Okay....so who's going to be on the left wing this year?

The more I think about it, the more I think that Ryder will be on the opening night roster. I’ve been saying for awhile that I think Ryder will be a goner, and I think he might yet be. But since they’re under the cap with Sturm on LTIR, there’s no harm in letting Ryder start the season with the team. If he plays like his pants are on fire, then they have options; they can trade Ryder and maybe get some honest-to-goodness value for him, or they can trade Sturm (if he’ll waive his NTC), or they can reconsider a Savard trade, or they can bury Sturm’s contract in Providence or on LTIR. If Ryder sucks, they bury him in the minors like I think they’re planning to now.

I think that Seguin will spend all year on the wing unless someone gets hurt (not impossible, considering our 3 top centers missed 53 games between them, 63 if you count playoffs). I don’t think we’re trading Savard unless the Leafs will part with Kaberle, and it doesn’t look like trading Krejci or Bergy is likely.

traditionally speaking, you would think so, however, if you look at his last contract year with montreal and this contract year, they are eerily similar, he wasnt in the best regards with the club, but he was kept around because a. noone else wanted him and b. people had hope he would have a great year playing for a contract, and he sucked pretty bad, so while you would think contract year = big stats, ryder has shown before that isnt necessarily true

Statistically, it’s not crazy to think that. Ryder’s shooting percentage dropped to a career-low 9.4 last year. His career average is 12.1.

Just for reference’s sake, if Ryder had scored on 12.1% of his shots last year, he’d have scored 23 goals, and odds are, we all wouldn’t have been nearly as pissed off at him.

In 2008-9, he scored on a career best 14.6% (that would have been 28 goals last year, and instead of being a goat, he’d be a damn hero).

He’s 30 (31 in March). That’s at the tail end of a player’s prime, but not past it (usually), so regression to the mean dictates that his 9.4% should go up all on its own. The odds of a career year, however, seem rather long.

Historically, Sturm is the better player, but not by a huge amount, and he’s a year and a half older. In fairness, Sturm was significantly better last year, so I thought it was a no-brainer; dump Ryder, keep Sturm. But, factor in a year and a half in age (ordinarily not a big deal, but every year after age 30, it becomes more and more important), plus recovery from injury, and it is much, much closer.

but id rather dump his #4 mm

As much as I say I want him gone, I think because of his contract year that he will have to bust his ass and produce. This may be his last chance of getting a decent paying contract with his age and lack of performance so hopefully he produces.

The Black and Ble and Gold

Ah thanks for the knowledge man. I didn’t know he had a NTC in his contract. I still feel like we’d get the same production out of Ryder though seeing as how Sturm gets injured so much.

Sturm’s NTC doesn’t really matter. If they can’t trade Ryder, then the choice is either bury Sturm on LTIR or demote Ryder to Providence. Either way, they’re paying the salary, so it makes no difference from a financial point of view.

I’ll take that bet. Unless Seguin gets hurt, he’s playing with Boston the full season.

It that is bad move to have him go back to juniors. Ideally, he should be playing in the AHL, but the AHL/NHL gave in to the CHL leagues and banned players under 20 that came from those leagues from playing in the AHL. He has nothing to gain by playing against a bunch of kids.