Antipin or Connor Murphy points only

[Elpidio1975]

Who finishes with more points this year boys?

[forumname]

I vote Murphy because I have no idea who Antipin is.

[The Bottlenecker]

Tarasenko

Edit. Kidding. Tarasenko was meant for another thread. I like Murphy.

[crazedcanuck]

Antipin logged over 3 minutes on the PP in his first game, and Murphy hasn't done anything in recent memory.

He could pay off nicely for little risk since it's not like if you took Murphy he'd put up significant numbers.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I'd gamble with Antipin because we know what Murphy can offer and that isn't much.

[The Black Panther]

I'd gamble with Antipin because we know what Murphy can offer and that isn't much.

Agree with this. It's sad though Murphy looked like an offensive stud at times pre NHL. Too many serious injuries etc....i dunno. Just not the player I thought he'd have the chance to be.

[Pengwin7]

I'll go with Murphy for his pure-TOI usage getting him 25pts. CHI's D sucks, so Murphy will play 82gp and 18-20min/night if fully healthy.
I think BUF is mostly "taking a look" at Antipin to open the season.
They did play him off Beaulieu for PP2 shift time (see identical 3:17 PP time).
(Which is interesting as a LD-LD blue-line pairing... I'll have to dig up footage to see if they succeeded in moving the puck)
http://www.espn.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400961609

Interesting is that BUF is currently carrying 8D which included scratching Gorges & Bogosian last night.
Are they really going to scratch $9.3m in cap every night?
I mean, I think they'd love to have that cap space, right.
And with the Eichel extension signing... maybe they want to find out if Antipin can play NHL minutes and then see if they can sign him to a bargain extension.

Or maybe Bogo & Gorges were partying and this is the slap.
But carrying $9m of D-men as healthy scratches won't sit well once its noticed and IF Buffalo is still losing.
Antipin logged the least EV TOI of Buffalo D-men.
The EV TOI suggests Housley doesn't trust him enough for main usage.
By this usage/analysis... it suggests that IF he can't show worth on PP2... he's going to be the odd-man out.

(Or maybe I'm wrong and Buffalo fully intends to no play $9m worth of D-men. I mean... Ville Leino... money has been pissed out the window before. LOL)

[Jouko-Pouko]

I'll go with Murphy for his pure-TOI usage getting him 25pts. CHI's D sucks, so Murphy will play 82gp and 18-20min/night if fully healthy.

I didn't watch the game but Murphy played only 15:08 in last night's game. Maybe it was because they had a big lead and they wanted to see more of Forsling (18:45) and Rutta (20:45). ES minutes for the same three guys: 14:09 vs 17:55 vs 18:31. But that low TOI total just caught my eye when looking at the box score.

[Pengwin7]

I didn't see the game either, but the shift count (see box score, 25 shifts) was the same for all of the 2nd/3rd D-pairings.
Murphy was just out there for shorter shift times. (15min/25 = 36sec shifts)
CHI had the home change, so maybe they got pulled off quickly several times so others could mark PIT top lines?

There were also reports that he was injured a few days ago in pre-season game (he LEFT that game 4:40 in, per report).
So he may be nursing that and not pushing too hard.

Considering they gave up Hjalmmer for him... and what's he's played in past years... I would have to think he's a lock for 2nd pairing 18-20min time.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I didn't see the game either, but the shift count (see box score, 25 shifts) was the same for all of the 2nd/3rd D-pairings.
Murphy was just out there for shorter shift times. (15min/25 = 36sec shifts)
CHI had the home change, so maybe they got pulled off quickly several times so others could mark PIT top lines?

There were also reports that he was injured a few days ago in pre-season game (he LEFT that game 4:40 in, per report).
So he may be nursing that and not pushing too hard.

Considering they gave up Hjalmmer for him... and what's he's played in past years... I would have to think he's a lock for 2nd pairing 18-20min time.

No disagreements with that at all. I was very curious to see all their TOI numbers because I'm hoping Franson replaces one of them but I guess it could be difficult to justify making any changes after a 10-1 win against the champs... But I don't really see them scratching Murphy at all, so it's either Kempny, Forsling or Rutta. I wasn't very happy seeing such big minutes for all of them.

[Jouko-Pouko]

No disagreements with that at all. I was very curious to see all their TOI numbers because I'm hoping Franson replaces one of them but I guess it could be difficult to justify making any changes after a 10-1 win against the champs... But I don't really see them scratching Murphy at all, so it's either Kempny, Forsling or Rutta. I wasn't very happy seeing such big minutes for all of them.

For the game against Montreal, Cody Franson did draw back in but he replaced Connor Murphy. That trade is going to look horrible for the Blackhawks if this is what they're getting out of Murphy. Hjalmarsson was a clear-cut top pair D-man and the 2nd best D-man in Chicago, and they traded him for a guy who isn't even a top-4 guy for them?

From https://www.secondcityhockey.com/201...y-scratch-2017

That’s not a strong endorsement for Murphy, a 2011 first-round pick who entering his fourth full NHL season. He recorded zero points, three shots on goal, and a 32.7 percent even strength Corsi in the first three games, so the numbers don’t help much, either. He may be a big guy (6’4, 212 pounds) who can skate well, but he’s been clearly outplayed by Rutta so far.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Now it looks like Antipin will sit out tonight's game, so his spot clearly isn't secure either. https://leftwinglock.com/line-combin...EV&gametype=GD

[Fighting_Emu]

Ill still go Antipin. Theres some semblance of upside there- rather swing for the fences on a low probability play like this...

[Pengwin7]

re: Murphy/Antipin.
Personally, I think both teams are doing the same thing - they want to see if their young/cheap D-men can play.
They want to know on the front-end of the season... if they pan out, they stay - team saves cap space, can work to secure them longer-term.
Franson, Ruuta, Kempny all have expiring (or 1yr) UFA contracts. A team wants to know what to do with these guys.
Ruuta is waivers exempt.

Antipin RFA in summer, also waivers exempt.

If I'm a GM, I want to put any "iffy" players in the line-up immediately to evaluate what they can do.
It's same theory that teams do with their rookies like Yamamoto & DeBrincat (or M.Tkachuk last year or D.Strome this year) - can they skate an 82gp NHL season? If yes - they stay, if no - send them down.

The other theory on Murphy is that he's a tad gimpy still or that he came into camp out-of-shape.
But his hockey skill/IQ shouldn't have declined over one summer and certainly the Hawks knew what they were getting when they make the trade.

I still think Murphy will play a lot this season and that Antipin will not.
But it's a fun "depth" battle to take a side on!

[ericdaoust]

Not Murphy, so Antipin.