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JoelJoel posted:So the Leafs. Ugh. No, it wasn't entertaining. I mean, some people were happy with the Leafs playing like total rear end but lucking their way into a few wins, and I guess having a decent shootout record for once was nice. But the inevitable collapse was ... well ok I guess it was entertaining, but laugh-at funny, not laugh-with. Now to the facts: Lupul is a LW. Kulemin and Raymond switch wings when they need to. I don't know why you kept Orr on the roster, because he's getting launched to where Carlyle is going, right? RIGHT? Franson is a crock of poo poo. He can score playing sheltered 3rd pairing/#2PP minutes, but he absolutely should not be a 2nd pairing defenseman. I'm not sure he should be back at all, honestly. Phaneuf, Gardiner and Rielly can run the PP between them. If Franson comes back, it's a sad indictment of the team. I'm not even sure why you referred to him as a pleasant surprise. Towards the end of last season and during the playoffs he was actually playing well, being physical and hustling as much as he can. Now if anything he looks even slower than ever. Anyway, assuming Raymond's willing to come back for a modest raise, I'd put something like: JVR-Bozak-Kessel Lupul-Kadri-?1? Raymond-?2?-Clarkson(ugh) Marlies/UFAs on the 4th line ?1? is a magical 2nd line RW who plays good defense/two-way hockey and sometimes scores goals. Sort of like what Clarkson was supposed to be. I don't think this player exists. ?2? is a hypothetical 3rd line C who can at least avoid getting creamed on possession and doesn't have stone hands like Jay McClement. It was supposed to be Bolland but there is no way he is as good as Nonis thinks he is and there isn't room for another retarded contract just to play 3rd line C anyways. Also even with these hypothetical lineup this team looks bad. Gardiner-Phaneuf Rielly-Gunnarsson Gleason-?? ?? would ideally be a fantastic #2D to pair with Phaneuf, but we know that's not going to happen. The best hope is to put one of Gardiner/Rielly on each of the top two pairs because Gunnar/Phaneuf aren't great skaters and shouldn't play so much together. Gleason is slow and lovely, like Franson without the offense, but nobody wants his horrible contract so we're probably stuck with him and the second hope is to find a reliable, faster skater to cover for his badness. A good defender like Stralman/Fayne would be nice, doesn't have to be a big point producer but just the ability to get it out of the zone would be nice. After you get those 3 key additions, this team is still not very good so why did I write all of that? I don't know, maybe they'll magically hire a great coach who can work past the flaws.
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Apr 10, 2014 21:52
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zoomdog posted:Honestly the Oilers could be a pretty good team next year. All we need to do is replace half our roster with good players. Just need some tough gritty veteran leadership, so Clarkson for Yak City sounds good.
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Apr 11, 2014 16:49
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Not a single member of the Florida Panthers hit 40 points this season - not even Versteeg, who was traded to Chicago in November. Brad Boyes just barely cracked 20 goals with 21 on the season to lead the team. Even Buffalo managed two 20+ goal, 40+ point scorers (Hodgson and Ennis). Amazingly, though, Buffalo was still just that much worse, since they're guaranteed to finish the season averaging fewer than 2 goals per game, whereas Florida managed nearly 2.4.
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Apr 13, 2014 16:58
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Just to illustrate how incredibly stupid the new playoff system is, here are the standings in an EHM league following the NHL's schedule: http://www.ehechockey.com/standings.php The Central division is such a tire fire that a .500 team (82 points) managed to snag the 3rd seed, bumping an 89 point Pacific division team out of the playoffs altogether. The playoff brackets by placement in the west look like this: Central 4 vs 5 8 vs 9 Pacific 1 vs 6 2 vs 3 7 (Edmonton) misses altogether. What a steaming pile of poo poo.
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Apr 14, 2014 15:36
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jsoh posted:Agreed, any simulation that has Oilers at 7 is total poo poo The league started 5 seasons ago, any idiot could have managed the Oilers better over the last 5 years than KLowe et al. Actually in this case it was several different idiots. Trevor Bird posted:trotz is done in nashville. Rumour or confirmed? Hey Dave, are you paying attention? Carlyle should be fired yesterday.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:10
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Jordan7hm posted:If Tortz coaches a team with a big fan base on here, we're going to be hearing about how terrible he is by next January. Is Tortz an unholy merger of Trotz and Torts? Actually, a two-headed coach like that might work well.
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Apr 14, 2014 19:39
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Veskit posted:How the magic gently caress do you fire Trotz of all people? He's like the best coach year in and year out. Nashville without Trotz doesn't even seem like Nashville anymore. God drat Poile is dumb. Bad and dumb move. Poile doesn't want to admit that it's his own fault that his roster is so bad. I think Trotz got more out of it than anyone would have predicted.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:49
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I think what Oates meant is that Ovie has to take responsibility and turn Jay Beagle into a #1C.
