Around the NHL — Episode XLXVI

[JD1]

Bergeron has a 1 year contract for $2.5M for 1 year 2022-23 and Krejci has 1 year left 2022-23 at $1M. Those 2 contracts don't hurt the Bruins in any way for 2022-23 nor 2023-24.

With those players I don't think the Bruins are cup competitors this season. The Bruins are trying to hang on to their glory years.

As far as 23-24 goes, idk. They're going to hand out 35 minutes of C ice a night to those two this year and might have to replace it all next year. Bergeron you must sign if he wants to play. Krecji on the other hand is a year removed from playing in the NHL and is 36. I think I would have skipped his deal

 

[JD1]

Of course, I know the difference between Molson and Melnyk but with a bit more luck, we could have boosted the rebuild significantly if Melnyk sold years ago instead of hanging unto the asset to run it on a shoestring budget (compared to big markets)

An owner with deep pockets would have seen the opportunity, invest more to reap more benefits later. That's what I was obviously getting at. Some of you just don't like these alternative reality scenarios, for some reason and everytime someone talks about it, we get the same comments. Like we should have been celebrating to have been stuck with the worst ownership in the NHL... I don't get it

You're right. I don't like alternative reality concepts. In any context other than hockey, they're pretty much considered wing nut concepts

But this isn't a Melnyk Molson thing. It's a Ottawa Montreal thing. That market consistently generates twice the revenue we do and that lets them operate differently.

 

[Cosmix]

With those players I don't think the Bruins are cup competitors this season. The Bruins are trying to hang on to their glory years.

As far as 23-24 goes, idk. They're going to hand out 35 minutes of C ice a night to those two this year and might have to replace it all next year. Bergeron you must sign if he wants to play. Krecji on the other hand is a year removed from playing in the NHL and is 36. I think I would have skipped his deal

Yes they are getting long in the tooth and over the hill, so their effectiveness on the ice is not what some expect. I was referring to the salaries being paid to them. They are not high and thus do not prevent paying other younger and perhaps better players more money. However bonuses paid to them could affect affordability to pay other better players.

I agree that Boston is dropping in the standings and probably will be a middle of the pack team going forward..

 

[Big Muddy]

I’m not particularly impressed with him as a GM, he’s had a dream job so far. We’ll see how he does in MTL where environment is more critical, and players aren’t tripping over themselves to play there.

True, but Gorton put a lot of pieces in place before the baton was passed to the next GM. There's lots to debate on both sides here, and I won't get into it on how quickly Montreal will improve. I just wanted to make that one point.

 

[Senovision]

Ottawa should fold the Redblacks, they are a black eye on this market. Every sports fans knows that despite the disgusting on field performance and 1-19 home record that the real concern is the Redblacks give Ottawa the label as a bad sports town - Vancouver folded the grizzlies and moved to a relatively impoverished part of the States - but it saved Vancouver the label of being a bad sports town (Vancouver being Canadas most insecure city)

Get rid of the Redblacks / there’s literally nothing good coming from the franchise. The real estate guys made their money, move on. While you’re at at, think about folding the entire CFL

I don't really know why the Redblacks came back. I can't name one player on the team and I don't get the feeling that there is a strong following in the city. Sure there seems to be a small hardcore group of fans that follow the Redblacks. But it does seem like a waste of time. Just my opinion.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

I don't really know why the Redblacks came back. I can't name one player on the team and I don't get the feeling that there is a strong following in the city. Sure there seems to be a small hardcore group of fans that follow the Redblacks. But it does seem like a waste of time. Just my opinion.

I think most fans who care even a lick for the CFL could tell you who Antoine Pruneau and Nate Behar are. If it's not for you that's cool, but even outside of the hardcore there are fans like myself with a passing interest and a passing familiarity.

 

[DueDiligence]

I think most fans who care even a lick for the CFL could tell you who Antoine Pruneau and Nate Behar are. If it's not for you that's cool, but even outside of the hardcore there are fans like myself with a passing interest and a passing familiarity.

The CFL is a "Prairie Provinces " league. BC and Eastern Canada care very little about it.

 

[Ice-Tray]

True, but Gorton put a lot of pieces in place before the baton was passed to the next GM. There's lots to debate on both sides here, and I won't get into it on how quickly Montreal will improve. I just wanted to make that one point.

Agreed, he definitely made some good moves no doubt, the Zib trade in particular.

