With all due respect to Brannstrom, in what light is he "properly" seen?

He was a #15 overall pick in the NHL after being the captain of the Swedish U16 and U17 teams. That carries with it significant expectations, even before the Mark Stone trade and the now-infamous Dorion hyperbole. Plus, what has he done since to make the criticisms inappropriate? He showed some early promise in the AHL, but his offensive production has systemically regressed over the past 3 seasons. Despite having the steadiest NHL ice time of his career, he's now on pace for 1/2 the offensive production of Hamonic, Zaitsev, or Holden. So he's an offensive D-man who doesn't really produce offense, and while able to handle the pace of a top-4 role he's too often physically outmatched. Not that it really matters, because he's also a natural LHD who's locked behind Chabot/Sanderson for the next 5-6yrs at minimum.

At the end of the day, star players have to stand out, and Brannstrom has not done that. Right now he's an affordable RFA-aged puck-moving 3rd pairing D-man, and maybe he stays around for another year or two as they transition away from some of the older UFA-aged D-men like Hamonic, Zaitsev, and Holden. But at this point, I don't think he'll last very long once Kleven comes into the picture, who is basically a dream 3rd pairing LHD from DJ Smith's perspective.
- khawk

On point. You can argue the kid wasn't developed properly, but his stat line, even pre-draft, never warranted the hype for the player. Yet somehow there's *still* a false sense of talent, case in point he's *still* listed as having 'Elite' potential in NHL 23 and almost always grows into a top pairing D man in a year or two (funny enough, also listed as an RD). Hindsight is 20/20, but if you are marketed as a puckmoving offensive defenseman you need to show you can actually move the puck.

Dorion keeps Brannstrom around in the hopes of eventually validating the Stone move and in doing so, effectively Cowens his value. The 2nd rounder included turned into Sokolov. That kid has big shoes to fill.

Three CHL-level trades involving Senators prospects since late December...

WHL - Zack Ostapchuk traded from the Vancouver Giants to the Winnipeg Ice, in a deal involving four players and three 1st round WHL bantam picks.
https://thehockeywriters....ostapchuk-traded-whl-ice/

WHL - Carson Latimer traded from the Prince Albert Raiders to the Winnipeg Ice, in a deal involving a young forward and two WHL bantam picks.
https://sasknow.com/2022/...ward-latimer-to-winnipeg/

OHL - Chandler Romeo traded from the Guelph Storm to the Sarnia Sting in a deal involving a pair of OHL bantam picks.
https://globalnews.ca/new...romeo-trade-sarnia-sting/

That's a massive trade haul for Ostapchuk, but Winnipeg is clearly trying to make a run before they lose guys like Savoie, Geekie, Benson, Lambos, etc. It's also pretty great that Latimer was such a well-liked player with the Raiders off the ice that he earned the nickname "Mayor of Prince Albert".

Just a heads up probably shouldn’t be impersonating a lawyer you clown

Just a heads up probably shouldn’t be impersonating a lawyer you clown
- BAZ3LY5

Let's try and make sure this does not get too ugly or too personal.

Hope everybody just keeps posting. Perhaps this thread or the next can just take on a life of its own and keep going until we start getting ready for draft week.

I am having trouble staying awake watching this game.

The Arizona arena situation is a joke. Horrible lighting. Too many shadows. Can't see anything. Bad camera angles. Only 5000 seats and half of them are empty. Ice looks awful....so much snow. How is the NHL not embarrassed by this? Oe those 3rd unis?

The Arizona arena situation is a joke. Horrible lighting. Too many shadows. Can't see anything. Bad camera angles. Only 5000 seats and half of them are empty. Ice looks awful....so much snow. How is the NHL not embarrassed by this? Oe those 3rd unis?
- GrimmdaGoalie

I am so tired of trying to sell this game to people that are not interested. Give them their friggin basketball and football and baseball. Don't care. Personally I liked the lockdown where Canadian teams played Canadian teams. It's dumb I know but I would love a league where Canadian players play in an all Canadian league and let the NHL go screw themselves. The Canadian teams generate the revenue so there should be enough money to pay the players.

Man that is one bad hockey team!!!!

Just a heads up probably shouldn’t be impersonating a lawyer you clown
- BAZ3LY5

Certainly sounds like this Kevin Francis guy is a fraud. Just check out the people on twitter saying he owes them money, females saying how creepy he was with them, articles about past criminal activity he committed under the name Kevin Lee. It is really bad.

I can't say it is all 100% true as I don't have any first hand experience with the guy. But it is very damning information coming from a lot of different people. Sounds like a "where there's smoke there's fire" situation to me.

So we'll need a new blogger or keep posting in this one I guess.
I emailed Eklund about it, but he's got other stuff going on.
So.

So we'll need a new blogger or keep posting in this one I guess.
I emailed Eklund about it, but he's got other stuff going on.
So.
- Octavarium

Keep posting!

Was not able to watch much of the game from last night. Heavy workload deadline for this weekend.

The few times I did check out the game, the atmosphere seemed pretty deadly.

Has anyone reported on the reason the NHL (Bettman) remains so strongly committed to the Arizona/Pheonix market?

I dunno, I kinda liked seeing the new arena, didn't notice the ice conditions as much as the burnt sienna jerseys the Yotes were wearing. The arena just opened in August 2022 so maybe it's a tweaking the temps/adjustment issue. Nice to see a win - at one point the commentators praised Ottawa's ability with the stretch pass, and based off the number of ghastly turnovers we've had attempting them this season it's evident the stretch is a big part of DJ's playbook. Glad it worked out this time.

Was not able to watch much of the game from last night. Heavy workload deadline for this weekend.

The few times I did check out the game, the atmosphere seemed pretty deadly.

