Around the NHL: PTO Season Becomes Waiver Season

[EichHart]

Goalie so important

 

[MOGlLNY]

Goalie so important

Every goalie that steps in for Vegas seems to play lights out so maybe it’s not just the goalie for them

 

[EichHart]

Every goalie that steps in for Vegas seems to play lights out so maybe it’s not just the goalie for them

I’m watching the game and he’s making incredible saves

 

[MOGlLNY]

I’m watching the game and he’s making incredible saves

For sure! It just seems like Vegas plays a style where their goalie knows exactly where their shots are coming from. Their goalies don't miss a beat when they get sent out of town, or get injured. And it's happened to them a lot.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

If new ownership is shelling out $650M like the Kraken did, they're going to want more than what say the Knoxes put in (which in 2023 dollars would be $44M. That's the way of it because people aren't going to foot the bill to suck for decades. Hell, Columbus has never really had any success either from the later expansions and they paid 80M in 2000 to join the league which would only be $125M in 2023 dollars. They built in hobbling the expansion teams deliberately at the outset instead of making them competitive. Now they've gone the other way but it makes fans of teams that have waited an eternity displeased.

Sure. Count me as one of the displeased.

But $650M is a lot of money...... even in inflated dollars. I get why the help to be instantly competitive have been made.

 

[zenthusiast]

I might hate the oilers if I was a western conference fan but man it’s hard not to feel bad about the best player in the game being failed by his organization

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

America to Canada right now:

 

[Panthaz89]

It would be wild if we had a VGK-SEA Western Conference final. The latest expansion team versus the previous one.

There is something wrong when teams would rather start with an expansion draft than keep their current teams....

 

[Panthaz89]

Watching how good Vegas bottom 6 is...makes me think we should strive harder than the likes of Girgs and Okposo for our 4th line.

Guys like Carrier, Roy, even Blueger are so effective for them.

We would already have Carrier and Borgen if they weren't poached away from expansions drafts and would have been in the playoffs.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Every goalie that steps in for Vegas seems to play lights out so maybe it’s not just the goalie for them

Vegas giving off Blues Binn/O'Reilly vibes (Sabres fans will love that of course), they match up well against Sea (7-1), but 0-3 vs Dallas this past season.

Car a slight favorite over FL now or does Bob even it out ?

 

[Gabrielor]

No more expansion teams please.

 

[TheMistyStranger]

I guess I'm all in on Seattle....I hate all the other teams.

 

[Jim Bob]

LeBrun: How close was Matthew Tkachuk to being a Hurricane? Revisiting the trade that almost happened

Evidence suggests the Hurricanes were the runners-up in offseason trade talks for Matthew Tkachuk, now their opponent in the East final.

theathletic.com

This was an interesting read.

 

[OkimLom]

There is something wrong when teams would rather start with an expansion draft than keep their current teams....

What does this mean? Do you think that teams choose to do poorly so they move out their teams, so that they can invest another big chunk of money to host another expansion team to have a draft? Also, which team are you talking about?

If you're talking about expansion teams in general, it's in the league and other teams' interest to get as many healthy and strong teams as quickly as possible. The expansion draft is good for the league.

 

[Ehran]

What does this mean? Do you think that teams choose to do poorly so they move out their teams, so that they can invest another big chunk of money to host another expansion team to have a draft? Also, which team are you talking about?

If you're talking about expansion teams in general, it's in the league and other teams' interest to get as many healthy and strong teams as quickly as possible. The expansion draft is good for the league.

I think the point is:

If you were a billionaire looking to buy a sports team, would you prefer to plunk down $600,000,000 on a failing team, with most likely a failed roster that is locked in (possibly with horrible contracts on the books)?

Or would you prefer to start from scratch with a generous expansion draft program and a clean slate to build off of? No bad contracts. No aging but beloved veteran players you can't move even though they cost way too much and can't produce.

The way the expansion programs are now in the NHL it's not a hard call which way I would prefer to invest my money.

 

[WhereAreTheCookies]

It’s the real money ball of the nhl. You don’t need a top line, or core 4, you roll so deep that the opposing coach can’t matchup lines. It’s where tage and cozens contracts give us an edge going forward. I’m 100% pay Dahlin but if he could come in with 1mil less than fair market, this team could be set in spades. Would love to free up skinners money as well.

That's a big reason why I don't look at Krebs being on the 4th line as a bad thing. That much skill on your 4th line with a kid who is willing to battle like him could cause massive mismatches for opposing teams in a couple years, heck it does with some teams right now.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

That roster is f***ed.

" We will and we can"

 

[WhereAreTheCookies]

Seriously for a moment though, cap % when signed -

Matthews at 14.64%
Tavares at 13.84%
Marner at 13.38%
(Rielly at 9.2%)
Nylander at 8.76%

Three guys over 10% of cap value when signed is the big problem. One of those three is not the difference maker that contract demands. I also suspect the one of the two defenseman will be around 11.5% and the other closer to 8.5% when all is done with them, which would make both way, way better than any of the Leafs salary structure.

It's such a weird thing with the Leafs. They are a destination team, where a lot of players dreamed about playing when they were kids. Yet they don't really seem to get those contract discounts some teams get from their talent. In a vacuum you could argue that many of those players have earned their contracts with their production, but as a whole it just doesn't work.

Dubas essentially walked Matthews, Marner and Nylander to UFA and gave all the contract benefits to the players while not buying many UFA years. Given their ages when they were signed you'd think he should have been able to keep the cap hits lower, or gotten a couple extra UFA years on the end.

 

[OkimLom]

I think the point is:

If you were a billionaire looking to buy a sports team, would you prefer to plunk down $600,000,000 on a failing team, with most likely a failed roster that is locked in (possibly with horrible contracts on the books)?

Or would you prefer to start from scratch with a generous expansion draft program and a clean slate to build off of? No bad contracts. No aging but beloved veteran players you can't move even though they cost way too much and can't produce.

The way the expansion programs are now in the NHL it's not a hard call which way I would prefer to invest my money.

From a business point of view, I'd rather go the route that will lead to quicker success as a business.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Not advocating anything, but if there's a team which could trade for McDavid and still have a viable team left for him to join, it's Buffalo.

5 x 1sts (equivilents) is what I think it'd take.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

Not advocating anything, but if there's a team which could trade for McDavid and still have a viable team left for him to join, it's Buffalo.

5 x 1sts (equivilents) is what I think it'd take.

Boy that world, power or dahlin 1 is definitely gone. Thompson or cozens 1 is definitely gone. And forget about 3 years of drafting, so; savoie, kulich, ostlund, Levi, this years 1st, next years first, the year afters 1st, probably losing 3 of them as well…. Woof

 

[Der Jaeger]

Boy that world, power or dahlin 1 is definitely gone. Thompson or cozens 1 is definitely gone. And forget about 3 years of drafting, so; savoie, kulich, ostlund, Levi, this years 1st, next years first, the year afters 1st, probably losing 3 of them as well…. Woof

Thompson
Power
2023 1st
Ostlund
2023 1st

 

[EichHart]

Teams win cups, not individual players.

 

[BFLO]

Jumping the gun a bit, but It's going to suck if Eichel wins the Conn Smythe and Cup his first full season outside of Buffalo... just like RoR.

Has a team ever failed to even make the playoffs with 2 centers on the team that would then go on to win Conn Smythes and Cups for other teams?

Feels like a uniquely Buffalo level of incompetence.

 

[Chainshot]

Jumping the gun a bit, but It's going to suck if Eichel wins the Conn Smythe and Cup his first full season outside of Buffalo... just like RoR.

Has a team ever failed to even make the playoffs with 2 centers on the team that would then go on to win Conn Smythes and Cups for other teams?

Feels like a uniquely Buffalo level of incompetence.

Only teams that I see who have had two eventual winners have never had two who left and won it, only ones who won it on the same team or where one won it (MacInnis and Stevens and Ward) then a teammate won it elsewhere after departing (Vernon and Niedermayer and Williams). Then there is the weirdness of Roy winning two in Montreal, then another with the Avs. Anyway, no, no team I see has had two guys on the roster who then left to win it elsewhere.