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

[NotOpie]

In 2023-24:

Toronto pays $48 million for 5 players - Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Riley
Colorado pays almost $44 million for 5 players - McKinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen, Nichushkin, Makar

It's an interesting strategy....one has been able to find good value in their role players and one has not.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

In 2023-24:

Toronto pays $48 million for 5 players - Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Riley
Colorado pays almost $44 million for 5 players - McKinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen, Nichushkin, Makar

It's an interesting strategy....one has been able to find good value in their role players and one has not.

Lafs fans would surely argue otherwise but in my opinion Colorado's group is significantly better than Toronto's, and they cost a bit less. I really don't like the Nichuskin deal but we'll see on that one.

 

[bleedgreen]

As far as the Dallas trade goes, I’ve gone back and forth on the price. He’s a former first rounder who had developed very well until he didn’t crack a lineup that had a lot of competition. In todays NHL the money is becoming a young guys thing so it’s become more important to make your mark early as it can really impact your earnings. While I hate trade requests it makes a lot of sense if you know your path is blocked. I think it happens all the time, we usually just don’t hear about it.

If you think he has the minimum of being a top 4 guy, with the potential for more as well as a ppqb I don’t think it’s a bad play. I don’t know that it’s any more risky than what we did with Koko. Given the difference between the financial aspects of the two deals theirs is probably the safer play. We also gave up a first for Skjei who most would say was overpaid at the time, we valued the cost control of a vet mid pair guy and took the chance he’d fit in well.

If you trust your scouts you pay the price. They have his rights for years. In todays game difference makers are something you have to go after and a ppqb can be that. He’s likely better than an average mid to late first rounder and he’s here now.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

It's interesting how rare that type of trade is. I went back through all of the drafts post-lockout and there are very few examples of a prospect without any meaningful sample size at the NHL level getting a 1st. The Blues dealt Rundblad the year after drafting him; Tarasenko was selected with the pick returned. The next one was Reinhart for the pick that turned into Barzal. Now, Lundkvist for a 1st.

I hope, for this team's sake, that the trade doesn't follow the same pattern. Think about how huge Jarvis is moving forward; the team wasn't going sniff a pick of that caliber naturally in this window. It would suck if the Rangers get something similar here.

 

[MinJaBen]

I think we keep Aho at $10m/yr on his next deal, it won't be easy but we'll need to pay him that.

He could ask for that now if his contract was up now. When his contract is actually up, the same percentage that $10M is now will be more than $10M. Be prepared to see his contract higher than Barkov’s contract just because of where the cap goes if nothing else.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

It's interesting how rare that type of trade is. I went back through all of the drafts post-lockout and there are very few examples of a prospect without any meaningful sample size at the NHL level getting a 1st. The Blues dealt Rundblad the year after drafting him; Tarasenko was selected with the pick returned. The next one was Reinhart for the pick that turned into Barzal. Now, Lundkvist for a 1st.

I hope, for this team's sake, that the trade doesn't follow the same pattern. Think about how huge Jarvis is moving forward; the team wasn't going sniff a pick of that caliber naturally in this window. It would suck if the Rangers get something similar here.

The Lundkvist trade is slightly different than the Rundblad or Reinhart trades in that New York doesn't know where Dallas is going to select in the draft. The draft positions in the former trades were known before the trades were made. Dallas is also a better team than either Ottawa or Edmonton were at the time, which means that there's a decent shot that the pick is low enough that the Rangers decide to just trade it for a big-name rental. Because of New York's pending cap crunch, it could also be the case that the Rangers FO just goes for it and trades both firsts, Tampa-style.

 

[HisIceness]

The news about Subban/Chara/Yandle got me thinking, is Joe Thornton still on a roster somewhere?

On another note I expect to see Subban in the commentators chair on TNT soon.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

The news about Subban/Chara/Yandle got me thinking, is Joe Thornton still on a roster somewhere?

