You could of said the same thing about Dennis Rodman and he wears 5 rings.
- LAHawk

I could have said the same things if Kadri had a history of being valiuable to his team, especially in the playoffs.

Screw Brown. Ask for Hyman.



Well, that turned out obscene.
- Elbows15

I just laughed out loud at my office cube and people asked what happened! Put a NSFW remark prior to those types of comments!

I could have said the same things if Kadri had a history of being valiuable to his team, especially in the playoffs.
- paulr

Let's make the playoffs first, then if Kadri is part of the team, worry about his playoff performance

I've made up my mind.

I'm going Krebs at no.3

You can shower me with applause tomorrow night
- Stan_Bowman

I know this is a joke but Krebs might be the sleeper forward of the top 10/15 of the draft. He played on such a bad team that his numbers took an impact but his underlying pass/shot rates suggest that if he'd had better players around his to capitalize on his outstanding play that he would have produced at or above Cozens/Dach.

EPRinkside had a great breakdown of the 3 WHL centers and Kreds came ahead in all categories except shooting over Cozens (including defensively) and on par with Dach in terms of playmaking. The risk is of course that without seeing him consistently with a non-terrible team, this is just projection and less concrete than the other two.

Rodman was/is a clown but he actually didn't hurt the Bulls by taking bad penalties. When he was with the Bad-Boy Pistons he was more prone to be a bonehead with cheap shots but by the time he got to the Bulls the league and refs knew his shtick and he didn't get (m)any flagrant fouls or foul out of many games. Besides, a penalty in hockey hurts the team a lot more than a foul in basketball does.
- EbonyRaptor

Jordan was also largely responsible for Rodman's good behavior though too. Rodman respected Jordan and listened to him about not getting out of line

Looks like Wiz has swung to a new choice at #3 Kirby Dach.
- walleyeb1

Dach isn't talked about as much as he probably should be simply because his skating isn't as explosive as Cozens or the noticeable compete level of Turcotte but Dach does everything really well, esp playmaking and transition. His defensive ability is underrated by some because the offense gets so much notice, and his puck protection skills in particular are extremely strong.

Looking at the Hawks 2019/20 cap situation - they have $16.2M in cap space with 7 d-men, 2 goalies but only 8 forwards. They will need $5M-$6M to fill out the roster with Kampf, Perlini, Sikura, Kubalik and a 13th forward, which will leave them $10M-$11M is cap space. Setting aside $5M-$6M to be squirreled away to help toward re-signing Cat and Strome - that leave $5M-$6M to use to improve the 2019/20 team.

Obviously there are a lot of moving parts - but that kind of sets the table.
- EbonyRaptor

Could be more available if they move AA, Hayden, Forsling etc. Move some players and they can sign Lee and some bottom 6 help.

In fairness, what else is he going to say? "I think most of these guys will be pretty good, but half of them probably won't make it and player X is a turd and is being overhyped."?
- Chunk

No one is holding a gun to his head. He could have stopped after ‘These are all great kids’.

Dach isn't talked about as much as he probably should be simply because his skating isn't as explosive as Cozens or the noticeable compete level of Turcotte but Dach does everything really well, esp playmaking and transition. His defensive ability is underrated by some because the offense gets so much notice, and his puck protection skills in particular are extremely strong.
- L_B_R

I’ve liked Cozens and Dach from the beginning, then added Byram into the mix. Can’t really put my finger on why, but was never sold on Turcotte or Zegras.

Looking at the Toronto cap situation - they have $7.7M in cap space (using $82M ceiling) and they still need to replace Hainsey and Gardiner from last season's d-corps plus re-sign Marner, Kapanen and Johnsson. The Leafs have a couple highly thought of d-prospects in Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren so maybe they promote them which eats up $1.7M of their cap space. So now they have $6M to sign Marner, Kapanen and Johnsson. Maybe Marner settles for $10M/5-years and Kapanen and Johnsson re-sign for a combined $8M - that still means Toronto will need to clear $12M which is more than the total of Marleau and Horton contracts.