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Apr 15, 2014 03:22
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Presenting Dave Nonis, November 2013:quote:Any person with a brain would say you want to have the puck more than you don't, so Randy's comments are 100% true. We would like to have it more often.
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Apr 16, 2014 18:20
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Have a fun look at NHL Award voting ballots, which some voters (mostly media types) are choosing to make public: http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/showthread.php?p=83499667#post83499667 Within, it is revealed that Damien Cox thinks it is odd that he didn't rank Shea Weber in his top 5 for the Norris, but he did it anyways. He also nominated Bergeron and Steen for the Hart because they play the Right Way, but not Ovechkin for anything because his plus/minus is bad. It is also noted that nobody thinks that defensemen are very valuable anymore, considering that there are a whopping two whole 5th place votes for defensemen for the Hart.
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Apr 17, 2014 05:26
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Something something some fish have fused testes 
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Apr 22, 2014 19:37
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I'm pretty sure Yzerman is smart enough to realize that he has forwards up the rear end and if he needs heart&soul&grit he can get it for less than the insane amount Callahan is asking. Maybe he can get another decent defenseman and a good backup for the 3-4 times per season that Bishop dies.
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Apr 23, 2014 03:03
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Kuznetsov announces he's had enough of the NHL and is going back to Russia.
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Apr 23, 2014 21:54
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A lot of Caps fans are going to be very happy this morning (bye GMGM and Oates!, and gently caress you Thufir!).
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Apr 26, 2014 15:34
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WhiskeyJuvenile posted:open the blood gates Well, Jim Rutherford is supposed to be resigning soon, though he should have been fired. Between JR, GMGM and Trotz, it's a bad month to be longtime NHL staff.
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Apr 26, 2014 15:46
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It would be funny if Mrazek does become the backup and outplays Howard. Same with Jones vs Quick. I wonder how many of these stupid huge goalie contracts will end up turning out well in retrospect. Right now Rask's is the only one that I think stands a good chance.
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Apr 27, 2014 03:05
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I just realized that it's a shame that the Canucks picked up Dane Fox instead of the Kings, because otherwise the Kings would be one Douglas Murray short of a Quick Brown Fox and a Lazy Dog.
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Apr 27, 2014 04:19
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soggybagel posted:Not surprised as they all had amazing season but was thinking maybe Suter would get thrown in the conversation. Again, not angry at all. But thought it was an outside possibility he would get thrown in there. Suter is a close 4th (just ahead of Doughty) in the revealed ballots: http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/showthread.php?t=1648701 . I think it's only because of his minutes played, though, because his efficiency and play during those minutes wasn't any better than Weber's, who plays on the worst team of them all. If you look at 5-on-5 Fenwick, Vlasic, Doughty and Keith have pretty good arguments to be made, with some of the highest Fenwick% in the league. If you look at on-ice vs off-ice FF%, though, Giordano and Vlasic are leaders (Timonen 3rd). Pretty much the same trend is there for shots against, if you want to ignore chances for. I was going to argue that this is a better way of measuring defensive competence if you could account for usage (zone starts/quality of teammates/opposition), but that's a lot of work and probably unfeasible unless you can split up which forwards and defensemen the player did (and didn't) play with or against, and I doubt it would help for special teams play. But really nobody cares that much about defensive competence and the media just seem to sort defencemen by points and maybe pick the ones with good defensive reputations for the Norris, so this is all moot. The only useful thing I can say is that Giordano, Vlasic and Timonen were excellent defensively this season, and MacDonald was trash. Well, and Phaneuf was bad, but his teammates were just as bad!
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Apr 28, 2014 17:53
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a false posted:stop it oh god please stop it Yeah that's pretty appropriate for the Isles.
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Apr 29, 2014 02:09
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Maybe Brown had a career year in the locker room, how would any of you know? Philistines.
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Apr 29, 2014 16:23
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burf posted:This is also a fun graph - percentage of points scored while a player was on the ice that they were involved in (either a goal or an assist): That data certainly shows that Karlsson is extremely talented and extremely capable at handling the puck, but it doesn't actually prove that the Sens are more efficient at goal scoring or prevention because of that. For one, Karlsson's career shooting % is around 7 (7.8 this season), but practically all of the decent forwards on the Sens are above 10%. So is there any data that shows that Karlsson being so involved in the offense 5-on-5 is actually a net positive? Is he generating more shots per minute than the Sens would with forwards carrying the puck, is he especially efficient at zone entries, etc?
