Jeremy Laura: “Gear Corner” part 4 - coordinating special events

7. Don’t know if it still works, but Toronto liked Tyler Bertuzzi this season — moving elsewhere when it became obvious he wasn’t going to be healthy. Barring a major change, Zach Hyman won’t be back with the Maple Leafs, a big loss for them. It’s expected Detroit will be among his pursuers, although the Red Wings won’t be the only ones.

Elliotte Freidman

Hello all,

I haven't commented in a long time, I have however read pretty much every Jeremy Blog and all of your comments. I had a hard time with everyone being so negative and harping on getting rid of Duff, and really not even talking hockey, so it sorta strayed me away from putting my 2 cents in.

I have to say, Jeremy, you do a great job. I appreciate how engaged you are.

Moving on to my draft prediction, If Ecklund is there, I believe Yzerman takes him, but I assume he will be gone. That being said I have a gut feeling we will have a similar but smaller "Seider" effect, drafting someone ranked in the 10ish range. It wont be gasps and people being completely shocked, but more "we had him a few spots down, but hes got a huge ceiling and we can totally see why he went 6"

That being said I could see one of, Kent Johnson, McTavish or Fabian Lysell, and the small surprise would be one of them going before Edvinsson or Guenther and Draper saying "we had him higher on our board" sorta thing. Obviously I could be completely wrong, but this is my gut feeling.

What I would PREFER to see, is a true trade down, I wouldnt even mind going from 6 to 14-18, some of those teams, believing they are better than they are (Philly, Dallas) we could take next years first and pick up additional picks or prospects. I dont think they will because there is always risk we wouldnt be drafting as high as now, but this draft is maybe not terrible, but next year being deeper, I have no issue pushing this years first. We still have a ton of draft picks, and a late 1st. This combined with the draft being "less available" to scouts, it just feels less of a sure thing. Obviously I know nothing in comparison to Yzerman and crew so again I doubt anything like this happens.

Jeremy, keep doing what youre doing, sorry I was gone so long guys.

Elliotte Freidman
- HenryHockey

Thanks as always H2. I was surprised when Bertuzzi did a 1 year last season. I’m not sure if it was a significant $ gap on log term or not. The missed season certainly changes things a bit in his negotiations. I really enjoy this back and forth about Toronto.

Hyman, look, I absolutely love the player. I have to believe he genuinely wants to get paid after years of being a bargain player. Adding to that he will want term (knocking on 30 with a lot of hard miles) it just seems like a tough fit for where Detroit is in the rebuild. However, if Hyman ended up in red, I’d dust a spot for his bobble head to be sure. (I have a Todd Bertuzzi that needs some company).

Bless you for being here all the time brother. I hope the weather is better up there than down here. So many storms have been a little nasty

Hello all,

I haven't commented in a long time, I have however read pretty much every Jeremy Blog and all of your comments. I had a hard time with everyone being so negative and harping on getting rid of Duff, and really not even talking hockey, so it sorta strayed me away from putting my 2 cents in.

I have to say, Jeremy, you do a great job. I appreciate how engaged you are.

Moving on to my draft prediction, If Ecklund is there, I believe Yzerman takes him, but I assume he will be gone. That being said I have a gut feeling we will have a similar but smaller "Seider" effect, drafting someone ranked in the 10ish range. It wont be gasps and people being completely shocked, but more "we had him a few spots down, but hes got a huge ceiling and we can totally see why he went 6"

That being said I could see one of, Kent Johnson, McTavish or Fabian Lysell, and the small surprise would be one of them going before Edvinsson or Guenther and Draper saying "we had him higher on our board" sorta thing. Obviously I could be completely wrong, but this is my gut feeling.

What I would PREFER to see, is a true trade down, I wouldnt even mind going from 6 to 14-18, some of those teams, believing they are better than they are (Philly, Dallas) we could take next years first and pick up additional picks or prospects. I dont think they will because there is always risk we wouldnt be drafting as high as now, but this draft is maybe not terrible, but next year being deeper, I have no issue pushing this years first. We still have a ton of draft picks, and a late 1st. This combined with the draft being "less available" to scouts, it just feels less of a sure thing. Obviously I know nothing in comparison to Yzerman and crew so again I doubt anything like this happens.

Jeremy, keep doing what youre doing, sorry I was gone so long guys.
- digitalbath

I want to thank you for being so open (and for giving me a shot reading all these blogs!). It’s been a bumpy ride, and I’m learning a lot of tough lessons. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve caused some very smart and engaged readers to move on by being overly sensitive at times. I’ve also had some brutal misses. All in all, you and so many have given me a chance to live this dream and it’s incredible.

