Mr.TaterSalad

AWESOME OT goal there by Kaner!

Thank you! Obliviously the East is considerably tougher come playoff time than the West and that is the big hang up that all the stats in the world just can makeup for. Just because conference is considerably tougher now doesn't mean a year or two from now it still will be. I was trying to statistically point out a lot of the similarities between where we are right now and where Vegas/St. Louis were in their respective Cup winning years. Difference conferences and tougher playoff matchups clearly stand in our way. To Buddha's point, we don't play the physical style of hockey that St. Louis played, but I don't know if it will matter as much. Patrick Kane, while of course an older and a different player these days, has still managed to be a double digit point producer in the playoffs before and I'd like to think we can squeeze one more run out of him. Maybe teams will press on him harder in the playoffs and take him out of games. But he's still a very talented, crafty player, who can find his way to the net.

I'm not saying we will win the Cup this year if we make the playoffs, but I think we are getting closer than people think as our defense, goaltending, and scoring depth improves. Larkin is the closest player we have to a PPG+ player on this team. We likely don't have a guy whose going to be contributing at a 2 PPG+ clip, nor consistently be an 90-100+ PPS type of a player. The more I looked into the numbers, the more I'm beginning to see that's not going to be a problem based on what two other recent Stanley Cup winners had on their teams. Sure, it would be nice to have a Connor McDavid, Jason Robertson, Mikko Rantanen, Mitch Marner type goal scorer and point producer. We don't need that though to win a Stanley Cup. Look at the Stanley Cup winner from just last year, the Vegas Golden Knights. Their top point producer in the regular season was Jack Eichel with 66 points and he was also their top goal scorer with 27 goals. In 2019 when the Blues won the Cup Ryan O'Reilly lead the team with 77 points and Vladimir Tarasenko had the most goals at 33. Neither team even had a guy that produced 80+ points or scored more than 35 goals, much less a 40 goals scorer. Both Vegas last year and St. Louis in 2019 played smart, defensively responsible, two-way hockey. Neither team turned the puck over a lot and both were in the bottom 10 of the league in defensive zone giveaways, with Vegas being in the bottom 3 last season. If you subtract our disastrously bad defense and goaltending in the month of December this season, we'd likely be in the bottom 7-10 in defensive zone giveaways too. I pulled these numbers from a poster (maximus91) on reddit and it further fits my narrative that our pathway forward is the Golden Knights and Blues models of building a Cup contending team. Both teams had only three 20+ goal scorers and only St. Louis had a singular 30 goal scorer. Both teams only had one player with PPG stats that season. Vegas had seven players with 40+ points last season, we potentially have 7-8 guys that could reach 40+ points this season (Larkin, DeBrincat, Raymond, Sprong, Gostisbehere, Seider, Compher, and maybe Kane). Two D-men reached the 40 point mark on Vegas, we likely have two that will hit that mark this season in Gostisbehere and Seider. Vegas had twelve 10+ goal scorers on their Cup team last year, St. Louis had thirteen 10+ goal scorers in 2019, we are currently at the same number now as Vegas was last year. They had 3 guys (Marchessault, Eichel, Smith) go over 20 goals, St. Louis had 3 guys (Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Perron), and we are likely to have 3 this year (Larkin, Raymond, DeBrincat). They had one D-men go over 50 points on Vegas in Pietrangelo, St. Louis had no D-men over 50 points, we don't have a D-man close to the 50 point mark. Vegas only gave up 229 GA, St. Louis in 2019 was at 220 GA, and this year we are currently at 181 GA and trending towards similar numbers for both teams. Vegas had 5 different goalies start for them and all but Jonathan Quick had above 915 SAV%, St. Louis had 3 goalies start with two (Allen and Binnington) above a 900 SV%, we have had 3 goalies start for us this year and 2 of 3 are above a 900 SV%. We aren't building a team in the mold of Colorado, Edmonton, or Toronto with multiple 90+ PPS or multiple 40+ GPS type of guys. We are much more in-line with recent Cup winners like Vegas and St. Louis. Both were teams who played smart two-way hockey, didn't turn the puck over, had a lot of goal scoring depth as opposed to a dominate first scoring line, were tough on the defensive end, and had multiple, quality starting goalies. A little more offensive contribution, a little more consistent defensive play and a goalie who can help carry the starting load with Alex Lyon (I'm looking at you Sebastian Cossa) and I really don't think we are as far away as people seem to think from being a Cup contender.

Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand let Suh walk without getting nothing for him because they were arrogant about the fact they'd resign him.

Great teams add marquee players in free agency often. The defending Super Bowl champs just spent big money in free agency last year on their offensive line adding Jawaan Taylor at RT. The runner up in the Super Bowl spent big money in free agency on their defensive line adding Javon Hargrave at DT. No reason, other than it isn't likely Holmes' plan, that we can't be in on one marquee free agent like a Danielle Hunter, Jaylon Johnson, L'Jarius Sneed, etc.

Xavien Howard had a PPF grade last season of only 55 and that was with him playing opposite Jalen Ramsey. He had 1 INT and only 42 tackles in 13 games played. He hasn't had more than 1 INT in a season since 2021. He's 30 years old currently. He might be a guy I'd take a flyer on though as a depth piece if he wasn't looking for big time, starting CB1 money. I am not giving him CB 1 money though.