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Apr 30, 2014 21:46
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Verviticus posted:karlsson is a defenceman, why would you compare him to the forwards in sh% Because the graph I quoted shows that he scores a larger fraction of his team's goals than any other defenseman - nearly 20% of the goals while he's on the ice. That's not necessarily a good thing, since he's not actually a better shooter (or taking higher percentage shots) than the forwards he could ostensibly be passing it off to. Of course he could just be generating lots of scoring chances on his own, taking shots when there's no opportunity to pass, or just generally increasing his team's shot counts to offset the low % shots he takes himself, but that would take some extra effort to show. Or watching more Sens games, but gently caress that. Anders posted:Comparing defensmen using this chart is pretty terrible though, as it only shows that Senators are terrible without him. Not sure if he'd been involved in >40% of goals if he played on a team like Blackhawks or Bruins. Hell, he'd might not be on rangers either, due to AV preferring to even out TOI It really just shows that the Sens run their offence through Karlsson while he's on the ice. It doesn't show whether that's good or bad or better than running it through their forwards. And yes, I can believe that it's better to run it through Karlsson than Greening/Smith/Neil when those three are on the ice.
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Apr 30, 2014 23:17
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Giroux obviously isn't working out in Philly, and obviously the Flyers miss JVR soooooo
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May 1, 2014 04:02
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Wonderllama posted:EDIT: but seriously dude he's the undisputed top goalie prospect in the world (not currently in the NHL) and he's 19 You're totally going to get mobbed by John Gibson superfans for this.
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May 1, 2014 16:07
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Just in time to save the season, Garth!
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May 1, 2014 18:53
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I'm pretty sure every drat coach in the NHL has been accused of being unable to make adjustments.
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May 1, 2014 19:09
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deafmute posted:Tom Poti retired. Moment of silence please gently caress that fuckin' nerd!
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May 1, 2014 20:08
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revtoiletduck posted:Joe Thornton for Dion Phaneuf. Where do I sign?
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May 1, 2014 20:48
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The Dirty Burger posted:@Hope_Smoke: Mckenzie "Tallon will also be spending $ this year. New owner wants to make playoffs. Getting a tangible, proven player helps that along" Dave Bolland is going to be a UFA...
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May 3, 2014 01:54
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Vicas posted:I'm not sure if this is the thread for it but EA is releasing NHL15 teasers: http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2014/5/5/5683178/nhl-15-preview-trailer-cover-vote-ea-sports Holy poo poo, look at the detail on the steps in the arena! *pre-orders furiously*
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May 5, 2014 15:52
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INSPECTAH DECK posted:Muller's not bad from what I've seen, and seems to be blamed for things out of his control. That Hurricanes defense is awful. Well Jimmy Rutherford finally gave up the GM gig to Ron Francis, so it's only fair that he would want to hire his own coach. You could probably argue that Muller could have gotten more offense out of that roster, and that only Skinner, Sekera and Khudobin had especially good years. I'm not sure what any GM could have done about Pitkanen (RIP), though yes, JR should have picked up someone else besides Sekera. I guess he got Hainsey, who didn't work out especially well. Good defensemen are in short supply these days.
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May 5, 2014 18:50
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Dallas Eakins led the Marlies to the Calder Cup finals, where they got creamed. Now that Eakins has Scrivens back, though, I fully expect the Oilers to make the Stanley Cup finals next season after squeaking in as an 8th seed, only to get swept by a random  south team, let's say the Florida PantherHawks. Then the Oilers go back to being terrible for another decade.
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May 5, 2014 20:24
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VJeff posted:Was Eakins coaching the Marlies when the Griffins beat them? He was. I'm not sure how Eakins got credited with being great with young players though. The Marlies have usually been stocked with good veterans/AHL superstars. I wouldn't say Eakins overplayed veterans over prospects because the Leafs haven't been stocking the Marlies with good prospects in the first place, but it's not like Eakins turned a bunch of 6th round projects into quality NHL players either. That last playoff run, the top scorers in the 9 games were Jerry D'Amigo (future 3rd/4th liner), Greg Scott (hosed off to Sweden), Mike Zigomanis (former AHL superstar), Will Acton ( ), Greg McKegg (could be a top 9 forward if his skating improves), Carter Ashton (been mostly useless in the NHL, but maybe he'll finally do something next season), and Spencer Abbott (tiny college UFA and future AHL superstar, well except he's already 26). That's a far cry from the Tatar/Nyquist/Jurco/Sheahan/Jarnkrok or Palat/Connolly/Panik/Kucherov/Namestnikov forward cores that have actually been winning Calder Cups and turning into quality NHLers.Zamboni Jesus posted:i remember reading an article recently in which the author made an argument correlating a team's minor league success to the future success of the nhl franchise and argued that a good ahl season generally correlates to nhl success three years down the road. the leafs seem to be an exception to this argument as the marlies have been pretty good for a lot of the last ten years and the leafs not so much. The Marlies would probably be mediocre if they didn't fill out their roster with marginal NHLers to stay competitive. Having said that, they've done reasonably well with season without any 26+ year olds carrying the load, barring 24 games of Trevor Smith. I don't think any of the youngsters (McKegg/Leivo/Carrick/D'Amigo/Percy/Granberg) have much in the way of top 6/top 4 potential though.
