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Around Hockey XII (All Non-Jackets Hockey talk in here)

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cslebn

cslebn

80 forever
Feb 15, 2012
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blahblah said:
You didn't watch the Jackets under Arniel did you?
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Center ice is a wonderful advantage, except when your coach is Arniel ;)

But

The Devils are no where near that situation. Really that's not a close comparable and just seems jaded instead.
 
Sore Loser

Sore Loser

Sorest of them all
Dec 9, 2006
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cslebn said:
Sure the top tier talent isn't there, but when did the Devils ever win with top tier talent other than a D man or two and Marty?
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This is an excellent point, but, when the Devils were successful, the league was lower scoring, they had the two Scotts on the blueline, and guys like Ken Daneyko didn't hurt. Not to mention, it's fairly easy to win with the greatest goaltender to ever play the game, in front of that stingy defense, and guys who (while not the most talented) could score seemingly at will on the powerplay.

Their gameplan, genius as it was, was really quite simple - put all 5 guys on defense and wait for a powerplay. Can't really do that anymore, with the rules against hooking and interference.
 

blahblah

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Nov 24, 2005
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cslebn said:
The Devils are no where near that situation. Really that's not a close comparable and just seems jaded instead.
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Never said it was a comparable. You just said it can't get worse. Yes, oh yes it can.

That team is quite a bit different than last year in key spots at forward. No idea what it's going to do to the locker room.
 

blahblah

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Nov 24, 2005
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So IK signs with the KHL (probably talked about in another thread)? Yeah, that's a problem that the NHL needs to deal with.
 

GoJackets1

Someday.
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Aug 21, 2008
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I agree. "Retiring" to get out of your contract is a giant loophole. Not sure what they can do to fix it though...
 
EspenK

EspenK

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Sep 25, 2011
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I think if the Devils were flush they would have had more of a problem with him "retiring" to go play in the KHL.
 

major major

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Feb 18, 2013
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EspenK said:
I think if the Devils were flush they would have had more of a problem with him "retiring" to go play in the KHL.
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In this case its convenient for both parties. But if its this easy for Kovy it would be easy for other players to skip out on their contracts, even if it is very inconvenient to their club.

I'm actually surprised that a player can just "retire" and sign right away without any legal repercussions. It seems simple to write it into the rules that you can't take up other employment as a player if you retire prior to the conclusion of your contract. We have all kinds of legally binding rules like that in contracts throughout parts of our economy.

Why is the NHL any different? Perhaps the NHL legal team hasn't quite caught up with the fact that the KHL is a serious competitor for employees.
 
Mayor Bee

Mayor Bee

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Dec 29, 2008
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major major said:
In this case its convenient for both parties. But if its this easy for Kovy it would be easy for other players to skip out on their contracts, even if it is very inconvenient to their club.

I'm actually surprised that a player can just "retire" and sign right away without any legal repercussions. It seems simple to write it into the rules that you can't take up other employment as a player if you retire prior to the conclusion of your contract. We have all kinds of legally binding rules like that in contracts throughout parts of our economy.
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Part of why there's been hard feelings, particularly from Russia to the NHL, has been because of the fact that North American hockey has been a huge draw for 20+ years. And to come over, it's not uncommon for a player to break a contract.

Part of this is a loophole in Russian labor law. I don't know if it's been changed since then, but I remember Ovechkin and Malkin going into hiding so as not to be "conscripted" immediately after submitting a two weeks notice. Under the old law, any employee could break his own contract by taking that one simple step. It didn't matter if it was a one-year or a ten-year contract; submit your two weeks, and then you're free from it.

The other part goes back to that Cold War mentality, which is that if you're not with us, you're going to pay. If a 19-year-old kid is thinking of signing in North America once his current contract with his Russian team expires, he'll be offered a contract extension there. If the kid doesn't sign it, he does so knowing full well that there may be reprisals of some type. Maybe he'll be sent to the junior team. Maybe he'll be benched. Maybe he'll be forcibly conscripted. But it's not a clean system.

Why is the NHL any different? Perhaps the NHL legal team hasn't quite caught up with the fact that the KHL is a serious competitor for employees.
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I disagree. The KHL is a serious competitor for certain types of players, and we also don't know what the fallout will be from their expansion into other countries outside of the former USSR. The KHL is a threat for Russian players, and maybe a handful of Czechs and Slovaks. Everyone else in Western and Northern Europe grew up as a product of multiple generations of a powerful mistrust of anything Russian, and the actual draw of the KHL for a top-level Swedish or Danish or Finnish prospect can't be very high. Even the Czechs and Slovaks, who grew up seeing their own countrymen dominate in the NHL, wouldn't necessarily flock to the KHL simply because they're offered more money.
 
Double-Shift Lasse

Double-Shift Lasse

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Dec 22, 2004
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pete goegan said:
Here's a link to an article about Gilbert Brule's recent past and his current attempts to return to hockey:

http://www.theprovince.com/sports/h...resurrection+Gilbert+Brule/8668967/story.html
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That's a sad story, whether or not what he alleges about his father is true or not. I hope he gets a tryout somewhere.

He was one of those guys that was stymied when he couldn't do exactly what he'd been doing at lower levels and have it work in the NHL, and then never figured out how to translate his game.
 
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe

KallioWeHardlyKnewYe

Hey! We won!
May 30, 2003
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Double-Shift Lassé said:
Two leagues without a formal working relationship. Two countries with different legal systems. Pretty sure the answer to this is "nothing."
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Agreed.

Only thing that I think the NHL could do would be to bar players from returning to the NHL after leaving for the KHL. I don't think they would or would even want to take that step though.

As for retiring to get out of a contract, I don't have a problem with that, even if it's because a player wants to go to another league. They're giving up money. The team is off the hook for that obligation. Who cares?

Contracts in sports (and in life too) end prematurely all the time in a number of different ways. If a player chooses to find a way out of a team, so be it, just as a team would has certain means at their disposal to part themselves from an unwanted player.

I'm not going to have selective pity for any team just because the player they lost is good.
 
Double-Shift Lasse

Double-Shift Lasse

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Dec 22, 2004
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http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/e...shville-ice-painted-predators-gold-for-summer

071713_goldice.jpg
 
Sore Loser

Sore Loser

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Dec 9, 2006
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