Welp I hope they can afford to keep him them. And honestly, i'm sure the vancouvers front office is looking back on some of those miller packages and are kicking themselves

I doubt it, no one of them were particularly great, we have the cap space to keep Bo it's just about selling high a player hence him being on the block, don't think there is a huge rush to trade him

I agree.
I don’t think it happens, but I think Horvat would be a great fit in MTL. In addition to the the points you’ve made, I think his North/South style and ability in the faceoff circle would compliment Suzuki, and would allow Mtl to protect Dach w/ softer o-zone starts.

Trading for horvat would sink the isles in a similar way Milbury did. Barzal is a natural center ,he’s not moving to wing to accommodate a middle 6 center having a great contract year

I agree he’s a natural center, and I tend to think most of issues at the face off dot and in his own zone stem from bad development by Trotz. That being said Barzal has been lighting the lamp a lot recently, and he has played with Cizikas while doing it.

He loses faceoffs and still dominates possession so who cares. He’s just not good at them , don’t think it has to do with Trotz.

Barzals goal scoring is simply regression to the mean, he was never going to shoot 3% all year when his career average is closer to 10%

Maybe ur right, but it took Tavares a while to figure it out. His face offs were trending in the right direction for a while, even if he was only taking them on one side last year.

I agree with you about his shooting percentage regressing to the mean. That being said this whole Cizikas with Barzal experiment seems like it actually works, and it could end up justifying that insanely long contract they gave him.

i also don't think this is a package that the Canucks jump at, but using the trade that everyone uses to dunk on Kyle Dubas with as a comp is a bit of a stretch. especially when you consider that Foligno cost a 1st/4th/4th when he was double-retained down to $1.375M, and there's no retention going out in this one.

I need more than 2 games of cizikas playing well to determine if it’s a good fit. What it also says is cizikas can’t play center anymore because he’s on the decline. There are many players that switch to wing from center later in their careers because they can’t handle the responsibility anymore

Maybe it’s also easier because of the fact his line mates aren’t as old as he is? I feel like there r a lot of vets who can still be effective if their linemates r younger. You need some balance between youth and experience obviously.

I sh*t on matt Martin the entire offseason but he has been the most effective player on that 4th line. Cizikas got paid 2.5 mill over 6 years to drive that line at the center position and he has been one of the worst 4th liners in the NHL. Even with Fasching on that line it was bad.