On another note I expect to see Subban in the commentators chair on TNT soon.

Good teams would do well to stay away from Thornton

 

[bleedgreen]

In 2023-24:

Toronto pays $48 million for 5 players - Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Riley
Colorado pays almost $44 million for 5 players - McKinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen, Nichushkin, Makar

It's an interesting strategy....one has been able to find good value in their role players and one has not.

The Avs will be a good study on if a team can pay a contract like that and stay relevant as a contender. They’ve made nothing but good moves so there’s no reason to think that will change moving forward. You won’t be able to say so easily that they mismanaged their way out of their window vs just being unable to keep their depth due to the contract. I’ve been tending to think in the past an elite player contract is an albatross….yet one you can’t really avoid. Five years from now it’ll be an interesting topic. As the cap goes up obviously the impact diminishes but 12 plus is still 12 plus. It ain’t like when JStaal’s contract went from brutal to “well the rising cap has diminished the negative impact of this contract”.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

The Avs will be a good study on if a team can pay a contract like that and stay relevant as a contender. They’ve made nothing but good moves so there’s no reason to think that will change moving forward. You won’t be able to say so easily that they mismanaged their way out of their window vs just being unable to keep their depth due to the contract. I’ve been tending to think in the past an elite player contract is an albatross….yet one you can’t really avoid. Five years from now it’ll be an interesting topic. As the cap goes up obviously the impact diminishes but 12 plus is still 12 plus. It ain’t like when JStaal’s contract went from brutal to “well the rising cap has diminished the negative impact of this contract”.

It really helps Colorado's case that Makar's contract is the most team-friendly contract currently on the books of any NHL team ($9M/year for a generational talent and IMO the 2nd best player in the league after McDavid is outstanding value in the current cap environment, let alone after 5 more seasons from now). What differentiates Toronto from Colorado is that Toronto doesn't really have anything as overperforming as Makar's contract on the books. You instead have one guy that's slightly over-performed his cap hit (Matthews), two guys that have performed up to their cap hit value (Marner and Nylander), and two that are a bit shakier in value though not the worst in the world (Reilly and Tavares).

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Colorado will be competitive because they are in the West. Their competition isn’t nearly as fierce as the Atlantic division and the Eastern conference.

 

[cptjeff]

The news about Subban/Chara/Yandle got me thinking, is Joe Thornton still on a roster somewhere?

On another note I expect to see Subban in the commentators chair on TNT soon.

He's been practicing with the Sharks, but no contract nor rumors of one that I've heard of. I love that the guy still wants to play, but I can't see him getting a contract. He just wasn't good enough last year. Maybe on a roster like the Coyotes he'd still be better than a number of guys on the roster, but why would he want to play for a shitty team at this point? He's got all the money he'd need, just wants a cup. Sadly, don't think that's gonna happen for him.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

He's been practicing with the Sharks, but no contract nor rumors of one that I've heard of. I love that the guy still wants to play, but I can't see him getting a contract. He just wasn't good enough last year. Maybe on a roster like the Coyotes he'd still be better than a number of guys on the roster, but why would he want to play for a shitty team at this point? He's got all the money he'd need, just wants a cup. Sadly, don't think that's gonna happen for him.

Avs actually still have cap space. Maybe they can bring Thornton in as a player-coach/team sage to be the last man on the bench?

 

[bleedgreen]

Colorado will be competitive because they are in the West. Their competition isn’t nearly as fierce as the Atlantic division and the Eastern conference.

That’s something that can change in a year or two.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

He could ask for that now if his contract was up now. When his contract is actually up, the same percentage that $10M is now will be more than $10M. Be prepared to see his contract higher than Barkov’s contract just because of where the cap goes if nothing else.

Certainly possible although I was taking that into account. I think we don’t play games with him on his next contract and extend him next year, cap won’t be that much higher next offseason when we (hopefully) extend him.

