I'm interested in seeing what kind of team Sweden can pull together.

Sedin- Sedin- Eriksson
Zetterberg- Backstrom- Hornqvist
Landeskog- Franzen- Alfredsson
Hagelin- Berglund- Steen
Xtra: 3 of Johansson, Silfverberg, Nyquist, Forsberg, or Lindholm*

Kronwall- Karlsson
Ekman-Larsson- Edler
Hedman- Enstrom
Xtra: Hjalmarsson, Larsson, Brodin (or KLEFBOM)

Lundqvist
Fasth
Lehner/Markstrom/Hedberg

Imagine THAT D corps in 4 years time

Beauchemin is a better DEFENSEman than Letang.
- JAKEw1234

he is.

id bet the farm that letang makes it before beauchemin.

fair or not, id be surprised if beauchemin is in the top 9 or 10 candidates.

he is.

id bet the farm that letang makes it before beauchemin.

fair or not, id be surprised if beauchemin is in the top 9 or 10 candidates.
- hugefemale dog77

I agree. There is a really good chance he is not even invited to try out.

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
- hugefemale dog77

Halls stats were good if you look at Ice time. I think the worlds helped him but someone else broke all that down to show why Hall out played people. I don't have that in front of me. Eberle might not be a lock, I don't think I said he did but I like his chances. Duchene I am ready to put money on him making it. Just on his speed alone.

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

Good point on Seabrook actually. He hasn't been as dominant a Dman as he was back in 2010 and he and Keith have been playing apart as you said, so I could see him getting cut. The main reason I included him was to establish a more balanced defensive presence. How about:

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

Good point on Seabrook actually. He hasn't been as dominant a Dman as he was back in 2010 and he and Keith have been playing apart as you said, so I could see him getting cut. The main reason I included him was to establish a more balanced defensive presence. How about:

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

Subban is a far superior defenseman to Letang. Even in offense he's pretty close to Letang.

Good point on Seabrook actually. He hasn't been as dominant a Dman as he was back in 2010 and he and Keith have been playing apart as you said, so I could see him getting cut. The main reason I included him was to establish a more balanced defensive presence. How about:

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

Subban > Letang. Almost equal offensive game, MUCH better slap shot, better defense, much better physical. Subban could actually have the 2nd best slap shot in that group behind only Weber.

Beauchemin is a better DEFENSEman than Letang.
- JAKEw1234

That's just talking stupid.
Does Letang do some things like make weak passes every now and again? Of course he does but you're way under estimating how good he is in his own end...he is not a one trick pony as so many pundits want to accuse him of being.

Scoring-wise or defense-wise? Read is a good defensive forward, that's all I mean. Hall is by a long, long shot the better player. There's gotta be some reason Ruff played him above Hall.
- JAKEw1234

The same reason why the Sabres fired his ass: hes an overrated fool.

Good point on Seabrook actually. He hasn't been as dominant a Dman as he was back in 2010 and he and Keith have been playing apart as you said, so I could see him getting cut. The main reason I included him was to establish a more balanced defensive presence. How about:

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

I wonder what they do. I can see why you'd put hamhuis, but I think theyre gonna gamble with some extra offence and skating with both letang and subban.

keith -weber
doughty - subban
piterangelo-letang

That's just talking stupid.
Does Letang do some things like make weak passes every now and again? Of course he does but you're way under estimating how good he is in his own end...he is not a one trick pony as so many pundits want to accuse him of being.
- quinnjj

It's more that he goes up on the rush so much that it often leaves forwards back to do his job, but ya when he's actually doing his job he's a got a pretty mediocre defensive game.

That's just talking stupid.
Does Letang do some things like make weak passes every now and again? Of course he does but you're way under estimating how good he is in his own end...he is not a one trick pony as so many pundits want to accuse him of being.
- quinnjj

good post.

somehow it became fact that letang is terrible defensively. he's not.
offence is clearly his bread and butter, but he's at least adequate in his own end.
can play abit physical too

The same reason why the Sabres fired his ass: hes an overrated fool.
- TheTaoOfSemenko

While I don't disagree with you, I still would argue that Read has a better defensive game. Hall has him in literally everything else, though. And the defense isn't far behind Read's at all. Remember that Read is primarily a defensive forward that can also chip in around 20 goals a year. Hall is primarily a scoring forward that can also chip in in his own end.

good post.

somehow it became fact that letang is terrible defensively. he's not.
offence is clearly his bread and butter, but he's absolutely adequate in his own end.
can play abit physical too
- hugefemale dog77

and due to his style of game -handling the puck a lot and rushing- gives up the biscuit a lot. I like Letang a lot and wont deny the Oil would be better with him, considering how big of a problem turnovers are for this team, his offensive production would have to be massive to compensate as the Oilers forwards, as exciting and good as they are, are not exactly known as tenaciois backcheckers. Eakins may change that, but until that changes they'll be doing a lot of chasing.

