Around the League Thread Part III: Free Agent Frenzy Hangover

[KopitarFAN]

It's possible i will feel differently when the Winter games have started and we have Country Vs. Country hockey. But right now, i have absolutely zero interest in this and (for various reasons I won't get into as well) really wish the NHL passed on stopping their season to join into these Winter games.

My feeling as well. Are casual fans (that's all they care about) really gonna get up 2am to watch these games? I doubt it. If they were somewhere in North America, and the games were in prime time, go for it, but if I can't get motivated to watch games at god awful times, I doubt people who really don't care will.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

My feeling as well. Are casual fans (that's all they care about) really gonna get up 2am to watch these games? I doubt it. If they were somewhere in North America, and the games were in prime time, go for it, but if I can't get motivated to watch games at god awful times, I doubt people who really don't care will.

Yeah not sure. The players obviously care. And some of my favorite hockey memories are watching Hasek stuff the Canadians at like 330-4am or something, high stakes games are always the best.

You never know when lightning will strike, could be shit ratings, could be USA goes all the way and we get a 1980s thing, who knows.

 

[BamBam1031]

League shouldn’t be holding players hostage if they don’t get vaccinated. In case you don’t remember this is a free country.

I agree. The lengths people are going to nowadays to mandate vaccines, officially or otherwise, are downright Orwellian. We will look back at this time in shame.

All the other free people in this free country should be free from a Typhoid Mary.

What you are describing is not freedom. You are describing irrational fear. Freedom means liberty or restraint from the power of another. Freedom is infringed when someone in a position of power (government, employers, schools, forum moderators) uses that authority to limit what you can or can't do.

The PA is free to make some noise if the players agree with you.

However it's a private organization so they are free to make the rules they want and as an international business that shuttles 50+ public figures from city to city overnight all season they have determined the reward of keeping their business running overrides the risk of a minority of players jeopardizing their season.

It IS a free country and Rocky Thompson of the Sharks has already quit over it. Others are welcome to follow suit. That's freedom! If you don't like your employer, there's always the international leagues.

Again, you are describing the OPPOSITE of freedom. See above. In fact, what you are describing is discrimination. What if said employee does not want to take the vaccine for religious reasons? Religion is a protected class every bit as important as skin color or sexual orientation. Just imagine it's Islam instead of Christianity if it helps the logic flow better. If a private organization made rules against gay marriage because of HIV/AIDS fears, would it be "freedom" if gay employees had to quit and find employment elsewhere? Obviously not. No wonder you are so free with censorship, you don't even understand what freedom means.

There are many arguments for mandating vaccines. Some of them are quite valid and backed by science. None of those arguments, however, are PRO-freedom, as mandating of any kind is inherently ANTI-choice. When power and authority are used to force someone to do something against their will, that's tyranny by definition.

At the very least, do not twist and pervert the meaning of freedom. Some of us still care.

 

[johnjm22]

I think not matching is probably the right move for the Canadiens.

Montreal is unique. While most markets wouldn't care about a player signing an offer sheet, Montreal is more likely to take it personally. The media and fanbase there can be quite viscous towards their own players (French media culture is known for it's vulgarity).

Kotkaniemi's development has already been somewhat botched by throwing him into the NHL to early. Had the offersheet been matched, you'd have a toxic situation in which he'd be under a microscope and most likely underperforming his contract while the pressure mounts on him. The Montreal press and fans would eagerly pounce on him. Plus he can't be traded. Just a terrible environment for a young player.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Yeah not sure. The players obviously care. And some of my favorite hockey memories are watching Hasek stuff the Canadians at like 330-4am or something, high stakes games are always the best.

You never know when lightning will strike, could be shit ratings, could be USA goes all the way and we get a 1980s thing, who knows.

USA is going to get smoked.

 

[kingsfan28]

USA is going to get smoked.

With Bylsma and Torts NOT behind the bench we should fare better than previous years.

 

[KingLB]

I agree. The lengths people are going to nowadays to mandate vaccines, officially or otherwise, are downright Orwellian. We will look back at this time in shame.



What you are describing is not freedom. You are describing irrational fear. Freedom means liberty or restraint from the power of another. Freedom is infringed when someone in a position of power (government, employers, schools, forum moderators) uses that authority to limit what you can or can't do.



