2011 NHL Offseason Thread: Capgeek is my new homepage

[Bregor]

Kind of a busy day, surprise not much posting.

Sean Avery placed on waivers

Tortorella, who essentially had Avery forced on him as a condition of taking the job with the Rangers in February of 2009 after general manager Glen Sather had committed to reacquiring No. 16 from the Stars, never could find a comfort level with the winger, whose role became more and more marginalized.

The coach never could find the way to get the most out of Avery and never could find a comfort level with the winger's unique brand of risk/reward hockey. Avery was scratched last year in six of the final 12 games and the first playoff match after getting less than 10:00 of ice in 12 of the last 14 games in which he played. Tortorella came into this year's camp determined to have a low-maintenance team.

Mikael Backlund out about six weeks with broken finger

Backlund was pegged as a possible first-line centre between captain Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay.

The Swede was Calgary's first-round pick, 24th overall, in the 2007 NHL entry draft. He had 10 goals and 15 assists in 73 games in 2010-11, which was his first full season in the NHL.

And in homer news, Caps make final cuts. No Cody Eakin or Dmitry Orlov (yet.)

[Bregor]

Breaking:

http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/1...130_normal.JPG@TGfireandice Tom Gulitti

Devils trade center David Steckel to Toronto for a fourth-round draft pick.

[Anton]

Leafs make their final cuts: Aulie and Lashoff, along with Crabb, Boyce, and Zigomanis are cut, and are in the waiver process for entering the minors. On the other hand, Rookies Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner(beauchemin trade) have made the team, Gardiner significantly ahead of schedule. Liles was supposed to be the offensive D man stop-gap until Gardiner was ready, but the rookie got it done in the preseason.

And Get it done he did, the kid has NHL level skating, speed, ice vision, and passing. On the other hand, he could get a great deal stronger than he is now with time, and he has the traditional rookie lapses on defense. In time, young Padawan.

'Course if he blows it, he's still waiver-exempt, and could spend some time in the Minors anyway.
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Here's a fun forum game, why don't you all pick a Star and a Dog from your homer team this season? I'll go first:

Star: Mikhail Grabovski

The pineapple killer himself. Leaf fans in this city have often guffaw'd at Grabbo, mostly because they spend more time watching pinheads like Nick Kypreos as their 15 minutes of Leaf interest, than actually watching the hockey game. What was once the dregs of a Montreal team has grown and shaped himself into centering the "Best Second Line in the East", coming off a 30 goal season. The fact is the M-G-K line is the Leafs most consistent offensive line, and will be counted on again this year to carry the team.

I've often wondered why they don't give Grabovski more experience at 1C, but he's practically playing it now. And his work ethic: Even on shit days with 4-1 Leaf drubbings, you can bet Grabovski had a hand in that "1". You may doubt the Leafs, but don't doubt the Russians.

Dog: Ron Wilson

Oh, you thought I'd pick a player? Ron Wilson had a lot of leeway in selecting his team this year, and though it's a truism "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit", the leafs having a lot of the latter, Leafs special teams have been awful for all 3 years of Wilson's tenure. No more excuses: Toskala and Giguere are gone, the Leafs will be fielding more blue-chip PP and PK members than seasons previous, as well as bringing in two new coaches to help. It's Ron Wilson's contract year and it's time to shape up.

Of course, if it all goes well to christmas (unlikely) I'll need a new dog. Probably Joffrey Lupul - shuffled around alot, somewhat less talented than his contract, injury-prone, had that "one good year" but good luck playing with Kessel, who seems to get 30 goals a season no matter what dogmeat or scion happens to be playing with him.

[Ishido]

Star: Darren Helm
While the Wings have a load of players who are pretty consistently "on" and great players (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom), even those three have some games where they don't quite make an impact. Darren Helm is the player that every coach wants their players to be. Not only is he fast, but he is always using his speed. Not afraid to do anything, he PKs like a champ (and I don't mean in the black way) and just about everything else that doesn't involve scoring. Although, he's been mightily improving in that area in the past half season, and looks like he might be poised to take a step forward in that area.

Dog: Jiri Hudler
After fucking off the Russia for a season to make some money, Jiri came back and people had high hopes that being a star in a communist country would have given him some experience in being a productive hockey player. However, he regressed from his previous season NHL mark of 57 points down to a paltry 37 points. He looked like a skilled rookie with no strength or weight last year, proving to be extremely ineffectual and getting (deservedly) put on the bottom 2 lines for much of the season. This year he trained with the dude who apparently trained UFC fighter GSP, and so people are expecting a new Jiri Hudler. Babcock has praised his efforts in training camp and the preseason, but I really didn't see much out of him during the games I watched and so the most I can hope for is really that he gets put on a line with Datsyuk and doesn't weigh him down. If he doesn't crack 40 he is a failure, but really needs to get over 50 to keep his spot or 60 to seem like he is contributing. Kind of harsh but there are a few kids (Nyquist) who have looked like they can do everything he can, except be photoshopped into tons of pictures.

