I'd let Duchene walk unless you get a crazy deal. Other than the puck falling for him perfectly to hit an empty net (it was a huge goal) he might have been our worst forward in the playoffs

He's a tough one. I thought he was big in the regular season, but was a ghost in the playoffs.

So I'm guessing Canadian boobies won't help this pain? Dammit I thought this year was the year

The thing about Pavs that really kills me is that he went out doing absolutely nothing. I would feel better if he went out on a great personal run, tipping pucks and what not, but he went out being a complete ghost as well. Letting him choose to be done feels better than him being told to be done.

 

Get Pavelski and Suter the **** out.

Harsh, but true haha.

TV Casualty said:

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Nil has a lot of interesting decisions ahead of him.

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Not only this offseason, but next as well. This offseason they need to make decisions on Duchene, Pavelski, Hakanpaa, Tanev, Smith, Steel, Dellandrea, Lundqvist, and Wedgewood. I could make a real argument that the only guys they entertain bringing back are Steel, Tanev and Duchene, but it would have to he a really good number for both Tanev and Duchene. This doesn't even take into consideration guys like Suter and Faksa, who I think they would like to move off of, but maybe won't want to buy them out of their last years.

Anyone who would let Tanev walk at market value for 3 years doesn't know hockey very well. If he will sign for $4.5 or so for 3 it's a no brainer. Suter will get another year on the third line. Pavelski is gone. Duchene is good on a discount but we won't match stupid money. He is similar to our former offensive defenseman Klingbetg as he disappears easily in playoffs. Wedgewood is good for another year until proven otherwise. He probably should have got some playoff time.

Legal Custodian said:

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Man, that Lundqvist trade is the only sizeable blemish on an otherwise near perfect roster management for Jim Nil these past 4-5 years. Should have listened to those Ranger fans that couldn't believe we gave up a first for him, I just thought they were typical NY/Boston fans trashing on a player after they left.

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I wasn't a fan of that trade. It was a panicked move made because Harley had a bad camp and needed time in the AHL.

Seemed weird to trade for a guy who wasn't ready for the NHL, but also couldn't be sent down to the Texas Stars. Nils development was hurt by not being able to drop down to the AHL.

Strange series. Seems like we were the better team. Lots of great young talent, so unlike many teams, our window appears to be open for a while.

Lots of chatter on some guys moving on, but what about Otter. Complicated topic?

I also think we keep Haakanpa at a discount for his physicality. We were short on physicality with Roope and Tanev being injured and not having Haakanpa. In hindsight, we should have brought up Bischel for Game 5 to pound on McBaby. DeBoer is a great coach, but he may not have enough old school hockey for a Cup.

South Platte said:

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Lots of chatter on some guys moving on, but what about Otter. Complicated topic?

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Otter? He's not going anywhere.

I think that's fair. Personally, I was way more concerned with the 5 in front of him the vast majority of the time.

I think we were mostly fine at 5 on 5. Special teams was our weakness, and the refs (and I believe Toronto) deciding to even out the penalties really hurt with how good they are on the power play. If Roope and Tanev were healthy, we could have swept them.

shack009 said:

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I didn't see it that way. He only gave up 5 goals in the last two games and I believe 4 of them were on the power play. He didn't steal any games, but he also didn't lose any by himself in that series. It's not his fault we didn't get a power play goal in our last 7 games.

The bigger issues were in the middle of the ice, not between the sticks.

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I don't watch enough hockey across the league to know better. It seems like Adin Hill and Skinner played out of their minds and that allowed Vegas and Edmonton to beat us. Otter has had some special moments too, although I can't recall that he's done it over several games in a row. Khudobin had an unconscious run like that in 2020.

Otter wasn't good in the regular season, but he was good in the playoffs.

I think he's a young goaltender who sometimes loses focus. To me he slots in at the second tier of goal tenders in the league.

I think the hype on him got a little over the top, but people overreact to that in the other direction.

He's a good goaltender and we would struggle to find a better one if we moved on. He's just not one of the top guys in the league yet.

He's a solid regular season goaltender who's shown to be elite in playoffs, in his career. He's just got to find that next gear of being elite for large stretches during the regular season. He's also going into his age 26 season and a contract year, so he would be heavily incentivized to have a career regular season...

He had a really good series against Vegas and a good series against Colorado. He had a mediocre series against Edmonton but kept us in there a few times with good stops. If we score on McBaby's double minor in OT we could have been up 3-0 assuming the next two games go the same. Puck luck definitely went the other direction, which is how the playoffs go.

Cappo said:

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still bummed y'all...thought this was the year

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The final is exactly the opposite of what I thought.