He’s a good player so I don’t get it. His value would be higher if not for Spurgeon and Brodin getting the PP time over him.

I think despite his age Raty is in the same boat Rossi was last year. I don’t expect him to be called up.

Last time a trade involving a winger led to a Stanley cup was when Pitt got Kessel and that was a very different trade scenario than this one.

Yeah, I think most fans are. But one thing to consider is most of these prospects end up being disappointments. The one thing you guys have going for ya though is Lou really doesn’t like trading his guys. So I could see if Lou does want Fiala he does so with more picks than prospects.

I agree to a point. Just not with Raty.

Worst case Raty should be a versatile middle six piece for this team.

I disagree there. He got plenty of PP time. He slide to PP2 after his pec injury. His shot hasn’t been the same since.

I thought he got less my bad. Also with Raty it’s worth mentioning how much Oli loved his game.

When Oli Joikinen and Barry Trotz agree a player has skill I can’t ignore it. Cause I would assume they would never agree on anything lol.

-Hickey was a solid LD2/3 getting $2.5M a year. If he doesn't get hurt and then subsequently have the issues with his brother's sickness and eventual passing, he still probably chugging along as a slightly overpaid LD3 through this year. I can't fault Lou for that deal.

-Lee was named captain the year after Tavares left - and he was a pending UFA when that happened. Do you think Lou was going to let his team's captain walk in free agency 2 summers in a row? Plus, Anders had *averaged* 34 goals/season for the three years before this deal. Is 7X$7M a little hefty? Maybe, but that probably comes from Lou wanting to keep his captain in house long-term.

-Eberle was not going to be an easy piece to replace if he left (see: this season) and Lou actually got him at a lower cap hit than the contract he was acquired on ($5.5M AAV vs. $6M).

-Okay, you got me on Leo. He was obviously a "Lou Guy" and I'm sure the hope was that he'd be the 30-35ish point guy with strong defense that he was in Toronto - something you'd be fine paying $3M AAV for. He obviously didn't turn out that way offensively, and he definitely wasn't a first line winger, but hey - you can't win them all. In a world where the cap was going up $2-4M every year, one guy making $3M and not pulling his weight wasn't ideal but would be easy to flip out or hide if need be. But we all know what happened next.

Hickey and Leo were huge mistakes cause of the fact they weren’t needed. Especially Hickey given the fact they had Pelech, Leddy, Toews and even Aho.

It’s a lot of mistakes tho which is the issue.

Lou panicked when Panarin said no. He almost let Brock hit UFA status. Look at the buy low candidates from 2018 and 2019 if you disagree with me. You have to be able to find cheap wings to be a successful org. You honestly could’ve acquired better pieces on waivers than Lou did in free agency and I’m only half joking lol.

Look at the Martin deal too. He wanted to justify winning his way and he ****ed up their cap situation while trying to do it. This isn’t an attack on Lee, Eberle, Martin or even Hickey. Just stating the simple fact this organization can’t make the necessary moves to compete for a title like Colorado, TBL or even Florida did over the years when acquiring cheap forwards.

I’m not debating Raty has skill or not. I’m just saying he’s a prospect and nothing is guaranteed. Until they do it at the NHL level, it’s just someone’s opinion. Jost was someone’s Raty, that didn’t workout. Yakupov was a sure fire top 6 scoring winger. I’ve heard it before many times, doesn’t always work as often as we think. Benoit Pouliot for the Wild was a big bust we thought was sure fire top 6 forward.

I get what your saying, but your comparing guys who aren’t similar to Raty. Success in Ligga at a young age is usually a major positive for a player.

Yakupov is Russian and the other two are Canadian guys who played in the CHL. Raty put up fantastic numbers in Ligga so I don’t c the comparison here.

I don’t think so. If he’s in the United States, I see him starting in the AHL and then getting called up halfway through the year. Probably would have been the case with Rossi this year if his contract wasn’t able to slide.

I guess we’ll see.

If you can find similar examples of guys Raty’s age who produced in Ligga but didn’t make a dent in the NHL I’d appreciate it. Position, size and skating would have to be somewhat similar for the comparison to work tho.

Merely showing not all prospects are guarantees. Even with Ligga success.

Really doesn’t make sense to me why Raty is viewed so skeptically despite his production overseas. Doesn’t add up in my opinion.

Nah, I’m good. That’s HW I don’t have time for. I’ll believe Raty is a sure fire prospect when he makes a dent in the NHL. Until then, he’s still a lottery ticket.

I agree but the situations have to be similar or the comparison isn’t that valid. It’s like comparing Raty to MDC and Ho-Sang. Yeah he could theoretically bust like they did but I need a reason why you think that. It can’t just be “sometimes prospects don’t work out.”

I get what your saying, but I’m just saying you have to compare him to guys coming from similar situations. I only have the time to be on here cause I’m in between certain college/internship work I have lol.