Thorner

Not just best on team. Samuelsson is the best defender in the known universe. That’s what that tweet would have you believe - - - Advanced stats marks do argue differently, fwiw. And there’s the card

I’m starting to think Adams leans, like maybe perhaps a tad, ever so slightly to the conservative side of the spectrum.

Samuelsson is “complimentary” in thats he’s a real life human nhl body who can physically exist beside DahlIn, sure. He had the skill set to be capably assigned very limited duties on pair 1 because Dahlin holds most of it down, facilitating a player of Samuelsson’s ability being able complete the pair: we can ask so little of him. But again, what I took issue with was when you said Samuelsson “allows” Dahlin to be Dahlin. He doesn’t. Samuelsson, in particular, isn’t providing or unlocking anything your league average NHL defender doesn’t (I believe metrically he was below, actually). He’s assigned the duties we don’t lump onto Dahlin, so, sure, the assignments “allow” Dahlin to focus on being Dahlin. We can assign those duties to any second pair defender who’s actually a second pair defender “Look how much better Dahlin is without an ECHLer in Bryson tanking his stats. Samuelsson is the perfect compliment.” Ya, like, he’s perfect because he’s actually a good NHL player lol. *he did not provide stellar D*. He didn’t even provide GOOD D. What exactly is he complimenting Dahlin with, particularly? Actually asking. Point me to an actual stat that illustrates his value or something he’s first pair quality at - like actually, please create a statistics based argument for what he did at a first pair level, or even for what he provided that any other actual 2nd pair quality player might not provide. Not a rank, minuscule sized, correlation dominated, short stretch of overall team record Samuelsson did not provide anything special last season. Go argue with the stats. Or go figure out how strong and powerful Barbie is, whichever. You’re wildly off the mark on both

An exceedingly small sample size, you mean, where both correlation and causation are very quite clearly at play as options? Where only correlation can be considered the reasoned explanation because there isn’t a single other available statistical indicator that points to Samuelsson providing anything *close* to the value that one, single, anomalific outlier suggests? When there is only one potential indicator in his favour, and it’s easily explained by correlation, it’s correlation. The reason the record suffered so much during that stretch, aside from small sample size randomness, is a commentary on HOW BAD our depth D replacements were, that, even to a borderline 2nd pair quality player, maybe closer to ideally third pair, there was a chasm of a gap. - - - Of course complimentary skill sets are a thing: but the distinction here was the use of “allow” which I take to mean “facilitates “, which is something different. It’s not a small segment of the online population that thinks Samuelsson specifically was the key to not only unlocking Dahlin’s success, but, like you alluded to, hangs their hats continually on the stat of what our record was with him missing for a stretch, to the extent of literally making a case for Samuelsson being the team’s MVP last year. It’s not uncommon, I’ve seen it a lot here too, and posters were formulating arguments last season that, given the choice for 1 game, we’d sooner remove Dahlin from the lineup than Samuelsson Sooner remove one of the best hockey players in the world. In favour of Mattias Samuelsson. i dunno if we are grading on a curve or some such but it’s certainly lost the plot

Nah. There’s nothing wrong with fans liking splashy moves and hoping their GM has the aptitude to pull them off. Splashy need not have a negative connotation There are a multitude of proven, viable strategies. And also plenty of examples of those strategies being bastardized all comes down to who the captain of the enterprise is, who’s steering the ship. At the end of the day, the fans have tried asking and hoping for every possible scenario under the sun for over a decade and none have panned out, what we want doesn’t make a difference because we don’t make the decisions. We are the consumer: it’s up to the franchise, and only the franchise, to provide a product worth our time and energy

More variants around here than the MCU at this point

Both I guess? But the D looks pretty good to me tbh

Mentioned this last year a few times: He’s an ass. Didn’t really notice that till this past year. Players on other teams don’t like him and his shining blonde flow. He took too many penalty minutes in the name of being an ass. I hope he never changes. He kinda really is like a better offensively Victor Hedman

