A move to get to the cap floor
- sbroads24

Yeah but it was a relatively inexpensive gamble on a guy who had been considered pretty darn valuable only a short time earlier.

It didn't hurt and had a chance for real upside.

Different contracts have different purposes

Yeah, it was a gamble that didn't work out.

Overall though, the 2015-2016 team wasn't really ready to go anywhere so I think Murray was hoping Franson would show something and then he'd be a piece to move at the deadline. It didn't work but it wasn't exactly a franchise breaking risk.
- Phatjohnsn

Franson was a low risk deal. You sign a guy for 2 years and hope he makes your team a bit better. If he does it's great, if not you haven't lost anything. He's still on the team and can be a good depth defenseman if someone gets hurt.

Yeah but it was a relatively inexpensive gamble on a guy who had been considered pretty darn valuable only a short time earlier.

It didn't hurt and had a chance for real upside.

Different contracts have different purposes
- Der Kaiser

Still has upside as a depth D.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/st...ts/year/2016/seasontype/2

Franson was a low risk deal. You sign a guy for 2 years and hope he makes your team a bit better. If he does it's great, if not you haven't lost anything. He's still on the team and can be a good depth defenseman if someone gets hurt.
- Zschalberg

I have no issue with it. My question is where are the savy FA moves?

Where are the Stempniak signings where you get a guy on a good deal and he turns around and actually exceeds expectations.

Murray needs to hit gold sometime for me to call him a really good GM

No I am agreeing with you completely.

Everybody hated him, but Chris Neil played an important role with the Sens for a long time. I bet it didn't show very well in most analytics. But he allowed people around him to be better.

I'm not familiar enough with analytics to know if there is a datapoint that measures that, but I think the threads we write and read don't focus on it whether it exists or not.
- Der Kaiser

Agree on your first point. I like stats as much as some of the "analytics guys" but I also understand there is a lot more to the game. Some people don't like when they can't fit things into nice clean categories of "bad" and "good" though.

No, the hockey one. The first "Did you send this to GMTM" was a little quip, then it kept going on. I like the hockey talk.
- Zschalberg

I love hockey talk, usually the reason im here besides the occasional shenanigans (put the pistols down). But ever since last year its been a lot of the same talk about the same players over and over again. People here tend to think a GM should go after every player they like and avoid every player they don't like, it isn't how this works. A lot of additions over the last 2 years were simply stop gaps so we could ice a team. I highly doubt Tim Murry signed Cody Franson to a deal and thought well there we go that guy will bring us a cup.

We needed a D-man. Murray knew it Franson knew it and prolly took advantage of it in negotiations. The Kane trade is what finally bottomed us out and did it in a way that wasn't announcing tanking like a Big Gay Al USO show.
in a year or two most of the recent additions will be in a position that a lot of them can walk away at no cost to us sans Moulson to which hopefully he rebounds at least a bit from his awful year.

Get over it... you couldn't of gotten the big name FA's of the last two years with what we had to offer. They want cups not money, and i wouldn't of wanted to build a team that way anyhow.

Friends of mine explain that she starred in a movie called "The Fappening" but I can't find it anywhere on Netflix.
- Der Kaiser

Nothing on this? NOTHING???!!!

No Ullmark in developmental camp due to sickness

I think we have more guys drafted in the top ten than the oilers

Okposo
Eichel
Skunk
Risto
Kane
Bogo
Nylander

All we need to do is bring Legwand back

Murray needs to hit gold sometime for me to call him a really good GM
- sbroads24

over paid on 3 trades last year

put his drunk a$$ on the hot seat

Nothing on this? NOTHING???!!!


- Der Kaiser

Fappin is just fapping.


Nice try Sir.

I have no issue with it. My question is where are the savy FA moves?

Where are the Stempniak signings where you get a guy on a good deal and he turns around and actually exceeds expectations.

Murray needs to hit gold sometime for me to call him a really good GM
- sbroads24

Gotcha. I agree. I'll say I don't think we were at the point the last 2 years to get many of those guys just because of where we were in the standings and so on. Okposo is a good start. Next year let's get one of those guys that aren't the big fish but turn out to have a good upside.

