JR Ewing

He did that two years too late.

These days, when I hear people complain about defense, I think of something Darryl Sutter said in March. When asked about the Kings always defending he said it's a It also makes think of something I read from Dave Tippett back in 2012, when he was talking about how the Coyotes starting tracking how their players spent their ice time The types of player that Sutter and Tippett are talking about, who impact a game by their ability to gain possession, move the puck out of their zone, and keep it that way more often... They're talking about players like P.K. Subban.

They were so so stupid here... They opened these negotiations with what they should have locked him up long term with before. Couldn't have bungled this deal worse than if they had tried to.

LOL... It's Bergevin's own damn fault for digging his heels in and insisting on that bridge contract instead of doing the smart thing and signing to what would have been a much better value for the team. Stevie Wonder could have seen that it would cost the Habs a whole pile of cap space.

Like I said, J0e: it was the first name that popped into my mind, and not necessarily the best player.

Pretty much every guy on every team Johnson was on the ice with did better without him. If it's a statistical illusion, then it's followed him every year of his career and with every guy that stepped on the ice with him. Johnson is the wet dream of saw-him-good scouts, but just can't play the game. Dean Lombardi on Jack Johnson: Ouch.

-Stall over Ward: I think Ward's extremely overrated due to one great spring. I think him of him first almost out of spite. -Better than Jack Johnson? Absolutely. Johnson's simply a bad hockey player, and again: I think of him right away because players like him greatly annoy me, not because I think he's the best player on his team. -Brodeur is the greatest player in Devils history, but in years before he even showed up, the first name I thought of was Ken Daneyko. It could be as much because of a friend of mine as much as anything: he worshiped Daneyko, and once when the Devils were in town we had seats right behind their bench. After the game, as the players were leaving, he said "Hey Ken, how about a stick?" and Daneyko gave it to him. You'd have thought that Gretzky himself gave that stick away.

Oh, I'm very sure they were more popular and perhaps seen as the face of the franchise. Living in Edmonton, and being the time that it was (not the media saturation we have now), I wouldn't have seen nearly as much of that as you. It's sort of like how people were surprised at Ryan Smyth's send off after his last game in 2014. Nobody in the area was surprised (locally, his nickname was "Hockey Jesus") but I saw some genuine shock outside of the genuine market. Also not too common: all members of the opposing team and even refs/linesmen shaking hands and hugging a retiring player. The only real shame in his story: that Kevin Lowe traded him due to a difference of $100,000 in contract talks. Nobody does too well with their heart cut out. [youbtube] BTW, how fitting: Kelly Buchberger was on the ice for Smyth's first career goal, and was there on the bench to see him off from his last game.

For me, it was sometimes down to guys who played for a long time with the team in question, but who were not great players: Ken Daneyko played forever. Players came and went, but he was there from the "Mickey Mouse" years, through the rebuild, and played strong minutes for their Cup wins. Other times, it was notable players for a franchise: I always associate Scott Mellanby with the Panthers for two reasons: the rat and him being a part of their run to the Cup finals in '96. And then, a few players are ones I follow, but in kind of a negative way: Cam Ward and Jack Johnson would be two. Ward's made a lot of money off of Spring 2006 and making some flashy saves, and Johnson? Just a bad defenseman who saw-him-good scouts will fall in love with every time. Much of the time, though, a player made my list because he's (imo) the best player on the team.

So, I just did it with word association: franchise is mentioned, and this was the first player whose name came up. They're not necessarily the best player on the team (a few listed are grossly overrated in fact), but the first name to enter my mind. I did this for current players as well as all-time. Team Current All-TimeANA Corey F'ing Perry Paul KariyaBOS Patrice Bergeron Bobby OrrBUF Drew Stafford Dominik HasekCGY Mark Giordano Jarome IginlaCAR Cam Ward Ron FrancisCHI Jon Toews Bobby HullCOL Gabriel Landeskog Joe SakicCBS Jack Johnson Rick NashDAL Tyler Seguin Mike ModanoDET Pavel Datsyuk Gordie HoweEDM Taylor Hall Wayne GretzkyFLA nobody Scott MelanbyLA Drew Doughty Wayne GretzkyMIN Mikko Koivu Mikko KoivuMTL PK Subban Maurice RichardNAS Shea Weber David LegwandNJD Patrik Elias Ken DaneykoNYI John Tavares Mike BossyNYR Henrik Lundqvist Rod GilbertOTT Erik Karlsson Daniel AlfredssonPHI Claude Giroux Bobby ClarkePHX Shane Doan Shane DoanPIT Sidney Crosby Mario LemiuexSJ Joe Thornton Patrick MarleauSTL Alex Pietrangelo Brett HullTB Steve Stamkos Martin St. LouisTOR Phil Kessel Frank MahovlichVAN The Sisters Trevor LindenWAS Alex Ovechkin Peter BondraWPG Evander Kane Ilya Kovalchuk

