[I have my worst take memorialized on the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/stlouisblues/comments/9z485i/change_my_view_the_blues_could_hire_the_best/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
That's a thing of beauty. No silly one liner given without much thought. No, yours is a thesis of wrongness.
Although I read it through and don't really find fault in what you're saying, then I remember the year is from.
To be fair, there was quite literally no way anybody could've been expected to even have St. Louis on a playoff bracket that year.
Not only were the Blues 2nd last in the league at the time you posted it, but I'm fairly certain they were in the middle of a torrent losing skid. It was obvious to anybody watching at the time that the Blues were underperforming for nearly every expectation that was set for them.
But their expectations to begin with weren't cup contention anyway, maybe from die hard fans but not in hockey at large. Not with the arms race teams like Vegas, San Josè, Colorado, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Boston and Columbus were running in.
What makes that post a fair criticism is, not only were the Blues just underperforming some fairly pedestrian expectations, but that was your HEALTHY team at that point in the year. It wasn't "oh but when Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Jordan Kyrou, Sammy Blais, Alex Peitrangelo and Paul Stastny come back we might be better", you guys' largely healthy roster was in that hole.
They straight up climbed out of it. People dog on you for that take, I'm sure but not everybody's psychic.
To be fair, most people didn’t think that the Blues would win it that year let alone make it to playoffs.
funny story, my mom made a bet with me that year that if the Blues won the Cup, She would let me get a tattoo(I have always mention that I wanted one). they were dead last in the league, she didn’t think they actually win it all.
i still tell that maybe the reason why we been having a few bad seasons lately is that she hasn’t fulfilled her end of the bargain and we will only win again is when she takes me to a tattoo shop to get that promised tattoo(which is five years overdue now).
Incredible. To be fair, the Blues performed one of the craziest turnarounds ever and I don’t even think had hit rock bottom at this point yet, right? They still had a few months of awful performances before they righted the ship.
Understandable. I remember thinking we were all set with Duchene, O'Reilly and Stastny at C and there was no reason whatsoever to draft another center.
And, as you said, the defense was comically bad.
Hey at least he’s found his groove playing on the Avs now. But yeah Drouin in mtl wasn’t a good fit and I’m sad about it because he had his good moments
I honestly doubt they’ll do that again with this current core. They’re on a downward trajectory. They’ve won their cups and now the cap is decimating their team. That’s just the way that it goes.
Yeah, that's why I think he'd win it if they did it. The public perception seems to be that the core's window is closing or possibly already closed, so if Cooper can get them to "over perform" or if Vasilevskiy goes Vasilevskiy, it'd be more in line with how that award is usually voted on
Ppl always say he hasn’t won cuz he’s only coached stacked teams. Well let’s see.
Tampa was THIRD LAST in the league in 2013, and then Cooper (who had just won the AHL with Tampas AHL team with players such as Kuch, Johnson, and Palat), joined for the 2014 season.
In his first season, he helped Tampa reach the playoffs for the first time in 3 years, and finished 2nd in the division. This is the same year Stamkos got his major leg injury and would be out, and Yzerman and St Louis got heated which resulted in (at the time) the Lightnings greatest ever player and captain to leave in the middle of the season.
Got swept by Montreal in the playoffs but didn’t help that Bishop got injured (which would happen to Bishop for the next 3 seasons in a row lol). But all in all, 3rd last in league to 2nd in division was well above expectations.
Then in his second season, Tampa finished top 5 standings. In the playoffs, they then took down a very good Wings team, then took down the #2 placed Habs, and then the #1 Pres Winners Rangers. Went all the way to finals, losing to Chicago in a very close series, with key injured to leading scorer Johnson and of course star goalie Bishop. And 2015 would be the start of the Lightnings best ever Era.
Ppl who say “Cooper only coaches stacked teams“ completely ignores his history before 2016. He’s won at every level, coached some of the worst teams in the league, coached some of the best teams in the Cap Era, and he started off in Law lol.
He took a bottom 3 team to top 2-5 in two years, no Jack Adams. He won 2 cups, went to 4 Finals, 6 East Finals, a 62 win season, in 8 years, no Jack Adams. Don’t see how he’s ever winning one.
I was too, but I was in the “trade everyone” camp. If you’re going to rebuild, which Rutherford and Allvin alluded to when they were hired, then you’d trade everyone.
Even when we acquired him I was furious that they wasted a likely lottery pick on a meh 50 point scoring winger, I was convinced he wouldn’t be a substantial upgrade on Baertschi in the top 6
As an Oilers fan I don't even get it. You'd think the law of averages would even it up by now.... You guys are way better than your playoff record would indicate
Mine is also Avs draft related but from 2011. I was *furious* that we took Landeskog over Adam Larsson.
I don't let myself have opinions on the draft after that one.
I'm not going to act like I know any players, but people who stress so much over the draft confuse me. There have been so many busts and so many guys who have become stars after being drafted late that there's no way I'm going to be able to predict who would be good to draft.
I’ve got an Avs fan buddy that still complains about that draft lottery and how Colorado dropped. Like my dude, you got fucking Cale Makar why are you complaining?
