WildCard

We barely saw it though I have little interest in seeing a 19 year old Mittelstadt center our 2nd line

I still say flip Reinhart, Okposo, and Mittelstadt.

Can Boogie play in a system designed around team ball though?

You'd really be surprised by Reinhart getting that? Huh, kinda figured he'd at least get that, considering Bozak just got that Afford cap wise or asset wise?

Every scouting report refers to his skating as a work in progress and something he needs to improve on Our top centers going forward are Eichel and Mittelstadt. Both are very fast. I would like someone that can keep up with them. Vegas forwards were fast. One of the reasons they ran through the west was they ran around slower teams like the Kings and Sharks

Basically. Not to mention I'm pretty sure the Islanders don't have the picks to even afford Nylander. Or that Nylander himself would have to want to leave Toronto

You forget, we still have to pay Reinhart. More likely around $8M free, which barely covers Ryan alone right now. I would love to be in on Karlsson. Even without Ryan, I think we can package the SJ and St.Louis Blues' 1st for him

@NicholsOnHockey Friedman: "I had a general manager say to me yesterday... 'I will bet you my house that the Islanders are going to offer-sheet someone in Toronto.'"

I want to say they're going to have to either take players back or stop tying Ryan to him, but Melnyk wants to dump money now. Only way he takes cap/money back is if it comes off the books in 2 years

@brianlawton9 Hearing that Calvin de hann has identified 4 clubs that would be excellent organizations to join. A return to @NYIslanders or joining @NYRangers #devils #stars he is expected to sign a multi year deal today! @NHLNetwork

If they're still trying to anchor Bobby Ryan to him, what team can even afford the price tag of Karlsson trade wise, plus the $18M+ cap hit that comes with those two combined?

Come on now

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1013896593018359808

Can't seem to find them. Can you post the tweets?

Thornton back to the Sharks on a 1 year deal http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/23977986/joe-thornton-stays-san-jose-sharks-1-year-deal

At this point if they don't make the ECF that city will burn to the ground. I know it's a small thing to take pleasure in out of all of this, but the expectations and pressure on that team will be insanely high

Real solid post IKP, very well done I addressed all of those in subsequent posts. Besides the burying Moulson part, which I do like

What moves did I neglect to mention? If you have to pick comfortable or not with his talent evaluation, which is it? I get it's right to say 'well let's wait and see', but I mean come on we're on a message board, not a press conference

Exactly. This is the antithesis of a prospect report I want to read on a guy coming back The league is dominated by speed. Sure you need balance in contract money and skill level, but you can and should 10000% have a fast team, especially in your top 6, and that's apparently where Thompson is gonna slot

Thompson is highly regarded? Kyrou and Thomas are highly regarded, Thompson wasn't even in their top 5. He's viewed consistently by analysts as a slow footed guy who maybe is a 2nd liner at some point. He's got more than some flaws, he also doesn't have a ton of potential I'm never going to give a GM credit for signing draft picks by a previous regime. He did nothing to earn that decision making other than 'oh look these guys actually turned out, neat.' UPL is nice, and yeah he got rid of Fasching, nice. He got rid of one prospect I don't like and brought in 2 more I don't like. Not great. I liked the Pilut move, for sure Are they important steps? Sure, don't see why they're not. Listen I'd feel so much better about him if O'Reagan and Thompson weren't the two prospects we got back. But, they are. We emptied our cupboard and restocked it with boxed soup. Sure it's way too early to evaluate the draft. But I'm not gonna wait 4 years to come back and address it on the board when it's 100% certain. All I can say right now is I just wasn't a fan Yes, I did not like Samuelsson. I don't like big bodied, slow guys. And that's what Thompson and Samuelsson are I liked the Scandella trade. We still also have Pomminstein. Granted he comes off in a year anyways, so maybe not a huge selling point in my favor

I will say this for Botterill: with him gone, Rutherford has been turning Pittsburgh into a clown show As for the bold, Bergevin and Chiarelli have one of those top 31 jobs too. Not only that, but Chiarelli has been hired for one of those 31 jobs by multiple teams, and Bergevin holds one in the most demanding market in the entire world, and has held it for a long time.

1) Traded for Balloon 2) Targeted Tage Thompson and Danny O'Reagan as the principle/only prospects back, for a rebuilding team, in return for two of our best players 3) Drafted lumbering Samuelsson. Similarly, Tage Thompson is a big, lumbering guy 4) I didn't like his draft this year 5) He brought back Berglund and Sobotka as the big pieces for RoR. Two guys the Blues have been trying to ditch for awhile 6) Pomminstein 7) The only attempt at addressing the top 6 by Botterill so far? Trading for Connor Sheary.

1) He addressed goalie and defensive depth, not exactly hard things to do to sign a UFA goalie and trade for spare defensive parts around the league. We have no idea if Pilut or others will even work out; his first attempt with Balloon sure as hell didn't 2) Signing players you need to sign, most of which are draft picks he didn't even draft, again isn't impressive at all. What's the alternative, just to not sign them? Why are we giving this guy any credit for following the only steps available to him anyways? He had two prime assets and got garbage prospects back. We lost a two top 6 players and received a collection of 3rd round talent and two 1sts back. And look at his draft picks. Mittelstadt and Dahlin were givens. What other picks has he made that really impressed you. Mekar?

What about his moves makes you feel like you can trust his talent evaluation?

With Portugal out they're who I'm rooting for