Around the League - 2023/24

[Ceremony]

Boardies 2024: Most Knowledgeable Poster Award

I had a busy weekend so we're doing a two-fer today. Be on the lookout for Angriest Poster up shortly.

forums.hfboards.com

Why don't we have something lke this?

 

[henchman21]

Boardies 2024: Most Knowledgeable Poster Award

I had a busy weekend so we're doing a two-fer today. Be on the lookout for Angriest Poster up shortly.

forums.hfboards.com

Why don't we have something lke this?

We’d just troll the F out of it.

 

[UncleRisto]

We'll call it Bordys, for Bordeleau.

 

[Spilot23]

Good for us I guess

 

[BaconNater]

What does it even mean when it's said that they put the work in to change?

 

[LOFIN]

Listening to some Edmonton sports radio for the reactions on this, apparently there is a big golf tournament today where a lot of the Oilers related media and journalists are attending (including guys like Mark Spector).

A happy coincidence to pull off this introduction on a day where the guys who would actually ask the hard questions as the press can't be present?

 

[S E P H]

Good for us I guess

A lot of those trades were cap-related reasons/problems.

 

[UncleRisto]

What does it even mean when it's said that they put the work in to change?

Nothing. What would a 50-year-old exec do to change? Go to some corporate HR training?

They made a bad decision for which they didn't face legal ramifications and employers have now decided it's okay to hire them, so fine.

 

[LOFIN]

A lot of those trades were cap-related reasons/problems.

Which were caused by his crappy signings

 

[Pokecheque]

Which were caused by his crappy signings

Yep. He handed over then-prospect Teuvo Teravainen just so Carolina would take the contract of Bryan Bickell off his hands, and that was BEFORE Bickell was diagnosed with MS.

 

[S E P H]

Which were caused by his crappy signings

Let's be honest though, no Stanley Cup-winning team is going to trade core players that won them the Cup, especially multiple times as they did. It would have been a marketing nightmare to trade away Duncan Keith, Seabrook, Toews, or Kane even though those were disastrous contracts. Don't forget that it could have been an owner's decision to keep all of them as well. Nonetheless, sometimes you gotta go down with the ship and that's what Chicago did. Vegas on the top of my mind is the only team who doesn't play by these rules. Avs will go down with the ship, especially if this core is able to win another Cup within the next three to four years.

 

[Pokecheque]

Let's be honest though, no Stanley Cup-winning team is going to trade core players that won them the Cup, especially multiple times as they did. It would have been a marketing nightmare to trade away Duncan Keith, Seabrook, Toews, or Kane even though those were disastrous contracts. Don't forget that it could have been an owner's decision to keep all of them as well. Nonetheless, sometimes you gotta go down with the ship and that's what Chicago did. Vegas on the top of my mind is the only team who doesn't play by these rules. Avs will go down with the ship, especially if this core is able to win another Cup within the next three to four years.

No one's saying he could have prevented the core from aging out, but he still managed to bungle even rudimentary moves and hastened the closing of that window rather than prolong it. If not for Quenneville and Corey Crawford propping the team up, they'd have hit the tank a lot sooner than they did.

The Seabrook "reward" contract was simply not necessary. Neither was throwing money and cap space he didn't have at Bickell after one good playoff run. Bowman proved he simply could not make bold moves when it came to his core players, and when he finally did, he lacked the basic competence to maximize the return.

We could go into the fact that he's a completely abhorrent human being to boot, but...even if you just take his track record as GM, it's clear he was simply riding coattails to three Stanley Cups.

 

[UnkleKraker]

Baltimore gotta be the roughest place in the States, no?

The Wire made Baltimore seem like a literal shit can lol.

Spend a decent amount of time in BMore. West of downtown is a no go area. There is a town called Brooklyn (not NY) that is also really bad in places. The Inner Harbor, Little Italy, Federal Hill, and Fells Point are all actually pretty nice as are some of the areas to the North.

 

[UnkleKraker]

For larger cities, it is definitely top 5. Detroit, Memphis, St Louis all give it a run or surpass in some ways. As a whole, there are some really sketch smaller cities too. Little Rock Arkansas is would give any of them a run. That place is rough. Baton Rouge is a pretty rough place. Then you have all the border towns. Plenty of others like ABQ, Bakersfield, Birmingham etc. It’s been a while, but 15 years ago I recall Anchorage being pretty rough too.

