In any given season, there are probably 50 guys in the AHL who are about where Kyle Brodziak was in the early winter of 2006. Solid minor leaguers, fringe NHL players who lack that extra gear, can score but not quite enough to hang around deep into preseason. In the summertime 2007 I wrote looks to me like he’s the new Rem Murray. Brodziak is the highest ranking “future role player” on my top-20 list; he’s earned it. Good size and strength and he’s coachable. Limited upside but I think he’s a player. Who is that player 16 years later?
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: What are the Edmonton Oilers’ keys to success in 2023-24?
- Lowetide: How Oilers’ veteran roster, cap issues could impact Raphael Lavoie
- Lowetide: Ken Holland’s Oilers legacy and the magnitude of next summer’s moves
- Lowetide: What the Oilers are getting in 2023 NHL Draft pick Beau Akey
- Lowetide: Oilers’ baffling 2016 draft takes another hit
- Lowetide: Oilers’ 2023-24 season has potential for loud noises
- Lowetide: Jay Woodcroft is (still) the right man to coach the Edmonton Oilers
- Lowetide: Should the Oilers sign Filip Zadina?
- Lowetide: Oilers’ roster utility for 2023-24 could use a final tweak
- Lowetide: Ideal roster positions for young Oilers in 2023-24
- Lowetide: Making sense of Oilers’ free-agent haul after initial flurry
- Lowetide: The Edmonton Oilers still have work to do this summer
- DNB: The Oilers roster is improved but evolution must continue into next season
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects, summer 2023
- DNB: Connor McDavid’s top-5 moments from another awards-laden season
- Lowetide: Oilers’ Jayden Grubbe and his organizational importance
- DNB: 10 questions with director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright
BRODZIAK
In March 2007, Guy Flaming at Hockey’s Future ranked him 13th on his list, saying “The most obvious improvement in Brodziak’s abilities from last year is in his skating. Not unlike Jarret Stoll before him, Brodziak has never been regarded as a good skater but no longer does he stand out for being slow. If he can continue to improve at the pace he has this year, who knows where he could end up on the Oilers’ depth chart.”
Brodziak spent the summer working on strength and conditioning, and on the night of September 17, 2007 he gained clearance from names like Marc Pouliot, Jean Francois Jacques and Patrick Thoresen. Coach MacT that night: “That’s the closest you’ll get to a perfect game. He wasn’t in the wrong position all night. Made great plays with the puck, scored two goals, had a beautiful shorthanded assist, big block at the end. There’s nothing he didn’t do tonight. He looks faster and stronger and maybe the most important difference for him is mentally he’s ready to stay. And it looks like he’s made the decision that he’s staying. That was a hell of a game.”
SINCE BRODZIAK
Looking through Pick224.com, which has become (for me) a wonderful resource during a quiet time of the year, it’s possible to have a fresh look at some of the hopefuls who spent time in the minors with the Oilers organization in past seasons.
In 2010-11 Linus Omark scored well in 28 games but his reputation (and NHL totals, although his REL five-on-five numbers were solid for a rookie) was not strong. In the AHL, his on-ice even strength outscoring (63 percent) was miles better than when he was off-ice (42 percent). He was undersized, not physical and it was easy to frame his play as chaotic (because it was) but the math still speaks and tells the story of a player that may have been overlooked due to bias. He’s still playing by the way, and highly productive in the Swiss League.
Teemu Hartikainen was a 20-year old rookie in Oklahoma City in 2010-11. He scored well, and his outscoring at a 53 percent rate even strength, the Barons at 48 percent when he was off the ice. Hartikainen lost his NHL career because he slumped during an NHL audition and the new general manager wasn’t attached to his procurement. Hartikainen is a decade in to a fantastic career in Europe, all but one season in the KHL. He was an NHL player, the Oilers were an impatient organization. Edmonton ran through general managers as often as water flows downstream in those years.
THE CURRENT CONDORS
Xavier Bourgault is the reason I wrote today’s verbal. His numbers as a 20-year old rookie are fascinating to me. Trumpeted as an offensive forward who was indifferent defensively, what we saw in Bakersfield last season was something completely different.
