The 2023 NHL Thread

[The Buscher]

Yeah I’m more than cool with Vegas winning it as currently constructed.  Had they won right after expansion it would’ve felt like they were practically handed a cup with the new rules.

The city loves ‘em, several dominating performances these playoffs.  Much deserved.

[gunnar hendershow]

I actually really like that the NHL has set up Vegas and Seattle to both be good and competitive almost immediately. McPhee did incredible work constructing a team with side deals based off the new rules, so well in fact that everyone collectively wanted to make it harder for Seattle. But with the hard cap there's a lot of immediate flexibility these teams had to make transactions that teams with gluts of longer-term contracts can't make.

We've seen MLB expansion teams be really good very early, owing to free agency and the boatload of money they usually are willing to spend in their first few seasons off the backs of sell outs. NBA hasn't had expansion since the last big "wave" in the 90s and some of those teams did get good early but it was almost always after a few miserable years at the start. With both of those leagues likely having expansion within the next 10 years I'm really curious to see if they take a page from the NHL and open up their new teams to better players through an expansion draft.

[Draevyn]

44 minutes ago, I Think You Should Busch said:

Yeah I’m more than cool with Vegas winning it as currently constructed.  Had they won right after expansion it would’ve felt like they were practically handed a cup with the new rules.

Can you explain this? I may be missing something. I felt like if they'd won it in their expansion year it would have been insanely lucky because they were the biggest bunch of ragtag players I'd seen in a long time...until the Kraken came along. What new rules are we talking about?

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, Draevyn said:

Can you explain this? I may be missing something. I felt like if they'd won it in their expansion year it would have been insanely lucky because they were the biggest bunch of ragtag players I'd seen in a long time...until the Kraken came along. What new rules are we talking about?

The expansion draft rules were changed significantly for Vegas (and later Seattle).  Teams were able to protect a lot fewer players than they ever have in an expansion draft before, with likely the biggest change being that they could only protect one goalie.  In most previous drafts, teams could protect their top two goalies and the expansion team would essentially be forced to start a couple of third stringers, or allocate a huge part of their budget to a free agent goalie that was out there.

Along with that, each teams' unprotected list was required to have two forwards and one defenseman that played 40 games in the previous season, effectively guaranteeing Vegas would have a big list of actual NHL-caliber talent to pick from.

The other thing was that Vegas basically were allowed to get dibs on free agents.  @damhausen mentioned cutting deals and if memory serves, the idea was that if a team and their outgoing free agent could work out a deal to send that player to Vegas instead, which would count as Vegas "drafting" one of their players.  So the teams had incentive to work with Vegas and have some level of say in which players they'd lose during the draft.

All of this was pretty unheard of at the time.  It did succeed in NHL's goal of having the expansion team not be a joke, and it was fun, but I think it's probably a good thing for history that they didn't actually win the whole thing in their first year.

[Plubby]

It does bear mentioning that the success of the Vegas expansion draft was also in part due to how badly the other GM's handled their rosters.

 

Like, the Panthers (allegedly) trading Reilly Smith to Vegas so they'd take Marchessault is the one everyone is talking about it blowing up in their faces, but if you go back and look at the lists - sure the draft was 6 or 7 years ago or whatever but so much of it aged hideously. My team protected their two best players, one player with a NMC, and nobody else who survived to this year's team.

 

And basically to a person, everyone thought they'd suck in year one. Teams wisened up the second time around, and the Kraken sucked in year one, and barely beat my crippled Avalanche to win a round this year.

 

Maybe the expansion draft rules could use some slight tuning down - but i'd also be in favour of just leaving it for the future and see how much smarter teams will continue to get with the expansion draft.

[Toe]

It's much better to have teams like Seattle and Vegas succeed quickly than to have teams like the Blue Jackets and Thrashers who sucked in perpetuity. 

[The Buscher]

Mogilny snubbed from the Hall of Fame again.

At this point it really just plain feels like the committee is dead-set against inducting Russian players.  Which is pretty ironic in this case because Mogilny’s defection was groundbreaking when it happened.  You really can’t tell the story of the league without him.

[Gabriel]

Craig Conroy has quite the task ahead of him over the next few weeks.

Noah Hanifin has said that he won't be re-signing after the year because he wants to play in the States, and he's unrestricted, so he's out. Tyler Toffoli has also requested to be moved out of Calgary after the leading the team in goals last season.

Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund haven't made decisions yet, and Lindholm is the one guy who alters the Flames' plans based on whether or not he's sticking around. If they re-sign him, Conroy needs to commit to icing a competitive lineup because Elias wants assurances that they're chasing a cup, not a top draft pick. If he decides he wants to try the market instead, Conroy can't walk him to free agency and it's likely a deal is made before the season starts... but that opens the doors for a potential rebuild.

That said, Hanifin and Toffoli are the first pieces to go, and I believe that Lindholm's decision will be based on the returns.

Of course, it would be a better situation if they could move or sign Lindholm before dealing with the other two guys, because what Lindholm does impacts what they should be looking for in returns for those two. Does Conroy target cheaper NHL players or picks/prospects in return? Well, that depends on whether we're putting our chips in and keeping Lindholm or trying for a quick rebuild.

If I'm Conroy, I'm looking for NHL proven young players at lesser cap hits in exchange for Hanifin and Toffoli first. If the best packages come in the form of futures, then it is what it is and you can still try to appease Lindholm by using those cap savings to bring in free agents.

Or, I just don't worry about any of the fence-leaners and I move out anybody who doesn't want to be part of the solution for whatever the best possible return is, whether it's NHL ready guys or future assets.

[Gabriel]

The first domino has fallen in Calgary.

The Devils are getting a very good sniper in Tyler Toffoli.

In return, the Flames have added Sharaganovich, who has scored 53 goals over 204 games for Jersey. Additionally, a 3rd round pick is going to Calgary.

I don't hate it. Flames fans are crying on the twitter that we should have gotten more, but the biggest asset a team can get right now (for most teams) is cap space. In this market, Toffoli was never going to fetch us anything more than a guy with the potential to be a better version of him and a 2nd or 3rd. No one is going 1st rounder for Toffoli right now.

We got a guy who can slot into the middle six, with a 24 goal season under his belt and potential to be more. That's a reasonable, and arguably really good, return.

[KJE]

This whole Mike Babcock thing is flabbergasting. I'm really interested to know if he was fired but given the option to resign to save face or if he actually decided he was happier bring retired.

Edit - Reading more into it, sounds more like a firing than resigning. What a weird story.

Edited September 17, 2023 by KJE

[caucasianheat]

I don't know who thought this was a good idea. I didn't expect he would be turfed before ever actually stepping foot onto the bench, but Babcock's presence was obviously going to create a very scrutinized and negative atmosphere around the team. They have so many skilled young prospects, I can't fathom why the disgraced psychological terrorist was their top pick for a new coach.

[Toe]

It's so hard to get excited for another season of this Leafs team. It's just the same old shit - they have a good season, look like the 2nd or 3rd best team in the conference, but none of it matters until the playoffs.