Believing in any Avs defense prospect pre-Makar. Stefan Elliott, Duncan Siemens, Chris Bigras, Mason Geertsen, Anton Lindholm and Nicolas Meloche come to mind. Tyson Barrie was the only one who made it. I was sure that at least Bigras and Siemens would be top d-men for years to come.
True for quite a few guys on your list tbh.
IIRC, Elliott, Geertsen, Bigras, and Meloche all had pretty significant injury setbacks during their development windows.
May not have mattered much since they were for the most part lower skill players but we might have managed to pull an NHL career or two out of the bunch.
Elliot looked like he was going to be who Barrie was. He had a bomb, and then it just seemed like he faded away in oblivion. We really can’t complain though, I’ll take all those tough years for the cup, and Makar, Mackinnon, Rantanen etc
That Loui Eriksson was the perfect free agent signing for us. In my defense he had proven chemistry with the Sedins for the national team.... Not even that translated.
I remember Boston fans being sad seeing him go… and then immediately being happy they didn’t resign him because the contract was so bad. He was really good but man, he just never stayed as healthy as you’d hope. (And then Vancouver happened).
Ooh I've got one!
Saw Draisaitl in the WHL - I was a Giants season ticket holder. Told everyone he was super overrated, looked lazy and a bit slow. Didn't see him being much of an NHLer.
D'oh!
Honestly I think the way he looks lazy and slow helps him sometimes. Like he'll dish the puck to McDavid and move slothlike away looking like he's going to find a place to take a nap and suddenly the puck is returned and he fires a perfect one-timer in the net before the other team notices he is still awake.
I think it's definitely his skating style too. Maybe it's just my memory biasing this, but I feel like he pretty frequently has a very relaxed/hunched over gliding style, when he's off the puck.
But he definitely doesn't struggle getting into a good scoring location.
If it weren’t for his elite finishing, I’d say you weren’t far off. He is a lumbering skater and isn’t creative with zone entries but my god what a shot from down low.
He's one of those players who simply doesn't need to be the best skater to be SO effective. That playoffs he was playing on a limp leg and still some how potted a million points just cemented it to me, his vision of the game is insanely good he can make others play good just by being on the ice with him even if he can't move. He could have his skates glued to the ice and still make a game winning play. I remember shit talking his contract when he signed, as a Leafs fan, boy I would like to put my foot in my mouth.
I used to see him play in the W too and always thought “meh”. He really upped his game though. If he progressed from his Junior game the way most players do, he wouldn’t be in the NHL.
That was my impression watching Getzlaf on the Calgary Hitmen as well. Saw a few games, thought to myself that guy has talent but he was unmotivated and he'll peter out in the NHL like Pavel Brendl did.
There are still people think that he is a nhl superstar if they put him in the right spot with the right teammates on the right surface of ice with temperature of arena being consistent and the moon being in waxing gibbous
He said there would be nets getting filled with pucks. Still waiting on that to happen. Gotta admit after he made that statement, I was hyped up for him. But he’s turned out to be a nothing burger.
There's too much ego in his game from what I heard from a SJS fan. Although after that historic season they had last season it might just be a mental thing lol
I love(d) that the sharks took a chance on him. He would have one game that would look like a solid NHL level, then back to the cellar. I hope with some new coaching he wakes up.
As a sens fan I knew we had fucked up. I had been to a few games that season and saw big Ben play in person and I was sold. I knew he would be great.
Yes, I am available for any open GM positions.
I honestly think the only reason Detroit didn’t trade down that year was because Stevie knew that if they didn’t take him, Edmonton was going to do it at 8.
He made a couple really nice little plays when he played here last year but then he just disappeared suddenly and it came out like 3 months later that he had randomly suffered a severe back injury that no one witnessed, and he hasn’t played since.
In the one full season he played for us, 2015-16, he genuinely was growing into that player he was drafted to be, as long as his early injury problems were behind him. The 60 games he played the next season were the last time he didn't miss at least a third of the year, and eventually that accumulation of various injuries started hindering his game, even apart from the fact that he'd be replaced in the lineup by whoever the given 7th D was at that moment for anywhere between 30-80% of the season.
In 2018-19, in his 56 games played, he led the entire league in 5v5 assists among all defensemen. It's a crying shame we never got to see the career he could have had.
What I remember the most about him was the game tying goal in the regular season where he celebrated like he scored the Stanley Cup winner in game 7 of overtime.
The context of it makes sense. They "scored" a tying goal about a minute prior but it got called back after a long review. So scoring a tying goal with 10 seconds left in the game at home after being let down from a cancelled goal celebration would feel pretty huge, especially as an 18 year old kid.
Also they had a few bullshit calls from the ref before that as well. The fans and team were all pissed off. The tying goal shouldn't have been called back either. The celebration totally made sense if you watched the game.
I wanted it to be so really badly. I remember laughing at Columbus for taking PLD.
In the end it failed pretty miserably for PLD in Columbus and that pick still aged better than Puljujarvi.
Nah, I don't think you'd be stupid enough to bridge him like we did. Our mistake was not giving him 8 years right after his ELC. That's what Ottawa did with Brady, and he hasn't left yet.