I find this fascinating. Bourgault’s even-strength outscoring is strong, and his offense (.54 pts-game) suggests he can win a top-six job in the NHL someday. Only three AHL forwards (Jiri Kulich, Fabian Lysell, Isak Rosen) younger than Bourgault produced higher points-per-game totals than Edmonton’s young prospect last season in the AHL.
LITTLE DID HE KNOW
Is Tyler Wright drafting shy offensive forwards in the first round and then offensive distant bells later on? I don’t believe it to be the case, but there’s some evidence creeping into view. I think Wright is drafting well, maybe a little safe in the first round but that’s a good idea for a team in the Oilers position. No one this club drafts during the 2020’s is going to be projected as a future superstar on his draft day. Credit Wright, he and his staff are shooting for impact with their picks and some (Petrov, Berezkin) have the look.
In order to damn Wright for drafting shy offense in the first round, I would have to be able to assert that Holloway, Bourgault and Schaefer will never post a 20-goal season or deliver 50 points or play on a line with McDavid or Draisaitl. I think Holloway and Bourgault could do all of those things, and Schaefer could have success in Nashville.
Today’s item is back up.
Just would like to chat about my worst fear for next year. What happens if Stuart regresses and Campbell does not improve? Are we a good enough team to carry an 895 save percentage and still be a playoff team at the deadline?
That’s why you keep your powder dry until the deadline. You don’t know what you’ll need until then.
I am very much on the wait until the deadline approach for what needs fixing. Goaltending is just the one I worry about sinking us early and then having to chase.
I think so.
The Oilers had a .901 (.9005) SV% last season, which surprisingly was 15th in the league (ie – slightly above median).
They were 6th overall in the standings and had the 2nd best goal differential last season behind Boston (325GF-256GA, or +69).
If they’d had an .895 SV% last season instead they’ve have allowed 270 goals instead of 256, so they’d have been +55 instead of +69. I think that’s right.
+55 would still have been 2nd in the Western Conference, though only 6th overall in the NHL.
But yeah, it sure seems like they ought to be in a playoff spot by the deadline even if your worst fear comes true (though I don’t think it will).
9005 was average ??? Wow that’s ugly. Scoring really is up then.
Just a thing I noticed there were 17 goalies with a 915% that had at least 500 minutes toi. Makes me wonder how bad the replacements and back ups did to drag the average so far down.
It is up for sure. I think the average was .904, but still the Oilers at .901 were 15th/32 teams.
Olivier Rodrigue to the rescue!
If he sees games this year my pucker factor will be off the charts.
Anyone for a Chris Driedger?
https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2023/07/kraken-unable-to-buy-out-chris-driedger-in-post-arbitration-window.html
Straight swap for Campbell
I don’t think skinner regresses much. He’s a goalie that plays fundamentals very well. Someone on Oilers Now (can’t remember who but it was a goalie analyst) during the playoffs last year said he’s elite down low and positionally but his hands are not elite. Thought it was a great take and I noticed he makes kinda awkward glove saves and will occasionally give up a goal like that too. But mostly he’s very calm in the net and pucks are going to hit him.
I think he’s a good tandem goalie and will continue to be.
Campbell – now his style scares me!
Elliotte Friedman@FriedgeHNIC·1m
Seattle and Vince Dunn have a pre-arbitration agreement at 4x$7.35M
—————-
Seems quite reasonable for both sides. Dunn on a discount for what he did this year. Seattle doesn’t pay in full for that performance since it’s not certain he can repeat. Dunn gets to be UFA at age 30 and presumably get another big pay day.
Surprised Dunn went for 4 years when many are signing for 2 years in anticipation of a rapidly rising cap.
Could be a slam dunk bargain for Seattle if Dunn maintains his level of play.
I wish the Oilers would do that with Bouch
That’s a massive bargain for Seattle
Had more points last year than PLD so yes, you may be right.
Makes me wonder if Nurse’s overall line would benefit from a little bit of respite from such an exclusively defensive deployment.
Nurse and Dunn are very different players. Dunn had 49 Even Strength points to Darnell Nurse’s 39 (with 3 SH) but Dunn played with a 66% zone start to Nurse’s 37.1%. Dunn played 0:35/game short-handed to Nurse’s 2:54. Nurse also had years of established ability to Dunn’s one good year. I don’t think you can compare them on points alone. Nurse is overpaid but Dunn could end up being a pretty bad deal too
Absolutely, that’s a great contract for Seattle. The Kraken win on term and price, imo.
