re: NHL Preseason Thread

Couple of salary dump trades today by CHI and BOS, glad NYI could help them out.

I'm ready for this season to start. Got my home opener tickets for the CBJ/Rangers game Saturday and the buckeyes on a bye

Give the Isles credit, that made some serious upgrades to their team this offeseason. They added Kumelin and Grabovski to create a 2nd line out of nothing, and now have a new 2nd pairing in Leddy and Boychuk. That's some agressive maneuvering in what promises to be a wide open division.

The downside is that those blueliners are on one-year deals and I think the Isles are now without a pick in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft. If they fail to make the playoffs, they've made some all-in style moves and severely crippled their future build. I like the confidence and the aggression, and sitting back clearly hasn't done anything for the Isles, but this is a pretty risky move.

Every Metro team is acting like this year is a free-for-all, which it probably is. There's almost nothing separating 2nd from 7th (and the Pens are a Malkin injury away from being right in the pack - he's still not skating at full strength).

Johansen signed

I believe I saw Richards in there, I've been impressed with him so far. I only caught the 2nd period because I had to be up at 4 for work the next day.


Season is almost here

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I believe I saw Richards in there, I've been impressed with him so far

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He was a healthy scratch, it turns out

I think he had some sort of illness 2 seasons ago, and the season before that he got dumped by a supermodel. Performance degradation almost expected. I wish him the best.......kind of.

The contract is actually pretty decent for both sides. Pretty low cap hit for CBJ for the next three years and he's still an RFA when it expires. But the $6M third year is a win for Johansen, since that will be the qualifying offer next time when we try to re-sign him.

Rangers also traded Yogan and Kamfer for Joey Crabb ....basically traded a hacksaw and a blowtorch for a rusty skate sharpener. Doubt any of the three will see more than 5 games of NHL playing time in the future.

Why did they do it? The Rangers had the league limit of 50 NHL contracts between the wolfpack and the active roster. A 2 for 1 trade makes room for Duclair

.....who will likely be playing in the Q after the 10 game limit unless somehow he proves he can belong for 82 games. Totally not worried about the Rangers.

So two more thoughts:
1) As for the Preds, they placed Stalberg and Cullen on IR which means nobody else is getting sent down before Thursday night against Ottawa.

It also means an extremely young team facing Ottawa, Dallas, and Calgary. (which one of these doesn't belong?)

Cullen may be screwed for a few weeks, Stalberg probably comes back for Winnipeg on 10/17. Fisher is out until January at least.

5 of the 13 forwards have never played a full season at the NHL level and 3 of those 5 are true rookies, with the other 2 having about 30 games a season for 2 seasons. At least Forsberg and Beck will get their chances early on

2) Was looking at the NHL preview for last year from a bunch of different sources. They general consensus between all of the previews basically averaged 2 of the teams that missed the playoffs correctly. As usual, will be wide open.....

Pens send Harrington to Wilkes Barre, a bit surprising, may be a temp move to bring him back soon.

Kapanen still on NHL roster after today's 5 moves bodes well for him on the team game 1.

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Evgeni Malkin: “I skated all practice and feel great, I’m not tired... I can’t say right now (if I’ll play) because it’s my first practice with the team. It’s 50-50. If I feel I’m in great shape I’ll come back. If not then maybe the second game.”

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