Around the League - 2023/24

[Balthazar]

Francis better keep enough money for Rantanen.

Everyone keeps assuming that Dundon is a cheapskate but we havent seen it yet. AFAIK they havent let anyone walk because they asked for too much money...and look how much they paid for Kotkaniemi...

Unless Brind'Amour makes a splash this year in the playoffs I think the Canes have to move on anyway.

 

[Pokecheque]

Francis better keep enough money for Rantanen.

Everyone keeps assuming that Dundon is a cheapskate but we havent seen it yet. AFAIK they havent let anyone walk because they asked for too much money...and look how much they paid for Kotkaniemi...

Unless Brind'Amour makes a splash this year in the playoffs I think the Canes have to move on anyway.

Oh, we absolutely have seen it. For all the grand gestures Dundon has made in keeping the on-ice personnel and the very spiteful Kotkaniemi offer sheet, he's chintzed on personnel behind the scenes. I'll give him credit for not being dumb enough to let Eric Tulsky walk, he at least knows that guy needed to stay. He's also been a total cheapskate turd in other business practices outside of the hockey realm.

I honestly don't know how it's gonna go. Friedman keeps saying it's not his money that Brind'Amour is concerned with, it's his assistants.

Also, there's this counterpoint from the former Canes beat writer for The Athletic.



Someone please remind me who "JW" is. Did she mean "JS"?

 

[Chiarelli]

delete

 

[GeoRox89]

Oh, we absolutely have seen it. For all the grand gestures Dundon has made in keeping the on-ice personnel and the very spiteful Kotkaniemi offer sheet, he's chintzed on personnel behind the scenes. I'll give him credit for not being dumb enough to let Eric Tulsky walk, he at least knows that guy needed to stay. He's also been a total cheapskate turd in other business practices outside of the hockey realm.

I honestly don't know how it's gonna go. Friedman keeps saying it's not his money that Brind'Amour is concerned with, it's his assistants.

Also, there's this counterpoint from the former Canes beat writer for The Athletic.



Someone please remind me who "JW" is. Did she mean "JS"?

Probably Justin Williams when he went back to Carolina to finish his career

 

[Pokecheque]

Probably Justin Williams when he went back to Carolina to finish his career

Aaaaaahhhh okay. Yeah Mr. Game 7 absolutely should've been the captain.

Peters was a complete slimeball. Might actually be a worse human being than effing Babcock. But he wasn't anywhere near as good a coach.

I don't think Ronnie Franchise is a particularly good GM. If I were RBA I don't think I'd be jumping ship.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Cue @henchman21 and his theory that Brindamour will wind up in Seattle...

It's a no-brainer for all involved. Rod's been in Carolina a long time. They could probably use a new voice/vision, even though he's still a fantastic coach. His familiarity with Francis and their previous work together shows they make a good team.

 

[S E P H]

Francis's direct moves make the team worse in the offseason, the team regresses on said moves, and then they fire the coach.

That seems like somebody who doesn't have a plan...

 

[Pokecheque]

Francis's direct moves make the team worse in the offseason, the team regresses on said moves, and then they fire the coach.

That seems like somebody who doesn't have a plan...

Sixth-oldest roster in the league and they're only heading into their fourth season of existence. And you obviously know more than me when it comes to prospects but based on what I've read, they don't exactly have a great farm system yet (though I guess their AHL affiliate is pretty damned good FWIW).

And Lighten Up Francis' choices when it comes to goaltending has been spotty at best, both in Carolina and in Seattle.

In hindsight...why not just, y'know, pay Sprong $2 million to score another 20 goals on the 4th line? Was it really worth the cap savings going to Yamamoto and his eight goals?

 

[S E P H]

Sixth-oldest roster in the league and they're only heading into their fourth season of existence. And you obviously know more than me when it comes to prospects but based on what I've read, they don't exactly have a great farm system yet (though I guess their AHL affiliate is pretty damned good FWIW).

And Lighten Up Francis' choices when it comes to goaltending has been spotty at best, both in Carolina and in Seattle.

In hindsight...why not just, y'know, pay Sprong $2 million to score another 20 goals on the 4th line? Was it really worth the cap savings going to Yamamoto and his eight goals?

I believe that Francis has a long-term plan, which led him to cut ties with all their offensive depth, but considering all these blokes were getting 1-2 year deals tops, it looks really bad in hindsight IMHO. Then he fires the coach due, which seems like to be like a rash and impulse move to try and bring in your boy from Carolina. If they truly saw that Hakstol was the problem he would've been gone the first week when their season ended, not in a random time between the playoffs and offseason. This differs from the Sharks, which seems like they fired him based on the player exit interviews, which can explain the weird timing on that one.

I actually really like their most recent draft and they do have some solid depth pieces which should turn into NHL prospects like Wright, Evans, Winterton, Firkus, Nyman, Goyette, Nelson, Sale, Dragicevic, Wisdom, and Price, but you're not getting any star potential here. All these blokes are going to do is add some solid depth for sure, but nothing like we're seeing from Makar in this Jets series. They ain't a bad drafting team overall, they take risks, value the analytics, and have gotten some good value picks like Firkus in the second round, Wisdom in the seventh round, Price in the third round.