With defensemen, the importance of fit between two players on a pairing isn’t talked about enough. I had thought Larsson was almost done when he was an Oiler, but he’s had a few good seasons on the Kraken playing with Dunn. Larsson was certainly looking like he was losing a step.
The problem with Larsson for us was that he couldn’t play with Nurse because they’re both poor at making outlet passes. Instead, Larsson was given the Shawshank minutes trying to keep the bottom six alive against elites and it probably wasn’t much fun.
I always thought that Nurse / Bear was such an interesting pairing. Bear had no business playing top pairing minutes, but his one skill, making expert outlet passes, compensated for one of Nurse’s biggest weaknesses… At least until teams figured out that Bear was the de facto outlet passer and teams targeted him with their forecheck.
Mccrimmon has been pretty good at looking at pairings instead of just individual defensemen.
The Nurse Ceci pairing suffers from two guys who don’t defend entries, and also aren’t great outlet passers.
Maybe it’s time for Nurse – Bouchard, and Ekholm-Ceci.
What an earth do you mean?
Nurse’s best season before the Covid shortened one was 17-18, the only year he was paired with Larsson.
They were the Oilers top pair that year (most 5v5 TOI by a couple of minutes, and got the most difficult opposition). They had 52% xGF and 57% GF together on a team that was 46% GF without them (as a pair).
Larsson was paired with Klefbom for the next 2 seasons (Nurse got Russell, then Bear), then in his last season Larsson did get the Shawshank minutes while also carrying one of: the shell of Kris Russell, Lagesson, Kulikov and Jones.
I think Nurse and Larsson were the teams two best defensemen, and separated mostly to spread the defenders around. Putting Larsson with Nurse that season would have meant Barrie with Russell/Lagesson/Kulikov/Jones as the 2nd pairing (ie – probably less than ideal).
They had like 70% GF and 57 xGF% with McDavid. 300 min.
Without 97, they were a tire fire.
1.84 GF/60. 2.08 GA/60. 520 minutes
OK.
I don’t think a 47% GF without McDavid is a bad thing on a team that was under 40% GF with all of them off, never mind a tire fire.
McDavid’s numbers without Nurse-Larsson were also much worse (52% GF, 51% xGF), so it looks like it was a 2-way street.
And your breakdown seems to indicates that Nurse-Larsson weren’t benefiting from more McDavid minutes than anyone else on the team. I feel like their results are legit.
Less than 2 gf/60 is quite a staggeringly poor number suggesting they may not have been very good transitioning the puck.
2017 McDavid was basically a one man breakout play.
Comparatively, Dunn and Larsson had 3.5 gf/60
The site is acting funny with today’s post gone and now yesterday’s post back. Anyway, I can reply to this now.
Are you getting the numbers mixed up? 1.84 GF/60 was without McDavid.
With McDavid the on ice goals were 3.40GF-1.40GA and the shots were over 37SF/60.
McDavid without them was on for 3.55GF/60 and 34 SF/60. His xGF/60 was lower without Nurse-Larsson too. Seems like they were transitioning the puck fine, no. They certainly weren’t hurting McDavid’s offense.
And with McDavid out of the picture the Oilers scored more with Nurse-Larsson on than off (1.84GF/60 vs 1.62GF/60). The 1.84GF number was more about on ice shooting percentage than anything else (and even that was worse without Nurse-Larsson than with them).
Something else that’s probably relevant to Larsson’s resurgence is his usage: there was a stark change this year vs pretty much his entire career to this point.
He had 48% Ozone starts his first year in Edmonton, working his way down to only 38% by his final year with the team. That jumped back up to 49% in Seattle year 1, then 62% this past season.
His %TOI vs elites was also the lowest of his career this past season. The lowest prior to this season was 32.8%, but it was 30.7% this year. His first season in Seattle was the highest since he was in Jersey (37.8%) so there was a big drop in his year over year usage against top comp.
It is
But a steep price vs. what the Oilers will be paying Bouchard this season.
Sounds like the Vince Dunn extension will be done shortly – Per Kevin W.).
Will be curious how high this comes in.