It will be fun to see how they get out of that mess. Hopefully the Hawks help ease their pain.
- EbonyRaptor

babbs and shanny...may the salary dump be with you...

Dach isn't talked about as much as he probably should be simply because his skating isn't as explosive as Cozens or the noticeable compete level of Turcotte but Dach does everything really well, esp playmaking and transition. His defensive ability is underrated by some because the offense gets so much notice, and his puck protection skills in particular are extremely strong.
- L_B_R

Granted I watched highlights, but Dach was the only one that made plays effortlessly. He's very calm with the puck whether he's passing or shooting.

He's a guy who could potentially make the team right out of the gate and makes AA all the more obsolete.

Interesting podcast by MacKenzie, that the unintended consequences of the current CBA agreement is, you get punished by drafting well, and trying to sign your own players. (citing Toronto). Best way to build a cup winning team is with trades (How St. Louis did it this year).

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/...argets-and-more-1.1325015
- LAHawk

Lot of recency bias with this take imo - one team in however many years builds their core through trading so it's now the way to supposedly do it? Not really a sound argument.

And was it that much built through trade? It's mainly their center depth that was created via trade (ROR, Bozak, Schenn) while their wings were home grown or FA pick-up, and their defense top 4 were 3 drafted players (Pietrangelo, Parayko, Edmundson) and one trade (Bouwmesser) but the trade was like 7 years ago and he signed 2 more times with them since then. Most teams bottom 6 are a mix of drafted/developed and trade pick ups as well so not much difference there.

Looking at the Hawks 2019/20 cap situation - they have $16.2M in cap space with 7 d-men, 2 goalies but only 8 forwards. They will need $5M-$6M to fill out the roster with Kampf, Perlini, Sikura, Kubalik and a 13th forward, which will leave them $10M-$11M is cap space. Setting aside $5M-$6M to be squirreled away to help toward re-signing Cat and Strome - that leave $5M-$6M to use to improve the 2019/20 team.

Obviously there are a lot of moving parts - but that kind of sets the table.
- EbonyRaptor

They can trade for players with one year left on their contract and it would not effect Strome or ADB next summer. They can move pieces like AA (probable) and extra defenders (probable) which would give them more cap space. So depending on how they play it they could have $16 mil (moving AA) to use to improve their 19/20 team. Of course Stan Bowman is no Dale Tallon!

I’ve liked Cozens and Dach from the beginning, then added Byram into the mix. Can’t really put my finger on why, but was never sold on Turcotte or Zegras.
- walleyeb1

Dach

Could be more available if they move AA, Hayden, Forsling etc. Move some players and they can sign Lee and some bottom 6 help.
- ChiTownHawkFan

Yes on AA, but no on Hayden and Forsling because they aren't currently signed so they're not part of the calculation at this time. Plus, if AA gets traded he will need to be replaced on the roster so the Hawks don't get his whole $4.5M cap hit - the most it would be is a $3.5M cap savings and that's if they replace him with someone making $1M or less.

I’ve liked Cozens and Dach from the beginning, then added Byram into the mix. Can’t really put my finger on why, but was never sold on Turcotte or Zegras.
- walleyeb1

Byram is who I've been leaning towards wanting the Hawks to pick, but there are honestly legit arguments for all 4 of most talked about forwards. I'm glad it's not my job to pick.

Want strong two-way play mixed with compete level? Turcotte.

Want skating prowess with high quality shooting ability? Cozens.

Want size mixed with elite puck skills? Dach.

Want a creative elite playmaker with wow factor? Zegras.

No one is holding a gun to his head. He could have stopped after ‘These are all great kids’.
- scottak

You're one of the only ones that takes everything so literally, so who's the idiot then?

