The trade deadline has come and gone with some surprising moves made as teams looked to load up for the stretch run. That stretch run now features several teams trying to jockey for a Wild Card spot or try to position themselves better in their respective divisions.
With that in mind, it’s a good time to open up the mailbag once again. Our last mailbag was done in three segments. The first focused solely on the Central Division and included discussions on who could afford Juuse Saros’ next contract and the asking price to get him plus thoughts on Winnipeg’s back end and if the time was right for Arizona to move Clayton Keller. The second featured some thoughts on two proposed trade targets for New Jersey, the Rangers’ center situation, and plenty of trade deadline discussion. Meanwhile, the third covered the idea of a coaching change in Washington, thoughts on a proposed rule change, and more trade deadline speculation.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.
Why has Yzerman stood pat in terms of trades and call ups? Follow up, do you think Yzerman sees the team’s window as Seider and Raymond’s primes and is using Larkin’s prime to give the younger prospects time to mature?
Been watching Raymond and while his offense is terrific, his defensive shortcomings are severe. Seeing him now as more of a liability and if he can’t exhibit any improvement on the shortcomings, then maybe it’s best to trade him while his value is still relatively high.
It’s already been reported that Yzerman didn’t get any offers he liked, didn’t want to deal prospects, and wasn’t going to break the bank for rentals when Detroit’s a bubble team anyway.
Uh his numbers defensively look completely fine. Sure you’re not watching Mason Raymond? lol. This is a crazy take by you.
What do the Red Wings do with the following UFA/RFA forwards this coming off season now that weaknesses with them have been exposed?
Kane
Raymond
Perron
Veleno
I hate to keep harping on the Hawks Goaltending but they have to do something next year right? Now that Mrazek is here for 2 more years and that’s cool, Can we count on him to have another injury free year? I think we’ve all seen that Soderblom isn’t any kind of answer. Is Commesso going to be ready next year? Gajan is the future but at least 2 years away. Basse might not even sign here. They need to get some kind of bridge guy to the young guys and the future. I mean if Mrazek goes down next year without that guy they might as well phone in the games. A decent vet on a 1 year deal who can hold down the fort just in case. Right? Thanks as always.
Has there been any consideration to having a hockey prospect writer contribute the way MLBTR used to have Brad Johnson and now has Nicklaus Gaut? Even the odd Q&A chat would be amazing.
They have them. They don’t have as many as on the Baseball Site but they have them. Although if I were to complain they had the last one at 7AM and It was over before I even woke up! LOL
Huh. I guess with the infrequency of them and the ridiculous hour, I never even noticed!
We do envision most of these features, especially our Live Chats, becoming regular fixtures in the near future after we transition back to having a full-time site manager this summer!
With the Sharks having now cleared nearly all of their large (and arguably, overpriced) contracts off the book, what’s the next step? What actions lead to greener pasture?
Does Trotz trade either Saros or Askarov this off-season, and if so, which of the two?
What are the chances of the Jets signing Monahan and Toffoli to extensions?
What’s going to happen to Perfetti? Trade bait maybe?
There are currently 4 interim coaches behind the benches. In my opinion none of them will be hired next season as the full time bench boss. Odds of Quenneville being reinstated? Thoughts on new hires? Recycle former coachs or new blood coming aboard?
what does the off-deason look like for the Pens. clearly Kyle Dubas wants to change this roster makeup and get younger.
is it possible we actually see one of Crosby, Letang, Malkin or Karlsson moved in the off-season? they have most of the roster locked up for next year so I imagine trades are how they are going to have to address this roster primarily.
Agree it is going to be a fascinating offseason now that Dubas has had time to evaluate the situation. One guy I think to consider is Marcus Pettersson. I’ll guess that either he takes a team-friendly extension or Dubas flips him for younger players since he should be in high demand, would be interested to hear what PHR thinks of that.
How would you rank the rumored expansion cities from most likely to least likely? Also, why is Cincy even in consideration when Columbus already has to contend with the Penguins over building a fan base. Can Ohio really support two teams like that?
I can’t see Cincinnati getting an expansion team with Columbus only 109 miles away. Back in the 1970’s Cincinnati had the “Stingers” of the old WHA .The WHA had six teams when it finally ceased operations in 1979. Four of those teams (Hartford, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec) were taken into the NHL as expansion teams. Cincinnati and Birmingham were left out. Why? Because Cincinnati and Birmingham didn’t have the $3 million dollar fee the NHL required for expansion. Compare the $3 million dollar fee to today’s $1 billion dollar fee just 45 years later .Like the NHL that went without a national television contract from 1975 to 1980, the WHA didn’t have a national TV deal either. As a result, most of the clubs had major money issues. The WHA undercut the NHL in many ways. The WHA had an 18 year old age requirement compared to the NHL’s 21. The NHL’s maximum salary was $25,000 a year. The WHA gave Bobby Hull a $275,000 a year contract and signed Gerry Cheevers away for over $100,000. Little wonder when the bills came due, WHA clubs routinely folded up.