He exploded this past season – it was a great season but I’m not sure that level of play and production will be sustainable- could be wrong.
I hope this is in the $7.5MM to $8MM range.
His comps are guys like Pietrangelo ($8.8M AAV) and Nurse ($9.25M AAV), both of whom he outscored last season. He still has one more year RFA, whereas they were both UFA deals, so that might bring it down a bit. He’s got a great arbitration case though, so that RFA year won’t be that much cheaper than his UFA years.
I won’t disagree with the comps for this past season. I fully acknowledge he exploded last season and was a legit #1 d-man.
The thing I see is, its only been one season where he’s been anywhere near that tier and I’m not positive he will consistently going forward but he’s likely to get the long term high AAV deal.
To be clear, I’m not saying he won’t be, he very well could be that player for the next 5-7 years, I’m just not totally convinced and am glad a rival has to do that contract after a career season (so far).
The thing about Linus was this – in addition to the true offensive gifts, he would go into a corner and always come out with the puck. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a smaller player as good at that. And he did so without getting hit, so he didn’t get dinged up. A gifted coach could’ve turned this into one hell of a thing…but we were lacking at the time.
Loved to watch him play.
One of the best I ever saw was Lubomir Visnovsky, who was the same height (although nearly 20 lbs heavier) as Omark.
So many misses and failures with personnel during that era.
Lubomir and Pitkanen were the best D at that skill I’ve seen in an Oilers uniform. Joni had the misfortune of some injuries and not being a ‘bro’. Only just turned 39. What a shame. Lubomir had the wrong coach.
The Oilers have a long history since Sather of trying to make players into something that they aren’t, instead of maximizing what they are by finding the right players to play together
Sather searched wide and far for Gretzky’s wingers but found them in a few seasons
Linus Omark didn’t want to listen to any coaching about how he should play to stay in the NHL. He wasn’t gifted enough to get away with not learning to do the little things right, like defensive positioning, when to chip it out or dump it in. His bad giveaway at his own blue line or the opposition blue line blue line were too often for the risk reward of his play.
Since he couldn’t play in the NHL on his terms, he packed up his things and went back overseas where he could be a bigger fish in a littler pond. He was already almost 27 when he gave up on his NHL dream.
And don’t buy all the NHL equivalent stuff of the KHL either. It’s pretty unreliable. While Omark and Hartikainen are high on the all time KHL list so are guys like Nigel Dawes, Patrick Thoresen, Matt Ellison and Stephane Da Costa. Markus Granlund got 4 points for the Oilers in 34 games back in 19/20 then went to the KHL and got 53 points in 50 game the next season.
NHLE’s biggest challenge is slotting where the player will play. If they come up and dont get PP time and are stuck on the forth line playing 6 minutes a night; that often is more to do with where the team is at and not the player.
Omark has talked a lot about how he had serious issues with anxiety early in his career, especially wrt peoples expectations and his own performance. He tried to handle it by not taking things seriously and just have fun, the spin-o-rama for example was likely a side effect to this.
This attitude probably didn’t land too well with coaches and was wrongly percieved as cockiness. It probably didn’t make him all that easy to coach either. He didn’t really get a handle on it until his late twenties and from what I understand it had a lot to do with his wife settling him down and giving him perspective.
I agree with LMHF that the right coach at the right time could have made a world of difference but it wasn’t in the cards.
He was never going to end up a good defensive forward but enough for his offensive creativity to outweigh his defensive issues. He made Magnus Pääjärvi look like a guy with a modicum of offensive upside for crying out loud. I remain convinced he could have found a niche.
I need someone to explain what is possibly the weirdest stat line I’ve ever seen.
Evander Kane 2021-22 Points/60 all situations 2.798, Even Strength 2.681, PP 2.283
Evander Kane 2022-23 Points/60 all situations 2.191, Even Strength 2.144, PP 1.959
By my calculations (I don’t know where to find this)
Kane had 3 Short-handed points in 15:03 for 11.9601 SHP/60 in 2021-22
Kane had 2 Short-handed points in 33:29 for 3.5839 SHP/60 in 2022-23
Empty net points don’t count as short-handed so how did Evander Kane score more points/60 short-handed than even strength/PP and more even strength/60 than PP?
