OT: Around the NHL: The Countdown to Camp

[Big McLargehuge]

Niemi is a UFA and a mediocre-to-average starter on the wrong side of 30, Jones never struck me as anything more than a Zatkoff-type behind a great defense, and Dubnyk...well, we'll just have to wait and see there.

I can count on one hand how many legitimate scoring chances Jones faced in that impressive run of his. The Kings went into a total shell to keep pressure off of him.

On the flip side with Quick they often took him for granted way, way too much and left him out to dry.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

The entire Pronger situation, from his employment with the league to his likely HOF induction this year to being traded today, is a ****ing joke.

 

[djt153]

The entire Pronger situation, from his employment with the league to his likely HOF induction this year to being traded today, is a ****ing joke.

this truly cannot be said enough.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

The entire Pronger situation, from his employment with the league to his likely HOF induction this year to being traded today, is a ****ing joke.

100%

The entire situation is a joke...and I'm right there with Devils fans being furious about that. To me the whole Pronger situation is as egregious as the Kovalchuk contract, and they lost a first rounder for that.

For the actual effect of the deal, though, I'm more upset about the Arizona side of things. All this really does is let Philadelphia use that cap space in the off-season and get rid of most of Grossman's contract (Gagner apparently will be bought out)...but for Arizona that's empty cap space. They're doing this to reach the cap floor without being about $5 million from the floor.

The fact that the league let this through is a joke. At least with the Horton deal there's an extremely small chance he could play again...Pronger passed the point of no return years ago.

 

[Penguinator]

That sob also got suspended 8 times with not nearly enough games every time, unbelievable.

It's like he's some sort of evil NHL approved golem or something...

 

[djt153]

things like this are just further punishment to whatever fanbase they have left in Glendale. how do you root for this kind of crap? Id also be furious if I was a good faith cap floor team.

 

[TNT87]

The entire Pronger situation, from his employment with the league to his likely HOF induction this year to being traded today, is a ****ing joke.

Isn't it funny that Bobby Clarke was whining about the Penguins tanking to get high draft picks yet his Flyers pull off this ****?

So glad he is the spokesman for morals in hockey.

 

[66-30-33]

I think Sharks should have traded Niemis rights to the Oilers, would be a better goalie then the Rangers backup.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

things like this are just further punishment to whatever fanbase they have left in Glendale. how do you root for this kind of crap? Id also be furious if I was a good faith cap floor team.

It's not exactly unprecedented. A few years ago the Islanders traded for Tim Thomas in the middle of a season he sat out so they could have some extra room above the cap floor. There's also the Clarkson-Horton trade from last year, so it's not new for players with career ending injuries to be moved either.

Coyotes fans know what they're in for, just like fans of any other team going through a rebuild. This won't turn anyone off who is sticking with them through the arena drama. Personally I'm just upset they helped the Flyers.

 

[Sam Spade]

Congrats to Dubnyk. Scrap heap of Oilers, Preds, Yotes, to set for life.

Hard work, preserving thru some tough times, good for him.

 

[cajal]

Reading the angst in the Boston press and the reactions of Bruins fans on this site about the Hamilton trade makes me feel good. Petty, I know, but I absolutely hate that team and their fans. I view them as Flyers north.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Some of their fans are real low-life types (in particular the classic "Boston racist" types – same types of people who would prefer the Celtics be all white and Larry Legend be recognized as the greatest of all time, and don't have a problem saying so), but I don't hate the Bruins as a team (or as a fanbase) anywhere near as much as Philly.

There's no comparison in my experience; there are plenty of respectable fans in Boston. I think people are still sour grapes over the sweep. There was the Orpik saga but other than that not a lot of hateful history to hang your hat on there IMO.

I actually feel a little bad (just a little ) for the real fans in Boston. Talk about a ****ty spring and summer. 2015 will go down as the beginning of some dark days for them IMO. Their new GM (with the help of the Seguin fail by Chia) completely maimed that roster this weekend. ****ing brutal. I don't think there was any call for a rebuild or even partial rebuild. They should've moved Chara while he still had some value instead of doing the Hamilton thing and then picking the guys they picked (seems to be some consensus they really reached on a couple of them).

 

[Waffle Fries]

I just think it's funny that some organizations spend years searching for franchise players and the Bruins have thrown away 4 in the last decade.

 

[Darth Vitale]

I just think it's funny that some organizations spend years searching for franchise players and the Bruins have thrown away 4 in the last decade.

It is mind-boggling even more than it is funny. I don't know how that happens, exactly. Although I don't know that I consider Kessel enough of a leader to be a franchise player, but either way he's still a rare, excellent player.

Does make you wonder if there's some people high up in the organization (Bruins fans seem to bring up Neely a lot) that maybe get involved when they shouldn't, and if a player talks back that's the end of it. I could see all four of those guys speaking their mind if someone from ownership or team president or whoever criticized them. That's the one thing I suspect they all have in common is not having any political filtering really, if pressed. Thornton and Kessel especially. They don't hold back if they feel they're being unfairly criticized for something. Seguin too probably is cocky enough to tell some managerial type to **** off (especially if he was drunk kidding).

