AROUND THE LEAGUE - 26-27

[donlever]

Let's put it this way Tciso.

Devils top 6:

Timo Meier Nico Hischier Dawson Mercier

Jesper Bratt Jack Hughes Evangelista

Not bad.

...moves Anthony Mantha/Connor Brown to 3rd/4th line where they belong.

56 points in 81 games for Evangelista on a pretty below average Preds team and he's in a contract year and just turned 24 early this year.

[Lancer]

Not a bad haul for a 2nd-rd pick, but as been mentioned elsewhere, 1st-round pucks don’t have the cachet they used to these days. Unless teams get lucky, if they’re picking outside the top-ten the player they pick is most likely going to fill a support role vice play a key/core spot on the roster. The line between a late-1st and a 2nd-rd pick is thin these days.

It also help trade value-wise that Evangelista is on the younger side of 25.

[UWSaint]

Minten signs 7x7.2AAV.

Seems like its a good time to be high potential and modest success. In the flat cap era, there was a mutual interest in potential + more than modest success to hook up on long terms deals. But today, those players want shorter deals to really cash in, and modest success means that you've established a floor and that floor is a good bet to be at or around market when that cap goes up another 30% in three years. So the risk is lower, and the potential for striking it rich remains.

[Madcombinepilot]

Minten signs 7x7.2AAV.

Seems like its a good time to be high potential and modest success. In the flat cap era, there was a mutual interest in potential + more than modest success to hook up on long terms deals. But today, those players want shorter deals to really cash in, and modest success means that you've established a floor and that floor is a good bet to be at or around market when that cap goes up another 30% in three years. So the risk is lower, and the potential for striking it rich remains.

"striking it rich"..

...um.. 50 sheets IS rich!!

[Cousin Strawberry]

I've got about 50 sheets left on the roll in my basement shitter.

Two ply and everything

I'm rich

[Meds]

Sportsnet Article regarding little facts about every team.

A few thoughts on some of them.....

Anaheim and Cutter Gauthier - Still no contract there, and while many point out that Gauthier is a winger whose game is a finisher who has yet to pump out a 1.0 PPG season, he had 41 goals last season, and was the Ducks leading point producer in the playoffs. While Carlsson does project to be a very good 1C with a more complete 200 foot game, his own numbers would have been less without Gauthier. The Ducks will be very lucky to get Gauthier to sign for anything less than $17M now that they've matched Carlsson's offer sheet at $18M. Nor do I think Gauthier should sign for less with them. However, the Ducks will be hard pressed to make the playoffs with the turnover on their roster this summer, even more so if they are missing their top goal scorer. Verbeek has fucked the duck badly.

Columbus and Rick Bowness - Bowness is returning to the Blue Jackets' bench after the team shit the bed down the final stretch and he publicly called out the room for it's poor culture: "“These guys, they don't care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn't bother them." This could be an interesting drama to watch unfold.

Seattle Kraken are having trouble attract star talent - This is a curious one. I haven't followed Seattle really other than their expansion year where they really fell short of what Vegas did (partly because the rest of the teams had learned the hard way), but they also made some odd selections at that time and have been your typical expansion team so far. Notably, Robertson turned down a $15M contract extension with them, and Panarin said no to $14M in order to sign in LA for $11M. Is Seattle a shitty destination?

Hellebuyck's trade request - This is a tough one for Winnipeg. The player went public with his request because Chevy wasn't getting a deal done, the Jets have choked in the playoffs too many times at this point and Chevy seems reluctant to read the tea leaves and rebuild.....will his star goaltender wanting out make him face reality?

[UWSaint]

The Ducks will be very lucky to get Gauthier to sign for anything less than $17M now that they've matched Carlsson's offer sheet at $18M. Nor do I think Gauthier should sign for less with them. However, the Ducks will be hard pressed to make the playoffs with the turnover on their roster this summer, even more so if they are missing their top goal scorer. Verbeek has fucked the duck badly.

And this is a good lesson on rebuilds. Even when you draft/acquire the right players, you have to manage your assets correctly. Here, the Ducks were building on a young Barkov (Carlsson), the best young goal scorer in the game (Gauthier), a quickly developing highly-skilled big forward who seems to possess the "it" factor (Sennecke), a passable #1D (LaCombe -- not elite, but quite good), a sort-of-power forward #2C (McTavish), and solid-enough goaltending (Dostal). Sort of checks all the boxes for a core.

But enter this offseason, and the team will be spending north of 30% of their cap on just two of these players with 5 years of combined NHL experience. The plan for lineup depth and culture -- experienced vets -- are both past their expiry and need to be moved anyway due the salary crunch. They move a properly aged for the core, flawed-but-just-depending-on-2C-2C on a long term affordable for these days contract out for draft picks -- in spite of the depth issues needing to be addressed and the new depth issue down the middle it will create. This leaves depth that makes the remainder parts of those early 2020s Oilers teams look solid.

Bang -- just like that, a team coming out of a rebuild, fueled by players on ELCs and providing huge surplus value, becomes a tapped out and not deep enough gang whose only good fortune is being in the Pacific Division. And yet you can't reasonably expect a better group of draft picks (or prospects acquired) to be produced in a rebuild.

[donlever]

If only Verbeek had signed Carlsson to a "Buium like" deal when he had the opportunity to do so.

All of this mess would be tempered for him....

...so this is one reason the "Buium Like" deals now exist in our world.

E.G. Les Habitants de Montreal


...as an aside Yandle is now saying Gauthier rumours are 90 millionx6 years so same value as Leo but 1 more year.

[MJN]

He would have so much more leverage if he had some playoff pedigree.

What would you rather have, 7 million in net and 5.5 million on D or 13.5 in net? I think the leader in games played last season was 62 or 63, that's a large investment for 75% of the season and a spotty post season record.

