Rick Sadowski: One-year deal for Burakovsky

Burakovsky was born in Klagenfurt, Austria but it's not at all correct to say he's 'from' there. He grew up in Malmo, Sweden and considers himself a Swede (and is one by nationality - both his parents are native Swedes, his father's family is ethnically Russian).

If everyone was healthy headed into next season:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Donskoi
Compher - Jost - Kaut
Calvert - Bellemare - Wilson

Johnson-Girard
Zadorov-Makar
Byram-Cole

Extra Forwards: Nieto, Kamenev, Bowers

Extra Defense: Graves, Connaughton

There’s always one or two guys who can unexpectedly crack the lineup. But this forwards and defense are looking pretty stacked up right.

Should be another run to the playoffs!!!

Boy Oh Boy, just in some kinda hurry to burn through ELC’s and hand someone of some serious value over to Seattle in the Expansion Draft eh? I’d expect Byram to play one more year where he’s at, as Makar did. Kaut and Bowers will play on the Eagles squad and see their 9 games each as will Meloche. Lineup might be more along these lines....

Landy-MacK-Rantanen
(scoring, elite)
Burakovsky-Kadri-Compher
(#1 Line shutdown unit, scoring)
C. Wilson-T. Jost-Donskoi
(speed, scoring, mismatches)
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
(2nd shutdown, pk guys, mismatches)
x Kamenev x Greer

Girard-EJ
Zadirov-Makar
Graves-Cole
x Barberio
~ Connauton

Grubauer
Francouz

Callups

Dries-Richardinson-O’Connor (long term bottom 6 or bench replacements due to injury)
Ty Lewis-Bowers-Kaut (adding scoring punch type of recalls)

Graves-Timmins
Rosen-Meloche

(In any order depending what you need from your call up skill/size wise)

Miska
If we see Werner this year, something has gone wrong, terribly wrong...

Boy Oh Boy, just in some kinda hurry to burn through ELC’s and hand someone of some serious value over to Seattle in the Expansion Draft eh? I’d expect Byram to play one more year where he’s at, as Makar did. Kaut and Bowers will play on the Eagles squad and see their 9 games each as will Meloche. Lineup might be more along these lines....

Landy-MacK-Rantanen
(scoring, elite)
Burakovsky-Kadri-Compher
(#1 Line shutdown unit, scoring)
C. Wilson-T. Jost-Donskoi
(speed, scoring, mismatches)
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
(2nd shutdown, pk guys, mismatches)
x Kamenev x Greer

Girard-EJ
Zadirov-Makar
Graves-Cole
x Barberio
~ Connauton

Grubauer
Francouz

Callups

Dries-Richardinson-O’Connor (long term bottom 6 or bench replacements due to injury)
Ty Lewis-Bowers-Kaut (adding scoring punch type of recalls)

Graves-Timmins
Rosen-Meloche

(In any order depending what you need from your call up skill/size wise)

Miska
If we see Werner this year, something has gone wrong, terribly wrong...
- 13of39

This is more like it , I also wouldn’t be surprised to see some training camp invites just to make things a bit more competitive, no way we burn through entry level contracts with Seattle draft

Also, I am still a bit nervous about our goaltending , yes Grub played awesome in the playoffs and down the stretch but early on in the season he looked super average, I hope I am wrong but I feel like we should have signed a veteran type backup just to calm things down a bit if we hit some rough patches throughout the season

If everyone was healthy headed into next season:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Donskoi
Compher - Jost - Kaut
Calvert - Bellemare - Wilson

Johnson-Girard
Zadorov-Makar
Byram-Cole

Extra Forwards: Nieto, Kamenev, Bowers

Extra Defense: Graves, Connaughton

There’s always one or two guys who can unexpectedly crack the lineup. But this forwards and defense are looking pretty stacked up right.

