Official Hockey discussion thread

The rumour said that the Penguins wanted the Flames first round pick (6th overall) to send Marc Andre Fleury to them last month, but instead they ending up taking Brian Elliott from the Blues.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...ngs-shattenkirk-oilers-rangers-bruins-sharks/

Why Murray will remain with the team:
Fleury will be 32 years old next year, most likely be gone in a few years.
He has had some injury problems (obviously).
Inconsistent performances in the playoffs between 2010-2013 (don't forget why they signed Vokoun!).
He has been a good goaltender for the last decade - but never a Vezina Trophy guy.

If Murray does not turn into a reliable starter they can still trade or sign a decent backup to share the position with him.
 
Depends on how Murray plays this season, I think. If Murray plays anywhere near as well this season, he sticks, otherwise, Fleury is exposed.
 
I do not follow them closely enough to know, but I suspect if they 2 goalies are close, the general rule is to expose the older more expensive goalie. What they have in the minors is a factor as well. I am not sure if they have someone they want to bring up or not.
 
Very true, To be honest, IF Murray plays well this season, Fleury could be a great fit for Vegas. That is IF they pick him, they could also pick lethonen or Niemi from Dallas. Fleury is ONLY 32, many good to great goalies played into their 40s at still a decent compete level. Luongo is a current active goalie, up there in age that still performs well. Roy played into his late 30s as did Belfour and Hasek. I think fleury still has plenty in the tank to be a good trade asset at the very least. He does have a no-trade/move clause which he would have to waive, but if he sees the writing on the wall, he just might.

People forget Zatkoff's performance as well. Sure he played ONE game in the play-offs, but it was a 40+ save performance. He's definitely a back up, but looks like at least for this season pittsburgh has 3 goalies to manage.
 
Zatkoff proved that he is a decent backup at the NHL level the past three years, so he was signed by the Kings. I don't think that he wanted to go back to the AHL next year.

The Penguins currently have Murray, Fleury and a 21-year old named Tristan Jarry in their system. I believe that they will add a better goaltender on a 2-way deal soon.
 
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Onhell said:
Fleury is ONLY 32, many good to great goalies played into their 40s at still a decent compete level.
Click to expand...
No, I don't think so. Most starting goalies in the NHL of today are under 30, and several 30+ goalies lost their starting spot this year (Howard, Halak, and Fleury himself). This isn't like the post lockout years anymore, goalies are getting younger and lasting far far shorter.

Eastern Conference:
Bos - Rask - 29
Buf - Lehner - 24
Det - Mrazek - 24
Fla - Luongo - 37
Mtl - Price - 28
Ott - Anderson - 35
TB - Bishop - 29
Tor - Andersen - 26
Car - Ward - 32
CBJ - Bobrovsky - 27
NJD - Schneider - 30
NYI - Greiss - 30
NYR - Lundqvist - 34
Phi - Mason - 28
Was - Holtby - 26

Western Conference:
Ana - Gibson - 22
Ari - Smith - 34
Cal - Elliot - 31
Edm - Talbot - 29
LAK - Quick - 30
SJS - Jones - 26
Van - Miller - 35* (appears about ready to lose his job to Jacob Markstrom)
Chi - Crawford - 31
Col - Varlamov - 28
Dal - Lehtonin/Niemi - 32 (both)
Min - Dubnyk - 30
Nas - Rinne - 33
StL - Allen - 25 (Just chosen over the older Elliot)
Win - Pavelec - 28
 
I'm not saying ALL goalies can play until their 40s, just like MOST players DON'T have 10 year careers, fewer 15 and even fewer 20. BUT I did say many of the GOOD to GREATS, not just ANY goalie. Lundqvist is incredibly consistent, Fleury sadly lost his job, due to concussions, otherwise he would have been in net, no question.

I mentioned that GMs think their are 12 legit top pairing defensemen... I think there's even less legit #1 goalies. Off the top of my head:

Lundqvist
Quick
Luongo
Ellliot
Allen
Fleury
and Bishop has proven me wrong in recent seasons. The rest are yet to show consistency even during regular seasons, much less play-offs.
 
Onhell said:
I'm not saying ALL goalies can play until their 40s, just like MOST players DON'T have 10 year careers, fewer 15 and even fewer 20. BUT I did say many of the GOOD to GREATS, not just ANY goalie. Lundqvist is incredibly consistent, Fleury sadly lost his job, due to concussions, otherwise he would have been in net, no question.

I mentioned that GMs think their are 12 legit top pairing defensemen... I think there's even less legit #1 goalies. Off the top of my head:

Lundqvist
Quick
Luongo
Ellliot
Allen
Fleury
and Bishop has proven me wrong in recent seasons. The rest are yet to show consistency even during regular seasons, much less play-offs.
Click to expand...

See, I wouldn't include Fleury (too many playoff letdowns) Allen or Eillott (haven't done anything) on my list.
I also think Bishop is highly overrated and will likely prove it once Tampa trades him.

Carey Price is the best goalie in hockey and probably just an oversight on your part.
Corey Schneider is elite and woefully underrated.
I'm still a big fan of Rask even though he may have dipped and you can't ignore what Holtby did this year.
 
Luongo isn't elite anymore, he's just pretty good these days. He'll be better next year with a good backup in Reimer.

Price is the best goaltender in the world, and maybe this year he won't get hurt with a big Shea Weber to protect him.
 
Carey was a very big oversight on my part, thank you for the reminder. He IS the Canadians. Rask.... sigh.... he's definitely very good, but the 2013 meltdown still hurts.
 
