Will someone explain the get him in early side of the discussion?I'm confused.

BlueinNy wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:28 pm Will someone explain the get him in early side of the discussion?I'm confused.

I am guessing the argument is, if you get a handful of games under your belt, you'll have a better handle on how to prepare in offseason, come into training camp at some point beyond square one. The other part is, you remove any flight risk. Once signed, there's no temptation to stick around for another year of college and get one step closer to undrafted UFA status where you can pick whichever team you'd like.

Didn't Lindros blow the whole you have to play with us scenario out of the water?

Dave's a mess wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:34 pm

BlueinNy wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:28 pm Will someone explain the get him in early side of the discussion?I'm confused.

I am guessing the argument is, if you get a handful of games under your belt, you'll have a better handle on how to prepare in offseason, come into training camp at some point beyond square one. The other part is, you remove any flight risk. Once signed, there's no temptation to stick around for another year of college and get one step closer to undrafted UFA status where you can pick whichever team you'd like.

Wait, aren't you the one making the argument??

He's not going back to Minnesota, that's for sure.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 2:51 pm

Dave's a mess wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:34 pm

BlueinNy wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:28 pm Will someone explain the get him in early side of the discussion?I'm confused.

I am guessing the argument is, if you get a handful of games under your belt, you'll have a better handle on how to prepare in offseason, come into training camp at some point beyond square one. The other part is, you remove any flight risk. Once signed, there's no temptation to stick around for another year of college and get one step closer to undrafted UFA status where you can pick whichever team you'd like.

Wait, aren't you the one making the argument??

He's not going back to Minnesota, that's for sure.

Predicting, not advocating.

What a difference two wins makes over an entire season. If the Blues had squeezed out two more wins at any point their fortune would be way different right now.

CaptSMRT wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2024 1:43 pm What a difference two wins makes over an entire season. If the Blues had squeezed out two more wins at any point their fortune would be way different right now.

1st game of the season carries the same weight as the last.

BlueinNy wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2024 2:15 pm 1st game of the season carries the same weight as the last.

Forgive the baseball analogy, but I think this is true for most of life.

"Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay? There's 6 months in a season, that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week - just one - a gork... you get a groundball, you get a groundball with eyes... you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week... and you're in Yankee Stadium."
-- Crash Davis

This year is a disappointment for sure,especially with Binner playing lights out. I'll start the bitch session: Binnington, Neighbors, Thomas,Kessel ,Saad ,Torpedo, and leddy are the ones that can't go. The rest meh.

BlueinNy wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2024 2:15 pm 1st game of the season carries the same weight as the last.

Eh...The Blues losing the game to Nashville point value may have been the same as a random October loss but moral and momentum wise they do not carry the same weight.

BlueinNy wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 3:40 pm This year is a disappointment for sure,especially with Binner playing lights out. I'll start the bitch session: Binnington, Neighbors, Thomas,Kessel ,Saad ,Torpedo, and leddy are the ones that can't go. The rest meh.

Given the usual caveat that “Anyone is available for the right price,” I'd actually add:

Buchnevich: worth keeping and extending if possible (but PLEASE, no NTC!)
Kyrou: Not as down on him as most here are, I think he's got too much upside even at his price tag
Hofer: A good, cheap ($775 k) backup can be the difference a marginal team needs.
Dean: Haven't seen enough, but young with a lot of upside
Bolduc: Ditto
Parayko: I don't like the length of his contract, but big, right-shooting D-men who can skate are REAL hard to come by.

I wouldn't put Saad on the 'must keep' list, myself. LIKE to keep, sure, but he's going to be 32 at the start of next season and IF we were to trade him, his value is probably as high as it's going to be. If they have to deal Saad to re-sign Buch (who's turns 29 in April), I'd be OK with that.

I look at Saad being a veteran voice in the room, plus a 20 to 25 goal scorer is all.

I'm certainly hoping to keep Saad around, at least for a couple more years, exactly as you said, as a veteran presence in the locker room who still contributes significantly on the ice, and in clutch situations, too (witness last night).

