The Hockey Thread

[The Sultan of Swank]

I don't see Toronto being a playoff team next season. The defense, supposing that Kaberle stays in Toronto consists of 1 good puck moving d man, a good shut down man in Phaneuf and Komisarek who hasn't played well since getting rocked by Lucic and suffers from Markov syndrom.

Up front It's Kessel and at best 3 decent prospects, probably only 2 really in Bozak and Kadri.

Now, the Leafs also do this every season, they play well once they're out of the race. So I'd take with a grain of salt how well Bozak has been playing recently, and wait for next October to reserve judgement.

I think with the right moves... which, considering it's Burke, I'm not entirely sure it'll happen(honestly, the only really good trade or pick up I think is for Giguere), but with the right moves, I think Toronto's looking at 10-12th next season, which would be a good improvement.

Toronto is actually in a rebuilding mode, which is great for the Leafs, unfortunately Burke has really only ever inheirated good teams, or teams with high draft picks. Unfortunately he gave away the next 2 firsts for Toronto because this and next year aren't supposed to be great draft classes. I'm sure that if I told you that you had the chance to draft Hall or Seguin this year, you might disagree. As much as Toronto tried to improve last summer, they basically picked up grinders and bangers not speed and skill, except for Kessel... which they bet the farm on.

This is not to say that Toronto might not find a gem in the following rounds, hell the 2010-2011 Calder winner P.K. Subban was from the second round, but I just don't see why a rebuilding team would toss away picks.

I'm gonna predict around 11th next season, fighting for Playoffs in two, pending everything goes right.

[SeanDMan]

IMO, the Flames are in far worse shape. The Flames have no good prospects and no picks next year. They're going to be very lean for a while.

The problem is that Burke has a hard on for US college kids and the vast majority of the time they just don't pan out. Hockey is too inconsistent talent wise in the NCAA to get a good barometer for a players skills.

[Plubby]

C'moooooon Toronto/Rangers/Colorado Trifecta

[The Sultan of Swank]

Boo yah! 6 in a row and 6th place for now. Coupled with Ottawa's loss Montreal is 1 point back of 5th place Ottawa... who do have a game in hand, but more importantly there's a Habs/Sens game this week which could severely impact that situation. Philly managed only 1 point tonight, but they could still get 3 ahead with their 2 games in hand. Montreal's chances are bumped up to 93% now.

Pleks agent says that they're done negociating until the end of the season. I retract my previous statement about him... So long Tommy.

[Clawson]

Komisarek was actually playing extremely well before his shoulder injury. I'm excited to see him in form again next year. We'll have a defense that nobody can touch, but well...scoring goals could get interesting.

[The Sultan of Swank]

You mean you'll have the most over-rated defense?

[Clawson]

I don't think we'll be trading for Andrei Markov this off-season. Though Burke did get Phaneuf for not a whole lot so who knows.

And about this whole Leaf late-season rush. I'm cautiously optimstic this year because its the kids that are doing it instead of old vets. Hopefully, they'll use this as a confidence boost and be able to play well next year.

Edited March 17, 2010 by Clawson

[Plubby]

I haven't been able to say this in a while, but...WAR BUDAJ~!

[The Sultan of Swank]

So I missed most of the game last night because I was at ball hockey. I thought this was funny though, so one of the teams in the league call themselves The Leafs. They're super intense, all wear their dumbass looking Leaf jerseys to the game etc. We won 11-0, I had 6 goals due mostly to my blood lust, and as it turns out, the team is 0-4 with 3 goals for and 41 against... Sounds like real life. They've got only 1 scoring option, no D and a goalie who couldn't stop a fucking beach ball.

Edited March 17, 2010 by The Sultan of Swank

[Toe]

Hey, we traded away Toskala!

[Mr. X]

So, if the Blachawks send Huet down to Rockford and a team would pick him up on waivers, does that mean the Blackhawks only cover 1/2 of his salary for the rest of the year or would it apply to his salary for every year that he is contracted?

[Plubby]

I don't think they cover his salary at all, unless it's re-entry waivers that he is put on.

[Gabriel]

I don't think they cover his salary at all, unless it's re-entry waivers that he is put on.

Correct.

A player sent down to a minor league affiliate, that is picked up on waivers by another team, is no longer the responsibility of his former club. The team that picks him up takes on his full contract from that point until its' expiry.

Players who are claimed on re-entry waivers, however, are available to be picked up by a new team, with the new club and former club sharing the financial obligations of the remainder of the contract.

So if Huet doesn't clear waivers, then his new team pays his full salary.

