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Old 06-15-2014, 07:56 AM   #1
madball
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Dynasty:Pittsburgh

It was announced today that after the firing of GM Ray Shero and HC Dan Bylsma that Madball would be the new GM/HC of the Pittsburgh Penguins starting the 2013/14 season.
After the last few seasons of high expectations and disappointing results owner Mario Lemieux announced that there was need for a change.
Madball comes in after 2.5 seasons at the helm of the Columbus Blue Jackets where he amassed a 164-98-58-8 record with 14-6-8 playoff record.
Given the nature of the Pens troubles it was surprising to see a GM come in who had yet to record a playoff series win, however he had managed to bring the BJ's from an also-ran to 1st in the NHL in his final, incomplete, season.
Said Madball of his new team, "There will be plenty of changes throughout this roster. I see a group of stars who aren't gelling as a team when it counts, that can't make it over the final hurdle.
My first step will be to toughen this team up. I feel the Pens have a tendency to turn a blind eye towards teams taking liberties with their players. This stops as of now. Whilst I will not run a team of goons, we will have an enforcer and they will be permitted to do their job, not be handcuffed like Engelland has been in the past.
Second, I want this team to be tough to play against physically. In the past the Pens have been able to skate around other teams to their heart's content and while a stupidly successful power play is scary on the scoreboard, I want our opponents to come away battered and bruised. I want trash talking and big hits.
Ultimately I just want the team to work hard and believe in themselves."

When pressed about the stars on the roster and what lies in their futures, Madball said this, "The 13/14 season will be an audition for all my players. I find it ridiculous that NTC's were handed out like candy on Halloween by the previous administration. I was surprised that Craig Freaking Adams didn't have one there's that many around here. I will be strongly advising some players to waive these if they don't play how I want and justify having one."
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Old 06-17-2014, 07:36 AM   #2
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Pre-season -

As expected the Pen's new GM Madball was busy during the pre-season.
First player to go was veteran forward Craig Adams, who a day after being placed on the TL was sent to STL for Ty Rattie. This move brought in a younger player who offers for the time-being, depth down in WBS.
On Aug 29 the first move which brought the Pens into a harder, more agitating team was made when D Paul Martin and prospect G Tristan Jarry were sent to COL for fiesty forward Steve Downie.
Sep 4 saw D Harrison Ruopp moved to BOS for defensive d-man Kevan Miller, offering a more physical d-man that could split the season between PIT and WBS.
Sep 5 saw a move which will annoy the Eastern Conference like a paper cut when the Pens picked up Antoine Roussel for PP specialist Jussi Jokinen, Harry Zolnierczyk and a 7th pick. Roussel is well-known for his in your face agitating style which will see the Pen's 3rd or 4th lines become very annoying.
A trade with big potential occured on Sep 12, when the Pens sent Chuck Kobasew and 2nd pick to BOS for Reilly Smith. Smith being a highly-regarded youngster that will bring good scoring ability and even some physicality into the Pen's team.
Sep 13 saw G Matt Murray go to ANA for prospect G John Gibson.
Sep 23 was the final pre-season trade with Rob Scuderi and a 5th go to NAS for D Kevin Klein. This move made PIT younger and gave them a more allrounded d-man. That and shed $300k from their salary cap.