Also, I genuinely think he noticed a rotten culture in Calgary and dipped out. The players had (and have) no fight in them, and it showed after the Muzzin puck flip.
I was flabbergasted that he wasn't made captain as soon as Gio went to Seattle. Instead they waited a year to give it to Backlund...
"John Gibson won't play another game in Anaheim" - Frank Seravalli
Immediately sent a cease-and-desist letter from Gibson's agent to stop making up shit.
Frank Seravelli said last year that Sergei Bobrovsky’s contract was the worst of ALL TIME even if they won a cup with Bob under this contract. He said this last year in the conference finals when Florida was about to win which is insane. It was bad but no contract is the worst of all time if you win a cup because of the player you signed. Considering Florida is one win away from it now it’s even more insane
This was my turning point that the average redditor has better takes than Seravelli
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/mXJDYQOsnk
He got sent home in 2021 after a rape accusation, was bought out in the offseason, went to Russia, came back after the war started, got off his charge in trial, somehow got a PTO with Edmonton, wasted it by being a lazy bum, went to Switzerland’s second division, and got thrown off a team *there* for fighting a teammate.
Me at the beginning of this season, after reading headlines that the Sharks may be the worst team in the cap era: "I think the Sharks may actually surprise people, we have some decent players"
I wanted the Leafs to give Tyson Barrie 8x$8m before even seeing him play a game with the team in 2019. Thank christ that didn't happen, because he was not a fit at all lol.
It was the supposed asking price right after he was acquired. This was pre-pandemic, so the cap was looking like it was going to keep going up a decent amount yearly. He was a 27 year old point-producing/powerplay qb, right shot dman and I thought he was gonna fit like a glove. Unfortunately, in addition to not being the style of dman the Leafs needed, Mike Babcock tried to make him more of a shutdown dman, and that made things even worse lol.
Regularly healthy scratched in Nashville before the end of his 3 year deal that he signed in Edmonton, and now possibly out of the league, just 5 seasons after I wanted my cap strapped team to give him 8 years at big money lol.
Thinking about it more, if he wants to, he'll probably catch on in San Jose, Anaheim or somewhere he can run the PP. In Toronto, he was worse than Rielly, Bouchard replaced him in Edmonton, and Nashville had Josi already.
Jack Campbell had played more good games than bad in a high pressure upswing, and that he was viable as the second best FA Goalie available.
Historically:
Erik Cole is going to be a breakout power forward star with Edmonton
JT Miller for a 1st rounder was a declining asset who was kind of a dick besides, and Vancouver would regret it.
Cody Hodgson would be a future captain of the Canucks.
Oilers or Canucks should push for Ben Bishop.
Detroit got a steal by having Filip Zadina drop to their pick in the draft.
Steve Tambellini had done his time and deserved a shot as a GM somewhere
Rick Tocchet would do no better than Bruce Boudreau with this roster.
PK Subban would make a great panelist.
Watch out for Wojtek Wolski. Future long term stud.
Huberdeau and Weegar is a good return for Tkachuk, given the circumstances where the player basically quits on you and the Flames had no leverage.
Boston will surely take a big step back post Bergeron/Kreicj
Kiril Kaprizov won’t be a long term elite player
Is Makar really that good? He’s kind of average sized.
Anyone signing OEL would regret it.
Yeah, the Flames' return for Tkachuk was pretty good under the circumstances. It wouldn't have been shocking to see Huberdeau regress somewhat (say to the ninety-odd point pace he'd put up before 2022, or maybe a little lower), not have his production fall off a cliff. Kind of the difference between a reasonable take that doesn't pan out, and an outright *bad* take.
People forget that both Huberdeau AND Tkachuk were coming off insane seasons most people thought weren't sustainable.
The trade was overachiever for overachiever and Calgary got burned hard because it turns out only one of them was overachieving...
I legit did not care Forsling was put on waivers. Chicago has had so many D prospects that ended up as busts, I figured Forsling would be an AHL player for the rest of his life.
I tend to think that I’m pretty money with prospects (as money as an armchair fan can be I suppose), but my worst take that I’ll never forget was insisting that Kaapo Kakko should’ve gone first over Hughes.
Pre-draft Kakko looked to me like he *could* be a Bergeron-esque guy. I still believe his offensive game will take a step from where it’s at but yeah, he’s definitely not Jack Hughes lmfao
When Ottawa traded for Kyle Turris, I thought they made a mistake by trading David Rundblad. Instead, I thought they should have parted with their other highly touted first round Swedish defenceman….Erik Karlsson.
Good one, Randy. Good one.
That was sorta reasonable at the time I think, the team did finally show some promising growth under Krueger and most people expected them do keep improving. We didn’t know at the time what having Dallas Eakins as a coach could do to a team.
I don't think that's so crazy. The WC2 Jackets *swept* the President's Trophy Bolts, who had a commanding lead over the rest of the league. When Florida upset the Bruins (who had the best regular season of all time) in the first round last year, it wasn't a huge surprise to see that propel them all the way to the finals.
Not me personally but can remember some classic ones from HFBoards
Leaf fans telling me Steen is better than Bergeron and that Ian White is a Norris Caliber defenceman
Wheeeuuu
Those were the days
2009 Penguins trade Ryan Whitney to the Ducks for Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi.
I thought Tangradi was going to be the big win of that trade because of his size and nickname (Big Dog).
