[News] Interesting End of Season Pressers

[Flames Draft Watcher]

https://www.nhl.com/mapleleafs/video...436/c-43423303

The idea of one of the best coaches in the league signing up for the start of a rebuild fascinates me. Babcock is a good interview. He talks a lot of philosophy of hockey here and a lot of it relates to our team as well in that both TOR and CGY are rebuilding. Interesting interview.

I like how he talks about having "drivetrain" players who make your team successful. Pushes people to be better around them.

[Itse]

"I like the position that we're in better than a lot of teams in the national hockey league. A lot."

The Leafs better be good sooner rather than later if Babcock keeps throwing pearls like these around. Saying that while finishing dead last in the league requires a rather special view on things.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Itse

"I like the position that we're in better than a lot of teams in the national hockey league. A lot."

The Leafs better be good sooner rather than later if Babcock keeps throwing pearls like these around. Saying that while finishing dead last in the league requires a rather special view on things.

I agree with him about the Leafs, even though I dislike the Leafs. From what I can tell they have

- A ton of cap space
- No anchor contracts other than whatever they retained on Kessel
- Two solid D in Gardiner and Rielly, one of whom is progressing towards a #1
- Some other good complimentary pieces (Marincin, Kadri, JVR, Bozak)
- A deep prospect group, (Nylander, Marner, Dermott, Hyman, Kapanen, Bracco, Brown(
- A good hard-working culture and buy-in from top to bottom.
- a 100% chance at Matthews, a Finn, or Dubois
- Top tier management between Lamiorello from the old-school side and Dubas from the modern analytic side.
- Ownership that will spend on anything and everything when the time is right
- Draft picks up the wazoo

Compare that to teams that finished ahead of them but seem to have gotten stuck on a treadmill - Colorado, Vancouver, Detroit, Columbus, Montreal, New York, maybe even Tampa if Stamkos and Drouin bail. I'd be optimistic if I were a leaf fan and not just due to Kool-Aid drinking. I'm similarily optimistic about the Flames too, once we can drop the Smids and the Widemans.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Itse

"I like the position that we're in better than a lot of teams in the national hockey league. A lot."

The Leafs better be good sooner rather than later if Babcock keeps throwing pearls like these around. Saying that while finishing dead last in the league requires a rather special view on things.

Mmm I think you need to take the quote in context. He's clearly not talking about position in terms of competing for a cup. I think a large part of what he's talking about is in regards to cap space, prospects, picks. Leafs were able to dump some long term albatross contracts in the past year and a bit in Phaneuf and Kessel and replace them with 1 year albatross contracts. That means now and in a year they are poised to have cap space to lure UFAs. Knowing its TOR and knowing the % of hockey players from ONT its pretty safe to say they will have a much easier time luring good players than an EDM would. Plus you've got the lure of playing under Babcock, one of the best coaches in the NHL. They have some great young players and prospects and are about to draft some more this draft.

You have to like a lot of things about the way the Leafs are going about their rebuild IMO. I expect TOR to be competitive faster than EDM or VAN unless Chiarelli really works some magic this summer. Babcock has gotten more out of the little that was handed to him than Todd McLellan was able to squeeze out of endless top 5 picks. Wait until Babcock has another couple key pieces. They could accelerate their rebuild quite a bit landing Stamkos for zero assets given up. And even if they don't land him, they'll get somebody crazy good in the next two years.

[Lanny'sDaMan]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Mmm I think you need to take the quote in context. He's clearly not talking about position in terms of competing for a cup. I think a large part of what he's talking about is in regards to cap space, prospects, picks. Leafs were able to dump some long term albatross contracts in the past year and a bit in Phaneuf and Kessel and replace them with 1 year albatross contracts. That means now and in a year they are poised to have cap space to lure UFAs. Knowing its TOR and knowing the % of hockey players from ONT its pretty safe to say they will have a much easier time luring good players than an EDM would. Plus you've got the lure of playing under Babcock, one of the best coaches in the NHL. They have some great young players and prospects and are about to draft some more this draft.

You have to like a lot of things about the way the Leafs are going about their rebuild IMO. I expect TOR to be competitive faster than EDM or VAN unless Chiarelli really works some magic this summer. Babcock has gotten more out of the little that was handed to him than Todd McLellan was able to squeeze out of endless top 5 picks. Wait until Babcock has another couple key pieces.

All of that is exactly why I'm very glad I don't full on rage hate the Leafs. More like a "Head on, apply directly to the forehead" kind of weariness.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Mmm I think you need to take the quote in context.

Yeah I sort of get the context. But I think it's still one of those quotes that could very easily come back to bite him.

What they have right now is a lot of hope. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Erick Estrada]

The thing about the scorched earth rebuilds is that they take time and half of the time they never work out as planned. They are off to a good start with their prospects but there's no franchise goaltender or defenseman in the organization. Sometimes the final pieces are never found and it only takes a couple of bad moves to crumble the foundation. There's promise but right now it's all based on following an imperfect formula and crossing your fingers it turns out.