Key assumptions:

If we subtract UFAs Scandella, Blais, Kapanen, and Vrana, that'll save us about $8.95 mil.
Sunny D gets a raise of $725 K.
We have just over $1 mil in cap space currently.
The cap is expected to go up by about $4.2 mil next season.

That leaves us about $13.4 mil of cap space to cover likely a couple of bottom-6 forward roles, a bottom pairing defenseman, and hopefully have some space the following year to extend Buchnevich.

Vrana and Scandella are almost certainly gone.
Kapanen is probably gone, unless he takes a substantial pay cut to stay. He's only 27, not a liability on the ice, and could still be a 35-40+ point guy in the middle 6, Could do worse, depending on the money.
Blais only makes about $1 mil and is only 27. Is he worth keeping on a one- or two-year contract, like Sunny?
Dean and Bolduc will likely replace two of the forwards for most of the season, but may not start up with the big club.
Does Perunovich stay?
Will Lindstein be able to make the team sometime during the year?
Is Dvorsky ready, or would we like him to at least start the season in Sudbury?
What about Snuggerud?

Overall, we'll likely have some room to maneuver this off-season, and the NTCs for Schenn, Saad, Faulk, Krug, and Leddy drop to “12-15 team lists” next off-season, providing even more flexibility.

Dang, Sunny D is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

big d note wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:19 pm Dang, Sunny D is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Bring up Blais and see if he can earn a two-way contract for next year?

RAFritchey wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:23 pm

big d note wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:19 pm Dang, Sunny D is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Bring up Blais and see if he can earn a two-way contract for next year?

Just play seven defensemen the rest of the season.

big d note wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:19 pm Dang, Sunny D is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

That sucks for him. Feel bad for what everyone says is a good guy.

Only positive is they can put him on LTIR next season and have his 1.5 cap space back.

So now that the die seems just about fully cast for this season, I went back and looked at the beginning of this thread. Some nice bits like DPW wondering if Sunny would sign here, an insightful post from a very handsome forum member commenting that this roster looks like the 5th best in the division, and some consistent energy from Bill imploring that this team would surprise and make the playoffs.

While we are revisiting this thread, it seemed a lot of people underestimated what Nashville did this offseason. Trotz came in and was determined last offseason to reestablish their identity that they had before. He did exactly that and they are currently reaping the rewards of it. It's something I hope Army looks to and attempts to do here because both offensively and defensively, this team has no identity. You may not be able to overhaul both in one offseason, but they need to at least pick on of them and focus on that this offseason.

ROR and DPW continue to be the man

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:18 pm

BillP. wrote: Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:04 pm

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

Added ROR and Nyqvist. What did the Blues do to make up those 11 points? Not saying the Blues can’t finish ahead of them was just commenting that I’m unsure how it can just be the expected outcome when the Blues weren’t close to them last year.

You could say ROR is done and it's addition by subtraction in unloading him on Nashville. ROR had 19 points in 40 games and was a minus 24.
And I don't think Nyqvist brings a whole lot either - JMO.
Blues are going to be good, you'll just have to wait and see to find out

I would strongly disagree that ROR is done. He's just turned 32 and had nearly a PPG in the regular season and postseason for Toronto. I certainly don't think he'll put up those kind of points in Nashville because it's a completely different system but I'm not sure that I'd consider him done. He's perfect for what they are looking to do. I thought it was a great addition for them, although I wouldn't have given him 4 years.

As long as they have Josi and Saros they are going to be good.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:55 am While we are revisiting this thread, it seemed a lot of people underestimated what Nashville did this offseason. Trotz came in and was determined last offseason to reestablish their identity that they had before. He did exactly that and they are currently reaping the rewards of it. It's something I hope Army looks to and attempts to do here because both offensively and defensively, this team has no identity. You may not be able to overhaul both in one offseason, but they need to at least pick on of them and focus on that this offseason.

