it would be wise to move on from Giroux and Couturier. They've both topped out and have shown theyre simply not good enough to compete with the top end centers in the East.
instead of piecemealing it into 7th every year, gut it and reload down the middle - Ripped Fuel
do u guys in ur buffalo forum just pick a random poster to come over here and spout the most unintelligent comment you could possibly post?
i tend to agree he finally breaks 50 and approaches 60. his offensive game really came into its own under hakstol, and adding guys like weise and gordon and better play from guys like laughton cousins PEB etc will hopefully be able to free him up for OZ draws and more offensive opportunities. hopefully, a little more time on the PP will help, as well as hopefully being a more disciplined team in general, as to limit penalties and Coots time on the PK
Location: Be nice from now on, NJ Joined: 03.17.2006
Aug 12 @ 12:47 PM ET
Agree to disagree. In the number of times I watched Eichel play, including live, I was never overly impressed. You can see the tools are there but haven't been put together to live up to his potential just yet. Pretty normal for an 18/19 year old I guess. I thought the gap between he and McDavid would be much smaller than it is. In all fairness, I may have underestimated how good McDavid would be out of the gate. - Baxter27
Yeah....it kind of went off the rails there. But it was cool to have Horton back, even if he was only a manifestation. - MBFlyerfan
The way to beat the Devil was to be really nice to him and tell him that you are everything and nothing? I'm not a fan of intellectual, thinking Duncan as much as the swashbuckling, dashing Duncan (my mom would agree wholeheartedly). I mean, it was interesting, but they could have skipped that middle episode, as all it did was introduce a character to kill her off. As for the rest of Season 6, I always liked Diplomatic Immunity, where the immortal and the girl have their scheme where the guy gets killed by people driving expensive cars. Of course, the 2-part finale is probably a top-5 plot line up there with Kalas and The Horsemen.
Whoa!! Spoiler alert would have been nice! - Streit2ThePoint
Haha, I figured 18 years is a good enough window.
Edit" Side Note: In 1992, rumors swirled that Gracen had had an affair with Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.[7] At first, Gracen dismissed this claim; however, in spring 1998 Gracen recanted her six-year-old denial and stated she had a one-night stand with Clinton in 1982
Location: Be nice from now on, NJ Joined: 03.17.2006
Aug 12 @ 2:05 PM ET
The way to beat the Devil was to be really nice to him and tell him that you are everything and nothing? I'm not a fan of intellectual, thinking Duncan as much as the swashbuckling, dashing Duncan (my mom would agree wholeheartedly). I mean, it was interesting, but they could have skipped that middle episode, as all it did was introduce a character to kill her off. As for the rest of Season 6, I always liked Diplomatic Immunity, where the immortal and the girl have their scheme where the guy gets killed by people driving expensive cars. Of course, the 2-part finale is probably a top-5 plot line up there with Kalas and The Horsemen.
Haha, I figured 22 years is a good enough window. - jmatchett383
Kalas and Horseman storylines were awesome. I still think my single favorite villain was Xavier St Cloud. But there are so many good ones.
Kalas and Horseman storylines were awesome. I still think my single favorite villain was Xavier St Cloud. But there are so many good ones. - MBFlyerfan
Xavier was awesome, and had a good run. I just didn't think he was as diabolical as Kalas or Kronos. Definitely a great villain, though.
Location: Be nice from now on, NJ Joined: 03.17.2006
Aug 12 @ 2:17 PM ET
Xavier was awesome, and had a good run. I just didn't think he was as diabolical as Kalas or Kronos. Definitely a great villain, though.
Man, I miss this show. - jmatchett383
Me too. There were so many "villians" who were really just being who they are.
Kalas was a Richard but he I understood his obsession because Mac did take his singing voice lol.
Kenny was also an interesting character. Imagine being an immmortal 11 year old living 800 years.