I'm letting Jonah Jackson walk if he's asking for more than this organization thinks he's worth. I know Holmes has stated he wants to keep his own guys around (technically Jackson was a Quinn pick) but I think you can find serviceable starting guards, at a decent contract, in free agency or in the 2nd or 3rd rounds of the draft. If increasing the cap makes Jonah Jackson more expensive than someone else can have him.

I just don't get bringing back Badgley and doing so this early on in the offseason. Are they not going to go out now and scout and look at other options? I guess this means drafting a Will Reichard late in the draft is off the table now. It's disappointing that they signed him so soon and are now presumably not going to go out and look at other, serious options for a starting kicker.

I'm Hungarian-American on my dad's side of the family, so if Trump comes out with a line of stuffed peppers, chicken paprikash, and kolaches then I'm sold. I'll even switch my avatar to MAGA.

The Ilitches are corporate welfare queens, crooks, and gangsters, who have ripped off taxpayers in the poorest big city in America time and again. They have suckled off the tit of the public dole for years. No one in Detroit or Southeast Michigan collects welfare quite like the Ilitch Family. They are Tony Jack Giacalone with a legit pizza business and entertainment company as their front.

You can't negotiate with fascistic terrorists like this member of the Likud party and Israeli government . . .

A decent, honorable leader of Jewish Trump's fascistic Likud Party proud of the death and destruction Isreal has caused. Our most cherished ally in the world. The country we have a special relationship with.

I try to avoid hero worship and giving someone deity like status. But man do I miss this guy and what an intellect he was. There was no one quite like Christopher Hitchens. His sharp whit and use of the English language were like no one else I've heard before. His poignant views on religion and sharp critiques of it were unlike anyone else's. Maybe that means I just need to listen to and ready from more people than just Hitchens. But I've found myself thinking about him and watching his commentary a lot this past week.

A lot of people on the left had/have great concern over what's still happening in Yemen. As well, when George WMD. Bush wasn't stepping up to stop genocide in Darfur in Sudan it was many on the left who were most critical. When DubyaMD beat the war drum to go to Iraq it was the left who was protesting that foreign conflict while the center of the party, like Hillary Clinton, were being craven and acquiescing to the warmongers in DubyaMDs administration. When the left and libertarians were out in the streets protesting the Iraq War others were talking about weapons of mass destruction, yellow cake uranium from Niger, mushroom clouds over NYC, Sadaams ties to Al-Qaeda, etc. Many in the center were spinning the same lies and promoting the same fabricated intelligence reports that DubyaMD was pushing.

I don't think he does either. He's not enough of a high motor, try hard guy and takes too many plays off for this regime to take a chance on him.

Now the question at Safety is about whether or not CJGJ comes back.

Looks like Tracy Walker is gone based on this post.

Tragically, you're going to see a lot more of this in the coming decades as MAGA rejects vaccines altogether, not just the covid vax.

Several of the leagues best teams go out and make splash signings in free agency with long term deals and big cap numbers now and then. Last offseason the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs went out and signed LT Jawaan Taylor on a four-year, $80 million deal. The runner up in the Super Bowl signed DT Javon Hargrave to a four year, $81 million contract. I'm not saying we need to ante up for Brian Burns or Josh Allen. Guy like Danielle Hunter or Kendall Fuller are players I feel should be in our range, but likely won't be. I think Holmes is going to do just what he did last offseason and be patient and not go after the top free agents on the market. Had CJGJ and Mosely not gotten injured I suspect his plan would have fully paid off, so I'm not mad if that's what Holmes decides to do. So we will be signing guys after the initial rush of free agency is over and likely won't be any of the high dollar, A-tier free agents. So I think we are looking at the likes of Adoree Jackson, Andrew Van Ginkel, Chidobe Awuize, Denico Autry, Dorance Armstrong, Grover Stewart, Maurice Hurst, Steven Nelson, Stephon Gilmore being on our radar instead of the Fullers and Hunters of the league. I could be totally wrong though, so who knows.

I'm sure I'll get dumped on for this, but depending on the price and length of contract, I'd still be willing to take a flyer on him. Though I know the Lions will not. He's only 24 and with the right scheme fit and coaching staff in place he could potentially be a rotational pass rusher coming in on obvious passing situations. He doesn't fit their mold as a try hard guy who bleeds football, nor a 3-down guy. Being a situational pass rusher at this point I don't think they would want him for that either as they have James Houston on the roster to cover as needed and could get someone in the draft to do the same.

I'd love to get Danielle Hunter as I said a few pages back. He'd be my top target. Kendall Fuller is probably number 2 on my list. I don't think we are going after either player, nor any of the A-tier free agents that would require north of $12-$13 million per at 4+ years to sign. I feel like we'll be waiting until day 2 or day 3 of free agency to make our big moves. I want Stephon Gilmore too, but given his age and the point he's at in his career I don't think he is in that A-tier of current free agents. I do think there is a good chance we get a rental like Gilmore on a 1 year deal.

Ben Johnson is good, but he's no Joe Lombardi though . . .

Well he cost less than Jason Robertson would have. This isn't unreasonable money though for what he provides the team.

I hate to say this, but we still probably need another WR if Reynolds is not returning and the offensive staff/Goff doesn't have enough confidence to target Jamo more than an average of 3.5 times per game. So I don't think we're done building the offense as we likely need a #2 WR.