2018/2019 Trade Speculation and Rumors

[Karl]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Until the Flames have an undisputed #, the most glaring issue is going to be goaltending.

Rittich has had some nice games. His game last night was the best of his career, IMO. But it was against the Rangers. And the Rangers are awful.

Rittich is 27. That's the age when lots of goalies figure it out. He's earned a shorter gap between starts, and a tougher quality of opposition. Ultimately, the ideal scenario is one where Rittich is able to establish himself as a top-15 starter, with the potential to do more.

The guy can play. He needs to do it consistently, and he's not going to get a better chance to show the world what he's got.

The defense is fine.

The Flames are 4th worst in the entire NHL in terms of high danger chances given up.

That is most certainly not fine defense.

Most of the rest of your post is fine though.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Until the Flames have an undisputed #, the most glaring issue is going to be goaltending.

Rittich has had some nice games. His game last night was the best of his career, IMO. But it was against the Rangers. And the Rangers are awful.

Rittich is 27. That's the age when lots of goalies figure it out. He's earned a shorter gap between starts, and a tougher quality of opposition. Ultimately, the ideal scenario is one where Rittich is able to establish himself as a top-15 starter, with the potential to do more.

The guy can play. He needs to do it consistently, and he's not going to get a better chance to show the world what he's got.

The defense is fine.

If you think the team defensive play was fine against the Rangers as well as the prior game vs Nashville, I don’t know what to say.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

Tough crowd. Over the previous two seasons his 122 points put him 40th overall for all forwards. The exact same 122 points that Monahan, Forsberg and Rantanen had. 2 point shy of Ehlers 124.

Sorry, can't disagree more. First off he's played just two seasons in the NHL and he's only turned 22. His point production already puts him first line on at least half the teams in the NHL. He might not develop into a bonafide first line center, but really his lower level is a bottom-tier first line winger. Which is nothing to scoff at, again 40th overall production over the previous 2 seasons.

Well, if Toronto could get that I'm sure they would jump all over it.

I guess the argument with his points comes down to the chicken or the egg argument (which can go either way). Personally I see a lot of the production coming from playing with good players (various players like Matthews, Marner and JVR). Not to take away from his own skill, but I do think he had finishers to play with as well. So I do think I'd discount that a little. One other problem I see is his need to look down when someone is coming at him - I'm really not sure what that bodes for his future health by keeping his head down (though that's beside the argument). This is not scientific by any stretch but I do think this is more or less his ceiling because of the aforementioned tendencies. I don't think he's overrated. Teams probably see a young guy who can score and may have upside, plus he plays for the Leafs which gets extra attention. Even a $7.5M contract though? To me, it's a bit of a stretch given what he brings. I'd say that about a lot of players though, where GM's panic for a variety of reasons and sign out of obligation (or ownership pressure to do so).

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Valimaki is ‘surefire’, but a goalie with 52 NHL games and 0.925 sv% is a mystery???

“LOL”

Not sure why you find that funny. Goalie is a high variance position. Goalies can be world beaters one year and terrible the next (see Jim
Vezina Carey, Andrew Raycroft, Chris Huet, Jonas Hiller, etc). Goalies can be great backups on certain teams and completely fail as a starter (see Darling as a recent example). Saros plays behind one of the best defenses in the nhl so he may not produce anywhere near the same numbers starting behind a different defense. Backups often don’t play against the strongest teams on the schedule, another reason you have to be wary of their stats.

So yes I do think Valimaki is much more of a sure thing than Saros right now. When Saros demonstrates he’s a great starter that’s when we can consider him that. I think spending significant assets to acquire a good backup is a gamble I would not be willing to take. We already have a good young backup and two more promising goalies in the minors. I’d rather slowly hand the reins to the guys we have than pay a crazy price for anyone who isn’t a proven elite starter.

Saros May be a great young goalie or he may not be. You’d have to be a goalie scout to figure that out. Just going based on numbers is dangerous.

[Strange Brew]

I would much rather acquire Saros than overpay for an established, aging veteran but it’s a pipe dream. It’s the most important position on the ice and zero reason for Nashville to trade him.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Rick M.

Rittich turned 26 in August.

Then he's still right in that window when goalies figure it out.

Hasek wasn't a starter until he was 29. Kiprusoff was 27 when he came to town.

Being a goalie is hard.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

I 100% agree with you. And I wouldn’t even let myself consider Saros until they mentioned Rinne staying in Nashville. It would be insane for them to not do what Pittsburgh did and move onto the younger goalie.

I think they do exactly what Pittsburgh did. Resign Rinne, run with them both, leave Rinne unprotected for Seattle.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I think they do exactly what Pittsburgh did. Resign Rinne, run with them both, leave Rinne unprotected for Seattle.

Nashville's going to have to make a deal with Seattle to take someone, or they're going to lose a forward they don't want or one of their four D.