On Oct 5, WBS got tougher with Joel Rechlicz coming from WAS for a 5th rnd pick.
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Old 06-21-2014, 07:49 AM   #3
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Jan 7th, 14 UPDATE
The Pens have enjoyed a very successful first half of the season under new GM Madball, currently sitting 1st in the East and 2nd overall with a 44-28-12-4-60pts record. They lead the NHL with 151GF and their 129GA sit 18th. When you've got leading pt scorer Crosby (50pts) and 3rd goal scorer Neal (29G), 5th pts (44) you would expect a high output. The defence is a concern however and to quote Madball, "I'm slowly working on our defence and have a plan in motion, however it may not come to fruitition until next season. Hopefully when we make the playoffs our high-octane offence can see us through."
The Pens plan on getting tougher and harder to play against has been successful too, through 44GP the Pens have 29FM, the currently injured Roussel leading with 11 and Downie 10. As stated by Madball, "Whilst FM's don't solely dictate how tough your team is, they do show an awareness to get involved. Most of our fights have been in response to actions of opposing players. We've shown as well that we're not undisciplined."
Starting goalie Fleury (24GP, 3.00GAA, 900SV, 2S/O) has been serviceable but unspectacular in the role and whispers around the team are that his average performance has all-but guaranteed his NMC being waived and traded.
Back-up Gibson (16GP, 2.60GAA, 913SV, 1S/O) has shown much of the promise that scouts have made about him however he is currently on his 2nd stint on the IR which has hampered his chances of potentially stealing the #1 job. Madball stated, "I believe John is our goalie for the future and I don't want to put too much pressure on him this year, so no, he won't unplant Flower as our #1."
Jeff Zatkoff has filled in admirably for the injured Gibson going 4GP-2.45GAA-926SV-0S/O for PIT along with his 14GP-2.25GAA-923SV-3S/O in WBS.
Injuries have been the biggest concern for PIT however with Letang spending 2 x 2wk stints on the IR, Fleury 2wks, Roussel currently 3wks, Gibson 2x2wk, Niskanen 2wks and Orpik out for 6mths. This has meant a step-up for players such as Bortuzzo, Maatta, Miller, Jeffrey, Bennett, Rechlicz, amongst others.
The Pens also re-signed the following players during November:
Nov 29 - S. Downie re-signs, $3.16M/3yrs
- S. Despres re-signs, $895k/3yrs
- K. Miller re-signs, $697k/1yr
- A. Roussel re-signs, $1.12M/3yrs
And today the Pens made a huge trade for the future, trading Matt Niskanen and two draft picks (2nd&7th) to NAS for phenom defenceman Seth Jones. It was well-known that Madball was unhappy with Niskanen and given that he was one of the few players on the Pens line-up that didn't have a NTC/NMC, he was happily moved when the Jones enquiries started. Niskanen finished this season with 36-4-15-19-31PIM as a Pen.
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Old 06-25-2014, 01:10 AM   #4
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END REGULAR SEASON 13/14 UPDATE
The Pens decided to stay put on the trade deadline, making only one minor trade in the lead-up, Freddie

Hamilton from the SJS for two draft picks. This decision may end up hurting the Pens as the injury bug

has been biting PIT hard of late, since Jan several key players have had long stints on the IR. Steve

Downie, Joe Vitale and James Neal have all spent 7weeks on two stints each on the IR, Miller four weeks, Crosby three, Malkin two and Ty Rattie one. This is in addition to Orpik still being out.
The Pens have gone 18-14 (Apr 5) since the last update and has been deemed as a very disappointing second

half of the season for a roster of this calibre. Madball stated, "With all the injuries we've had we've

been forced to call up guys who may not be quite ready for the NHL or for the minutes that we need them

to play. Thankfully everyone has given it their all and I can't fault the effort of the team. I know that

our minor system needs a bit of tweaking next year so that we've got a deeper pool of talent to call upon

