May NHL News Thread
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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Four years ago, Halak was ripping through two of the best offensive teams of this generation. Now, he's on his fourth team in two months.
Edit: and apparently, likely off to a fifth come Canada Day.
Edit: and apparently, likely off to a fifth come Canada Day.
Torts gets tossed.....is he done as an NHL coach? He gets a $6M kiss good bye...not bad for a one and done
If Wang is on the verge of selling the team, I'd have to think that the Isles will sign Halak. Until Wang is actually gone, I can't help but worry that they will screw this up.MiracleOfO2704 said:
Ugh it'd suck to lose Benning to the Canucks, but he'd at least be in the West.
Maybe he could undouchify that squad.
Maybe he could undouchify that squad.
Keith Jones took a pretty big shot at the Canucks on tonight's pregame. Said it didn't work out because Torts has expectations when it comes to work ethic, defensive play, shot blocking, and conditioning that the Canucks couldn't meet, and "it raises questions about the character of the Canucks". That's pretty harsh...he pretty much called them lazy pussies, and wasn't all that subtle about it.
I honestly don't know what I think about this. Basically to me Hexy the GM is a relative unknown, he's been the assistant here and was the assistant in LA, but who really knows how the assistant GM feels about each deal or how much input he had, or what he'd have done differently. So obviously jury's out. And as maligned as Homer often was one thing you could say about him is he was always looking to improve the roster, and he wasn't shy about pulling the trigger. Long-term plan? Eh, maybe not so much. But he wasn't boring.
So in comes Hextall, a guy who sits firmly on my personal sports Mount Rushmore with Pedro, Papi, and Tom Brady. But I'm worried that when he gives that 4 year extension to Zac Rinaldo or some such silliness a bit of the shine will be off that diamond.
So in comes Hextall, a guy who sits firmly on my personal sports Mount Rushmore with Pedro, Papi, and Tom Brady. But I'm worried that when he gives that 4 year extension to Zac Rinaldo or some such silliness a bit of the shine will be off that diamond.
Darren Dreger @DarrenDreger 2mPedroSpecialK said:
Leafs announce Carlyle gets 2 year extension. Farrish, Gordon and Cronin let go.
Confusing..
PedroSpecialK said:
According to Dale Arnold on WEEI, his entire staff is getting the boot, but Carlyle gets to stay.
God I love the Geafs, regress to give up the most SOG against since the '95-'96 Sabres and the HC remains
Or he could be like Neely has been for the Bruins. Neely brought a championship to Boston and has even further cemented himself as a God.MoGator71 said:
Zenon Konopka gets a 20 game timeout
NEW YORK – Buffalo Sabres forward Zenon Konopka has been suspended for 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the suspension is accompanied by mandatory referral to the NHL/NHLPA Program for Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health for evaluation and possible treatment.
The player's contract expires with the conclusion of the 2013-14 season. The term of the suspension will be served at the beginning of any new contract.
The National Hockey League will have no further comment on this matter.
NEW YORK – Buffalo Sabres forward Zenon Konopka has been suspended for 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the suspension is accompanied by mandatory referral to the NHL/NHLPA Program for Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health for evaluation and possible treatment.
The player's contract expires with the conclusion of the 2013-14 season. The term of the suspension will be served at the beginning of any new contract.
The National Hockey League will have no further comment on this matter.
The twitter chatter is that Bylsma is gone. Some speculation is that Babcock covets the Pens/Crosby gig so there's some intrigue. A more realistic option for the Pens is Barry Trotz, IMO.
I'd much rather they were getting ready to play hockey on Saturday, as I'm sure you guys do, but this was the only decision that could be made. Ray has been a total failure in the draft (He has presided over eight drafts and the Penguins did not have ONE forward drafted in the Shero Era play in game 7) and he has been unable to lure marquee free agents to Pittsburgh. Dan's record speaks for itself, awesome in the regular season but terrible flameouts or embarrassments in the playoffs.
Now, these were two important steps but the roster has to be remade badly too.
Now, these were two important steps but the roster has to be remade badly too.
They may as well have said, "Update your CV, Dan."Greg29fan said:
Also, remember when Ray Shero had chunks of Peter Chiarelli in his stool? Good times.
Hopefully it's that and not ownership's way of making a potential new GM think he'll have authority while ultimately forcing Bylsma on himGreg29fan said:
http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/5/14/5714534/hockey-fighting-enforcers-profile-jimmy-bonneau
A good friend of mine wrote a pretty excellent long form piece on Jimmy Bonneau, enforcers, and their role in hockey. Check it out if you want a good read.
