Ryan Wilson: While we wait for Vegas I answered your questions + Shane Doan While we wait for Vegas I answered your questions + Shane Doan

Ryan Wilson: While we wait for Vegas I answered your questions + Shane Doan
While we wait for Vegas I answered your questions + Shane Doan
- Ryan_Wilson

The Bozak blog will be fun

omg that is who he meant!?!?!

omg that is who he meant!?!?!
- YuenglingJagr

Definitely.

The Bozak blog will be fun
- Nucker101

It was inevitable.

Definitely.
- MattStrat

lol /sarcasm

Shattenkirk might reel in a solid 7.5 mil. I'm not sure the pens should sign him to a multi year deal at the range when we have other key players that we would need to sign in the future as well. With him, letang, malkin, Crosby, kessel, that's around like 40 mil. Too much tuna.

I agree that Letang should still be the top PP guy, but he needs to take a page out of Schultz's book and just shoot the puck more. Schultz and Daley both constantly put pucks on net and the Penguins skilled players can then do their thing with 2nd chances. Shooting also opens up passing lanes. Letang has killed this PP unit many times because he doesn't shoot the puck enough. He looks for the perfect play. I hope when he gets back next year, he's in more of a shooting mood.

As I probably made clear in the last blog, I agree with RW on the Hornqvist front 100%. I don't want to give him his next contract, and he's already lost his top 6 role on this team, but he's still a good hockey player with a lot of value. He's the definition of an excellent trade chip.

I'd be willing to overspend on Shattenkirk due to how good of a cap position we are in, but his camp has explicitly said he wants to be a #1 somewhere so that rules him out, which means we need to go the trade rout for defensemen. My targets in order would look like this:

TJ Brodie
Jacob Trouba
Tyson Barrie
Sami Vatannen

TJ Brodie is wholely unrealistic, but it never hurts to enquire. Maybe there's a deal to be had there.

Trouba is my perfect combination of realistic and an excellent option. This is the guy I'd keep hounding his GM over.

Barrie and Sami have their warts, but they're both first line caliber, clearly available, and the type of defensemen who can excel in our fast paced offensive system. Sakic sucks at his job which is why I have Barrie rated higher than Vatannen (probably cheaper to acquire).

I wonder how much Shattenkirk and Bonino would want to be packaged together. What kind of "best buddies" discount would they give a contending team (assumption up against the cap)?

Fleury is in all likelihood vegas number one pick if they ranked the pick. It's not about analytics. He's a borderline hall of famer probably because of the team he's played on that is essentially still ins prime. Vegas is absolutely giddy about getting a guy like him to market their first year. The average fan doesn't stare at graphs and fleury will be perfect for vegas. Their ownership would be livid if their gm tried to play hardball and we traded him elsewhere. I wouldn't care that much about losing hags and his salary because it means we dump fleury elsewhere and have a silly amount of cap space to throw at shatty.

Plus you would also hurt fleury feelings to make Ruth pay a bribe. Instead you have fleury willing to go to Vegas and be the guy the media interviews. Big difference between I look at graphs gm and real world gm. Just look at the love fleury gets in Pittsburgh is all you need to know about what fleury is bringing to Vegas.

Great in video game world. Awful in real life when Vegas is creating posters of their 3-time cup winning goalie drafted #1 overall.

Shattenkirk might reel in a solid 7.5 mil. I'm not sure the pens should sign him to a multi year deal at the range when we have other key players that we would need to sign in the future as well. With him, letang, malkin, Crosby, kessel, that's around like 40 mil. Too much tuna.
- rbaurle51

We can afford shatty at 7.5. Next big signing is guentzel but we have two more cap increases before dealing with him.

As I probably made clear in the last blog, I agree with RW on the Hornqvist front 100%. I don't want to give him his next contract, and he's already lost his top 6 role on this team, but he's still a good hockey player with a lot of value. He's the definition of an excellent trade chip.

I'd be willing to overspend on Shattenkirk due to how good of a cap position we are in, but his camp has explicitly said he wants to be a #1 somewhere so that rules him out, which means we need to go the trade rout for defensemen. My targets in order would look like this:

TJ Brodie
Jacob Trouba
Tyson Barrie
Sami Vatannen

TJ Brodie is wholely unrealistic, but it never hurts to enquire. Maybe there's a deal to be had there.