when required."
Despite what was deemed as a disappointing end to the season, the Pens still finished as the Regular Season champions with a 52-23-7-111pts-269 (2nd)-226(5th) record.
A lot of the Pens defensive improvements were accredited to the acquisitions of Klein (82-3-34-37-6) and Jones (43-3-12-15Pts-10PIM). With a lot of help from Miller (58-0-12-12-42) and later in the season, Bortuzzo (22-0-4-4-23). Whilst these players didn't see their names on the scoreboard heaps, their defensive work was a big contributor to the Pens success.
*As was anticipated mid-season, John Gibson has overtaken Fleury as the team's #1 goalie. Whilst this was not anticipated at the start of the season, Gibson has shined for the Pens and looks to be living up to his hype. This also meant that Vokoun, despite returning from IR in Feb, remained in the press box until season's end. This marked a disappointing stint in PIT as Vokoun has already been told he will not be re-signed.
Crosby lost his top points ranking due to injury but still finished very strong, leading the NHL in assists and amassing a total 78-28-55-83-30PIM, good for 4th NHL.
Roussel, another player who lost significant time to injury still managed to finish 5th in FM wins with 15/15.
Steve Downie led the team in PIMs, good for 4th NHL with 141 in 64GP. He also chipped in 6 goals and 14/17FM's (which lead the team in total, just not wins).
James Neal scored 42Goals in 59GP, followed by Reilly Smith 31 in 82.
Crosby led the team with a +34.
Kunitz had 185hits.
The Pens finished the season with 41FMs, 36 wins.
John Gibson finished with 42-26-12-2.49-918-4S/O. His GAA was 4th NHL.
Fleury 35-22-10-3.01-903-2.
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Old 06-25-2014, 08:02 AM   #5
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After Sidney Crosby won the League MVP award for 13/14 the Pens went into a finals matchup with CMB. The Pens lost the first three games, each a low-scoring affair won by a solitary goal, they found their form in game four 2-0. Many people thought it was the beginning of a comeback as they looked like the team that had won the Regular Season crown, however it all ended 2-1 in game five.
PIT lose to CMB, 4 games to 1.
The Pens now move into the off-season heads down and Madball begins the task of continuing to reshape the roster.
Said Pen's owner Mario Lemieux, "The 1st round loss was extremely disappointing and unfortunately we seem to be doing that lately. More injuries to key players hurt Madball's side, but it's no excuse. We have confidence that Madball can still reshape this roster and bring another Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh."
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Old 06-25-2014, 08:13 AM   #6
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CHI beat NYR 4-2 STANLEY CUP
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Old 07-02-2014, 07:16 AM   #7
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2014/15 PRE-SEASON
After another disappointing post-season, the Pens with Madball at the helm began another off-season with lots of questions requiring answering.
As Free Agency started, we saw the first moves on Jul 4 which saw Australian Nathan Walker, Dustin Tokarski and Joey Hishon signed to multi-year, 2-way deals for depth in WBS. German David Wolf was also signed to a 3yr/2-way deal however he is expected to start the season on PIT's 3rd line.
Word soon began to spread that many of PIT's NTC/NMC's were being "strongly recommended" to be waived for the benefit of the team, sources told that several big name players were informed that "they're not welcome here anymore, do what's best for us and yourself."
The first proof of this came on Jul 7 when MA Fleury was sent, along with Simon Despres to ANA for sophomore d-man Hampus Lindholm and the rights to 2014's #3 overall pick Aaron Ekblad.
Five days later Crosby's off-sider Pascal Dupuis was sent to CGY for Sven Baertschi.
On Jul 23-25, Greg Nemisz and Linden Vey were signed to 2-way contracts and sent to WBS. Also signed, but for depth in PIT, were goalie Niklas Svedberg, 3yrs and Clayton Stoner, 2yrs.
Jul 25 also saw a huge trade where Chris Kunitz and the rights to RFA Brandon Sutter to BOS for bruising power forward, Milan Lucic.
Nothing further occured until Aug 4 when Kris Letang and a pick were sent to NYR for Ryan McDonagh.
Aug 14 saw Kevan Miller re-sign for $765k/2yrs and Beau Bennett re-sign $2.55M/3yrs.
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Old 07-02-2014, 07:16 AM   #8
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UPDATE
With GM Madball stating that he wanted the Pens to be tougher, more agitating and harder to play against, we decided to view this during the pre-season of the 2014/15 season.
Whilst rosters may not be 100% set just yet, it is fairly easy to determine what toughness each team brings to the league and compare to the Pens and see whether or not Madball lives up to his promise.
Currently for the new season, on the Pen's roster are Milan Lucic, Steve Downie, David Wolf, Kevan Miller, Clayton Stoner, Antoine Roussel, Zach Sill - whilst Looch has been known to fight the occasional HW enforcer, there is no designated enforcer on the Pen's roster which arguably could downgrade their rating. Miller, Stoner and Sill are tough players who will fight on occasion, whilst Downie, Wolf and Roussel are more known for their agitating style, however all can fight when required.

Below is listed the NHL teams and their likely fighters, for the purpose of this we ranked fighting, likelyhood of fighting, enforcing ability, fighting ability as "toughness". This includes some players who might only fight 1-2 times a season (ie: Iginla, Phaneuf, Umberger), agitators, "tough"players (ie: Clifford, Jenner) and enforcers.
Some players were a stretch to put on the list and some teams, such as CAR, were down-right wimpy when their most likely fighter, their only fighter, is lightweight Tim Gleason.
Calgary has the toughest enforcer in Brian McGrattan.
Columbus has the most, with two, Boll and Orr, although both are on the TL, which would then make Horton their toughest.
ANA, BOS, CMB, FLA, LA, MTL, PHI, STL, TOR and PIT were deemed to be the Top 10. They are ranked below, other teams are not, however CAR took the Wimpiest Team title, followed by ARZ & DET.
CMB took the title of Toughest Team, however if they drop/trade Orr & Boll, they then will drop from the Top 10 entirely. MTL who are third have Bordeleau on the TL, will not be as high if he goes also.
Meaning that PIT does, in effect, have the toughest team in the NHL.