Again, you are describing the OPPOSITE of freedom. See above. In fact, what you are describing is discrimination. What if said employee does not want to take the vaccine for religious reasons? Religion is a protected class every bit as important as skin color or sexual orientation. Just imagine it's Islam instead of Christianity if it helps the logic flow better. If a private organization made rules against gay marriage because of HIV/AIDS fears, would it be "freedom" if gay employees had to quit and find employment elsewhere? Obviously not. No wonder you are so free with censorship, you don't even understand what freedom means.

There are many arguments for mandating vaccines. Some of them are quite valid and backed by science. None of those arguments, however, are PRO-freedom, as mandating of any kind is inherently ANTI-choice. When power and authority are used to force someone to do something against their will, that's tyranny by definition.

At the very least, do not twist and pervert the meaning of freedom. Some of us still care.

This is true! It’s not like vaccines have never been mandated before! And has never been an issue ever…

Oh wait nvm, just another bam bam post…

 

[Fishhead]

I agree. The lengths people are going to nowadays to mandate vaccines, officially or otherwise, are downright Orwellian. We will look back at this time in shame.



What you are describing is not freedom. You are describing irrational fear. Freedom means liberty or restraint from the power of another. Freedom is infringed when someone in a position of power (government, employers, schools, forum moderators) uses that authority to limit what you can or can't do.



Again, you are describing the OPPOSITE of freedom. See above. In fact, what you are describing is discrimination. What if said employee does not want to take the vaccine for religious reasons? Religion is a protected class every bit as important as skin color or sexual orientation. Just imagine it's Islam instead of Christianity if it helps the logic flow better. If a private organization made rules against gay marriage because of HIV/AIDS fears, would it be "freedom" if gay employees had to quit and find employment elsewhere? Obviously not. No wonder you are so free with censorship, you don't even understand what freedom means.

There are many arguments for mandating vaccines. Some of them are quite valid and backed by science. None of those arguments, however, are PRO-freedom, as mandating of any kind is inherently ANTI-choice. When power and authority are used to force someone to do something against their will, that's tyranny by definition.

At the very least, do not twist and pervert the meaning of freedom. Some of us still care.

You realize that vaccines have been mandated for years now, right? This isn't something new. I don't think of the 70's of a time of shame when measles vaccines were mandated for kids. I don't look poorly on the late 1800's either, when smallpox vaccines were mandated either. Quite the opposite, I'm proud of those moments because we no longer have smallpox or measles running rampant because of them.

And if freedom is infringed when government limits what you can or can't do, what do you consider free? You have to wear a seat belt, you can't drive as fast as you want, you can't threaten other people, you can't wave a gun around in Disneyland, I mean the list is miles long. There is this strange fallacy in America that we are a really free nation. Ask a lot of Europeans and they think the USA is a police state. Laws are inherently the opposite of freedom, and we have a lot of them.

But really, given how many mandates this country has, I'm surprised you would even want to live here.

 

[kingsfan28]

Cant wait for Doughty to make team Canada and do amazingly just for the same twits who think he sucks now to say something like "well he was only Canada's best defenseman because the rest of the team is so good"

Team Canada will load their team up with all the sexy scorers and then remember they have to be good at other things too. Looking forward to Quinn Hughes making another bad read, only to have Doughty come out of nowhere to save his ass.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Again, you are describing the OPPOSITE of freedom. See above. In fact, what you are describing is discrimination. What if said employee does not want to take the vaccine for religious reasons? Religion is a protected class every bit as important as skin color or sexual orientation. Just imagine it's Islam instead of Christianity if it helps the logic flow better. If a private organization made rules against gay marriage because of HIV/AIDS fears, would it be "freedom" if gay employees had to quit and find employment elsewhere? Obviously not. No wonder you are so free with censorship, you don't even understand what freedom means.

There are many arguments for mandating vaccines. Some of them are quite valid and backed by science. None of those arguments, however, are PRO-freedom, as mandating of any kind is inherently ANTI-choice. When power and authority are used to force someone to do something against their will, that's tyranny by definition.

At the very least, do not twist and pervert the meaning of freedom. Some of us still care.

Without getting into the semantics as per usual--that 'freedom' is a social contract not a freewheeling authority-less mass of people--inform yourself. Plot twist for your feigned worry about discrimination--the NHL does have religious (and other) exemptions for the vaccine. In addition, unlike a couple of other major sports leagues, they also have to consider INTERnational travel/border navigation as well as provincial restrictions that have typically been much more stringent that most of the United States. This has a lot more nuance than you intend to grasp, because you're not here to discuss in good faith. I'm not even going to start in on your gay marriage example because you're just embarrassing yourself there, that is a complete non-sequitur of you just making bullshit buzzword soup.

