Trevor Neufeld: An Examination of the Blue Line Post-Mortem

Calgary got hosed on that Coleman goal.

Calgary got hosed on that Coleman goal.
- GalacticStone

Not like the Leafs got hosed in GM 6.

Calgary got hosed on that Coleman goal.
- GalacticStone

Nope. Kicked in all the way, but anyways the blogger has moved past that and is talking about the Flames stellar defense.

Calgary got hosed on that Coleman goal.
- GalacticStone

Lonely ?

Ok real question is what you all thought of the season exit interviews, especially of Gaudrea? Are we gonna see him back or no?

Ok real question is what you all thought of the season exit interviews, especially of Gaudrea? Are we gonna see him back or no?
- hockey4hockey

It sounded like his agent, Lewis Gross, had him well practiced in the script. Saying outright that he’ll be in Calgary next season would be giving up serious leverage and could cost him millions.

Gross and Treliving are about to throw down settling on a number between the two of them. Gaudreau is just playing the game in his last statements to the media, which is only fair.

Now that the lip service is done, Gaudreau can relax and let the two parties do their job.

Not like the Leafs got hosed in GM 6.


- LordHumungous

The Lightning never gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials.

The Lightning never gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials.
- GalacticStone

lol right. Like that Gelinas goal in 2004 never crossed the line...

It sounded like his agent, Lewis Gross, had him well practiced in the script. Saying outright that he’ll be in Calgary next season would be giving up serious leverage and could cost him millions.

Gross and Treliving are about to throw down settling on a number between the two of them. Gaudreau is just playing the game in his last statements to the media, which is only fair.

Now that the lip service is done, Gaudreau can relax and let the two parties do their job.
- Trevor_Neufeld_

Trevor a suggestion for your next post.... a deep dive into what teams have interest and CAP to take a run at JG. The connection to Philly is obvious but they would have some serious CAP juggling to do to sign him.

It sounded like his agent, Lewis Gross, had him well practiced in the script. Saying outright that he’ll be in Calgary next season would be giving up serious leverage and could cost him millions.

Gross and Treliving are about to throw down settling on a number between the two of them. Gaudreau is just playing the game in his last statements to the media, which is only fair.

Now that the lip service is done, Gaudreau can relax and let the two parties do their job.
- Trevor_Neufeld_

Gaudreau is going to be real torn on his decision. Sounds like his wife is pregnant & wants to be closer to home. Flames are probably convincing her they can easily fly her Mom & family whenever she wants & with a small portion of the signing bonus, they can buy a pretty sweet guest house next door for family to stay at for extended periods. A steady forced diet of Fox News will convince them raising a family in cold buy beautiful sunny Alberta is the way to go.

That Dallas series going 7 screwed us royally. Friggin Oettinger won at least 2 of those games & elevated that Dallas team that had the talent & grit to punish any team they played. Too many guys dinged & possibly physically unable to elevate & find another gear just couldnt match what McDavid was able to do. Someone needs to do a steroid test on that boy.

Tidbits:
-Gaudreau needs to get signed, him & Lindholm are capable of having similar numbers whether they have Chucky on the right side or someone else
-prefer to resign Chucky but if we cant get a multi year deal at 9.0mill, maybe the best time to trade him is after a 100 point season
-I know Kyllington had a good year but his soft play & giveaways scared the crap out of me. A healthy Tanev made a difference in his play but again another player to sell very high on. Mackay hits & I think can be a great shutdown option with Tanev next year, for way cheaper. I havent written off Valamaki yet. & just think, Kyllington can get us a significant package back from a waiver player the year before. Thats a heck of a good return.
-Guddy & Zads should get resigned. If we can get them both at 3 year type of deals like we had with Engelland in the 3.0 mill territory, that would be fine by me.
-Mangi, give the kid his 5-6 year deal at 5.5 mill per & play him on the top line if we trade Chucky from the start of the season. I think Mangi has top line potential.

Going to be interesting off season thats for sure.

Good insight as always Trevor.