 

[Waffle Fries]

It is mind-boggling even more than it is funny. I don't know how that happens, exactly. Although I don't know that I consider Kessel enough of a leader to be a franchise player, but either way he's still a rare, excellent player.

Does make you wonder if there's some people high up in the organization (Bruins fans seem to bring up Neely a lot) that maybe get involved when they shouldn't, and if a player talks back that's the end of it. I could see all four of those guys speaking their mind if someone from ownership or team president or whoever criticized them. That's the one thing I suspect they all have in common is not having any political filtering really, if pressed. Thoronton and Kessel especially. They don't hold back if they feel they're being unfairly criticized for something. Seguin too probably is cocky enough to tell some managerial type of **** off (especially if he was drunk kidding).

Maybe "elite" would have been a better word than "franchise," but still. I agree. It is mind-boggling. You might be on to something with why all of them were moved. I don't know much about Hamilton's personality, but the other three aren't exactly perfectly PC.

When you look at the return from each of those, and what they're left with now, it's almost sad.

If you track the returns from all the trades (and trades of the trade pieces) I think it comes out that in terms of players who they still have that played an NHL game for them, they traded Thornton, Kessel, Seguin and Hamilton and right now have Khoklachev, Eriksson, Smith and Morrow to show for it.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Maybe "elite" would have been a better word than "franchise," but still. I agree. It is mind-boggling. You might be on to something with why all of them were moved. I don't know much about Hamilton's personality, but the other three aren't exactly perfectly PC.

When you look at the return from each of those, and what they're left with now, it's almost sad.

If you track the returns from all the trades (and trades of the trade pieces) I think it comes out that in terms of players who they still have that played an NHL game for them, they traded Thornton, Kessel, Seguin and Hamilton and right now have Khoklachev, Eriksson, Smith and Morrow to show for it.

Ouuuuuuch. Even if one of those three first rounders they drafted turns out to be a great player, it's still bad. Like, egregiously bad. Milbury bad.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Hanging on to Chara just a little too long is such a killer. He's 38 and they still have three years left on that contract. It's just hard to say when it's appropriate to trade a franchise icon, even as they age, and you can't really blame them for the fact that the contract is overlong by a year or two because it was pre-recapture. But to think that last year they might've gotten a massive return for him is nuts.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

It is mind-boggling even more than it is funny. I don't know how that happens, exactly. Although I don't know that I consider Kessel enough of a leader to be a franchise player, but either way he's still a rare, excellent player.

Does make you wonder if there's some people high up in the organization (Bruins fans seem to bring up Neely a lot) that maybe get involved when they shouldn't, and if a player talks back that's the end of it. I could see all four of those guys speaking their mind if someone from ownership or team president or whoever criticized them. That's the one thing I suspect they all have in common is not having any political filtering really, if pressed. Thornton and Kessel especially. They don't hold back if they feel they're being unfairly criticized for something. Seguin too probably is cocky enough to tell some managerial type to **** off (especially if he was drunk kidding).

It's Jeremy Jacobs. They may be a cap team but he's a massive cheapskate and he just seems to especially hate paying young stars what they're worth. Kessel, Seguin, and Hamilton were all RFAs when they were moved originally. Thornton was months into a new deal he had signed in the midst of fairly similar "controversy".

Say what you will about Chiarelli, but that team underperformed for decades under Jacobs before the interlockout era. It has more to do with him (and to an extent Sinden) than anyone else.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Yeah I hear Jacobs' name getting thrown around some too. So much for them using the Red Sox model of team building.

 

[EVGENIMERLIN]

Lived in Boston for 14 yrs and have a couple friends who are loosely associated with the Bruins and yes Jacobs refusal to pay is a problem.

That Chara deal and refusal to move him is crippling. Everyone under the sun knows Hamilton was the future of that team. Losing Seguin made some sense at the time. Much like Kessel in TOR, ironic eh?, the Media was always reporting about Seguin and his partying, his attitude problems etc.

 

[djt153]

this richards thing is just insane. does this really poison the well with the players union and affect free agents going to LA?

 

[Freeptop]

If LA doesn't release exactly what "material breach of contract" was committed, they'd better get get smacked down for attempted cap circumvention, given that they'd made it clear they were going to buy him out, and now they're suddenly terminating his contract (which, if allowed by the League, would mean no more cap hit for Richards).

 

[Wes C Addle]

Any chance LA actually gets away with this? Seems like there's no way the league lets them.

 

[djt153]

per the la kings standards, scuderi materially breaches his professional hockey contract every time he takes a shift

 

[Zirakzigil]

Any chance LA actually gets away with this? Seems like there's no way the league lets them.

I don't think they will unless it's something bad they can prove.