Around the League 2019-2026 Edition

[MindzEye]

More cap space than ever

Eh, run through puckpedia mate, most of these teams have clearly been making decisions with that cap increase in mind already.

Fewer UFAs than ever

It's early so who knows, but probably not.

Chayka will figure it out but it’s a multi offseason project spread out over multiple bets

He's literally a signing and a trade away from it. That's doable in one off season. Sign Raddysh and turn Carlo into whatever the puck moving equivalent in the market is of him. Doesn't even have to be a stud, just a reasonable #4 type guy. Someone the other team wants to move off of the contract of would be just fucking fine as well. Montour, Severson, Weegar, Pulock , whoever.

McCabe-Raddysh
OEL-*Montour
Rielly-Tanev, and use kids when he dies

Blueline makeover done. Huge upgrades compared to last year. Look to take a bigger swing when they come available, but that alone gets you moving the puck efficiently up ice again, without completely ignoring the defensive side of the puck.

 

[CH1]

That vastly improved D is just table stakes in the new NHL

 

[MindzEye]

That vastly improved D is just table stakes in the new NHL

Table stakes to fight for top 4 of the conference, sure. Which is the point of it.

Because it's sure not going to leave us thin up front with Matthews, Nylander, McKenna, Knies, Tavares, etc.

 

[leafman101]

The hard part is getting the #1.And that may not happen this offseason. But Colorado has Malinski and Kulak playing top 4 minutes in the playoffs. Carolina has Walker and Chatfield.

Contrary to popular belief the league has not caught up to the nerds yet. Especially on D where everyone is still chasing the Treefence.

They can make their D meaningfully better this offseason with a couple smart bets.

I’d trade OEL for a 1st if you can. Stockpile assets for when a guy like Harley actually does move. Hes not going to be part of the solution.

Also I’m not betting on the Leafs winning a cup next years. Their best team is now 2-4 years away when McKenna busts outs. So if it takes time to build the championship D fine

But the D can easily be way more competitive in one offseason,

 

[MindzEye]

The hard part is getting the #1.And that may not happen this offseason. But Colorado has Malinski and Kulak playing top 4 minutes in the playoffs. Carolina has Walker and Chatfield.

Contrary to popular belief the league has not caught up to the nerds yet. Especially on D where everyone is still chasing the Treefence.

They can make their D meaningfully better this offseason with a couple smart bets.

I’d trade OEL for a 1st if you can. Stockpile assets for when a guy like Harley actually does move. Hes not going to be part of the solution.

Also I’m not betting on the Leafs winning a cup next years. Their best team is now 2-4 years away when McKenna busts outs. So if it takes time to build the championship D fine

But the D can easily be way more competitive in one offseason,

I would love to do the nerd thing, trade OEL for a 1st and then sign Ryan Shea to replace him.

 

[CH1]

Habs are pretty low on tree fences. They have Xhekaj but he plays about 8-9 mins a night.

 

[zeke]

 

[MindzEye]

Something else that I don't think fans of other teams will want to hear, but the teams that finished at the top of the table in the east this year really aren't as much better than the pack as they might think.

Full Season xG(League Rank)/2nd Half xG(rank)

Carolina: 56.6% (2)/ 57.5 (1)
Buffalo: 50.4 (15)/50.2 (16)
Tbay: 54.5 (4)/54.0 (6)
Montreal: 48.7 (23)/48.7 (21)
Boston: 46.9 (27)/49.0 (19)
Ottawa: 55.1 (3)/55.5 (3)
Pitts: 52.3 (8)/ 53.3 (9)
Philly: 50.6 (13)/51.4 (13)

Carolina and Tampa are really the only playoff teams that should feel comfortable going into the regular season next year. Ottawa has turned under performing their xG into annual performance art and look pretty likely to do some dumb shit in the off season in over reaction to the lack of playoff success.

 

[Preston]

It has been a weak year overall. Carolina may not be much better than the past few years but for this year, it's good enough to be the clear cream of the crop. I felt this was one of the worst Tampa teams in a while, but they were still the second best team in the east. Weak weak weak.

I'm not particularly concerned about the leafs getting back in the mix. They have the hardest part of their roster down, which is star power.

They'll be legit better off without Max Domi, Carlo, Benoit, Myers, Joshua, Krok. All they have to do is replace those guys with replacement level players and they're immediately drastically improved. And of course they have the cap space to do better than replacement level players. And also firing the coach should get them a 7-10 point boost even without touching the roster.

