Grading the Canadian Team post Free Agent Frenzy

[CaptainCrunch]

Pretty much everyone that's good has been snapped up in free agency, so I think its as good of a time as any to take a look at how the Canadian Teams have done in the off season, and if its not, I'm doing it anyways.


So I'm going to try to give a summary and grade


Toronto Maple Leafs (A+)


Out: Plekanec, Bozak, Polak, Van Riemsdyke, Komarov


In: Jooris, Tavares, Cracknell, Jordan Subban


Admittedly the Leafs gave up some depth. bit they scored the most sought after free agent in hockey in center John Tavares. If you're building a team from the center position out and the blueline up, this is a success. Having Tavares and Mathews up the middle with Marner and Nylander on the wings is a great problem to have, however I'm still not sold on the blueline or their goal tending. The Leafs have about $14 million in cap space with only Nylander to sign this year, however next year becomes a bit of a problem with Mathews and Marner needing new deals.


Calgary Flames (A)


out: Hamilton, Fox, Ferland, Shore, Bartowski, Wotherspoon

In: Lindholm, Hanafin, Ryan, Czernik, Neal


The Flames knew they needed to roll out a new lineup with a new identity after last years debacle. What Treliving has done is equivalent to pushing all of your chips into the middle of the table and smirking. The Flames forward group looks a lot deeper and more skilled, and bringing in Neal also has the potential of putting some sandpaper on the top line. The major move which was the trade is all about gambling on potential. The Flames have about 13 million in cap space with Lindholm, Hanafin , Hathaway and Kulak needing new deals. The Flames also still need to decide on a backup goalie.


Vancouver Canucks (C-)


Out: no one anyone cares about

In: Roussel, Beagle, Schaller


I have to admit that I'm confused about Vancouvers rebuild strategy at times, but they have to put a lineup together. In Roussel and Beagle they add to their bottom six, but this is a team that is in the midst of inserting youth in the lineup. The Canucks have about 13 million in cap space with only the disappointing Virtanen needing a contract.


Montreal (C-)


Out: Galchenyuk, Fucale, Cracknell, Hemsky
In: Oullete, Plekanec, Armia, Mason (Buyout), Domi,



I think that Montreal did get some helpful pieces in Domi and Armia. I expect that the Habs were banking their hopes on getting Taveres, and were slightly shocked that they weren't in on it. This is a bad team, and it will still be a bad team. It will be interesting to see how Domi does in Montreal. The Habs currently have 13 million dollars in Cap space with only Armia looking for a new deal.


Winnipeg (F)


Out: Stastny, Hendricks, Mason, Armia

In: Broissoit


You can't help but feel that the Jets are going to wake up feeling screwed over, clearly they cleared cap space for Stastny who went to Vegas. The Jets are still a deep lineup, but losing out on Stastny and Armia could hurt a bit going forward. I don't know whether this was a case of Winnipeg believing that they had Stastny and screwing it up, or Stastny just flipping them the bird. The Jets have about 28 million in cap space with Trouba looking for big money, Morrisey is also looking for a new deal and Hellybuyck is also going to be looking for a massive raise.


Ottawa (F)


Out: Hoffman
In: Bodker, Carey


Ottawa is a team in Chaos, I'm sure they didn't want to dump off Hoffman like they did, but they didn't have a choice. Bodker is a useful forward, but a bottom 6 guy coming in for a top 6 guy is a loss. Lets face it, the Sens are just freaking broken. The Sens have lots of cap room with 18 million in space, however they have to sign Stone and Ceci, however I doubt that cap room means much to Ottawa as nobody wants to run away to join the circus anymore.


Edmonton (D)


Out: Slepyshev, Pakarinan, Brossoit, Gryba
In: Brodziak, Rieder.


Some people believe that the Oilers last season were some kind of outlier, that this super talented team should be a playoff contender. But when you look at the Oilers, they really have a lot of problems, they maybe have one of two natural top 6 wingers and that's stretching it, they're forced to borrow from their center depth to shore up the wing, which means that they are then short of actual centers. Their blueline is atrocious and they're praying that Talbot can bounce back. The Oilers also have precious little help coming from their laughable development system. The signing of Bridziak should help, but he's a bottom 6er at best, Brodziak is a 32 year old journey man, and isn't going to contribute much. The Oilers have a bit under 8 million in cap space with Strome needing a 3 million dollar qualifier and Nurse looking for a significant raise.

[Yoho]

I don’t give Winn an F.
Buy, hold, prosper.

They also didn’t walk into any “Brouwer “ deals.

[Moneyhands23]

Closely related- Canadian teams that look good for the playoffs

Calgary, Toronto, Winnipeg

Maybe in- Edmonton (but they will prob find a way to suck)

No chance- Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver

[tkflames]

Great write-up. A minor correction . I would suggest Vancouver's "out" is the Sedins which although late in their career are points that Vancouver will be sorely lacking this year.

[1991 Canadian]

I don't know if that was a slight at the Sedins, but they are two significant losses for the Canucks. They get a D- for me. The Sedins had 105 points between them last year and took some of the tough matchups away from Horvat's line. Roussel, Beagle, Schaller are roster fillers.