As I go over this list of carnage in our defence core, it absolutely befuddles me, why in the name of wanting to win, did we not replace one of the wounded with Connor Mackey?

It sounded like his agent, Lewis Gross, had him well practiced in the script. Saying outright that he’ll be in Calgary next season would be giving up serious leverage and could cost him millions.

Gross and Treliving are about to throw down settling on a number between the two of them. Gaudreau is just playing the game in his last statements to the media, which is only fair.

Now that the lip service is done, Gaudreau can relax and let the two parties do their job.
- Trevor_Neufeld_

I don't really agree with this. If I was an agent trying to get the biggest contract for Gaudreau, I would've cringed at about 80% of what he said. It didn't seem like he was playing the game at all. He basically went right to the line of saying he wants to come back without saying it.

If he was playing the game he would've stuck with, "Love the city, love the organization, loved my time here."

I bet it's a pretty uncontentious negotiation and he signs for 8 years at 9 million. Maybe they go up to 9.5. I also don't think if he had actually said that he plans to come back, they would've all of a sudden changed course and lowballed him.

Backlund had a heck of a playoffs imo, but the new GM should be clearing cap and going after UFA Forsberg.

Oh and thanks Trevor for your continued blogs, it’s been awesome.

Gaudreau is going to be real torn on his decision. Sounds like his wife is pregnant & wants to be closer to home. Flames are probably convincing her they can easily fly her Mom & family whenever she wants & with a small portion of the signing bonus, they can buy a pretty sweet guest house next door for family to stay at for extended periods. A steady forced diet of Fox News will convince them raising a family in cold buy beautiful sunny Alberta is the way to go.

That Dallas series going 7 screwed us royally. Friggin Oettinger won at least 2 of those games & elevated that Dallas team that had the talent & grit to punish any team they played. Too many guys dinged & possibly physically unable to elevate & find another gear just couldnt match what McDavid was able to do. Someone needs to do a steroid test on that boy.

Tidbits:
-Gaudreau needs to get signed, him & Lindholm are capable of having similar numbers whether they have Chucky on the right side or someone else
-prefer to resign Chucky but if we cant get a multi year deal at 9.0mill, maybe the best time to trade him is after a 100 point season
-I know Kyllington had a good year but his soft play & giveaways scared the crap out of me. A healthy Tanev made a difference in his play but again another player to sell very high on. Mackay hits & I think can be a great shutdown option with Tanev next year, for way cheaper. I havent written off Valamaki yet. & just think, Kyllington can get us a significant package back from a waiver player the year before. Thats a heck of a good return.
-Guddy & Zads should get resigned. If we can get them both at 3 year type of deals like we had with Engelland in the 3.0 mill territory, that would be fine by me.
-Mangi, give the kid his 5-6 year deal at 5.5 mill per & play him on the top line if we trade Chucky from the start of the season. I think Mangi has top line potential.

Going to be interesting off season thats for sure.
- Kevin R

Agree totally on Kylington, speed to burn but the soft as charmin. Time to give Mackey a chance.

The Lightning never gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials.
- GalacticStone

Seriously, you seem to mingle here in various blogs, why don't you approach EK to do the Bolts writing ?

@DEDDIE

Solid idea!

Gaudreau is going to be real torn on his decision. Sounds like his wife is pregnant & wants to be closer to home. Flames are probably convincing her they can easily fly her Mom & family whenever she wants & with a small portion of the signing bonus, they can buy a pretty sweet guest house next door for family to stay at for extended periods. A steady forced diet of Fox News will convince them raising a family in cold buy beautiful sunny Alberta is the way to go.

That Dallas series going 7 screwed us royally. Friggin Oettinger won at least 2 of those games & elevated that Dallas team that had the talent & grit to punish any team they played. Too many guys dinged & possibly physically unable to elevate & find another gear just couldnt match what McDavid was able to do. Someone needs to do a steroid test on that boy.