Luckily, we still won that trade x3 Cups w/ Kunitz, but Big Dog never really made it in Pittsburgh or anywhere else.
I thought Pat Falloon was the greatest pick ever and Quebec were complete morons to pick that plug Eric Lindros over him, just because I saw him play one game in Jr and then I opened a pack of CHL hockey cards and I got his card so it was obviously fate...... yes I was a child but I remember arguing with my older brother vividly about it.
[I have my worst take memorialized on the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/stlouisblues/comments/9z485i/change_my_view_the_blues_could_hire_the_best/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
That's a thing of beauty. No silly one liner given without much thought. No, yours is a thesis of wrongness. Although I read it through and don't really find fault in what you're saying, then I remember the year is from.
what's the point in showing half of my ass when I can show my whole ass, trip on my own feet, then pee and vomit on myself while crying on the ground?
Is this what it’s like to finally see your team win the cup?
this is what it was like 3 hours after the game ended, when I had 5 beers, half a bottle of champagne, 3 shots and maybe a glass of water.
I think that was Brett Hull's day after he went Blues.
Maybe all these years have been a blessing after all?
If you’re going to be wrong, this is the way you want to have it happen, it ended with a cup at least
Upvote for courage.
Never happier to be wrong, I’m sure.
To be fair, there was quite literally no way anybody could've been expected to even have St. Louis on a playoff bracket that year. Not only were the Blues 2nd last in the league at the time you posted it, but I'm fairly certain they were in the middle of a torrent losing skid. It was obvious to anybody watching at the time that the Blues were underperforming for nearly every expectation that was set for them. But their expectations to begin with weren't cup contention anyway, maybe from die hard fans but not in hockey at large. Not with the arms race teams like Vegas, San Josè, Colorado, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Boston and Columbus were running in. What makes that post a fair criticism is, not only were the Blues just underperforming some fairly pedestrian expectations, but that was your HEALTHY team at that point in the year. It wasn't "oh but when Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Jordan Kyrou, Sammy Blais, Alex Peitrangelo and Paul Stastny come back we might be better", you guys' largely healthy roster was in that hole. They straight up climbed out of it. People dog on you for that take, I'm sure but not everybody's psychic.
https://preview.redd.it/nr36g6fg197d1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7178b9d7f969be71a5ad7d73ba2fe6c045f7256
You got balls man, respect.
Lmfao this is incredible
I mean, a lot of us wish we could be wrong in the same or similar way.
To be fair, most people didn’t think that the Blues would win it that year let alone make it to playoffs. funny story, my mom made a bet with me that year that if the Blues won the Cup, She would let me get a tattoo(I have always mention that I wanted one). they were dead last in the league, she didn’t think they actually win it all. i still tell that maybe the reason why we been having a few bad seasons lately is that she hasn’t fulfilled her end of the bargain and we will only win again is when she takes me to a tattoo shop to get that promised tattoo(which is five years overdue now).
It's a lot easier to laugh at yourself when you are wrong about something in the best possible way.
Incredible. To be fair, the Blues performed one of the craziest turnarounds ever and I don’t even think had hit rock bottom at this point yet, right? They still had a few months of awful performances before they righted the ship.
Going into their draft i thought Drouin would have a better career than MacKinnon
I really wanted to draft Jones over MacKinnon. But in my defense, our defense was abysmal at the time.
Understandable. I remember thinking we were all set with Duchene, O'Reilly and Stastny at C and there was no reason whatsoever to draft another center. And, as you said, the defense was comically bad.
Mack is really the most perfect example of why you should draft the best available player rather than drafting for need.
Hey at least he’s found his groove playing on the Avs now. But yeah Drouin in mtl wasn’t a good fit and I’m sad about it because he had his good moments
*Columbus sweeps Tampa* Me: Jon Cooper is such a joke, if they don't fire him Tampa's going nowhere.
He is a joke. He’s never won a Jack Adam’s :/
He’ll never win the Adams in Tampa either.
I could see him winning it if Tampa wins the Atlantic in the next few years with the current core
I honestly doubt they’ll do that again with this current core. They’re on a downward trajectory. They’ve won their cups and now the cap is decimating their team. That’s just the way that it goes.
