The NHL Thread

I wonder if anyone will spoil the narrative and prevent the Devils from drafting the son of Martin Brodeur in their own rink.

So the guy I wanted (Mantha) is now gone, two guys I really don't want but think we might take (Fucale and Gauthier) are still there. Fuck me am I getting nervous.

Best Q draft in ages and the Habs draft an American. Huge guy but I fear this might end up being a Hugh Jessiman 2.0 type of deal.

You got Fucale though, who Craig Button claimed as "the best goaltender I've ever seen in my 25 years of hockey at 16/17 years of age that dominated his position". But it's Button

I like Fucale at 36. Not so much at 25 (though I'm absolutely not sold on Michael McCarron either).

Hate that the fucking Canucks stole Subban from right under our noses.

So Lecavalier is headed to Philly. Gutted he isn't going to Montreal.

And just to make the day even better, we have traded one of our most promising prospects (Kristo) to the Rangers in favour of another midget (Christian Thomas).

Lecavalier for $4.5 mil / year is a steal. He's approaching his mid-30s but still has the ability to get around but now he's more of a support player, so I think he'll light it up with either Voracek or Giroux.

And that's a bad trade for Montreal... Thomas has a full AHL season under his belt but Kristo dominated the college league and he looked pretty good when he played for USA at the WJC a few years ago. Kristo is not big but enough to get around the NHL, but Thomas is just tiny.

Seguin, Peverly and Button to Stars. For Eriksson, J.Morrow R.Smith and Matt Fraser.
A bold move.

Loui Eriksson is awesome, and I don't just say that because he grew up 15 minutes away. One of the best two-way wingers in the entire NHL.

Yeah, it seems like a pretty good deal, I mean Seguin was on a pretty big contract so we've freed up some cap space too. Pevs was a strong player, but we do have loads of centres so this means we can keep Kelly I assume. Seguin is a good players with potential but something of a loose cannon. I'm not exactly sad to see him go but it could come back to bite.

Eriksson is awesome but losing him does not hurt as much as Seguin. Only 21 and with lots of potential, why would Boston get rid of him? Bad season, yes, but the potential and ability are still there. Losing a really good two-way forward in Peverley does not help either. Boston got Joe Morrow who looks like a 3rd-pairing D at best (watched a bit of him when he played for the Winterhawks with Baertschi) and Reilly Smith & Matt Fraser are 3rd liners at best.

Well now Seguin will tear it up with Benn next season and with Nichuskin in there, Dallas looks pretty good.

Danny Briere has reportedly signed a 2 year, $8 million deal with the Canadiens. Not a bad player but a little too pricey.

Because he's had a big falling out with the management of his attitude. Apparently, it all came to a head in our playoff series with Toronto. It seems he was going out drinking before vital playoff games and he showed up to practice 3 days in a row wearing the game clothes. He does have potential, but he's not taking his job seriously and has actually shown signs of regression. We also had 7 centres (plus Savard) who were all looking for a place in the team. Seguin and Pevs were playing the worst out of them all. They've basically traded a player who's a bit of a risk in a position we've got a lot of depth in for a proven player in a position we have pretty bad depth in. Plus a bunch of prospects and 5 mil cap space. Losing Seguin actually doesn't hurt at all. It might sting in the future, but it doesn't hurt us now.

Marc Bergevin just keeps making this team even smaller. Nathan Gerbe next in line?

See that's the thing. Even if Seguin did all of those things you claimed, it certainly would not have influenced the whole team too negatively because they did get to the finals. He didn't have a good season compared to the last two seasons, but it wasn't horrible. He just had a sub-par playoffs. The bad attitude? It can be overcome with discipline and nurturing from the coaching & management when the subject is a very young player. You can't just give up on him permanently for a brief period of bad hockey and off-ice attitude. And this trade DOES hurt at the moment, because you're losing two established NHLers for one established NHLer and a bunch of prospects with little potential.

And $5 million cap space. We needed to get rid of centres to bring in some wingers. If the reports are true about Seguin having a party lifestyle, those have been going on basically since he joined. You can't say he didn't influence the team too negatively because we didn't get to the final because of him. He'd been on the third line and largely anonymous. If we had some better quality wingers, we might've won the thing.
Eriksson seems like a really good player who should be able to add something really good to the team. If we need to get rid of our big name youngster for more depth where it's needed then so be it. Even if you disagree, you can't call this a loss until you see what we do with the cap space.

