Friedman: Giroux's preference is to be traded to Florida rather than Colorado or other contenders

[BrindamoursNose]

If Hextall were the GM, he'd be getting a king's ransom.

All of the leaks about Giroux's preferences never would've happened. Teams wouldn't have a clue how many suitors there would be for G, helping the price I'm sure.

But instead we have a dope named Chuck Fletcher who *only* understands how to build a team to-the-middle

 

[BernieParent]

Give me Tippett

Good idea. You pick up Tippett, drive him to a safe house, and wait out the TDL period so the Flyers can get a high-upside player.

 

[Curufinwe]

If Hextall were the GM, he'd be getting a king's ransom.

All of the leaks about Giroux's preferences never would've happened. Teams wouldn't have a clue how many suitors there would be for G, helping the price I'm sure.

Wow, Hextall is so omnipotent he could have stopped Colorado and Florida sources talking to the media.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Wow, Hextall is so omnipotent he could have stopped Colorado and Florida sources talking to the media.

I know you're mocking what I just said - but, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Don't you remember how tight of a ship he ran? Nothing leaked out under him. Other teams, who realistically were out of the Giroux race, would be telling the media they're in on G, too. I'm confident the media wouldn't know G's preference is FLA, either. It'd be a mystery still, which can only help.

Or has Fletch screwed this fan base up that much?

 

[Rich Nixon]

I know you're mocking what I just said - but, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Don't you remember how tight of a ship he ran? Nothing leaked out under him. Or has Fletch screwed this fan base up that much?

There were less leaks, true, but he also made very few intriguing NHL moves. Part of me thinks it was as much "ran a tight ship" as it was "really didn't do much shit that anyone cared about." Sold off Timonen, Coburn, Streit, and Lecavalier, traded Schenn at the draft, signed JVR. Those were probably his biggest NHL moves, and none of the stakes were quite this high.

 

[Mr Positive]

Sounds to me like Colorado is just being played to drive up the price. Giroux seems to very much want to be in Florida.

It still pays off for Colorado to be strung along if it squeezes more out of a cup rival

 

[Danko]

Fletcher is going to completely blow this.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

There were less leaks, true, but he also made very few intriguing NHL moves. Part of me thinks it was as much "ran a tight ship" as it was "really didn't do much shit that anyone cared about." Sold off Timonen, Coburn, Streit, and Lecavalier, traded Schenn at the draft, signed JVR. Those were probably his biggest NHL moves, and none of the stakes were quite this high.

I routinely think this fan base writes off Hextall's magic in trades, as if it's super easy to get value in deals. If it's so easy, then refer to how your gut feels when you think about Giroux's likely return in a trade under Fletch.

Hextall made people eat their lunch when trades were made with him at the helm. Got more than we thought *nearly* every time.

 

[Spilot23]

I hope Sakic isn't waiting til Sunday or Monday for Giroux. As great as it would be to land him I would rather see the Avs trading for a need which is a 3rd liner ala Copp or Lehkonen. Missing out on them and still having Compher in the 3rd line I would consider a loss in the TDL. But hey never doubt Joe !

 

[Rebels57]

I know you're mocking what I just said - but, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Don't you remember how tight of a ship he ran? Nothing leaked out under him. Other teams, who realistically were out of the Giroux race, would be telling the media they're in on G, too. I'm confident the media wouldn't know G's preference is FLA, either. It'd be a mystery still, which can only help.

Or has Fletch screwed this fan base up that much?

You know how much I hate Fletcher, but there's no way of preventing leaks coming from other teams though and since we don't know the source, it's kind of pointless speculation.

Your Hextall fanboy-ism has gotten the best of you this time lol

 

[JoeSakic13]

Yeah if Colorado really does have the best offer and Philly is just waiting to see if Florida can top it? I say Colorado starts looking at other players (namely Copp) and gives a courtesy “last chance” call before pulling the trigger.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

You know how much I hate Fletcher, but there's no way of preventing leaks coming from other teams though and since we don't know the source, it's kind of pointless speculation.

Your Hextall fanboy-ism has gotten the best of you this time lol

Let me clarify what I mean about leaks as it relates to other teams:

-I'm insisting that leaks like Giroux's preferred destination (FLA) wouldn't be public. Still be a mystery with some guesses.
-I'm also insisting that leaks within 8+ orgs would tell the press they're in negotiations with Giroux, instead of the 2 we know of right now (which drives up the price of course).

Basically, I'm saying Hextall would leave everyone in the dark much more than Fletcher - which would help this trade. And that's something our GM can control...messing with the perception of Giroux's market...basically, he's a much better poker player.

 

[Boxscore]

Not sure why he’s so set on going to Florida? Can’t be the state tax or beaches considering he’s a rental, the majority of his contract is already paid and he’ll be playing hockey like 90% of the time there.

It's a 2 hour plane ride from Philly and a 3 hour plane ride from Ottawa. It's on the East Coast. The weather and lifestyle is wonderful. His wife and kid get to spend their days doing fun stuff outside and playing in a pool. Panthers have just a good of a shot winning the Cup as the Avs do.

 

[BernieParent]

No die-hard fan should have a “second team.” When your team is out it’s fine to root against a particular team but you can’t cheer for another team. It’s just not right.

 

[JoeSakic13]

Hahaha thanks for catching that comment. Totally missed it.

I’m just imagining him watching a playoff matchup from home and booing no matter who has the puck.

 

[Rebels57]

Let me clarify what I mean about leaks as it relates to other teams:

-I'm insisting that leaks like Giroux's preferred destination (FLA) wouldn't be public. Still be a mystery with some guesses.
-I'm also insisting that leaks within 8+ orgs would tell the press they're in negotiations with Giroux, instead of the 2 we know of right now (which drives up the price of course).