 

[Pokecheque]

I feel really bad for Craig Morgan. Covered the Coyotes forever, got a gig with The Athletic, got laid off, started his own Hockey Now account, then got hired by the All City people, only to watch the team get sent off to Utah. Wonder what he does next. I assume he will not just wait around five years for Meruelo to get his shit together.

 

[HockeyFan100]

And just like that 2/3 of the Jack Adams finalists from last season are fired. Still a joke how Bednar wasn't a finalist

 

[expatriatedtexan]

And just like that 2/3 of the Jack Adams finalists from last season are fired. Still a joke how Bednar wasn't a finalist

It's almost like a kiss of death to the coach that gets it.

If I was nominated, I think I would decline.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

It's almost like a kiss of death to the coach that gets it.

If I was nominated, I think I would decline.

Yeah basically it's always coach from a team no one expected to do well. Then next season people have way higher expectations and they fail to realize these expectations because they got probably pretty lucky in the first season and they end up fired.

 

[Balthazar]

Considering that he's already on his retirement contract and what happened with Torts last season, that's an interesting move.

 

[Pokecheque]

It's almost like a kiss of death to the coach that gets it.

If I was nominated, I think I would decline.

The reason it’s perceived as a curse is because of the stupid criteria that leads to nominations in the first place. They just look for whichever teams are exceeding expectations and just assume it’s the coach. So when those teams come crashing back to earth, lo and behold, that seemingly brilliant bench boss doesn’t have answers.

Say what you will about Jon Cooper but the fact he has never won the award ONCE tells you all you need to know.

Just watch. They’re probably gonna give it to Bruno and he’ll be fired in like two years.

 

[Pokecheque]

Remember what I told y'all about Tom Dundon?



This is not the way to conduct your business. Well I guess it is if you wish to get rich and it's obviously worked for him (he basically built his fortune profiting off the whole subprime mortgage crisis, so he was basically one of the main characters in "The Big Short", and go check out what he did picking meat off the carcass of the Alliance of American Football) but running a successful business is not the same as winning the Stanley Cup.

 

[Foppa2118]

Yeah basically it's always coach from a team no one expected to do well. Then next season people have way higher expectations and they fail to realize these expectations because they got probably pretty lucky in the first season and they end up fired.

This applies to so many Adams winners. It's almost a meaningless award.

It's just given out to the coach of the worst team, that exceeded expectations the most in one year.

 

[Pokecheque]

This applies to so many Adams winners. It's almost a meaningless award.

It's just given out to the coach of the worst team, that exceeded expectations the most in one year.

Basically:

Talented team succeeds: It's not the coach.

Team succeeds because the goalie suddenly gets hot: It's the coach.

This is more or less how Gerard Gallant garnered a Jack Adams and a subsequent Adams nomination.

 

[Foppa2118]

Basically:

Talented team succeeds: It's not the coach.

Team succeeds because the goalie suddenly gets hot: It's the coach.

This is more or less how Gerard Gallant garnered a Jack Adams and a subsequent Adams nomination.

Also:

Team can't overcome bad goaltending: It's the coach
Team can't go deep in the playoffs: It's the coach
Team wakes up and plays to potential after firing the old guy: It's the coach

People need easy answers. The ambiguity of not knowing for sure what's causing wins/losses, and having to think critically about it for more than a few seconds is unsettling.

 

[S E P H]

Remember what I told y'all about Tom Dundon?



This is not the way to conduct your business. Well I guess it is if you wish to get rich and it's obviously worked for him (he basically built his fortune profiting off the whole subprime mortgage crisis, so he was basically one of the main characters in "The Big Short", and go check out what he did picking meat off the carcass of the Alliance of American Football) but running a successful business is not the same as winning the Stanley Cup.

Is Sara the one who is haunted by the Coyotes organisation, so she has to keep writing about them because she has nothing else to write about? Then she puts in a ton of her own opinion in the stories, like she did with this tweet?

 

[Balthazar]

Is Sara the one who is haunted by the Coyotes organisation, so she has to keep writing about them because she has nothing else to write about? Then she puts in a ton of her own opinion in the stories, like she did with this tweet?

No?

 

[S E P H]

No?

There's someone who keeps writing about how Coyote's organisation is awful to their employees almost every couple of months like the organisation personally hurt them or something. I'm pretty sure it's her.

 

[Pokecheque]

Is Sara the one who is haunted by the Coyotes organisation, so she has to keep writing about them because she has nothing else to write about? Then she puts in a ton of her own opinion in the stories, like she did with this tweet?

Not sure what your point is here.

 

[S E P H]

Not sure what your point is here.

If all you can do is try to find the bad aspects of people and hunt them down to find those bad aspects, then you are an awful journalist with a horribly bias view.

 

[Balthazar]

That'd be a homerun for the Flyers