I missed Ben. Eberle and Duchene clicked to well to miss that. I agree some players are getting older but St.Louis got the most points last year and he is 38. Older is not a terrible thing. Logan is arguable equal to a bunch of those players is what I said. Yes he might be arguably better but I didn't want to get into that as it takes away from the point. We can fill 12 spots easy with players better than him and still have players missed that are better than him.

As for Duchene being a lock, I will put money on that. As for Hall in the top 6, it doesn't matter. Canada always rolls 4 lines anyways. Put him anywhere you want and it won't make a difference. That is why we lost the worlds this year. We had the deepest bench but we played one line most of the game. If they would do short changes and roll through all 4, that is where the advantage is. Plus Ruff had biases against players. He was a terrible international coach.
- Hall Fan

HOW DARE HE BENCH HALL I WILL FIND HIM AND RIP HIM LIMB FROM LIMB.

In all seriousness I completely agree Ruff was an awful international coach. The bench was certainly deep enough to roll the lines but he treated the team like an NHL team.

I pick Weber, Subban, Keith, Pietrangelo, SUTER, and surprise choice here, Francois Beauchemin. Like someone in here pointed out earlier, he's really picked up his game in Anaheim and was 4th in Norris voting this year. He's a really good Dman.
- JAKEw1234

Suter is American.

I missed Ben. Eberle and Duchene clicked to well to miss that. I agree some players are getting older but St.Louis got the most points last year and he is 38. Older is not a terrible thing. Logan is arguable equal to a bunch of those players is what I said. Yes he might be arguably better but I didn't want to get into that as it takes away from the point. We can fill 12 spots easy with players better than him and still have players missed that are better than him.

As for Duchene being a lock, I will put money on that. As for Hall in the top 6, it doesn't matter. Canada always rolls 4 lines anyways. Put him anywhere you want and it won't make a difference. That is why we lost the worlds this year. We had the deepest bench but we played one line most of the game. If they would do short changes and roll through all 4, that is where the advantage is. Plus Ruff had biases against players. He was a terrible international coach.
- Hall Fan

Crosby, Tavares, stamkos, Giroux, getzlaf, perry, Bergeron, toews, hall
all of these guys are almost for suredly ahead of Duchene and eberle.

that's 3 spots left. id say couture is ahead of them. same for e stall.
been is at least on equal footing.

running out of spaces....

and I put Duchene ahead of eberle too..

I pick Weber, Subban, Keith, Pietrangelo, SUTER, and surprise choice here, Francois Beauchemin. Like someone in here pointed out earlier, he's really picked up his game in Anaheim and was 4th in Norris voting this year. He's a really good Dman.
- JAKEw1234

suter's a yank and beuachemin is a LONG shot

maybe put Tavares in the middle of stamkos and Giroux.
- hugefemale dog77

That idea is too good you broke the universe

Now that we added Perron, trade Gagner's ass for Matthias and a 2nd.

Hall Nuge Yak
Perron Matthias Eberle
- ystoil

I like Gagner. He plays with heart and is a decent 2C but if I'm his agent I advise he take the arbitration settlement and then one year from now become the youngest UFA in NHL history. He will have another banner year playing with wingers like Hall or Perron and Yaks or Ebs. He most likely gets some 1st line time if Nuge misses games coming back post surgery. Gags was on track for 65 points last year so could have more than 80 points this year given consistent time with our best forwards. So barring an injury he hits paydirt next year.

On the other hand, if I'm MacT watching the bottomline and if Gags has turned down the $5 mil/year for 4-5 years then I would move him for a less expensive center. Johansen would be promising but I do not think that Columbus has the Cap space to pays Gags the big bucks. Florida does have the capspace and could offer up Matthias. Gags is an upgrade on Matthias and would be their 1C until Barkov becomes of age and then Gags would fit nicely as their 2C.

Are there other teams with a center to trade for Gags?

If Gags leaves Oil are very thin at center:
Nuge (recovering from surgery)
Lander
Gordon
...
Yikes, even if we get a center in return for Gags we still do not have any depth. One injury away from Symth at center again! IMO we should also consider signing Steckel. He has size and an excellent FO%.

Suter is American.
- TomKlassen

Oh lord why do I always think he's Canadian?

suter's a yank and beuachemin is a LONG shot
- hugefemale dog77

Not so much for Beuachemin. If he continues the pace that put him 4th in norris voting then he has a definite shot.

I like Gagner. He plays with heart and is a decent 2C but if I'm his agent I advise he take the arbitration settlement and then one year from now become the youngest UFA in NHL history. He will have another banner year playing with wingers like Hall or Perron and Yaks or Ebs. He most likely gets some 1st line time if Nuge misses games coming back post surgery. Gags was on track for 65 points last year so could have more than 80 points this year given consistent time with our best forwards. So barring an injury he hits paydirt next year.

