Marshall

Noted player analyst and prospect evaluator Stevie Cangyman.

Liiga is a professional league. It's not filled with players who aren't good enough to become *professionals*. It's not filled with teenagers who won't have a professional career. Kakko plays significantly tougher competition in Liiga.

You have to keep in mind Hughes is doing it vs his peers, or at least kids around his age. Kakko has scored at an amazing clip when considering age etc vs men.

I'd prefer Kakko but I think Hughes is great and IMO there's no doubt they're taking him. USA Hockey, Shero, Hynes, the failed Zacha at 2C experiment...it's a need and I bet they view Hughes as their guy.

Haha if I were there I could've told you it was legit...lots of wonky stuff happens when Viasat (rights holder here) is involved. You get all kinds of weird things when their broadcast is live but the actual broadcast for the NA viewers hasn't started. There was a minor one this season when the Flyers color/pbp-guys ripped the team during their skid in the fall. North America was on commercial but we don't get those, we get the studio cameras + hot mics.

Kakko would be my preference. But I'm very much OK with Hughes.

I haven't posted in a long time but I have to log in to say: holy sh!t. I thought I was gonna die when the NYR win was announced.

Oh it's definitely below the KHL, I'd probably put it on par with the AHL. I sounded a bit defensive, but my point is it's a good league even if NHL busts can put up good numbers there 😄

It's like the third best league in the world? I guess no league is a great league except the NHL then. Josefson is chiefly a playmaker and has been getting his points that way. He ran the best powerplay in the league during the first half, same spot on the half wall as he had during his (brief) PP stints in NJ. He just returned after a months absence. Josefson crosschecked a guy, got tripped and fell on the guy's skate blade and busted his urethra. I'm not making this up. There's no point in Zetterlund going over to the AHL next season unless it's Färjestad being stacked on forward and NJ wants to guarantee him icetime to keep him developing. He's not nearly ready to play in the NHL. I can see Boqvist coming over and playing wing. He'll sign with NJ in the summer. He leads the league in ES scoring and will be done with this level after this season is up. His shot and 1on1-game has really improved, does real well off the rush.

If you pin this game on Cory* in any way then you should probably not watch hockey with scuba glasses on. * he is however done as an NHL starter. That much is clear.

I really don't think NJ can pony up what's necessary to get Quenneville. I don't know how long Hynes' extension was, but I assume it's this season and possibly next. You'd be paying Quenneville in the neighbourhood of 4 million (assuming a little paycut from his current deal) + Hynes' salary until he finds a new gig. I don't see NJ being a part of that.

The thing with Hall's season is that it wasn't that much of a change from his norm. He had 45 5v5 points in 17/18, he had 51 in 13/14 in similar time on ice. Where things really happened was on the power play, where he had 36 and his previous career high was 17. I've been on the "unrealistic to expect same/similar"-side of things for much of the summer but I didn't realise how the numbers in the different gamestates broke down. If he's in the same spot on the PP (lots of touches, chief playmaker on the unit) and he's himself at 5v5 with a improved Nico...I think it's quite doable to repeat what he did, or come close.

Sometimes below average dmen play above average for a period of time. Keeping him was a non-starter considering the deal he got from the Bruins. He's getting a 96,7% save percentage while on ice and if there's one thing we learned during his time here, it's that he's not a guy who drives that. At all.

Under. It's a confidence thing. He didn't unlearn how to hockey and they're not gonna leave him down there until he's ready to be a top-6 forward, because...well, that'll take some time.

10 ES points for Boqvist, he's been great.