With respect, I really think that's about opposite the answer they need. Yes, the Oilers now have tremendous depth on the wings and shocking little of it down the middle, but moving Eberle to center is probably like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. -He's smaller and much weaker than Gagner. -He's barely more defensively inclined than is Gagner. -He's taken an average of 17 faceoffs per year, winning only 40% of them in his career. The Oilers didn't need to move Sam Gagner to get a small, weak, not-very-fast, poor at faceoffs center with little eye towards the defensive side of the game as their 2C. I think the change has to come from acquiring an actual NHL 2C, and that comes from trading an existing player and/or prospect. They need a real center, imo.

I have no idea if the league will expand again. I can't imagine they could do it in any worse a way than they did when they expanded from the Original 6 days, and gave Sam Pollock the keys to the kingdom... Anyway, to put it as tersely as possible, the talent level in the NHL greatly exceeds that of previous years.

Gagner had an 8-point night in 2012 against Chicago: 4G - 4A. Hell of a night in any league. Re: scoring only 10 goals last year... In his defense, Gagner suffered a pretty horrific injury and then came back way too early. He lost 20 pounds (and he's not a big player to begin with), and later admitted that he often had trouble breathing early on. Can you imagine trying to play NHL hockey, against men much larger than yourself, while you're only consuming smoothies and protein shakes? He came back way too soon. Eric Morris, over at Undisclosed Injury, referred to the recovery as "quite possibly the most miserable forms of treatment" and "you can't eat solids, brush your teeth, you have difficulty breathing and it's incredibly uncomfortable." His medical opinion held that the average athlete should return from such an injury in 8 weeks. Gagner was back before Halloween, wildly underweight, still on liquid diet (and would be for more than another month), and not ready for NHL hockey. Way too soon, and it hurt his (and the team's) performance.

Purcell / Yakupov - yes, Purcell could very well find himself as 2RW. In fact, I think he's likely to start there. I really think a lot of it will shake out with who will get the soft minutes. If it turns out that Draisaitl sticks as 2C, they'd be well advised to give him the easier starts and comp. I would think it's likely that Yakupov will find himself on whichever line gets those softer minutes. Either way, he could force the issue if he starts scoring. The nice about Purcell is that he has an established history of positive possession numbers, which is something the Oilers definitely need more of (and got a lot of in free agency). Gagner and his non-evolution - it's almost as if stripping down your team so that a non-lottery teenager can play NHL minutes right away and then putting him through a carousel of new head coaches every year could be bad for his career. Who figured?

Edmonton Oilers Hall Nugent-Hopkins Eberle Perron Arcobello / Draisaitl Yakupov That 2C is all sorts of trouble right now, and pretty much the only way for Craig MacTavish to fix it is to trade off one of his assets for a player who can provide some solid two-way performance. My preference would be to see Justin Schultz be that guy, as I think his name and relative fame is more valuable than what he really brings to the table. Taylor Hall - best offensive LW in hockey, and has the ability to push play no matter who is on the with him. A cannonball who pushes defensemen way back in their zone, opening up room for his linemates. He was 9th in scoring (2nd in the Big Boy Conference) during the lockout, and tied for 6th last year. Known as a sniper, but is really an underrated passer. Top five even-strength scorer. If he played in a major Eastern market, he'd be a superstar. Instead, Hockey Canada didn't even have him in their list of top 9 LW. This is insane. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - think of what he's been asked to do since he walked into the NHL: he gets to go out and match up against Toews, Kopitar, Seguin, Sedin, Thorton, Getzlaf, Koivu, Duchesne, Backes, etc, all as a physically under-developed kid who had a shoulder problem left over from junior hockey. And the real kicker: his line has still scored more than they've given up out there. Unreal. PP demon whose brain is a pitiless machine, calculating ways to break down PK units. Eakins didn't put him out there nearly enough. Jordan Eberle - famous since he was an amateur player. Would go much higher were a re-draft to be held from his class. Nice hands, soft defensive player who breaks the zone early. Will score his points. David Perron - pain in the ass LW that can put up points. The Blues didn't really want to give him up, but ran into cap trouble and had to send him away. Nail Yakupov - who knows what the Oilers will get out of him? Was given disproportionately harsh treatment from Dallas Eakins, but in the end he has a cannon of a shot, and is a PP threat that Eakins didn't really use last year. The tools are all there, and if the Oilers can find a way to give him the right ice time with the right starts, he could do very well. People talk about him as if he were the first teenager that needed to learn to play without the puck. ---- I leave, apart from the others, the issue of 2nd line center. As of right now, the choices seem to be Mark Arcobello - hell of an AHL player who has shown the ability to play with skill. While RNH was hurt early last season, stepped up and was a PPG player. Was sent back to the AHL, lit it up, and when he was brought back up and asked to play on the 4th line, still turned in positive Corsi numbers. There's a player there, but teams have forever shown tremendous difficult in seeing past size issues. Leon Draisaitl - unless he comes to camp and clearly wins a spot, he needs to be sent back Prince Albert on the first available plane. Great sizem, long body, big wide ass, and can really protect the puck. The top scoring forwards in junior this year were all right in the same exact territory in terms of his production. He's probably the real deal, but I don't see the point in throwing him in water over his head. But, you know: Oilers. So, he's probably wearing a blue and orange jersey next year.

