Around the League 36-But Who's Counting...

[chaz4hockey]

I personally think the leagues are just hoping and waiting for Bally to go tits up so they can buy back those rights on the cheap and bundle within their existing streaming plans (at a noticeable markup) to create a true one stop shop for their content.

That's the end game. It'll be convenient for the end user, will probably be slightly more expensive, but eliminates a lot of hands in the cookie jar which ends up with the leagues making far more money in the end.

Problem is that Sinclair/Bally’s holds the rights to less than 1/2 of the teams. Problem will be getting the NESNs and MSGs of the world to join into a non regional approach.

 

[MinJaBen]

I personally think the leagues are just hoping and waiting for Bally to go tits up so they can buy back those rights on the cheap and bundle within their existing streaming plans (at a noticeable markup) to create a true one stop shop for their content.

That's the end game. It'll be convenient for the end user, will probably be slightly more expensive, but eliminates a lot of hands in the cookie jar which ends up with the leagues making far more money in the end.

The problem with this is that I don't think bankruptcy courts/proceedings work that way. The TV rights are assets that all the creditors will have claims on, not just the NHL. They will have to be dispersed in a chapter 7 liquidation filing in a way that makes as many creditors whole, so no "buying back on the cheap" is going to happen. That would mean that between the filing and the dispersal of the assets, the credit holders (NHL and teams) would get no money from the assets/rights. What could be even worse is a chapter 11, where they are trying to reorganize and some of the creditors will need to take a markdown on what they are owed. I don't know if license fees would apply here, but if they do that could mean the Balley's still gets to broadcast the games, but gets to pay the NHL and teams less than what was agreed to.

All that said, I doubt the leagues are "hoping" they go tits up.

 

[WreckingCrew]

The problem with this is that I don't think bankruptcy courts/proceedings work that way. The TV rights are assets that all the creditors will have claims on, not just the NHL. They will have to be dispersed in a chapter 7 liquidation filing in a way that makes as many creditors whole, so no "buying back on the cheap" is going to happen. That would mean that between the filing and the dispersal of the assets, the credit holders (NHL and teams) would get no money from the assets/rights. What could be even worse is a chapter 11, where they are trying to reorganize and some of the creditors will need to take a markdown on what they are owed. I don't know if license fees would apply here, but if they do that could mean the Balley's still gets to broadcast the games, but gets to pay the NHL and teams less than what was agreed to.

All that said, I doubt the leagues are "hoping" they go tits up.

That's not even getting into the time it will take and how much the court/lawsuit battles will cost the NHL and other parties involved.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Dylan Strome is staying in Washington for the foreseeable future, signing a five-year, $25 million contract extension with the Capitals on Friday.

Tsn’s current trade board:

San Jose Sharks' Timo Meier tops TSN Trade Bait Board ahead of NHL trade deadline | TSN

San Jose’s sharpshooting power forward Timo Meier is No. 1 on the TSN Trade Bait Board and sure to attract attention from a plethora of teams before or on deadline day, March 3.

www.tsn.ca

 

[chaz4hockey]

Looking at the remaining games and forgot that March has a string of games that are playoff precursors:

Followed by the toughest schedule slice:

 

[A Star is Burns]

So, we will probably beat them all and hear complaints of peaking too soon or lose them all and hear complaints of not playing well enough heading into the playoffs. Should be fun.

For real, I just hope we can stay relatively healthy down the stretch.

 

[moses malone 12]

Dylan Strome is staying in Washington for the foreseeable future, signing a five-year, $25 million contract extension with the Capitals on Friday.

Tsn’s current trade board:

San Jose Sharks' Timo Meier tops TSN Trade Bait Board ahead of NHL trade deadline | TSN

San Jose’s sharpshooting power forward Timo Meier is No. 1 on the TSN Trade Bait Board and sure to attract attention from a plethora of teams before or on deadline day, March 3.

www.tsn.ca

To me, Meier is the proxy for judging how the Canes view their roster and how deep in the payoffs they can realistically go. Young player who scores , is physical and can drive play. would be great on our PP. Does mgmt. behave like a stalking horse bidder as they have done in the past or do they say he's the missing piece and we need to go get him? Time will tell.

I think Tarasenko is the guy they end up with. cost should be manageable, and he is still quick enough and, when healthy, will score. would be great PP add.

