[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by New Era

Yeah, because I guarantee you that when the Panthers went after Marchessault they had him pencilled in on the PP and thought they had a 30 goal scorer on their hands!

As if you know what an organization's internal plans are. Here's what we do know:

I can guarantee you that the Panthers offered Marchessault a 1.5M x 2Y contract, when nothing in his NHL resume would have justified such a deal. Sound familiar?

I can tell you that Brad Treliving said this:

Treliving: If you look at the free-agent list, everybody knows the big names out there. We’re looking more at players that are maybe not the sexy names. Maybe there’s a guy nobody’s heard of, but who is in the right age bracket, where there’s been a history of success on his resume, and we think he’s ready to pop. Will he? Don’t know. But our homework has shown that maybe he is. Is that a better bet? Maybe it is.

Duhatschek: Is it fair to say that today, everybody’s looking for the next Yanni Gourde and/or the next William Karlsson?

Treliving: It’s true, but you do that exercise all the time. ... But that’s where we’ve directed our energies. I’d rather take some value swings than give somebody six years at $6.5 million – if that makes any sense."

And that Bill Peters said that he sees Czarnik as a piece on his power play. I can tell you that Czarnik identified our team as one of the two most interested teams on the market alongside the Leafs.

You are the one speculating that they are lying through their teeth to pump up a 13th forward, not I.

No one is saying Czarnik is some kind of lock to become a star player. But the team sees him as having the upside to be such, and are willing to give him an opportunity to prove them right, rather than bury him at the bottom of the lineup until he predictably fizzles out, as you are hoping for.

That’s some some Oiler level hype and justification. I thought we were better than that and held our team to a higher standard.

Ah, the old Oilers card. Do CP members never get bored of this junk? It's very much a hockey attitude to think guys in different/better situations can produce differently/better.

Originally Posted by Red

I hope they are not fixated on finding another Marchessault this way. That's like trading our high draft picks for 4th round picks so we can find another Johnny or Brodie.

Actually, it's nothing like that. It's more like drafting with a 4th round pick you already have, a player who put up similar numbers to Johnny at every level. Or more specifically, it's like drafting a Kylington, Phillips, Kulak, or Mangiapane and realizing they need an opportunity to be the next Gaudreau or Brodie, because it doesn't just miraculously happen. It's like looking back to Gaudreau's first few games playing with Colborne and Byron and remembering how close this kid was to being sent down because players DO need to be set up to succeed, not fail.