There were a few questions from Reddit that I wasn’t able to get to due to time and length of post (these also go out via email which has a length limit).
I’ll try to get to those either here or next week.
In the meantime, please enjoy. Feel free to ask me question on and off topic. Off topic is half the fun of FF. :p
2 comments
Re: deadline targets, I like what you have to say about the defence. It really comes back to how Pionk performs the rest of the year. If he continues to have a bounce back season then you can roll dice and keep him, but I think that trying to bring back a difference maker at RD and sending back Pionk and other assets in the deal would be the way to go here.
As for Schmidt, he has a m-ntc but that might exclude some teams that are underperforming this year. I think if he’s still on the roster at the draft, he gets his final year bought out, but I don’t think his contract is as untradeable as it may seem.
All of that said, I don’t think the defence is the priority at the deadline. I think there’s a top-end skill problem at Centre for this team to have a ton of success in the playoffs. Say we play Vegas. Either Pietrangelo or Theodore is going to be on the ice at least 50 minutes a night. We don’t currently have the top-end skill to overcome that over a 7 game series.
Who do we try to get?
Leon Draisaitl.
His contract is up summer 2025 and Edmonton is going to miss the playoffs. He will not want to extend if they miss meaning that the Oilers will either need to walk him to FA or trade him at the draft. The Jets have the assets to make Holland an offer he can’t refuse at the deadline to move the player. Holland’s only hope is to come back in 2024-25 and put together a team that has enough success to convince Mcdavid to extend, and since that extension is in doubt, trading a player in Draisaitl that only has 18 months of team control for a bunch of assets that have more than that is their best way forward.
I feel 4 has been decent but has room to get better. IMO our defense has to get bigger and we need a shut down d man . Hope we swing a trade at the deadline!