NHL 2019-20

[iacas]

How'd your favorite hockey team do in the draft? How about with any off-season trades or moves?

Free agency opens up here soon. Will Kessel be on the move, or will he still be a Penguin come October?

[mcanadiens]

Habs got some cap space. That's good because they need a top-four defenseman badly. Gardiner and Edler are the big names up for bid.  A top six forward would also be nice, Reports say Bergevin has cooled off expectations of anything real big, but I've seen references to Duchesne thrown around.

People seem pretty excited about getting Caufield in the first round. If nothing else, he was projected to go higher than 15th, where the Habs got him. It is a bit funny that the notoriously tiny Canadiens would get the 5-foot-7 guy, but in today's NHL it might not be the worst thing.

I don't get to carried away with drafts. Things often end up very different by the time these guys have been around awhile. 

 

[billchao]

My team is doing ok so far 😜

[billchao]

This gave me a good laugh.

[Champion14]

I am huge Vegas Golden Knighst Fan!!  We signed Wild Bill Karlsson to a long term deal. Just traded Haula…(not a huge disappointment) but itll be interesting to see how our roster shakes out after all the deals. We do kick off our schedule with a game against the Sharks... I can guarantee it will be EXCITING! Vegas will be on a mission this season after what happened last year. We will be out to prove once again.... We are a Stanley Cup Finals team!

 

Go KNIGHTS Go!

[mcanadiens]

14 minutes ago, Champion14 said:

We signed Wild Bill Karlsson to a long term deal.

Make that a forever deal.

Funny enough, that's the second 8-year deal a guy named Karlsson has signed this month.

Got nothing against your new guy, but I always get nervous when my teams throw out those kind of terms. For my own club's sake, I'm hoping 39-year-old Carey Price can still get the job done when his forever deal concludes.

[Shindig]

Best friend gave me two books for my birthday.  They're about developing a skill I'm not good at:  watching hockey.  It isn't a function of time, although that's part of it, it's that I can't follow the puck (I haven't been good at that since the blinking one, and that's not been a feature for a while) and that's what I'm trying to do.  Hopefully these books give me plenty to think about and I'll get some practice in when the season starts.  

[Warren Zevon]

   The Oilers treaded water this draft.  Even though they really lack scoring wingers, for some strange reason they selected another left side defenseman.  This currently brings the number of said lefties in the organization up to 27.  Okay, I’m exaggerating, but you get the point.  

 

    I’m interested to see if Ken Holland will do better than Peter Chiarelli.   Totally jinxing myself, but he can’t do any worse, can he?

 

     The SJ Karlsson deal makes the Vegas one look even better, in my books.   SJ will be paying through the nose, but at least they’ll get some cap relief via the LTIR when he inevitably gets injured.  

[mcanadiens]

10 hours ago, Shindig said:

Best friend gave me two books for my birthday.  They're about developing a skill I'm not good at:  watching hockey.  It isn't a function of time, although that's part of it, it's that I can't follow the puck (I haven't been good at that since the blinking one, and that's not been a feature for a while) and that's what I'm trying to do.  Hopefully these books give me plenty to think about and I'll get some practice in when the season starts.  

The big thing is that you don't really watch the puck, you watch the skaters. Once you get used to it, you'll know exactly where the puck is because the skater will be clearly handling it or a goalie will be trying to save it, etc. etc.

Big screen, high definition TVs help a lot. Remember trying to watch games on a 20-inch CRT. That was less than easy. 

All said, TV never really does the sport justice. Nothing replaces being at the game.

 

 

[Shindig]

12 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

The big thing is that you don't really watch the puck, you watch the skaters. Once you get used to it, you'll know exactly where the puck is because the skater will be clearly handling it or a goalie will be trying to save it, etc. etc.

Big screen, high definition TVs help a lot. Remember trying to watch games on a 20-inch CRT. That was less than easy. 

All said, TV never really does the sport justice. Nothing replaces being at the game.

Funny you should say the first part:  the first book I'll be reading is called Take Your Eye off the Puck.  