Flames are still a promising rebuilding team but it was only a few seasons ago they had one of the top prospect bases in the league with the league gushing over guys in the pipeline like Baertschi, Monahan, Poirier, Klimchuk, Ortio, Gillies, etc. and only a few years later Monahan and Ortio have graduated but who's gushing about the other guys today? Prospects aren't a sure thing.

[AcGold]

Flames are in a better spot than the leafs. Johnny, Monahan, Bennett and Brodie is an insanely good group to have together for a long time. If any other player in the system turns into a franchise player we'll have an incredibly strong core. (Hopefully Dougie keeps improving)

We need a lot more pieces to go on a run but that core is incredible, not sure I would trade for many other teams top 4 core players going forward.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Flames are in a better spot than the leafs. Johnny, Monahan, Bennett and Brodie is an insanely good group to have together for a long time. If any other player in the system turns into a franchise player we'll have an incredibly strong core. (Hopefully Dougie keeps improving)

We need a lot more pieces to go on a run but that core is incredible, not sure I would trade for many other teams top 4 core players going forward.

Yes the Flames are arguably the best positioned Canadian team going forward. If they get Matthews or a Fin then i think it is not even debatable. As of today a lot of what the Leafs have in Nylander, Marner etc is hope but not proven talents. Monahan, Gaudreau, Brodie, Hamilton are proven young players that have put up extremely impressive numbers. Bennett scored 18 and 36pts as a rookie with flashes of brilliance as well. Gio is older but still having career year after career year and is one of the better leaders in the game.

The Oilers have some great pieces including a bona fide franchise player in McDavid. They need to make big changes in order to change the culture so a lot of work needs to be done

The Leafs are doing a great job of tearing it down, building a competitive culture, and adding top prospects but have a long ways to go

The Sens have a decent core to build around but not sure they have a championship level team. They need a Matthews type forward badly.

The Jets have a nice mix of vets and prospects and are a bit of a funny team no could see them competing for the playoffs next year but I feel when they contend they will not be lead by the Buff's, Wheeler's, Little's. Could be a contending team but a few years out.

The Canucks are a tire fire and will not be a contending team when the twins lead the way. Matthews would be huge for them but they have a horrible blueline.

The Habs have a number 1 goalie and D in their prime but lack a top centre and depth to win with their current pieces.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Flames are in a better spot than the leafs. Johnny, Monahan, Bennett and Brodie is an insanely good group to have together for a long time. If any other player in the system turns into a franchise player we'll have an incredibly strong core. (Hopefully Dougie keeps improving)

We need a lot more pieces to go on a run but that core is incredible, not sure I would trade for many other teams top 4 core players going forward.

and just wait until the Flames add Matthews!

[LIP MAN]

Originally Posted by icecube

and just wait until the Flames add Matthews!

I think any of the top 7 could add what we need more of, or nab us a player we really like. If we could get in the top 3, I think we talk contender. The Flames looked really strong down the stretch.

[JJ1532]

Bergevin confirms that Therrien and all his staff are coming back. Yep, hope Price can recover and lead them back into the play offs, seems like sound logic.

Also interesting that he said he had no intention of trading Subban and called him an elite defenceman. However, as several media tweets have pointed out, he stopped short of saying Subban "won't" be traded, merely stating that he had no intention of trading him. Reads to me that he would be open to trading him if he got an amazing offer.

The guy is a fool. The owners should can him and Therrien now. Built a team that is solely reliant on the health of 1 player, won't say for certain that he'd keep their best defenceman and backs his terrible coach. Genius.

[Textcritic]

Henrik and Daniel Sedin assert that the Canucks "have good young pieces now" and are "not far" from being a consistently competitive playoff team. They said that two seasons ago with Tortorella behind the bench was the team's rock bottom, and that last year showed they are a team back on the rise. With a healthier roster next year, and improvements from young players they expect to be in a position to make another challenge for a Stanley Cup in the near future. Just need to surround the young guys with good, supplemental players.

http://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-10...picks-1.469726

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Flames are in a better spot than the leafs. Johnny, Monahan, Bennett and Brodie is an insanely good group to have together for a long time. If any other player in the system turns into a franchise player we'll have an incredibly strong core. (Hopefully Dougie keeps improving)

We need a lot more pieces to go on a run but that core is incredible, not sure I would trade for many other teams top 4 core players going forward.

The Flames Drive-chain guys were in place this year(and most had career years) and were 8 points better than the the Ripped down Leafs.

Gio at age 33 starts his 6 year 6.75 deal .. The Cap space is gone in retaining this group Any new pieces have to be bargain basement cheap.

Reimer (or whoever the Flames get instead of Ramo) had better be the solution to all the Flames problems.... rather than a crappy system that pads scoring stats and doesn't win hockey games.