Ultimately KA’s evaluation comes down to DID he get them into the playoffs

We aren’t soft. Skinner is rigid

Samuelsson “allowing Dahlin to do his thing” is a frequently repeated misnomer: It’s Dahlin, as an elite talent, that facilitates a player of Samuelsson’s limited ability being able to fill a role adequately on an NHL top pair. I ask you: is Samuelson adequately slotted on pair one if the other defender merely provided average 1st pair offence and average first pair D? Why would we be comfortable with a player who grades out as Samuelsson does (well, well below average first pair offence, ~2nd pair quality D) on pair 1, with said player? We’d want an upgrade. Samuelsson isn’t allowing Dahlin to do anything, this cannot be stressed enough. There isn’t a single notable aspect Samuelsson is equal to Dahlin in Samuelsson is functional on pair one purely because his pair is buoyed by one of the best hockey players in the world Dahlin is Barbie. Samuelsson is simply Kenough

It makes seizing a spot for Rousek/Savoie/Kulich more difficult? Or maybe his terms are weird since no one has grabbed him? I have no idea though

Some say KA was too “status quo” with the forwards this offseason. Other people say, saliently imo, the improvement will come from internally. Icing a rook for Quinn just realistically replaces a little bit of internal improvement with a little bit more status quo: and that’s if the new young un matches what Quinn committed to record which was closer to a Reinhart rookie season than anything else. No assured task

Absolutely not ruling that out. If we get really lucky, one this season could even be the “new Quinn”. The issue for me is I was penciling in “Improved Quinn” this season

“Are you frightened?!” ”Yes.” ”Not nearly frightened enough. I know what hunts you.”

We could have done more at F. I feel like we’ve done needlessly little. I wouldn’t say anything if not for Quinn. Actually fairly surprised we just kinda went “oh well.” A little proactiveness couldn’t have hurt, no?? Like, we don’t need to Tim Murray out, I promise lol. But the slow play strategy can’t even replace the guys we DID think we needed? There’s little imagination and on the fly adjustment we’ll see how that bears out in the years that follow. Something interesting to keep an eye on. Everything that goes to plan is good, because the plan is good what about speed bumps? Can we maneuver? can we drive

Totally. Ya my comment isn’t informed by anything anti greenway. I just think we might do him dirty

We’ve got 10 good forwards All that “stacked” at F stuff was somewhat overblown when we HAD Quinn, it’s simply off the mark, now Adams apparently retreating to “next rookie up” THAT quickly, with so much time to find a legit replacement (again, at least so far) is pretty weird and pretty disappointing, let’s be real for a moment We were *counting* on Quinn, and didn’t add a guy who we could even theoretically count on to an even comparable degree its odd at best and needlessly defeatist at worst

He’s a third scoring line player (which can be very useful) and we don’t have the pieces to form a third scoring line, because we didn’t (at least not yet) bother replacing Quinn, and went bargain bin hunting to fill out the 12th man role by bringing back Jost Can he fill in capably on line 2? Probably? Hopefully? I don’t have him losing minutes really, just shuffling around instead. If he’s mainstay on line 2, then Peterka is the marooned player with Jost and VO

I understand it’s two people but im going to pretend it’s the best ever nhl name instead

Who’s Bussi Murray

I think we might be headed this way tbh, good post We can put together 3 more/less ideal lines for what you’d ask of them, and conversely we have a mismatched, spare parts 4th and final line. They might just not use one. If Krebs is with KO and Girgs, there’s no one to even bother forming a “3rd scoring line” for. Might as well sub a fresh Greenway and Jost into lines as they see fit and keep the 3 running skinner - Tage - tuch Mittelstadt - Cozens - Peterka Girgs - Krebs - KO - - - Subbing in VO onto any of those 3 probably torpedoes those lines, and how likely are Greenway and Jost of all people to be able, then, to buck that trend? Just seems pointless to ice an Olofsson - Jost - Greenway line or some such, other than to give the other 3 lines a breather

I still like the ROR deal

Ranked 87th and 92 lol total ass https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm It’s such an gimme area for easy upgrade that we continually pass on, or fail at - - - Look at Anderson’s numbers. They KNEW he’d be way better, that’s why they brought him back. Even though they knew he’d be super limited. That they knew it and didn’t pay for better is one of the biggest indicators that my theory Adams draws hard line evaluations could be true

I think it’s huge. I think their goals saved above expected numbers were putrid last season, like ~ 60th place or something. (Which theoretically isn’t a stat that improves with better team D) Maybe even lower tbh. They aren’t poor starters, they were also poor backups