The wild card to me is taking on a hefty salary for a still productive player. Matt Duchene is a great example of this. His teammate Johansen less so IMO. Duchene is intriguing as he probably can play center on the 2nd line and allow Necas to keep taking faceoffs. Necas is driving play so much this year than Duchene while still fast, doesn't need to push the pace on every rush. His cap hit is huge for 2+ years and who knows if Nashville will trade him.

 

[CanesFanBudMan]

They will never do a Canes specific streaming service. They want to grow the fan base and a casual/ new fan won’t pay for that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Problem is that Sinclair/Bally’s holds the rights to less than 1/2 of the teams. Problem will be getting the NESNs and MSGs of the world to join into a non regional approach.

MSG in particular could be a real stick in the mud. They have that whole vertical business model of controlling the arena, the team, and the TV network (I know they are under different companies now, but everyone reports up to Dolan). My guess is that they would scoff at the idea of letting the NHL control the profits of the NYC market, and would just as soon break away and make MSG Go a standalone product. And who could blame them? It's doubtful the NHL really has enough capital to offer in order to make a company like MSG abandon its business model.

Delaware North is in a similar position with NESN along with the Bruins and TD Garden, except that they own a relatively small share of NESN and it's a smaller market, so maybe there's a slightly easier deal to be made there.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

Dylan Strome is staying in Washington for the foreseeable future, signing a five-year, $25 million contract extension with the Capitals on Friday.

Tsn’s current trade board:

San Jose Sharks' Timo Meier tops TSN Trade Bait Board ahead of NHL trade deadline | TSN

San Jose’s sharpshooting power forward Timo Meier is No. 1 on the TSN Trade Bait Board and sure to attract attention from a plethora of teams before or on deadline day, March 3.

www.tsn.ca

Brings back my thoughts on the Caps from before. $19.7M in cap space now for 23-24. Who do they need to sign? Just 4 forwards and 5 defenseman to complete a league minimum 12F/6D/2G 20 man roster. If they let Lars Eller, Conor Sheary, and the like walk they can sign let's say 5 forwards to league minimum deals of $0.75M each. That'd give them a pretty shitty forward roster and $16M to play with for the defense. If they want Dmitry Orlov, I'd bet he'll cost $6M or more. When I've watched he has been their best defenseman. If he does re-up for $6M, that leaves $10M for signing 4 more D.

Seems to me they're stuck close to the cap and won't have enough money left over to make their D palatable. Some of the Caps fans say they can trade Anthony Mantha but I don't think he'd have value to many teams at his $5.7M caphit. They just have too many older forwards locked in on the back half of the 35 and up contracts.

They're in our division so I doubt we can do much business with them, but this is a team ripe for the poaching from teams with cap space. It'd be a really fun scenario to sign Orlov as a Pesce/Skjei replacement and we'd have the cap space to do it. It won't happen obviously but a boy can dream.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Brings back my thoughts on the Caps from before. $19.7M in cap space now for 23-24. Who do they need to sign? Just 4 forwards and 5 defenseman to complete a league minimum 12F/6D/2G 20 man roster. If they let Lars Eller, Conor Sheary, and the like walk they can sign let's say 5 forwards to league minimum deals of $0.75M each. That'd give them a pretty shitty forward roster and $16M to play with for the defense. If they want Dmitry Orlov, I'd bet he'll cost $6M or more. When I've watched he has been their best defenseman. If he does re-up for $6M, that leaves $10M for signing 4 more D.

Seems to me they're stuck close to the cap and won't have enough money left over to make their D palatable. Some of the Caps fans say they can trade Anthony Mantha but I don't think he'd have value to many teams at his $5.7M caphit. They just have too many older forwards locked in on the back half of the 35 and up contracts.

They're in our division so I doubt we can do much business with them, but this is a team ripe for the poaching from teams with cap space. It'd be a really fun scenario to sign Orlov as a Pesce/Skjei replacement and we'd have the cap space to do it. It won't happen obviously but a boy can dream.

Mantha's an interesting reclamation project idea, actually, for the Canes. He'd be relatively inexpensive when the full cap hit is taken on (maybe a 2nd rounder?). He's also 6'5", beefy, has some goal-scoring chops, and only has an extra year remaining beyond this year, meaning that he also would not impact Aho/Necas/Jarvis/Pesce.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

Mantha's an interesting reclamation project idea, actually, for the Canes. He'd be relatively inexpensive when the full cap hit is taken on (maybe a 2nd rounder?). He's also 6'5", beefy, has some goal-scoring chops, and only has an extra year remaining beyond this year, meaning that he also would not impact Aho/Necas/Jarvis/Pesce.