Should be another run to the playoffs!!!
- Lundstrom

I like that but since Sakic is so close mouthed about everything, when he said in the media call to discuss Kadri's trade that Jost would probably start out on Kadri's left I'm going to take him at his word (and assume that he already has Bednar's thoughts on it). Also given that Bedsie was already willing to start playoff games with a Girard - Makar pair, I'm not thinking he's going to have much of a problem with those guys as the #1 pair to start the season. Even if he does go back to Girard - Johnson it would be in that order with Johnson on the right. Here's what I'd like to see:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Jost - Kadri - Burakovsky
Kaut - Compher - Donskoi
Calvert - Bellemare - Nieto

Scratches: Wilson, Kamenev

Girard - Makar
Zadorov - Johnson
Cole - Timmins

Scratch: Graves or Rosen or Connauton, one of them in Cole's place to start the season.

Grubauer
Francouz

This lineup would be as fast as the last few years but have much more size and better shooting ability with Burakovsky, Donskoi and Kaut. The D pairs would be perfectly balanced with all lefties playing on the left side and all righties on the right side plus a puck-mover in every pair, two in the first (although EJ is starting to get a little up in age for that role he still has a good percentage of the skating ability that got him drafted #1 overall).

I'd rather Bellemare not be blocking Kamenev but he'll be excellent in that role and that 4th line will rival the Islanders for best 4th line in the NHL. It'll certainly be one of the most expensive at around $6 million.

The whole thing hinges on Grubi's ability to continue the level of play he showed at the end of last season. Also, I'm suspicious of Cole being back by December, I'll bet it will be longer, that's why they've been collecting some of these D.

I spent a day at Development Camp and also went up to Ft Collins for the rookie 3 on 3 game and it was astounding how much better Kaut looked. He's ready to go or very nearly so. Given that Timmins was the last training camp scratch 2 years ago I'm not thinking he's going to spend a whole bunch of time in Loveland. I know that sounds crazy with his medical problems but he also stood way out in Dev camp and the goal he scored in 3v3 was mid-season beautiful. They have always been really high on him and many wanted to keep him on the team two years ago. The wild card is Byram. I think he'll get an early season look and go back to the WHL. He looks a little slight physically in person.

Boy Oh Boy, just in some kinda hurry to burn through ELC’s and hand someone of some serious value over to Seattle in the Expansion Draft eh? I’d expect Byram to play one more year where he’s at, as Makar did. Kaut and Bowers will play on the Eagles squad and see their 9 games each as will Meloche. Lineup might be more along these lines....

Landy-MacK-Rantanen
(scoring, elite)
Burakovsky-Kadri-Compher
(#1 Line shutdown unit, scoring)
C. Wilson-T. Jost-Donskoi
(speed, scoring, mismatches)
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
(2nd shutdown, pk guys, mismatches)
x Kamenev x Greer

Girard-EJ
Zadirov-Makar
Graves-Cole
x Barberio
~ Connauton

Grubauer
Francouz

Callups

Dries-Richardinson-O’Connor (long term bottom 6 or bench replacements due to injury)
Ty Lewis-Bowers-Kaut (adding scoring punch type of recalls)

Graves-Timmins
Rosen-Meloche

(In any order depending what you need from your call up skill/size wise)

Miska
If we see Werner this year, something has gone wrong, terribly wrong...
- 13of39

Not sure who the boy-oh-boy part was about but Kaut's ELC slid and he can't be exposed for the expansion draft even if the Avs wanted to. Same with Bowers, they're both marked as exempt on Cap Friendly's Expansion Draft Tool. They would both be at best second year NHL players as would, of course, Byram.

Also I think you're quite a bit off-base regarding the Eagles goalie situation. Werner is absolutely intended to be the starter until/unless he fails and Miska is the backup (a role he was barely only passable at with Tucson last year). They didn't bring Werner over from the Swedish elite league to be the backup.

FATMARSH!!!!!!!

FATMARSH!!!!!!!