Has anyone reported on the reason the NHL (Bettman) remains so strongly committed to the Arizona/Pheonix market?
- spatso

Phoenix has the 10th largest metro population in the country, plugs a team in the middle of an otherwise geographic graveyard for hockey, attracts a decent number of snowbirds from Canada. Arizona also hosts a team for every other major league sport. Still, Houston has the same qualifications and is the 4th biggest metro area. I wonder if Auston Matthews' first overall drafting and the hype around having more and more state born players plays any role... Tage Thompson, Sean Couturier, Matthew Knies, Tyler Boucher, the Tkachuks, Mark Kastelic - you're seeing more AZ born players in the show, so maybe they still think there's potential for a slow burn. But likely rests on the argument for regional distribution and potential. And stubbornness. Probably more the latter.

Shoutout to any of yall who along with me was constantly calling out Kevin on the weird schizophrenic nature of using another account with "lawyer" in the name to puff himself up all the time.

Will be interesting to hear more about what's up.

Shoutout to any of yall who along with me was constantly calling out Kevin on the weird schizophrenic nature of using another account with "lawyer" in the name to puff himself up all the time.

Will be interesting to hear more about what's up.
- TDBSenatoR

Probably best for the thread to stick to hockey. I am sure that there are many of us who would like to see some serious hockey talk. If we get pulled off into talking personalities, it takes away from talking hockey

Was not able to watch much of the game from last night. Heavy workload deadline for this weekend.

The few times I did check out the game, the atmosphere seemed pretty deadly.

Has anyone reported on the reason the NHL (Bettman) remains so strongly committed to the Arizona/Pheonix market?
- spatso

Bettman has been very opposed to relocation in general. I think the focus on Arizona is a little overblown, when some discussions have occured to a lesser extent to the some Canadian teams at times.

Seems so far the team is about where most people thought they'd be? 7 Points out of that coveted playoff spot, but the several teams in front of them are the bigger obstical.

Some of the points this team left on the table earlier in the year are hurting, but that was also to be expected.

So one of the things I've been hearing a lot of today is how Chabot had full control of the puck and just turned it over and the puck ends up in the net.

So somebody started this crap and the talking head echo chamber just joins in on the pile up.

Look at the video. The puck goes into the Dzone on Chabot's side. He sees that an Arizona player is moving in to cover Zub on the other side and doesn't want to pull a Zaitsev and put Zub in the soup so he turns to the boards and is immediately met with a forechecker and another right behind that one. Where are the forwards you may ask? Well Tkachuk and DeBrincat are down showing Vejmelka some of their Christmas holiday photos. The only one being responsible defensively is Stutzle but it's no good because they are just outnumbered and what should be DeBrincat's man is all alone on the back door.

That's not on Chabot. That's on Smith and his idiot system of having his top forwards always looking for the long stretch pass and doing nothing to help defensively but just basically hanging the D out to dry.

So one of the things I've been hearing a lot of today is how Chabot had full control of the puck and just turned it over and the puck ends up in the net.

So somebody started this crap and the talking head echo chamber just joins in on the pile up.

Look at the video. The puck goes into the Dzone on Chabot's side. He sees that an Arizona player is moving in to cover Zub on the other side and doesn't want to pull a Zaitsev and put Zub in the soup so he turns to the boards and is immediately met with a forechecker and another right behind that one. Where are the forwards you may ask? Well Tkachuk and DeBrincat are down showing Vejmelka some of their Christmas holiday photos. The only one being responsible defensively is Stutzle but it's no good because they are just outnumbered and what should be DeBrincat's man is all alone on the back door.

That's not on Chabot. That's on Smith and his idiot system of having his top forwards always looking for the long stretch pass and doing nothing to help defensively but just basically hanging the D out to dry.
- Whatisavailable

I agree forwards needs to help the defence and skate the puck out, not stand on blue line and wait for stretch passes cause that shot won’t ever work in playoffs where they tighten up the defense 🤦‍♂️

So they're trying to figure out how to give DeBrincat 9 million. Can't give it to a second line LW and you can't bump Tkachuk so you move Tkachuk to the right side. Now Stutzle is stuck with the guy. When are we going to start hearing about trading Stutzle + for somebody good enough to play with DeBrincat?

The idiots at TSN are starting to talk about trading Chabot. The Sens don't need him because they have Sanderson. Trade Chabot for Chychrun straight up! What a bunch of mor_ns.

They keep yakking about LD with ridiculous asks like Chychrun and Provorov. They just talk nonsense.

So they're trying to figure out how to give DeBrincat 9 million. Can't give it to a second line LW and you can't bump Tkachuk so you move Tkachuk to the right side. Now Stutzle is stuck with the guy. When are we going to start hearing about trading Stutzle + for somebody good enough to play with DeBrincat?

The idiots at TSN are starting to talk about trading Chabot. The Sens don't need him because they have Sanderson. Trade Chabot for Chychrun straight up! What a bunch of mor_ns.

They keep yakking about LD with ridiculous asks like Chychrun and Provorov. They just talk nonsense.
- Whatisavailable

trading chabot and then trading for Chych is only going to buy OTT 2 years of lower cap, when chych contract ends he gonna want 8 to 9.5M per

bloodbath in COL...

Don't know what to say. Did they all go out partying the night before?

They need Norris Motte Joseph back
So they can drop Pinto back down on 3rd pairing
And get some production outta there
Put Kelly Kastelic Watson back on 4th line
Get Brassard Luchini Gambrell out
Now Zub is injured again🤦‍♂️
They gonna call back up JBD 👍

Apparently Lucchini is on both the first penalty kill line AND the second powerplay line. Speaks to how often DJ uses the second powerplay - the guy clearly cannot help himself when it comes to leaning too hard on some players.