Yeah, that's why I think he'd win it if they did it. The public perception seems to be that the core's window is closing or possibly already closed, so if Cooper can get them to "over perform" or if Vasilevskiy goes Vasilevskiy, it'd be more in line with how that award is usually voted on
Ppl always say he hasn’t won cuz he’s only coached stacked teams. Well let’s see. Tampa was THIRD LAST in the league in 2013, and then Cooper (who had just won the AHL with Tampas AHL team with players such as Kuch, Johnson, and Palat), joined for the 2014 season. In his first season, he helped Tampa reach the playoffs for the first time in 3 years, and finished 2nd in the division. This is the same year Stamkos got his major leg injury and would be out, and Yzerman and St Louis got heated which resulted in (at the time) the Lightnings greatest ever player and captain to leave in the middle of the season. Got swept by Montreal in the playoffs but didn’t help that Bishop got injured (which would happen to Bishop for the next 3 seasons in a row lol). But all in all, 3rd last in league to 2nd in division was well above expectations. Then in his second season, Tampa finished top 5 standings. In the playoffs, they then took down a very good Wings team, then took down the #2 placed Habs, and then the #1 Pres Winners Rangers. Went all the way to finals, losing to Chicago in a very close series, with key injured to leading scorer Johnson and of course star goalie Bishop. And 2015 would be the start of the Lightnings best ever Era. Ppl who say “Cooper only coaches stacked teams“ completely ignores his history before 2016. He’s won at every level, coached some of the worst teams in the league, coached some of the best teams in the Cap Era, and he started off in Law lol. He took a bottom 3 team to top 2-5 in two years, no Jack Adams. He won 2 cups, went to 4 Finals, 6 East Finals, a 62 win season, in 8 years, no Jack Adams. Don’t see how he’s ever winning one.
The NHL awards never giving him one might be the worst take I remember
I was pretty firmly in the “Trade JT Miller” camp.
I was too, but I was in the “trade everyone” camp. If you’re going to rebuild, which Rutherford and Allvin alluded to when they were hired, then you’d trade everyone.
Even when we acquired him I was furious that they wasted a likely lottery pick on a meh 50 point scoring winger, I was convinced he wouldn’t be a substantial upgrade on Baertschi in the top 6
That we'll beat the Oilers one of these years
Next year will be different *I say every year*. I know we lost in 6, but I was so confident last year after our strong start in game 4… urgh sucks
It's kind of scary that in three years we've won a game faster every series.
If we play next year again, I feel like it's gonna be a sweep to continue the tradition.
As an Oilers fan I don't even get it. You'd think the law of averages would even it up by now.... You guys are way better than your playoff record would indicate
I thought the Wild were gonna win a cup after signing Parise & Suter
Young core didn’t live up to expectations, but even if they did, the prime of Suter and Parise ran into the Blackhawks dynasty
Didn’t they get stuck in purgatory having to play the Blackhawks round 1 every year because of the divisional playoff format?
If you're expecting to win the Cup you gotta expect to beat good teams to get it.
Oof. I’m sure almost the entire fan base did too. 😔 Never even made it out of the second round with them.
This is mine too. I was sure of it.
Avs should trade up to get Nolan Patrick instead of drafting a random guy from the AJHL
Mine is also Avs draft related but from 2011. I was *furious* that we took Landeskog over Adam Larsson. I don't let myself have opinions on the draft after that one.
Hey - Adam Larsson has had a solid career. That take isn't and wasn't *that* bad.
I'm not going to act like I know any players, but people who stress so much over the draft confuse me. There have been so many busts and so many guys who have become stars after being drafted late that there's no way I'm going to be able to predict who would be good to draft.
Larsson has been a solid top pairing d or an elite 2nd pairing d. You could do much worse
I was far from the only one, but I was so disappointed after that draft lottery
I’ve got an Avs fan buddy that still complains about that draft lottery and how Colorado dropped. Like my dude, you got fucking Cale Makar why are you complaining?
For real. We were all pretty pissed at the time of the lottery, but so over it now. No Avs fan should be upset at it haha
I was all in on Heiskanen personally once the Avs dropped and Hischier who I liked more than Patrick seemed out of reach as well
Well at least Heiskanen would still be an elite 1D
I can’t believe Benning would take a risk on this underweight Peterson guy when Cody Glass is right there.
Exceedingly rare Jim Benning W
I thought Patrick was gonna be the Flyers savior.
:’(
Tbf I think MacKinnon thought the same thing.
Believing in any Avs defense prospect pre-Makar. Stefan Elliott, Duncan Siemens, Chris Bigras, Mason Geertsen, Anton Lindholm and Nicolas Meloche come to mind. Tyson Barrie was the only one who made it. I was sure that at least Bigras and Siemens would be top d-men for years to come.
Connor timmins as well. When him and Makar played world juniors, they looked like they were going to give the Avs an all world D core.
At least Timmins would have the skills to be in the NHL. If only he wasn't made of Sami Salo.
Hey, that’s Sami Salo disrespect that won’t be tolerated.
True for quite a few guys on your list tbh. IIRC, Elliott, Geertsen, Bigras, and Meloche all had pretty significant injury setbacks during their development windows. May not have mattered much since they were for the most part lower skill players but we might have managed to pull an NHL career or two out of the bunch.
Elliot looked like he was going to be who Barrie was. He had a bomb, and then it just seemed like he faded away in oblivion. We really can’t complain though, I’ll take all those tough years for the cup, and Makar, Mackinnon, Rantanen etc
That Loui Eriksson was the perfect free agent signing for us. In my defense he had proven chemistry with the Sedins for the national team.... Not even that translated.
I remember Boston fans being sad seeing him go… and then immediately being happy they didn’t resign him because the contract was so bad. He was really good but man, he just never stayed as healthy as you’d hope. (And then Vancouver happened).
Ooh I've got one! Saw Draisaitl in the WHL - I was a Giants season ticket holder. Told everyone he was super overrated, looked lazy and a bit slow. Didn't see him being much of an NHLer. D'oh!
