2017/18 Pacific Division

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2017/18 Pacific Division

Post by ESQ »

I've been watching the off-season moves of the Pacific Division, and thought it was worthy of a new thread.

CALGARY
IN: Michael Stone (at TDD), Travis Hamonic, Eddie Lack, Mike Smith

OUT: Alex Chiasson, Brandon Bollig, Brian Elliott, Dennis Wideman (#3 Dman), Deryck Engelland, Lance Bouma, Chad Johnson, Jyrki Jokipakka 5 out of 6 top-3 round picks for the next 2 years.

STILL NEED: New contracts for Michael Ferland, Sam Bennett and Curtis Lazar, 1-2 depth dmen - $9.8 mil in cap space

EDMONTON
IN: Jussi Jokinen, Ryan Strome

OUT: David Desharnais, Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot, Griffen Reinhart

STILL NEED: extend Draisatl, 1-2 depth dmen - $16.8 mil in cap space. The amount of cap space surprised me, but this year they have 6 players still on ELCs.

SAN JOSE
IN: Brandon Bollig on a 2-way

OUT: Patrick Marleau (#3 goalscorer), David Schlemko, Tommy Wingels

STILL NEED: 3-4 forwards, new contract for Chris Tierney, 1-2 depth dmen - $10.1 million in cap space

LA
IN: Mike Cammalleri, Darcy Kuemper

OUT: Teddy Purcell, Jarome Iginla, Rob Scuderi, Ben Bishop, Brayden McNabb, Matt Greene

STILL NEEDS: New contract for Chris Gravel, 2-3 dmen - $6.6 million cap space

ANAHEIM
IN: Ryan Miller

OUT: Shea Theodore, Clayton Stoner, Jonathan Bernier, Simon Despres, Jhonas Enroth

NEEDS: 1-2 depth Dmen - $4.3 million cap space
NHL.com's take

ARIZONA
IN: Derek Stepan, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Antti Raanta, Chad Johnson, Brandon Hickey

OUT: Michael Stone, Radim Vrbata (#1 for points), Martin Hanzal (#3 for goals), Shane Doan (#6 forward), Alexander Burmistrov, Mike Smith , Anthony DeAngelo, Teemu Pulkinnen, Connor Murphy (#3 dman), Michael Stone

NEEDS: New contracts for Martinook and Duclair (will bring them to cap floor) - $21 million cap space

Which brings us to Vancouver:
IN: Michael Del Zotto, Alexander Burmistrov, Sam Gagner, Anders Nilsson, Patrick Wiercioch, Phillip Holm, Nikolay Goldobin, Jonathan Dahlen

OUT: Luca Sbisa, Ryan Miller, Alex Burrows, Jannick Hansen, Jack Skille, Nikita Tryamkin

STILL NEEDS: New contracts for Horvat, Reid Boucher, Brendan Gaunce - $9.5 million in cap space
Last edited by ESQ on Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

Post by Mickey107 »

+ Vegas
A rather large factor I would think. ;)
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Lol ok ok Micky, but I'm not going to re-post every transaction of Vegas's! As good as their expansion conditions were, I don't see them as a playoffs threat.

My Take:

Anaheim and San Jose have gotten worse - especially Anaheim, who seem to have a cap crunch.

LA's losses are pretty inconsequential, however so are their additions. The cap problem is significant, and unless Cammalleri rediscovers the magic, will probably be barrier to significant improvement. LA has to hope for bounce-backs from Kopitar and Cammalleri, and Jake Muzzin.

Arizona pretty much transformed its roster, so who knows how that will work out?

Calgary is improved (and younger)on the back-end, but goaltending is a huge issue (again), and they will have almost no cap space once Lazar and Bennett are re-signed.

I thought Edmonton was in for big problems this year, until they got Jokinen. That's probably the best signing of 2017. Draisatl's extension is a huge question mark, but it will get done.

Eberle was a significant loss to secondary scoring, but Strome + Jokinen should make up for it this year. We probably haven't seen the peak of McDavid yet, possibly not the peak of Draisatl or Strome, but Sekera, Lucic, Jokinen and Nuge are all going to plateau or decline. They had a lot of career years up and down the lineup last season, which got them 103 points and into the second round.

After next season, they have 2 forwards below the 1st line locked up - Kassian and Nuge. Its looking like a remarkably short window of contention for the Oil, with Puljularvi being the only potential future saviour.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Watched more coiler games than canucks and in all honesty them trading away Eberle is an addition by subtraction. Nevermind the points he collects because he had evolved into a major liability on the ice. Consistently bullied off pucks by runts and giving up pucks to avoid hits.
Honestly they are the cream of the west now and if they can add a norris calibre asset to the back end we will be watching them start accumulating cups like they did once upon a time ago
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Uncle dans leg wrote:Watched more coiler games than canucks and in all honesty them trading away Eberle is an addition by subtraction. Nevermind the points he collects because he had evolved into a major liability on the ice. Consistently bullied off pucks by runts and giving up pucks to avoid hits.
Honestly they are the cream of the west now and if they can add a norris calibre asset to the back end we will be watching them start accumulating cups like they did once upon a time ago
I agree that Eberle isn't a game-changer, but having a 50-point player on your second line will translate to a few points in the standings.

The Oilers had career years from weird places - Patrick Maroon with 27g/42 points, when his previous best was 11g/34 points. Letestu with 35 points having a career year at age 32. Vets like Sekera, Lucic and Kassian weren't far off their career-bests.

