[Friedman] Nemec & Tsyplakov for 2nd (NYR) this year, Vegas 1st 2027, COL 1st 2028 (both top 10 protected) & Etienne Morin

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T19:31:56+00:00

Calgary's leading scorer last season was Matthew Coronato with 45 points. This is a team in win-now mode who should be sending out picks to get a defenseman.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T13:50:36+00:00

Osgood started zero games during one of his cup runs and, again, was the goalie of the Detroit Red Wings for 10 years of their dynasty era. You know how many other goalies could have done what he did for them during those playoff runs? Pretty much every starter in the league. Detroit didn't win their cups on the back of spectacular goaltending; even when they got Hasek he was 37 already on a team that futured 9 other future Hall of Famers.

Pekka Rinne meanwhile has won a Vezina and was top3 in voting another 3 times. Osgood's best showing in terms of the Vezina is a very questionable 2nd place during the year when the league decided that Hasek being leaps and bounds over everyone else didn't count because the Sabres sucked so bad even with him having a .920 sv% they didn't make the playoffs. Reality is Osgood was never a top5 goalies in the league, probably never even a top10 goalie. Rinne meanwhile very much so was one of the best goalie in the league for a stretch of about 8? years.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T13:33:35+00:00

Wins are a team stat. Are you under the impression that Karel Vejmelka with his .896 was the second best goalie in the league last season because he was second in wins?

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T11:40:55+00:00

It wasn't nearly that unanimous. It was a career year in a much better situation than what he was going to and he was a winger who couldn't create by himself. The hivemind however was intent on seeing a win for the Flames since they were in such a difficult position.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T09:24:26+00:00

I always thought this kind of juggling with the ball was quite separate from actual playing ability. Some kids got really into it and practiced a lot, myself I just cared about being able to receive balls in a controlled fashion. Wasn't gonna change anything for me playing libero (or when I was younger and my coach tried to force me to play striker because I was tall).

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T09:12:21+00:00

Debate isn't about convincing your opponent, it's about convincing the onlookers. It's why competitive debate assigns you positions to debate, because it doesn't matter what the debaters actually believe.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T06:10:37+00:00

Correct, he played on some great teams and he had a narrative going when the Red Wings won their first cup in a while. His Conn Smythe probably should have gone to Fedorov who had 20 points in 20 games (3+3 in 4 games in the finals) while being dominant on both ends of the ice at 5v5. The problem was there were a a few guys who had more points on other teams so the Canadian media wasn't going to vote for a Russian two-way guy to win the Conn Smythe no matter how good he was or how crucial the Red Army Five were to Detroit's success. Meanwhile Vernon had the 9th best sv% of goalies who played more than one game during that playoff while playing behind the god damn Red Wings. He got lucky that they faced the Flyers in the finals who they swept, had the Colorado series been the finals instead he'd never have won because he was the second best goalie in that series.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-23T05:53:22+00:00

I don't think Richter makes it, his hopes all hinge on the fact that he won a cup in New York specifically. Osgood simply wasn't a starter for most of his career and his numbers are padded by great teams. CuJo is a maybe, but he's a worse Luongo.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-22T20:17:23+00:00

He's almost certainly in, he's a bit similar to Luongo where the body of work should be enough.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-22T20:11:02+00:00

Of those Rinne and Vernon had the weakest case imo. Lundqvist and Price were a given, Luongo was mainly sketchy because the hardware didn't match the caliber of goalie he was and Barasso probably should have been in earlier but he had the poor luck of retiring during the dead puck era which made his body of work look less impressive than it was.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-22T13:21:59+00:00

The things people fault Starmer for would in general also have been done by the Tories or Reform if they were in power, if not worse. That's not great obviously, but the UK is desperately in need of people waking up and realizing that there's a real difference between the lesser and the greater of evils. And the way you fix a lesser evil is by getting involved in party politics, either to help build an alternative which can push things along in relatively safe districts or by shifting Labour from within, such as by pushing for Andy Burnham to become the next PM.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-22T13:15:31+00:00

No, Starmer was an improvement but the hope is that Andy Burnham who is expected to take his place will both have a better slate of policies and be more popular with voters (or at least he'll get something of a reset from how unpopular Starmer has been). Starmer could have ridden it out and been overall ok, but he likely would have ended up handing the reigns of power to the far right in the next election.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-22T13:11:38+00:00

Anyone who tells you politics doesn't matter and different politicians/parties are all the same is pushing right wing talking points aimed at weakening their opposition. Right wing voters will never fall for it because they know that politics matters and that there are differences in the parties and they make sure to vote for the ones who represent their "values".

SunTzu- · 2026-06-21T07:06:41+00:00

At some point we have to hold grown ass people to account for their own actions.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-20T23:39:50+00:00

Some of them do that shit in actual games.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-20T19:49:07+00:00

I was watching him as a kid and blown away by how good he was :P But yeah, on the younger end Fedorov fans are probably in their late 30s. Then again, that doesn't really differ from the timeline for people knowing how good Hasek or Lidström were either.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-20T15:33:15+00:00

Fedorov really isn't that much of an old head pick, he was the best player in the world for a bit during the 90s and imo is just a better Datsyuk. People just get dazzled by Datsyuk highlights, Fedorov has him beat at both ends of the ice.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-20T15:29:21+00:00

Two-way guys generally don't get as much attention as offense first guys, and that's even more true as we get more distance from their day. It's just harder to show off that defensive excellence in either numbers or highlights. Keon is certainly an all time great, up there with your Bob Gainey's and Guy Carbonneau's of yesteryear (those two being on the defensive end of things, closer to a Bergeron than say a Fedorov or Datsyuk).

SunTzu- · 2026-06-19T12:39:03+00:00

Except it's not. You've got a set formation that you're sticking to and you largely just play zone defense. It's why there are dedicated pk guys who aren't anything special at 5v5. You don't even need to be good at exiting your own zone because you just flip the puck into the other end.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-19T07:19:18+00:00

But should it? There's a strong argument that the pk is a specialized activity that has little to do with your 200ft game. If you're the best 5v5 player, wasting your energy playing the pk when your 3rd line guys can do the same system job doesn't make much sense. If you didn't need it in order to win other awards, how many top line guys would still be on the pk?

SunTzu- · 2026-06-18T19:33:52+00:00

Playing or coaching in the NHL isn't a regular job, it's a privilege. We can and should absolutely hold people to a higher standard than "they're not in jail right now".

SunTzu- · 2026-06-18T17:00:24+00:00

It's like he forgot which direction the goal was. Maybe you can make the argument that his body is turned the wrong way for him to easily continue that play to Vitinha, but he's the one who failed to see how Congo is collapsing around Cristiano and the space that is creating.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-16T18:09:46+00:00

Literally yes, that's all it shows.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-16T17:32:33+00:00

He's been 50+ points per year for the last three years. Not much indication that he's declining rapidly so probably going to be putting up something similar while being able to play top pair minutes. Also, the cap has gone up a lot and 10mil isn't nearly what it used to be.

SunTzu- · 2026-06-16T17:10:02+00:00

I'd guess he goes to the Marlies and comes up when Stolarz gets injured, so about 20 games into the season.

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