CMB - Orr, Boll, Dubinsky, Horton, Umberger
PIT - Lucic, Wolf, Miller, Downie, Sill, Stoner, Roussel, Neal
MTL - Bordeleau, Prust, Jenner, Subban, Beaulieu
BOS - McQuaid, Chara, N. Ritchie, Campbell, Marchand, Boychuk
PHI - McGinn, Rinaldo, Simmonds, Schenn, Schenn, Morin, Laughton, Coburn
LA - Clifford, Nolan, N. Foligno, Phaneuf,
ANA - Gudas, Maroon, Perry, Lovejoy, Iginla
FLA - Gudbranson, Robak, Petrovic, Upshall
TOR - Clarkson, B. Ross, T. Biggs, Bolland, Broll, Cowen,
STL - Stewart, Belesky, Backes, Polak, Adams


ARZ - C. Brown, Chipchura
BUF - M. Foligno, Kaleta, Ott
CGY - McGrattan, Allen,
CAR - Gleason
CHI - Clendening, G. Ross, D. Olsen, Bickell, Shaw
COL - McLeod, E. Johnson
DAL - B. Dilon, Daley, J. Benn
DET - B. Smith, DeKeyser, Abdelkader
EDM - Acton, Smid, Ference, Nurse
MIN - Gabriel, Cooke, Bieksa
NAS - Nystrom, Gaustad, Girard, Hendricks, Weber
NJ - Matteau, Clowe, Jackman
NYI - Clutterbuck, Hamonic
NYR - Dorsett, Falk, McIlrath,
OTT - Neil, Smith
SJ - Desjardins, Torres,
TB - Malone, Brewer, Thompson
VAN - Kassian, Burrows, Kesler
WAS - Latta, Prout, Wilson, Brouwer
WPG - Peluso, Bogosian, Stuart, Byfuglien, Lipon, Kane, Trouba
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Old 07-02-2014, 01:29 PM   #9
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Good luck!
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Old 07-08-2014, 07:13 AM   #10
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END OF SEASON UPDATE
Fin: 82-42-34-5-91pts-240-237 (5th East)
GF 12th, GA 13th
PP 21.2% 10th, PK 82.6% 12th
LEAGUE:
Downie FW 14, 4th
Gibson 6 S/O, E-1st
TEAM:
Smith 25G (Neal traded at 32), Drouin 40 (17w/PIT)
Crosby 53A
Crosby 73Pts; Drouin 78 (25w/PIT)
Downie 109PIM
Downie 12/15FM
PIT 49FM

PLAYOFFS:
Semi: L. NYR 1-4
SC FINAL: DET d. CHI 4-2

The Pens suffered greatly for a great portion of the season, sitting last in not only the conference, but in the league up until the end of the year. If it wasn't for a late season surge, possibly spurred on by the deadline trade of Neal for Jonathan Druin, despite Neal being far-and-away the Pens leading goal scorer, the Pens may have been in the lottery rather than playoffs. That push saw their final 23 games, 18-5 with said player, Drouin, chipping in with 17G-8A-25Pts.
This likely kept GM Madball's head off the chopping board as there were a lot of nervous executives in the organisation after his purge of high-end talent during this past off-season.
As far as trades go, Madball was quite quiet during the season, only making three other trades beside the Neal trade, in December sending S. Harrington, pick to ANA for Emerson Etem; Feb 10 R. Bortuzzo to BUF for Alex Tuch and on Feb 20 R. McNeil and 1st pick to WAS for their 1st pick, a trade in which Madball is hoping may win the Draft Lottery as WAS finished 30th.
October also saw Madball sign J. Nevins (3yr) and K. Westgarth (1yr) to 2-way deals for toughness depth in WBS.
Some sympathisers in the media and fanbase were quick to point out the large amount of injuries the Pens suffered again with players like Crosby, Maata, Malkin, Lucic, Klein losing 4wks, Roussel, McDonagh losing three, Jeffrey and Downie two and call-up Linden Vey losing 4mths, at various points in the season.
The Playoffs were just as disappointing as the Pens went down 4-1 to the NYR, including an embarrassing 7-1 defeat in game one.