Yes, I know you didn't get to the final because of him, and that's not what I said. He didn't do anything to prevent his team from going that far. It was just that his form dropped and Jagr's been playing decently to be placed on that 2nd line. I wouldn't say he was "largely anonymous". I've watched all of the finals and every Bruins' game except maybe about 4 or 5, and watching Seguin, he was a decent fit on the 3rd line using his speed. Not productive, but certainly not useless.

And with that cap space, $4.75 mil to be exact (according to capgeek), I really can't see Boston doing to well with it. If quality wingers are what you want, the only suitable free agent wingers are Clarkson and Iginla, and Horton's gone. Iginla certainly won't want to get near Boston, and Clarkson is hardly a step up from Horton. Mike Ribeiro is a center, which you don't need, and Filipula will not suit Boston's style of play. It's a pretty weak free agent class this season, and unless Boston trades, they probably won't be able to properly replace Horton.

Boston gave up a kid with serious attitude problems in exchange for a really, really good two-way winger entering his prime years with three straight 70+ point seasons behind him, they haven't lost that trade in any way.

Seguin could become a 90-point 1st line centre one day, but that would take a level of professional commitment that he simply hasn't shown at any point during his time in Boston. Maybe Dallas can change that, but there really wasn't much chance of it happening in Boston.

As a Habs fan, I hate the trade. Eriksson is going to fit in great with either of Bergeron or Krejci. Seguin was a talented player, but he was prone to going invisible in games.

Don't we have 9mil cap space now due to Savard being injured? But look at it this way, Seguin was never going to be on the first line with Bergeron being around and he's not the kind of player for the merlot line, that's very much Campbells position. So that leaves two places for centres, the 2nd and 3rd lines. We have Krejci who is a very good player, is loyal to the club, professional and fits the Boston style. Then we've got Chris Kelly who's a proven performer as well as the alternate captain. He's played as well, if not better, than Seguin and is on a smaller contract. We've also got Soderberg in there and our prospects in the P-Bruins

If I look at our top 5 centres, taking Seguin out of it doesn't fill be with dread. Gaining Eriksson makes me happier than losing Seguin. The prospects we signed are good players who were breaking into the first team at Dallas. This is me being optimistic though. I could of course be proven wrong but I've watched most of the Bruins games this season and Seguin hasn't impressed me as much as a lot of our other players. I know he's young but still. I have enough faith in the the owners and what Chiarelli has said to think that he hasn't been traded for no reason.

Also, Joe Morrow is meant to be a fairly promising prospect, definitely not just a throw-in player in the deal.

In other news Dallas are also trading for Shawn Horcoff from the Oilers today, apparently Philip Larsen is going the other way. Jim Nill is getting rid of all the Scandinavians it seems.

Well, I guess if you're happy about the trade, then that's it.

Joe Morrow has potential to be an offensive defenseman in the NHL, he lit it up in the WHL but he hasn't translated that into the AHL yet. From what I've seen in hockey forums, he's not that good defensively and that's why he might project as a 3rd line pairing.

Daniel Alfredsson to the Red Wings.

Chiarelli reckons he should be able to make into the top 4, but he signed him so he would say that. Apparently, we may be getting Jagr back in. Could do a job until we find someone more long term I suppose. Good locker room guy for obvious reasons.

And now Iginla really is a Bruin...

Like I said,Jarome Iginla to the Boston Bruins #TSN #ThisTimeForReal

— aaronward_nhl (@aaronward_nhl) Permalink

1 year $6M. I guess that's your Horton replacement.

Red Wings, Bruins and Senators all looking good for next season, not looking forward to having the three of them in the same division as us at all.

Wow. I would have thought Iggy wouldn't get near Boston, but there he goes. I guess the chance to play with one of the best defence in the NHL may win him a cup.

Rask has been signed to a 8 year $56 million extension

Perron traded to the Oilers for Pääjärvi and a second. Would have liked Perron on the Habs.

Oilers looking for a playoff place this year.

Ilya Kovalchuk has retired from the NHL and will likely sign a ridiculously lucrative deal (talks of $20M p/y) with SKA St. Petersburg.

The Devils are fucked, the KHL has scored a big victory and Ilya Kovalchuk has made himself a very, very wealthy man.

First time I feel like cheering for the Oilers to make the playoffs so they don't hog all of those high draft picks. Time for that spoiled team to seriously step it up. Eberle, Gagner, Hall, RNH, Yakupov, Schultz, Nurse, and now Perron... Only if the Flames had one or two of them.

Kovalchuk had the highest TOI out of all NHL forwards last season and pretty much played the minutes of a top 2 defenseman. Now they don't even have a player of high status.. Elias is getting too old, the likes of Henrique/Zajac/Larsson had off years, and not too many prospects in that system.