Alternate Dog: Justin Abdelkader
After setting a new standard for "most stupid penalties to take during the playoffs" Babcock has said that Abdelkader needs an increased role on the team. Ok Mike. He's not a bad hockey player but I really don't see him being anything more than an average bottom 6er.

[Palin]

Mikael Backlund out about six weeks with broken finger

Sup Sep.

[Deader2818]

Some how, I feel like the Kings Star and Dog (esp dog) are very well known, lol.

[Bregor]

Star: Tomas Vokoun
With last year's change from high octane offense to a more sound defensive system, the Caps were able to rebound after an almost catastrophic losing streak in December and finish atop the Eastern Conference yet again. This season, I would expect more of a hybrid of those two systems. I must have heard Bruce Boudreau tell the beat reporters, "You guys know me, I like goals, I like scoring" at least two dozen times. So when the Caps leave their netminder out to dry this year, expect Vokoun to be up to the task. As much as I like Neuvirth moving forward, you need the goalie of the present between the pipes. Besides, it's not like the Caps lack for good blueliners, as the pairings of Hamrlik-Green, Alzner-Carlson, and Schultz-Wideman all look solid. Team chemisty and avoiding injuries will be critical for the skaters, but Vokoun is a rock, and after the Neuvirth-Varlamov-Holtby carousel, the team should play with a lot more confidence in their own end. After laboring for some mediocre Nashville and downright bad Florida teams, Vokoun should top his previous career high in wins (36) and if his sparkling save percentage stays intact, a lower GAA should keep him in the Vezina conversation all season long.

Dog: Alex Semin

Too obvious? Often said to be more skilled offensively than Ovechkin, Sasha Minor seems to be able to score goals whenever he wants to. The knock is, of course, he often doesn't care enough to, or at least that's the case to most observers. His idea of backchecking is often "hover around the blue line until the other four guys exit the zone," and his idea of forechecking is "hook down the guy who just passed the puck." At times, he's been able to correct these issues, but his hottest games are often followed by his worst clunkers. There was talk about using him on a regular penalty killing unit, and more recently moving him to center, presumably to drive home the fact that he needs to be more responsible defensively. But whatever the case, he is far more frustration than production. Critics of the Caps like to attack Ovechkin for the lack of a deep playoff run, and now that he's the captain, that sentiment definitely holds more weight. But Ovechkin has always produced when it counts; in all four playoff seasons he has been better than a point per game. The same can't be said for Semin, who did a complete disappearing act two years ago against Montreal, and only performed slightly better in a four game sweep at the hands of Tampa Bay last May. If the Caps are going to get over the 2nd round hump and make a serious run at the Cup, Semin needs to be a big factor, and not for the other team. Don't count on it.

Dark horse dog: Nicklas Backstrom
This is a make or break year for Nicky. His 33-68-101 line from two seasons ago could look like a big time outlier if he doesn't get on track again. To add to the urgency for him to produce, rumor is Marcus Johansson will center Ovechkin early on this season, bumping Nick down to the second line with Semin and Mike Knuble. Everyone was down in terms of scoring last year, but I am utterly confident that Ovie can bounce back strong. If Nick is unable to, his $6.7 million cap hit until the 2019-2020 season will look like an awfully big albatross.

[Sepukku]

Dark horse dog: Nicklas Backstrom
This is a make or break year for Nicky. His 33-68-101 line from two seasons ago could look like a big time outlier if he doesn't get on track again. To add to the urgency for him to produce, rumor is Marcus Johansson will center Ovechkin early on this season, bumping Nick down to the second line with Semin and Mike Knuble. Everyone was down in terms of scoring last year, but I am utterly confident that Ovie can bounce back strong. If Nick is unable to, his $6.7 million cap hit until the 2019-2020 season will look like an awfully big albatross.

Not to sound like too radical of a thinker and make this like the HF boards or wherever those ridiculous trades come from that PuckDaddy occasionally ridicules, but if Backstrom starts underperforming for what a Ovechkin-centering player of his caliber should do (90-100 points) and he needs unloaded to a team with more cap room, why not Toronto? They still need a center, Connolly aside, and maybe a fresh start and different cast would benefit him and it would also potentially benefit the Caps.

[Sepukku]

Ive already been told by a half dozen other people here and elsewhere about Backlund... it doesn't change anything, hes going on IR so I don't even have to drop him, and hes my final pick in round 16 so its not like even if it screws his whole year up and he has rehab issues and sits out til February and finishes with 25 points, its not like my season hinges on him. My thought still remains that at some point this year he'll take the 1C job and benefit, statistically, greatly from it.

[Callisto]

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/107...18#post4823418