Anyone else find it hard not to troll over on the LA side? They talk like Gagne is a bad player. I really want to post and rip and yell. But, I don't.
Nah, I stopped reading stuff over there. They just parrot all the bad **** they hear about Gagne and then deify Wayne Simmonds. One guy offered two career minor leaguers and a second in one of those trade proposal threads.
Take what they say over there with a grain of salt. I guess we will all see soon enough how things shake out and if there is a trade (eventhough its pretty imminent).
If they honestly believe some of those returns are fair value, then I have a feeling there will be a lot of SAD Kings fans, if/when a deal happens early next week.
Anyone else find it hard not to troll over on the LA side? They talk like Gagne is a bad player. I really want to post and rip and yell. But, I don't.
I've seen both sites and as objectively as I can put it, I can see reasons for both camps to make such statements.
First, I've always liked Gagne and realize how good he can be when full strength - over 250 goals in his NHL career shows he's a sniper who can make the pretty move and put the puck away on each and every shift. The guy is a dangerous player and is not only just a goal scorer, but will give you speed and energy on every shift out there.
However, I also see the "LA Side": he has missed a number of games and as he has hit 30, one should expect those chronic injuries to begin to take a toll. This past season, he scored 40 points in 58 games - that's far from a good total for a player who makes over $5 mil and put him #165 in NHL scoring this season along with Troy Brouwer, Brandon Sutter, and Wayne Simmonds. In addition, he's scored under .5 pts/game in the playoffs, leading to fears of people who don't know him well that he folds the tent when it counts the most.
Pending what Philly would want, I'd still trade for Gagne - just for his hard work he'd be worth it and he just might still have a 40-goal season left in his pocket.
Well, if Gagne is moved for a package of prospects and draft picks and if the Flyers don't sign one of Turco or Nabokov and if they don't land Kovalchuk, I'm wondering if they'll take a shot at a guy like Zherdev? Zherdev rumours about him coming back to the NHL seem to be picking up steam and he could come to town relatively cheap. He's never had the luxury of playing with a playmaking center and I could see him working on a line with either Richards or Briere or if they keep Giroux at center, he could certainly work there. Just some food for thought.....
[...] In addition, he's scored under .5 pts/game in the playoffs, leading to fears of people who don't know him well that he folds the tent when it counts the most.
On the other hand he scored 15 goals in his last 31 playoff games.
I find it kind of disgraceful that Gagne is considered a bad player, and hence a salary dump, by many fans throughout the league.
Richards' hit on Krejci and Gagne's offensive strength carried the Flyers out of the series against the Bruins. He scored the OT winner in Game 4 and the series winner in Game 7. I like Simmonds, and would love to see him on the Flyers, but he's not in the same league as Gagne at this point. Once Simmonds shows even a sign that he can reach Gagne's level, then I'll consider a trade worthwhile. Hell, at Simmonds' age, Gagne already had 173 points (with 80 goals, 33 coming in the 01-02 season alone). I'm not saying points should be the only thing considered, but Gagne is also a superior two-way player and excels in the defensive zone.
Both Players came into the league at a young age, and even if you take out Gagne's great third season, he still had 107 points compared to Simmonds' 63.
I want to see Gagne end his career with the Flyers. I don't want to see another top-line player gone because Homer can't manage a salary cap. A return of Turco and prospects isn't a good enough replacement for a guy who scored some of the most important goals in a deep Cup run.
Pending what Philly would want, I'd still trade for Gagne - just for his hard work he'd be worth it and he just might still have a 40-goal season left in his pocket.
Imo, with Gagne on a line with Kopitar, 40 goals seems like cake.
People don't give Gagne credit for his defensive game either. He and Richie really made for a great pk tandem the last few years.
People don't give Gagne credit for his defensive game either. He and Richie really made for a great pk tandem the last few years.
That part worries me. I can see it being feasible that Giroux/JVR pick up the slack to some extent from a goal-scoring perspective, but we're losing a defensively responsible player. We still have several forwards we can trust on the PK (Betts, Lappy, Richards, Giroux, Carter, Powe), but we lose a valuable ES defender. Defense is a 6-man unit.
From what I've read, Kovi turned down L.A. Again, I too am taking this with a grain of salt.
Acc to Eklund, the Flyer deal for Gagne has also fallen through too, grains of salt proviso added.
What's worse that asking your longest serving player to waive his NTC and having it get out in public?
Asking him to waive it and the deal falls through...
Can Homer get anything right?
Personally, I'd have rather they waited on Meszaros. They could have had Jurcina for $1M like O'Donnell. Morrisonn still isn't signed, nor is Sutton.
We could have added Morrisonn or Sutton to play with Oskars, brought our forwards back and still had room for Turco.
How friggin' hard was that?
Now, we pretty well have to trade Gagne, so I hope they sign Turco and another LW to replace Gags, perhaps Ponikarovsky or one of my personal faves, Raffi Torres. Hits tonnes and can score.
The offseason is salvageable, as long as they don't do something really stupid - which is a very likely thing based on recent events.
Incidentally, something I neglected to mention in the previous post is that according to a team source, the Kings no longer consider themselves in the market for Philadelphia’s Simon Gagne. So everything is right…back…to…square one.
LeBrun is saying the same. I hope that means they find someone else to move, but now that Kovy appears to be off the market there may be some teams knocking at the door.