Johansen
Forsberg
Turris
Arvidsson/Fiala/Jarnkrok/Smith

Josi
Subban
Ekholm
Ellis

OR

Johansen
Forsberg
Turris
Arvidsson
Fiala
Jarnkrok
Smith

Josi
Subban
Ekholm/Ellis

Keeping Rinne might allow them to use him as a trade chip, but by then Rinne will be 37 going on 38 - tough to sell an ancient netminder to an expansion team.

They're going to have to decide if their 1st round pick is more valuable than whoever they project to lose.

[H2SO4(aq)]

Is Schneider a possibility?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Then he's still right in that window when goalies figure it out.

Hasek wasn't a starter until he was 29. Kiprusoff was 27 when he came to town.

Being a goalie is hard.

Yup. And both Rinne and Talbot were in their 26/25 year old seasons when they emerged as top-tier backups, two goaltenders people were eager for a season or two ago.

Plenty of starters today emerged between 25-30. Could be Rittich’s time. Who knows.

On that note, if he’s not ready next year and we bring someone in, I don’t expect us to ship out anyone we have. All of them still have the potential to shore up our starting spot for 10+ years.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Mattman

I think Czarnik can be that #2 RW for us.

And that if you need/want to trade "Bennett, Andersson and another piece" I think it that should go to improving other parts of the roster *cough* goaltending *cough*

Our forward core is set right now IMO and personally I think we would handicap ourselves if we brought Nylander in long term, in the same way Toronto has with their salary stacked offense and the Oilers.

For the record I don't want us to trade those players, I am saying that is what it would take. I don't think we need Nylander at all.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Karl

The Flames are 4th worst in the entire NHL in terms of high danger chances given up.

That is most certainly not fine defense.

Most of the rest of your post is fine though.

IDK...they are playing an up tempo game and not sitting back even against top opponents. Sure they could clean it up a bit but they are generating more chances than they are giving up. Don't want them to lock it down too much.

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

So I wonder if Gross is doing the same awkward propaganda spamming with Nylanders negotiation that he did with Gaudreau. The Gaudreauvertime thing was so hamfisted and unprofessional, but I wonder if there is similar social media manipulation going on over at TorontoPuck.

That itself, and the whole botched negotiation leaves me with a sour taste towards Lewis Gross. I wonder if players would be turned off by an agent that not only uses that type of propaganda distribution, but also puts his clients in position to lose significant time and money due to his poor strategic gambles.

Are you speculating that Gaudreauvertime was Lewis Gross?

[GullFoss]

A toronto-Vancouver swap makes a ton of sense. Nylander will help Vancouver's rebuild. And assets like Edler, Sutter, Tanev and Baertschi could be interesting for Toronto both today and in the future. If Toronto's going for it this year, this would be an interesting trading partner.

[868904]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

A toronto-Vancouver swap makes a ton of sense. Nylander will help Vancouver's rebuild. And assets like Edler, Sutter, Tanev and Baertschi could be interesting for Toronto both today and in the future. If Toronto's going for it this year, this would be an interesting trading partner.

Edler isn’t waiving to go anywhere. Sutter sucks and makes too much money for a team In need of cap space. Tanev can’t stay healthy for a regular season let alone a playoff run, no contender should go for him. Sven is a mental midget, not sure his ego can handle being so far down the ladder of importance on stacked Leafs team.

Those are all terrible assets for a Nylander deal.

[kehatch]

The Flames probably can't afford Nylander.

We are just okay at C we have Monahan and Backlund long term with a couple of decent depth options. We are slightly better at D with only Giordano and Hanafin long term, but some of the kids are looking promising and we have Brodie/Hamonic for two more seasons. We are yuck at goal with zero long term options and our kids struggling.

But we look very good at wing with Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Neal, and Lindholm long term. We also have a number of short term options and younger hopefuls.

Giving up assets from our D to spend more cap on our wing would be a tough move to justify. It would allow us to shift Lindholm to C and really balance out the top 9 and maybe justify the cap. And if you can do it for something like Ryan + Brodie I would consider it. But chances are it's something like Bennett+Andersson+pick and that's not worth it for a winger that's going to get paid too much.

[BigErnSalute_16]

A lot of people talking about Nylander for Ekholm possibilities but I think if he were to go to Nashville the return would be more like Ellis.

Like someone was saying I think Toronto fans need to prepare for an underwhelming return for him. There is a lot to like about him but there is also a lot to dislike and a good top 4 defenseman is far more valuable than a good top six winger.

I believe Ekholm is super underrated and is probably one of the last guys Nashville will want to trade, and is far more valuable than Nylander. Ellis, on the other hand, is imo their 4th best Dman and could instantly jump on to Toronto's top pair. I think just like Hall for Larsson, ignoring the fact that Chiarelli is a moron, people will be a little bit surprised to see the return Toronto gets.

[Yrebmi]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Are you speculating that Gaudreauvertime was Lewis Gross?

That is a fairly widely held belief. If not Lewis than in his employ.
He was not subtle.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Yrebmi

That is a fairly widely held belief. If not Lewis than in his employ.
He was not subtle.

He sure disappeared as soon as Johnny signed.

[Oling_Roachinen]

It was more likely Treliving to get us to despise Gaudreau and hope against him getting a big contract.