The 2011-2012 NHL Thread

Last season was too amazing for words:



But now the first part of the next season is unfolding with the draft, anyone else watching?

It is time to learn the name of the new Winnipeg team

Its official the Winnipeg Jets are back

Highlight of the draft thus far: Jagr's mullet in the EJ McGuire video piece.

The word around MN was that the wild thought they had a shot at Zabinejad. No dice.

Wow. Holy crap.

MN Wild trade Brent Burns and next year's 2nd rounder to San Jose for Devin Setoguchi, Colin Coyle, and this years 1st rounder.

Burns is in the last year of his contract, and Setoguchi just signed a 3 year, 9million dollar deal. Coyle had a big tournment in the WJHC for the US this yeah. The Wild don't have a second rounder this year so this late first rounder is a great acquisition.


Burns is a great guy, great personality, well liked here, but on paper this is a good trade for the Wild.

The Jets drafted incoming Colorado College Freshman Aaron Harstad in the 7th round. I don't understand the draft and how you can be drafted before you start college. Its the weirdest kind of conscription known to man. Don't try this with football or basketball players.

You remain eligible to play in college, CHL, KHL, SEL, SM-Liiga, etc until you sign with your NHL team. You can be traded at any time, but a team owns your rights.

Think you're good? Ready to enter the draft and be chosen #1 overall? Great. Do it. Then go back to your junior team, national team, high school, college, swedish elite league, or whatever, and grow into that potential.

To be honest, I think it is the single best drafting process in major sports. You have competitive minor leagues to grow the fan base, and NHL fans follow their prospects. These (physically and mentally) immature kids aren't rushed into the big leagues. Everybody wins.

Well I'm glad we have a thread for next season. Grainbelt made some good points about the NHL draft. I think the way it's done is better than some other sports, it seems to me that the way it's done allows for a more complete development not only for players skills, but also allows ample time for them to mature as well.
But really this post is for my excitement about seven time Norris trophy winner Nick Lidstrom returning for a 20th season! I hope he can win the cup, and an eighth Norris. Maybe a Conn Smythe as well.
Go wings!

The kids that are drafted are usually around 17 years of age, and quite skilled for the Juniors. The NHL is a whole 'nother game. So it's very important that they go through the developmental process. Lindstrom is a phenonemal player, and deserved the Norris, although I was pulling for Chara. Don't know if the B's can repeat, but am hoping for another awesome season!!!

Okay fellow hockey fans it's open season on free agents. So what's your team done? How do ya feel about it? What else do you hope your team will do?
I'll start, so far the wings have resigned Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, and Jonathan Ericsson. From free agency we signed Mike Commodore for 1 year 1million. I do like resigning Eaves and Miller. I think they are just fine for 4th liners, and I think Miller can be a decent 3rd liner with the right players. I'm not 100% on bringing Ericsson back, but he is a bigger fellow and we need that size on the back end. He didn't have a great season last year, but part of that I think was due to playing with Rafalski (who was pretty much walking wounded all year). I don't think he was really capable of filling the hole left by Rafalskis legs as he is certainly not the most mobile guy. But I think if his passing game doesn't get better we should dump him. I could like signing Commodore, if he is going to play with Jakub Kindl. Commodore is not an offensive D man, which I would like as an anchor to hold down the back end so Kindl can develop a more offensive game. What else I'd like to see is Ty Conklin to be brought in as backup. He has played with us before and I think it would be a good move as long as it doesn't cost too much. We are in need of a backup and I think Osgoods time is up. If we could get a mid tier forward or D at a reasonable price I could see Ken holland doing that as well.

The Wild have made a big youth movement. The Burns trade brought a scoring winger for Koivu in Setoguchi, who will replace the overmatched Antti Miettenen on the first line. They then bought out Cam Barker's contract, and let Jose Theodore, Miettenen, Andrew Brunette, and Jhhn Madden enter free agency. They did sign goalie Josh Harding, who is coming off an ACL injury and will back up Backstrom.

I'm disappointed to see Brunette leave. He played two stints with the Wild, and is a great character guy with really good hands. Madden didn't accomplish a lot in his role.

I wouldn't mind seeing a veteran defensemen or winger added into the mix, but with the cap floor raised and a pretty weak free agent market, it is probably better not to overpay.

For the sake of the wild I'm glad that pylon Burns is gone. I think with the cap floor going up many teams on the lower end of it don't have much choice but to over pay some guys. Look at the panthers for example, lots of free agent signings. Most of it seems to be trying to get above the floor. Now I'm not saying it's wade redden contract bad, but clearly some teams are over paying. I do think that resigning Harding is a good move for them, as well as setoguchi. But still that leaves them with only one real scoring line. They still have a lot to do to shore up the second and third lines, especially if the hope to get back to the playoffs.
In Red Wings news, Ian White signed for two years. A decent signing, but I'm not sure that it does enough to bolster the blueline. But time will tell and I think Ken holland has done well enough over the years that I'll be patient enough to see if works. I would still like to see another forward added to the mix. Preferably a decent two way winger. I'm not looking for a 40 goal scorer, just a guy who can get around 20 goals. Less than that is okay as long as he is good in his own end of the ice.

Projected lines:

Setoguchi / Koivu / Bouchard
Latendresse / Brodziak / Havlat
Powe / Cullen / Clutterbuck
Nystrom / some AHLer / Staubitz

With Bouchard fully recovered from his concussion and Latendresse (a 30-goal scorer) back with 2009 linemates Brodz and Havlat) the first two lines are better than what we've had lately.

GM Fletcher has been adamant that the young guys will get a chance to play, so I don't see any big-name forwards being signed. We're dug in for a couple years here, waiting for Granlund, Larssen, and Coyle.

Looks like the wild traded havlat for heatly. Maybe they can get two decent scoring lines together.

confirmed this morning. doesn't really change a whole lot, IMO. The bigger question on the second line is still the conditioning and health of Latendresse.

The NFL and NBA both have lockouts going on now.....getting a Bruins ticket will be next to impossible if they don't get their shit together (hell it's going to be hard enough after winning the cup, no more getting home opener tickets the day before). Though it would be ironic if the thing that made hockey a major sport again was a lockout.

Kaberle is gone and I wont miss him Joe Corvo will at least be able to match his play in Boston. I hope we keep Ryder though, he might not be the best in the regular season but he always comes through during the playoffs.

Edit: I'm out of it for a little bit recovering from surgery and the Bruins got rid of Ryder WTF guys! I know he doesn't help you get into the playoffs but with the team going on the ice this year that shouldn't be an issue...the guy comes through when we need it!

I'm not going to miss Kaberle, as he didn't deliver as expected at all. I liked Ryder, especially after his playoff heroics. But he was a 4 mil hit, and was a non factor in the regular season. I hope you are recovering ok...

Yup starting to feel somewhat human again, thanks.

I am marking down the days on my calendar for the start of the season. I'm super excited about Larrson, our draft pick this year. We've lost too many great defensemen these past years, and it's good to see some young talent coming in.

And it doesn't hurt to have this guy....

Kaberle is never missed and you won't either.. He's not much of a notch above bum. Never been a fan of his. To bad the guy got his name on the cup though. A lot more worthy players don't. Corvo is a good pick-up.

Too bad to see Ryder go to a southern team. He could certainly bring another team a cup, but too bad for him it won't be Dallas. The guys thrives in big hockey markets and the playoffs.

Lots of movement all over the league. I really hope Winnepeg does well.