ROR and DPW continue to be the man

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:18 pm

BillP. wrote: Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:04 pm


You could say ROR is done and it's addition by subtraction in unloading him on Nashville. ROR had 19 points in 40 games and was a minus 24.
And I don't think Nyqvist brings a whole lot either - JMO.
Blues are going to be good, you'll just have to wait and see to find out

I would strongly disagree that ROR is done. He's just turned 32 and had nearly a PPG in the regular season and postseason for Toronto. I certainly don't think he'll put up those kind of points in Nashville because it's a completely different system but I'm not sure that I'd consider him done. He's perfect for what they are looking to do. I thought it was a great addition for them, although I wouldn't have given him 4 years.

As long as they have Josi and Saros they are going to be good.

I thought (unless this thread says otherwise) Nashville would only make the playoffs if Saros was in God-mode all season. He's been good but the rest of the team has played much better than I thought. The Wild have been worse than expected.

Dave's a mess wrote: So now that the die seems just about fully cast for this season, I went back and looked at the beginning of this thread. Some nice bits like DPW wondering if Sunny would sign here, an insightful post from a very handsome forum member commenting that this roster looks like the 5th best in the division, and some consistent energy from Bill imploring that this team would surprise and make the playoffs.

I lost at least 40 goals from Vrana and Kapanen. I expected more firepower out of those 2. Considering those 2 were useless the whole season, the Blues hung on pretty good. And I wasn't the only one who expected Vrana to light it up this year. Dread??? And a few others too. Just sayin...........

BillP. wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:12 pm

Dave's a mess wrote: So now that the die seems just about fully cast for this season, I went back and looked at the beginning of this thread. Some nice bits like DPW wondering if Sunny would sign here, an insightful post from a very handsome forum member commenting that this roster looks like the 5th best in the division, and some consistent energy from Bill imploring that this team would surprise and make the playoffs.

I lost at least 40 goals from Vrana and Kapanen. I expected more firepower out of those 2. Considering those 2 were useless the whole season, the Blues hung on pretty good. And I wasn't the only one who expected Vrana to light it up this year. Dread??? And a few others too. Just sayin...........

I don't think I predicted Vrana to do anything specific, but open to be corrected. I certainly hoped his off ice issues were behind him and he had to potential to pot 20-30 for this team. Needless to say he was a complete disaster. Neighbours took over what we hoped Vrana would provide though so that's not where it all went wrong.

Schenn, Hayes, Kap, Blais falling short is what killed this teams depth. Schenn especially. He has 30 points less this year than he did last year. Fell off a cliff.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

BillP. wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:12 pm

Dave's a mess wrote: So now that the die seems just about fully cast for this season, I went back and looked at the beginning of this thread. Some nice bits like DPW wondering if Sunny would sign here, an insightful post from a very handsome forum member commenting that this roster looks like the 5th best in the division, and some consistent energy from Bill imploring that this team would surprise and make the playoffs.

I lost at least 40 goals from Vrana and Kapanen. I expected more firepower out of those 2. Considering those 2 were useless the whole season, the Blues hung on pretty good. And I wasn't the only one who expected Vrana to light it up this year. Dread??? And a few others too. Just sayin...........

I don't think I predicted Vrana to do anything specific, but open to be corrected. I certainly hoped his off ice issues were behind him and he had to potential to pot 20-30 for this team. Needless to say he was a complete disaster. Neighbours took over what we hoped Vrana would provide though so that's not where it all went wrong.

Schenn, Hayes, Kap, Blais falling short is what killed this teams depth. Schenn especially. He has 30 points less this year than he did last year. Fell off a cliff.

I wouldn't count Schenn out. What exactly did he have for linemates this year? Maybe his numbers dropped this year but I think you'll see him bounce back next season.

BillP. wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:12 pm

Dave's a mess wrote: So now that the die seems just about fully cast for this season, I went back and looked at the beginning of this thread. Some nice bits like DPW wondering if Sunny would sign here, an insightful post from a very handsome forum member commenting that this roster looks like the 5th best in the division, and some consistent energy from Bill imploring that this team would surprise and make the playoffs.

I lost at least 40 goals from Vrana and Kapanen. I expected more firepower out of those 2. Considering those 2 were useless the whole season, the Blues hung on pretty good. And I wasn't the only one who expected Vrana to light it up this year. Dread??? And a few others too. Just sayin...........

I expected 30 from him.... What a letdown...