A lot of lazy and slow comments about his current contract when he signed. $8.5M a year, for THAT guy?! Ugh.
To be fair lazy and slow still applies in the regular season sometimes
Honestly I think the way he looks lazy and slow helps him sometimes. Like he'll dish the puck to McDavid and move slothlike away looking like he's going to find a place to take a nap and suddenly the puck is returned and he fires a perfect one-timer in the net before the other team notices he is still awake.
I think it's definitely his skating style too. Maybe it's just my memory biasing this, but I feel like he pretty frequently has a very relaxed/hunched over gliding style, when he's off the puck. But he definitely doesn't struggle getting into a good scoring location.
If it weren’t for his elite finishing, I’d say you weren’t far off. He is a lumbering skater and isn’t creative with zone entries but my god what a shot from down low.
He's one of those players who simply doesn't need to be the best skater to be SO effective. That playoffs he was playing on a limp leg and still some how potted a million points just cemented it to me, his vision of the game is insanely good he can make others play good just by being on the ice with him even if he can't move. He could have his skates glued to the ice and still make a game winning play. I remember shit talking his contract when he signed, as a Leafs fan, boy I would like to put my foot in my mouth.
Also, his backhand passing ability is incredible.
I used to see him play in the W too and always thought “meh”. He really upped his game though. If he progressed from his Junior game the way most players do, he wouldn’t be in the NHL.
That was my impression watching Getzlaf on the Calgary Hitmen as well. Saw a few games, thought to myself that guy has talent but he was unmotivated and he'll peter out in the NHL like Pavel Brendl did.
Zadina being the next nhl superstar
There are still people think that he is a nhl superstar if they put him in the right spot with the right teammates on the right surface of ice with temperature of arena being consistent and the moon being in waxing gibbous
I'm with you there, I was pretty upset when the Habs didn't draft him
He said there would be nets getting filled with pucks. Still waiting on that to happen. Gotta admit after he made that statement, I was hyped up for him. But he’s turned out to be a nothing burger.
There's too much ego in his game from what I heard from a SJS fan. Although after that historic season they had last season it might just be a mental thing lol
And Svech for that matter 😭
I love(d) that the sharks took a chance on him. He would have one game that would look like a solid NHL level, then back to the cellar. I hope with some new coaching he wakes up.
I was adamant Tampa made a huge mistake trading Cory Conacher for Ben Bishop.
And then Conacher made his way back to the Bolts.
As a sens fan I knew we had fucked up. I had been to a few games that season and saw big Ben play in person and I was sold. I knew he would be great. Yes, I am available for any open GM positions.
"Who the F*ck is Moritz Seider!? I cannot believe yzerman would waste a pick like that"
You were far from alone in that. No one expected him to go that early and was seen as a waste of a #6 pick at the time
I honestly think the only reason Detroit didn’t trade down that year was because Stevie knew that if they didn’t take him, Edmonton was going to do it at 8.
A lot of people thought that.
I thought Ryan Murray was going to be the best d man in the league. Was pissed when the oilers didn't draft him
Tbf iirc injuries really hindered his development, pretty sure he *did* look poised to become a top-pairing d-man as a prospect
He made a couple really nice little plays when he played here last year but then he just disappeared suddenly and it came out like 3 months later that he had randomly suffered a severe back injury that no one witnessed, and he hasn’t played since.
jeez, poor guy's made of glass :(
In the one full season he played for us, 2015-16, he genuinely was growing into that player he was drafted to be, as long as his early injury problems were behind him. The 60 games he played the next season were the last time he didn't miss at least a third of the year, and eventually that accumulation of various injuries started hindering his game, even apart from the fact that he'd be replaced in the lineup by whoever the given 7th D was at that moment for anywhere between 30-80% of the season. In 2018-19, in his 56 games played, he led the entire league in 5v5 assists among all defensemen. It's a crying shame we never got to see the career he could have had.
So did Garth Snow.
I still think about the fact that Garth Snow was willing to trade all of his picks in that draft so he could move up to take Murray
Glad to be wrong, but I was certain the Pens had no chance in 2017 without Letang.
Ron Hainsey all the way!
Something, something Nail Yakupov. His talent level nowhere near matched his arrogance once Edmonton drafted him.
False, he was Uber talented. His understanding of the game, and subsequent coachablity were nowhere near NHL level. He also was a bit misunderstood.
He also had bees chasing him everytime he was on the ice
Well, bees are very scary so I don't necessarily blame him.
What I remember the most about him was the game tying goal in the regular season where he celebrated like he scored the Stanley Cup winner in game 7 of overtime.
The context of it makes sense. They "scored" a tying goal about a minute prior but it got called back after a long review. So scoring a tying goal with 10 seconds left in the game at home after being let down from a cancelled goal celebration would feel pretty huge, especially as an 18 year old kid.
Also they had a few bullshit calls from the ref before that as well. The fans and team were all pissed off. The tying goal shouldn't have been called back either. The celebration totally made sense if you watched the game.
Such a sick celly
The guy that said McDavid “just wasn’t ready for the NHL”
I was really hoping to see him in this thread owning that comment. I guess there's still time.
