Calling it Now: Tampa is a Serious Threat Again, Nashville has Screwed Themselves, and These facts are not Unrelated

[Armourboy]

Must have been an ownership directive. Trotz is way too smart for this mish mash of a lineup.

I mean tbh we don't know what's coming from ownership, they have always been pretty hands off. However, they are in the process of changing controlling owners, I don't think Haslam actually gets that title til next season though. If he does things how they have always done them then no, this didn't come from the owners, but if he is willing to start spending money out of his own pocket as the controlling owner then its possible.

Honestly I think it was just a case of Trotz looking at a roster that he thought was going to be too good to ever be bad and get a good pick, so rather than just sitting on all of that empty cap he decided to burn it and basically have most of the Vets age out at roughly the same time.

So basically take a stab at it for a couple of years and then in another couple of years the roster more or less all unloads at once and away you go with a new core.

 

[Brookbank]

And the Flames shut out the Preds.

Would Stamkos consider mutual termination of his contract and just go back to Tampa for 3.5 million per ?

Maybe New York would take him at 50% retained. They love a good vanity hire

He must not be having any fun right now

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

And the Flames shut out the Preds.

Would Stamkos consider mutual termination of his contract and just go back to Tampa for 3.5 million per ?

Maybe New York would take him at 50% retained. They love a good vanity hire

He must not be having any fun right now

He is the worst player on the ice for a team dressing Michael McCarron, Cole Smith, Jeremy Lauzon, Luke Schenn, Marc Del Gaizo, Scott Wedgewood, and the worst stretch of play from Colton Sissons we've ever witnessed.

Factoring contract, hype, and ice time, quite likely the worst Preds acquisition I can remember.

 

[The Panther]

I can't think of a recent-ish case of Tampa overholding onto a declining player. It must be a strong part of their success over the last decade.

Yes, I think you're right. Tampa benefits, of course, from being... well, 'Tampa' (low-pressure location to play in, low taxes, great weather) so it's always going to be easier to attract free-agents and sign them to reasonable deals than in Winnipeg, but even so they seem to do a really good job of developing (not rushing) their drafted prospects, keeping the right ones and playing them, and then not signing them to absurdly long-term contracts -- and thus, they can get rid of depreciating assets more easily than otherwise.

It's impressive that they've done this with some high-pedigree players, too.

 

[Oilslick941611]

Tampa played the Stamkos card perfectly, They knew he was a declining asset and they would be better off without him.

Nashville overpaid for a guy on the backslide.

 

[Master P]

Factoring contract, hype, and ice time, quite likely the worst Preds acquisition I can remember.

Tanner Jeannot sends his regards.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Tanner Jeannot sends his regards.

"...worst  Preds acquisition I can remember"

And yes, at least Stamkos only cost us cash and cap space .

 

[SympathyForTheDevils]

And yes, at least Stamkos only cost us cash and cap space .

Is that a good thing? 8M in cap space for 4 years is a lot more valuable than a handful of draft picks, especially when none of them is particularly high. Hell, even if Nashville was rebuilding, they could probably have leveraged that cap space into better picks than what they got from Jeannot.

Not to pile on, but fun fact: Tanner Jeannot, given 10 min a game on LA's 4th line, is currently outscoring Steven Stamkos at even strength.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Is that a good thing? 8M in cap space for 4 years is a lot more valuable than a handful of draft picks, especially when none of them is particularly high. Hell, even if Nashville was rebuilding, they could probably have leveraged that cap space into better picks than what they got from Jeannot.

Not to pile on, but fun fact: Tanner Jeannot, given 10 min a game on LA's 4th line, is currently outscoring Steven Stamkos at even strength.

Preds are in the weird spot of being in a semi-rebuild, with a lot of prospects and draft picks, while also a last gasp sort of "go for it " From a long-term perspective it is absolutely a good thing we only spent $$ on these additions...seeing as we seem to be trending for a top 5 pick this season.

Jeannot is completely irrelevant. We got most of a draft class for him and I doubt any Pred fan would care to give it back for him to play 10 minutes a night on our 4th line. That trade was straight up robbery by Poile.

 

[ijuka]

Preds are in the weird spot of being in a semi-rebuild, with a lot of prospects and draft picks, while also a last gasp sort of "go for it " From a long-term perspective it is absolutely a good thing we only spent $$ on these additions...seeing as we seem to be trending for a top 5 pick this season.

Jeannot is completely irrelevant. We got most of a draft class for him and I doubt any Pred fan would care to give it back for him to play 10 minutes a night on our 4th line. That trade was straight up robbery by Poile.

8m of cap space for 4 years is worth like... 6 first round picks. so saying stuff like "it's good we only spent money" doesn't make much sense. wouldn't you rather have 6 first round picks?

 

[PredsV82]

8m of cap space for 4 years is worth like... 6 first round picks. so saying stuff like "it's good we only spent money" doesn't make much sense. wouldn't you rather have 6 first round picks?

That's silly. The way the cap is going up 8 million isn't that huge of an albatross. And he's not useless. He just should probably be making 4 million a year. So the Preds wasted 4 million in cap space. Big whoop. I appreciated the fact that Trotz was willing to push in his chips and go for it. So far it's not working out, but that's as much due to the fact that Bruno is an idiot as it is the performance of the players we acquired.

And to the OPs original point, we sent MacD back to Tampa at his request.

 

[DFC]

It's been a while since Stamkos has been even "above average" at 5v5. He needs chemistry to thrive, and it's really, really rare for him to find it.

 

[Master P]

"...worst  Preds acquisition I can remember"

And yes, at least Stamkos only cost us cash and cap space .

"only cost us cash and cap space so far"

 

[Armourboy]

"only cost us cash and cap space so far"

That's all it cost. The teams poor play, while not helped by Stamkos, isn't being caused by Stamkos. Our problems is a coach who is bad at coaching and has decided he is going to keep pounding a square peg into a round hole. Stamkos getting top minutes every night is just the tip of the iceburg.

The real problem is Brunette is playing a system that only doesn't work, but he doesn't have the players for it even if it would work. You would literally need a team of Dmen made completely of Josi's or Makar's from 2 years ago to even remotely have a chance at it working.

Its insanely bad hockey to watch so I don't blame anyone for not watching it, but one night just watch and pay close attention to where the players are going and what they are doing. We had someone stop in for the Calgary game from another fan base and they were just flabergasted at what they were trying to do.

The team is a bubble team, but the coaching has been so bad its got us at the bottom of the league. The one area we have been great at, the PK, isn't run by Brunette. You can tell by the way the guys are playing it that it is well coached and they can play the system. It's the exact opposite of what you see 5v5.

 

[JoVel]

I don't know why people are saying Stamkos has suddenly fallen off a cliff between this season and last. When I watch Nashville I see the same player I saw last year in Tampa. He has however lost the most important part of his game (see avatar).