Kane would often come out with McDavud for the last 30 seconds of a PK over the last two seasons. Whe he is healthy he is a sound two-way hockey player who can play in all situations.
HIghly skilled forwards often score at respectable rates on the PK because often there is only one D on the opposing PP, and often that D is average or worse defensively.
I’m not so sure that Kane is a sound defensive player but he is good, and has a history of being good, on the PK.
I do not equate 5 on 5 defensive ability to PK ability, or vica versa.
McDavid also scored at higher rates on the PK than even strength both seasons. And the PK on ice goals for McDavid were 9-10 the past 2 seasons (6-7 for Kane). Impressive.
How Kane’s scoring rate on the PP is so low I’m not sure. PP2 gets little time, and seemingly does very little with the time they do get (and to be fair they often only get 20-30 seconds and start their shift without the puck).
Yeah, I think last season it was an issue with being on PP2 but 2021-22 just seems like he something wasn’t working for him because he’s behind so many other players and his own EV scoring rate. Zach Hyman did much better there that season and I think it’s why he’s on PP1 now.
He hasn’t been a great PP scorer through his career.
It looks like he actually played about 2/3 of his minutes in Edmonton (only about 150 total) on PP1. He didn’t score much, and they scored 11.2 goals/60 with him vs almost 15 without.
PP2 with Kane scored about 6 goals/60 vs 0.84/60 without him though. Maybe that is the best place for him (and Hyman is certainly doing the job well on PP1).
David Alter
@dalter
I’m hearing Ilya Samsonov and the #Leafs went ahead with the hearing. There is no more negotiating and an arbitrator will rule on his salary.
“The Maple Leafs can walk away from the deal and let Samsonov become an unrestricted free agent if the awarded salary is above $4.53 million.
The Maple Leafs and the goaltender were $2.5 million apart in their filings, which came 48 hours ahead of the hearing on Wednesday.
Samsonov filed at $4.9 million while the team submitted at $2.4 million.”
https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/maple-leafs-samsonov-remain-without-a-deal-with-arbitration-hearing-set-for-today-1.1986577
no they won’t walk
They’re currently almost $9 million over the cap.
No. They are effectively about $1.7 M over the cap once they ditch their 3rd goalie and 13th forward.
That still puts them in a position Treliving goes to sleep every night worrying about but pretty sure Muzzin isn’t going to play this coming season so they will start the season in LTIR.
I would think they’d accept the reward and use their second buyout window on Murray, if needed.
What a terrible contract signed by Dorion (not hindsight, mentioned it at time of signing) and still can’t believe Dubas acquired it.
Presumably they will, but that still won’t be enough.
The $1.7M defmn mentions includes Muzzin on LTIR and only 1 signed goalie. A Murray buyout would open up about $4M this year but in the end that leaves them with a bit shy of $1.6M fit Samsonov onto a 21-man roster.
That’s to say, even after buying out Murray, Treliving still needs to trade someone (or have another contract on LTIR).
That never seems to end well but just delays the divorce.
I see that this is the 2nd case already to reach arbitration. Chicago was 1st with Kurashev.
This an interesting one since the arbitrator has to pick one or the other.
Either the Leafs get what they want or can simply walk away.
And Samsonov might have a tough time finding a team that will pay him more than the Leafs offer at this point in the offseason.
The arbitrator can pick any number he wants so it’s much more likely that the Leafs are on the hook for whatever number the arbitrator comes to them with as they don’t tend to go all the way up to a player’s ask. I’d be very surprised if the contract was more than 4.53M and incredibly surprised if it was less than 3M. We’re probably looking at a 4M or so deal (Ilya Sorokin signed a 3x4M after a 25YO season of 22 games at .918, Thatcher Demko got 5x5M after a 25YO season at .915 )
No, in the NHL, the arbitrator is not limited to one or the other’s proposed number. The last 2 arbitration awards granted were somewhat in the middle but closer to the team’s number. The arbitrator gets to use his or her judgement based on the evidence presented by both parties.
Samsonov is likely happy to dip his toes into the free agent market next summer. And the goalie carousel continues to go round in Toronto.
Samsonov is the goalie I wanted last offseason
Hot damn am I ever excited to see Petrov on the Condors next season. I know I just wrote a post about first year pros coming from junior struggling in the AHL but this dude has sick talent and the only reason he wasn’t a MUCH higher pick was Covid and lack of eyes on him. There is a reason he was 1st overall in the import draft.
