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2024-25 NHL Misc. Thread

Saad scored 26 goals last season, the 2nd highest single season goal total of his career (yes that surprised me too).

The problem with Saad is that if he is not scoring goals, he is mostly useless out there. For a player his size, he doesn't at all play a physical game. He could just be cooked. It could also be bad puck luck (9.3% shooting% this season is lower than his career 12.7%). Probably a combination of both of those.

Some contender might think that Saad, possibly double retained, might be a solid vet to add to their 3rd or 4th line. The fact he has one more season on his contract after this season is an issue (as is his full No Trade clause if he decides to utilize it).
 
That 26 goals came with only 16 assists ... the second year in a row where he played top 6 minutes and totaled less than 20 assists. Which is kind of hard to do with the kind of usage Saad gets, honestly. For a team with St Louis' lack of balance, that top 6 has GOT to generate offense and possession and he's just not pulling his weight.
 
It HAS to be frustrating to have a core group that good, except they can't get along with each other.
 
Phillipp Grubauer has been placed on waivers by Seattle. He has two seasons beyond this on his contract with a $5.9 million AAV.
 
jeffbear said:
Yeah, I don't think anybody's bailing Francis out on that one.
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Grubauer parlayed 2 decent and 1 great season with the Avs into a big contract from Francis. He’s never been better than .899 save % with the Kraken.
 
Saad cleared waivers. He’ll be placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of having his contract terminated on Thursday. When he clears on Friday, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

www.nhl.com

Saad to be placed on unconditional waivers for purpose of contract termination | St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team will place forward Brandon Saad on unconditional waivers Thursday for the purpose of terminating his contract. Saad, 32, appeared in 43 games for the Blues this season, recording 16 points...
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com
 
So that is an interesting approach by Saad. He decided to simply walk away from the rest of his contract completely to become a UFA and try to sign on with a contender on a cheap short term deal. That eliminates the 'his contract is an issue' part of trying to get out of St. Louis. St. Louis I'm sure is delighted as well as that frees up all of his remaining cap hit, saves them cash, and saves them any assets that might have been required to trade him this season if they felt that would be necessary.

Wins for everyone.
 
bagopux said:
Except for Saad if nobody picks him up and he gave up millions for nothing.
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Even if he does get picked up, he’s not going to make up what he lost in St. Louis. He’s earned more than $50 million in his career, so money probably wasn’t the immediate concern, playing for an NHL team rather than the Springfield Thunderbirds is probably the motivation behind it. In a world where TDA can get a contract, someone is going to sign Saad.
 
Aleksander Barkov was named captain of Finland’s team in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Sebastian Aho, Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantenan were named alternate captains.
 
That's gonna be a fun tournament to watch.

Speaking of Barkov, I just looked at the 2013 NHL draft and saw that he got picked #2 overall. Without looking at who #1 was, I scoffed, "Barkov at 2? Who are the stupid idiots that skipped over him and what dumb schmuck ended up being the punchline for this joke?" Oh, it was the Colorado Avalanche and they picked Nathan MacKinnon. OK fine! I think skipping over the Russian-Finn was a pretty good decision.
 
NoMich said:
That's gonna be a fun tournament to watch.

Speaking of Barkov, I just looked at the 2013 NHL draft and saw that he got picked #2 overall. Without looking at who #1 was, I scoffed, "Barkov at 2? Who are the stupid idiots that skipped over him and what dumb schmuck ended up being the punchline for this joke?" Oh, it was the Colorado Avalanche and they picked Nathan MacKinnon. OK fine! I think skipping over the Russian-Finn was a pretty good decision.
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Can't miss proposition right there. And not much of a 1st round other than those two franchise centers, especially since the big name defensemen were all WAY over-rated (Jones, Nurse and Ristolainen) and the other big forward was a bust (Drouin)
 
Auston Matthews will captain the US team, Charlie McAvoy and Matthew Tkachuk are the alternates.
 
So long as neither of the Chukle brothers are wearing the C, I'm good. It's gonna be hard enough to root for a team with both of those meatheads on it as it is.
 
andyt said:
Aleksander Barkov was named captain of Finland’s team in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Sebastian Aho, Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantenan were named alternate captains.
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Finland took a hit today for their tourney team when Heiskanen was ruled out after getting dinged up on Monday.
 
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