He is. The cool thing is a team like Washington really doesn't have the leverage to make us pay much. It's like Vegas with Pacioretty from last year. There weren't enough supply of teams who wanted Patch and Vegas needed to deal the contract, so we got him for free. I don't think he has an NTC so that actually works in Washington's favor as it doesn't limit the list of suitor teams.

You could do a similar writeup for a number of teams in this cap environment. It pays to be flexible. Which is why we have to be really careful if we commit to a Meier or Larkin, for example. Not saying it's bad business but you have to really know what you're doing.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Mantha being 6'5 is meaningless, he plays like he is 5'8. He is the hamilton of wingers. If Washington is giving him away sure. I dont see giving any kind of a good asset for him.

 

[A Star is Burns]

What exactly are we hoping for Mantha to get back to at age 28? He's been pretty meh for years and even his short peak years ago wasn't amazing. He seems like he's had a lot of little injuries over the years and then shoulder surgery last year. I could at least understand what we were hoping to get with Patches, but I don't see it with Mantha. I've watched him a lot with the Caps and he is just not worth pursuing in my mind.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Mantha being 6'5 is meaningless, he plays like he is 5'8. He is the hamilton of wingers. If Washington is giving him away sure. I dont see giving any kind of a good asset for him.

Being 6'5" isn't meaningless at all. If any coach can get him to play the right way, it'll be Rod Brind'Amour. If he can't, well, then the contract would expire before you need to pay Aho. It's not a bad swing to take if you're looking for meat, because there aren't a lot of large wingers out there on the trade market who can pot points at a decent rate.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Being 6'5" isn't meaningless at all. If any coach can get him to play the right way, it'll be Rod Brind'Amour. If he can't, well, then the contract would expire before you need to pay Aho. It's not a bad swing.

RBA is a great coach but it isnt like Mantha's had crappy ones before. RBA isnt a magic pill that gets everyone to play right. If they want to give him away, sure. I dont see wasting a 2nd round pick on a guy who may be a drag at 5.7 million

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

RBA is a great coach but it isnt like Mantha's had crappy ones before. RBA isnt a magic pill that gets everyone to play right. If they want to give him away, sure. I dont see wasting a 2nd round pick on a guy who may be a drag at 5.7 million

Blashill was, to put it lightly, not well-liked by Detroit fans, but it's difficult to tell if his later years were about players stagnating or about the coach putting them in a bad position. Laviolette is historically a fantastic offensive coach but somewhat questionable when it came to defense and special teams. I'm not saying that RBA's a miracle worker, but I will also say that he's one of the better defensive coaches in the league today and also projects sort of a "player-coach" mentality that is also quite interesting. Again, all I'm saying is that for a reclamation-project type, he'd be an interesting one.

 

[DaveG]

Mantha with his salary feels an awful lot like a "future considerations" acquisition... after we've struck out on retaining Patches, or bringing in a guy like Horvat, Meier, Tarasenko, or whatever mystery top forward hits the trade market this offseason (EP? PLD?). Same division or not a 2nd for him would be significant overpayment.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

It’d be a shame if we acquired the “Hamilton of wingers.”

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

It’d be a shame if we acquired the “Hamilton of wingers.”

a defender that scored 15 at 5.5 million is good, a winger not so much.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Hamilton is one of the elite dmen in the league. Mantha, well, I've heard him called Ant-Man before, so that's fun.

 

[Chrispy]

It’d be a shame if we acquired the “Hamilton of wingers.”

“My name is Anthony M-a-ntha.

And there’s a million things I haven’t done.
But just you wait. Just you wait.”

 

[Svechhammer]

Given where we are, we shouldn't be looking for another reclamation project. We need someone who can come in and contribute right away and ideally someone who pushed our top end talent higher.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Given where we are, we shouldn't be looking for another reclamation project. We need someone who can come in and contribute right away and ideally someone who pushed our top end talent higher.

should. Right now none of these top roster players are going for under value which we go for. Maybe we can get Meier later when NYR or Toronto trades for him and then cant afford his next contract. I wonder if the management team believes we are legit cup contenders or not with our current goalie situation.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]