True, most teams probably don't really have a true top pairing d-men. Even in their Stanley Cup win Carolina really had a bunch of 2/3/4 type of d-men.
Just thinking out loud but I think the difference between Suter and other d-men who got massive payouts (Jay Bo, Redden) is that even in his final season he's still highly consistent and reliable. Jay Bo has been knocked for his soft play since Lord knows how long. And with injuries and a slight downfall in his play, Redden wasn't looking quite as primed as he used to be. Pred fans seem like they're willing to give up Suter because of his impending payday and the fact that they have another young defenseman with similar skillset. That is more positive than seeing them count the days in glee for when his contract is up.
Anyways, the Avs surprised a lot of people by signing both Hannan and Smyth back in the day so I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see them ahead. With a lot of capspace, I could also see Carolina coming into the mix.
3 i dont like is Shattenkirk ,B.Elliott and Hishon over E.Etem we'll see ....
Shatty was the only way Armstrong would do the deal, he specifically asked for him. We wouldn't have Johnson right now if we had Shatty, and we'd be stuck with a slumping Stewart with little value.
B. Elliot Tanking let us get Landeskog, we probably would've ended up with #3-5 if we never had him.
Hishon, said above. Who knew about the concussion?
Random odd thought. In hindsight, we made the EJ-Stewart trade at the deadline. The Blues were only 1 win away from having a Top 10 pick. Would you still pull the trigger if you factored in the blue's pick was going to be 20+ this year?
Random odd thought. In hindsight, we made the EJ-Stewart trade at the deadline. The Blues were only 1 win away from having a Top 10 pick. Would you still pull the trigger if you factored in the blue's pick was going to be 20+ this year?
Yes because in my opinion Johnson is our best player.
Hard to believe, but the Duchene contract is the most money Sherminator has ever given out in his 3 years as GM. The Stewart contract was close but this tops it. At only a $3.5M or so per year deal, that's incredible.
He's either done an incredibly job negotiating or Kroenke has him by the family jewels.
Also I hate to say it but 2010 might be the one draft year that Sherman didn't do so well with Silas and Rutkowski gone. And in most people's opinion 4th rounder Aittokallio may have passed 2nd rounder Pickard. Hishon suffered bad concussion. Sherman may have made up for it though with the Bournival/O'Byrne trade. I think he redeemed himself there.
Hard to believe, but the Duchene contract is the most money Sherminator has ever given out in his 3 years as GM. The Stewart contract was close but this tops it. At only a $3.5M or so per year deal, that's incredible.
He's either done an incredibly job negotiating or Kroenke has him by the family jewels.
Also I hate to say it but 2010 might be the one draft year that Sherman didn't do so well with Silas and Rutkowski gone. And in most people's opinion 4th rounder Aittokallio may have passed 2nd rounder Pickard. Hishon suffered bad concussion. Sherman may have made up for it though with the Bournival/O'Byrne trade. I think he redeemed himself there.
Jones and Hejda(smaller average) we're both bigger contracts.
Hard to believe, but the Duchene contract is the most money Sherminator has ever given out in his 3 years as GM. The Stewart contract was close but this tops it. At only a $3.5M or so per year deal, that's incredible.
He's either done an incredibly job negotiating or Kroenke has him by the family jewels.
Also I hate to say it but 2010 might be the one draft year that Sherman didn't do so well with Silas and Rutkowski gone. And in most people's opinion 4th rounder Aittokallio may have passed 2nd rounder Pickard. Hishon suffered bad concussion. Sherman may have made up for it though with the Bournival/O'Byrne trade. I think he redeemed himself there.
Hishon was a great pick and he showed it the year after the draft, leading all CHL forwards in PPG (only Ellis had a higher PPG) and leading the OHL playoff scoring. I can't see how our scouts or our GM can be blamed for what McNabb did to him.
Hishon was a great pick and he showed it the year after the draft, leading all CHL forwards in PPG (only Ellis had a higher PPG) and leading the OHL playoff scoring. I can't see how our scouts or our GM can be blamed for what McNabb did to him.
They shouldn't be.
Contrary to what is believed, I feel 2010 was a success because the scouts learned a lot about what does/doesn't work. Hoping defenders have breakout seasons are much less frequent than forwards, what you see with defenders typically will be what you get over a steady period of growth/improvement.
Unless you catch someone before a major period of growth or somehow the lights flick on, they typically have a steady development curve. Coming out of the draft that is.
So perhaps that same logic they decided to use in 2012, picking a whole bunch of forwards poised to breakout (and one rather 'safe' pick) rather than possibly throw a pick or two out on guys like Rutkowski/Silas in the later rounds if they saw the same skill sets.
Silas was a great learning experience I hope, because we blew a 3rd rounder on him the next year in order to pick him and he wasn't even remotely worth it.
