Offical 2014 NHL Draft Discussion Thread

Maple Leafs, Blues swap defensemen

Maple Leafs, Blues swap defensemen

The Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues swapped defensemen at the 2014 NHL Draft Saturday morning.

Carl Gunnarsson is on his way to the Blues in exchange for Roman Polak. The Blues also acquired the No. 94 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft as part of the trade.

Gunnarsson and Polak have two years remaining on their contracts. Gunnarsson's contract carries a salary-cap charge of $3.15 million; Polak's contract is worth $2.75 million annually.
 
langway05 said:
Maple Leafs, Blues swap defensemen

The Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues swapped defensemen at the 2014 NHL Draft Saturday morning.

Carl Gunnarsson is on his way to the Blues in exchange for Roman Polak. The Blues also acquired the No. 94 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft as part of the trade.

Gunnarsson and Polak have two years remaining on their contracts. Gunnarsson's contract carries a salary-cap charge of $3.15 million; Polak's contract is worth $2.75 million annually.
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Pretty much a sideways step, no? At least Polak should help the Leafs poor PK, but seriously they need to get rid of Nonis before he does anything else stupid. :duh:
 
Mainly traded for Polak b/c he's a RH shot. Now look for Gardiner to be used more.

I'll be looking to seeing if I can pick him up cheap in my keeper hockey pool. More important to re-sign Franson.

Not exactly sure what the line up was like last year, but expect Gardiner and Franson to play together, O'Rielly and Polak to pair up. Phaneuf with Gleason (but both LH shots), so Franson will get 1st PP with Phaneuf.
 
tiger tiger said:
Mainly traded for Polak b/c he's a RH shot. Now look for Gardiner to be used more.

I'll be looking to seeing if I can pick him up cheap in my keeper hockey pool. More important to re-sign Franson.

Not exactly sure what the line up was like last year, but expect Gardiner and Franson to play together, O'Rielly and Polak to pair up. Phaneuf with Gleason (but both LH shots), so Franson will get 1st PP with Phaneuf.
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I would expect both Rielly, and Gardiner to see some PP time this year, as both can handle, and move the puck around fairly well, plus can skate with it from their own end.

Franson is a RFA, so they have time to re-sign him at some point this year, and if he wants too much they can ship him out. They really need to re-sign Jay McClement, as he was one of their MVP's the last couple years, IMO. Great checking centerman, who is pretty good on the faceoffs, and is one heck of a PK guy. If they let him walk, then I have no doubt in my mind that Nonis is incompetant.

Colton Orr must go, and they can let Jamie Devane take his spot on the 4th line, or even Troy Bodie. Not as tough as Orr, but they can both do the tough guy job, and play a little bit, too. I'd like to see them bring back Bolland, as I think he's a useful 3rd line player for them, but again it all comes down to money, and term. Drew McIntyre needs to be signed, or replaced by someone else, and then they need to decide which AHL guys are gonna get time with the big club this year, whether that's Holland, Leivo, or D'Amigo, Ashton, or even giving Connor Brown a sniff, but I doubt he's ready? Basically, they need to fill in their bottom 6 forwards, as they really only currently have the top 6 ready to go (Kessel, Bozak, JVR, Lupul, Kadri, and Clarkson).

Defenseman wise, barring any trades, they have the following 6 (Phaneuf, Polak, Gardiner, Rielly, Gleason, and Franson). I'd be willing to bet if they don't sign any free agents that guys Granberg, Brennan, or even Percy may get a sniff this year.

Whatever they decide to do, Carlyle has to get it through his thick skull that they must roll 4 lines this year if they are gonna have any sort of success at all. You can't have guys like Orr sitting on the bench getting 3 minutes a game. Why can't this old fossil of a coach adapt to the newer, faster NHL that is played today?
 
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hey Leafs fans... what about...

Carl Gunnarson? y'all got him on draft day #2 for Roman Polak.

your team got a tough as nails, aggressive defender with a booming shot that he doesn't use nearly enough, and slow on the skates. needless to say, i am pissed that he is gone...

so what about Gunnarson?
 