Tidbits:
-Gaudreau needs to get signed, him & Lindholm are capable of having similar numbers whether they have Chucky on the right side or someone else
-prefer to resign Chucky but if we cant get a multi year deal at 9.0mill, maybe the best time to trade him is after a 100 point season
-I know Kyllington had a good year but his soft play & giveaways scared the crap out of me. A healthy Tanev made a difference in his play but again another player to sell very high on. Mackay hits & I think can be a great shutdown option with Tanev next year, for way cheaper. I havent written off Valamaki yet. & just think, Kyllington can get us a significant package back from a waiver player the year before. Thats a heck of a good return.
-Guddy & Zads should get resigned. If we can get them both at 3 year type of deals like we had with Engelland in the 3.0 mill territory, that would be fine by me.
-Mangi, give the kid his 5-6 year deal at 5.5 mill per & play him on the top line if we trade Chucky from the start of the season. I think Mangi has top line potential.

Going to be interesting off season thats for sure.
- Kevin R

100% agree with your assessment that Kylington is easily replaceable (he was brutal in the playoffs). I love Chucky but selling high may be the play if he insists on playing contract hardball. I think we could get a major haul from the Sens if they think they can sign him long term and pair up the brothers. I'm talking Jake Sanderson plus plus

So Monny is on IL for at least 2-3 months so he cannot be bought out, Lucic is prohibitive with his contract to be bought out. How do the Flames open up the space to resign everyone? Who are you guys open to letting go? Johnny for nothing? Matty for 85c/$? Ship some others for value?

So Monny is on IL for at least 2-3 months so he cannot be bought out, Lucic is prohibitive with his contract to be bought out. How do the Flames open up the space to resign everyone? Who are you guys open to letting go? Johnny for nothing? Matty for 85c/$? Ship some others for value?
- wreckage

First off, Monahan needs to agree to be bought out if still on IR. As it stands now, though, he is supposedly 5 weeks ahead of schedule and will resume skating in a week or so. As far as re-signing players, the only one I see as a question mark is Kylington. He may have to settle for a 2 year bridge deal, similar to what Valimaki got. He has one actual year of NHL experience. Tkachuk may decide to sign his QO, but I think he wants a deal. He won't get Gaudreau money and he knows it.

There are many situations that could play out over the summer. Lucic is due a SB on July 15th IIRC and his remaining salary is $1M. He has 10 teams on his new list. He may actually prefer to retire now. Take the $3M and leave $1M on the table. Come back in some way as a front office consultant or such. His best days are behind him and may not feel he has enough to offer other than punching someone out. That way he remains in touch with his buddy Toffoli.

The game is all about speed & skills. Here is a list of our slow players: Lucic, Toffoli, Monahan, Carpenter, Jarnkrok, Lewis, Gudbranson, Stone, Zadorov & Tkachuk. Too many to hope to win the cup. Let's not resign Carpenter, Jarnkrok, Lewis, Gudbranson, Stone & Zadorov. Let's trade Tkachuk to the Devils for pick #2, plus more picks & prospects. I can see Lucic retiring this summer. If nobody wants him, buy out of Monahan. And most importantly, let's resign Gaudreau who is our offensive engine.

There are many situations that could play out over the summer. Lucic is due a SB on July 15th IIRC and his remaining salary is $1M. He has 10 teams on his new list. He may actually prefer to retire now. Take the $3M and leave $1M on the table. Come back in some way as a front office consultant or such. His best days are behind him and may not feel he has enough to offer other than punching someone out. That way he remains in touch with his buddy Toffoli.
- Traveldude

He's 33. Why would he retire? His best days were behind him when he signed the contract. He's clearly been enjoying playing hockey the past few seasons. You also can't take the 3 million and then just retire if you're healthy.

You guys all ready for the dream matchup everyone's been hoping for. Oilers vs Avalanche!

He's 33. Why would he retire? His best days were behind him when he signed the contract. He's clearly been enjoying playing hockey the past few seasons. You also can't take the 3 million and then just retire if you're healthy.
- Squeaky

Why can’t he?