Ongoing NHL Thread Part IV - A New Hope

[sbb122]

Phil Kessel broke the trade to Bob Errey on the bench, I kid you not!

 

[jstewismybastardson]

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Sens have an opening on d ... send gubberson home canucks !!!

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Well, if anybody wanted to know if Rob Blake was a good GM lol...

 

[esls79]

Jersey Shore > Nick Shore

 

[jstewismybastardson]

 

[jstewismybastardson]

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Waiting for someone to ask dion where he goes from here

 

[sbb122]

Kings are in Pittsburgh Thursday night. Phaneuf wont have to leave town. Lol

 

[jstewismybastardson]

 

[puckhead]

and according to DGB, Panoof's retained salary alone would be the Sen's 3rd highest paid defenseman.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

and according to DGB, Panoof's retained salary alone would be the Sen's 3rd highest paid defenseman.

But probably their second-best performance-wise.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I think the key thing for Ottawa is that Gaborik is a cheaper buyout both real $ and cap-wise after 2019. I guess Gaborik could LTIRetire after this year too, whereas Phaneuf has no intention of doing that.

I really, really can't understand why LA would do this. Phaneuf is god-awful.

 

[BGDave]

Wow. Just, wow.

 

[forty_three]

Sens have an opening on d ... send gubberson home canucks !!!

The Sens are now sorely lacking a pylon with no wheels but great "leadership".

I think we all know where this is going.

 

[elocomotive]

Sucks to be on the losing end, but that was an AWESOME comeback by the Jets last night. If you missed it, a pass just missed Oshie's stick that would have been a slam dunk empty net goal to ice it and the Jets took a penalty with just over a minute left.

Down a man on the PK, they pulled the goalie and scored with 20 seconds left, killed off the penalty at the start of OT, and then won it on a brilliant pass by Scheifele who had two goals and an assist on the night.

Last 3 minutes of the highlights are worth watching here...

 

[KennyBanyeah]

I think the key thing for Ottawa is that Gaborik is a cheaper buyout both real $ and cap-wise after 2019. I guess Gaborik could LTIRetire after this year too, whereas Phaneuf has no intention of doing that.

I really, really can't understand why LA would do this. Phaneuf is god-awful.

I think Gaborik will retire after this season or next.

I didn't hate Phaneuf as much as some did. He was declining pretty rapidly but he played well in the playoff run. If there is a team that plays slow enough for him it's probably the Kings. I hope he does well but I think he's in full decline.

As much as this is exactly what I was hoping the Sens would do when they acquired Phaneuf (get his useful years and pawn him off when the decline sets in), I'm a little bit sad to see the guy go. He was a good teammate and played hard. Mostly I'm thrilled about the trade for the following reasons:

1) We get to see what we have in Harpur, Claesson and maybe even Englund for the rest of the season. Once they fire Oduya into the sun (or trade him) hopefully the kids get even more ice time. Sure it makes the team worse for this season but it's about next year at this point.

2) Never again do I have to watch Ceci-Phaneuf get hammered in their own zone for 5 minutes just to have Boucher throw them out there together again. He never tried anything else with the tiny exception of every now and then playing Dion with Karlsson for a shift. It was such a bad pairing and hopefully now both players are free to play with suitable partners.

3) It frees up money to towards signing Stone and Karlsson. If they could move Zack fucking Smith next maybe Hoffman will stick around.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

3) It frees up money to towards signing Stone and Karlsson. If they could move Zack fucking Smith next maybe Hoffman will stick around.

This was a good trade for the Sens but they really need to pump the brakes now, let the season play out and come up with a plan. They have to be good next season. At the very least, they need to be fighting for a playoff spot in March. The Duchene trade and this season's outcome made that certain. And to be honest, I'm not so unsure that a better goalie alone wouldn't accomplish that.

Regardless, moving Hoffman now seems crazy when it looks like him and Duchene actually work well together. Moving Duchene means trading an asset for far less than what you got him for just a few months back. My guess on Karlsson, best case scenario for Ottawa, is he wants to at least see what other teams are offering. Ottawa can't afford that, even if keeping him gets them into the playoffs next year. They can try to get him to sign beforehand but waiting until after July 1 to decide whether or not to move him is a risky play.

If anything, trade guys like Pageau and Ceci, fire Boucher, try and get a good return for Karlsson, re-sign Stone and Duchene, grab a goalie upgrade and go from there. Chances are the Atlantic is going to look pretty similar next season (does any one of Florida, Buffalo or Detroit look like they're going to be good before 2020? What disasters) and that leaves the Sens in a decent position to at least chase the WC.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

 

[forty_three]

"You miss 100& of the shots you don't take"
-Wayne Gretzky

"We also miss 95% of the shots we DO take"
- The Columbus Blue Jackets