Last edited by madball; 07-08-2014 at 07:44 AM.
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Old 07-08-2014, 07:22 AM   #11
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2014/2015 TOUGHNESS REPORT


Well, PIT ended up being the toughest team in the league, despite the fact Antoine Roussel, he of 15FMs

in 13/14, didn't register a single fight this season. The team finished 1st by 8FMs over a surprise

effort from VAN (41).
VAN had Z. Kassian (16 - 2nd NHL) and T. Sestito (18 - 1st NHL) leading the way
Third was MTL (29), who despite not playing Prust, did have Bordeleau up long enough to register 9FM's before being sent down.
CMB was a big letdown as they played neither Orr or Boll and finished with 21FMs.
The Top 10 were as follows:
PIT 49
VAN 41
MTL 29
PHI 28
WPG 27
NYI 26
MIN 26
TOR 25
BOS 25
NYR 23

Which meant pre-season predictions: 5/10.
The bottom five were as follows:
TB 16
NJD 15
CGY 15
ARZ 12
NAS 12

CGY being the biggest disappointment having sent McGrattan to the minors.

Last edited by madball; 07-08-2014 at 07:24 AM.
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Old 07-08-2014, 07:45 AM   #12
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Due to trade previously with WAS, the Pens scored the 1st overall pick and as a result Connor McDavid.
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Old 07-14-2014, 07:16 AM   #13
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2015/16 TOUGHNESS UPDATE
Opening night of the new season and the Toughness update is back again. This season looks to be overall, a pretty soft year for the NHL, but another tough year in the AHL. Many of the enforcers and tough guys that started the 14/15 season have been sent to the minors to start this season - players like McGrattan, Prust, Martin will need to be called up to enjoy NHL fisticuffs this season (NB: As this is typed up, Gratts has actually been called-up, but everything in this report is on the Opening Night roster).
The toughest player this season is Colton Orr, although like last year, it's not expected that he'll see much ice.
Toughest organisation again goes to PIT. Although again, they have no designated enforcer the players there, sam as last year, are all tough guys (Lucic, Downie, Miller, etc) that can certainly hold their own.
Next toughest was their natural rivals PHI. PHI this season the same players that saw them ranked 5th last season, but due to the decline across the league, this year it's 2nd.
CMB rounds out the top three, but again if like last season they don't play Orr or Boll, they become quite soft.
Carolina, unsurprisingly takes last, but this year they have no-one who can be counted on to provide toughness, even Gleason is gone.
BOS took the biggest dive in toughness, with only lightweight agitator Marchand being considered "tough".
Rounding out the Top 5 was NJD and MIN.
What follows are the teams - Top 10 and Bottom 5 are ranked, others are not. NB: AHL/ECHL players are listed behind the "/" for each team, but were not taken into consideration for the rankings. The rankings could be much, much different if even some of these players started the season in the NHL.

PIT - Miller, Roussel, Lucic, Wolf, Downie / Nevins, Rechlicz, Farnham, Sill, Etchegary, Stoner
PHI - McGinn, Hartnell, L.Schenn, Simmonds, Morin, B.Schenn, Laughton / Mathers, Sestito, Rinaldo, Rosehill, Goulbourne
CMB - Orr, Boll, Rychel, Horton / Anderson

NJD - Matteau, Clowe, Jackman / Belesky, Gogol, Allen, Campbell
MIN - Wilson, Fistric, Bieksa / Gabriel, Almond, Cooke
LAK - Clifford, N. Foligno, Ellerby / MacDermid
DAL - Dillon, B. Ritchie, Benn / McKenzie
ANA - Gudas, Perry, Lovejoy / Maroon
FLA - Gudbranson, Petrovic / Kantola, Brown, Nolan, Robak
NAS - F. Girard, Hendricks, Nystrom, Cowen / Gaustad

COL - McLeod, Ruutu / Deschamps, Clarke
BUF - Foligno, Ott, Bortuzzo / Tinordi
SJS - Dorsett, Morrisonn, Torres / MacIntyre, Petrecki
STL - C. Stewart, Backes, Carrier, Polak / Lewis, Lindbohm, Adam
DET - Vaananen, Forster, Abdelkader / None
ARZ - Samuelsson, Chipchura / Hubic
CGY - Oslanski / McGrattan, Kanzig
EDM - Edmundson, Nurse / Gazdic, Olsen
NYR - Falk, McIlrath / Kantor
OTT - T. Jackman, Kramer, Smith / Neil, Crombeen
TBL - Lepine, Richard, Aulie / None
TOR - Clarkson, Ruopp, Biggs / McLaren, Ashton, Gauthier, Broll
VAN - Kassian, Green, Shaw / Subban
WAS - Latta, Melart, Jokela, Siemens / Walls, Prout, Burish, Erskine
WPG - Kosmachuk, Virtanen, Stuart, Trouba / Boyle, Peluso, Sol, Lowry, Lipon

