite lines similar to HBK pens 2016
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>pharrow</b></div><div>Johnson sucks, just like Gourde does. Hey are 5 foot nothing and come the playoffs get beat on and pushed out the play.
Palat netted 8 goals last year.

We can go round and round on this. Winning in the playoffs is not the same as winning in the regular season. Didn't you learn that last year. It's a different game in the playoffs.
This team isn't build for that. They don't have real help. They aren't scrappy enough. They don't win board battles and 50/50 pucks.
The penguins had that with the HBK line. They had guys willing to do the dirty work so the big guys would fly all over the ice.
Where is that on this roster?
It doesn't exist.</div></div>

Johnson has had several amazing playoff performances, as has Palat. Palat had injury problems last year, but has looked like his old self again this year. Johnson isn’t amazing, but he did score 30g last year with Kucherov, so he’s a perfect supporting player who becomes even better in the playoffs.

As far as doing the dirty work is concerned, Gourde does that. So does Maroon, Witkowski, Smith, and Killorn. Maybe Joseph. Palat once did, but he has trouble staying healthy so that might change. So would Stephens if we need it. The question isn’t whether we have the talent - we do. It’s just a matter of whether we’d be holding stars back by giving them pretty good instead of elite linemates.