[icecube]

I can see not being sold on the Leafs defense but I'd kill for a goalie like Andersen. The guy was making 50 saves on some nights. He did everything aside from literally standing on his head.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by 1991 Canadian

I don't know if that was a slight at the Sedins, but they are two significant losses for the Canucks. They get a D- for me. The Sedins had 105 points between them last year and took some of the tough matchups away from Horvat's line. Roussel, Beagle, Schaller are roster fillers.

Not a slight, I was really only looking transaction ally from about the draft on. I didn't count the Sedin's as part of the regular post season in and out. I could have, but the narrative doesn't really change much at this point. The Canucks made moves that don't really make much sense.

[oldschoolcalgary]

pretty good write up, but i'd agree that Winnipeg is probably more a D...

Stastny was a miss for sure, but he was a deadline pickup to load up for the playoff run and while they did trade armia to free up salary, their core is essentially the same as last year's playoff team..

but they didn't do anything rash after missing on Stastny either

also think Van is a D... not sure why they are bringing on older expensive veterans...

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I don’t give Winn an F.
Buy, hold, prosper.

They also didn’t walk into any “Brouwer “ deals.

Their team got significantly worse.

F is the only possible grade

[Spinach]

That's an ugly A+ for the leafs., but it's pretty hard to argue against getting a player of that caliber even if it makes their RFA's harder to re-sign. They also haven't addressed their porous defence. B+

The Sens don't deserve an F for being stuck with a terrible hand. At least they've done something about the problems, so I give them a D.

The Oilers must always get an F. "No good" will also do very nicely.

I think our Flames did really well. The cap hit for Ryan's a bit high, the term for Neal is a bit long. Otherwise, they're solid moves that easily make the team better on paper. Without having done the math, it looks like the major upgrade to the forward corps should offset Hamilton's 17 goals from the back end, and Hanifin is a high-quality player. A-

[Samonadreau]

I think Canadiens could maybe get a B. Edmonton probably a C. Other than that pretty spot on.

Flames probably have the most to lose in terms of how the Hamilton trade works out and the Neal signing but as it sits now an 'A' is about right.

Jets got Fleeced.

Vancouver is a mess. WTF are they doing there? Bring in some overpriced vets so you will probably finish in the 4 to 6 overall spot again. Just tank already.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I don’t give Winn an F.
Buy, hold, prosper.

They also didn’t walk into any “Brouwer “ deals.

Yeah IMO standing pat should never result in an F unless the team had a lot of cap space and holes. Jets already have a good roster and they couldn't force Stastny to sign with them and Armia isn't a big loss.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Their team got significantly worse.

F is the only possible grade

There are actually 12 other grades that could possibly be handed out.
Out of curiosity where were the Jets in the standings before they picked up Stastney last year?

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah IMO standing pat should never result in an F unless the team had a lot of cap space and holes. Jets already have a good roster and they couldn't force Stastny to sign with them and Armia isn't a big loss.

Hellebuyck, Morrissey, Trouba this year.

Looking ahead Laine and Connor and Wheeler next year.

They made a mistake extending Little last year.

It will be interesting what contract Armia gets with Montreal and whether he was just too expensive compared to Roslovic, Appleton and Vesalainen .

[mrdonkey]

I don't think the Jets deserve an F. Losing Stastny sucks but he was a late-season pickup anyway, and they were a good team prior to that trade. Armia really doesn't move the needle that much, and they have a whole summer to use their cap space in a trade which I expect they will.

Doing nothing on July 1st is not the worst thing you could do as a team. So maybe a C- is appropriate.

Edmonton should always receive an F because they are NG.

[Coach]

Such a shame to see Price wasted in MTL.

[CaptainCrunch]

So just to give you an idea of grades, in terms of transactions, this is kind of what I came up with





Probably not the most scientific, but realistically while teams like Montreal and Vancouver improved slightly for example, and Ottawa didn't improve of slightly declined, Winnipeg was the only Canadian team that you could classify as not only failing during the transaction period but with the loss of Armia and Stastny got noticeably work. The good news for Canadian teams is for the most part whether in a small way or large way they improved their lineups for next year, but in the grand scheme of things only two teams dramatically improved their lineup.

[Lumby Lager]

Down goes Brown has the Oilers as winners and the Flames as losers for free agency. What an absolute clown.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...y-free-agency/

[ricardodw]

The Leafs out of last years line up gave up 54 goals 116 pts and about 45 minutes of ice time and replaced it with

Tavares 37 goals 84 pts and 20 minutes of Ice Plus Jooris 3 goals 6 pts (in 40 games)

full season 6 goals 12 pts and 10 minutes

total 43 goals and 94 pts


They need to find 11 goals 22 pts and 15 minutes of ice time to break even..


It will be really interesting to see if winning Tavares actually puts the Leafs to a much higher level.

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

The Leafs out of last years line up gave up 54 goals 116 pts and about 45 minutes of ice time and replaced it with

Tavares 37 goals 84 pts and 20 minutes of Ice Plus Jooris 3 goals 6 pts (in 40 games)

full season 6 goals 12 pts and 10 minutes

total 43 goals and 94 pts


They need to find 11 goals 22 pts and 15 minutes of ice time to break even..


It will be really interesting to see if winning Tavares actually puts the Leafs to a much higher level.

Not including calls ups?