I guess my point was more that I’m not immediately shaking in my boots because he’s now the GM of the habs.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Ottawa should fold the Redblacks, they are a black eye on this market. Every sports fans knows that despite the disgusting on field performance and 1-19 home record that the real concern is the Redblacks give Ottawa the label as a bad sports town - Vancouver folded the grizzlies and moved to a relatively impoverished part of the States - but it saved Vancouver the label of being a bad sports town (Vancouver being Canadas most insecure city)

Get rid of the Redblacks / there’s literally nothing good coming from the franchise. The real estate guys made their money, move on. While you’re at at, think about folding the entire CFL

I'll admit I don't follow the CFL but I thought the Redblacks enjoyed good popularity? I mean, they won the Grey Cup in their 2nd year.

 

[Laphroaig]

Football is just a really dumb sport on both sides of the border.

 

[OD99]

The CFL is a "Prairie Provinces " league. BC and Eastern Canada care very little about it.

TD Place is a great spot with great atmosphere even with light attendance.

The team has been a joke on the field for 3 years running now though so hard to rally support as they did when they first came back.

Need a legit CFL QB as main priority.

 

[bicboi64]

With those players I don't think the Bruins are cup competitors this season. The Bruins are trying to hang on to their glory years.

As far as 23-24 goes, idk. They're going to hand out 35 minutes of C ice a night to those two this year and might have to replace it all next year. Bergeron you must sign if he wants to play. Krecji on the other hand is a year removed from playing in the NHL and is 36. I think I would have skipped his deal

I don't think the Bruins can get past the first round, but I think holding onto Bergeron and having Krejci will make them a team that we're most likely competing with for a wild card spot.

I think we can score more goals, but their forwards are defensively dope. Plus Marchand might try to bite or lick Brady, so we gotta be careful lol. Looking forward to Boston's decline

 

[Xspyrit]

I understand that they ‘could’ get better in a hurry like we did, no doubt.

At this point though, they need a lot of good pieces coming in. The Rangers had lottery wins, freebie stars, a fortuitous Sens trade, and they still didn’t do much while Gorton was there, or since as of yet.

I’m not particularly impressed with him as a GM, he’s had a dream job so far. We’ll see how he does in MTL where environment is more critical, and players aren’t tripping over themselves to play there.

We also have to put it all together, and things look really promising, but it took two collapsing years, a full sell off, and three straight years of rebuild to get here, and we still have a ways to go to prove our worth.

MTL has had the collapse, still a long way to go if they can stomach it.

Did we get better "in a hurry"? I mean, it's the 6th season since the collapse and we're not guaranteed the playoffs yet. The terrible rebuilds recently have been the Devils (1 playoffs appearance in 10 years) and the Sabres (0 playoffs appearance in 11 years). We don't want to get closer to that

Yes they need a lot more pieces still but they literally started their rebuild a few months ago. What I don't like as a rival is that they have already accumulated a lot of draft capital and a lot of quality prospects too. Keep in mind, they didn't have prime assets like Karlsson, Duchene and Stone for trade. But I want you to be right on Gorton. Another thing that worries me as a rival is all the people they have added, people like St. Louis and Lecavalier, Hughes, Machabée, Bobrov...

They already have 3 possible building blocks on the roster Nick Suzuki (23), Cole Caufield (21) and Kirby Dach (21) but their prospect pool looks like ours 3-4 years into the rebuild :

1. Juraj Slafkovsky, 84.1% (NA)
2. Kaiden Guhle, 86.2% (-1)
3. Sean Farrell, 47.2% (+8)
4. Justin Barron, 50.4% (NA)
5. Joshua Roy, 38.6% (+15)
6. Filip Mesar, 38.8% (NA)
7. Logan Mailloux, 37.5% (-3)
8. Lane Hutson, 54.8% (NA)
9. Jordan Harris, 54.1% (-3)
10. Owen Beck, 30.6% (NA)
11. Cayden Primeau, 41.9% (-6)
12. Riley Kidney, 27.8% (+1)
13. Emil Heineman, 33.9% (NA)
14. Jakub Dobes, 34.7% (+9)
15. Arber Xhekaj, 39.0% (NA)
16. Jesse Ylonen, 52.8% (-8)
17. Mattias Norlinder, 48.6% (-15)
18. Vincenz Rohrer, 32.5/51.2% (NA)
19. Jan Mysak, 55.9% (-9)
20. Rafael Harvey-Pinard, 43.2% (-4)
21. Jayden Struble, 36.4% ( -14)
...

Asset management is crucial. Considering their best assets FT have been Lehkonen, Toffoli and Ben freaking Chiarot, this is highly impressive

 

[Xspyrit]

You're right. I don't like alternative reality concepts. In any context other than hockey, they're pretty much considered wing nut concepts

But this isn't a Melnyk Molson thing. It's a Ottawa Montreal thing. That market consistently generates twice the revenue we do and that lets them operate differently.