On the other hand, if I'm MacT watching the bottomline and if Gags has turned down the $5 mil/year for 4-5 years then I would move him for a less expensive center. Johansen would be promising but I do not think that Columbus has the Cap space to pays Gags the big bucks. Florida does have the capspace and could offer up Matthias. Gags is an upgrade on Matthias and would be their 1C until Barkov becomes of age and then Gags would fit nicely as their 2C.

Are there other teams with a center to trade for Gags?

If Gags leaves Oil are very thin at center:
Nuge (recovering from surgery)
Lander
Gordon
...
Yikes, even if we get a center in return for Gags we still do not have any depth. One injury away from Symth at center again! IMO we should also consider signing Steckel. He has size and an excellent FO%.
- redwolf

wow that is optimistic

Yummy

stamkos Crosby Giroux
tavares getzlaf perry
couture, toews e. stall
hall, Bergeron, Duchene

benn
- hugefemale dog77

Stamkos- Crosby- Nash
Hall- Giroux- Tavares
Duchene- Toews- Getzlaf
E. Staal- Bergeron- Couture
Xtra: Benn, Eberle, Burns

Subban- Weber
Keith- Seabrook
Letang- Pietrangelo
Xtra: Hamhuis, Doughty

Goaltending will all depend upon who's performing the best. Crawford, Luongo, Price, Ward, Dubnyk, etc will likely all be in the running. For all we know, Steve Mason could tear it up in Philly and end up as the starter!

Weber - Hamhuis
Pietrangelo - Keith
Subban - Beauchemin (If he continues his level of play)

Stamkos- Crosby- Nash
Hall- Giroux- Tavares
Duchene- Toews- Getzlaf
E. Staal- Bergeron- Couture
Xtra: Benn, Eberle, Burns

Subban- Weber
Keith- Seabrook
Letang- Pietrangelo
Xtra: Hamhuis, Doughty

Goaltending will all depend upon who's performing the best. Crawford, Luongo, Price, Ward, Dubnyk, etc will likely all be in the running. For all we know, Steve Mason could tear it up in Philly and end up as the starter!
- MaximumBone

All I know for fact is Stamkos and Giroux WILL almost undoubtedly be on the same line.

Weber - Hamhuis
Pietrangelo - Keith
Subban - Beauchemin (If he continues his level of play)
- JAKEw1234

Hall/Nuge/Ebs will be a line at Sochi....

gags and yakupov for malkin

I pick Weber, Subban, Keith, Pietrangelo, SUTER, and surprise choice here, Francois Beauchemin. Like someone in here pointed out earlier, he's really picked up his game in Anaheim and was 4th in Norris voting this year. He's a really good Dman.
- JAKEw1234

Tough choices. You are missing Seabrook who did really good last year. Hamhuis who is a solid 2 way choice. Letang who offensively is pretty decent to say it modestly. Schultz - you know how they like to always have that one young guy. Doughty who IMO was the best dman in the last Olympics next to Weber. Phaneuf because... no just kidding. Toronto sucks.

Tough choices. You are missing Seabrook who did really good last year. Hamhuis who is a solid 2 way choice. Letang who offensively is pretty decent to say it modestly. Schultz - you know how they like to always have that one young guy. Doughty who IMO was the best dman in the last Olympics next to Weber. Phaneuf because... no just kidding. Toronto sucks.
- Hall Fan

Seabrook is good but still a tier under the rest of these guys imo. And ya Phaneuf is bad. Letang is overrated, again only because it lists his position as D, and he starts before the whistle back where you think a Dman would be, but after that whistle blows the guy is a forward.

Gagner and Smid for Duchene is the biggest joke I've ever heard. That's trading a franchise center man for a 2nd line center and 3/4 dman. Something like this would be more reasonable:

To EDM:
Statsny
2nd rounder

To COL:
Gagner(who the avs wouldn't want anyways with Duchene, Mackinnon, and O'Reilly at center)
Smid

That being said RNH and Duchene up the center would(IMO) be the second best center tandem in the league behind Pittsburgh.
Good write up but I hope the avs land Vanek somehow!

Crosby, Tavares, stamkos, Giroux, getzlaf, perry, Bergeron, toews, hall
all of these guys are almost for suredly ahead of Duchene and eberle.

that's 3 spots left. id say couture is ahead of them. same for e stall.
been is at least on equal footing.

running out of spaces....

and I put Duchene ahead of eberle too..
- hugefemale dog77

Did you watch the worlds? I know the people picking the Olympic team did. Previous experience dominating in a recent world tournament is going to help them.

