Happy Hump Day! I’m literally scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas on what to talk about so I thought that we could look at some HF boards trade proposals and then finish things off with some 2021 NHL draft prospect talk.
Mad Props!
To Ana:
P. Laine
To Wpg:
A. Henrique or R. Rakell
J. Manson
S. Steel or M. Jones
2nd round pick
My take: I don’t have a huge problem with the number of players being sent to Winnipeg. If I’m the Jets, I’m taking Rikard Rakell over Adam Henrique and Sam Steel over Max Jones though. I think getting that haul for Laine who’s surely going to be looking for around $8M-$10M on his next contract would get them back on the right track and it would be very interesting to see the big Finn and Trevor Zegras together on a line. Sam Steel is going to be a good middle-six center sooner than later and Josh Manson would really help shore up the right side of the Jets’ defence and with Jamie Drysdale possibly starting his NHL career immediately, the Ducks will need to make room.
To Blues:
Jesper Bratt
To Devils:
Vince Dunn
“Not a fan of either team, but I think this could be a win-win deal for both teams. The Devils’ wing depth isn’t bad as it stands, and they just drafted Holtz and Mercer who should be able to contribute at the NHL level in 1-3 years. Their LHD depth is pretty weak, (even with the addition for Murray), and Dunn would help out with that. The Blues just signed Krug, so it’s pretty reasonable to assume that Dunn isn’t untouchable. Thoughts?”
My take: I think this one doesn’t work. Ty Smith is on his way (he almost made the club last year) and the Devils need all the scoring they can get right now. Holtz might come in this year or next but I feel like Mercer is two or three years away. Both are multiple years from being impact NHLers as it stands.
To Arizona:
Logan Brown
Lassi
3rd RP
To Ottawa:
Nick Schmaltz
“I personally see Schmaltz as a great fit for the Sens being 24 he would fit right in. My belief Is Stutzle will be a C going forward so down the middle we would be set. Stutzle-Schmaltz-Norris”
My take: Arizona is leaking cash all over the place and personally, I think Schmaltz might be a bit overrated. Not saying he’s the worst hockey player in the world, I’m just not sure his production warrants his current contract. That said, this is probably the best the Coyotes could wish for in a trade to relieve themselves of Schmaltz’s financial burden. I don’t know if Logan Brown will be a no.1 center in the NHL but at worst I see a 3C in him and Thomson, in Arizona, with Soderstrom, that could be a fairly lethal pairing if all panned out for the Finnish defender.
Nick Schmaltz would walk onto the Sens roster and immediately fill the hole they have in their top-six at center. Sensfourlife’s Stutzle-Schmaltz-Norris projection is pretty good except they are forgetting about Colin White.
From user “JFH”:
To Montreal:
Tatar (re-signed) + Kulak/Mete + Struble (defense prospect)
For
To Nashville:
Ekholm
“Mtl still doesn’t have a top 1 LD and Nashville could use some firepower on the left wing to play with Duchene.”
My take: If I’m the Preds, I think I pass on this. Ekholm is too valuable to let go of with no real successor on the horizon. Besides, I’d be comfortable having Calle Jarnkrok play with Duchene until Eeli Tolvanen or Philip Tomasino was ready to take over.
As for the Habs, the line of Tatar-Danault-Gallagher is one of the best in the league from a possession POV. I’d want to ride that horse until it drops and I’m happy with the defence as it looks today with Ben Chiarot and Shea Weber on the first pair, Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry on the second pair, and Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov, and Victor Mete rotating on the third.
This last one is from me, user “BLH”:
To Edmonton:
Darcy Kuemper
2nd round pick (Nashville)
Conditional 2022 draft pick (Arizona)
To Arizona:
Pekka Rinne
1st round pick (Edmonton)
To Nashville:
Mikko Koskinen
Kyle Capobianco
Edmonton sends its 2021 first-round pick to Arizona for Darcy Kuemper and Kyle Capobianco, then moves Mikko Koskinen and Capobianco to Nashville for Pekka Rinne and a 2nd rounder, but turns around and flips Rinne to Arizona for a conditional draft pick.
Why would Arizona move Kuemper and Capobianco? Down the line, it saves them over $4M in salary because Kuemper has another year on his deal.
Why would Edmonton move Koskinen and a first-round pick? They have to move a goalie out and Mike Smith isn’t going anywhere. It needs to be Koski and his $4M+ contract going out to fit Kuemper in. The first-rounder simply seals the deal with the Coyotes who are without one in 2021 and they get a second-rounder from Nashville to “make up for it”. The bet is on the Predators having a poor season thus netting Edmonton a pick that is closer to the first round and the other half of that is Edmonton having a good season so that the first they sent to Arizona is more like a second.
