NHL offseason thread

The family lives five minutes from me, and I know a bunch of kids who played with him (before he left for the GTHL), so I was pulling for him. But yeah, I saw him play in Hamilton this year and while he had three points he was a turnover machine.

I wonder if him getting the C at 17 was an issue. That was a really old team with plenty of candidates and I wonder if Wright tried to do too much because he had it.

 

I was there and there's no doubt that the Montreal fans wanted Wright. They booed Slafkovsky on the red carpet and the lobby of our hotel was filled with Habs fans mugging for the media with Wright signs (and at least one jersey that I saw).

My old league had a terrible first round with only two players taken and their top young player and presumptive top pick for years falling to No. 4. There's no doubt losing an entire season to Covid hurt the OHL kids, at least those expecting to go in the first round.

 

We were watching in a pub in Ottawa. It wasn’t a viewing party or anything, but lots of people and they had the sound turned way up. A good chunk were Habs fans.

The reaction was mostly shock when Wright was passed over, and more so when the Devils passed on him. That was the real stunner it seemed. I was convinced that the Habs were locked in on Wright, and everything else was theatre.

Once Arizona was on the board I thought they would take Cooley. That was the easy one.

 

I’m happy Arizona passed on him. No reason he should have to play in a worse arena in the NHL than he did in junior.

 

I had heard the Devils were looking at a D but I didn't think they would pass on Wright. Once that happened I knew Arizona would go with Cooley, they had to think there's no way either guy would be there at three so I thought they would stick with the guy they'd had pegged all along: Cooley.

 

Fact. Arizona has much better weather than Kingston but the Fronts' home barn, whatever it is called now, is a terrific facility with a great location on the shores of lake Ontario.

 

The Red Wings had no chance at Wright or Cooley, but they found their center in Sweden, of course, in Austrian Marco Kasper
Yzerman has had five No.1 picks in four years — two Swedes, a German, an Austrian and a Canadian
Even though his lottery picks have been 6, 4, 6 and 8 he got two defensemen, a goal scorer and a center. The goalie came at No. 15
Yzerman found out it will take him longer than he likes but he now has a nucleus to build around
I had thought he would trade Tyler Bertuzzi for picks but now I wonder if he won’t resign him and Larkin and add somebody like Ann Arbor native Andrew Copp since the Rangers can’t afford him

 

He's still only 28, but those two Stanley Cups seem like a long time ago for the Penguins and for Murray.

 

If this doesn’t work, and I don’t think it will, it has to be the end of the line for Dubas, and possibly Shanahan.

 

Which pub.? I was just in Ottawa for a week.