It comes from the idea that if he’s not scoring he’s hurting the team which is absolutely false.

Dude absolutely has zero attitude, work ethic, or teammate issues.

Just as an example here and not to say he’s on that level but we just saw how Stone completely neutralized Mackinnon.

Let’s look at Matthews in round 1

5v5 xGF% against Tatar: 47.47

5v5 xGF% away from Tatar: 69.95

Simply put, he doesn’t have to be scoring to be effective but he’s smaller and doesn’t have the narrative of being a good defensive player so he gets scratched.

He also had 17 5v5 hits in the 5 games he played against Toronto.

On a per 60 rate that’s tops on Montreal and only beat out by Tanev for the pens.
- Feds91Stammer

What I don't get about these kind of stats is that it's not in a vacuum....

Matthews has linemates and defense pairs.... Tatar has linemates and defense pairs. Those are moving parts that could be contributing just as much or more to the differences in xGF%

If it's drastic enough, I suppose you could reasonably conclude a correlation. But also maybe not.

On offense, I like a lot of our forwards. I'm dumping Zucker and possibly Rust. The free agents I target are Blake Coleman and Brandon Saad. I'd also look at Hyman, Tatar, and Granlund.

- SuperHenderson13

It's time for the annual "trade our guys for assets and sign good free agents" fool-proof plan.

It always sounds like an obvious thing to do and an easy win but there's a reason it rarely works out that way.

That said, Coleman and Saad would be tremendous additions if either of them make to the open market.

It's time for the annual "trade our guys for assets and sign good free agents" fool-proof plan.

It always sounds like an obvious thing to do and an easy win but there's a reason it rarely works out that way.

That said, Coleman and Saad would be tremendous additions if either of them make to the open market.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

Lol, this exactly. These always sound great when you just plug in your choice of UFAs at a reaaonable cap hit.

Pretty good chance that 2 more years of Zucker would end up being a better contract then most of the top 6 UFA forwards that get signed. Most of those you end up wanting to dump in a couple years.

So that probably means they have a standing offer with Hamilton that they need him to decide on prior to expansion so they can solidify their protection list. I am guessing he is going to look for/get somewhere around $9M on a max term deal, very similar to Pietrangelo.

You know, the Pens could pull it off. Marino, Petterson and Zucker would need to be gone. Not sure what you do in net. Trade Jarry to Arizona with a decent prospect or pick for Keumper perhaps?

Question is, even if you can afford it, is Hamilton THAT guy? Do you max out on a bit of a quirky guy who is a really good player but has been passed around quite a bit already in his career (that usually happens for a reason). I'm not sure I would.
- MacPatty

I would say yes, based on talks already with Letang and malkin. Depending what hextall thinks he can get for a discount, if any, on them. If he can save say 2m per player I’d def try and sign him. If they plan to keep malkin and Letang at similar contracts for 3 more years then no.

It's time for the annual "trade our guys for assets and sign good free agents" fool-proof plan.

It always sounds like an obvious thing to do and an easy win but there's a reason it rarely works out that way.

That said, Coleman and Saad would be tremendous additions if either of them make to the open market.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

Well obviously, but it’s still enjoyable to discuss how you would build a team and what you look for and why. I don’t think anyone here has made a correct prediction that hextall, jr, or shero ever made. But why the hell else are we here all summer.