Trouba is my perfect combination of realistic and an excellent option. This is the guy I'd keep hounding his GM over.

Barrie and Sami have their warts, but they're both first line caliber, clearly available, and the type of defensemen who can excel in our fast paced offensive system. Sakic sucks at his job which is why I have Barrie rated higher than Vatannen (probably cheaper to acquire).
- Victoro311

Hornqvist Maatta and a 1st is a really fair offer in Brodie. Hornqvist is easily dealt at the deadline for another 1st....probably a tad more

Fleury is arguably the best goalie available. You could also take subban and ullmark and let them develop behind fleury for a couple years. If they take hagelin then they're also doing us a favor and taking that cap hit away. Bryan Rust is a solid 3rd line guy, but I'm not giving up a 1st or 2nd pick to keep him when guys like ZAR and sprong are here. MAF can be traded, the only debate is for what.

Hornqvist Maatta and a 1st is a really fair offer in Brodie. Hornqvist is easily dealt at the deadline for another 1st....probably a tad more
- sditulli

Brodie has one of the best contracts in the league. If we were a lotto team, maybe, but I really don't think that gets it done with the 31st pick in the draft.

EDIT: If that were on the table I do it in a heartbeat though.

I'm hoping Ruth pulls off a Duchene trade. With all the wingers we have we can roll 3 deadly lines. Then work on signing a 4th line center or give Oscar a shot. My second choice at 3c is def Thornton.

I'm really hoping we can add a legit #2 dman without losing Sprong.

I'll be surprised if Vegas taking MAF doesn't cost us another piece. We need to move him more than they need to have him. Gonna be interesting.

I'm hoping Ruth pulls off a Duchene trade. With all the wingers we have we can roll 3 deadly lines. Then work on signing a 4th line center or give Oscar a shot. My second choice at 3c is def Thornton.
- 668710

Sprong would have to be included in any Duchene deal, and that scares me off because he'd be such a better value.

I'm really hoping we can add a legit #2 dman without losing Sprong.

I'll be surprised if Vegas taking MAF doesn't cost us another piece. We need to move him more than they need to have him. Gonna be interesting.
- madmike71

Don't see it happening, though it would be the quickest way to greatly improve the team.

The top four is set with Letang/Dumoulin/Maatta/Schultz. Then Cole. So they need one D, but I'm not sure it won't be a cheaply re-signed Daley.

I'm really hoping we can add a legit #2 dman without losing Sprong.

I'll be surprised if Vegas taking MAF doesn't cost us another piece. We need to move him more than they need to have him. Gonna be interesting.
- madmike71

The blog is awful on this front. We could have moved fleury to Calgary who just grabbed a goalie and gave up assets though with retention slightly new cheaper. We had the cap space to retain a million.

Fleury is by far the biggest name player vegas will have. He's marketable which is pretty important for an expansion team. Fleury was a possible conn Smyth winner this year if Sullivan wasn't a Murray guy. He absolutely earned his ring this year. A star playoff performer is a big deal for them.

I'd move sprong for a guy like Brodie.

If vegas takes Eric Staal I wonder if he could be had for Hagelin+

The blog is awful on this front. We could have moved fleury to Calgary who just grabbed a goalie and gave up assets though with retention slightly new cheaper. We had the cap space to retain a million.

Fleury is by far the biggest name player vegas will have. He's marketable which is pretty important for an expansion team. Fleury was a possible conn Smyth winner this year if Sullivan wasn't a Murray guy. He absolutely earned his ring this year. A star playoff performer is a big deal for them.
- sditulli

Yep. Some folks are just clouded by the hatred of Fleury, or the hatred of being wrong about him being "done" time after time, year after year.

Fleury will be a huge asset for Vegas, on the ice and off. There's no reason why Vegas would have to sweeten that pot.

And honestly the Knights have little leverage here. Won't take Fleury without a sweetener? Okay, fine. We'll keep him. He's been integral to the past two Cup runs, they can find a way to make it work if they absolutely have to, whether that's a trade with another team, or keeping him until next trade deadline.

Vegas is going to get some good defenseman. Going to be worth a phone call to them.