A good friend of mine wrote a pretty excellent long form piece on Jimmy Bonneau, enforcers, and their role in hockey. Check it out if you want a good read.
Hasn't played in the league for a few years, but Miro Satan has officially retired.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/satan-be-gone--miroslav-satan-calls-it-a-career-after-iihf-worlds-190438069.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/satan-be-gone--miroslav-satan-calls-it-a-career-after-iihf-worlds-190438069.html
Dogman2 said:
If the Caps hire Shero and he does what he did in Pittsburgh, I'll be thrilled. He made the playoffs every season and won a Cup. That's certainly enough for me. As far as I could tell, albeit from an outsider perspective,I feel like Shero was a wizard when it came to trading. I may be missing some, but the big ones during his tenure seem to have been:
- A bunch of crap for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis
- Ryan Whitney for Chris Kunitz
- Alex Goligoski for James Neal, Matt Niskanen
- Jordan Staal for Brandon Sutter, Brian Dumoulin, and Derrick Pouliot.
- He didn't give up too much for Iginla.
Thanks. I appreciate that perspective as it differs widely from Gregfan. The Kunitz and Neal trades were both excellent.
I too thought he made some shrewd moves to fill out the roster around his superstars. Sure, the end results were below fan (and Mario's) expectations but I think we can all agree we are living that at the moment too.
Winning it all isn't easy.
I too thought he made some shrewd moves to fill out the roster around his superstars. Sure, the end results were below fan (and Mario's) expectations but I think we can all agree we are living that at the moment too.
Winning it all isn't easy.
Darren Dreger @DarrenDreger 24s
Jim Benning has agreed to a multi-year deal as Canucks gm and will be officially introduced in Vancouver on Friday.
Jim Benning has agreed to a multi-year deal as Canucks gm and will be officially introduced in Vancouver on Friday.
Dogman2 said:
Don't get me wrong, Ray has made some great trades (although for the record he also made some bad ones like giving up Mark Letestu and Ben Lovejoy, both very serviceable NHL players, for mid-round picks), but free agency, the draft, and contract management (contrary to what ForceAtHome says, the Penguins also have that albatross Rob Scuderi contract and Kunitz/Dupuis are both signed for huge money into their late 30s) are part of being a GM too and he whiffed badly, very badly, in all of those areas.
The Penguins have somewhere between 8-12 roster spots to fill next year and have approximately 16 million dollars to do it with (and that's provided the cap is the rumored 71.1 million), and have no EL contract forward depth to turn to to help out. So yeah, I had no problem with Ray getting axed for all those reasons.
Shero has a terrible drafting record though, and Washington is low on overall talent. I mean that's basically the reason he was fired - their bottom 6 was awful. Maybe the blame goes more to their scouting but since Shero took over here are the players with any NHL impact that he's drafted:
2006: Staal - hard to screw up the #2 overall pick, but could have taken Toews (or Backstrom or Kessel)
Brian Strait
2007: Bortuzzo, Muzzin, Jeffrey (but didn't sign Muzzin)
2008: no one
2009: Despres
2010: Bennett
2011: no one (Joe Morrow being the best prospect)
2012: Maatta
That's not a lot of help.
2006: Staal - hard to screw up the #2 overall pick, but could have taken Toews (or Backstrom or Kessel)
Brian Strait
2007: Bortuzzo, Muzzin, Jeffrey (but didn't sign Muzzin)
2008: no one
2009: Despres
2010: Bennett
2011: no one (Joe Morrow being the best prospect)
2012: Maatta
That's not a lot of help.
The Bruins have also been pretty shitty in the draft over the same period of time, so I wonder how much of that is due to picking at the bottom of the draft year in and year out.
Oooh let's do the good/bad draft argument! That's always fun!cshea said:
The bottom line which you, Toe Nash and Greg29fan are all getting at is that Shero sucked at acquiring cheap talent to fill out his roster.
Chiarelli, whether his drafts have been good or bad, has been much better at identifying and acquiring minor league talent than Shero (and most of the league really). There are a ton of contributors on the Bs roster this year who came to the Bs before they were established NHLers in whole or in part because of Chia's actions: Hamilton, Smith, McQuaid, Boychuk, Miller, Krug, Soderberg, Rask, Bartkowski. Marchand and Lucic were both drafted in Chia's first year, so I'm not totally sure whether to include them on the list, but they could be on it as well. That's quite a few players, many of them key, some of them acquired for little or nothing.