I think many were “underwhelmed” by Bourgault’s first pro season but I think it might be a function of unreasonable expectations for a bottom third first round pick in his first year pro.
The above statement shows us how hard the AHL is for first year pros – most good-very good prospects (i.e. non-elite prospects) struggle in their first year – varying degrees of struggle but struggle.
Bourgualt had a good-solid season. Its likely he needs more AHL time but he’s likely to be a very important player on that team this season, increase his production and play in all game states. He could very well put himself in the conversation for a call-up this season and, who knows, maybe he’s an impact call-up.
Yeah, Bourgault was injured going into the summer last year (he missed the devlopment camp because of it) and also suffered a couple of injuries mid-season. I think with a full summer of working out and building size/endurance, he’ll force himself into the conversation for a roster spot/first call-up
Regarding XB, what are his chances of becoming a top-6 RW in the next few years?
37.4%.
Anyone who tells you differently is lying.
I have 37.6% and I would never lie.
Wait a minute, when did we go from searching for Pisani to who’ll become Brodziak?
In all seriousness, if we had a Greene (Kemp?) or Glencross (Tullio?) emerge from the system I wouldn’t be upset.
We need a centre not a winger 😂
1C/2C/3C is set for the foreseeable future. 4C are available every year on the open market, and again at the TDL for a nominal cost.
What this team needs is productive depth on value contracts.
So, you didn’t like my joke? 😜 In LT speak, a Pisani is a player that emerges at 25 with two-way ability and veteran savvy from experience toiling in the wilderness and a Brodziak is a player that was a long shot but emerges at 22 and eats better prospect’s lunch. On our current team, Desharnais is the Pisani and Skinner is the Brodziak.
The Oilers’ top-6 wingers for ’23-’24 are:
Nugent-Hopkins (30)
Hyman (31)
Kane (32)
Brown (29)
That’s all well and good for this season and probably next, but by ’25-26 you have old vets who will be middle-6 talents. It’s at that point you need Bourgault, Petrov, or Holloway to step up and deliver as top-line wingers.
I think at some point down the road we’ll see Nuge and Hyman as the basis for the third line and various young guys rotating through the top six winger spots in much the same way as Pittsburgh has with Jeff Carter moving down the lineup and Rust/Rakell will by the end of their contracts. There seems to always be a Daniel Sprong type player available every year so the Oilers could bring in young second liners pretty easily but they’ll need someone to emerge (like Guentzel did) every once in awhile to keep the top end together.
Well Jay and Holland are scared to play young Forward talent even if that player is sheltered. This has been Holland’s MO his whole career except Larkin who slipped thru the cracks. I wonder how many Cups Detroit wins without the Red Army CCCP all stars and no Cap. (Unsure if Detroit’s 3rd Cup was in the Cap era) It’s a gruelling regular season you need young talent crashing and banging in the corners and in front of the net.
Cup number 3 and the cup finals loss the next year were both in a cap world. I think Holland has a bad rep for young players but you have to remember had (and played) Zetterberg at 21, Datsyuk at 23. His 2008 winner had a 23 year old Jiri Hudler and Valteri Fillpula play big minutes with a 20 year old Darren Helm playing 18/23 playoff games. Defenceman Jiri Fischer played 214 games and won a Stanley cup before his 22nd birthday. Holland will play players who are good and who are ready.
Holland had Holloway up almost all season long (and expressed prior to the season he needs to play top 9 if he was in the NHL) – his deployment is on the coach, not the GM – the GM kept him on the team.
Lavoie had never performed in the AHL to a level where he was a reasonable NHL option, not until the last 3/5 of this past season.
He played well enough to earn a call-up if it was reasonable to do so. Of course, it wasn’t reasonable to do so give, well, the Oilers were rolling as the best team in the NHL (for 2-months) and chasing 1st place. No need to even get in the cap implications and the need to move a player off the roster, etc.
Bourgault has not earned an NHL roster spot – I think that is clear.
Your right there’s no one to call-up because Holland trades half our picks every year. Example-Mike Green did not want to come to Edmonton why burn the pick. That still pisses me off to this day.