Stamkos- Crosby- Nash
Hall- Giroux- Tavares
Duchene- Toews- Getzlaf
E. Staal- Bergeron- Couture
Xtra: Benn, Eberle, Burns

Subban- Weber
Keith- Seabrook
Letang- Pietrangelo
Xtra: Hamhuis, Doughty

Goaltending will all depend upon who's performing the best. Crawford, Luongo, Price, Ward, Dubnyk, etc will likely all be in the running. For all we know, Steve Mason could tear it up in Philly and end up as the starter!
- MaximumBone

I think we all know that Mason will have to do more than tear it up to make the team. All the previous mentioned goalies would have to be injured as well for that to happen. Smith has a better chance.

Gagner and Smid for Duchene is the biggest joke I've ever heard. That's trading a franchise center man for a 2nd line center and 3/4 dman. Something like this would be more reasonable:

To EDM:
Statsny
2nd rounder

To COL:
Gagner(who the avs wouldn't want anyways with Duchene, Mackinnon, and O'Reilly at center)
Smid

That being said RNH and Duchene up the center would(IMO) be the second best center tandem in the league behind Pittsburgh.
Good write up but I hope the avs land Vanek somehow!
- goavsgo10

Shouldn't you guys be trading Duchene or Statsny for the awesome future #1 dman to add to your youth core? You have quite the logjam at center.

Stamkos- Crosby- Nash
Hall- Giroux- Tavares
Duchene- Toews- Getzlaf
E. Staal- Bergeron- Couture
Xtra: Benn, Eberle, Burns

Subban- Weber
Keith- Seabrook
Letang- Pietrangelo
Xtra: Hamhuis, Doughty

Goaltending will all depend upon who's performing the best. Crawford, Luongo, Price, Ward, Dubnyk, etc will likely all be in the running. For all we know, Steve Mason could tear it up in Philly and end up as the starter!
- MaximumBone

we already discussed perry, so that's fine.

but doughty is for sure in the top 6.
to be completely honest im not sure there's a guy on the backend that is considered before him. including weber.
yzerman has a massive hard on for drew.

doughty, weber
keith subban
letang pietrangelo

im not sure they pair seabrook with keith again either. (or more to the point seabrook makes it because of keith) even last time they ended up playing apart alot anyway as seabrook saw less minutes than keith in crunch time.
either way; both subban and pietrangelo get bumped before doughty.

we already discussed perry, so that's fine.

but doughty is for sure in the top 6.
to be completely honest im not sure there's a guy on the backend that is considered before him. including weber.
yzerman has a massive hard on for drew.

doughty, weber
keith subban
letang pietrangelo

im not sure they pair seabrook with keith again. (or more to the point seabrook makes it because of keith) even last time they ended up playing apart a lot anyway as seabrook saw less minutes than keith in crunch time.
either way; both subban pietrangelo get bumpred before doughty
- hugefemale dog77

Beauchemin is a better DEFENSEman than Letang.

Did you watch the worlds? I know the people picking the Olympic team did. Previous experience dominating in a recent world tournament is going to help them.
- Hall Fan

who dominated?

Duchene was the best player on that line of him, hall and ebs if you wanna get technical.
and the only 1 of the 3 that actually stood out alot of the time.

neither hall nor ebs got a ton of ice time actually.
and lindy ruff rode stamkos, Giroux and ladd way more than those kids.

by your logic the world's prob hurt hall as much as helped.
either way, I think hall's on the team, but eberle is FAR from a lock. and same goes for duchene

Gagner and Smid for Duchene is the biggest joke I've ever heard. That's trading a franchise center man for a 2nd line center and 3/4 dman. Something like this would be more reasonable:

To EDM:
Statsny
2nd rounder

To COL:
Gagner(who the avs wouldn't want anyways with Duchene, Mackinnon, and O'Reilly at center)
Smid

That being said RNH and Duchene up the center would(IMO) be the second best center tandem in the league behind Pittsburgh.
Good write up but I hope the avs land Vanek somehow!
- goavsgo10

Well you are right about a couple things. Avs aren't hurting for a center. Gagner plays wing as well. Also Statsny is a terrible player and your team may now officially have the worst d in the league.

However you do have the right players to land Vanek. Like Edmonton you have young skilled prospects. I don't think you would like the cost though. Odds are Buffalo is going to hang onto him for so long that they get less than they are being offered now. Teams aren't going to give them 2 top 6 players for a guy with a 1 year contract that makes 10% of a teams overall budget unless that player rhymes with mamkos or lovechkin.