Shutdown Pair

Tag: Tim Connolly

  • What to Expect: Thomas Vanek

    Note:  To keep things moving during the off-season, I’m starting a series of posts looking ahead to next season, trying to determine just what we can expect to get out of certain players.

    Let’s start at the top, shall we?  Thomas Vanek had what is a down year by his standards, scoring 28G + 25A to equal 53 points.  That’s still 1st on the team in goals and 4th in points.  He missed 11 regular season games, with various injuries (‘lower body injury’, sometimes ‘abdominal strain’).  I don’t consider Vanek injury prone yet, as the jaw injury was a freak accident that would knock anybody for a loop.

    Vanek might just be the toughest to figure out for next season.  He’s just entering his prime, so in a vacuum I’d have no problem pencilling him in for 35 goals, 40 assists (with a stretch goal all the way up at 45+ goals).  HOWEVER, the problem I have with doing that has nothing to do with Atlas, and everything to do with his teammates.  Vanek suffered from lackluster play from his centers and opposite wingers, and he more than anyone relies on other players getting shots on net that he can tip or scoop up on the rebound.  I hate to bang on the ‘Darcy do something!’ drum too much, but a change on the top 6 might be just what the doctor ordered for our one true goal-scoring threat.

    So where does that leave Thomas Vanek?  Right now I can’t imagine him having more than 30-35 goals with the current ‘core’.  It’s possible he’ll rediscover his chemistry with Roy or Connolly if they are still around, but I am not counting on it.

  • Congratulations to Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers!

    The title says it all, congratulations to Ryan Miller for winning his first Vezina trophy, along with the NHL Foundation award for his charity work.  Both well-deserved honors, and I’m very happy for him.  I’m also happy that some of the out-of-town media got to hear him give a speech, as he got a lot of praise for being thoughtful and articulate.  It’s cool that we get to hear him all the time.

    Tyler Myers took home some hardware of his own, taking the Calder trophy in a landslide.  He had 94 first place votes, and the next closest was Jimmy Howard with 24.  I’ve been banging the Tyler Myers for Calder drum since he made the team, so it’s pretty satisfying to see him up there towering over everyone with the trophy.  Sweet.

    One thing that’s always interesting is to check the voting numbers for the various awards, which you can see here.  Of note:

    • Miller was 4th for the Hart, with 13 1st place votes.
    • Tyler Myers got 6 5th place votes for the Norris trophy.
    • Jochen Hecht had a 3rd place vote and 4 5th place votes for the Selke.  Grier, Connolly and Gaustad also got votes.
    • Lindy Ruff had 2 2nd place and 7 3rd place votes for the Jack Adams.

    All in all, an impressive showing for our boys, and you can’t help but feel the future is bright for this team.  Here’s hoping for more Calder candidates, and oh yeah, a Stanley Cup in there somewhere would work.

  • Something for Nothing?

    Bit of a warning:  I plan to ramble a bit here, as I may end up convincing myself I’m wrong.  It’s a work in progress.

    One of the recurring themes you hear when talking about guys in their walk years (especially on bad teams, or small market teams that ‘can’t afford them’) is that the GMs have to get something back for them.  The Sabres recently had that with Brian Campbell, and most likely will hear about Tim Connolly in regards to this for this season regardless of what he does.

    But the salary cap changes this, to my mind.  You always ‘get something back’ for a UFA, cap space.  When (if?) Timmy is not re-signed at the end of this season, you are getting back $4.5M in cap space, a tidy sum.  I’m not arguing that $4.5M in cap space is better than $4.5M and a 2nd round pick, but it IS something.  And it IS better than $2m in cap space and someone on the level of Drew Stafford or Clarke MacArthur (or Raffi Torres).  This makes sense to me, but I *am* sleep deprived, so feel free to poke some holes.