And he could’ve asked for that last time as an RFA and I’d have reluctantly given it to him. He’s easily worth it to me, unless, like RillestPaulFenton said, we had another elite #1C option but that’s easier said than done to find.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

I hope we get Aho signed after the 22-23 season for a couple reasons. We have a bunch of key players on expiring deals, and it would be nice to have our biggest fish already caught. The Barkov comparable is right there, and I hope Dundon would flex a bit on the numbers to make it work for Aho's camp. He can also offer the 8th year. It works well for the optics of the franchise to have "the guy" locked in early. Makes other players want to come here more as they know what they're working with.

However, given that Aho bet on himself well with the 5 year l'offre hostile, could he bet on himself again? I could see a player like Aho actually going for a shorter term bigger dollar deal. For example, maybe asking for 3 years, $11M per? Thornton always did 3 year deals, I think, to keep him motivated. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for sure.

 

[Stickpucker]

The news about Subban/Chara/Yandle got me thinking, is Joe Thornton still on a roster somewhere?

On another note I expect to see Subban in the commentators chair on TNT soon.

He is dynamite.

 

[Stickpucker]

That’s something that can change in a year or two.

What teams are on the rise in the west?

In the east everyone talks about Ottawa and Detroit being up and comers. Then you have NJ signing all the big UFAs.

Out west...it looks like you got some pretty bad teams but none that are ready to be the next big thing. Maybe the LAK if you're being generous?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

What teams are on the rise in the west?

In the east everyone talks about Ottawa and Detroit being up and comers. Then you have NJ signing all the big UFAs.

Out west...it looks like you got some pretty bad teams but none that are ready to be the next big thing. Maybe the LAK if you're being generous?

True, but in 2018, nobody would have pegged Carolina as a team on the rise, particularly with the roster in place. Remember that after Rask was hurt, Jordan Staal was the only player on the roster that had played any significant time at center in the NHL. Since then, the Canes have been the 4th best team in hockey.

Things can change quickly.

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

True, but in 2018, nobody would have pegged Carolina as a team on the rise, particularly with the roster in place. Remember that after Rask was hurt, Jordan Staal was the only player on the roster that had played any significant time at center in the NHL. Since then, the Canes have been the 4th best team in hockey.

Things can change quickly.

Agree to point. But much of our change came with a change in ownership (philosophy & $$$)...

 

[Svechhammer]

True, but in 2018, nobody would have pegged Carolina as a team on the rise, particularly with the roster in place. Remember that after Rask was hurt, Jordan Staal was the only player on the roster that had played any significant time at center in the NHL. Since then, the Canes have been the 4th best team in hockey.

Things can change quickly.

A cup contender, no, but in 2018 people had been expecting us to take that next step into regular playoff participant for a while and there was a growing narrative of 'not sure I want to pick them this year when they've burned us in the past'.

To say nobody had any expectations for us is not really true. If anything, people were getting impatient that we continued to spin tires like we did.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

I sometimes wonder how things change across the board if Darling isn’t in net in 17-18. In 16-17, they had that really encouraging stretch in March. The next season went sideways overall, but the disparity in team performance by goalie was crazy. With an end of the line Ward in net, they won at a ~98 point pace. With Darling, ~68. Under the hood, there’s more of a linear progression that is associated with a team on the rise narrative.

 

[Stickpucker]

True, but in 2018, nobody would have pegged Carolina as a team on the rise, particularly with the roster in place. Remember that after Rask was hurt, Jordan Staal was the only player on the roster that had played any significant time at center in the NHL. Since then, the Canes have been the 4th best team in hockey.

Things can change quickly.

I somewhat agree...but I'll also point out our defense was stacked and for 4 or 5 years we were always darlings "poised for breakout" to at least be bubble in.

 

[CandyCanes]

 

[Francis10]

Trade board talking about Bear to Vancouver. Seriously if we can get Hoglander for Ethan Bear sign me up ASAP.