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He's a useful guy, but way too soft, and not much offensive side to his game. 3rd pairing guy on most teams (1st on Toronto). :duh:

I have a couple Young Guns available if you want to swap?
 
no thanks. i am not happy about the trade and wouldn't think of collecting Gunnarson, unless he miraculously turns into a Bobby Orr clone.

but i do have a few Polak Silhouettes from this year (2 prime, one regular) available for cheap-ish if any Leafs folks wanna jump start a collection.

and if he is a 3rd pairing guy on an average team defense, he is gonna fight for playing time on the Blues and may spend a lot of time in the press box as a healthy scratch, or playing on the Wolves. evidently Ian Cole is gonna finally get a full time job this year.
 
warsawknuckles said:
no thanks. i am not happy about the trade and wouldn't think of collecting Gunnarson, unless he miraculously turns into a Bobby Orr clone.

but i do have a few Polak Silhouettes from this year (2 prime, one regular) available for cheap-ish if any Leafs folks wanna jump start a collection.

and if he is a 3rd pairing guy on an average team defense, he is gonna fight for playing time on the Blues and may spend a lot of time in the press box as a healthy scratch, or playing on the Wolves. evidently Ian Cole is gonna finally get a full time job this year.
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I don't think there's any danger of Gunner turning into a Bobby Orr clone, lol!! :devil:
 
Couple of great moments during the draft. Right off the bat Bettman drops a bomb "I thought this was supposed to be the city of brotherly love?" hahaha amazing.

Tallon delaying in announcing the first pick. Ekblad looked like he was going to cry haha. I saw a little behind the scenes thing today where they had him mic'd up and during that delay he was like "Oh my god come on!"

Lastly, Garth Snow with the hammer. "He'll be fine, they **** on me too" hahaha way to go Garth. Might not be the best GM, but he went up a couple spots in my book with that line. They got a couple of great players in Dal Colle and Ho-sang.

Can't wait for Ekblad to get some rookie cards, I've been waiting for him to make the NHL since he went first overall to Barrie in 2011.
 
Thoughts on Scherbak? I'm reading a lot of praise, that Montreal drafted a forward with some of the highest potential offensive upside in this draft. Rookie scoring/assist/point leader in the WHL too? Not bad at 26.
 
Burner said:
Thoughts on Scherbak? I'm reading a lot of praise, that Montreal drafted a forward with some of the highest potential offensive upside in this draft. Rookie scoring/assist/point leader in the WHL too? Not bad at 26.
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had a great interview with James Duthie.

I think the "russian" factor has scared a lot of teams off lately. Habs got a great player at their spot.
 
fowlerfan24 said:
Come on, you really don't think Kesler makes Anaheim a better team for playoffs and only helps on paper? This deal helps A TON with our playoff run.
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Except that the Ducks lost Selanne, Koivu, Bonino, Sbisa, Robidas, Hiller and Winnik. Now it's up to sophmores/RFA/UFA to fill those spots.
 
tiger tiger said:
Except that the Ducks lost Selanne, Koivu, Bonino, Sbisa, Robidas, Hiller and Winnik. Now it's up to sophmores/RFA/UFA to fill those spots.
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Yes, but watching a ton of Ducks games, as much as I like Selanne, his time was done. Didn't do a lot but for his age, he did well. Koivu, I was glad when he was scratched. Again with Teemu and age and the whole back story but I would have rather had youth in there. Bonino, we will miss him but Kesler is an improvement over him. Sbisa was just plain bad for us and it showed as he was scratched most nights. Robidas, meh. Great defenseman for us. Hiller, we have two goalies that have proved to be solid young goaltenders and hiller let in WAY to many weak goals this year, WAY to many. Winnik will be missed with his defensive ability.

But the only two players here that will be missed are Bonino and Winnik but we have Kesler to replace Bonino with Rakell coming up and Winnik can be replaced with Smith-Pelly who again proved himself during the playoffs. To be honest, were getting better. We still have veterans that can lead in the playoffs and get us passed the Kings.
 
I love it :)

Oilers are one of my favorite teams and Purcell is a local guy Noah and I collect. We hardly ever got to see him play in Tampa now we will see him a lot more as thecaoilers are on cbc a lot.
 
tiger tiger said:
This is a head scratcher for me. Are they pencilling Draisaitl as the #2C already???
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Mark Arcobello? He had almost as many points as Gagner and only played half a season. And he's much cheaper.

MA might not be a star in the NHL yet but he was almost 2 pts a game in the AHL so perhaps deserves a promotion.
 
He put up big numbers in the first half of the year with Gagner out. I believe he was leading the rookie scoring race up until xmas. It was when Gagner returned that he started playing less and eventually was sent down. But for the first half of the season MA was a decent #2 centre. And, as mentioned, once he was sent down to the AHL and playing top 2 lines he had an amazing half season.
 

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