2009 NHL off-season trades, rumours, draft thread

Yes, he is.

 

It's the rumour as they try to re-sign him -- being named captain would be part of the deal, at least that's what I heard briefly. Koivu, it sounds like, would possibly be shipped to Minnesota to play with his brother.

 

Oh and the Oilers fan base is very much polarized on the hiring of Quinn. Haven't talked to anyone yet who approves. But listening to the radio there is the contingent that does like the move a lot.

 

Why wouldn't they like Quinn? He's got pretty good credentials and even though he hasn't won a Cup he's coached Canada to gold medals in the Olympics, the Under 18's and the World Juniors.

 

Quinn is not the most popular man in the world in Edmonton. He was easy to hate/laugh at for so many years in Vancouver and Toronto. He also hasn't coached post-lockout and I think his never having won a cup despite his tenure in the league also plays a huge part. He has never been able to get a team over the hump. The feeling that the game at this level has passed him by. I never thought he did that great a job in Toronto, especially as GM -- thankfully he doesn't hold that title in Edmonton. I also don't know how many hold on to the belief that he can't work with young players. It USED to be one of the knocks I held against him but he has obviously proven that theory wrong. I do, however, like the fact that he says he will preach an offensive brand of hockey, and his history of that I think backs up his claim. For many, like myself, it is Renney that will actually make this thing work though.

I am still not entirely sure how to feel about this. I am willing to wait and see how it goes, at least give it a chance, but I'm not completely sold on it. A good buddy of mine and diehard fan put it this way today -- 'I usually don't feel depressed about the upcoming season until after we missed out on all of the top free agents on July 5'

 

Quinn's always been an offensive kind of hockey guy. Renney is, as almost everyone has pointed out, an x's and o's guy, a terrific complement to Quinn.

Quinn's coaching record in Toronto was 300 wins and 196 losses which I'd submit is pretty good.

 

I'm not arguing the first part at all, in fact I said I was encouraged by his style history, as well the fact that Renney is what makes this work for me. Quinn on his own I would be much more concerned.

Quinn's regular season record is good, but he never could get the team over the hump in the playoffs. Considering he had a seemingly unlimited budget to work with in Toronto but only made it to the East final once or twice and never past is the concern. But he's not the GM in Edmonton, so I a, curious to see how that changes things, especially now that he will be expected to bring young players along at the NHL level. (And again worries about his ability to work with youth has mostly been absolved but they still still exist in small order at the NHL level).

 

Yeah, that's still a pretty young team that has the potential to develop into something good with the right coaching and perhaps a couple of key additions. They could --- perhaps should --- be a playoff team next year, if not a Cup contender.

Beef, Roloson is unrestricted, right? Would you bring him back or look for a younger guy? No doubt he played pretty well the last 2-3 months when given the full-time job.

 

Depends on the price. And if they do, only for one year. Regardless of who they bring in they have to get Jeff Druin-Deslauriers more games. They have to find out what they have in him before Devan Dubnyk is ready for the show -- I say two years away. I think JDD will be a solid pro with the flashes he showed in limited action last year, but he cannot go three months between games and then have the coach wonder why he lets in a softee.

It's not exactly a deep pool of available goalies coming available. There are a lot of career backups and platoon goalies availble -- like Manny Fernandez or Craig Anderson or Ty Conklin. If those are the options I would stick with Rolie, but not at the 3.6 mil he pulled down last season. One very intriguing option is everyone's favourite snowmobiling to practice goalie Ray Emery. They could also take a run at Khabibulin, but for what he will likely command as a UFA will likely price him out of Edmonton, and I would rather them take a run at a forward with that cash. Also if they want to go the RFA route again (because they had so much success with that last time) there's Lehtonen in Atlanta.

They have limited cap space, and several big needs. With what's available they can use that money more wisely in other areas. I wouldn't be surprised though if they swing a deal with someone for a goalie however.

 

In Quinn's defence, he never had teams that you expected to go to the final. He was 1 goalpost away from winning the cup in 94 and those Leaf teams were far from favourites to come out of the East. I would say Quinn actually gets teams to overachieve. I agree with Beef though the key to this IMO is the combination of Renney and Quinn. They complement each other well.

Beef, is there any talk of buying Penner out in Edmonton

 

Actually, he coached the 05-06 season. But they missed the playoffs, so you could say he hasn't made the playoffs post-lockout.

 

AM 1270 in Detroit actually had some serious Memorial Cup talk going on Sunday after the Spits came back from 0-2 to win the thing. OHL talk never sucks. Glad to have seen some of the games on the NHL Network.