[UWSaint]

If only Verbeek had signed Carlsson to a "Buium like" deal when he had the opportunity to do so.

All of this mess would be tempered for him....

If if if....

And even with the offer sheet, what's happening now with Gauthier was perfectly predictable. It wasn't just going to boost Carlsson, it was going to boost Gauthier and even Minky. And then it will affect Sennecke. Its a much more substantial version of what bit the Laffs in the ass. They didn't really get a deal from Matthews, Tavares signed to big bucks, Marner and Nylander aren't going to be offering team discounts -- none of those deals were individually bad, but all of them might have been for less freeing up space to address the D.

And so the choice on signing Carlsson was not only whether to ink him to a deal that he may grow into but was certainly above the even growing post-ELC market, but also whether to take on the trickle down effect. Given the size of the Carlsson contract and the tentative position of the Flyers (possibly a playoff team, possibly a lottery team), the offer sheet return was substantial. By trading McTavish earlier in the summer, the Ducks were sort of left without a plan B that wasn't "rebuild again" (I suppose plan C could have been to convert those firsts into players -- but what's the best you get? Two McTavishes?) Rebuild again may very well have been the right call, but how unacceptable to fans and owners with only one season of seeing a pretty good plan (in terms of players) start to come to fruition.

[UWSaint]

And now Kreider's on waivers, apparently for the purpose of mutual contract termination. Which means they get out of the deal just as if he was claimed on waivers. So credit to Verbeek -- he's apparently running the franchise in a way that would make a guy prefer to give up $6.5 million willingly to not be there. I mean its quite possible he's picked up, but it won't be for that.

[Madcombinepilot]

The Ducks will be very lucky to get Gauthier to sign for anything less than $17M now that they've matched Carlsson's offer sheet at $18M. Nor do I think Gauthier should sign for less with them. However, the Ducks will be hard pressed to make the playoffs with the turnover on their roster this summer, even more so if they are missing their top goal scorer. Verbeek has fucked the duck badly.

And this is a good lesson on rebuilds. Even when you draft/acquire the right players, you have to manage your assets correctly. Here, the Ducks were building on a young Barkov (Carlsson), the best young goal scorer in the game (Gauthier), a quickly developing highly-skilled big forward who seems to possess the "it" factor (Sennecke), a passable #1D (LaCombe -- not elite, but quite good), a sort-of-power forward #2C (McTavish), and solid-enough goaltending (Dostal). Sort of checks all the boxes for a core.

But enter this offseason, and the team will be spending north of 30% of their cap on just two of these players with 5 years of combined NHL experience. The plan for lineup depth and culture -- experienced vets -- are both past their expiry and need to be moved anyway due the salary crunch. They move a properly aged for the core, flawed-but-just-depending-on-2C-2C on a long term affordable for these days contract out for draft picks -- in spite of the depth issues needing to be addressed and the new depth issue down the middle it will create. This leaves depth that makes the remainder parts of those early 2020s Oilers teams look solid.

Bang -- just like that, a team coming out of a rebuild, fueled by players on ELCs and providing huge surplus value, becomes a tapped out and not deep enough gang whose only good fortune is being in the Pacific Division. And yet you can't reasonably expect a better group of draft picks (or prospects acquired) to be produced in a rebuild.

Good post.

This is why the team HAS to care about winning and culture. If they have another last place finish (which lots of fans and the media wants), you could end with that losing culture that cripples teams trying to get out of the basement because that teams good players - who are all competitive - want to win. Then you end up in that endless cycle where you still suck, good players leave, draft top 5 every year, but still suck... repeat.

just like Buffalo.

I hope we see marked improvement in play. push for 80-85 points in the standings (around 20th in the league). Next fall, players have to be able to look back at this upcoming season as a step forward.

[BoS]

And now Kreider's on waivers, apparently for the purpose of mutual contract termination. Which means they get out of the deal just as if he was claimed on waivers. So credit to Verbeek -- he's apparently running the franchise in a way that would make a guy prefer to give up $6.5 million willingly to not be there. I mean its quite possible he's picked up, but it won't be for that.

Looks like Kreider’s base salary is $4 mil. He just took $1 mil in signing bonus. Given he put up 50 points last year, his agent must feel another team would be willing to fork out $4 and take a chance on him.

Maybe a bottom feeder looking to flip him at the TDL?

[donlever]

Kreider has (allegedly) a minimized list in hand of East Coast American teams with the idea of being closer to family....and...presumably...winning. It is claimed he will refuse to report to certain teams which certainly his agent is making clear.

I'm going to guess (safe bet) he's indeed looking to win at this point in his career

He actually was a very credible asset last year and remains a consistent scorer.

The 6-foot-3, 232-pound power forward ranked in the 82nd percentile of max skating speed last season while tallying 22 goals and 50 points in 75 games - his eighth straight and 11th total 20-goal campaign.

Carolina
Tampa
Buffalo
Washington
Florida

??

[Picker of Cherries]

And now Kreider's on waivers, apparently for the purpose of mutual contract termination. Which means they get out of the deal just as if he was claimed on waivers. So credit to Verbeek -- he's apparently running the franchise in a way that would make a guy prefer to give up $6.5 million willingly to not be there. I mean its quite possible he's picked up, but it won't be for that.

Looks like Kreider’s base salary is $4 mil. He just took $1 mil in signing bonus. Given he put up 50 points last year, his agent must feel another team would be willing to fork out $4 and take a chance on him.

Maybe a bottom feeder looking to flip him at the TDL?

Not bad for a TDL flip, but the Canucks would fall to the end of the waiver priority line if they take him.
They might be targeting someone with more future on Sept 27/28 when line-ups are set.