Jesus man, they have Ekholm and Kulak on the roster to show for the various picks, plus post-deadline contributions from Bjugstad, Kulikov and the like.
Mike Green for a 4th was an remarkably standard deadline trade. Green got injured in his 2nd game so he didn’t play much. He apparently also has some weird susceptibility to viral illness, so when covid happened a few weeks later he decided to retire rather than play in the bubble. The guy Detroit got with the pick, goalie Jan Bednar, just posted a .874 SV% in 10 QMJHL games in his final season, and seems not to have been offered a contract by Detroit or anyone else.
I know the story Green played 2 games and said Fuk this shit I’m going home to the family. Keith trade was another waste like the deal hinged on the 3rd rounder Sather didn’t have to burn picks while fleecing fellow G.M’s yet he got more than useful players like Linesman, Pat Hughes (I was at the game he scored 5 he could of had 8) Kevin McClelland, Marty McSorely the list goes on for a half hour.
I think Duncan Keith provided some more value to the org in his one season (and continuing off-ice role) than Jeremy Langlois, who the Hawks took with the pick – of note, neither Langlois or any player taken after him in that draft have played an NHL game.
Sooooo, to your point that Holland trading picks has led to the org having noone to call up, well, your counter posts continue to be absolutely irrelevant.
I’m also not convinced that anything Sather did back in the 80s has any relevance to current to acquisitions – as much as you long for the decades of old.
So, you would rather keep mid-round draft picks than to acquire depth for the playoffs and try to improve?
Not of the picks Holland has traded have had any impact on potential call ups since – none
The Ekholm deal was good the Bjugstad was a big waste should of traded for some grit instead of a pussy Goliath. Hears a thought play the kid Holloway who would of loved crashing and banging against the rough and tough 4th line of Vegas.
Your level of repetitive stridency is matched only by your utter inability to write with even a token nod toward grammar.
There, their, they’re. These words/contractions mean different things. The phrase you so constantly butcher is “should have” NOT “should of”, or “then” when you mean “than”…. and so on and so on.
If you are going to insist on unrelenting vitriol, please have the decency to write in such a way that doesn’t invoke finger nails on a chalkboard.
Never show your Weakness.
The Bjugstad bet was reasonable and justifiable at the time, Holland rigging the cap so it would work. Looking back you don’t make the deal because a good prospect was given and Stanley wasn’t secured. That’s not how life works though. You have to fire your bullets when the opportunity is there and live with the results.
I was expecting some Physicality from Bjugstad but in his defence you have to take into consideration that rentals are free agents looking to get paid by another team in the off-season. These players can’t afford injuries that’s why I hate rentals. The Ekholm deal was a hockey trade this is how you use your draft picks not on rentals scared of giving 100% and risk getting hurt.
Pending UFAs are known for giving less of an effort? Seems a little, well, not based in reality.
Of note: Bjugstad was 2nd on the Oilers in hits/60 at 5 on 5 in the regular season AND the playoffs.
Holloway was injured at the trade deadline – ironically for your post, effed his shoulder up on a fairly inconsequential hit.
Of note, Bjugstad was 2nd among forwards in hits/60 in the regular season (at 5 on 5)/
As an aside, again, your post is irrelevant to your original point re: trading picks by Holland has led to no call-up options
This could be Leon’s last year you can sugar-coat and put pink sprinkles on it all you want but in the real world it’s results that matter. Bjugstad was a bad deal are you know saying it isn’t, pick a side get off the fence for once.
Ken Holland is not Glen Sather, though they are both in the HHOF.
It’s true Sather didn’t ‘burn picks’ to trade for those players. He burned legitimate NHLers instead. Linesman was traded for Risto Siltanen who’d just scored 63 points in 63 games. Hughes was traded for Pat Price. McClelland was traded for Tom Roulston. And McSorely was traded for Gilles Meloche who played a few more years in Pittsburgh.
Not to suggest Sather didn’t win those trades, but he paid real value in them (more than the 3rd and 4th round picks you’re lamenting today).
And that’s a remarkably uncharitable take on Green once Covid hit. Presumably you’re aware that he had half a previous season with some sort of viral illness. “Fuk this shit I’m going home to the family” isn’t close to fair on what happened.