I will definitely mark down your picks. If Eklund makes it to 6, I’d love to have him. One of my favorite defenseman is Edvinsson but I’m sure he’ll be gone. Wouldn’t mind the tallest Hughes brother either.

The rankings are so heavily geared toward players who, well, played this past season. That sounds ridiculous, but the top 20 could have been severely impacted if programs and Universities hadn’t skipped. Yzerman has had some fun with the press about this. I think you’re right on the “Seider effect”. It feels like a name that no one considered is going to be on the GMs mind. It won’t have the gasp that Seider did (man what a fantastic bit of footage that will always be) because it’s virtual again. I look forward to it!

Another blurb of Schmidt departing VAN. H2 and a few of you really like him as a stop gap for Detroit.

Another blurb of Schmidt departing VAN. H2 and a few of you really like him as a stop gap for Detroit.
- Jeremy Laura

Yeah, I have stepped back a bit on Schmidt and realized that his last season in Van was not worth what they were paying him. He would have to have Van retain at least a $1M unless he came with a prospect or a 1st.
Schmidt + 1st or Jet Woo for Cholo
or
Schmidt ($1M retained) + 2022 2nd for Cholo

But if he does not bounce back, you could have Danny Deke 2.0

Yeah, I have stepped back a bit on Schmidt and realized that his last season in Van was not worth what they were paying him. He would have to have Van retain at least a $1M unless he came with a prospect or a 1st.
Schmidt + 1st or Jet Woo for Cholo
or
Schmidt ($1M retained) + 2022 2nd for Cholo

But if he does not bounce back, you could have Danny Deke 2.0

- HenryHockey

Definitely need some give and take. If salary is retained i think it’s still worth a shot. VAN had a rough run overall last season. As long as Schmidt doesn’t do the hair spikes again (or dear Lord a mullet) I’m good.

Definitely need some give and take. If salary is retained i think it’s still worth a shot. VAN had a rough run overall last season. As long as Schmidt doesn’t do the hair spikes again (or dear Lord a mullet) I’m good.
- Jeremy Laura

Outside of trading down, I also would love to see Yzerman take on a few bad contracts, we know there has to be a few out there that have to be moved and with some sweeteners it would be great. Ladd, Boychuck (not sure LTIR status?) Eriksson, Lucic or Neal? Obviously the worse the contract the more we gotta get in return, but theres some bad ones out there, lets snag a few.

We could also take a shot at some players that would likely be lost to Kraken expansion anyway similar to Arvidsson, but maybe at a lesser cost? Ben Bishop was traded for peanuts because he was gone regardless, gotta be some more value out there. Dunn? Only thing with this is, Im not really sure whats possible here since its projected were going to lose Stetcher as is, so if we took someone else on who would we have to expose?

Lastly I would love to see Yzerman be the middle man for assets in the sense of retaining salary, we can hold 2 or 3 contracts?

Names that sorta make sense to me -

Tarasenko wants out of St Louis, then im sure at 4.75 (after we retain) - Like he has some solid assets coming back, obviously the Blues wouldnt give him away for 0 so the Wings wouldnt get everything, but we have the salary open, so I dont see why we couldnt do the same thing we did at the deadline.

Jones? again, not likely since he only has a mid 5m cap hit, and the Jackets probably dont need salary retention help, but both of these players are most certainly on the move sooner than later.

Tyler Johnson? If we took on the 2.5m 50% and moved him, i cant see any reason a ton of teams wouldnt love him at 2.5m.

Lastly Keith, if he is in fact going to Edmonton, and Chicago plans on going after Jones, or even Hamilton, then they probably need to move the full 5.4m and we retained 50% then it drastically helps both Edm and Chi, who wont have a ton of room, so could be some easy assets, this one feels like the most likely option of the bunch seeing as Edm also needs to sign a goalie and might even try and part ways with Koskinen (Rumored to buy out?) and then trying to sign Larsson and Barrie? gonna be tough to find a quality goalie, take on Keith move or buy out Kosk. and sign UFAs with the money they have.

Toronto and Vegas also might need some help, both have plans to go for it im sure, and they dont have a lot of money, so unless they get some LTIR relief Im unsure where the find money for upgraded goalies (TOR) and upgrades at Center and defense (Vegas)

I think some of this will boil down to there isnt a lot of teams completely screwed yet, and itll be VERY difficult to gauge WHEN to pounce on the advantage of cap space we have to maximize the assets attained. We might shoot to early and finagle deals at the draft and then be bummed out better deals came at the deadline, and we shorted ourselves, or the exact opposite. This last deadline was very disappointing from a sellers standpoint.

