JR Ewing

As far as I can tell, the 2024 Caps are the worst playoff team of the salary cap era. Most years, there's a playoff team with a goal differential of something in the territory of -5 to -15 at worst. The Caps are -37. edit - only now do I see @SaucyJack had mentioned the same thing. I'll stop backtracking through Hockey Reference. lol

Drysdale's had one season in his last five where he was healthy, and Jiricek has had one season in his last five where he was injured.

I agree with all of that, but for the proviso that you can cast a net wider than the return needing to match something close to the draft position.

He was never destined to be a minute munching #1, because he's too small and isn't strong defensively... For me, the big question with the trade was Drysdale's ability to stay healthy. He's only played one full season since 2019, his first year with Erie, and it's just not tracking well. What surprised me was Briere, with a smaller team, gambling with an under-sized defenseman. He's not heavy and doesn't have the wingspan you'd like to see.

-Tippett: I like Tippett as a shooter in the slot, but the problem with that is that the bumper position needs a guy who can facilitate for his teammates as well as shoot, and he's very ill-suited for that. He gets a puck, he shoots a puck. Braydon Point is a terrific bumper because he can shoot and pass. -Mullen PP: what; an over-load, with two defensemen/shooters at the point? That system is as dead as disco, and for good reason. As teams abandoned it one by one, in favour of the 1-3-1, team PP% kept increasing across the NHL. You could put Al MacInnis there, and that PP wouldn't produce enough today. The only reason to shoot from the point is to keep the defenders honest; not to generate chances. I guess this is a spot where we disagree. I don't see viable/high end talent on that PP, and I think that's why it's so bad. I was curious about the same thing.

@BobbyClarkeFan16 I really like your post, and it did make me curious. I went and combed through highlights of power-plays from the last 15ish games, and I have to say that I'm not so sure it's about how bad Rocky Thompson is as a coach. I saw a bog-standard 1-3-1 from the Flyers PP, so it's not like he has them doing something very different than what it is the most commonly-used system. What I did see: -Owen Tippett wasting shot after shot, no matter if there were defender blocking the lanes, and whether or not there was a net-front to bang in a rebound on the off-chance the shot actually gets through. Honestly, I think that the PP doesn't lend itself nearly as well to his skillset as does even-strength, where he generates chances with his speed through the neutral zone. -Morgan Frost getting out-muscled and out-reached in board battles. -Bobby Brink getting out-muscled and out-reached in board battles. -Jamie Drysdale. Another guy under 6 feet tall and 185 lbs. -Sean Couturier, who has the size but not the feet. This is a mostly short and underweight group who wouldn't be getting 1st unit PP minutes on good teams. Size without skill is a total waste, but skill without size places limitations on matchups and roster building. Small players can be effective, but small teams (or in this case, special teams groups) are too easy to neutralize.

I guess I have a very different view from many (everybody else?) around here. I don't see the need to trade Konecny, and I think that people who are hoping for a strong young scorer or a potential starting goaltender would be very underwhelmed by the return. As ever, I go back to Al Arbour (who forgot more about hockey than I'll ever know), with his opinion on team building: "It's no secret; it's not complicated. Get good players." Travis Konecny is a good player, and if the rebuild is in a good position in five years, he will only be 32. Serious injuries aside, he can be more than useful at that age, and despite what a lot of people think a rebuild constitutes, I don't think it's a good idea to shed literally every good player from the roster, as respected veterans have value. This is just my view as a fan of a team that was forced to trade primed-aged players in favour of prospects and picks. It mostly doesn't work out and it just keeps the rebuild going perpetually.

Gretzky scored #894 in his 1,477th game played. 1. Figuring it out was very easy: I went to his profile at Hockey Reference: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/gretzwa01.html 2. Saw that he came into his last season with 1,415 GP. 3. Brought up his gamelog from his final season: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/gretzwa01/gamelog/1999 4. Goal #894 came in his 62nd game of the year. 5. 1415 + 62 = 1477

Come on; you know that's not what I said. Yeah, it would have been close. The Sabres had a Pts% of .556 with Quinn in the lineup, which equates to around 91 points in the standings, like the Red Wings. The Caps and Red Wings were really only in the playoff hunt more for the types of losses they had than the wins they were getting. Would have been closer, though.

It's almost as if Buffalo's management isn't amazing at assessing talent.

Jiricek is already positively impacting results in Columbus, too. Big physical defenders with two-way skills trump all but the most productive wingers.

For a bit of fun, a comparison: Pierre Luc-Dubois 78 GP, 15-24-39, -10 Cap Hit – $8.5M Cost of Acquisition: traded for Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and Gabriel Vilardi Warren Foegele: 77 GP, 17-20-37, +1 Cap Hit: $2.75M Cost of Acquisition: traded for Ethan Bear This trade-and-sign is the gift that keeps giving.

The Oilers hit with three picks in 1979, then four in 1980 and three in 1981 and built a dynasty from it. They did in three years what most teams manage in 25 seasons. The Red Wings hit with six in 1989, four in 1990, and four in 1991, and that gave them a dynasty run which let the winning run on fumes for about 20 years. When only two teams have ever done this, asking Briere to do it is just not a reasonable expectation.

There's hope and then there's hopium.

It would be better than nice if Briere could draft four actual NHL players; it would be an astoundingly successful result. The Flyers have done this three times since they began drafting in 1967. It's really quite rare. My own line in the sand for "actual NHL player" is one who can play 250 games in this league. Note that I'm not saying star players or impact players, but one who can provide enough value to play for a few years. 2003: Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Colin Fraser, Alexandre Picard 1983: Rick Tocchet, Peter Zezel, Derrick Smith, Pelle Eklund 1972: Bill Barber, Tom Bladon, Jimmy Watson, Al MacAdam Danny Briere will almost surely not draft four NHL players this June.