i like the idea of getting the kids some ice, but I'd be surprised if they brought Raty over from Finland and burned a year of his ELC on a handful of games at the end of a lost year. I'd rather bring him over for training camp in September and let him try and win a roster spot right out of the gate.

The only other thing I could see complicating this is that Bridgeport is near enough to playoff contention that you might want to get some of those younger guys that playoff experience? Doesn't help that the AHL season lines up with the end of the NHL season and you'd basically be pulling BPT's best players during that stretch run.

as long as räty plays less than 10 games, he'll still have three years on his ELC. we only have like eight left so that's not a problem. he's already in the states, he was at the mets game a few days ago, so i'd imagine he at the very least will play a few games in bridgeport

didn't know he was already stateside! get him IN THERE then!

also thanks for the heads-up on that ELC - i think i got so used to seeing that 9 game tryout in October that I forgot it could technically happen at any time during the season, as long as it's less than 9.

yeah, it's weird this time of year because contracts don't slide if you're over 20, so a lot of the college guys who are debuting now are burning the first year just by signing, while the 9 game tryouts are usually at the very beginning and mostly CHL guys, but since räty's 19 he can play up to 9 games and still have it slide

Yeah, I love Raty but I would absolutely not start him over here in the NHL. Send him to Bridgeport to let him adjust to the smaller ice surface. NHL is way too fast to try and get a 19 year old kid to adjust right off the bat. Seems like a good way to get his head knocked off.

Didn’t know Bridgeport was close to playoff contention, I wouldn’t be opposed to giving Raty, Salo and Holmstrom some playoff experience but that’s only if Bridgeport can make the playoffs. If things go south I’d rather them get called up. Players like Bellows and Wahlstrom are most likely staying in the nhl however, so I don’t see any reason to scratch them but we all know too well that Barry will.

That seems far, I don’t think he will need as long as other prospects though because he already played (very well) in a mens league in Finland. He will definitely need some adjusting though but I think he will be ready to compete for a roster spot by next year

100%. He's got absolutely got a bright future. I'm pretty high on Brad Lambert too. A little piece of me thinks that he's going to fall right into the Isles back pocket, and it'll be back to back steals for you guys.

I want Brad Lambert, but I just hope Trotz isn’t coaching the isles by the time he’s NHL ready

If we draft Lambert and all of our prospects develop we could have the Finnish national team lol. Raty, Lambert, Salo, and Holmstrom

As much success Trotz has had, I have to agree. We saw the game shift to a more defensive game during the 2000s to the late 2010s era where defense prospered which is why Trotz had so much success. Now the game is becoming a lot more offensively focused with players like Matthew’s, McDavid etc adapting overtime and teams like FLA become successful with an offensive structure. I really do think that Trotz will continue to struggle if he doesn’t adapt and balance his style more. Rob Talks Hockey has a great video in this recent resurgence of an offensive style game, and if you look at the stats, the sharp increase in offense from certain players/teams are working

Unfortunately I'd imagine that as long as you have Lou at the helm, you're going to have Trotz, or a clone of Trotz behind the bench.

Going by Lou’s history he’s not afraid to fire a coach, I’m pretty sure he fired a coach a few weeks before the playoffs one time. Whatever coach Lou hires will obviously make playing solid defense a priority, but it will be hard to find a coach who hates young skilled forwards more than Barry Trotz. Lou’s old devils teams put young players in a position to succeed.

Good points, I think the main problem with Trotz is he plays guys he respects the most even if younger players are outplaying the vets. That’s a bigger issue than the system IMO

Yeah, he absolutely has a reputation for firing coaches, my thought is that they've pretty much all had extremely structured systems that suck the life out of their offence by being extremely defensive.

Not that that's a bad thing *if* you make the playoffs, but it makes it tough to grind through 82 games.

Agreed, very old school thinking unfortunately. It's kinda why I love guys like Bruce Boudreau...the best players play.

Trotz system is obviously defense 1st, but a big part of his system is the forwards generating high danger scoring chances. So what does Trotz do, he gives Chara and Josh Bailey top line minutes when they are two of the biggest offensive blackholes in the NHL.

Completely agree, stinks both Lou and Trotz might be the stubbornness people in the league

Yeah, it's weird to me. In fairness, I think you guys are right back in the playoff race next year, but questionable coaching decisions drive me bananas.

I'd take Trotz over what we've got in Anaheim right now, but that's not saying much

I actually don’t think they will be unless Sorokin has a season like Shesterkin this year. The isles wasted elite seasons from players in their prime , I don’t see Brock Nelson scoring at a 40 G pace and I just think Lou/Trotz are going to double down and go down with the ship. It’s fairly easy to make the isles contenders but that would require Lou/Trotz to change their philosophy, get rid of some declining vets and get younger.

Hopefully more younger offensive players take their spots. I understand why he’s hesitant to play Wahlstrom because of his defensive mistakes and his play away from the puck, but Bellows should probably have a more prominent role in the lineup. I’d even rather Wahlstrom make mistakes now and learn from them in order to get better, as long as he keeps shooting lmao. I believe the Isles are currently 32nd for even strength shots, we need to be generating more chances

At least you guys have a future lmao

Hopefully this forces ownership to intervene and make a move management wise

Wahlstrom is better defensively than half of the isles forwards and he rarely turns the puck over relative to the rest of the team. Trotz has killed his confidence by making him afraid to take risks in fear of getting benched.

Bellows isn’t very good, he’s one of those players that isn’t good enough for a top 6 role but his skillset doesn’t fit in a bottom 6 role. Wahlstrom is miles better than him.