BOS - Marchand / A. Kerr, Camara, Cohen, Ritchie, Randell
CHI - Clendening / Paquette, Flache, Lahti
NYI - Hamonic / Martin, Irving, Pelech, Clutterbuck
MTL - Dietz / Bordeleau, Prust, McCarron, Olesky, Thrower, Moen
CAR - None / McQuaid, Bellemore
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Old 07-14-2014, 12:08 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madball View Post
The first proof of this came on Jul 7 when MA Fleury was sent, along with Simon Despres to ANA for sophomore d-man Hampus Lindholm and the rights to 2014's #3 overall pick Aaron Ekblad.
What, Anaheim couldn't throw in Getzlaf or Perry as well?
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Old 07-15-2014, 08:04 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oren Djoos View Post
What, Anaheim couldn't throw in Getzlaf or Perry as well?
Tried to get more out of them, but it wasn't happening. Decided to stick to those two players.
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Old 07-21-2014, 08:17 AM   #16
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TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE
The Pens season seems to have hit it's stride as the deadline has come and gone. Early season form was showing an underperforming Pens team who slipt as low as 14th in the East as late as start-Dec. From there the team hit it's stride and started to see strong results on the ice. As of today Sun Feb 28, 2016 the Pens sit 4th in the East with 60-36-19-5-77pts.
Leading the way is league-leading scorer Crosby 75pts.
David Wolf is keeping Madball's "tough" tradition alive with league leading 17FM's & 135PIM's.
Gibson leads the goalies with a pedestrian 3.05GAA, 897SV and 2 s/o.
The first two months saw the Pens struggle to score goals and while they are much more successful at that now several key players are finding difficulty scoring goals - Lucic 13, Rattie 12, Maatta 2, Bennett 9, through the first 60GP's. Crosby 30, Drouin 27, Kane 25 and Malkin 23 are picking up the slack though.
The deadline only saw two deals made with a prospect swap deal with Calgary taking place DÁgostino & pick for Keegan Kanzig but a potentially huge move was made when disappointing Etem (59-8-15-23-0 / career PIT 113-17-27-44-10PIM) was sent to FLA for Jonathan Huberdeau.

MOVES/RE-SIGNINGS
Jul 2 - Patrick Kane $7.8M/6yrs, FA
Jul 4 - Petter Granberg $550/2yr, 2way, FA
- Andrej Kosaristan $550/3yr, EL deal
Jul 5 - Kurt Etchegary $550/3yr, EL
- William Nylander $925/3yr, EL
Jul 10 - Rights to F. Hamilton to for John Quenneville
Jul 12 - Rights to S. Baertschi to TOR for Nikolaj Ehlers
Jul 17 - LUcic re-signs $7.1M/5yrs
- Gibson re-signs $4.6M/4yrs
Jul 18 - Jones re-signs $4.07M/2yrs
Feb 1 - Tokarski re-signs $770k/2yrs, 2way
- Wolf re-signs $2.5M/2yrs
Feb 20 - D'Agostino & pick to CGY for LD Keegan Kanzig
Feb 20 - Etem & pick to FLA for Jonathan Huberdeau
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Old 07-24-2014, 08:28 AM   #17
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Mar 2 - Rechlicz $635k/2yrs, 2way
Agostino $605k/3yrs, 2way
Jun 1 - Rattie re-sign $2.64M/4yr
- Stoner re-sin $795k/1yr, 2way
- Nemisz re-sign $605/2yr, 2way




END/SEASON UPDATE
82-54-21-7-115pts-308GF(1st)- 247GA(9th) 1st NHL (by 11pts)
Seth Jones - Dman of year
Patrick Kane - Best def fwd
Sidney Crosby - Leading Scorer (105pts, 41G,64A)
Jonathan Druin - =/- Award (+36)

DIV SEMI: PIT v. NJD W 4-1
DIV FINAL: PIT v. OTT W 4-0
CONF FINAL: PIT v. NYI L 3-4

POTENTIAL FA:
LD Maatta
RD Lindholm
RD Mikkelson
LW Jeffrey
C Hishon
C Sill
RW Gibbons
RW Zlobin