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May 5, 2014 20:40
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Ginette Reno posted:Did I miss someone posting this, because lol I share the at Gretzky. I'm also amused by how popular this President position is getting. It seems to be another pointless layer of administration on top of the general manager, and sometimes just a place for bad GMs to get promoted to instead of being fired. Why? Who knows. It satisfies the NHL's old boys club, I guess.
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May 5, 2014 20:58
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Maple Leafs should go big with Babcock. Leafs might want to make a play for Panthers #1 pick. Yes Toronto Star sports reporters, I agree it would be great if the Leafs could conjure Babcock and a #1 pick out of thin air. Maybe they can trade for Weber and Crosby while they're at it.
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May 6, 2014 17:08
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Hand Knit posted:Kypreos today had some interesting information on the Leafs and Wings, and he's normally reliable with this stuff. I think the Leafs have the most scouts in the league, so it's hard to figure out should be purged. Hell, the Leafs might not even know. I think some of the European scouts are pretty well regarded. Since 2005, some combination of Bergman/Ladygin/whoever else it is have been responsible for Rask (first roundaaaaaah243%2435), Stralman (7th), Tlusty (1st), Kulemin (2nd), Holzer (4th), Stalberg (6th), Komarov (6th), Gunnarsson (7th), Granberg (4th), Nilsson (4th), Loov (7th), Herzog (5th) and Johnson (7th). Granted, we don't know how the last 5 guys are going to turn out, but Granberg's already an AHL regular, Loov was signed recently, Johnson had a great rookie season in Sweden, and Herzog will probably get a contract after playing a season in the Q and getting a brief tryout with the Marlies. Even getting that many late picks to sign contracts and come over is a reasonable success, let alone having a bunch of them turn into regular NHLers, The Euro picks from that period that didn't work out are Johan Dahlberg (6th, never came over), Juraj Mikus (5th, okay AHLer), Mikhail Stefanovich (4th, bust), Jerome Flaake (never came over), Sondre Olden (3rd, couldn't hack it in juniors), Daniel Brodin (5th, bust) and... that's it. For some inexplicable reason, the Leafs had a good run of European picks in 2005 and 2006, then decided never to draft a European higher than the third round. I mean Tlusty wasn't that bad, then some guy traded him for Philippe Paradis. Otherwise it's 7 pretty decent NHLers on the list above, and a handful of possible NHL regulars, most of which are already playing in the AHL. On the other hand, there are 6 picks who busted or never came over. It seems likely that it will turn out to be over a 50% success rate turning mostly late picks European picks into NHLers. Surely that's better than what the North American scouts are managing, let alone the idiots responsible for trading up to draft Biggs.
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May 7, 2014 00:13
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ThinkTank posted:Friedman was speculating that the Flyers will likely try and trade Vinny, possibly to Nashville so he can be reunited with Lavvy. With $1-1.5M retained on that and Schenn forced to take a bridge deal somewhere in the $2.5-$2.75M range they'll probably scrape in just under the cap with a 22 man roster. I don't have as high of an opinion of Poile as I used to but why would Nashville want to do that?
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May 7, 2014 16:18
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I am looking forward to the tears when the Flyers trade their decent veterans for picks, fail to tank hard enough for McDavid/Eichel and draft badly anyways.
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May 7, 2014 16:49
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Vicas posted:Flyers veterans: Wayne Simmonds isn't getting any younger, just saying. I just checked and amazingly, Andrew MacDonald is pretty much the only defenceman without an NTC of some kind (ha ha, his terrible contract is an NTC itself).
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May 7, 2014 16:56
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Vicas posted:Simmonds is younger than Giroux and Read so uh, okay, true I guess. He'll be UFA at 31, I think, and maybe his contract won't be great then, but I'm sure it's not Hartnell No his contract is fine, I'm just implying that he can be considered a veteran and so he'll get traded for draft picks so that the Flyers can develop their own talent. Also he's probably one of the more valuable and tradeable assets (don't ask me why the Flyers would want to trade him though).
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May 7, 2014 17:04
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