Young key guys like Klefbom, Draisatl, and McD improved enormously this year. They can probably be expected to continue to improve, or at least plateau. The question is, will that be enough to offset the declines in older players in critical positions (Lucic, Sekera) and the return-to-earth of Letestu and Maroon?

Unless they draft one, I don't see Edmonton being able to acquire a Norris-caliber dman without giving up a key high-cap player, like Draisatl. They have one year before they enter Cap Hell.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Letestu has a half decent one timer and McLellan set him up on the left side top unit powerplay...knocking in McDavids telepathic feeds. He will get bumped I'd wager in favour of someone who will be better...JUICY perhaps...so whatever points they lose from him will be improved upon.

As far as Maroon, he was McDavids winger for 75% of the season and I would expect his success to continue especially with them looking to send Draisaitl back to wnd line center again.

If they could find the right fit I'd bet they would move Puljujarvi for a top Dman...they wouldn't need to send LD packing.

We're in for a few years more of beatdowns from them yet
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Uncle dans leg wrote:Letestu has a half decent one timer and McLellan set him up on the left side top unit powerplay...knocking in McDavids telepathic feeds. He will get bumped I'd wager in favour of someone who will be better...JUICY perhaps...so whatever points they lose from him will be improved upon.

As far as Maroon, he was McDavids winger for 75% of the season and I would expect his success to continue especially with them looking to send Draisaitl back to wnd line center again.

If they could find the right fit I'd bet they would move Puljujarvi for a top Dman...they wouldn't need to send LD packing.

We're in for a few years more of beatdowns from them yet

Sold
D. Tanev for Puljujarvi plus.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

Post by Blob Mckenzie »

Lol unless you are sending one of Boeser/Juolevi/Dahlen with Tanev there isn't a hope in hell you get Pool Party.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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I updated the OP with a link to NHL.com's take on Anaheim's off-season, "Ducks achieve goal, maintain roster continuity".

Its a pretty rose-coloured assessment, as they are given props for keeping a lot of old players around plus Manson and Vatanen, while losing Stoner and Theadore is apparently NBD.

I feel like Alberta's becoming the new California. I wouldn't call Edmonton and Calgary powerhouses, but they've improved while SJS and ANA have seen their already-old rosters get older, lost key players, and not made any significant additions.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Blob Mckenzie wrote:Lol unless you are sending one of Boeser/Juolevi/Dahlen with Tanev there isn't a hope in hell you get Pool Party.
At this stage, I think any trade with Edmonton is zero-sum for a Canucks franchise that sees itself on the rise in the next couple of years.

This season, Draisatl's new deal kicks in.

Next season, McDavid's plus Strome.

In 2019/20, Talbot plus PoolyouRV.

After this season, I think Chiarelli's bargaining position will get worse and worse.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Vancouver has had very little trade or dealings with Edmonton throughout the years.
Calgary, different story. Just a fluke, but a strange one. :?:
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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ESQ wrote:I updated the OP with a link to NHL.com's take on Anaheim's off-season, "Ducks achieve goal, maintain roster continuity".

Its a pretty rose-coloured assessment, as they are given props for keeping a lot of old players around plus Manson and Vatanen, while losing Stoner and Theadore is apparently NBD.
I'll agree with NHL.com on this. It was looking like they were going to lose one of Manson Vatanen or Silferberg...instead they lost relative scrubs for fuck all. I think they won big time
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Oilers got more beefed up a bit, McDavid and Draisaitl should start their dominance of the league. :(
Some team should fuck with them and offersheet Leon the professional $9.8M per, it's only right after all the 1st overall draft picks they stole.

Flames defense should help Smith out, they almost got a good defense as us, ayoo! :P

AZ with Stepan should help their young centers, & with Hjalmarsson and Raanta it should make them less shitty compared to last season.

Kings the same, they getting old, a new coach/gm could awaken them a bit early in season, but they prob fall back as the season progresses.

Ducks another year older.

Sharks relatively remained the same but they won't have sniper Marleau and his 27 goals this upcoming season.

ESQ wrote: Which brings us to Vancouver:

STILL NEEDS: New contracts for Horvat, Reid Boucher, Brendan Gaunce - $9.5 million in cap space
I think I'd splurge on Horvat's contract and offer him more close to 6'3 217lbs Aleksander Barkov money, whose more talented than Bo.

But I'd go 7 years, where Barkov got 6 years @ $5.9m, I'd get Bo locked in at $5.75m x 7 or 8, prefer 8 and be done with it.

Boucher and Gaunce should get just under a mill a piece.
Can the Canucks just win a Cup within the next 5 years.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

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Uncle dans leg wrote:I'll agree with NHL.com on this. It was looking like they were going to lose one of Manson Vatanen or Silferberg...instead they lost relative scrubs for fuck all. I think they won big time
Plus I'd say they upgraded in goal.

Not exactly a bold prediction, but I'd expect the same teams to make, and not make, the playoffs from the Pacific next year.
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Re: 2017/18 Pacific Division

Post by Blob Mckenzie »

Edmonton
Calgary
Anaheim
L.A.
San Jose
Phoenix
Vancouver
Vegas

Not sure if one or no wild cards come out of this division.... San Jose and LA should be a good battle for 7/8 in the conference.If every thing breaks wrong for the Canucks and Green gets them buying in they could vault Phoenix. I'd personally prefer the the draft pick but that's just me.
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