On the flip side, would Jaime McGinn count as a savvy pickup, albeit not from a FA signing? I didn't know who he really was before he got here but he played pretty well. Might even put Legwand there since he outplayed my expectations as well.

Nothing on this? NOTHING???!!!


- Der Kaiser

Okposo had as many points as Stamkos last year

Fappin is just fapping.


Nice try Sir.
- cabin

disagree

Gotcha. I agree. I'll say I don't think we were at the point the last 2 years to get many of those guys just because of where we were in the standings and so on. Okposo is a good start. Next year let's get one of those guys that aren't the big fish but turn out to have a good upside.

On the flip side, would Jaime McGinn count as a savvy pickup, albeit not from a FA signing? I didn't know who he really was before he got here but he played pretty well. Might even put Legwand there since he outplayed my expectations as well.
- Zschalberg

If we get Vesey......absolutely

If we get Vesey......absolutely
- sbroads24

If we get Vesey......absolutely
- sbroads24

It was still a good move, Vesey or not. Had to have the stones/foresight to get it done and put himself into the position to try for Vesey. A lot of GMs would just trade a top 5 winger in the game for Adam Larsson.

- homiedclown

She's full of crap.

If we get Vesey......absolutely
- sbroads24

Agreed. Had Anaheim made the 2nd round I think that would have counted too. A 2nd for him would have been good for me.

Another good mark for him is he doesn't seem to be overpaying his current players. The only example I have is McCabe who signed a very good deal for us. If Ristolainen's deal is decent as well I'll be happy. Only other re-signing I can think of is Ennis and I think that was an okay deal until he got hurt.

I have no issue with it. My question is where are the savy FA moves?
- sbroads24

Ok, fair enough.

Where are the Stempniak signings where you get a guy on a good deal and he turns around and actually exceeds expectations.
- sbroads24

Stempniak is the exception though. I'd say it is pretty rare GMs pick up a 32 year old in FA who was never consistently a + scorer, have him score 15 goals in the first half of the year, and then move him for draft currency at the deadline. Honestly that was an exceptional move for NJD and not one you're going to see them do with any frequency.

Murray needs to hit gold sometime for me to call him a really good GM

- sbroads24

So can we just call him average or slightly above average? I don't need to anoint him just yet but I like his style.

Didn't he have to end the season for a surgery? Could that hurt him at all as far as conditioning this summer?

If he can play like he did this year on little conditioning and through the pain he was reportedly in I'd love to see him at closer to 100%.
- Zschalberg

Valid point. Couldn't find an article that gave a time table to recovery, so we really have no idea. I'm just hoping he has a full summer.

I have no issue with it. My question is where are the savy FA moves?

Where are the Stempniak signings where you get a guy on a good deal and he turns around and actually exceeds expectations.

Murray needs to hit gold sometime for me to call him a really good GM
- sbroads24

I think the bolded part above is going to come from a combination of the following making a difference on the team becoming good and possibly great: Guhle, Fasching, Borgen, Nylander, Martin, Asplund.

Adding to that would be the potential of both Carrier and Bailey to make a quality bottom 6 contribution at the NHL level and Vesey signing, if he does sign.

Ok, fair enough.



Stempniak is the exception though. I'd say it is pretty rare GMs pick up a 32 year old in FA who was never consistently a + scorer, have him score 15 goals in the first half of the year, and then move him for draft currency at the deadline. Honestly that was an exceptional move for NJD and not one you're going to see them do with any frequency.



So can we just call him average or slightly above average? I don't need to anoint him just yet but I like his style.
- Phatjohnsn

Stempniak was just an example. There are plenty others

I do think Murray is at the least average so far

Friends of mine explain that she starred in a movie called "The Fappening" but I can't find it anywhere on Netflix.
- Der Kaiser

Damn near spit out my coffe when I read this. Word to the wise - don't search on the fappening from work (and it is glorious when you do find it)