You're one of the only ones that takes everything so literally, so who's the idiot then?
- GPHawksfan

Sorry, I can only read what is written, not Stan’s hidden meaning. They will not all go on to have great NHL careers.

It’s an advertising term called ‘puffery’ and it insults the intelligence of the reader.

From wikipedia: Puffery serves to "puff up" an exaggerated image of what is being described and is especially featured in testimonials.

that's assuming they get rid of Zaitsev and marleu. they really need RD so I'm not sure how much Gus helps them.
- kmw4631

Replaces Gardiner and gives their PP a serious punch.

Lot of recency bias with this take imo - one team in however many years builds their core through trading so it's now the way to supposedly do it? Not really a sound argument.

And was it that much built through trade? It's mainly their center depth that was created via trade (ROR, Bozak, Schenn) while their wings were home grown or FA pick-up, and their defense top 4 were 3 drafted players (Pietrangelo, Parayko, Edmundson) and one trade (Bouwmesser) but the trade was like 7 years ago and he signed 2 more times with them since then. Most teams bottom 6 are a mix of drafted/developed and trade pick ups as well so not much difference there.
- L_B_R

I didn't hear the podcast, but it seems that MacKenzie could have been referring to the apparent (APPARENT) demise of the bridge contract.

It seems that for players who prove themselves during their first two years in the league, they jump straight from ELCs to term and dollars - so that by the time you've built your team through the draft and are ready to compete for a Cup, you're up against the cap and need to start subtracting rather than adding.

We're looking at what - $7/$8/$9 million for AdB? $4/$5/$6 for Strome? (I know - Strome was traded for - but he came in on his ELC, I think).

Hard to take the time to build through the draft when your better three-year vets are going to be making $6+ per.

No one is holding a gun to his head. He could have stopped after ‘These are all great kids’.
- scottak

This was the original comment...

"These are great kids. The one thing I've learned in the last couple months in getting to know each one of them is they're all fantastic players and they're all going to have great NHL careers. We're choosing between great options, and that puts us in a really good position."

There is nothing egregious or inflammatory there. It's simple GM speak...nothing to get upset about, help him rearrange his words, take him to task for something innocuous as this. Nothing, zilch, nada.

From the Athletic:

https://theathletic.com/1...jections-and-predictions/

"Forwards:
Jack Hughes: 80-90 point centre. Potential second team All-Star.
Kaapo Kakko: 70-80 point winger. Perennial All-Star.
Alex Turcotte: 60-75 point centre. Dominant two-way forward. Can run PP1.
Dylan Cozens: 60-70 point centre. Coveted size and speed.
Kirby Dach: 60-70 point centre. Coveted size and puck protection.
Peyton Krebs: 60-65 point forward. First-line winger or second-line centre.
Matthew Boldy: 60-65 point first-line winger.
Cole Caufield: 40-plus goal scoring winger. Dominant powerplay threat.
Alex Newhook: 60-65 point centre. Borderline world-class skater.
Trevor Zegras: 60-70 point forward. Powerplay reliant playmaker. Pest.
Long shots: Bobby Brink (potential 60-point winger) and Arthur Kaliyev (potential 35-goal scorer).

Defencemen:
Bowen Byram: Dynamic No. 1 defenceman. PP1 threat as a shooter and passer.
Cam York: Play-driving, transition No. 2 defenceman and PP quarterback.
Ville Heinola: Complementary No. 2 defenceman and PP2 quarterback.
Long shots: Philip Broberg, Mikko Kokkonen, Victor Söderström, Thomas Harley, Mortiz Seider. More likely second-pairing defencemen but with room for slightly more."
- EnzoD

Turcotte it is.

I expected a lot more trades by now.

I expected a lot more trades by now.
- gifman

Some fake rumors at least, but apparently Ty's above all that...pfft.

I expected a lot more trades by now.
- gifman

No poop. Every GM that has to make a move is in their office staring at the wall like a deer in headlights.