Nevertheless let's not pretend you're here to argue for worker rights. And private employers like the NHL are free--within the confines you raise--to create rules that will impact their profitability and avoid shutdown by protecting workers without discriminating against protected classes. Freedom! Isn't it grand?

 

[Schmooley]

What religion says you arent allowed to have vaccines? Religions were invented before vaccines I think.

 

[Statto]

I agree. The lengths people are going to nowadays to mandate vaccines, officially or otherwise, are downright Orwellian. We will look back at this time in shame.



What you are describing is not freedom. You are describing irrational fear. Freedom means liberty or restraint from the power of another. Freedom is infringed when someone in a position of power (government, employers, schools, forum moderators) uses that authority to limit what you can or can't do.



Again, you are describing the OPPOSITE of freedom. See above. In fact, what you are describing is discrimination. What if said employee does not want to take the vaccine for religious reasons? Religion is a protected class every bit as important as skin color or sexual orientation. Just imagine it's Islam instead of Christianity if it helps the logic flow better. If a private organization made rules against gay marriage because of HIV/AIDS fears, would it be "freedom" if gay employees had to quit and find employment elsewhere? Obviously not. No wonder you are so free with censorship, you don't even understand what freedom means.

There are many arguments for mandating vaccines. Some of them are quite valid and backed by science. None of those arguments, however, are PRO-freedom, as mandating of any kind is inherently ANTI-choice. When power and authority are used to force someone to do something against their will, that's tyranny by definition.

At the very least, do not twist and pervert the meaning of freedom. Some of us still care.

Delete. Changed my mind, getting into this debate will make me lose the will to live.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Never seen any team blatantly tank the way AZ is doing so this year. It's disgusting. can only hope the hockey gods smite their lottery ticket.

I thought we've all been signed up to the black hole theory of Lombardi? And the Coyotes have had absolutely nothing to hold onto. They don't have somewhat recent Cups. They don't have guys that can't be traded due to bad contracts. Aren't they doing what average at best teams should be doing? You don't want to be a 1st rd and out team at your peak, but every time a team tanks, they're an embarrassment to the league. People need to pick one or the other.

Now, Arizona has a whole bunch of issues. They may not be tanking simply for hockey reasons. They just might have no money to spend. However, if you have to live in a certain reality, then you have to maximize your assets somehow. 8 picks in the 1st and 2nd rd next year.

My feeling as well. Are casual fans (that's all they care about) really gonna get up 2am to watch these games? I doubt it. If they were somewhere in North America, and the games were in prime time, go for it, but if I can't get motivated to watch games at god awful times, I doubt people who really don't care will.

They want the fans to watch, but this is about the players. They really want to play in the Olympics, and they don't really care if anyone in NA is watching. And if we're going to be real about it, regardless of whatever is going on, there is potential money to be made in China, which is likely why the league is allowing the players to go back. I don't know about too many businesses that have given up on that.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Kotkaniemi just went from emerging talent to '3rd liner' and dvorak from middle sixer to "1C' in one afternoon. I wish that worked in reverse, unfortuately Danault went from near-selke-level 40-50 point guy to castoff overpaid 3C overnight too. Crazy what that international border does to players

From where they were a week ago, the Habs might be better off today.

 

[BringTheReign]

Can anyone remember a crazier offseason in the cap era? We just saw a successful, revenge-fueled offer sheet AND an immediate trade as speculated on by many. That type of stuff usually only happens in hypothetical threads on HFBoards.

 

[bcking]

Team Canada will load their team up with all the sexy scorers and then remember they have to be good at other things too. Looking forward to Quinn Hughes making another bad read, only to have Doughty come out of nowhere to save his ass.

That would be cool if they played for the same country

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I thought we've all been signed up to the black hole theory of Lombardi? And the Coyotes have had absolutely nothing to hold onto. They don't have somewhat recent Cups. They don't have guys that can't be traded due to bad contracts. Aren't they doing what average at best teams should be doing? You don't want to be a 1st rd and out team at your peak, but every time a team tanks, they're an embarrassment to the league. People need to pick one or the other.