He played 70 games in 2014-2015 and still managed to hold a 92.2 save percentage - it's not impossible that he can reach those numbers again. But still, a great backup like when they had Johnson or Khudobin would propably help him a bit. When Rask won the Vezina Trophy in 2013/3014 he had a 93.0 save percentage and appeared in 58 games, that's propably what he should play during a season.
 
Maybe Subban's little bro could help out LOL. Yeah, Too bad they lost Chad Johnson :(, oh well, I am very skeptical of Sweeney's moves. We should have remained a contender like Chicago or L.A, but no.... since 2013 it's been a shit storm. GRRR
 
I think the fact that they couldn't afford to keep Jarome Iginla after the 2013-2014 season played a part in the Bruins not making the playoffs in 2015 and 2016.

And I think it's a shame that Iginla picked the Penguins over the Bruins at the 2013 trade deadline, only to sign with them during the summer that year, he could have been useful that spring.

But to leave the Bruins after one year to sign with the Avs has proved to be a big mistake as well, as they have not made the playoffs in either of his two seasons with them. He is now 39 years old and has one year remaining on his contract and it looks he will retire after playing + 1500 games without winning a Stanley Cup.

He came really close in 2004 though, being only one goal away in overtime of game 6...
 
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Same could be said about not being able to keep Jagr, he's actually been more than useful to the Panthers.

Anywho, Murray just signed a 3 year 3.75M contract with the Pens, DUN DUN DUN! The mystery continues, since he got hurt during Worlds now he has to steal the starter job again.

How 'bout that Mathew kid? 4 goals in the opener, but still loses. This seems to be the true turning point for the Maple Leafs and hopefully they finally go somewhere. Same for the Oilers who have gotten rid of not one, but TWO of their #1 picks in Hall and Yukapov, both doing ok in their new teams. Their defense is still weak, but their goaltending is at the very least stable. The same cannot be said for L.A who is down Jonathan Quick and as their current starter has who used to be the Pens third stringer Jeff Zatkoff. Don't get me wrong, kid played great in the ONE game in the playoffs when he was really needed, but he is not #1 material.

So too early to call it? Mcdavid Art Ross winner and Mathews gets Calder. BOOM! *drops mic*
 
Leafs will ruin Austen Matthews. He'll be good, then collapse under the pressure by age 22 or so. Not as bad as Nail Yakupov, who was a bargain basement trade to St Louis, but I think he'll underperform.

McDavid is fantastic. He's in my hockey pool so he's clearly the best.
 
I wanted to post right away, but haven't had the chance, so apologies if I don't sound as enthused as I truly am.

5 months ago we got word that the Phoenix Coyotes were moving their AHL club to Tucson from Springfield, Massachusetts. The city approved a 3M dollar renovation project for the Tucson Convention Center to make it meet AHL standards. Then they made a name the team contest and to no one's surprise the overwhelming favorite was The Roadrunners. As it turns out about 20 years ago Phoenix had an AHL team called the Roadrunners so the name is not only an homage to that team, but let's face it, it's really cool to have the Coyotes and the Roadrunners in Arizona hehe.

The 'Yotes felt it was important to have their farm team close by to cut down on travel costs when calling players up or sending players down. For example, Michelak is currently on the active Roadrunner roster, but he was scratched for the home opener.

Oh man, it was incredible! I seriously did not think I'd enjoy an AHL game so much, but I had a better time and the game was WAY more entertaining than the NHL games I've seen. To be fair they've been Coyotes regular season games. The atmosphere was great, people wore jerseys from across the league and that made the whole event even better. You had philly fans and pittsburgh fans cheering our hometown team. When I go to Coyotes games most of the crowd is cheering for the visiting team, but here, we were all Tucsonans cheering on our roadrunners, it felt great.

The game itself was good too, we won even though we were down 3-0 in the first 6 minutes. We ended up winning 6-5 on the strength of a power play goal and a shorthanded goal. We even got to see a fight right in front of our section, hehe, yes, we won that too.

We got a commemorative ticket for the ocassion along with t-shirts and other free goodies. we got a five game pack this season, but we'll be saving up for season tickets for next season. I thought I wasn't going to know any of the players, but as it turns out we got three legacy players. the sons of Ulf Samuelson, Mark Tinordi and Al McInnis play for our club. All in all a great way to spend saturday night haha.
 
Nothing wrong with the AHL! You get a combination of older guys waiting for a shot and younger guys trying to prove they deserve one. You can get some great hockey in those places.
 
I really enjoy minor league hockey. I have gone to 1 Stars game so far this year (vs Winnipeg) .. lot of fun .. .it was a work deal and we were in a box with tons of food and beer.

But, I really enjoy going to minor league games. We have an ECHL team here (Allen Americans .. San Jose Sharks affiliate), they play in a pretty new and really nice rink (also saw Judas Priest play there). They won the Kelly Cup the past 2 years, we went to game 7 2 years ago to see them win it, really fun, great crowd.

I generally go to 5 or 6 of their games a year, I would probably go to more, but it is a bit of a drive.

Similar deal in Dallas, the Stars probably have more of a home crown than Phoenix, but for some teams .. like the Blackhawks, the visiting fans are pretty numerous.

Edit: The other obvious nice thing with minor league games is pricing. You can sit on the glass for $30 or sit a few rows up for $15 .. with some seats for $5. I usually take my nieces and nephews to a couple games a year, they really enjoy it.
 
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