If Huet clears waivers, and they bring him back up through re-entry, and he's claimed, then the Blackhawks are responsible for half of his salary until his contract expires.

[Ruki]

Why is it they have to pay half for re-entry and not sending them down? Seems kinda random.

[Gabriel]

Why is it they have to pay half for re-entry and not sending them down? Seems kinda random.

I believe that it is to help encourage player movement.

A guy who clears waivers may be attractive to another team, but his price-tag may be a bit too much for the team to swallow. So if he clears the first time, he may not clear the second time, and it penalizes the original team for letting him go, by forcing them to pay half the wage.

Personally, I really hate the salary cap. How many times in the NHL has a team purchased a championship? The Rangers tried to do it starting in the early 90s and made it close, what, once? In 94.

Plus, it forces smaller market teams to spend more money than they can afford, because of the basement salary being set also.

[SeanDMan]

You just had to bring up 1994, didn't you?

[SeanDMan]

Hey Gabriel? You know what else happened in 1994? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xL3_T9NAww.

[Gabriel]

Hey Gabriel? You know what else happened in 1994? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xL3_T9NAww.

Haha, oh Sean.

Seriously though, you've gotta agree with me at least a little bit. The Rangers won the Cup in 94, but aside from that, even though they tossed money around like it was candy, they didn't even get close again.

Stanley Cups, historically, cannot be bought. The Salary Cap is a nuissance to big market and small market teams alike, and the only winners in the cap era are the NHL.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Maybe they can't be bought, but they can sure be rented.

[SeanDMan]

Seriously though, you've gotta agree with me at least a little bit. The Rangers won the Cup in 94, but aside from that, even though they tossed money around like it was candy, they didn't even get close again.

Stanley Cups, historically, cannot be bought. The Salary Cap is a nuissance to big market and small market teams alike, and the only winners in the cap era are the NHL.

Actually, I kind of don't.

First and foremost, I think we can both agree that the current cap structure, rules, and associated elements could be significantly reworked to a more effective and balanced system. The NHL rarely does anything well, nevermind perfectly, and I definitely have my issues with the cap and the CBA rules in general.

But the system right now works a lot better than it used to. A good example of this discussion is the Rangers. The Rangers were TERRIBLE for a decade following their cup win because they were able to sign whoever they wanted, so they simply signed the best players they could afford. Most of those players were signed based on reputation and were past their prime, so the Rangers mostly managed to have the best collection of playing cards but not a great collection of players.

Post lockout, things changed. The Rangers began to rely more on homegrown talent like Petr Prucha, Dominic Moore, and Henrik Lundqvist, because they could no longer afford to simply buy the best talent. The results speak for themselves; 7 straight years missing the playoffs without a salary cap, and 4 straight years post lockout in the playoffs. Of course, they might miss this year, because for some reason they've gotten it into their head that they should give out really really bad contracts to veteran players (Drury, Gomez, Redden, Morris) rather than retain their young players (pretty much everyone except Lundqvist). If they continue on that pattern of pre-salary cap spending habits with a salary cap in effect, they'll end up like the pre-lockout Rangers and miss the playoffs for decades straight.

Another good example is the Edmonton Oilers. Starting in 1996-97 there began an exodus of talent from Edmonton either through cost cutting trades or free agents lost to larger market teams. Miroslav Satan, Jason Arnott, Curtis Joseph, Roman Hamrlik, Bill Guerin, Doug Weight, Jochen Hecht, Mike Grier, Anson Carter, Petr Nedved, all of those names left Edmonton during prime playing years because Edmonton could not afford to resign them for market value. And yes, during those years Edmonton did make the playoffs (6 of 8 years), but they never went anywhere because they usually had to move OUT core pieces at the deadline instead of moving IN key assets for a playoff push. With the salary cap in place, Edmonton could now be certain that the talent they had could be retained to affordable deals and that no team could simply walk into the room waving a big dick around and take their best players, so they became buyers. They brought in Chris Pronger and Mike Peca, Dick Tarnstrom, Dwayne Roloson, Sergei Samsanov. The result? A Stanley Cup finals appearance. The following season, though, they were gutted when Radek Dvorak, Chris Pronger, Michael Peca, and Sergei Samsanov all left (mostly not for financial reasons). As a result, they've been set back significantly, but their team still has a lot of potential; they just need to get a goalie and stop trying to trade for Prima Donnas like Pronger and Heatley.

Overall, the cap has helped with parity and fiscal security. Take this from one of the most ardent anti-owner, anti-cap voices from when the lockout was on; so far, I like the cap and think it's made the NHL better.