Time To Reconvene

given the fact that Q values work ethic and taking into account Lepisto’s twitter feed….does anyone think that perhaps Lepisto is in the doghouse because of his lack of work ethic/focus?

checked CapGeek to make sure of it before I replied.

I think we maybe have a case of “Hate The Contract” going on.. Hjammer may not be worth what the Sha-arks were offering but he’s not terrible either.

Who trades a “better” version of Hjammer for, you know, Hjammer?

Q seems to want more defensive defenseman for their third pairs. I think Monty has surprised them for being more of an offensive defenseman. He played on the PK in the past and NOT the PP. However, it is the opposite on the Hawks.

So, I could see Monty getting traded before Hjammer. If that happened, at least Lepisto might actually play. I just don’t think they like the Monty/Lepisto pair.

Most likely though, you are looking at a 1.7-2.3M 6th defenseman that can play on the Penalty Kill.

Do you have some specific names in mind?

I think Hjammer holds his own compared to other NHL 2nd pairing types, but I’m willing to learn.

but I think trying to acquire a true #3 D-Man is a really tough prospect for a number of reasons. If we’re going off of the basis that Keith is our #1 and that Seabs is our #2 with; the typical number one being a guy that plays in all situations, logs upwards of 25 mins/game, and is your greatest puck mover/PP QB/point producer) and with your number two providing basically the same services albeit more in the mold of a shutdown player – then what is it that the #3 moniker really implies? Obviously there are some 1 and 1a cases out there (Doughty/Johnson, Weber/Suter etc.) where the two players are virtually interchangeable (for the record I think Doughty is far superior to Johnson but I digress…).

For me a number 3 is more in the mold of the typically #1 d-man. That is, a player for all situations (perhaps trimmed PK time) with slightly reduced minutes and someone who doesn’t really struggle with those minutes. In many cases, the number 3 would be a guy being groomed to be a #1 in the future. A Number 4 is, again, more in the shutdown role, probably sees limited PP time and is really the poor-man’s number two d-man. I think acquiring a number 3 almost has to happen by accident because, if by design you acquire that player, you’re almost certainly paying the moon for the potential upside of that player becoming a number 1 or 1a OR you’re taking on a massive salary for an ageing number 1 (on a bad team) to plug into your #3 role. In the case of the upside potential acquisition, these players are either currently occupying a number one role on a non-playoff team, or are played in guarded situations where it’s hard to evaluate their minutes and their total potential (in the list below I’ve looked at non-playoff teams or Eastern Conference teams for obvious reasons).

So where does that leave us? Well, in the Hawks case I’d breakdown our top for as this (I’m sure everyone would): 1 – Keith, 2 – Seabrook, 3 – Leddy, 4 – Hjalmarsson. There are many players out there that perform virtually identically to Hjammer at around the same cap hit (Smid, Coburn) with most of them his age (or older) with some of them at a higher hit while producing less (Regehr, Lydman off the top of my head).

That leaves acquiring players in that fit into a couple of categories IMO:

Younger with Potential
Luca Sbisa – ANH – appears to be more of a puck mover but is playing fewer ES minutes with a marginal amount of PP time (basically 1 shift/game).
Kyle Quincy -COL – logs 2.5 on the PP & PK basically a #1 on a young team.
Erik Johnson – COL – same minutes as Quincy and the 1a or #2 for them. Both young so I don’t see them moving.
PK Subban – MON – Over 3 mins of PP time and 2.5 of PK, would cost a lot IMO.
Dmitri Kulikov – FLA – mostly PP special teams, not a ton of PK replacement value, but Uncle Dale will probably hand him over for nothing.
Top 4 Borg – NYR – unique situation where Tort’s is basically blasting Del Zotto, McDonagh, Girardi and Staal (when healthy) with 24+ minutes per game each, all with remarkably similar numbers.
Matt Carle – PHI – like many of these players, more special teams emphasis on PP over PK although he does both.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – PHX – looks promising but we all know how misleading minutes can be with a Dave Tippet coached team (jokingly referring to Lepisto being good enough for 18/game over there).
Matt Niskanen – PIT – under 19 minutes per game probably isn’t full value replacement for move Hjammer, but he does seem to have some puck moving advantages.
John Carlson – WAS – pretty big upside but with Mike Green on the self perpetuating injury cycle I don’t see why he’d ever be moved.
Zack Bogosian – WIN – expected to do much of what Doughty does for LA. Shows signs from time to time, logs a lot of special teams minutes for the Jets.

OR

Older Players that are Number One’s – that you’d have to take a hefty cap hit for
Joni Pitkanen - CAR – hurt anyways
Stephane Robidas - DAL – offensive numbers are down this season.
Trevor Daley – DAL – not old but a known commodity who’s game probably won’t develop much more.
Tom Gilbert – EDM – hurt, but much like Daley IMO
Jordan Leopold – BUF – kind of fits, but not worth taking on IMO
Mark Giordano – CAL – Hurt much of season but his play has basically made Bouwmeester’s contract look even worse.
Mark Streit – NYI – pretty much a PP specialist and he’s minus 21 (I don’t care how fallable that stat is, that’s piss poor).
Andrej Meszaros – PHI – Really, he’s an older Hjammer that has found his offensive niche in this league.
Dustin Byfuglien – WIN – I almost typed Bustin Byfuglien, we all know what he’s about @ $5.2 for 4 years after this one.

So, to compress all of that into a simple conclusion. I don’t really think there’s a market for acquiring a #3 out there. Arguments could be made for any of these guys, but if we’re in agreement that Leddy is already in the role of #3 with an eye for #1 as his experience grows, then I think keeping Hjammer at #4 is the way to go (some soft crease defending included). If that means they need to roll out that 2-8 pairing more often, so be it.

but i would have expected him to go against Van rather then Bickell.

He said he came back from the ACL too early. Shouldn’t have started the season with the team. His injury was only slightly later than Olesz’ ACL injury. Wonder if Olesz has any regrets when he came back from his injury?

I’m just thinking it would be pretty funny if the Hawks ended up with Kruger and Olesz on the third line.

To waste away in Vancouver

one direction to go from there ….up. I still love the save on Sharp in O/T…..but I guess that doesn’t count. :P