No one thinks Martin might be a better, although less sexy, option for this particular team makeup?Cheaper to acquire as well?

While I don't disagree with you, I still would argue that Read has a better defensive game. Hall has him in literally everything else, though. And the defense isn't far behind Read's at all. Remember that Read is primarily a defensive forward that can also chip in around 20 goals a year. Hall is primarily a scoring forward that can also chip in in his own end.
- JAKEw1234

Back checking a gap control wise perhaps, but the play rarely dies on Hallsys stick and he makes dmen play honest.

and due to his style of game -handling the puck a lot and rushing- gives up the biscuit a lot. I like Letang a lot and wont deny the Oil would be better with him, considering how big of a problem turnovers are for this team, his offensive production would have to be massive to compensate as the Oilers forwards, as exciting and good as they are, are not exactly known as tenaciois backcheckers. Eakins may change that, but until that changes they'll be doing a lot of chasing.

No one thinks Martin might be a better, although less sexy, option for this particular team makeup?Cheaper to acquire as well?
- TheTaoOfSemenko

martin looks so bad some nights and pretty good others. but I wouldn't complain for a cheap price.

and although he would certainly help, I don't think letang is the foremost answer for our backend by any means. especially at what it would cost.

I was just commenting more on letangs overstated defensive deficiencies in relation to the team Canada selection conversation

Yummy
- robin_steele264

mommy?

martin looks so bad some nights and pretty good others. but I wouldn't complain for a cheap price.

and although he would certainly help, I don't think letang is the foremost answer for our backend by any means. especially at what it would cost.

I was just commenting more on letangs overstated defensive deficiencies in relation to the team Canada selection conversation
- hugefemale dog77

I think if you pair him with Weber you get a complete pair of defense men that is scary good.
I love Keith's game and would pair him with Subban.
I think the puck movers are key especially in the Olympics with the bigger ice and you have to be able to skate.
My last pairing would be Pietrangelo and Doughty.

martin looks so bad some nights and pretty good others. but I wouldn't complain for a cheap price.

and although he would certainly help, I don't think letang is the foremost answer for our backend by any means. especially at what it would cost.

I was just commenting more on letangs overstated defensive deficiencies in relation to the team Canada selection conversation
- hugefemale dog77

This year Martin never looked bad.

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.
- JAKEw1234

Yes we should. Which further supports my point. Smid is not a franchise dman.

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.
- Hall Fan

Stastny isnt terrible, just has a terrible contract and now is forced to play 3rd line minutes bc Duchene, O'Reilly, and now MacKinnon have knocked him down the depth chart. Over inflated contract and lack of quality ice time, yeah he will always look terrible number wise

Yes we should. Which further supports my point. Smid is not a franchise dman.
- goavsgo10

Whoever said he was is out to lunch. Having said that, I wouldn't be moving Duchene at all unless the return was so damn good, you couldn't say no.

Statsny should be moved & I believe the Avs would get a nice return for him as well but a dman no question needs to be involved & a top 4 dman to boot.

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

You do know that O'Reilly is going to start on the wing this year with Duchene right? Thats the plan going into training camp

Yes we should. Which further supports my point. Smid is not a franchise dman.
- goavsgo10

Thanks Captain Obvious. Youd be hard pressed to find anyone that has claimed he is.

Whoever said he was is out to lunch. Having said that, I wouldn't be moving Duchene at all unless the return was so damn good, you couldn't say no.

Statsny should be moved & I believe the Avs would get a nice return for him as well but a dman no question needs to be involved & a top 4 dman to boot.
- newmy

Or until MacKinnon shows himself to be the dominant force he is. I'd say run it Crosby-Malkin style and keep both, but the Avs literally only have 1 true NHL dman with Johnson. I'm surprised they haven't just gone after Murray and some other UFA dmen, because literally anything they add would be an upgrade to what they have now.