17to85

If you can call 18 goals in an 82 game season a GOAL SCORER!!! But Evander has a pile of excuses - self-inflicted injuries, infections, bad coach, new bad coach, linemates with stubby hands, linemates with no hands. Trouble is - at this point he's untradeable as a 30 goal scorer - cuz he's NOT a 30 goal scorer. He's a 15 to 20 goal scorer and for 6 million a year, thats not only a money blow - its a formula for golf in April. He had 19 goals in 63 games..... how is that an 18 goal scorer in an 82 game season? This past year he had injuries and other struggles and still almost hit 20 goals. He had 17 goals in 48 games last season in the lockout, that's a 30 goal pace basically. He had 30 goals in 74 games the season before. You might have the axe to grind but don't sit there and tell me the kid isn't a goal scorer. He was one of the highest rated players in his draft year for good reason.

You know what it is in my mind? There's a lot of money in this city and a lot of people making more money than they come from (not that they're rich but you can be dumb as a stump and make a very good living in the oil field) and with a jump up in station a lot of people like to try and pretend they're not trailer trash and part of that is latching on to the biggest and best everything which includes the NFL over the CFL. It's hard to explain but if you've spent any time in Calgary you can see where a lot of the newer citizens of the city display that kind of attitude.

Kane IS a goalscorer... god damn Nate you say some stupid **** sometimes.

well point per game is simply your pace. if you want to score 80 points in a season you basically need to average a point every game. Yeah it works out that you might miss some nights and have multi point games other nights but the key is the guys who score 80 points or better generally don't have many stretches where they are held off the board. For example one of last seasons 80 point guys (and I use this example because I saw it recently) Taylor Hall, he never went more than 2 games in a row without scoring a point. That's the kind of consistency it takes to score 80 points in the NHL and Wheeler just isn't that guy. I wouldn't say he's improved each year in Winnipeg either, at least not from a point perspective. He had 69 this year, his pace was 70 in the lockout year, and he had 64 the year before that. That's pretty consistent production when you break it down. So what is going to make him take that next big jump to an 80 point player at 27 years old?

to get 80 points you need to be healthy an entire year and score every game, one slump and that's all shot to hell. Guys who cracked 80 points this past season include Crosby, Getzlaf, Giroux, Seguin, Perry, Kessel, Hall. Wheeler is not in that company when it comes to offence. Yes he is. No he isn't Yes he is. Not Crosby but Wheeler is in the category of guys that can score a point per game. Without looking up the stat (Im too lazy), Wheeler was scoring at that pace for X amount of the season. He had a slow start. Had he not had a slow start, he scores 80 *this* season. Now ofcourse, if I learn to skate, get into shape and practice my shot then I guess Im an NHL calibre player. Everything is subjective. But Wheeler has the skill and talent to score 80 points. That is exactly the point, the number of guys who can play an entire season without a slow part is very small and Wheeler isn't one of them. Lots of guys can play at a PPG pace except for those couple weeks they didn't. The ability to play a full season at a PPG is rare and Wheeler doesn't have it.

to get 80 points you need to be healthy an entire year and score every game, one slump and that's all shot to hell. Guys who cracked 80 points this past season include Crosby, Getzlaf, Giroux, Seguin, Perry, Kessel, Hall. Wheeler is not in that company when it comes to offence. Yes he is. No he isn't

There is no question about it in my mind. Lots of anecdotal evidence for people not giving a **** about the CFL. I play in a rec flag football league, you figure you'll get lots of football fans there right? They all care about the NFL or the Riders if they happen to be from the gap but very few people seem to give a thought to the stampeders. It's really sad.

Rask is part of why the Bruins are such a great team without question. I personally think he's in the top teir of goaltenders.

But I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that the Bruins could have any goaltender and still be fine. Rask is a hell of a goaltender and I think he can carry a team. The Bruins aren't supermen, teams can and do outplay them, but Rask can stand tall and bail them out as well.