My personal view… St Louis is the roughest followed by Little Rock. Those two, outside gated neighborhoods, it gets harder to avoid it daily. Detroit, Memphis, and Baltimore, you can avoid it if you’re careful and research a bit.

One I find kinda interesting that always seems to come up in the list is Orlando. Don’t get me wrong Orlando certainly has some crime… but it is main property crime and theft. Shitty, but not actually dangerous.

Spend a good amount of time in Detroit too and often stay downtown (Book Cadillac FTW.) Lots to do and it is pretty safely walkable for me. Checker Bar is a haunt for me and I will walk the few blocks back to the Book after quite a few cocktails. All that said, my situational awareness is pretty high even after multiple cocktails.

 

[Ararana]

What does it even mean when it's said that they put the work in to change?

They learned how to be better at hiding it.

 

[BrickNHL]

Good for us I guess

No for real, it is really good for us.

Edmonton was looking super dangerous after finally having competent management.

 

[Vaslof]

Oilers really thought the final push they need to get the cup is adding in some sexual assault.

 

[Pokecheque]

Oilers really thought the final push they need to get the cup is adding in some sexual assault.

Well they did that already when they acquired Evander Kane.

With Bowman, they brought aboard a guy who proved he'll do anything to cover it up.

 

[dahrougem2]

Lmao the Oilers had their best GM in seemingly decades with Jeff Jackson and he lasted a month before handing it off to Bowman.

Watch shit implode now.

I wonder which ex-Blackhawk he will acquire first.

 

[Balthazar]

Lmao the Oilers had their best GM in seemingly decades with Jeff Jackson and he lasted a month before handing it off to Bowman.

Watch shit implode now.

I wonder which ex-Blackhawk he will acquire first.

Alright, calm down. Bowman is legitimately the best Oilers GM since Glen Sather. He was a good hire.

 

[HockeyFan100]

No for real, it is really good for us.

Edmonton was looking super dangerous after finally having competent management.

From Chiarelli, to Holland, to Bowman...

 

[dahrougem2]

Alright, calm down. Bowman is legitimately the best Oilers GM since Glen Sather. He was a good hire.

Same exact rhetoric was said when Peter Chiarelli was hired.

Fact is: Stan Bowman did not build the Chicago Blackhawks dynasty. Look at the players he inherited:

List of Players Drafted Pre-Bowman
Duncan Keith (02)
Brent Seabrook (03)
Corey Crawford (03)
Dustin Byfuglien (03)
Bryan Bickell (04)
Troy Brouwer (04)
Nik Hjalmarsson (05)
Jonathan Toews (06)
Patrick Kane (07)
Marcus Kruger (09)

All of whom played roles - major or minor - for Chicago's championship victories.

Every GM makes bad moves, but he made more than just a few bad trades and contract signings during his tenure, not to mention his help covering up the sexual abuse scandal.

He's a bad choice.

 

[Vaslof]

Seriously speaking, I think Oilers overperformed this past year. They would do worse next season even without the new GM. Not gonna feel bad for him tho, get scapegoated bozo.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

The CRA is making Tavares an example and trying to get a landmark ruling. By traditional thought, this would go against the US/Canada tax treaty. If the CRA wins, any Canadian who is a US resident (for clarity Tavares has been a US resident for tax purposes since 2010) for tax purposes would have to pay full tax on their bonuses. Which would open up a lot more income available to be taxed and one of the primary methods for avoiding Canadian income tax would be shut down. The other main method was RCAs and deducting from there, but the CRA has heavily attacked that one as well (IIRC there is a case against a few Blue Jay players still pending).

If the CRA wins both of these cases, as a general rule... not exact, players on Canadian teams are looking at upwards of 20% more taxes than they would have otherwise expected. These have been traditional workarounds utilized by Canadian teams (in all leagues) to actually lower taxes below what many American teams face.

I wonder how he went around the residency rules in Canada... With the duration of that contract, I assume his whole family moved to Canada with him ?

 

[henchman21]

I wonder how he went around the residency rules in Canada... With the duration of that contract, I assume his whole family moved to Canada with him ?

Been a minute... IIRC tax residency in Canada requires 180 days in the country. As long as he lives elsewhere in the summer and considering the road trips to the states, he should be fine in that area. Family probably has to take a couple long vacations, oh darn.