It wasn’t that Cincinnati didn’t have the money. It’s that the NHL had to overcome the rejectionists like Harold Ballard and Jeremy Jacobs, and admitting four teams was already sticking in their craw. One might have figured that a team frontlined by Mike Gartner, Mike Liut, Robbie Ftorek and a young Mark Messier would’ve had some success.
Q: Does Hershey (Capitals AHL affiliate) have enough NHL quality depth to fill out this Capitals retool on the fly? I am shocked that the Caps are still in the playoff chase with so many of their old core players aging out, they seem to be relying on a bunch of callups that I had no idea they even had. Thanks!
Hershey is blitzing the AHL this year, running away with the regular season championship. It’s less with offense, though, than with insane defense: the *worst* goalie they have on the roster has a sub-2.00 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
The Capitals are doing well at every level of the farm system as the Stingrays are having another great season in the ECHL as well.
Any predictions with where the top college free agents end up / and who has the best chance of contributing early on? Is there a different format or process in this free agency than that of the summer FA? Thanks!
The NHL has become a joke! Because….
1) EXPANSION: the Coyotes are playing in a college arena, the Blue Jackets have won what???…. 1 playoff series in their existence? Atlanta failed…. Atlanta failed again… & now there’s talk of Atlanta getting a 3rd chance to fail?!?! Are you serious??? Has anyone watched an NHL game lately? Even the top contenders roll out 3rd & 4th lines that feature no NHL level skill whatsoever. WATER IT DOWN SOME MORE EHH
2) THE NO SPINE LEAGUE:
Rainbow tape all around until there was push back. The “YOU CAN PLAY” campaign was & is as believable as a politician. I don’t care which side the NHL was truly on, but the fact that they flip flopped like a fish out of water on the topic is pathetic. And the Beech situation…. they knew! If you’re even questioning if they did or not you’d be better off licking windows than watching hockey.
3) GOAL REVIEWS: they take way too long & more than half the time it’s either a weak or inconsistent call. The on ice calls get more & more suspect every day. I’d like to see all refs DraftKings accounts prior to puck drop so I can make $$$ too.
4) ENFORCERS/GOONS: the endangered species. And that’s why you see so many cheap shots. It’s the equivalent of “defund the police”. Without fear of the repercussions for your actions who stops the game from being controlled? Definitely not the refs!
5) PLAYOFF FORMAT: the new format was made to create rivalries. But the rivalries were already there. The only thing this format has done is pin top contenders against each other in either the 1st or 2nd round & dull down the later rounds. It’s common to see the same match ups over & over again. It seemed like every year for a decade that the Rangers played the Capitals in the 1st round. Rivalry, sure! Boring af, definitely!
My question…. am I the only one bugging out about what this product has become? Is there anyone like me who bleeds hockey but loses more & more interest by the day?
I agree with most of what you stated, but I’d rename 2) THE BEND THE KNEE LEAGUE just like the other pro leagues. I’d prefer the leagues to stick to the sport.
People have been whining about every single change in hockey since the 19th century: from the elimination of the rover to dropping to the ice to block shots to the creation of a net to cracking down on hacking one another in the head with sticks to goalie masks to helmets to Original Six expansion to expansion to the United States in the first place to black players on the ice to to to …
The one change I’d like to see is enlarging the nets. Has anybody seen the way Goalies play? They are all like 6’5″ Europeans who spend the whole game on their knees like we used to do in PE in the 60’s. It’s a joke. Every shooter aims for the upper corners and has to make a perfect shot to score a goal. They need to make the nets a couple of inches wider at least to give shooters a chance. Nobody even looks for Goalies who are on the smallish side because they don’t cover as much net on their knees or just standing there. The Goalies have gotten bigger and bigger and the nets and rinks have stayed the same. Thoughts guys?
At least in NHL, scoring the last 3 years is at its highest since the 90s. I don’t see any changes to making it easier
Agreed, add to point 3 the inconsistency handed out by the player safety dept. But the refs are so suspect it’s ridiculous. The game needs to police itself. Period. The playoff format is terrible, love watching the leafs lose to Boston every year, but I am starting to feel sorry for them and not looking forward to the same first round matchups every year.