Confirmed with Link: Carolina Hurricanes Sale - He Dundon it.

[GindyDraws]

So, no new scoreboard for the arena.

 

[MinJaBen]

So, no new scoreboard for the arena.

It will match perfectly with our "no new centers", our "no new goalies", and our "no new coach". Only thing we screwed up was the "no new season ticket holders."

Glad I'm not that one guy...

 

[The Jerk Store]

We like our scoreboard.

 

[bluedevil58]

It will match perfectly with our "no new centers", our "no new goalies", and our "no new coach". Only thing we screwed up was the "no new season ticket holders."

Glad I'm not that one guy...

I think what drove me over the edge was the: "if a team let's a player get to free agency, then they're not that good." Statement. I am really nervous after hearing that.

 

[CandyCanes]

We like our scoreboard.

This made me laugh, thank you

 

[Vagrant]

there's a pretty big bias against dundon in the hockey media, and that peer pressure has been passed on to our local guys. there's nothing more a sportswriter loathes than losing access. decock in particular seems to be lamenting this openly in the form of enthusiasm-diminishing hit pieces such as this hot take on the scoreboard being this huge blow to the morale of the fanbase. do you care? does anyone you know care? there are just a lot of inferences being made about how people feel about things. my personal take on the matter, and the one that seems to reflect the outlook of most hurricanes fans in my observation (which may not be much better by comparison to LDC's inferences), is that we're all just waiting to see what he does before making a snap judgment based on what things look like. is that accurate? there hasn't been a single hockey decision made except to fire francis. we've yet to see his replacement, but that isn't entirely surprising or unusual at this stage. once the playoffs end, that type of movement will pick up. why do we really have to feel any particular way about dundon right now other than impatient?

dundon will learn from his ufa statement and how inaccurate that was. in truth, in most other sports that's fairly accurate. players in the nfl, nba, or mlb rarely play the expiration year of their contract without a deal in place if they want to retain said player. bryce harper and lebron james being the two big examples this year. both players are assumed as good as gone from their current locations due to playing their ufa season and being open market eligible in the offseason. maybe he's under the mistaken belief it works the same way in this league.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I mean, the greatest players in the game do very rarely make it to free agency. The guys that have been making it are largely older in today's game that's skewing younger. And there's been a lot of bad performances and contracts out of those UFAs. I don't think the view is entirely wrong.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Yep. It's not that you can't get value in free agency (Eric Staal, Ryan Suter for example), but a lot of guys in their late 20s, early 30s that get the real high dollar contracts in free agency end up being bad moves long term, with some even being bought out. Dundon's not wrong in that regard.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

there's a pretty big bias against dundon in the hockey media, and that peer pressure has been passed on to our local guys. there's nothing more a sportswriter loathes than losing access.

In fairness, some of that he brought upon himself. He said at the opening press conference that he's "impatient" and going to get things done. The talked about negotiating for a new practice rink, a new scoreboard, increasing attendance, etc... I get it though, he was trying to build excitement, so it was the right move. Now he's realizing some of this is going to be a bit harder than he initially thought. It's not a big deal IMO, but I can understand the "honeymoon is over" type comments. It's pretty normal that there is a lot of hype right away and then a bit of reality sets in. This would have probably been the case no matter who bought the team.

I'm a bit confused by the "losing access" comment. It seem opposite to me. Karmanos gave little to no access to the media as he was never here. Dundon always seems to be available for the media, going on 99.9 the FAN, giving way more interviews both locally and the mainstream media, etc.. On the surface, that seems to be way more access than ever before. And one of the biggest complaints about Francis was that he never gave out any info and didn't tell anyone what was going on, which kept everyone in the dark. So like I said, on the surface, it seem like the press probably has more access now than ever before. How did you arrive at the "losing access" conclusion? Is there other info you have that sheds light on that?

 

[Ole Gil]

Free Agents are often a mistake, if you over pay for a questionable free agent. But does that not work the same for trades or contract extensions? Ruutu/Gleason/Semin/Rask/Ward/eStaal were all some crazy contracts by the end of their term as well.

Seems more accurate to say, giving anyone a lot of money for a long time has a good chance at haunting you in the end.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Free Agents are often a mistake, if you over pay for a questionable free agent. But does that not work the same for trades or contract extensions? Ruutu/Gleason/Semin/Rask/Ward/eStaal were all some crazy contracts by the end of their term as well.

Seems more accurate to say, giving anyone a lot of money for a long time has a good chance at haunting you in the end.

True that you can still give bad contracts and the longer the contract, the more risk of it haunting you. The difference, IMO, is that when you give a contract to a guy that you have control over, he is usually younger, where-as UFAs are usually 28, 29, 30+ when getting those huge contracts so there is a greater risk that it will haunt you. While no contract is zero risk, giving 23 year old Jaccob Slavin a $5M-$6M long term contract is less risky than giving 30 year old Alex Semin a $7M long term contract (or even a $5M).

 

[Blueline Bomber]

How many times are we going to attempt to blame "the mainstream media" for being biased against Dundon? Despite there being literally no evidence to support it? Everything they reported was eventually revealed to be true (or, at least, a strong possibility of truth).

They reported that Dundon wanted to be a "hands on" owner after firing Francis. That threw up a bunch of red flags here and there were claims of fake news because he was "disrupting the old boy's club." Except it turned out that's true.

They reported that he was offering a low salary to possible GMs. There's been no indication that that is false, and given the dodgy anwers from Dundon and reports from inside sources, it's not out of the realm of possibility.