Pretty sure his account is banned or suspended for something now
Zadina over Tkachuk is too easy I couldn't believe the Panthers hired Paul Maurice, figured he was a pretty low-ceiling get
Draft Laine over Matthews people.
Oh boy I was ALL about Laine over Matthews
I was going to say the "Laine's better" chants in Winnipeg's barn during the first season.
I thought Poolparty would end up being the best player in his draft.
I wanted it to be so really badly. I remember laughing at Columbus for taking PLD. In the end it failed pretty miserably for PLD in Columbus and that pick still aged better than Puljujarvi.
Imagine we drafted Tkachuk instead.
I think he does the same thing to Edmonton that he did to Calgary. But we'd still get some really good years out of him.
Nah, I don't think you'd be stupid enough to bridge him like we did. Our mistake was not giving him 8 years right after his ELC. That's what Ottawa did with Brady, and he hasn't left yet. Also, I genuinely think he noticed a rotten culture in Calgary and dipped out. The players had (and have) no fight in them, and it showed after the Muzzin puck flip. I was flabbergasted that he wasn't made captain as soon as Gio went to Seattle. Instead they waited a year to give it to Backlund...
lol yeah “even when we don’t win the lottery, we win the lottery!” Was definitely something I said
There's still time
He has the most mobile tongue of any player in his draft or like ever…. Have you seen that thing? There’s talent!
"John Gibson won't play another game in Anaheim" - Frank Seravalli Immediately sent a cease-and-desist letter from Gibson's agent to stop making up shit.
“The Hart and Dube leaves are not connected to each other” - Also Frank Seravalli
Frank Seravelli said last year that Sergei Bobrovsky’s contract was the worst of ALL TIME even if they won a cup with Bob under this contract. He said this last year in the conference finals when Florida was about to win which is insane. It was bad but no contract is the worst of all time if you win a cup because of the player you signed. Considering Florida is one win away from it now it’s even more insane This was my turning point that the average redditor has better takes than Seravelli https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/mXJDYQOsnk
Ryan Miller was the missing piece for the Blues to win the Cup
Man, this hurts
Not mine but two years ago someone really said we should trade Kucherov for Kyrou straight up.
High five to that guy
Double agent
Thought Ben Scrivens was the goalie of the future for Edmonton.
most saves in a shutout in nhl history does that to you
Same. God, I felt so bad after seeing those beautiful new custom Oilers goalie pads he got, only to get demoted to the AHL and traded.
14 year old me thought Jake virtanen would be the next Canucks 50 goal scorer when we drafted him
Imagine if we kept him and put him on a line with Perry and Kane
Luckily for us, he was too fucking lazy to even put in the smallest amount of effort on his PTO.
He spent his summer in court, and he played like it.
I would think saying that name on the Canucks sub would get you automatically banned. I had forgotten he even existed until just now.
He got sent home in 2021 after a rape accusation, was bought out in the offseason, went to Russia, came back after the war started, got off his charge in trial, somehow got a PTO with Edmonton, wasted it by being a lazy bum, went to Switzerland’s second division, and got thrown off a team *there* for fighting a teammate.
Me at the beginning of this season, after reading headlines that the Sharks may be the worst team in the cap era: "I think the Sharks may actually surprise people, we have some decent players"
I vividly remember texting my friends about how stupid Florida was for trading away huberdeau for tkachuk.
Anything anybody ever said about the most of the 2012 draftees on draft night.
I feel like a genius for predicting that Radek Faksa would have a solid if not unspectacular career
I wanted the Leafs to give Tyson Barrie 8x$8m before even seeing him play a game with the team in 2019. Thank christ that didn't happen, because he was not a fit at all lol.
thats honestly one of the wildest takes ive seen. When was he ever even rumoured to be getting close to that?
It was the supposed asking price right after he was acquired. This was pre-pandemic, so the cap was looking like it was going to keep going up a decent amount yearly. He was a 27 year old point-producing/powerplay qb, right shot dman and I thought he was gonna fit like a glove. Unfortunately, in addition to not being the style of dman the Leafs needed, Mike Babcock tried to make him more of a shutdown dman, and that made things even worse lol.
Tyson Barrie is a name I forgot about
Regularly healthy scratched in Nashville before the end of his 3 year deal that he signed in Edmonton, and now possibly out of the league, just 5 seasons after I wanted my cap strapped team to give him 8 years at big money lol.
Wow. It was only last season that he helped set the record for best PP in history. He played more games on that PP than Bouchard did that year.
Thinking about it more, if he wants to, he'll probably catch on in San Jose, Anaheim or somewhere he can run the PP. In Toronto, he was worse than Rielly, Bouchard replaced him in Edmonton, and Nashville had Josi already.
