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2024 2025 Around the League Part 2

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BobRossColton said:
Even if heiskanen returns, gotta hope Harley plays himself to the ground. Then it'll just be a recovering heiskanen and drained Harley
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We're not the only ones thinking it...

1742586132907.png
 
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expatriatedtexan said:
Reminds me of a joke I heard down in Healy about the time a black bear wandered into the bar. Walked over to the counter and said, "I'd like a.........draft beer."

Bartender responded, "What's with the big paws?"
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I tried to copy the NHL graphic on Harley’s stats but it didn’t show correctly. Hence the ‘delete’. Sorry! I don’t know how the Stars are going to keep up defensively if Miro is out.
 
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We will never see watering down of the league like there was when Minnesota, Lumbus, and Nashville all joined up in quick succession. On top of some absolutely horrid NHL players on those teams that was roughly the time when you could tackle players and the refs wouldn't call it, and the NHL still thought it was a great idea to let teams pile entire rosters behind the net and take away long-bomb passes.

The league is much better at finding talent (NCAA FAs, Euro FAs, etc.) than they were before, the game is much more opened up, and of course the expansion rules make it so teams have to give up a top four defender, goalie, or third line forward. Previously those expansion clubs had to settle for table scraps. The cap lends itself to more parity as well (Vegas took full advantage, Seattle, for various reasons, did not).

Besides, keep in mind during that period, the Avs won the Cup. I don't mind there being a little watering down taking place while the Avs might still be at least competitive, if not still going for it.
 
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Pokecheque said:
We will never see watering down of the league like there was when Minnesota, Lumbus, and Nashville all joined up in quick succession. On top of some absolutely horrid NHL players on those teams that was roughly the time when you could tackle players and the refs wouldn't call it, and the NHL still thought it was a great idea to let teams pile entire rosters behind the net and take away long-bomb passes.

The league is much better at finding talent (NCAA FAs, Euro FAs, etc.) than they were before, the game is much more opened up, and of course the expansion rules make it so teams have to give up a top four defender, goalie, or third line forward. Previously those expansion clubs had to settle for table scraps. The cap lends itself to more parity as well (Vegas took full advantage, Seattle, for various reasons, did not).

Besides, keep in mind during that period, the Avs won the Cup. I don't mind there being a little watering down taking place while the Avs might still be at least competitive, if not still going for it.
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What's your logic with your comment in bold? Isn't expansion more beneficial (or rather, less harmful) for teams that aren't contenders? Contenders have spent years assembling picks, drafting, trading, etc to build a deep roster, and then they have to give quality players away right as they've completed their build. As a fan of a contender I don't want my teams roster to be weakened during contending years.

Conversely rebuilding teams give up nothing of note and essentially just continue business as usual. As a fan I didn't care at all about losing Pickard, but having to lose a top 4 Dman (Graves) and a forward (Donskoi) wasn't ideal at the time, even though admittedly it worked out as well as one could have hoped for with Seattle taking Donskoi instead of Compher, and NJ giving us a pick for Graves which may yet turn into something (Behrens).
 
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Metallo said:
How? Great players not playing in the NHL because of the cap?
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I don't really care if the overall talent level of the league goes down a notch via expansion, when most of the teams are more or less the same anyways, that's what I'm trying to say.
 
Anyone know if the same format will be used for protecting players in Expansion this time around?

Last time it was 7 forwards, 3 Dmen, and 1 goalie; or 4 forwards, 4 Dmen, and 1 goalie.

If the Avs were protecting for expansion this offseason their list would probably look like this:

Protected (7+3+1);

Mackinnon​
Necas​
Nichushkin​
Landeskog​
Coyle​
Lehkonen​
Colton​
​
Makar​
Toews​
Girard​
​
Blackwood​
​

Exposed:
  • Drury, O'Connor, Kelly, Wood
  • Manson, Malinski, Middleton
  • Wedgewood

UFA:
  • Nelson, Drouin, Vesey, Kiviranta
  • Lindgren, EJ

So basically they'd probably end up losing two of Drury, O'Connor, Manson, and Malinski.

There would be a case to be made for protecting Drury instead of Coyle given their respective ages and contracts. So maybe they lose Coyle instead of Drury. Or they trade Colton like they did with Graves to protect an extra forward. Either way they'd be losing a decent forward and/or Malinski/Manson.
 
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Richard88 said:
What's your logic with your comment in bold? Isn't expansion more beneficial (or rather, less harmful) for teams that aren't contenders? Contenders have spent years assembling picks, drafting, trading, etc to build a deep roster, and then they have to give quality players away right as they've completed their build. As a fan of a contender I don't want my teams roster to be weakened during contending years.
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I almost completely agree with you, but I'll play devil's advocate here. I think more top-heavy teams that only have to expose questionable contracts and replacement level players will probably benefit a bit from it eroding the depth of other contenders
 
Balthazar said:
Literally adding 50 more AHL caliber players to the league.
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Not really since the NHL has more internationals playing in it than the other four major NA sports. NBA has more unique "locations or countries," but I saw a stat that NHL has more amount of non-NA players playing. I think hockey is the only sport that could expand that is not the MLS due to its player-base.

This will increase scoring again though.
 
S E P H said:
Not really since the NHL has more internationals playing in it than the other four major NA sports. NBA has more unique "locations or countries," but I saw a stat that NHL has more amount of non-NA players playing. I think hockey is the only sport that could expand that is not the MLS due to its player-base.

This will increase scoring again though.
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I hate to break it to you, but 99% of these dudes playing in Europe suck ass and are not NHL quality.

I know you like the pre-Olympic and WJC group Z teams like Afghanistan vs. Botswana, but this is the reality. These guys are all trash.
 
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Richard88 said:
This one is a personal fave

View attachment 997079

View attachment 997080
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He was passed over how many times? Kaprisov? Same thing. I get it, would have been nice to get lucky like that. I just don’t really get it. So many variables that you just can’t predict with a 17-18-19 year old kid

Edit: where the avs have missed with the younger guys. I’d put a very large amount of money the avs are probably the best team at finding the pro talent and being able to project them in… lindgren has blown my mind. Never in a million years would I have guessed he would have fit in like he has

Nuke, towes, drouin, kadri, Lehky, burakovsky(to a degree) Necas, etc
 
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RoyIsALegend said:
I hate to break it to you, but 99% of these dudes playing in Europe suck ass and are not NHL quality.

I know you like the pre-Olympic and WJC group Z teams like Afghanistan vs. Botswana, but this is the reality. These guys are all trash.
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Not talking about players from Argentina vs Gibraltar, but there are a ton of Swedes, Finns, Latvians, Czechs, Suisse, and Russians that can play on the bottom six of an expansion team IMHO. It isn't top talent, but provides solid depth.
 
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