Great drafting for need instead of BPA. What could go wrong? It was exactly what I feared: Waking up to an “interesting” pick. If you dont want Michkov why not trade down ffs.
I mean there were no trades at all tonight so maybe trading down wasn’t an option. But ya I agree that the Habs should have made the risky pick and taken Michkov. I also think it’s a mistake to take a d-man when there are so many other high end forwards on the board if you really don’t want to take the risky russian.
Edit: I’ve read some speculation that the Habs did try to move down but in the end no one bit.
But I read there were 5 offers on the table. They probably wanted to stay in the top10 which limits the pool. In the end they had 3 picks in the top50 and ended up with Newhook and Reinbacher. Last year Slaf was already a reach. If they arent bombs its another 5-10 years of misery. The Avs fan in my fantasy league was happy with the Newhook deal. He thinks the guys development stalled and has a limited ceiling.
you guys will have all seen this but Penalty Box Radio is a nashville-based podcast that was interviewing random hockey fans on the street and interviewed a dude “Kyle from Chicago” who they didn’t realize was hawks GM Kyle Davidson (and he didn’t tell them). One good line was the throwaway comment at 0:27
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Hadnt seen it, thats fantastic. Kyle is pretty young for a GM, how did he get the spot?
ah I don’t really know, his first job in the nhl was with ottawa in customer relations and then when he was 22 his first job with the hawks was as an intern analyzing video. Then for seven years he seemingly worked his way up until bowman promoted him to asst GM, and he got the big job in 2021 when bowman left. It sounds like a good story where some guy from the mailroom climbed the ladder in a non-traditional non-nepotism-cronyism way, and he does seem like a good guy, but I just got all that from wiki and I’d totally get it if folks were suspicious of the in-house dude whose rise through the ranks happened while the hawks culture seemed pretty fucked. Idk any of the behind the curtain cloak and dagger stuff; I’m a supercasual whose earliest sports memories are listening to pat foley on the radio call bonkers hawks games in the 80s, but then when the hawks sucked I fell out of touch, then bandwagoned back for the three cups and now again when they binked bedard
Does anyone else think that teams buying out players is just pure waste? Vegas has never bought out any one and Tampa Bay hasn’t bought anyone out since 2016. The Penguins when they won their cups they had never bought anyone out. St. Louis hasn’t bought anyone out since 2009. Washington hasn’t used one since 2013.
Colorado seems to be the only recent winner that used a few of them and they haven’t used one since 2018.
Obviously this might just mean that they have been better at signing players to good contracts but nevertheless I’m intrigued by my 5 minutes of googling research. Anyways if your GM has to use a buy out on a contract they signed a player to, I think the team should strongly consider firing that GM.
It’s just for the 10 year ones mainly if they can’t dump it on another team. It’s just a strategy you can use or not for win now type moves.
Buyout = former GM was a moron and IT’S NOT MY FAULT!
Pittsburgh rolls the bones, spins the wheel, increases variance and gets EK65 at 10M. Costs a first and a second and Petry, Granlund, Rutta and Desmith. Petry is a good 2RD and Rutta is a good 3RD and Granlund is not good enough to play top6 but not suited for bottom6 forward. But they are all overpaid. Desmith is a career 0.912 backup at 1.8M that had a down year last year, As a Pens fan given that they are sticking with Crosby, Malkin and Letang, I love it. And at only 33 EK65 lowers their average age.
Somehow the Habs made out like bandits. Got rid of Hoffman for Petry at 4.8M and a second. If they retain 50% on Petry that’s gotta be worth at least 2 seconds.
Pretty neat story here, my alma mater will be the first HBCU with a D1 hockey program with backing from the Preds.
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I know lolpreseason and everything, but the Devils look Gooooooood
Sid taking some young punk to the ice. Two points for the takedown.
https://twitter.com/SabresPlays/status/1710446573736304725?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1710446573736304725|twgr^359a18dfba65ff42933b1f30c09e48c1f57ed3f6|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pensburgh.com%2F2023%2F10%2F6%2F23907112%2Fpens-sabres-impressions-sidney-crosby-fight-drew-oconnor-penguins-power-play-erik-karlsson
The regular season starts today. Bedard makes his debut tonight against the Penguins. 
bump for opening ice/first puck day.
Let’s Go Rangers
(inb4 first round elimination)
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I have become an enlighted Rangers fan that enjoys it when they’re good, even if they inevitably flame out. They’ll be in for a tough fight in the regular season with lots of teams improving in the East, but in the end they should qualify for the playoffs handily just because Igor wins so many games for them that they otherwise deserve to lose. I think the big sweat this year is that the new coach is a strict system coach and they might end the first 20 games out of a playoff spot just because it takes a long time to learn a rigid coaching system. But I think in any event they have a long run where they win something like 16 or 17 out of 20 games when Igor and the PP are hot, and that’s enough.
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I’m in for a stars follow up to last season. 
Very much hoping the Kraken can ruin VGK’s celebration night. Year two as a Kraken fan was incredibly fun.
Who was the last truly great offensive player the Rangers drafted? Need to see some big strides out of Kakko and Alexis this year.
Yzerman did a pretty big turnover this off-season. LGRW
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