And in order to do that, we need to keep January around for the time being, because the rest of our O-line sucks absolute dogshit. Which coincidently is the only reason people consider January an irreplaceable player. He's the best of a poor lot but that doesn't mean he's a top teir guy. He's serviceable not much more.

to get 80 points you need to be healthy an entire year and score every game, one slump and that's all shot to hell. Guys who cracked 80 points this past season include Crosby, Getzlaf, Giroux, Seguin, Perry, Kessel, Hall. Wheeler is not in that company when it comes to offence.

*maybe* when HHH takes over we might trend towards more adult programming but I doubt it. WWE is such a huge business now, being public, that they are unlikely to ever go back to the days where they openly courted controversy. And to be honest, they dont have to. As much as I like some blood and nudity with my wrestling, good story-telling is good story-telling whether its Rated G or Rated R. Seems to me that most of the adult audience shifted towards UFC and the like, the WWE has always held a popular place with kids though and I think that is rightly where they are focussing now. Being controversial and edgy worked for a time but I think times have changed and they won't be able to recapture that.

Well Jones arguably played better than January did last year.. yeah small sample sizes but January is the definition of a journeyman so realistically you gotta expect that a GM can go down to the pound and find someone as good. What January brings is experience and leadership, but replacing his actual skills, yeah that's pretty doable.

Go look at Wheelers career, he had 69 points last year, he had a pace for 70 in the lock out year, he had 64 before that, the prior years he looked to be about a 40-45 point player. To me that says he's in his prime now. The jump was from 45 points to 60-70 points and he's not likely to take another jump. 60-70 point player with size is nothing to scoff at but not many players are able to maintain the point a game pace over a whole season that's what seperates the super stars from the good players.

The sad part is they're losing their culture anyway.

sacrifices have to be pretty or they don't work

If you're going to use an american kicker they better be able to do both jobs.

nah, make it something truly painful: They have to sit and listen to Iso and Nate talk about how everything WBB was great in 1965, Osborne Stadium was better than anything currently in the league, and that they wore onions on their belt... Well, Noeller. At least I've seen the Bombers win a Grey Cup unlike you. I never went to Osborne Stadium as that was before my time. By the pictures I've seen, it looked like an interesting place, though. I was born in 1980...I've seen 3, ftr...still have the 1990 penant on my wall. I want a new one... We've been good fans, don't we deserve a new one?

The system as it is simply promotes a cycle of poverty and keeps natives on reserves reliant on the federal government to support them. The system is horribly broken. You can't talk about changing it because the natives aren't really interested in doing that because they are afraid they will get less than they are already guaranteed in their current treaties. The system was put in place when it was possible for people to live off the land but that doesn't happen anymore so it's an outdated system that can't easily be changed.

league pays for playoff bonuses not teams. They are over the cap because they spent too much on player salaries plain and simple.

I don't think Scheifele has that kind of upside either. 80 points is pretty rare these days. Schiefele to me is the guy who'll again get you 60-70 points and play a solid all over game. That's very valuable in todays game, the 80+ point guys are the real special offensive players for the most part.

Career high of 69 points and you think he's going to hit 80 next year? There were only 7 players that hit 80 this season, couple more were 79... You are really over rating Blake Wheeler. Based on his career I'd say expecting mid 60s is a much more realistic expectation because he isn't one of the top 10 scorers in the league. Not like he's some rookie just breaking out, he's been around the block for a while and it's not often guys take a big step forward like you are predicting when they're in their late 20s.

How many teams succeed without a super star or two these days? You got through all the playoff teams and the only one that I can come up with that doesn't have at least one bonafide star player in their core is Columbus, and who knows maybe Johansen develops into one long term. The real high end core for the Jets should be thought of as Kane, Scheifele and Trouba plus whichever new prospect they get, then the core as mentioned before are just supporting players which they are much more suited too. Of course this requires those young players to live up to their potential which is probably still a couple years from happening.

Lots of teams would like those players, but in terms of a core not many of them have a real high potential. That's the core of a team that finishes middle of the pack at best.

That's not that good of a core to start with.