radoran

They had three guys under the age of 25. https://www.espn.com/nhl/team/roster/_/name/sea/seattle-kraken Something stinks, and it's probably the corpse of this kraken that washed up on Puget Sound.

Trust. But verify.

Should have taken Laughton in 2012 instead of Rielly.

This is my issue with putting injured players on the ice. Matthews on the ice at 80% is still expected to be "Matthews" and will take up the space and ice time that he gets. Removing that means the other guys have to play like Matthews isn't there, because he isn't, which can improve their game. The Leaves have many more issues than Matthews' illness and have quite the home Game 6 history...

And that's why they got swept.

Willis Reed. 1970 NBA Finals. Knicks. There are exceptions to every rule. It's just generally decades between good examples. Are the Caps thinking Oshie will spark a comeback and they will rattle off 16 wins with him playing with a broken hand? Do they have no one who is more effective than a guy with a broken hand? The Leaves finally figured out that an 80% Auston Matthews is a liability. Mike Richards carried the Flyers to the Finals in 2010. They lost, but he got a debilitating and career ending addiction out of it. He did win a Cup with a different team, though. All worth it.

Caps lose anyway. Film at 11. Turns out guys playing injured aren't that effective...

They were saddled with VLC's contract as he was heading into a serious decline, which made it difficult to compete for FAs. They had serious disagreements with ownership and GMs over signings (like the Boyle signing). They brought in Recchi after the Stamkos pick with the idea they could be competitive and shipped him off to Boston when they weren't. Then they bought out VLC and some complete ****** moron signed him to a five year deal. Again, I get not wanting the team to be terrible for a long stretch. I'm just at the point where what we've been subjected to is the worst stretch of organization hockey in the team's history and they're no where near turning it around until at least Michkov. They were not "competitive" this year. They were the same middling, bubble playoff team we've come to know and loathe. They were more entertaining. But, I'm really not interested in another decade of this slop. Watching actual playoff teams play actual playoff hockey shows me just how far away this team is.

Then you should know that the Lightning traded Vaclav Prospal for Alexandre Picard; traded Brad Richards to Dallas; traded Jan Hlavic to Nashville the season they bottomed out for Stamkos. The next year they traded Dan Boyle to San Jose, hired Barry Melrose as coach, then traded away Recchi and Kolzig as they bottomed out for Hedman. So, aside from needing top talent to bolster the surprise 2/3 round picks, they also traded away talent and bottomed out to get picks. (Acknowledging that a factor in all of this was that the team was sold twice in three years). That team went on to win two Cups. The always retooling and restocking Flyers have made the second round of the playoffs once since 2010. Now we are two years away from the possibility of a top talent pick coming over and we have a 6th overall who has a bit of a bum shoulder. I get not liking the idea that the team may need to actually bottom out before it rises again. My point is that hoping that doesn't happen has left the team a moribund, bubble playoff squad for over a decade with a glide path to that continuing to be the case. We'll see where it goes.

The point being - they legitimately sucked and picked high. Doesn't really matter how they got there. Again, the strategy of looking for top talent in the 2/3 rounds isn't a bad idea. A strategy where you aren't adding them to two top players? We'll see...

Picking in the middle of the first round consistently Seriously, you're citing a #1 and #2 overall picks as a model to build on. I mean, we agree, but...

This isn't even a year old https://www.nhl.com/kraken/news/seattle-kraken-announce-contract-extension-for-head-coach-dave-hakstol-345380270

They have to change up their propensity for shipping off draft picks. The 2011 2nd that "could have" gotten Kucherov was shipped to Arizona with Scottie Upshall for Dan Carcillo. No, really. The 2014 3rd that "could have" gotten Point (or Ilya Sorokin, the player who the Isles picked with it) was shipped out for Andrew MacDonald. The Flyers from 2010-2020 got nine players out of the first round who played significant time as NHL players. The Lightning got six. The primary difference here being that the Lightning got Stamkos (#1 overall) and Hedman (#2) the two drafts prior to that.

There are 22 active second round players who average .5 points per game or better. That's not even one per team (Dallas has two!) Fun fact - Point was a third round pick. There are 20 active third rounders who average .5 points per game or better. Again, not even one per team... There are 158 active first rounders who average .5 points per game or better. https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl-draft/en/round/1-round-draft-picks-active-players-all-time-points-per-game-leaders.html We can "hope" for an impact player in the 2/3 round, but teams are made in the first round - usually near the top of the first round... Moreover, adding "a Point" to this roster doesn't make them anywhere near a contender.

He'll come back and say he's 100% and then after a disappointing season we'll hear that we had to expect he wouldn't be 100% coming back. Been there. Done that. Have my Wayne Simmonds jersey...