NHL Offseason Thread: Plugged Up Cat Butts and Unknown Russians

[BadKarma]

That's weird, you never heard the ACC booing the American National Anthem.

you never hear the acc doing anything

[Obsidian]

Win or lose it's always loud in the ACC. They just might not always be cheering.

And apparently the reason Josh Ho-Sang was cut on the first day was for being late... on his first day. Smooth.

Edit: Wow I missed an entire page. Smooth.

[NynJa]

And apparently the reason Josh Ho-Sang was cut on the first day was for being late... on his first day. Smooth.

http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/g...163e9db1a7.gif

[Cutriss]

Toronto Fans are the worst in every sports. someone even posted pictures saying 'Toronto knows how to win, exept the leafs"

Sounds like someone forgot that the Raptors exist.

[Bregor]

Sounds like someone forgot that the Raptors exist.

NEVER FORGET

[BadKarma]

Hawks signed Michael Roszival.

This will surely make everyone forget about the fact that they are icing an alleged rapist

[Vaspinne]

As per TSN:

The Edmonton Oilers and defenceman Oscar Klefbom have agreed to terms on a seven-year contract extension. The deal will come with an average annual value north of $4 million.

[Richybear]

I keep hearing 7y/30m for the Klefbom deal. Sounds ehhh right now, but by year 3 it'll seem like a great move.
In theory.

[Vaspinne]

I googled some "prospects that fizzled out" in the hopes of building a joke for you RichyBearBear, but I actually came across this list of 10 "overhyped" prospects on BleacherReport from 2013. The funny thing about the list is that most of the players ended up turning out to be really solid and just makes the writer look like an idiot

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...-nhl-prospects

Some notable gems:

"I’m not saying that the Lightning are a lock to miss the playoffs, but if they do make it, the new addition who makes it happen will be Jonathan Drouin, not Ben Bishop." - Bishop went on to get 37 wins in his first full season in net, helping the Lightning make the playoffs in the process (they were inevitably swept by the Habs)
"Expect a maximum of 35 points in MacKinnon’s first year in the NHL." - MacKinnon nearly doubled that getting 63 points in his first year (albeit, he only had 38 last year >_>)

[Richybear]

MacKinnon last year was a strange one. Colorado went from overachieving the year before to wtf last year. The way I see it, a 3rd year will determine who that team really is under Patrick Roy.

The prospects here are plenty on paper: Nurse, Draisaitl and obviously Connor, but it kinda scares me. As much hype as there's been around him, it's eleventy billion fold here. People just think we're insta-contenders because of getting him to be our 1b Center (I still think give Nuge #1 spot, so Connor isn't thrown against a team's shutdown pairing, not in his first year. If people match up against him anyway, it just opens the door a bit more for the ______, Nuge, Eberle line to roll. It's a bit of a blank. Could be Hall, Pouliot, heck even Draisaitl if they force him to play a year at LW like they've been saying.)
I guess we'll see how the pre-season goes, but Nurse should go to the AHL to get some top minutes in pro hockey that isn't the NHL first. Watching the rookie tourney or even the UofA game vs the Oilers rookies, he had some shaky moments. Luckily it was against other kids who are just as nervous as he is. Screw up trying to straddle the blueline on the point against any seasoned NHL player, and it's a bad, bad thing.
Leon Draisaitl looked good in Penticton, and I think a year in the WHL did him well. That, and way, wayyyy less pressure on him because of the arrival of 97.
But you gotta think, everyone is expecting McDavid to come in and automatically set the league on fire. I don't wanna put that kinda pressure on him at all. The comparisons to Crosby have been pounded in our heads since the draft lottery, but even in the past 10 years only 2 rookies have cracked the 100 point mark, and it was the same season with Ovie and Sid. Granted he didn't play quite a full season last year, but Crosby only put up 84 points in 77 games. I say "only" because from a Crosby standpoint, it's an off-year. But even so, scoring is down now. I figure mid 60's for points as a target for Connor would be great. You can say Gaudreau had 64, and he's not "generational", but he was 21, not 18.
There's also the debate about who should be wearing the C. Right now it's Ference because he was a leader, and an Edmonton guy who has won a Cup with Boston. Maybe because of the Chiarelli tie, he keeps it, but I honestly think at the moment this is Taylor Hall's team. Heck, as our Captain, Ference in camp (on paper) might be a 3rd pairing Dman. If it was up to me, I'd go Taylor "C", Eberle "A", Nuge "A" and slowly groom Connor along to eventually take it over.