Why would the Predators trade an icon like Rinne? Because they’ll lose him for nothing when he goes back to Finland in the off-season. This way, they get a goalie for another year who is a Finnish giant, much like Pekka, and they also get a young left-shot d-man with some size who can move the puck and is ready to be a full-time NHLer. I don’t get the feeling that this team is fully behind Juuse Saros either and the transition to Yaro Askarov will take place in 2-3 seasons as it is.
I hate writing these proposals out because I always feel like I’m missing something obvious… I’m sure Original Pouzar will let me know where I’ve gone astray though, right OP?
Let’s Talk About Some 2021 Draft Prospects
I’ve been test-driving the InStats program out lately and I’ve had the chance to check out some of the top prospects for the upcoming draft. Now, some of the players I had to watch some iso packs from last year and some were from this year but I’ve only watched one game for each of the five that I’m going to talk about. So it’s a small sample to make a judgment from but every one of them left an impression on me and that’s what I’d like to share with you.
The way I’d describe this player is that he “cuts” his way around the ice. Just the fashion that he gets around is so surgical. He’s very fast and I found that he didn’t shy away from the mucky areas. In fact, he was quite eager to get into the corner and retrieve the puck and his shot is an absolute laser too. He has silky hands but I didn’t find him to be a dangler per se. A pure finisher he is. Guenther reminds me a bit of Jake Guentzel I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n5sto1-CfE
Viktor Hedman. That’s who I see here with Power. He is so bloody big and I’m not even sure if he’s done growing. I will say this though, I was expecting Chris Pronger when I watched him but either he doesn’t have that mean streak in him or the other team wasn’t interested in getting him riled up. He didn’t lay anybody out with big hits in my viewing but he was quite good at controlling where the offending puck carrier would go. He did get caught with some poorly-timed pinches early on in the game, but his size, reach, and long stride mitigated any risk. I was curious how he’d fare against the competition at the NCAA level, but he put up three points over the weekend in his debut for Michigan so that answers that.
Michigan's Owen Power showing off some of his expansive skill set. Impressive for someone with that stature. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/viq4CPURUH
— Stars n’ Stripes Hockey (@StarsStripesHKY) November 16, 2020
Think Darnell Nurse but with Erik Karlsson’s offensive acumen. His mobility is fascinating to watch and he utilizes it so well. The way he goes about the ice is so smooth too. Edvinsson’s skating is top-notch in that there’s a lot of power to generate speed as well as a certain lightness. Meaning, his footwork is so good that he doesn’t get caught much. He’s also an outstanding passer. Whether that was a bomb from behind the net or a simple 5-foot lead pass to a rushing forward. Everything was on the tape. He’s obviously offensively-oriented and in his own end, I would say he’s got similar issues to Oilers prospect Philip Broberg. He kinda gets caught out sometimes. So that will be something he’ll need to work on.
https://twitter.com/NHLPC/status/1322238337386717187
I went into my viewing of Raty knowing that he had been struggling a bit with the Men’s side at Karpat, so I watched a game of his at the u20 level to see how he performs vs. his peers. I thought at the beginning of the match that he wasn’t really displaying anything Earth-shattering but as the game wore on he started to find his mojo. I get Mark Scheifele vibe from him. He has pillow-soft hands but he plays a hard two-way game, nearing on power-forward-like. He railroaded some poor unsuspecting defenceman in this game with aplomb. When Raty gathers the puck, he has the ability to go end-to-end or to hold onto the puck and skate around the o-zone, but I didn’t see that a lot. Instead, he liked to pass it off and move into a better position. An interesting observation I found is when he’s gathering speed, he does it like Eric Lindros used to. In that, he hops into his cross-overs to generate power and speed.
Out of all the players I watched, Lysell was by far my favorite. He’s so electrifying on the ice and reminds me very much of Pavel Bure. It could’ve been the big ice or the other team’s refusal to mark him closer but he was rewarded with so much open ice to wind-up on and he took full advantage. The speed is breath-taking and his edgework… Good Lord… Someone is going to get themselves a human highlight-reel when they draft this guy. Even when things slowed down in the offensive zone, he was zipping around, getting in the muck, and battling for the puck. He’s got an edge to his game similar to what Bure had. On the PP, he had Edvinsson feeding him the puck as he sat and made plays from the left-dot. There he also showed off his one-timer and very solid wrister. He’s going to be a good one I think.
They say this 2021 draft is the year of the defenceman as players like Brandt Clarke, Carson Lambos, Luke Hughes, and Carson Ceulemans will join Owen Power and Simon Edvinson as challengers for the 1st overall pick. In fact, we might only see one forward selected in the top five or seven.
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