Comments for Wheeling and Dealing: Eastern Conference Part One at http://hockey.dobbersports.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://hockey.dobbersports.com Sat, 25 May 2013 23:38:25 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/russ-miller/4760-wheeling-and-dealing-eastern-conference-part-one#comment-21769 JW, check in with me in 12 months. ;) Longshot? [b]Yes[/b], but laughable? No sir. Khudobin might not be as highly touted as Rask, but he is on the same talent level. It all depends on whether not he can seize the opportunity. Think Halak vs. Price a few years ago. The major thing in Khudobin's favor right now though is that they didn't sign Rask to a contract longer than one year at $3.5M. The opportunity is there. - duballstar014 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:08:51 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/russ-miller/4760-wheeling-and-dealing-eastern-conference-part-one#comment-21731 Like the Porter signing by Buffalo. He should provide some good depth, especially on the PK. Mancari's back? He did nothing the first time, so nothing more should be expected this time around. Corvo back to Carolina? Hurts the value of McBain, Faulk, and Murphy. Stupid signing in my opinion. Take the reigns off McBain & Faulk already. Like the Desjardins signing by Montreal. He would be an improvement over Budaj if he can steal the backup role. Nice summary overall! - JW Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:54:17 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/russ-miller/4760-wheeling-and-dealing-eastern-conference-part-one#comment-21730 Khudobin taking over for Rask? That's laughable. Now I'll read the rest. - JW Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:45:17 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/russ-miller/4760-wheeling-and-dealing-eastern-conference-part-one#comment-21723 The Ott piece has been floating around since the trade. You can google "Steve Ott prefers wing" and you'll see a bunch. Here's a link to one and while the actual quote from Ott doesnt say he actually prefers wing, i am led to believe there was more in the interview that alluded to this. http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabres-nhl/article933569.ece Skinner will obviously see more points on the Staal line than if not on the Staal line. My point was that he is in a better position to improve this years point totals simply because the opposing defensemen will have more talent to worry about covering, hence more scoring opportunities for Skinner. I touched on Nielsen in a few of my articles this last year and without going into a super detailed answer (remember this is a summary =) ), I'll just say that the Isles' 2nd line didn't have any chemistry last year and that was because of Nielsen, who is a great two-way player, but doesn't have enough offensive firepower to provide the kind of secondary scoring they need. Okposo and Grabner clicked quite well but Okposo and Nielsen specifically was a brutal combination. They need someone else in that role and need to shift Nielsen to L3. - duballstar014 Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:44:48 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/russ-miller/4760-wheeling-and-dealing-eastern-conference-part-one#comment-21722 This is a very, very good summary. A few notes: *This is the first time I've heard about Ott's preference for the wing. Can you source that? Regardless, if you look at Buffalo's centers, they have nobody that is good on the dot. Their top FOW man last year was Roy with 672 FOW @ 50.6%. Only one other player was above 200 FOW (Hodgson) and he only won them @ 46.3%. I think Ott will pull either line 1 or line 2 center duty. Buffalo's worst line (by +/-) last year was Vanek-Roy-Pom at -7,-7,-6. (Hodgson was -7 as well). BUF needs a dependable, strong two-way center to let their wingers dig. I think Ruff will use Ott at center and a top two line spot at that. Let's not forget that Glen Gulu tried to start last season with Benn centering line 2 with Ott at wing. By end of season, Ott had more FOW than either Ribeiro or Benn. He's a beast on the dot, that Ott. Why not, put Ott on the dot? I can spot Ott there a lot. [i]-Doctor Seuss[/i] *I wouldn't go to say that Skinner should see a boost regardless of which line he plays on. If he doesn't play on line 1, I think his point total will suffer badly. *Isn't Nielsen NYI's C2? They have enough faith in him to put him out on their PP1, which included four Fs. I think he'll still be PP1, only NYI will go with Streit-Lubo and Tavares-Moulson-Nielsen. But I don't see the Isles wasting Nielsen on line 3. Overall, very, very good - sorry I rambled on three little notes. - Pengwin7 Mon, 09 Jul 2012 06:54:55 +0100