Lateralous

Conte jumped the shark for me the second he took Adrian foster with the last pick of the 1st round in 2001 when the dude wasn’t even there to go up on stage because they never thought someone would take him that high. I was already starting to get irritated after using 2 firsts in 3 years on goalies to protect themselves if Marty left. I know they pulled off the Parise coup and Zajac was a good pick but I was pretty much done with Conte after Foster. Also, while they deserve credit, Parise was kind of a no brainer. In such a deep draft, it was pretty telling that they didn’t land anyone else worth a damn in 2003 (Vrana, etc.)

All commercial. I have a small firm in the Philadelphia suburbs and we do lots of commercial office, retail, some industrial buildings, etc.. Very cool. Yeah, your numbers are closer to what I see down here. It seems like the starting salary out of school rises faster than the salaries of some of the guys I hired in 2011-13 despite my giving the older guys consistent raises every year.

Ugh, you guys are the worst. I'm an architect and every time I try to hire a kid out of school lately, I'm pretty sure they not only want the high salary, they want my office too.

I get that in negotiations, you don't start at the actual number you are willing to pay, but filing at 4M for Trouba seems abnormally low and seems like a great way to really piss the player off, doesn't it? If this goes to a hearing, are they really going to go up there and make a bunch of 4M comparisons for Trouba?

I think Columbus is probably in win now mode at this point so the offer would have to include someone to fill Panarin's spot on the roster you would think. I kind of agree about Palmieri being a core piece but if you're able to upgrade to Panarin, I would think you would have to pull the trigger.

Three year deal doesn’t kill you and I think his positive attitude about coming over from Pittsburgh and embracing the opportunity to lead an expansion team was probably a big reason why they were able to do what they did this year. That and his on ice play was stellar. With as much cap space as that team has, I don’t see any reason not to lock up the face of the franchise. If you’re looking longterm, he’s also the kind of guy that after retirement I would think you would want to try and keep in the fold as an ambassador of the Knights

It wasn't meant to be a shot at Parise, I just never considered his offensive game nearly as dynamic or well rounded as the other two. Also, he was no where near as clutch IMO. I always felt like he played every shift during the season like it was a playoff, so he didn't have that other level once the playoffs started.

This might be totally unfair and just my perception but at this point in his career, I would be worried that Matthews is going to be one of those guys who is always nicked up in some way.

Fair enough. I personally think Patrik Elias was the most under-rated player of his generation and think he was an absolute superstar, even if he never really got the credit. I was actually a little bit disappointed that all the talk at his retirement ceremony was about his two way play. I feel like people forget just how insanely talented he was in the offensive zone, especially when he got to play with other first liners before he typically had to form a second line by himself in the later years to make up for Lou's roster shortcomings. How much money did guys like Clarkson, Gomez, Arnott, Sykora, and Gionta make off of playing with Elias? I don't think it was a coincidence that they all had career years playing with him. All that being said, my point was that IMO Elias and Hall are the only two forwards we've ever had that didn't really have a major flaw in their game (maybe faceoffs with Elias when he was forced to C) and they both love being Devils. Also, the way Hall was in on every clutch goal this year was like when Elias used to score almost every OT goal back when it was 5 on 5, or he would score both goals in a 2-1 game 7, or he would set up a stanley cup winning goal with an absolutely perfect blind pass, etc. IMO, the defensive thing is based on player usage and unlike a Kovachuk, I get the feeling that if Hines asked Hall to focus more on it, he would have given 100% percent to what he was being asked to do and could achieve it. Long story short, you don't ever move either one unless it's something stupid like McDavid, which isn't happening anyway.

Taylor Hall seems to love being a Devil and he's basically the second coming of prime Patrik Elias both on and off the ice. You don't move that for anything close to even value so basically we're back to that very short list of superstars mentioned by a few others which is unrealistic anyway.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. A few things have changed since Dorion got robbed on the Turris/Duchene deal. 1. He's basically deadman walking at this point, especially if he doesn't get a nice haul on the EK deal. It's probably a lot easier to be patient with the knowledge that if he doesn't do well on the return, he's probably going to lose his job. That's obviously my own speculation but he's got to be hanging by a thread right now with how the team has spiraled out of control both on and off the ice. 2. Dorion saw how Sakic benefited by sticking to his guns on the asking price on Duchene when the rest of the world was laughing at his demands. The only problem is that Dorion can't rip himself off so he's going to need to find another sucker. 3. On the other hand, with the way everything has gone down how do they possibly go into next season with EK on the roster, especially as captain? This isn't like the Duchene situation where Sakic had two years left to make a decision. Also, Duchene or the assets you get for him were no where near as important to the future of the Avs as resolving the EK issue is for the Sens.

Jeez, imagine the predicament if Chirelli and the Oilers hadn't let Snow rob them blind on the Barzal and Eberle deals.

I guess Lou wanted to make sure he bought out some of his UFA years.

After all the chest thumping in Toronto and Tampa, I hope like hell the Bruins come out of the Atlantic next season.

I would probably do it if it were Sergachev. I think that would work better for Tampa as well since they still have Stralman, EK, McD and Hedman as a top 4 but I don't think they have any other good options for 2C.