Now, Arizona has a whole bunch of issues. They may not be tanking simply for hockey reasons. They just might have no money to spend. However, if you have to live in a certain reality, then you have to maximize your assets somehow. 8 picks in the 1st and 2nd rd next year.

Fair, at some point you have to shit or get off the pot, and they don’t have any recent history of note. I can respect an abrupt change in direction. But the timing of trading guys in their mid-20s and shipping off everything of value not named Chychrun is worse than what Buffalo did pre-McDavid-draft. I suspect we can expect Kessel out next along with maybe Crouse and Fischer. Hell, you and I may as well show up to their camp at this point. Only one that won’t go is Keller.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Can anyone remember a crazier offseason in the cap era? We just saw a successful, revenge-fueled offer sheet AND an immediate trade as speculated on by many. That type of stuff usually only happens in hypothetical threads on HFBoards.

Plus the Minnesota buyouts. Ladd and Eriksson not only traded, but as far as I know, also expected to play again?

Fair, at some point you have to shit or get off the pot, and they don’t have any recent history of note. I can respect an abrupt change in direction. But the timing of trading guys in their mid-20s and shipping off everything of value not named Chychrun is worse than what Buffalo did pre-McDavid-draft. I suspect we can expect Kessel out next along with maybe Crouse and Fischer. Hell, you and I may as well show up to their camp at this point. Only one that won’t go is Keller.

To get rid of OEL's contract, they had to add Garland, who needed a new contract. Everyone says they did pretty well on the return for Kuemper. Dvorak was already signed, so that one they probably didn't need to do, but they might end up with an 11th-15th pick for him, considering the Habs don't look great, but still enough on the roster that they could squeak out some wins. Most everyone else they got rid of are just guys that happen to play hockey for money.

 

[Token]

Fair, at some point you have to shit or get off the pot, and they don’t have any recent history of note. I can respect an abrupt change in direction. But the timing of trading guys in their mid-20s and shipping off everything of value not named Chychrun is worse than what Buffalo did pre-McDavid-draft. I suspect we can expect Kessel out next along with maybe Crouse and Fischer. Hell, you and I may as well show up to their camp at this point. Only one that won’t go is Keller.

Well, they have three years to stack the deck, and the draft class for the next two will have some real gems in there.

And when the prodigal son returns to Arizona in 2024 with his porn-stache, it will all make sense.

 

[TruKingFan]

Well, they have three years to stack the deck, and the draft class for the next two will have some real gems in there.

And when the prodigal son returns to Arizona in 2024 with his porn-stache, it will all make sense.

Absolutely no guarantee that AM will head out of TO. The Cry-otes have no home after this coming season and it remains to be seen if they can get an arena built closer to the East Valley in the next year or two. Tanking is necessary in the next three years at least to keep afloat.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

And I’m definitely not saying AZ doesn’t have good reasons to watch their bottom line. Only that last time a team/teams tanked this blatantly the lottery rules were changed.

 

[Token]

Absolutely no guarantee that AM will head out of TO. The Cry-otes have no home after this coming season and it remains to be seen if they can get an arena built closer to the East Valley in the next year or two. Tanking is necessary in the next three years at least to keep afloat.

Hmm … so Dubas just gave away the extra 3 UFA years when he could have inked AM cuz they’re part of some gentleman’s agreement?

AZ had a 15% offer sheet ready at the time, or so the story goes.

 

[DrHansReinhardt]

@BamBam1031 how's the streaming service on the desert island you live on? or is is a cave? a rugged individual like you surely doesn't live in a civilized society.

 

[DoktorJeep]

I think the Coyotes will be sold before next season and moved to Houston. The only things keeping them in Arizona are ownership’s application to run casinos in state and Bettman’s unwillingness to accept defeat.

With the money from a sale, Meruelo can bribe the state government to give him an exception to the casino regulations and the league can save face by admitting the move to the central division was part of the plan.

 

[deeshamrock]

Caps have had no luck moving Kuznetsov

Yup, that's a problem...

NHL Rumors: Vancouver Canucks, and the Washington Capitals | NHL Rumors

• He counts $7.8 million against the cap this season AND the three seasons that follow.
• He has a 15-team no-trade clause, giving him a measure of control over the situation, and he likes it here.
• The Caps would have to get a top-six center in return. Not a third center, not a winger who’s played some in the middle, a legit first- or second-line center.”