All those free agents
Jul. 2nd, 2014 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkThe first two days of work! For half of these days I didn't do much, and the other half isn't boring so far, so that's good. (More after a few more days.) I'm very tired, but that's more because I have to get up early.
My first day at work was when NHL Free Agency started, so I spent the evening on my phone checking for updates. I wanted to talk about the new Pens team, but then Claude Giroux got arrested for "repeatedly grabbing a male police officer's butt" and even though I'm aware of the non-funny aspects of this it's also hilarious. So it's later than I wanted, but I still have a chance of not going to bed too late today, depending on how long this goes.
So, the new Pens team! Rutherford started by trading away Neal way too cheaply, especially if the analysts are right about Spaling being useless. The support on the bottom 6 is good and cheap (if Spaling is better than expected; otherwise the plan is to improve his numbers and then trade him for picks, right?) Ehrhoff is a nice addition but we'll have a logjam on D when Maatta and Pouliot are healthy, so I guess someone is getting traded in winter. I hope it's Scuderi. Trade Scuderi as soon as possible, keep Martin as long as possible.
The only glaring problem is the top 6. Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis (with Dupuis being a question mark on the first line, sorry Duper, I hope I'm wrong but I don't think you're a good first line player and chemistry only takes you so far), Bennett-Malkin-Hornqvist? I'm not convinced Bennett is a solid top 6 player yet, not of his chemistry with Malkin either. If we get another winger for Geno and can have Bennett-Sutter-Downie and Adams-Goc-Comeau, that'd be nice. (See, no Spaling! And no he's not a top 6 player Geno will shoot someone. We can get Gibbons as insurance against injuries!)
We also currently have 3 goalies, okay... not that "collect the Germans" isn't a fun game, and Greiss is a good backup for that price, but Zatkoff was good enough, and he's on a one-way-contract. I can't believe Rutherford would seriously carry 3 goalies, and Greiss isn't good enough that he could trade Flower, so what is he planning? I've realized that the people who say Flower is expensive for his quality are right, but I'm not really convinced of most alternatives and also it's Flower. I love that guy. One of the few I'd follow on other teams.
Speaking of other teams, apparently now it's a rule that former Pens get horribly overpaid? Nisky's contract is very long but not that high, reasonable if they're lucky, but Orpik's, Engo's, and Glasser's are just ridiculous, wow. No idea how that happened. Orpik gets paid more than Martin next year, crazy. Vitale's is better, Jokinen's is mostly reasonable. With that demand we should be able to unload Scuds, right?
It's very funny how quickly Pens fans' opinions changed on Rutherford. Okay, free agency was good so far (better with a top six winger, but no major mistakes, like some other teams, and most of the really scary teams are in the West - Chicago with Richards as 2C for that money? (Hopefully they at least overpay Kane and Toews.) And the other teams; the West and especially the Central are brutal.) But the Neal trade was major and that wasn't good. Not trusting him yet. We'll see what happens next year.
Felt good to write some of that down, for some reason, I can see why there are so many sports bloggers. Also by now I'm definitely reading more actual sports news than RPF, and it's the off-season. Damn it.
My first day at work was when NHL Free Agency started, so I spent the evening on my phone checking for updates. I wanted to talk about the new Pens team, but then Claude Giroux got arrested for "repeatedly grabbing a male police officer's butt" and even though I'm aware of the non-funny aspects of this it's also hilarious. So it's later than I wanted, but I still have a chance of not going to bed too late today, depending on how long this goes.
So, the new Pens team! Rutherford started by trading away Neal way too cheaply, especially if the analysts are right about Spaling being useless. The support on the bottom 6 is good and cheap (if Spaling is better than expected; otherwise the plan is to improve his numbers and then trade him for picks, right?) Ehrhoff is a nice addition but we'll have a logjam on D when Maatta and Pouliot are healthy, so I guess someone is getting traded in winter. I hope it's Scuderi. Trade Scuderi as soon as possible, keep Martin as long as possible.
The only glaring problem is the top 6. Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis (with Dupuis being a question mark on the first line, sorry Duper, I hope I'm wrong but I don't think you're a good first line player and chemistry only takes you so far), Bennett-Malkin-Hornqvist? I'm not convinced Bennett is a solid top 6 player yet, not of his chemistry with Malkin either. If we get another winger for Geno and can have Bennett-Sutter-Downie and Adams-Goc-Comeau, that'd be nice. (See, no Spaling! And no he's not a top 6 player Geno will shoot someone. We can get Gibbons as insurance against injuries!)
We also currently have 3 goalies, okay... not that "collect the Germans" isn't a fun game, and Greiss is a good backup for that price, but Zatkoff was good enough, and he's on a one-way-contract. I can't believe Rutherford would seriously carry 3 goalies, and Greiss isn't good enough that he could trade Flower, so what is he planning? I've realized that the people who say Flower is expensive for his quality are right, but I'm not really convinced of most alternatives and also it's Flower. I love that guy. One of the few I'd follow on other teams.
Speaking of other teams, apparently now it's a rule that former Pens get horribly overpaid? Nisky's contract is very long but not that high, reasonable if they're lucky, but Orpik's, Engo's, and Glasser's are just ridiculous, wow. No idea how that happened. Orpik gets paid more than Martin next year, crazy. Vitale's is better, Jokinen's is mostly reasonable. With that demand we should be able to unload Scuds, right?
It's very funny how quickly Pens fans' opinions changed on Rutherford. Okay, free agency was good so far (better with a top six winger, but no major mistakes, like some other teams, and most of the really scary teams are in the West - Chicago with Richards as 2C for that money? (Hopefully they at least overpay Kane and Toews.) And the other teams; the West and especially the Central are brutal.) But the Neal trade was major and that wasn't good. Not trusting him yet. We'll see what happens next year.
Felt good to write some of that down, for some reason, I can see why there are so many sports bloggers. Also by now I'm definitely reading more actual sports news than RPF, and it's the off-season. Damn it.
