I never was high on Monahan but wanted Lindholm or Henrique.But only cuz i never dreamed getting Middlestadt was possible-as much as I hate to see Bo go. But thats why I gave Colorado,& Bufalo both As in this deal when it happened.Early returns would give both teams A+ so far. We HAD to improve from terrible to at least adequate at 2c...instead we went from terrible to good-maybe very good. Also replaced Byrum with a slight upgrade in the moment.I still think if healthy-Bo will be a star in 2-3 yrs.But we gotta go for it now-Buffalo can be patient. Obviously 29yr old Walker doesnt remotely have the upside or ceiling of 22 yr old Byrum,& he might not even be back next yr-though I think its likely theyll try to resign him,& Middlestadt is restricted anyways. But right now/today-I think Walker is a slight upgrade.More consistent,& better suited for a bottom 4 role on a contender. Then they go & drastically improve their bottom 6 depth,& size with Trenin,Duhaime,& Parise(yes he counts also). And who knows on Kovalenko-but nice to have him as a worst case injury option in the playoffs. Losing LOC hurts,& with none of these moves itd be borderline disastrous.Now its just unfortunate-with LOC we mightve been the deepest in the west-but w/o him we still now are in the conversation. Well done Mcfarland-I am still a bit concerned we didnt add a veteran #2 or even #3 goalie...so that dropped their deadline grade from A+ to A-. But overall awesome job.
Not a Mittelstadt fan. He’s better than Johanssen but I question how his game will translate to the playoffs. Sucks at face offs, skilled but no elite skills, kind of a pussy, and a so so defender. Byram lead the team in ice time in G6 and *this* is who they get for him? At what point are you thinking “oh boy I’m glad Casey’s on the ice right now,” Biz got me all excited for Sid the Kid and instead I get Mid the Skid. Buffalo has Tage, Cozens, and Krebs ahead of him on the depth chart and it seems like they prefer Oslund, Kulich and Benson a lot more on top of it. Just sorta seems odd to send the best chip for the seventh best forward on the team’s depth chart. He was good along the boards today, and he’s got goals in back to back games but all of his goals seem like gimmie goals that don’t require a high degree of skill. Hyman goals, if you will. I dunno…not a fan but I hope I’m wrong.
He’s not the most physical, which is a concern, but you can’t say he doesn’t have much skill with some of the passes he makes. He’s very patient and protects the puck well to dish it to other guys for opportunities. There’s more to hockey than just scoring goals. However, I am bit concerned he might get shut down in the playoffs with his lack of grit
@@Co_avsnation it’s not that I think he doesn’t have much skill it’s that I don’t think there’s any elite skill, B+ skills not in the A range. Unless you’re a physical player I don’t think that translates well to playoff teams that will just clog the NZ. Someone like Marner or Clayton Keller have high end skills that allow them to be successful in these environments despite the lack of physicality, Casey doesn’t have that. He’s a distributor on a line without a lot of dangerous finishers. Just feels very square leg/round hole in terms of it. If he had elite top end speed that’s something that makes guys hard to play in the playoffs, he doesn’t have that either. He’s just merely a good player, but the type that’ll get marked in the playoffs. I can see the Stars or Jets marking him in the NZ, forcing him the puck and waiting for the turnover. His defensive responsibility isn’t very good and that’ll create a lot of rush chances the other way. We’ll see, but as of now I’m still pretty out on him despite a couple of decent games.
@@HurricaneTBag ya I’d agree. They definitely took a risk having never seen him play in the post season. I’d kind of like to see Rantanen and Nichushkin play with him in the playoffs. They’ll finish the chances he gives them and MacKinnon can get it done with Jo and Lehky
@@Co_avsnation yeah it’s a catch 22, imo. Do you want to no longer have the best punch in the league or do you want to be deeper? Probably depends on the match up. If anything, I think the solution is for him to stop being a pussy and shoot more. Sammy had a rough Vegas series and played well in 22 until he got hurt. Guys can get better if they try but Casey is from Minnesota and thus likely grew up a Mild fan, morally defective coward.