I don't know about that, maybe for people who lack imagination or who are not able to evaluate various possibilities. I just finished renovating a house and there is so many ways it could have been done. Not evaluating various scenarios is exactly how you never improve or get better ideas for the next project

In the case here, we know the reality of what our ownership has been but it could have been very different depending on what kind of ownership we would have had. It's frustrating when you see other teams "weaponize cap space" to acquire assets and stop gap players instead of PAYING assets to acquire below average stop gaps (Josh Brown and Erik Gudbranson, to name a few)

I believe we are still in a very good position for the next half decade thanks to our drafting but frankly, not because of anything else.

I hate how the Habs have acquired so many stop gaps, draft picks, prospects, etc... in addition to having some young talent like Suzuki and Caufield already on the roster.

Really hoping Slaf, Barron, etc... are busts for them and that they get crap returns when they try to move Hoffman, Armia, Drouin, etc.... Really want that franchise to stay in the gutter for a bit longer

Check my previous post where I listed their pool... man it got really good and DEEP in just a few MONTHS. That's the part that worries me. Luckily they had almost nothing in terms of assets for trade. Our situation was pretty much unprecedented. You never see a team who has guys like Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Hoffman, Pageau, etc in their prime go for a scorched earth rebuild. I have personally never seen anything like that before

We absolutely need to be a top team in our division but not only there's Tampa, Florida and Toronto, but Buffalo, Detroit and Montreal will be pushing soon too.

 

[Masked]

I don't really know why the Redblacks came back. I can't name one player on the team and I don't get the feeling that there is a strong following in the city. Sure there seems to be a small hardcore group of fans that follow the Redblacks. But it does seem like a waste of time. Just my opinion.

It was a necessary evil to that gave developers an excuse to rebuild Landsdowne.

Assen na yo!

 

[bicboi64]

Check my previous post where I listed their pool... man it got really good and DEEP in just a few MONTHS. That's the part that worries me. Luckily they had almost nothing in terms of assets for trade. Our situation was pretty much unprecedented. You never see a team who has guys like Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Hoffman, Pageau, etc in their prime go for a scorched earth rebuild. I have personally never seen anything like that before

We absolutely need to be a top team in our division but not only there's Tampa, Florida and Toronto, but Buffalo, Detroit and Montreal will be pushing soon too.

I think they have some pieces they can trade for even more assets. Not as good as the Sens, but still some pieces they can move for solid returns which can bolster their pool/rebuild.

If Hoffman scores at a 25g pace, I think the Habs can get a 2nd and decent prospect for him. Armia might be traded for some decent B prospects if a team buys into his third line play. Byron might be a good pick up for a team needing a bottom 6 guy for a lower salary than cap hit. Given what Chiarot got, Edmundson might return some decent draft picks too.

I do hope any further assets they get are wasted on trying to move Gallagher or Anderson (both of whom will never be worth their current deals)

 

[Sun God Nika]

Just heard Kyle Turris retired at the young age of 33. Sucks to see but he clearly doesn't have it anymore and the numbers back it up.

Hope the Sens honour him somehow be it ring of honour or something else.

 

[JD1]

Just heard Kyle Turris retired at the young age of 33. Sucks to see but he clearly doesn't have it anymore and the numbers back it up.

Hope the Sens honour him somehow be it ring of honour or something else.

Gumbiest player ever

 

[BankStreetParade]

Just heard Kyle Turris retired at the young age of 33. Sucks to see but he clearly doesn't have it anymore and the numbers back it up.

Hope the Sens honour him somehow be it ring of honour or something else.

What would the argument be for that?

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

What would the argument be for that?

He was a good player with us for a good time, was responsible for a couple of big and memorable moments, and repairing the bridge there would be an optics slam dunk.

 

[OD99]

He was a good player with us for a good time, was responsible for a couple of big and memorable moments, and repairing the bridge there would be an optics slam dunk.

Big time overkill and would cheapen the RoH.

Love Kyle and all he brought on and off the ice but he isn't in that sphere of player.

That said he should be brought back in to fold if possible and hopefully the young ladies can find a way to recognize his time here.

 

[StoicSensFan]

Gumbiest player ever

I cringed, I still remember that vividly

 

[Micklebot]

He was a good player with us for a good time, was responsible for a couple of big and memorable moments, and repairing the bridge there would be an optics slam dunk.

To me, ring of honour is for guys in the conversation for a retired jersey but just don't quite meet the threshold. Turris while a good soldier for the team while here isn't really on that level.

 

[playasRus]

One thing about Turris and his wife is that the two of them were major players in community involvement. Probably leaders in that aspect over the last 10 years with the team.

 

[DueDiligence]

He was a good player with us for a good time, was responsible for a couple of big and memorable moments, and repairing the bridge there would be an optics slam dunk.

Guys who are just "good" players on any team in any league don't get rewarded with ROH or equivalent recognition.