As much excitement as there is about having a Connor McDavid here, which I'm extremely pumped about - there's a metric fuckton of fear. Fear that every shift he goofs up on will be "OMG, Edmonton has ruined another one!" chatter. For the first real time, the hype around our #1 pick is extreme. Taylor vs Tyler debate seems to be alternating back and forth, but you can't go wrong with either honestly. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Eh, maybe take Landeskog , but Nuge is only trailing him for points in that draft year. Nail Yakupov... well... he's only 2nd in points to Galchenyuk, but there was a lot of D in that first round - one we even just picked up this summer in Griffin Reinhart. Obs... as much as it hurts to say it, I'm jealous you guys have Morgan Rielly. haha

I'm excited to see how all of this unfolds now under PC and McLellan. Are we a playoff team right now? I won't even kid myself with that one. We'll see what kinda style or system they wanna bring to the table here. I'm excited for the 3-on-3 overtime change, just because with our team built on speed and for the past few years playing a "wtf is defence?" mode, it might work out. Maybe. Or maybe we'll just lose every OT game in the first 15 seconds. LOL
I will say for the first time in years, it's been a genuine excitement for what will happen. It hasn't been a summer of only adding our first rounder, no staff changes and the inevitable out of post-season contention by November. That last bit may remain the same, but like I said, for the first time in years I won't automatically be thinking it heading into October.

I also just typed a novel.

tl;dr - Buy a house in Edmonton, Auston Matthews. LOL j/k

[Vaspinne]

Honestly, without Mc-D, I thought Edmonton was going to be a playoff contender in a couple years purely off of the hiring of Nicholson, Chiarelli and McLellan. Mc-D will speed that up for sure, but I agree, it's not going to happen next year. The team will do better purely because they brought in some pieces both on and off the ice that'll make an impact. But yeah, anyone who thinks Mc-D is going to win the Art Ross right away is delusional. He will eventually, don't get me wrong, but that won't be for a couple years.

Your captain issue is really interesting too. Ference is a heart and soul type of community guy, but yeah, you want your captain to be a "go-to when shit needs to get done" type of player. And having him play only like 10~15 minutes a game is not really that great. It'd be like if the Flames gave Brian McGratten the captaincy. Guy was super popular both to the fans and in the lockerroom, but he rarely played more than 5 minutes in a game lol.

And we don't have Morgan Reilly, we have Dougie HamJam who is apparently already making a big impact at training camp

Our depth at D is fucking stacked this year. We could dress 7 1-way contract vets easily, but there are like 4 or 5 guys who are prospects/that Czech guy we signed that could easily fit into that last D-pairing. And on top of that, we have 3 1-way contract goalies at camp right now too. I really hope we ship out Hiller for a 3~5th round draft pick or something like that. Out of the 3 guys we have, I feel like he's the one we could get the most reward out of and on top of that, he's the one I like the least lol. Ultimately though, our goaltending will be mediocre at best until Gillies is ready to take over :3

And then at forward there's a lot of nice depth there too. I want to see guys like Colborne, Backlund, and the rookie Poirier have solid years. And I really think guys like Mason Raymond and David Jones are very (and likely to be) dispensable. They're putting Ferland-Monahan-Gaudreau together at camp, but honestly the lines I see are something like:

Hudler-Monahan-Gaudreau
Bennet-Backlund-Colborne (They were fantastic in the playoffs)
Poirier-Frolik-Bouma
Bollig-Stajan-Ferland

But the crazy thing about that lineup is that it still leaves Jooris, Granlund, Byron, Jones, Raymond and Shore out of the lineup. Not to mention any of the prospects that are close and knocking on the door like Arnold, Hathaway, Carroll and Klimchuk.

I guess my tl;dr is that Calgary has a surprising amount of depth, and I'm really curious to see what the opening night roster will look like. And given how close Calgary suddenly is to the cap, I feel like some people are on their way out (can clear up $11.65mil in capspace by trading Jones, Raymond and Hiller... all of whom I think should be gone)

[Richybear]

Our depth at D is fucking stacked this year.

