TLN Monday Mailbag: December 21st

This intro paragraph is for sale.

No, but seriously, I’ve got nothing this week. I don’t most other weeks earlier, but this is dire. Let’s just jump straight into your questions!

*cough*

Sorry. But seriously, read on.

Out of players that are curerently on the roster, Morgan Rielly is easily the most untouchable. Despite playing on a trash heap of a team, he’s improved offensively, defensively, has continued to thrive even as he’s been used in tougher minutes, and is still just 21 years old. He’s already starting to approach the upper tier of NHL defencemen and will be a cornerstone of this roster for years to come. It would take a stupidly gigantic return to move on from that.

Not even close. Luke Schenn was a fun story in his rookie year because he was “NHL ready” and able to make the team in his first camp, but is a great example of why you don’t use a top draft pick on a player who dominates junior on a physical level. Once he took on men, he looked dependable, which is awesome when you’re 18-19, but Schenn is 26 now and is still almost the exact same player he was in his draft year. Rielly’s game is more relevant to the entire length of the ice, and at 21, he’s significantly more valuable to his team than Schenn at 26.

If anything, the only thing that makes him the next Luke Schenn is that he has a group of people crossing their fingers that he’ll be the next Captain.

One would imagine that the team will at least explore the possibility of moving both of them. If there’s a sense of priority and they only decide to move one at first, I imagine it’ll come down to what James Reimer requests for his next contract; if it seems out of line, they’ll move him first, if not, they’ll look towards Bernier. The latter would likely be moved for any offer that doesn’t see them take a player with more term or equal term and higher salary, while they’d likely hope for a decent draft pick out of Reimer.

There doesn’t really seem to be much of a barrier to entry as far as becoming a GM; really, a lot of former players get in without much formal experience, based off of their general understanding of the game and their connections in the game. For this reason, I nominate Joffrey Lupul; everyone seems to like him and the trades he’s been in through the years have give him connections in many markets, though 70% of those connections happen to be Chris Pronger.

As for the coach, positionally sound, systems-strict defencemen tend to transition into being the best coaches, so I’m going to go with Frank Corrado. He’s probably learned a lot from the coaching staff during his stretch of exile.

Yes, because next week will be “Looking Back: The Top 20 Mailbags of 2015 (You Have To Read #7!)”.

Nah, we still have another coming next Monday. Arm yourself with more questions!

You can bet on the NHL at Sports Interaction by following these 3 easy steps: