Around the NHL 2024-2025

[STL fan in MN]

We haven't talked about this much but it sounds like a given that Landeskog is back for Game 1 of the playoffs...that'll be pretty fascinating to observe.

Yep. Pretty amazing how many hockey players get over major injuries right around April 15 and not a day sooner. Nobody from Vegas this year but the Avs with Landeskog and the Oilers with Kane seem primed to pull off the LTIR loophole.

 

[TruBlueFan1970]

Shea Theodore just returned for Vegas. They're going to be a handful for any team with that defensive core behind Eichel, Stone, Hertl, Karlsson, etc. (And I'm sure, if the Blues matched up against Vegas in Rd. 1, Barbashev and Saad would be extra pumped up to inflict some pain on their former employer).

But while Hanifin, McNabb, Theodore, Pietrangelo, Whitecloud & Hague is a very deep group, the Blues own d-line is a deep, talented & veteran group in their own right: Parayko, Fowler, Faulk, Broberg, Suter, Leddy.

The problem for the Blues is the size of the VGK defensive core. They are all huge, which will make it extremely difficult for the Blues average sized forwards to get to the inside for high danger chances. Guys like Neighbours, Schenn, Holloway, Thomas, Kyrou, Buch and Bolduc are not small, they also aren't big guys. We will become a perimeter offense against them or have to score on the rush a lot. This is an incredibly difficult matchup. You have to beat the best to be the best, but if we draw them, our learning experience will probably be a loss in 5 games if not a sweep.

 

[Mike Liut]

Just a thought…

McDavid is the best goal scorer we’ve seen in 20+ years. He would have to repeat the next 10 years like his first 10 years and he’s still be 100 goals short of Ovi.

 

[TheOrganist]

Yep. Pretty amazing how many hockey players get over major injuries right around April 15 and not a day sooner. Nobody from Vegas this year but the Avs with Landeskog and the Oilers with Kane seem primed to pull off the LTIR loophole.

Yup...though Friedman had the nugget on his most recent podcast that you can't utilize LTIR after game 72 of the regular season on your schedule (which I didn't know) so the Avs have no mechanism to get him into regular season action...in other words, they would be way over the regular season Cap if they activated him ...thus, Game 1 will be his first NHL action since Cup Finals in 2022.

 

[stl76]

Sure, but it could easily have been after taking the rest of the year off and hired in the offseason. My point is simply that they could have been throwing away a couple million dollars to bring in a new coach while they are trading the last of their veteran players of value. It looks incoherent to me.

IIRC Sacco has been with the org a long time and has kind of been a “head coach in waiting,” or at least being groomed for a head coach role for a while. I think part of their decision with Monty had to do with liking Sacco and wanting to give him a shot.

FWIW I also think part of the friction between Monty and the bruins org was related to him not being able to select whoever he wanted for assistants (Sacco being one of those assistants).

Just a thought…

McDavid is the best goal scorer we’ve seen in 20+ years. He would have to repeat the next 10 years like his first 10 years and he’s still be 100 goals short of Ovi.

…and the league for a large part of Ovi’s prime was much lower scoring than today. It really is an incredible accomplishment what he is doing.

 

[Xerloris]

Just a thought…

McDavid is the best goal scorer we’ve seen in 20+ years. He would have to repeat the next 10 years like his first 10 years and he’s still be 100 goals short of Ovi.

We have literally watched the best goal scorer in history for the last 20 years. His name is not McDavid.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Yup...though Friedman had the nugget on his most recent podcast that you can't utilize LTIR after game 72 of the regular season on your schedule (which I didn't know) so the Avs have no mechanism to get him into regular season action...in other words, they would be way over the regular season Cap if they activated him ...thus, Game 1 will be his first NHL action since Cup Finals in 2022.

Yet the NHL also has a rule stating that if a player is healthy they MUST be taken of LTIR immediately. But clearly they don’t enforce it.

 

[The Note]

Just a thought…

McDavid is the best goal scorer we’ve seen in 20+ years. He would have to repeat the next 10 years like his first 10 years and he’s still be 100 goals short of Ovi.

And OV lost time to lockouts and the Covid season(s). Pretty bananas.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Just a thought…

McDavid is the best goal scorer we’ve seen in 20+ years. He would have to repeat the next 10 years like his first 10 years and he’s still be 100 goals short of Ovi.

Matthews is the guy who is more likely to threaten Ovie record.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Yup...though Friedman had the nugget on his most recent podcast that you can't utilize LTIR after game 72 of the regular season on your schedule (which I didn't know) so the Avs have no mechanism to get him into regular season action...in other words, they would be way over the regular season Cap if they activated him ...thus, Game 1 will be his first NHL action since Cup Finals in 2022.

Yeah, you can’t put someone on ltir at that point bc there aren’t enough remaining games to allow someone to meet ltir qualifications.

 

[OSA]

Something else to consider about Ovechkin….if he was born 2 days earlier, he would have gone 1st overall in the 2003 draft and had an entire 2003-04 season for his rookie year.

Ovi lost the equivalent of 3 playing seasons due to a razor thin late birthday, 2 lockouts and a pandemic. With his legendary durability, we would have seen this record fall a lot sooner under different circumstances. The guy is incredible.

 

[TheOrganist]

Yeah, you can’t put someone on lite at that point bc there aren’t enough remaining games to allow someone to meet ltir qualifications.

I’d like to see Brian or someone put together a spreadsheet of how the daily cap is calculated to be compliant and maybe an example of how a team could or couldn’t call up someone from the AHL bc of cap considerations. I don’t really understand it without a visual.

 

[Drubilly]

I’d like to see Brian or someone put together a spreadsheet of how the daily cap is calculated to be compliant and maybe an example of how a team could or couldn’t call up someone from the AHL bc of cap considerations. I don’t really understand it without a visual.

As your legal counsel @Brian39 I suggest you charge folks for this service…

 

[AjaxManifesto]

I imbued upon the Saad situation a feeling of animosity, but you’re probably right, in that he left in an amicable manner.

Army sent him to a winning org for a reboot. Win-Win-Win IMO.

 

[TheOrganist]

As your legal counsel @Brian39 I suggest you charge folks for this service…

He seems like he works at Greensfelder and bills $1,000/hr

 

[Mike Liut]

Matthews is the guy who is more likely to threaten Ovie record.

He’d have to duplicate his next 9 years and he’s still be 100 short. He’d have to play into his early 40s at the same pace.

 

[Drubilly]

He seems like he works at Greensfelder and bills $1,000/hr

Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

 

[Xerloris]

Matthews is the guy who is more likely to threaten Ovie record.

He's hurt far to much to challenge the record

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Something else to consider about Ovechkin….if he was born 2 days earlier, he would have gone 1st overall in the 2003 draft and had an entire 2003-04 season for his rookie year.

Ovi lost the equivalent of 3 playing seasons due to a razor thin late birthday, 2 lockouts and a pandemic. With his legendary durability, we would have seen this record fall a lot sooner under different circumstances. The guy is incredible.

I was just making the same point last night to my father in law. Without the lockouts we’d be talking about him chasing 1,000. 894 would have been two seasons in the rear view by now. Pretty incredible when you think about it.