General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

wprager wrote:Guess we'll have to wait to find out. Calgary is rule for a drop after losing depth and getting older. Winnipeg is, supposedly, losing Laine. Toronto can't win in the post season and are one goalie injury away from missing the playoffs outright (and their D is not built to protect Andersen like Montreal tried to do swapping PK for Weber.

Toronto took a huge step back and continues to make the same mistakes over and over again. They replaced Kapanen and Johanssen with Thornton, Vesey and Simmonds who are slow and otherwise huge downgrades. They didn't address team toughness which continues to be their achilles heel in the playoffs.

I think the Sens could beat Toronto more than once in the regular season. J. Brown, Tkachuk, Gudbranson, Watson, C. Brown are all way more physical than anyone on Toronto. A hard forecheck caused so many problems for Toronto in the play-in series and continues to be the reason why they lose in the playoffs. Not sure Bogosian really helps there, and Brodie isn't the biggest guy.

Toronto would have benefitted from trading for someone like Josh Anderson. Instead they continue to ice the wrong mix of players and will continue to get bullied in the playoffs.

I wouldn't say Toronto took a "huge" step back. And adding Wayne Simmonds helps their team toughness. All that said, it seems weird to add Thornton and Simmonds while also keeping Spezza. This is not helping their speed at all...all those guys are declining pretty quickly.... It's like they are trying to go the Dallas Stars route and just giving a bunch of older guys one more kick at the can. With how condensed the upcoming season could be....it'll be interesting to see if it can actually work out. It'll be so very delicious if it's a disaster.

I think they have 8 or 9 dmen and a lot of forwards signed this upcoming season. I don't quite see how they can all fit in

Hawryluk is going to make Ottawa look stupid this year if there is an all Canadian division. Give me him over Austin Watson, J Brown and Gudbranson combined.

I'm not overly concerned over what Jayce Hawryluk does this year for Vancouver.

Hawryluk isn't going to drop the mitts when someone smashes Stutzle or Brannstrom into the boards. All three of the guys you mentioned will rearrange the hitter's face.

Plus I'd rather give Balcers, Paul and Abramov that TOI.

Lol, make the sens look stupid. But i dont get why they jettisoned him like they did. I guess, as stated, we have too many bottom sixers as it is

PTFlea wrote:Lol, make the sens look stupid.  But i dont get why they jettisoned him like they did.  I guess, as stated, we have too many bottom sixers as it is

Watson for twice the price and on a one-way is half the player and 1/4 of the person and he was bought and paid for after the Hawryluk decision. So I don’t get your point about too many bottom 6ers

who cares. they serve different roles on the team. Watson is an upgrade on sabourin who is the person he's replacing.

Lagoon wrote:

PTFlea wrote:Lol, make the sens look stupid.  But i dont get why they jettisoned him like they did.  I guess, as stated, we have too many bottom sixers as it is

Watson for twice the price and on a one-way is half the player and 1/4 of the person and he was bought and paid for after the Hawryluk decision. So I don’t get your  point about too many bottom 6ers

Not true that he's half the player. What an arbitrary argument lol

Let's ask Auston Matthews if he knows who Watson is. That'll decide it.

wprager wrote:Let's ask Auston Matthews if he knows who Watson is. That'll decide it.

Criminals know each other, same with pieces of shiit. In this case, they both fit.

What's funny is Anthony Duclair was a piece of Dung too (sexually harassing girls on snapchat or whatever), and it totally got glossed over (I think she was paid to go away). That was two summers ago. But whatever. Yeah, should not have brought in Auston Watson.

tim1_2 wrote:What's funny is Anthony Duclair was a piece of Dung too (sexually harassing girls on snapchat or whatever), and it totally got glossed over (I think she was paid to go away).  That was two summers ago.  But whatever.  Yeah, should not have brought in Auston Watson.

Not by me. Hated him here. Glad he’s gone. Said it from day one. Good trade asset wise, but could’ve done without him.

tim1_2 wrote:What's funny is Anthony Duclair was a piece of Dung too (sexually harassing girls on snapchat or whatever), and it totally got glossed over (I think she was paid to go away). That was two summers ago. But whatever. Yeah, should not have brought in Auston Watson.

I disagree. Watson stuff was a personal matter and both parties are better people now. If he can help this team then it’s a good add. He’s not a criminal. Nashville wouldn’t have signed him if he was a terrible person

anybody else wonder why it took so long for a team to hire Gary Roberts(just hired by Seattle)?

i wonder if he'll be contractually free to help other teams players in the offseason.

I think his place in Toronto was put into for sale no? In sure there is a conflict of interest now

Flo The Action wrote:anybody else wonder why it took so long for a team to hire Gary Roberts(just hired by Seattle)?

i wonder if he'll be contractually free to help other teams players in the offseason.

He’s just a consultant