People are really overestimating how hard it'll be for them to get back in the mix. Granted, they need Matthews to be the old Matthews if they want to be better than just back in the mix. But if that happens, there's no reason why they can't compete in the East next year.

 

[zeke]

man we fired treliving just in time. this awful year was a gift tbh.

replacing mitch with mckenna literally fixes treliving's biggest fuck up and only truly longterm disaster.

and while there's still a bunch of crap on the roster the actual bad players are on deals that are movable without much pain.

if treliving had been allowed to spend all our capspace this year we would have been 100% fucked for the rest of matthews career. as it is, we avoided having him make any crushing longterm moves other than losing Mitch....which is now miraculously fixed as if it never happened.

 

[BG]

You can't expect to make meaningful change in the offseason, especially on defence. You need to have the assets to jump on an RFA, or capspace to absorb a player/contract that has been pushed out by a younger player on another team. Tre tried to get his work done in the offseason, and then sat on his hands all season when things were clearly not working.

 

[Habsy]

View attachment 34246

She’d rock your world. No doubt.

 

[CH1]

Something else that I don't think fans of other teams will want to hear, but the teams that finished at the top of the table in the east this year really aren't as much better than the pack as they might think.

Full Season xG(League Rank)/2nd Half xG(rank)

Carolina: 56.6% (2)/ 57.5 (1)
Buffalo: 50.4 (15)/50.2 (16)
Tbay: 54.5 (4)/54.0 (6)
Montreal: 48.7 (23)/48.7 (21)
Boston: 46.9 (27)/49.0 (19)
Ottawa: 55.1 (3)/55.5 (3)
Pitts: 52.3 (8)/ 53.3 (9)
Philly: 50.6 (13)/51.4 (13)

Carolina and Tampa are really the only playoff teams that should feel comfortable going into the regular season next year. Ottawa has turned under performing their xG into annual performance art and look pretty likely to do some dumb shit in the off season in over reaction to the lack of playoff success.

I am comfortable heading into next year. Habs are the youngest team to make the playoffs, so betting on organic improvement (led by the youngest of the young -- Slaf, Demidov, Hutson)

Also confident that Hughes will use an attractive prospect pool to land a much needed 2nd line centre or winger.

 

[CH1]

She’d rock your world. No doubt.

she left him 2 DMs but zeke doesn't know how to answer!!

 

[BG]

I'm sure it's been beaten to death, but Vancouver seems primed to be royally ripped off this offseason. With a lottery-loss, and dropping to #3, what would Vancouver have to offer up to trade for the #1 pick?

 

[Preston]

I am comfortable heading into next year. Habs are the youngest team to make the playoffs, so betting on organic improvement (led by the youngest of the young -- Slaf, Demidov, Hutson)

Also confident that Hughes will use an attractive prospect pool to land a much needed 2nd line centre or winger.

Take advantage of the situation and win the cup this year first while there are no Florida caliber teams!!!!

Then you can start thinking about next year!

 

[CH1]

Take advantage of the situation and win the cup this year first while there are no Florida caliber teams!!!!

Then you can start thinking about next year!

we knocked the Florida team out... too bad you missed it. Never seen a closer series!!

so stressful, didn't have the bandwidth to make new friends

 

[Preston]

we knocked the Florida team out... too bad you missed it. Never seen a closer series!!

so stressful, didn't have the bandwidth to make new friends

That was a weak version of prior Florida teams! No one this year is the Florida Panthers. Maybe the Avs are close but it's hard to tell in the west. Canes are realgud too but they'd get rinsed by last year's Florida!!!

 

[CH1]

That was a weak version of prior Florida teams! No one this year is the Florida Panthers. Maybe the Avs are close but it's hard to tell in the west. Canes are realgud too but they'd get rinsed by last year's Florida!!!

Tbay: 54.5 (4)/54.0 (6) ain't bad

The Avs were a juggernaut and then went all in at the deadline. Kadri as a 3rd line C is something else.

Why do you think I'm rooting for Vegas?

 

[zeke]

Habs are in good shape. We'll see if they ever get to elite but they've got lots of talent and all their bad contracts are up soon and have a gm that won't get them back into cap trouble.

Buffalo not as much. They're not that young, they're still in tough to keep their own guys, and i still have no reason to trust their management.

Panthers will be back next year, though they'll be almost a full team of 30+ year olds so time is ticking.

Bolts are harder to figure - their underlyings were amazing this year, their top guys are still scoring at incredible rates, but for whatever reason that team never really pulled it together this year the way i thought they should have. And now they're gonna start legit losing significant pieces to cap and age.