One of favorites was Haresh Clay. He was a Richard but I felt like he was justified in a way after Richie killed Carter Wellan. Mac also had a legitimate grudge against him.
will the expansion team have the same cap requirements? unless they go crazy in FA wont they have a difficult time hitting the floor? would that make A. Mac a little more appealing to them? - mws5252
I don't they will have any problems with hitting this target and then the cap floor for the start of the 17-18 season. They won't need to take guys like Brown or MacDonald to do that.
The Las Vegas franchise must select players with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season's upper limit for the salary cap. With a 2016-17 salary cap of $73M, this means the Expansion Draft selections must amount to a aggregate salary cap value of at least $43.8M.
Location: I'd do anything to get you humans out of my forest! Joined: 07.19.2015
Aug 12 @ 3:02 PM ET
Expansion draft protection prediction with expected 2017 results(or pace).
Del Zotto-10G-25A(Extended 6 million x 4 years) - Baxter27
He's not touching 35 points with close to no PP time. To score 20+ ES points for a d man is a pretty Herculean task, even with top pair minutes, which puts you in the top 20-30 in the league. I'm sure he'll pick up some OT points though and a SH point or two, and probably a stray PP point. But I could very well see him scoring at a ~25 point rate. He will also be getting not exactly generous zone starts and will be used again like a top pair guy.
If they want to keep him, and he seems to really like the team and the team him, anything more than Demers market value contract of 5 years x $4.5 mil is an overpay. Of course that DeKeyser contract might (frank) things up. But MDZ also isn't that far removed from the scrap heap. Even if he plays well again, that matters league wide when it comes to long-term deals. And it matters to him when it comes to some job security. The good news is that MDZ's on-ice product should be excellent but his points depressed. And points are $$$.
He's not touching 35 points with close to no PP time. To score 20+ ES points for a d man is a pretty Herculean task, even with top pair minutes, which puts you in the top 20-30 in the league. I'm sure he'll pick up some OT points though and a SH point or two, and probably a stray PP point. But I could very well see him scoring at a ~25 point rate. He will also be getting not exactly generous zone starts and will be used again like a top pair guy.
If they want to keep him, and he seems to really like the team and the team him, anything more than Demers market value contract of 5 years x $4.5 mil is an overpay. Of course that DeKeyser contract might (frank) things up. But MDZ also isn't that far removed from the scrap heap. Even if he plays well again, that matters league wide when it comes to long-term deals. And it matters to him when it comes to some job security. The good news is that MDZ's on-ice product should be excellent but his points depressed. And points are $$$. - Mononoke
All good points but you're making some assumptions on how MDZ will be used next season. I see an overhaul required of the second PP unit and I hope it includes him on the left point. My market value may be a little high on MDZ but that's based on my assumption that he's the top UFA D man hitting the market. If they want to limit term they will have to pay some extra $$. 6 is on the high end but I'd say 5 million would be the minimum in that scenario.
Location: I'd do anything to get you humans out of my forest! Joined: 07.19.2015
Aug 12 @ 4:21 PM ET
All good points but you're making some assumptions on how MDZ will be used next season. I see an overhaul required of the second PP unit and I hope it includes him on the left point. My market value may be a little high on MDZ but that's based on my assumption that he's the top UFA D man hitting the market. If they want to limit term they will have to pay some extra $$. 6 is on the high end but I'd say 5 million would be the minimum in that scenario. - Baxter27
MDZ is just a poor PP QB. I love the guy, but he's just out of his element there and it shows. He scores off the rush. I don't think it's much of a question that if Provorov makes the team the units will be comprised of Ghost (PP1) and Provy and Streit (PP2). Which could help make a second unit better than any we've had in recent memory.
Demers is a top 4 d men who sees top competition. He scores at a rate of ~30 points per year, and that's with PP2 time. He's a comparable d man to MDZ in my eyes but a righty. And he actually made it to market and got that. Like I said, MDZ has turned his game around and he will be a good FA target, but I doubt the stigma is entirely gone. And he's not a FA yet. Plus guys like Burns, Shattenkirk, Kulikov, Stone, Alzner are in the same class, so he's certainly not at the top of the potential class, though he's right with a couple of those guys. If he wants $5-6 million per (which he's not getting even as a UFA), he's traded. He's also probably not stupid enough to let that number be his hill to die on. He's 2 years removed from the dumpster and finally with a team that trusts and uses him like never before. If the offer is fair, he'd be smart to know a good thing when he's got it.