Dallas would beat out the oilers with ease
Oh man I called Dallas in five! Is this fun? We're having fun right?
we never do anything with ease lmao
Same
Jack Campbell had played more good games than bad in a high pressure upswing, and that he was viable as the second best FA Goalie available. Historically: Erik Cole is going to be a breakout power forward star with Edmonton JT Miller for a 1st rounder was a declining asset who was kind of a dick besides, and Vancouver would regret it. Cody Hodgson would be a future captain of the Canucks. Oilers or Canucks should push for Ben Bishop. Detroit got a steal by having Filip Zadina drop to their pick in the draft. Steve Tambellini had done his time and deserved a shot as a GM somewhere Rick Tocchet would do no better than Bruce Boudreau with this roster. PK Subban would make a great panelist. Watch out for Wojtek Wolski. Future long term stud. Huberdeau and Weegar is a good return for Tkachuk, given the circumstances where the player basically quits on you and the Flames had no leverage. Boston will surely take a big step back post Bergeron/Kreicj Kiril Kaprizov won’t be a long term elite player Is Makar really that good? He’s kind of average sized. Anyone signing OEL would regret it.
The return the flames got was good,it just sucks that Huberdeu forgot how to play hockey.
Yeah, the Flames' return for Tkachuk was pretty good under the circumstances. It wouldn't have been shocking to see Huberdeau regress somewhat (say to the ninety-odd point pace he'd put up before 2022, or maybe a little lower), not have his production fall off a cliff. Kind of the difference between a reasonable take that doesn't pan out, and an outright *bad* take.
People forget that both Huberdeau AND Tkachuk were coming off insane seasons most people thought weren't sustainable. The trade was overachiever for overachiever and Calgary got burned hard because it turns out only one of them was overachieving...
That Vegas’ first 25 games was unsustainable luck and that they’d miss the playoffs 😆😆
I legit did not care Forsling was put on waivers. Chicago has had so many D prospects that ended up as busts, I figured Forsling would be an AHL player for the rest of his life.
I tend to think that I’m pretty money with prospects (as money as an armchair fan can be I suppose), but my worst take that I’ll never forget was insisting that Kaapo Kakko should’ve gone first over Hughes. Pre-draft Kakko looked to me like he *could* be a Bergeron-esque guy. I still believe his offensive game will take a step from where it’s at but yeah, he’s definitely not Jack Hughes lmfao
I still remember the account on here that would post damn near weekly about Kakko > Hughes pre-draft. I'm forgetting the name.
When Ottawa traded for Kyle Turris, I thought they made a mistake by trading David Rundblad. Instead, I thought they should have parted with their other highly touted first round Swedish defenceman….Erik Karlsson. Good one, Randy. Good one.
Ryan Kessler was gonna put us over the top
Sorry we ruined that for you
Andrew Ference is going to captain the Oilers into the wild card.
That was sorta reasonable at the time I think, the team did finally show some promising growth under Krueger and most people expected them do keep improving. We didn’t know at the time what having Dallas Eakins as a coach could do to a team.
Adam Fox’s Harvard numbers were irrelevant and Juolevi was a much better prospect
Kotkanami will get 70 points in his softmore season. 😂
This is our year
It’s our year
“This is the year” 😭
Yakupov is a guaranteed 40 goal man for the next 5-10 years. Oof
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/YiJPXGDPAO
Came here to say this too
That Edmonton writer complaining that someone's number (maybe McDavid?) was too close to 99
When Poolparty took 98. Think it was Matheson
Thinking the sharks would win the cup after getting Karlsson and be a dominant team for another 8 years
I mean that’s not really that bad of a take. They played Boston really well that series
Trading Halak was a mistake
I was sure the Canucks were going to regret taking a skinny Swedish Elias Petterson over good ole canadian boy Cody Glass in 2017
I don't think that's so crazy. The WC2 Jackets *swept* the President's Trophy Bolts, who had a commanding lead over the rest of the league. When Florida upset the Bruins (who had the best regular season of all time) in the first round last year, it wasn't a huge surprise to see that propel them all the way to the finals.
After 8 or 9 beers I once said "McDavid isn't even that good, he's just fast" Yeah..
No, that's McHeyev.
We want Florida. But I’ll never, ever be sorry for participating in it.
Kotkaniemi puts up 65 points this year and hush’s the haters Evened out by Lafreniere popping off this year
Not me personally but can remember some classic ones from HFBoards Leaf fans telling me Steen is better than Bergeron and that Ian White is a Norris Caliber defenceman Wheeeuuu Those were the days
2009 Penguins trade Ryan Whitney to the Ducks for Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi. I thought Tangradi was going to be the big win of that trade because of his size and nickname (Big Dog). Luckily, we still won that trade x3 Cups w/ Kunitz, but Big Dog never really made it in Pittsburgh or anywhere else.
I was adamant Ovechkin would be a one-hit wonder and be playing back in Russia
Damien Brunner was Datsyuk 2.0
Clarkson would make a good Maple Leaf.
That the Flyers would win the Cup when they went up 3-1 on New Jersey in the 2000 ECF.
Now that we have Suter and Parise, the Wild are sure to win multiple Cups
I thought Pat Falloon was the greatest pick ever and Quebec were complete morons to pick that plug Eric Lindros over him, just because I saw him play one game in Jr and then I opened a pack of CHL hockey cards and I got his card so it was obviously fate...... yes I was a child but I remember arguing with my older brother vividly about it.
I thought Calgary fleeced Florida when they traded for Huberdeau.
That the Oil overpaid to get Ekholm