2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Nazrark]

Seriously that was sick. Top line was on fire, second line was on fire, Ramo was in it, the D was solid. Where was this team a month ago? Fuck.

The sad part is that the Pacific is so shit right now, even with how bad they've been, they're still within a pair of games of the playoffs lol.

Sportsnet showed a stat where Calgary for the past 6 seasons has been terrible out of the gate. Hey, better that they start picking up their game now and get back into it instead of fighting half way into the season to try and get into it.

[Tradewind]

Sportsnet showed a stat where Calgary for the past 6 seasons has been terrible out of the gate. Hey, better that they start picking up their game now and get back into it instead of fighting half way into the season to try and get into it.

Yeah I'm excited to see what happens next game lol.

[Zeoni]

I think Panarin is eligible since theyre talking about him being the front runner with Mcdavid down. Hes lightning it up playing with Kane

[Stommped]

I think Panarin is eligible since theyre talking about him being the front runner with Mcdavid down. Hes lightning it up playing with Kane

I could've swore that our local announcers were talking about he wasn't eligible in their first broadcast of the season, but I I'm not 100% on that.

[draynay]

other guys have come from the KHL to win the Calder and the maximum age is 26 which he falls under

[Zeoni]

Not in a long time at least, pretty sure the age rule was made because some Flames prospect was like 30 and won the Calder lol

[draynay]

Sergei Makarov, that was as the Cold War was ending and they foresaw more red army vets coming over. Guys like Malkin played in the KHL, remember?

[Stommped]

Yeah but didn't Malkin play only 1 year over there before being drafted? Panarin played like 6 and was never even drafted

[VanillaO]

Ken Holland just signed Abdelkader to a 7 year, 4.25M AAV contract. The guy will be 36 when this contract is up. After starting with 5 points in 2 games, he has 2 points in 13 games since. His career high in points is 44. His career points/game is around 0.33. This is almost Water Bottle Police Clarkson level of what the fuck are you thinking. I understand maybe if you give him good linemates, he can produce a bit, but holy fuck...

[draynay]

They must be hoping the cap goes up a lot, Abdelkader could be worth that much over 3 years so 3rd line wings better be worth $4 mil pretty soon.

[Stommped]

Bryan Bickell got 4MM AAV, if you were his agent would you accept less than that? I agree though 7 years does seem like a crazy long contract for him.

[Reg]

other guys have come from the KHL to win the Calder and the maximum age is 26 which he falls under

But he has played in like 2 seasons at 50+ games, and I think there is a maximum amount of games you can play in another professional league to be eligible.

[Tradewind]

This season is more disappointing than my son.

[VanillaO]

Don't look now, but the Toronto Centraldestroyers are on fire...ish.

[Nazrark]

Don't look now, but the Toronto Centraldestroyers are on fire...ish.

It would be something if the only team that has consistent success against the central is Toronto.

[Armourboy]

We haven't really played all that well for several games. Our top two lines haven't done a thing, the third hasn't done much either. Our one bright spot has been the 4th, which is made up of rookies because of injuries. Thankfully our D corp is freaking insane. ( 4 of the 6 scored in the Ottawa game)

Lavi seems to be unwilling to make line changes in the top 6, which is weird because neither have been that strong all season. Really think Fisher's style doesn't mesh well with Forsberg and Neal, and Rib's style doesn't work well with Smith and Wilson. Forsberg and Neal really need a setup guy, and that ain't really Fisher's game.

[VanillaO]

You guys will be fine. That D core is disgusting, and you have the cap space and prospects to make a big trade (hell you could probably even bamboozle someone into taking Weber off your hands for a looooot of prospects to make up for giving up prospects for a big name Centre). Not the best of ideas, but he's not going to get much better from this point forward. Better to trade him in his prime than a year after it. Should trade him to Philly just for the laugh.

[Zeoni]

landeskog is so low key goon

[Armourboy]

You guys will be fine. That D core is disgusting, and you have the cap space and prospects to make a big trade (hell you could probably even bamboozle someone into taking Weber off your hands for a looooot of prospects to make up for giving up prospects for a big name Centre). Not the best of ideas, but he's not going to get much better from this point forward. Better to trade him in his prime than a year after it. Should trade him to Philly just for the laugh.

Weber isn't going anywhere I don't think. The recapture penalty would eat us alive if he won a couple and retired early. The secondary problem is that while we have a nasty D, we have absolutely nothing behind them. Bitteto is horrid and we are doing everything we can to hold on to him to keep from putting him on waivers, because as bad as he is, he is still miles ahead of anything we have in the AHL.

If we trade anything it will be forwards, as crazy as that sounds. We have a log jam of 2nd/3rd/4th line guys that really need to move up, we simply have nowhere for them to go. At this point I wouldn't even be against trading Fiala, I'm not sure the kid is going to be able to get his head on straight.

I think a trade probably will be made at some point though. When Nystrom and Gaustad get back they have some serious decisions to make. Watson, Salomaki, and Sissons have all played pretty well and frankly deserve a longer term shot in the NHL.

[Deleted]

To add to that: In today's NHL you do not trade franchise players, especially not when they are in their prime. Yeah, you are going to reap a windfall of assets but you just gave away the central building block of your team. You want to grab as much of their prime as you possible can and only trade them away after that.
Almost all winning teams are built around a very few elite players with some supporting cast around them. If you happen to have one of those and you see any even remotely reasonable shot at a cup you don't trade them away. You only do that if for some reason you are going to grenade the whole operation and start a rebuild.