I might try to get to a game at some point.  In the next few months, I'll be moving (for non-hockey reasons) closer to a friend who is really into the sport (he got the books for me), and he goes to a few games.  I'm also going to try to watch with him, even on TV. 

[commishbob]

[mcanadiens]

Bobrovski, Duchesne and Panarin all out of Columbus.

Gustav Nyquist coming in and Korpisalo staying.

Kekalainen has a lot of work to do.

[billchao]

4 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

Kekalainen has a lot of work to do.

He did a lot of work.... at the trade deadline. It didn't pay off for him.

[mcanadiens]

12 hours ago, billchao said:

He did a lot of work.... at the trade deadline. It didn't pay off for him.

I'm sure he did. Actually, from what his presser sounded like yesterday, he's content with it also. Nyquist sounds like a solid player, but goals may be a bit harder to come by unless young guys step up big. We'll also see how Merzlikins works out in the pipes. You just never really know about goalies. 

As far as my number one club, I didn't hear about the Sebastien Aho offer sheet until later in the evening. I like the move if it comes off, but if the Canes keep him, it will sort of seem like a bust. Sort of disappointed to lose Shaw and was really hoping they'd get a blue-liner. 

 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, mcanadiens said:

As far as my number one club, I didn't hear about the Sebastien Aho offer sheet until later in the evening. I like the move if it comes off, but if the Canes keep him, it will sort of seem like a bust.

They're going to match. Their GM said something along the lines of his summer got easier because someone did the contract negotiating for him.

Then there's this gem:

Canadiens were gambling on the Canes not being able to match the offer sheet based on the pay schedule, because it's something like $21m in bonuses which have to be paid in 12 months. Canes obviously have the cap room for the AAV.

The best part about this whole thing is the Canadiens need to keep that Aho cap space available per the CBA and the Canes have a week to match, so basically they can handcuff Montreal from making any further moves until the prime period of free agency is over.

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, billchao said:

The best part about this whole thing is the Canadiens need to keep that Aho cap space available per the CBA and the Canes have a week to match, so basically they can handcuff Montreal from making any further moves until the prime period of free agency is over.

Ha ha ha. Nice.

Pretty rare for a competing offer. NHL GMs have an unwritten agreement not to offer sheet other players, basically.

[mcanadiens]

45 minutes ago, billchao said:

Canadiens were gambling on the Canes not being able to match the offer sheet based on the pay schedule, because it's something like $21m in bonuses which have to be paid in 12 months. Canes obviously have the cap room for the AAV.

The best part about this whole thing is the Canadiens need to keep that Aho cap space available per the CBA and the Canes have a week to match, so basically they can handcuff Montreal from making any further moves until the prime period of free agency is over.

Unless I'm way off base, I'm guessing Bergevin didn't plan to do anything other than take a roll of the dice on Aho.

Sort of sounding like another "building" year for the Habs. They keep their money, They keep their picks. Waiting their turn.

[billchao]

13 minutes ago, iacas said:

Pretty rare for a competing offer. NHL GMs have an unwritten agreement not to offer sheet other players, basically.

There doesn't need to be any collusion. The whole offer sheet system is dumb.

Part of the whole advantage to negotiating with RFAs is that they really have no leverage and a team can sign them to a below market contract, so they gain a little value. But, in order to convince another team's RFA to sign an offer sheet, the contract will likely be closer to market value so it's a fair deal for the player. If the team that owns his rights doesn't match, they're given draft picks as compensation. So the offering team is giving out a fair value contract and draft picks. It's worse than unrestricted free agency in a way, because the team is giving up money and futures. It's the worst form of buying high.

Then of course there's the fact that the owning team can just match. Even if they are tight against the cap, teams usually find a way. I'm pretty sure Dustin Penner is the only RFA to change teams via offer sheet in the CBA era and there's a reason for it. It's not because offer sheets aren't made and signed.

4 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Unless I'm way off base, I'm guessing Bergevin didn't plan to do anything other than take a roll of the dice on Aho.

With some GMs, less is more 😜