Dany Heatley, as seen by the Vollman Sledgehammer. There's light at the end of the tunnel, for Heatley, but I think it's the train... -Bigger blue bubble good, bigger orange bubble bad. -He had favorable zone starts -Didn't face tough competition (Cooke was the Wild RW buried with tough starts and comp) -CorsiRel of -11 doesn't paint a rosy picture. It's been negative for a few years and won't be getting better with age. -The signing is, considering the term and money, pretty low risk if the Ducks don't ask much of him, but I think the chance for high reward is pretty slim. The wheels have really fallen off.

I get all of what you're saying. I just think it's a tremendous mistake to elevate kids, especially defensemen, before they're ready to take the next step. He wasn't able to shut down junior kids (remember: didn't play the toughs either), even with his reach. What the hell is going to do when he plays against Sidney Crosby 8 times a year? My goodness... What's the goal when you draft a kid, to develop a young player to his potential, or toss him in the deep end of the pool before he's ready? He is physically developed, but clearly hasn't been able to develop his understanding of how to play defense. And there's nothing wrong with that at his age: hardly any defenseman has that ability as a teenager. If he plays in the NHL this year, it says more about the Flyers depth and payroll issues than it does about his readiness. What do so many draft busts have in common? They played in the NHL too soon.

I am really not trying to be a prick here, but....... I really think he's at least a couple, maybe three years away. Morin had a nice amount of ES ice time, but played 2nd pairing competition (so not the toughs) but had a GF% 4.9% lower than his teammates. That's not a difference I'd want to see out of a player even getting a 9 game audition next year. I really think the Flyers would be rushing him if they brought him along to the NHL right now. There's a lot there to really like with Morin as a prospect: huge, has some offensive ability, tough to play against. But defense at the NHL level is extremely difficult to play, and it's an environment where only defensive savants should be in the NHL as teenagers. If the Oceanique weren't getting scored much while he was on the ice, it would be one thing, but it isn't what happened. So, if he's not shutting down teenagers, what are the odds he's ready to face NHL players at this time? He has more on to-do list than put on 20 lbs. He has all sorts of time, and rushing won't help him. Put him in at 350 and let him sit until he's ready. --- Oops, forgot to add the link: http://www.extraskater.com/qmjhl/players?sort=qoc_toi&min_gp=50&pos=D&team=rim

In the first 20 games of the season, he scored 14 points, but the Flyers were getting their lunch handed to them while he was on the ice: CorsiFor% 43.9 (-7.23% relative to teammates) GoalsFor% 44% (meaning the opposition scored 56% of the goals while he was on the ice) The only good stretch he had were games 60 thru 69 for him, when the Flyers broke even while he was on the ice. That's a lot of money to pay for a guy whose best run was 9 games of sawing off the opposition.

The only way I'd take such a declining asset is if Hextall is paying a healthy chunk of his salary. He wasn't given tough competition, was gifted generous zone starts, and all of his teammates did better away from him than with him last year: http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/showplayer.php?pid=242&withagainst=true&season=2013-14&sit=5v5

Why would the Leafs want to have the contracts of both Lecavalier AND Phaneuf?

Behold, the Oilers breakout scheme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0yS580QI8 Stop and consider for a moment that Taylor Hall finished 6th in the NHL in scoring with THAT for a breakout pass.

Crash Davis must have taught Ehrhoff how to give an interview.

Watch for this to do nothing but grow and grow over the years as GMs seem to *finally* be figuring out that defensive defensemen without a shred of ability to move the puck whether by pass or skate aren't the great item they were thought to be for so long. Misery is a D-man whose biggest asset is "off the glass and out".

I agree with much of what TFG is saying re: Schultz. -Calm feet -Almost no real offensive ability. -A ton of miles on him, and the downhill side is getting to be very steep. -Has never once in his career been a guy that helps move the puck north. Never, which is generally my issue with defense-only players. They don't prevent as many goals as a better player can help create, and there is tremendous defensive benefit to being able to move the puck out of your end. That's an ability Schultz never had.