Brandt Clarke is my pick at 6 if still on the board but i wouldn't mind Hughes either.

Pick 22 is Fyodor Svetchkov C or Cossa G if they are still there.

2nd round Aleksi Heimosalmi RD (might go in the 1st round though)
Olen Zellweger LD small but highly skilled defenseman
Zach Dean C considered one of the best passers and not bad defensively
Benjamin Gaudreau G used the Under-18s as his 2021 draft platform and didn’t disappoint, leading Canada to a gold medal and was named the tournament's best goaltender.

The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta recently reported that teams have reached out to the Detroit Red Wings about Bertuzzi and that the team is "not against moving him." Among those "believed to have interest" are the Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings.

[quote=HenryHockey] Is this how Stevie gets a LD???
Philly...Ghost and 2022 2nd
Trono.... Reilly
Edmonton...Kassian($1M retained) and a 2022 1st
Van....Schmidt + DiPietro (A good goalie prospect for MM)
Blues....Dunn, MacEachern (MI lad)
LA....Olli Maata + 6th ( I would rather Gabe Valardi + 5th)

Just some musing as to what they could give for Bert

Not sure how I feel about Bert being traded but anything is possible with Yzerman. I don't really see Bert being moved this offseason. If he does get moved I would probably guess it would be at the trade deadline just like how it was with Mantha. Articles are/were circling that Toronto was interested at the last trade deadline but with Bert's health that fizzled. So we'll see where this goes. For one Bert needs to stay healthy...

Not sure how I feel about Bert being traded but anything is possible with Yzerman. I don't really see Bert being moved this offseason. If he does get moved I would probably guess it would be at the trade deadline just like how it was with Mantha. Articles are/were circling that Toronto was interested at the last trade deadline but with Bert's health that fizzled. So we'll see where this goes. For one Bert needs to stay healthy...
- TheSeer

I think you and I are on the same page here. First and foremost, the $ would have to be less than what they lose Hyman for. If that’s who they’re looking to replace, they will want term and dollars sub 5 million. I have to think Bert thought he was in line for somewhere between Mantha and Larkin in terms of $. Regardless, you laid the trump card down. Yzerman makes deals. We’re only hearing about the possibilities of this because of Toronto media speculation. Detroit media, the people around the organization, are tight lipped. I don’t know how the captain does it, but he keeps doors closed tight and lips locked tighter. It’s impressive

Brandt Clarke is my pick at 6 if still on the board but i wouldn't mind Hughes either.

Pick 22 is Fyodor Svetchkov C or Cossa G if they are still there.

2nd round Aleksi Heimosalmi RD (might go in the 1st round though)
Olen Zellweger LD small but highly skilled defenseman
Zach Dean C considered one of the best passers and not bad defensively
Benjamin Gaudreau G used the Under-18s as his 2021 draft platform and didn’t disappoint, leading Canada to a gold medal and was named the tournament's best goaltender.
- dcz28

Button just released a new list and has Svetchkov at 6th. First time I've seen him ranked so high. But than again, it's Button and he does this every year to get people talking.

Button just released a new list and has Svetchkov at 6th. First time I've seen him ranked so high. But than again, it's Button and he does this every year to get people talking.
- porkchops1977

One of the biggest jumps i remember recently was Kotkaniemi. It seems like he was outside the top 5 until right at draft time. Then he started jumping up. Right at the draft the “speculation” picked up that Montreal may take him.

This is going to sound harsh, but so much of the online “scouting” or fantasy drafting is kind of lazy. It tends to favor North American leagues because that’s who people see. Once the highlight reels from overseas hit Youtube (or someone reports on it) then the draft starts scrambling a bit. Yzerman laughing at people’s perception of draft order this year is for a very good reason. The experts can’t seem to get it right during a normal season any more. This year, it’s like those dime store grab bags. Put your dollar down and either you get some crappy gum or a limited edition Matchbox car.

If Raty is available with our 2nd pick. Do you take him there? He was ranked #1 a year or so ago. I don't remember someone that was ranked #1 fall so much in one year.

If Raty is available with our 2nd pick. Do you take him there? He was ranked #1 a year or so ago. I don't remember someone that was ranked #1 fall so much in one year.
- porkchops1977

Mantha had a significant fall due to injury, but not like that. That’s why I wonder how many GMs are going to look closely at last season’s notes. For what it’s worth, kid’s definitely worth a look. I still have no clue what the captain is going to do.