MDZ is just a poor PP QB. I love the guy, but he's just out of his element there and it shows. He scores off the rush. I don't think it's much of a question that if Provorov makes the team the units will be comprised of Ghost (PP1) and Provy and Streit (PP2). Which could help make a second unit better than any we've had in recent memory.
Demers is a top 4 d men who sees top competition. He scores at a rate of ~30 points per year, and that's with PP2 time. He's a comparable d man to MDZ in my eyes but a righty. And he actually made it to market and got that. Like I said, MDZ has turned his game around and he will be a good FA target, but I doubt the stigma is entirely gone. And he's not a FA yet. Plus guys like Burns, Shattenkirk, Kulikov, Stone, Alzner are in the same class, so he's certainly not at the top of the potential class, though he's right with a couple of those guys. If he wants $5-6 million per (which I doubt he'd even get as a UFA), he's traded. He's also probably not stupid enough to let that number be his hill to die on. He's 2 years removed from the dumpster and finally with a team that trusts and uses him like never before. If the offer is fair, he'd be smart to know a good thing when he's got it. - Mononoke
I don't envision MDZ quarterbacking the 2nd unit, but using his shot from the left side as a weapon. I will love if Provy is playing on the power play but he still needs to earn that opportunity. Streit could also be injured or traded at any point next season. My assumption includes the likes of Burns and Alzner not making it to free agency but I lost sight of Shattenkirk some how. He's definitely a name that would be ahead of him on the UFA block.
The Demers comparison isn't a bad one but if used as many suspect MDZ will have the leverage of being the team's top all situations defenseman. Demers didn't have that in Dallas and couldn't argue that in his negotiations with Florida.
Mason 32 wins - under
Giroux 30 ESP - over
Flyers 44 ROW - under
Ghost 23 PIM - over
jmatchett383 4 bans - over
Morin 8 games - under
AMac 8 games- over
I don't envision MDZ quarterbacking the 2nd unit, but using his shot from the left side as a weapon. I will love if Provy is playing on the power play but he still needs to earn that opportunity. Streit could also be injured or traded at any point next season. My assumption includes the likes of Burns and Alzner not making it to free agency but I lost sight of Shattenkirk some how. He's definitely a name that would be ahead of him on the UFA block.
The Demers comparison isn't a bad one but if used as many suspect MDZ will have the leverage of being the team's top all situations defenseman. Demers didn't have that in Dallas and couldn't argue that in his negotiations with Florida. - Baxter27
I agree. If Del Zotto plays as well defensively as he did last season, and with a sound wrist, shows the offensive game off the rush that he has, he should have a solid year. If he chooses to go the UFA route, he'll get 5M a year easy.
I agree. If Del Zotto plays as well defensively as he did last season, and with a sound wrist, shows the offensive game off the rush that he has, he should have a solid year. If he chooses to go the UFA route, he'll get 5M a year easy. - MJL
We're going to utilize him as our top pairing defenseman. He was logging heavy heavy minutes last year I almost prefer to keep him off of pp2. If we are going to give him a Macdonald sized contract let's try to preserve him past a season.
I agree. If Del Zotto plays as well defensively as he did last season, and with a sound wrist, shows the offensive game off the rush that he has, he should have a solid year. If he chooses to go the UFA route, he'll get 5M a year easy. - MJL
The thing is with MDZ is, we've never seen both. If he plays offensive, his defensive game suffers. If he plays defensive, his offensive game suffers. We can hope for the best but Del Zotto has struggled in his career in the past. I like him but I do not have high hopes.
The thing is with MDZ is, we've never seen both. If he plays offensive, his defensive game suffers. If he plays defensive, his offensive game suffers. We can hope for the best but Del Zotto has struggled in his career in the past. I like him but I do not have high hopes. - roenick97
I think his wrist injury that he played with most of the season, affected his play offensively.
