Sharks Got Great Value for Blackwood

[@shawn9366]

I respect both of your opinions, my arguement in favor of jumping Stenlund would be: protecting Macklin/showing the league you won’t tolerate is MORE important than winning right now.

[@ShengPeng]

Well, Keegan agrees with you!

[@TylrVncnt]

Absolutely got fantastic value for Blackwood. Sucks that he’s gone but the return is what was best for the team going forward. Still think Griers got MORE than full value for him, the fact that he used a 6th to acquire him in the first place is just a bonus

[@touchedbyasong]

I like the value we got even more after watching Kovalenko play - he might be a steal.

[@jonmendelson1104]

2:03:33 You're likely fairly safe regarding GM Silky doing another trade before Christmas. The roster freeze starts at 9PM PST tomorrow (Wednesday) night and goes until 9PM PST on the 26th.

[@phillipnguyen1178]

Finallyyyyyyy a new episode 😂

[@Viborita95]

I get that Kovalenko is a older prospect, but having that similar trajectory of Kaprizov(ofc im not saying that he will end up like him) but those 5+ years in the KHL and putting a PPG season stats in there im sure that he does have the upside to be a good nhler too. And This season its showing it. Im loving the pair with him and Celebrini

[@markarbanasin4]

The other thing that's nice is you need some layers in the build. We still have a lot of guys who are ~1-3 years out. So having this interim set of guys in or near prime will really help to get the team competitive say in ~2 seasons, and establish that structure to then inject the next wave into (or even just reduce some pressure that not all of those guys will or will need to hit). So Zetterlund, Kovalenko, etc are all great ads to kind of work with Eklund's generation a bit more than Celebrini's.

[@rocknroll368]

The best revenge is to score on the power play, but in 2006 the Sharks should have won the Cup. Unfortunately they ran into Raffi Torres and George LaRouque, enforcers for the Edmonton Oilers. They roughed up Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheecho. The Sharks didn't make them pay by scoring powerplay goals. The Oilers reached the finals, but lost to Carolina in Game 7.

[@tonycouture5608]

You guys have the best Sharks podcast on KZbin, so keep it up! I wonder what you think about the main knock on Lijegren in Toronto (supposed reason that Berube turned against him) which is that he won't hit or play physical. Sharks need power forwards and hard hitting defencemen to be tough to play against and competitive in today's NHL. Hitting is so important in hockey because a player on the ice after a hit falls behind the play and can't catch up to streaking attackers. The more opposition players left behind on the ice, the more room for your players to move and score. Hitting is essential but hitting penalties such as interference or boarding or roughing or elbowing are to be avoided, so what you really have to do as a team is hit every opportunity you get when other players have the puck and it is legal or no penalty. Any team that hits at every legal opportunity is going to dominate the other team which selectively or rarely hits because they are playing with other priorities. Smaller and lighter in weight players who hit more aggressively make room for themselves against lumbering giants. Both Celebrini and Kovalenko have significant hitting in their game, but I don't know about Smith or Eklund as hitters. Maybe Ryan Warsofsky can change their game early before the no-hitter habits get entrenched. Joe Thornton and Brent Burns were top hitters and Sharks need more like them again. I also wonder why Mike Grier did not wait longer to trade Blackwood for more assets, and whether he could have got more return in late January after Blackwood starred in more games and shut out more teams as he kept getting better for the Sharks and had real team chemistry.

[@ThingsWorseThanDeath]

@tonycouture5608 Great points, I agree. We need a couple more physical power forwards to fit in long term with our young high-skill talent like Celebrini, Smith, & Eklund. The days of pure enforcers in the NHL are gone, but protecting your most skilled talent with physical play is still very much a part of the game and it is needed a bit more on our current roster. That’s why I really would love if we can snag Porter Martone in this draft. He’s a 6’3” *highly* skilled power forward with the exact amount of physical presence in his game that would fit perfectly in the top 6 along side any of our top 3 guys in Celebrini, Smith, & Eklund. And oh btw, he’s a right shot RW, which are exactly the other 2 things we need more of in our young core. We have *a lot* of left shots all throughout the roster, and we’re kind of heavy on centers and LW’s. Martone is everything we need more of that would fit so perfectly in our future top 6. He has size, physicality, right shot, RW, and the skill to dance in a top 6 (maybe even top 3) role. Fantasizing about a 6’2” Musty-Celebrini-6’3” Martone top line in 3-5 years is tantalizing. Making our future 2nd line something like Eklund-Smith-and 6’4” Rantanen (or similar). 🤤mmm the future is fun to dream about. And about the Blackwood trade.. I think Mike G actually got pretty good value there. He wasn’t going to get a 1st from anyone I don’t think. And if he waits until the trade deadline, we’re risking injury or a poor stretch of play from Blackwood. I think Blackwood’s value was at its absolute highest it’s ever been, and highest it would probably ever get, with his recent play especially. *Plus* I think getting Kovalenko back along with the 2nd rd pick is going to end up looking like a sneaky really, really good steal by Grier in the future. Kovalenko has some of that physical play to his game that we need, as you mentioned. And seeing how upset the Colorado fans were that they lost Kovalenko in the trade makes me feel really good about his potential. As usual, at first glance it looks like Grier’s trades could return a little bit more than he got.. but when it plays out over the next season or 2, Grier’s trades end up making him look like a genius. I think the Blackwood trade will do the same in the next couple seasons as we see how Kovalenko progresses, and as we see how Grier utilizes that 2nd rd pick, whether he uses it to draft a player or whether he uses it to trade up for a higher pick or something similar.

