Community Picks: Minnesota Wild 0% vs Toronto Maple Leafs 0%

The back-and-forth dynamic of Minnesota's season is again taking a positive swing, and competition on a two-game trip against the worst teams in the Eastern Conference could allow it to grow more significant. The Wild visit Toronto on Thursday night, and the Maple Leafs are beginning a four-game homestand with a three-game losing streak weighing them down. Minnesota (29-25-10), which finishes the trip in Buffalo on Saturday, defeated Colorado 6-3 Tuesday to string together consecutive wins after a three-game skid. Continue to Article

March 03, 2016 12:05:am EST

(Ed. Note: The column formerly known as the Puck Daddy Power Rankings. Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.) 13. Jim Nill Dude made one trade all day, and it was giving up a roster player, a decent prospect, and a second- or perhaps first-round pick for Kris Russell? Good lord. Russell is terrible. Maybe you think Dallas has a critical lack of defensemen who are willing to block shots, which is the only thing Russell is good at. But he's only good at it because he gets a lot of practice because he can't clear his own zone. He was the worst defenseman on the Calgary Flames. And they employ Deryk Engelland. I don't know how you justify giving up a package of anything for a player like that. The good news for Nill is that there's basically no chance of that conditional pick becoming a first-rounder anyway. 12. Jim Benning How on earth are you the GM of a team that has already run aground and has basically no hope of making the playoffs, and not move your many older, pending UFAs? I mean, this is true of any GM whose team isn't going to make the playoffs but held onto players they could have moved for, y'know, literally anything. But this is especially true of Benning, who seems to be shambling through the second half of this season completely clueless. Okay so Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata had full and limited no-trades respectively, but good lord the lack of effort here is astonishing. It shouldn't have come down to deadline day before he realized this was going to happen, and there should have been some beach-softening at the very least to prepare people for the eventuality that neither player would be traded. I don't know what constitutes a “concrete offer” for Hamhuis (no team to which Vrbata would move approached the Canucks about him, so fair enough). But “literally anything” is better than losing Hamhuis for nothing. He's not a good GM, folks. But at least he didn't trade for anyone. 11. Doug Armstrong The Blues needed to make moves and did not do so. Like this isn't one of those “It's okay to stand pat, I guess,” situations that a few teams like Tampa or Washington found themselves in. The Blues needed to get better — probably a lot better — to even get out of the first round in their divisional playoffs. Their inability to do so because of cap mismanagement and all the injuries they've suffered created a situation that prevented them from doing so. Sad but true. Doesn't change the fact that, even as Armstrong's hands were tied, a Houdini-like escape was necessary, not just a thing that would have been nice to see. 10. Don Sweeney Okay so the Bruins technically got better because Lee Stempniak is good and John-Michael Liles is probably better than the other not-good veterans kicking around on their blue line. But also: Why? Like, the Bruins aren't particularly good or anything. They might — miiiiiight — win a round. This doesn't get them over that hump. Trading for anyone but a clear No. 1 defenseman wouldn't have, and that obviously wasn't going to happen. And with this team's window closing fast (or perhaps already closed, thanks to chronic mismanagement like the stuff on display before the deadline) the need to both be borderline competitive and restock for the future is clear. So giving up four(!!!) draft picks (and a non-prospect) doesn't make a lot of sense to get guys who will barely move the needle. Moreover, let's not forget the Bruins had Stempniak on a tryout and didn't think enough of him to offer even the veteran minimum, so giving up two assets to New Jersey is additionally foolish. But hey, it's not like Sweeney traded for Kris Russell or anything. (And he probably should have traded Loui Eriksson because he's gonna lose him for nothing on July 1. Oh well folks!) 9. Bryan Murray It seems to me that there was probably a softer market on Monday than most people expected but that doesn't excuse Murray's approach. Every rumor out of Ottawa suggested that he was significantly undervaluing the few players who actually helped the cause, and his action in trading Shane Prince — a young player who's more than serviceable in his current role — for a third-round pick. Maybe that's what you say the market bore, but he shouldn't have been traded in the first place, is the point. He was also rumored to be shopping Patrick Wiercioch, for reasons unknowable, and ended up not doing that, which is fine. 8.  Joe Sakic The Eric Gelinas-as-reclamation-project move might not be a terrible one, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why he thought Mikkel Boedker was going to help his team more than Alex Tanguay. Yes, Tanguay only has four goals this season, but he's at least been a possession driver on a truly awful possession team (plus-1.4 relative corsi, etc.), and Boedker has been a possession drag on a team that's nearly as bad. Boedker has also racked up a fair bit of his points on the power play, which is nice and everything I guess, but at 5-on-5, Tanguay out-produces him. Oops. Ooooooops. Also: The Avs are going to get annihilated by whichever team they play in the first round. Why do teams think making the playoffs only to be slaughtered is a good thing? Might as well try to grab a draft pick. And that's if they make it. Minnesota got marginally better and is better anyway. The only reason the Avs are even in a playoff spot right now is that they have games in hand on everyone behind them. I'm much more confident in the Wild finishing well than the Avs, who were buyers despite being awful. This was a dumb deadline day for Sakic. Bye. Continue to Article

March 02, 2016 10:32:am EST