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Zanerax

Member Since
May 5, 2018
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Buffalo Sabres
2nd Favourite Team
Vancouver Canucks
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Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 7, 2019 at 10:36 a.m.
Thread: Buff
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Zanerax</b></div><div>I'll concede the point on top prospect. But I wouldn't call him a blue-chip prospect or sure thing. Though he definitely has the offensive tools (exceptional shot, good passer and solid vision, etc.), he also floats a lot and has had some really ugly and situationally bad cases of cherry picking downstairs. That probably sours me on him more than his game as a whole warrants.

We have other prospects that might not project to be as big of impact players, but I'd say are higher probability to pan out. Asplund is someone I'm high on. Solid two-way player with offensive upside. He had a good year on the Amerks as well. I might personally place both him and UPL above Olofsson, even if it might not be the "best" list</div></div>

I've seen a lot of games with Olofsson and I was impressed with this guy. He was absolutely the best in Rochester, in the playoffs, he certainly dissolved like the whole team, this is the problem of the coach, and the second year in a row, but this season I saw the progress of Olofsson, he added to the game in defense, he is universal and can play on both wings, he is a great option on PP with his shot, for me it is still above Asplund. UPL seems to our best prospect, unless you count guys like Pilut and Mittelstadt, Olofsson right behind them. Of course this does not negate the fact that this guy is not unfamiliar with Buffalo and sells Olofsson for sixth round.
Forum: Armchair-GMFeb. 13, 2019 at 12:14 p.m.
Thread: Obtaining Pesce
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Zanerax</b></div><div>My perception of their RHD situation is as follows (feel free to correct me Canes fans):

Hamilton and Faulk are both offensively potent defensemen who are somewhat liabilities defensively. Faulk is a bit of a PP specialist. With players like that you want to give them favorable matchups where the ice will be tilted in their favor and they will be in the O-zone more often than not (O-zone slanted draws, not being matched against the opposing top line, etc.).

They have Adam Fox putting up 1.4 PPG in college right now, and the perception I have is that he'll be jumping straight to the NHL (next year?). He is another defensemen of that mold.

You can't give all three D-pairings offensively favored matchups. It doesn't work. They can't make optimal use of their players if they trade Peace and roll with Faulk-Hamilton-Fox down the right side. They would be playing to their players weaknesses instead of strengths.

The perception I have of Carolina's plan is that Faulk will walk when his contract is done and will be replaced by Hamilton/Fox (in role and deployment). So he would be the cheapest to trade for (also the least valuable though in my opinion).

Hamilton would be trade able, and if they trade him they may look to re-sign Faulk (probably would?). They would probably be looking for a lesser but capable LHD and help up front (or maybe only one of them depending on the players involved).

I'm not sure where I would peg Peace's theoretical value, but he is their RHD that makes the least sense to trade. Because he is more defensively minded, and they have less players (and less capable players) to fill that niche (Pesce + TVR, <em>maybe</em> McKeown). Whereas they have 2+1 players to fill the offensive D-man niche (we call them puck moving D-men now though).</div></div>

I don't think any of that is off base at all. I agree that I'd not want to trade him over Faulk or Hamilton either. However this is the problem that Carolina is in. They have on paper an extremely deep defence, but despite that, they aren't good enough to make the playoffs. So trading a defenceman for a forward who can score is a move they really need to look at making. From the reports I have read, they want a huge return for one of their defenceman, the problem is the two guys they want to move aren't getting near enough interest at those prices. Which is why Pesce is getting all the attention, he's younger, cheaper and better defensively than Faulk or Hamilton.

So Carolina looks like they will have to sell really low on Hamilton (mainly because he's on the market after just being acquired which puts a lot of smoke around the player's fit in the dressing room) and even lower on Faulk. GM's know Carolina really wants to make the playoffs, they are going to play hardball. So management is going to have to decide, do they send out Pesce and get a top 6 forward who can score? Or do they move Faulk or Hamilton in trades that probably don't look great on paper. If they were to trade Hamilton now, its going to look like they miscalculated on him in the summer and want to back out of that mistake, which will lower his value immensely, and Faulk just isn't that desirable to warrant a huge price tag. He's a 2nd and a B prospect type of return.

Carolina is in a bind and they'll have to be bold or patient. I'd probably say be patient because they do have some pieces they could potentially play with in the summer. We'll see.