[@ShengPeng]

Thanks Tony! I wouldn't say Liljegren WON'T play physical, but he's got to be more consistent with that, for sure. He's not that slight, he's strong enough to at least be an OK defender.

[@tonycouture5608]

@@ShengPeng I should say that Toronto video journalist Jeff O'Neill (aka Odog) was the source of the info about Liljegren not being hitter, he explained that was why he was traded

[@ThingsWorseThanDeath]

Boys, please don’t ever apologize for talking about Celebrini too much. He is our savior. The religions of the world don’t ever apologize or hesitate to talk about the savior Jesus ‘too much’ in each respective religion. ESPN never apologized for talking about Michael Jordan too much. Now relax, I’m not saying Celebrini is comparable to Jesus or Michael Jordan (…yet) … ….. But I am saying that this young man is so highly skilled and so well rounded a hockey player, already at 18 years old, that all the time spent talking about him is absolutely 100% well-deserved. ESPN never led off the game reviews talking about the contributions of Steve Kerr, or even Scottie Pippen. Jordan was so damn good, and was so damn fun to watch dance around the court, and was so fun to watch just destroying the competition, (even for all of us who weren’t even Bulls fans!), that the conversation *ALWAYS* started with Jordan, and was carried on for the bulk of the conversation all about Jordan, because he was just that damn good. I wasn’t a Penguins fan, but when I was watching game reviews, I definitely wanted to hear all about, and watch, all of Mario Lemieux’s and Jaromir Jagr’s play in their games. So, *ESPECIALLY* because we’re Sharks fans, we want to hear *all about* Macklin Celebrini when he puts on our black and teal colors and plays his ass off for our team we love so much, giving us this profound, new-found hope for a blinding bright future, that’s already manifesting itself in his first 21 career NHL games. Google just told me, that with 20 points in his first 21 NHL games, he’s on track to become one of the youngest point-per-game players in NHL history. (*Insane*) Don’t apologize for giving him too much air-time. You can’t give him too many flowers, it’s not possible.. he deserves all the credit and air-time you can possibly give him. And us Sharks fans are here for it! *Hallelujah* our savior has arrived! We are saved!! It’s so much fun! Lol

[@rocknroll368]

Goalies need to do a Ron Hextal or Billie Smith two handed slash across their ankles if they are run by a player.

[@benjamingardner157]

Speaking of Alex Barabanov, he's almost at a point per game in the KHL. And checking in on another Sharks alum, Jake Middleton was providing 99th percentile defensive impact before his injury (in front of great goaltending), according to Dom Luczyszyn's model.

[@rocknroll368]

Or you get a Pat Maroon type player that can punish any bullies on the other team.

[@laxg64]

Saying the refs were a dumpster fire isnt blaming them. Its saying they were awful. Sharks had opportunities to score and didnt. Refs took better ones away too. Then gave better ones to Utah. Thats what it is

[@touchedbyasong]

Btw, now we have a glut of bottom-6 player who are all liked Sturm/Kunin/Dellandria/Drundstum/Kovalenko - who do we trade to make room for Gushin and Cardwell and maybe even Bysted?

[@TylrVncnt]

Let them marinate longer probably

[@nikolaikumpulainen6722]

We keep whichever one of them can type names bro Jesus Christ :DD

[@jonmendelson1104]

1:14:55 I get that you're telling a Blackwood story, but I've heard a few comments from you guys recently talking up how good Wennberg looks. Just want to remind you to be a bit cautious about that considering what happened in Seattle with regards to his looks.

[@stevenvicijan4338]

Muy longo not Luongo

[@OhYaSure]

lol blue sky 😂