There's no bias against Dundon (at least, none that have been obvious). Everything that's been reported has come as a result of Dundon's doing, and nothing that's been reported has wound up being false (as far as we can tell).

 

[Sens1Canes2]

I read DeCock’s recent column and I too was confused over the negativity of the scoreboard refusal. I mean....I watch the game on the ice. Maybe it’s different for others?

 

[GoldiFox]

I read DeCock’s recent column and I too was confused over the negativity of the scoreboard refusal. I mean....I watch the game on the ice. Maybe it’s different for others?

If there were 15,000+ Canes fans in Raleigh that liked to watch a live game on the ice then they wouldn't need to upgrade the entertainment value with bells and whistles. Unfortunately I think that number is currently closer to 3,000-5,000. Which leaves the Canes business development team desperate to find ways to draw in families and casual fans. Have you been to Amalie arena in Tampa? This is a poster child for what Dundon is aiming for, the entire place caters to the casual fan and feels much higher-end than PNC.

 

[AD Skinner]

The only thing that really matters is the numbers on the scoreboard- if those are in favor of the canes nothing else will matter. Likewise if they aren't.

 

[MinJaBen]

With the whole scoreboard issue, one thing that confuses me is how they think they can continue forward with the on ice projection system even if the scoreboard is delayed. I would think they would need to install the former with knowledge of the specifications of the latter...at least it's geometry. And if the structural integrity of the roof is an issue, I imagine the scoreboard dimensions are also still in play at this point.

 

[Svechhammer]

I am taking a very long term wait and see approach to Dundon as owner. Its way, way too early to start making any kind of grand proclamation about his standing in the hockey pantheon. Have to let him actually be able to make a few of his moves and get his arena improvements in action before we can see how it goes. As for the team, it really can't get any worse than the debacle we've had with Karmanos, Rutherford, and Francis the last 10 years. We are the cautionary tale when people say "be careful what you wish for" in this league, there aren't many directions we can go that aren't up right now.

And really, I don't care if he's a hands on owner. I don't care if he's a Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban type who wants to be front and center at all times. Those guys take accountability for the team and at the very least, they legitimately try to win. That's not something we've had here, arguably ever. Even if it doesn't net us a Cup, that kind of attitude should at least have us competing, because the owner will make it his personal goal to make wins happen. At the very least, the team will be more fun down the line than it is now, that's for sure.

A lot of the hand wringing I'm seeing about Dundon right now reminds me of the people who said Doug Pederson was a terrible NFL head coach last summer (some said he was the hands-down worst coach in recent NFL history). 6 months later, he was holding the Lombardi after outcoaching Bill Belichick in the Super Bowl. Just because someone isn't following the industry norm doesn't mean they're destined to fail.

 

[MinJaBen]

We are the cautionary tale when people say "be careful what you wish for" in this league, there aren't many directions we can go that aren't up right now.

*looks at Buffalo*
*looks at Montreal*

You sure about that?

 

[Svechhammer]

*looks at Buffalo*
*looks at Montreal*

You sure about that?

At least those teams are going to be getting a good draft pick that has a better chance of vaulting them up the standings than anything we're going to get.

And we like to crap on those two franchises a lot, but they aren't the ones with the NHL's longest active playoff drought (and one year away from tying the longest of all-time)

 

[MinJaBen]

At least those teams are going to be getting a good draft pick that has a better chance of vaulting them up the standings than anything we're going to get.

Both teams that drafted "generational talent" centers in 2015 are below us in the rankings. Again. And it's not because the talent they got in the draft sucks, it is because the decisions made by management sucked. If Dundon turns out to be a bonehead, we can end up substantially worse than we are right now.

 

[Svechhammer]

Both teams that drafted "generational talent" centers in 2015 are below us in the rankings. Again. And it's not because the talent they got in the draft sucks, it is because the decisions made by management sucked. If Dundon turns out to be a bonehead, we can end up substantially worse than we are right now.

substantially worse than being the laughing stock of the league playing in an arena that only fills up when the visitors show up while not making the playoffs once in 9 years in a league where >50% of the teams make it in?

lol good grief, we have no room to talk down to anyone in this league right now

 

[The Faulker 27]

If Dundon turns out to be a bonehead, we can end up substantially worse than we are right now.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

substantially worse than being the laughing stock of the league playing in an arena that only fills up when the visitors show up while not making the playoffs once in 9 years in a league where >50% of the teams make it in?

lol good grief, we have no room to talk down to anyone in this league right now

He's not talking them down, he's saying it still CAN get worse and using those teams, particularly Buffalo, as an example of how much worse it can get. Maybe that's what's eventually needed, to get worse to get elite talent, but I'm guessing that's not what Dundon wants. He said he expect them to compete right away.

I don't expect it to get worse as I think Francis has done a good job building the pipeline and Dundon seems to want to make the moves to put them over the hump. Key is to add a bit more scoring and fix the goaltending. Easier said than done, but not impossible either.

 

[bluedevil58]

Then maybe for once we can land a generational talent come draft time because it sure as shit ain't coming from free agency or the current crop of players.

 

[tarheelhockey]

It could be A LOT worse. We could look like Detroit or Buffalo with no clear road map to success, and no more appealing of a market to play in.

I'd say we've done about a 75% good job in this rebuild. We've missed out on the two most critical pieces of the roster -- goaltender, and Superstud Franchise Player. Everything else has fallen into place, more or less. A little bit of good luck would offset our bad luck, overnight. Can't say that about some other teams.