I forgot to mention, but injuries will be on, hopefully that will not be an issue. Let's start the regular season.
At the beginning of the new year, we were about as horrible as expected. Filip Forsberg was really struggling on the first line, though our second line was doing very very well. I decided to move Forsberg down to the second line and put Simmons up to the first. Our defense was dragging down Steve Mason's numbers in the goal, so I looked to trade Braydon Coburn on the assumption that the defense needed more mobility. I traded Coburn and backup goalie Ray Emery, who had been struggling and had value, for young d-man Sami Vatanen, a 2014 3rd round pick and vet goalie Jason LaBarbera. Vatanen is only 23 years old and only 1 overall point worse, LaBarbera isn't much worse than Emery, plus I got the pick, I felt it was a good trade for a rebuilding team.
After the trade, the team did definitely improve, as we were in last place before the trade, and finished February fifth worst in the league. Still terrible and well out side of the playoffs, but it was an improvement. Our record heading into the trade deadline was 26-29-8, good for 60 points. Here are our team leaders currently:
Goals: Brayden Schenn, 29
Assists: Claude Giroux, 31
Plus-Minus: Wayne Simmons, +14
PIMS: Zac Rinaldo, 125 minutes
Wins: Steve Mason, 24
Injuries have been pretty reserved, which is nice. In terms of forward performance, Jakub Voracek is our current points leader with 48 points. I've gotten what I expected out of most of the forwards, though I was pretty impressed with Brayden Schenn, leading the team in goals and second in points. Filip Forsberg has been improving, he's still not doing great, but he's been doing much better. Our leading defenseman in points is Sami Vatanen with 32. Our top three d-men(Vatanen, Del Zotto and McDonald) all have 25 plus points and are all plus players, though we don't have any depth beyond them. Steve Mason has played 55 games, has a 24-24 record, a 2.40 GAA, a 91.79 save % and 7 shutouts. I would not really expect more out of him, especially considering the sorry state of our defense.
I might make the trade deadline its own designated post because I have some trades I want to make quite a few trades, so I'll try to get that out soon. Thanks for reading, see you soon.
-Henry
At the beginning of the new year, we were about as horrible as expected. Filip Forsberg was really struggling on the first line, though our second line was doing very very well. I decided to move Forsberg down to the second line and put Simmons up to the first. Our defense was dragging down Steve Mason's numbers in the goal, so I looked to trade Braydon Coburn on the assumption that the defense needed more mobility. I traded Coburn and backup goalie Ray Emery, who had been struggling and had value, for young d-man Sami Vatanen, a 2014 3rd round pick and vet goalie Jason LaBarbera. Vatanen is only 23 years old and only 1 overall point worse, LaBarbera isn't much worse than Emery, plus I got the pick, I felt it was a good trade for a rebuilding team.
After the trade, the team did definitely improve, as we were in last place before the trade, and finished February fifth worst in the league. Still terrible and well out side of the playoffs, but it was an improvement. Our record heading into the trade deadline was 26-29-8, good for 60 points. Here are our team leaders currently:
Goals: Brayden Schenn, 29
Assists: Claude Giroux, 31
Plus-Minus: Wayne Simmons, +14
PIMS: Zac Rinaldo, 125 minutes
Wins: Steve Mason, 24
Injuries have been pretty reserved, which is nice. In terms of forward performance, Jakub Voracek is our current points leader with 48 points. I've gotten what I expected out of most of the forwards, though I was pretty impressed with Brayden Schenn, leading the team in goals and second in points. Filip Forsberg has been improving, he's still not doing great, but he's been doing much better. Our leading defenseman in points is Sami Vatanen with 32. Our top three d-men(Vatanen, Del Zotto and McDonald) all have 25 plus points and are all plus players, though we don't have any depth beyond them. Steve Mason has played 55 games, has a 24-24 record, a 2.40 GAA, a 91.79 save % and 7 shutouts. I would not really expect more out of him, especially considering the sorry state of our defense.
I might make the trade deadline its own designated post because I have some trades I want to make quite a few trades, so I'll try to get that out soon. Thanks for reading, see you soon.
-Henry
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