The Pens had a successful regular season, finishing first in the NHL for the 2nd time in 3yrs. The big test though was always going to be in the playoffs considering two-straight first-round exits had many people calling for the head of GM Madball. The run started off well with NJD going down in 5 games, followed by a completed demolition of OTT in four, including two shutouts. PIT got their big test in the Conference Final facing NYI and were defeated in a high-scoring, back-and-forth series 4-3.
Initial reactions from the fan base and media have shown more praise for GM Madball, however the expectation of a Stanley Cup is still holding him at ransom.
In the playoffs, expectedly, Crosby lead scoring with 16-6-11-17, with Kane, Crosby and Malkin equal on 6 goals. David Wolf and Roussel played their respective games strongly with 35 & 23PIM's respectively.
Gibson had a very strong playoffs in goals, playing all minutes for PIT and finishing with 11W-5L-3S/O-2.05GAA-.925SV.
The Regular Season saw both Crosby (41) and Kane (43) crack the 40goal mark, also finishing 1st & 2nd in NHL scoring. Seth Jones found his scoring ability as leading d-man 82-13-49-62pts. Huberdeau scored better than PPG with 23-13-14-27 since the deadline. Drouin progressed well with 65pts/82GP, Lucic improved by 12pts, however still rather low in a very high-scoring team. Gibson 61-42-15-3SO-2.86-901% finished the season stronger than he started and Svedberg was serviceable but below-average with 21-12-6-1-3.31-886.
Wolf in his first full NHL season, ran away with the league PIM and FM totals with 180 and 22 in 82GP. along with 17G-15A. Roussel, scratched earlier in the season finished with 98PIM, 14FM. They also finished 1st and 2nd in NHL FMs.
Drouin took out league +/-, with Scrosby, Jones and Kane also in top 5.
Rookie D-man Ekblad finished a strong season with 82-7-36-43pts
The Pens finished with 47FM.


Now begins the off-season where Maatta, Lindholm and Rattie are the main FA concerns with all three RFA and most likely looking for large raises. (NB: Rattie has since re-signed) So PIT retains, pending moves, the bulk of their NHL Roster for another season. The biggest concern for the GM would be the Goals Against, so expect some moves for defensive d-men and fwdsRumour has it that underperforming Malkin is potentially on the trading block, with Madball simply stating, "We'll entertain offers. He's not on the block, it'd have to be a killer deal for us."
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Old 07-25-2014, 02:04 AM   #18
madball
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Posts: 54
2015/16 TOUGHNESS RESULT

No surprises again this sesason as PIT took out toughest team once more with their 47FMs, this time far and away the 1st team as repeat 2nd place VAN had only 33.
The Top 5 on average was a fraction higher this year, however the bottom two of Chicago (11) and St Louis (9) was much lower and embarrassing this season.
Pre-season ranking 4/10.
Surprisingly Carolina ranked in the Top 10 thanks to 10FM from unexpected fighter Keegan Lowe. Brett Bellemore also contributed 8 and Gleason 5.
VAN again were underappreciated with the pre-season rankings, Kassian pulling the hardwork with 13FM.
PHI were a disappointment being in the bottom half of the league. MIN finished bottom 5, predicted top 10. ANA also predicted high, finished T-25th on 15.

Top 10:

PIT 47
VAN 33
SJS 30
LAK 29
OTT 27
CAR 26
CMB 25
ARZ 24
NYR 24
NAS 23

Bottom five, is six due to ANA/MTL tie:

ANA 15
MTL 15
DET 14
MIN 14
CHI 11
STL 9
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Old 07-25-2014, 02:06 AM   #19
madball
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Posts: 54
15/16 S/C: NYI d. MIN 4-3

STANLEY CUP HISTORY:
13/14: CHI d. NYR 4-2
14/15: DET d. CHI 4-2
15/16: NYI d. MIN 4-3
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Old 07-27-2014, 12:24 AM   #20
BlackIce
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Calgary, AB
Posts: 573
If you ever decide to join an online league in the future, I will need to join the same one as you ... I'm a fight fan myself and always sport tough, gritty teams. I don't think a Madball and BlackIce team matchup would be for the faint of heart my friend lol!

Good reads!

Last edited by BlackIce; 07-27-2014 at 12:29 AM.
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