It's pretty crazy looking at Calgary's defence for sure - what's funny is your least paid one could probably fetch 5m or so per season next year as a UFA.
I also still miss Smid. Granted he missed most of last season, and because of the aforementioned amazing D corps you guys have, it wasn't as noticable, but the guy is pretty damn good.
As much as we should be "OMG fuck you" rivals, I'm happy there's actually the makings of a great rivalry for years to come in the Battle of Alberta. Not just "Oh, Iggy lit us up again." or "Somehow Huselius is good for 2 points against the Oilers each time they play"
I wasn't here for the 80's rivalry, but I also wasn't an Oilers fan then. My 80's rivalry was "Fuck Lahr" as far as hockey went. haha

[Sepukku]

Rnh is in no way comparable to landeskog other than pts. Gabriel is miles better when factoring in defense and intangibles

[Richybear]

Rnh is in no way comparable to landeskog other than pts. Gabriel is miles better when factoring in defense and intangibles

I'm gonna use this year as the big comparison year between the 2. Year 5 is usually a good mark. Both franchises are in a funk, which #1 C will lead his team out of the pit better. inb4 Connor is our #1 C. Not yet. Granted Landeskog is the more physical of the 2 by far, so comparing those 2 at that isn't gonna be close.

Totally unrelated: Goalie watch in Ottawa. We've all seen the flash in the pan year or 2 wonders like Jim Carey, Blaine Lacher, even Lalime. I can only asume the same will happen with the Hamburglar this year for the Sens. Granted Anderson is their first string, and should be at 3x the salary. Just interesting to see if he can follow-up a 20-1 season, or if it'll just be a one-off, the same as Emery's back-up year in Chicago when he went 17-1.

[BadKarma]

Kanes DNA found on alleged victims shoulder and under fingernails. Not in her jay.


Doesnt necessarily mean there wasnt any rape, but again, innocent until proven guilty.

[Vaspinne]

Kanes DNA found on alleged victims shoulder and under fingernails. Not in her jay.


Doesnt necessarily mean there wasnt any rape, but again, innocent until proven guilty.

Under her nails because she was scratching him in an attempt to resist, and on her shoulder because... welp, let your imagination take over. Not saying it's damning evidence but it could easily be seen that way.

Going back to what we were saying earlier RBB, I'll be disappointed if/when Russell leaves. But honestly, the style of play he has, blocking all those shots and just being ruthless on his own body, I can't see him sustaining a long career. He's 28 and hitting his prime, but I can't help but wonder how long it'll last before all the excessive wear and tear gets to him (which is on a level much higher than a typical defensemen I'd say).

Plus, gotta sign Johnny and Monny and Sam, so you gotta make sacrifices somewhere >_>

Edit: Smid I'm worried about. His recovery is taking so long that it makes it seem like his injury is much more severe than what we're being told. But when he played he was one of those type of D-Guys that you didn't hear about. Just did his job well and was consistent.

And I agree, it's bitter sweet to see the Oil improving. But fuck, I'm excited for fun, meaningful hockey between both teams

[Sepukku]

I'm gonna use this year as the big comparison year between the 2. Year 5 is usually a good mark. Both franchises are in a funk, which #1 C will lead his team out of the pit better. inb4 Connor is our #1 C. Not yet. Granted Landeskog is the more physical of the 2 by far, so comparing those 2 at that isn't gonna be close.

Totally unrelated: Goalie watch in Ottawa. We've all seen the flash in the pan year or 2 wonders like Jim Carey, Blaine Lacher, even Lalime. I can only asume the same will happen with the Hamburglar this year for the Sens. Granted Anderson is their first string, and should be at 3x the salary. Just interesting to see if he can follow-up a 20-1 season, or if it'll just be a one-off, the same as Emery's back-up year in Chicago when he went 17-1.

Landeskog isn't a center

[Obsidian]

Heavily biased because he was amazing for the Rangers, but I definitely think Gabriel was the best player in his draft year. (Sorry Mark.)

[Izzy]

Under her nails because she was scratching him in an attempt to resist

Or because the sex was really good. You've never gotten scratches on your back from a girl before?

Let's not make assumptions in either direction buddy.

[Izzy]

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/0...-in-kane-case/

That's a link to the article if anyone cares.

The most annoying part of that entire article is the "I COULD care less" quote. I fucking hate when people don't say that shit right.

http://karenknowsbest.com/wp-content...-care-less.png