I know if I'm Waddell, I'm on that phone finding out the answer to that question. Not my favorite human being, but dude can still bury the puck.Well, if Pacioretty is out, any chance we can get Patrick Kane out of Chicago for the last year on that contract??
The more I think about it, the more I'm OK with going into the season without Patches and without a replacement. He's a vet and will plug and play when he's ready. Dude knows the drill and his job is pretty simple ... shoot and score, don't get in the way otherwise. But his absence will put the right kind of pressure on the right kinds of guys to step up and be actual, earn your keep on a good team professionals. I'm looking Kotkaniemi and Necas square in the eyes when I type that. The first line is the first line. Aho and whoever you put with him are gonna be fine. That second scoring line was fixing to be a cake job for Kotkaniemi because he was more than likely going to be ringing up points watching Pacioretti's shots go in the net. With Necas likely to step onto that line next to him, they get to show the team what they actually have when they have to drive play on their own. Or have to ... take your pick. Because if those two aren't worth their collective $7.8 million then this team's not going anywhere that matters anyway.Patrick Kane would be the simplest plug and play if Chicago is willing to eat 50% of his cap and Kane is willing to move.
The problem is the acquisition cost. Chicago is going to get a 1st round pick + + for Kane from someone. Its one thing to get Pacioretty for free, its another thing to trade assets for one season of Patrick Kane.
6 months from now is early February. If that really holds, than the Canes cannot really go out and use up all of Pacioretty's LTIR opportunity as they would need to slide back under the cap when he returns. So maybe we don't really do anything and evaluate how things go after the season starts. That might be good enough, but we need Svech, Necas and KK to produce, big time.
Yeah ... he's been consistent on that front. I've been taking him at his word as people all around me talk about Gardiner being bought out or traded or whatever. Don has addressed publicly it twice now, and in both cases he indicated that the guy is coming to camp and expected to slot back into the big club. So ... let's see how it goes.Dandy Don was just on 99.9 with Gold, mentioned that Gardiner will not be bought out and will be at training camp. Said they are confident that Patches will be at that six months recovery timeframe but teams have been calling already to talk trade…so it sounds like we finally had that Gardiner buyout question answered!
Some cerebral coaching in the ThinkPad tonightInternet/Twitter rumors say that Lenovo has win the naming rights bidding.
To be fair, it was more than enough offense during the regular season; it's the playoffs that need a goal scorer.That's more or less taking last year's offense---which was not good enough---and just subtracting Nino and Trochek. And that goes from not good enough to really not good enough.
Nobody's saying that gets you over the hump or to the next level or whatever ... the idea would be to survive with that group until you bring in the scoring winger you added to the mix in the off season back. Which looks like February, so right around the All Star Break. If you can stay in the playoff hunt, then that works ... and it doesn't lock up your resources. It's a risk, but so is making a commitment to use Pacioretti's LTIR and play that silly playoff ace game. There are only so many scoring winger options out there, and it's pretty easy to get it wrong and pay way too much in the process. Everything's a risk. The front office gets to figure out which one gives them the best odds.So a stepped up KK and Necas is supposed to overcome the subtraction of Nino and Tro AND then enough more to get us over the hump? Ok maybe. If our D is better. I think probably at least good enough to stay in the playoff race and then the LTIR cap space can be used to add at the deadline plus Patches comes back for playoffs.
Well, it was while the power play was functioning at a relatively high level. Once that shut down, so did the overall scoring.To be fair, it was more than enough offense during the regular season