Is that possible in Arizona? It's not like we've haven't seen a revolving door of owners in Arizona already. Smart move might be fold the franchise all together, wait a year or two and then just offer two expansion teams up for sale, one in each conference.
I think so, but they’ll need to team up with the Suns I think to really make it work.
You mean the Fairbanks Frozen Nuts are still a possibility?
I will put all of my net worth into that ownership group if you lead it. It’s not nearly enough, but it is more than zero!
Once again, tax "advantage" is a myth. Auston Matthews pays his taxes to Arizona for an example.
More like Canadian teams hate to properly rebuild due to the pressure of the fans, so they always stay as purgatory teams. Never great, but never bad.
Now that's funny as f***. What's properly rebuilding?
Just look at the Canadian teams who properly sucked arse for 5 seasons and got talent (Oilers/Leafs) versus the Canadian teams that decided to stay mediocre their entire existence (Flames/Canucks).
Oilers, Leafs, Sens and Habs all tanked. Your argument is invalid.
Edmonton just lost a G7 by one goal, they have a few boat anchor contracts with the roster, and that's somehow proof that you can't win by drafting?
Didn't the Avs just prove exactly that two years ago? Denver isn't a shithole, but it's not exactly a destination. The night life is average; unless you're really into skiing, hiking, and fishing it's not a playground for the young and rich. Our taxes aren't sky high, but they're not close to zero, either. Top free agents and rentals with NTCs turn us down over and over again.
Ekblad was a first overall
Just another reason for me to say f*** ST. LOUIS...and I'll blame this on Binnington too!
It is honestly one of the reasons Omaha and OKC will have legs on that round and yeah kinda stupid. Same exact thing with Chicago and Milwaukee. Milwaukee really should have a NHL team, but Chicago (and to a lesser extent Minny) prevents that from happening.
You're kidding yourself if you think that is the only reason... Cheese had a few places he'd go including St Louis (which is far from a nice place). Their biggest UFA signing under Zito is either ERod or Gudas. They've built themselves off excellent asset management, bold moves, and excellent pro scouting.
I personally think their blueprint was very similar to ours. We didn't trade for a star player like they did, but the Duchene trade gave us Byram who was instrumental in the cup final series. Then some other steals of trades (Kadri, Lehkonen), reclamation project signings (Nichushkin), and some homegrown drafted talent. Just briliant asset management, but Zito was more agressive in changing the style of the team by switching the coach and trading for Tkachuk, where Sakic was a bit more patient and continued to tinker around the core group.
They bought low on a lot of players and got some fortune that they turned out to be good; such as Forsling, Reinhart, and Bennett. Remember, Bennett was pretty much considered a big-time bust when he was traded. Avs did the same thing as the bolded quote, got some fortune that players rebounded nicely like Nuke, Burakovsky, Helm, and Kadri (after his suspension list). Panthers list might have been bigger with Forsling, Reinhart, Bobrovsky (anchor contract), Bennett, OEL, Kulikov, and Montour.
probably close to half the teams in the league could never pull this type of style off:
Definitely some similarities. I'd say Florida was more aggressive in going after reclamation players (Bennett, Montour) and taking risks on cast offs (Reinhart, Verhaeghe, Forsling). Florida was a lot of boom/bust.