Probably a good portion, though the Bruins were able to find Krug and Miller outside the draft which helps their cause a lot. And their late-round haul in 2006 makes up for a lot of misses later -- Shero has nothing comparable.cshea said:
You'd have to do a comprehensive comparison to other teams. But I think it's a big part of why he couldn't fill out the bottom 6 well (along with the overpays Greg mentioned) and therefore why he was let go.
Toe Nash said:
I think you're overestimating how many prospects hit from the draft, especially when you draft from the low first round and later. Let's look at Chiarelli in the same light as you just portrayed Shero.
2006: Kessel (same cluster of can't miss as the Staal pick), Lucic, Marchand... great value in the 2nd and 3rd. This was a phenomenal draft, though it happened like a month after Chiarelli was hired. How much was he even responsible for a lot of these picks?
2007: Absolutely nothing. Zach Hamill is the only guy to even play in the NHL from that draft, and he was an 8th overall pick who has 0 NHL goals.
2008: Joe Colborne was a mid-first rounder and the "best" player of the group. The next best... Michael Hutchinson of 3 NHL games?
2009: Jordan Caron is the top pick, and then Lane MacDermid...
2010: Seguin was an easy pick at 2. Knight was a very high second rounder who still hasn't played at the NHL level. Spooner and Florek have played a little, but hardly been major contributors so far.
2011: Hamilton was another good pick, though an easy and obvious one. Nobody else has made an NHL impact.
2012: No NHL players.
In other words, outside of Kessel, Seguin, and Hamilton, the top-10 picks with can't miss labels, the only guys Chiarelli has really hit on to make an NHL impact so far are Lucic and Marchand back in 2006 when it's unclear how much prep he even did on that draft.
You can also look at Shero in a more favorite light, too:
2006: As you said, hard to screw up the 2nd pick in this draft. Shero could have had someone better than Staal, but there was a log jam at the top that year. Chad Johnson in the 5th doesn't look like a bad pick either these days.
2007: This is definitely a bad draft on paper, but not as bad as it appears. Bortuzzo in the 3rd is their best remaining piece, and that isn't great. Muzzin in the 5th round was actually a great pick, and Jeffrey in the 6th wasn't bad. The Penguins actually traded their 1st rounder, Angelo Esposito, before he ever even left juniors. He helped them get Hossa and Dupuis -- a great haul. So, it's possible that either (a) Atlanta screwed up his development or (b) Shero was smart enough to unload the goods before people realized they weren't good. Either way, Shero turned that first round pick into something nice.
2008: You're right that the Pens didn't get anyone this year, but their first pick wasn't until 120th overall. That's not surprising.
2009: Despres was a solid pick and he was the last pick of the first round. Their next pick didn't come until 61st overall. At that point, it's hardly expected that you hit, though nice when you do. Hanowski in the third was part of the Iginla package so he added value.
2010: Bennett could still be something as their first rounder, as he still looks to have some promise as a top-6 winger (he's just 22). And then they didn't pick until 80th overall. Agostino in the 5th was also packaged for Iginla.
2011: Morrow and Harrington were taken in the 1st and 2nd rounds respectively, then they didn't pick until the 5th.
2012: Maatta is already a very talented regular NHL defenseman and Olympic medalist despite still being 19-years-old. He looks like a great pick. (I was actually clamoring for the Caps to pick Maatta over Wilson at the time since I loved his game in London.) Pouliot was just named first-team All Star in juniors and was nominated for WHL Defenseman of the Year.
2013: First pick Tristan Jarry, a goalie, just lead the WHL in games, GAA, wins, and shutouts as an absolute horse for the Oil Kings. He lead them to a WHL championship and into the Memorial Cup. He was named a first-team All-Star and nominated for WHL Goalie of the Year as an 18-year-old.
I'm not saying Shero is some great drafter, but I think he's pretty par for the course. When you draft in the 20s and end up trading high picks to add deadline pieces, you're not going to have a ton of success in the draft.
Greg29fan said:
I didn't notice Scuderi's deal. That's definitely a bad one that I will grant you. It was low enough (under $4m AAV) that I overlooked it on first glance.
I completely disagree with respect to Kunitz. He's not signed for "huge money" into his late 30s. He was given $3.85m over 3 seasons, and the deal will expire when he's 37. This is for a guy who just scored 35 goals this past season and who has been top-10 in goals in consecutive seasons leading into the extension. The Kunitz deal is a bargain.
I am aware that Shero had been pressed against the salary cap before and some had questioned his management, and that's the reason I intentionally noted in my original comment, "Washington is in a very nice position with respect to the salary cap." The Caps are in a solid spot, they just need someone to make the right move to take them to the next level. Whether that's Shero, Sweeney, Gretzky, Futa, or someone else, we'll see.