Thorner

Tuch had a sick year passing the puck And Skinner, too As you rightly point out, the top line is the real deal, right now. bird in hand

I got this already!

It is?

This is goldilocks Though we def need “probably will be successful” and “probably won’t be” threads I agree with this to a T, and thought the same thing about UPL(and posted as much) when we didn’t play him to end the year at all

Ya like a D isn’t going to win the Norris if he’s playing on a team with a D man that has more points. Not saying there couldn’t be a reasoned argument to be made but I’d say there’s seemingly no chance if Power wins before Dahlin let’s be real: it’ll be facilitated in large part due to a Dahlin injury. Which in fact will aid Power’s narrative

Ya championships are super, at least often overrated in determining the greats I think Considering it’s a team accomplishment. ESPECIALLY in something like hockey

Rightly or wrongly, (ie, small sample size bias may apply) current perception was swayed heavily by Jack’s performance in the playoffs and make no mistake, it was electric. Had arguably the best playoffs of any player being truly dominant at both ends of the ice, during the most critical time you’d want a guy to do it, against EXTREME physicality (we all saw the Tkachuk hit) which actually minimizes the sample season concern. Look, I’m the Jack guy. But even I was impressed. I take 2023 playoffs Eichel if I want to win 1 game before I take the Thompson is saw this past year, and he was indeed great ymmv

That’s a good point and honestly is kinda cool That’s a good point and honestly is kinda cool It literally won’t let me edit out the double post on my phone so there ya go

It’s so weird. The new mantra of choice is 2 birds in the bush is better than 1 in hand

Technically Botterill hired Granato unless I’m mistaken. IIRC Adams retrained Krueger before firing him and promoting Granato. So good job there in the end

So the other teams will look to improve, too? They won’t just roll over and die, granting us a playoff spot? You gotta MAKE it happen.

This is a sick trade for the Pens. Just sick. Jealous of their fans a tad Their window is still wide open. Anyone can go peruse Sid’s stats. he’s still goating it up, maybe better then ever 2-way

The very very best teams and the very very worst teams are exactly the spots most likely to find players committing outlier statistics to record at least relative to the role we MAY ask of them, when extrapolating the numbers I’m losing titles at a Ric Flair rate

preach

“Going” bald lol right

He finished 8th in points for centres last year and his D isn’t anything to write home about, so this seems fair. Considering he only did it for 1 year so far, I’m quite happy with the ranking tbh

You really think he can match Dahlin offensively one day? I can’t see it but I’d certainly take it

I get lumped into stormcloud sometimes so speaking on behalf of anyone I represent: I’m not firing KA if we miss. Regardless of how. If we miss again the following year: he should be fired, also regardless of how. If you are the GM for 5 years and can’t get in the playoffs once, you are a poor GM. I don’t care how good you look relative to the bums we’ve had: he’d be definitively below league average if we can’t make the dance 50% of teams make, once in 5 years. Pick a better plan if that’s the case, jeepers sakes.

Bazinga

See bolded below (in weave’s post) and just to add to weave’s great post

This is exactly why Dahlin will always have competition as our “best” d-man, in perception, and it’s the same sort of thinking that had people saying absurdly that Samuelsson, somehow, was our best defensive D last year. Because he provided no offense at all his D must have been otherworldly and Dahlin’s D must lack because he’s great on O. It’s all utterly erroneous. Dahlin was *head and shoulders* our best at ACTUAL d last year (check the statistics if you care) and Power has a HELL of a ways to go to match Dahlin there. Frankly, we may never even get to the spot where we are comparing their offense Dahlin was better defensively at 18 on a terrible team after COMING OVER FROM EUROPE than home grown Canadian Power (who I love as a player) was at TWENTY on a much better team. This is insane. These players are worlds apart because Dahlin is everything they said he was. Looks like Power will be everything they said, too. But that’s kind of my point.

- He was right about the culture needing a major shake up. (I was also wrong about this ftr). This alone is a pretty significant factor to his credit. It’s resulted in a franchise that, while I wouldn’t proclaim to necessarily be “set up for sustained success”, undoubtedly looks stabilized, which is a significant thing. Of vital importance. It would be exceptionally disappointing if this apparent stability was ever squandered one day, regardless of if KA has moved on. The stability should be a lasting credit to his name. - the jump from the season ending in ‘22 to the one ending in ‘23 represents one half of the journey to bonafide playoff mainstay. I know the raw points gained would indicate a greater leap than half, but sample size needs to be a consideration when “mainstay’ is used and also because I believe the last points are hardest to get: and the most meaningful. - I’m on the fence re: his use of them as currency but by early/medium returns he’s a good drafter of prospects / assembled a good draft team (just as impressive) -He seems to do quite well in the trades he does make: regardless of how crucial the deal. I’d say I could stand to see him make more, but I suppose that’s the other thread

I admittedly cringe just at “2027”, and though I’m actively worried we damage our window in the pursuit of chasing it: the ceiling, undoubtedly, looks rather staggering

Though I undoubtedly and admittedly am full of “it”, or something derogatory no doubt, we’ve almost never seen eye to eye, so it doesn’t really surprise me our perspectives differ here. You frequently take disagreement with the strategy to be ignorance. Frankly the perception I come away with from most threads is exactly what I originally said. But like I also said, it SHOULD be positive. That’s deserved imo. I share much of it. As I said originally, there are certain posts from certain posters that feel very much like policing. I reference mostly ones directly responding to me but also just what I’ve seen to an extent I don’t get as hung up on Nill’s posts, which also probably makes a difference