Basically, I'm saying Hextall would leave everyone in the dark much more than Fletcher - which would help this trade. And that's something our GM can control...messing with the perception of Giroux's market...basically, he's a much better poker player.

There's some truth to this, but it's all too hypothetical to really argue about lol

 

[BrindamoursNose]

There's some truth to this, but it's all too hypothetical to really argue about lol

I pretty much agree. Only thing I just want folks to do in thread conversation when they go to trash Hexy is admit they'd rather have Hextall negotiating this trade than Fletcher, hah.

 

[Rich Nixon]

I routinely think this fan base writes off Hextall's magic in trades, as if it's super easy to get value in deals. If it's so easy, then refer to how your gut feels when you think about Giroux's likely return in a trade under Fletch.

Hextall made people eat their lunch when trades were made with him at the helm. Got more than we thought *nearly* every time.

He only ever sold things, though. So, he got good value selling players off (Timonen and Coburn in particular) at times when the prices were highest (basically always the deadline) but he never made a single trade to improve the NHL roster at the time—other than some picks for Mrazek (who barely played) and Grossmann + Pronger's contract for Gagner (which...whatever).

He also took on big bullshit caphits for mediocre-to-awful players (Filppula, Lehtera, Gagner) that actually stayed on the roster for a long time, perpetuating the team's mediocrity. Often the return was likely better due to his willingness to take cap dumps that other teams likely would not have.

His "magic" was in maintaining a team that was perennially selling pieces off and wasting 10+% of its cap space on useless contracts. He received a lot of draft picks and the resulting players have been a total mixed bag.

Both he and Fletcher failed to improve the team for different reasons. Neither committed to a full teardown, though Hextall came a bit closer to it. Hextall compiled tons of picks but also a ton of garbage cap, Fletcher has spent a ton of resources and also acquired a ton of garbage cap. Neither put the team in position to make major impact acquisitions via trade or free agency, and they haven't sucked hard enough or drafted well enough to attain transformative talent through the draft.

I wanted Hextall to work, I really did, but if we're talking about a franchise wasting Giroux's prime...he's the guy who ate up most of it with his tactics.

His contract extensions were very good though.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

I's pretty confident, Tippett is part of the deal. And they have also some other forward prospects to move.

Thanks for the ride Jumbo Joe Thornton!

 

[BrindamoursNose]

He only ever sold things, though. So, he got good value selling players off (Timonen and Coburn in particular) at times when the prices were highest (basically always the deadline) but he never made a single trade to improve the NHL roster at the time—other than some picks for Mrazek (who barely played) and Grossmann + Pronger's contract for Gagner (which...whatever).

He also took on big bullshit caphits for mediocre-to-awful players (Filppula, Lehtera, Gagner) that actually stayed on the roster for a long time, perpetuating the team's mediocrity. Often the return was likely better due to his willingness to take cap dumps that other teams likely would not have.

His "magic" was in maintaining a team that was perennially selling pieces off and wasting 10+% of its cap space on useless contracts. He received a lot of draft picks and the resulting players have been a total mixed bag.

Both he and Fletcher failed to improve the team for different reasons. Neither committed to a full teardown, though Hextall came a bit closer to it. Hextall compiled tons of picks but also a ton of garbage cap, Fletcher has spent a ton of resources and also acquired a ton of garbage cap. Neither put the team in position to make major impact acquisitions via trade or free agency, and they haven't sucked hard enough or drafted well enough to attain transformative talent through the draft.

I wanted Hextall to work, I really did, but if we're talking about a franchise wasting Giroux's prime...he's the guy who ate up most of it with his tactics.

His contract extensions were very good though.

But we're talking about selling someone right now. The context is exactly the same. Why are we spinning this into a different scenario than what I was talking about, which was trading Giroux away?

Also, you're trying to grade Hextall as a GM in a contention period when he was a GM in a rebuild after what Homer left him. Stop it. You're making me derail this thread with this banter.

 

[Breeze 44]

Let me clarify what I mean about leaks as it relates to other teams:

-I'm insisting that leaks like Giroux's preferred destination (FLA) wouldn't be public. Still be a mystery with some guesses.
-I'm also insisting that leaks within 8+ orgs would tell the press they're in negotiations with Giroux, instead of the 2 we know of right now (which drives up the price of course).

Basically, I'm saying Hextall would leave everyone in the dark much more than Fletcher - which would help this trade. And that's something our GM can control...messing with the perception of Giroux's market...basically, he's a much better poker player.

It's a good thing agents don't talk....

 

[66-30-33]

Fletcher is going to completely blow this.

God I hope so

-Signed all us Penguin fans

 

[Rich Nixon]

But we're talking about selling someone right now. The context is exactly the same. Why are we spinning this into a different scenario than what I was talking about, which was trading Giroux away?

Also, you're trying to grade Hextall as a GM in a contention period when he was a GM in a rebuild after what Homer left him. Stop it. You're making me derail this thread with this banter.

I mean, I dunno, you were talking about "the magic" and I'm saying part of "the magic" was selling at the deadline and taking back bad contracts that ensured by the next deadline and he would have another opportunity to make some more selling "magic" because the team still sucked. I said some other stuff too but I'm not making you respond to it, I just felt like putting it out there.

To expand on this, here's some context for deadline "magic." Hextall got really good returns for Timonen (2x 2nd rounders) and Coburn (1st, 3rd, Gudas) at the 2015 deadline.

But other GMs also sold random parts for a lot, too. Brett Connolly returned two 2nds. Curtis Glencross returned a 2nd and a 3rd. The LEGEND James Wisniewski + a 3rd returned a young William Karlsson, a 2nd, and Rene Bourque.

So, I've never really fawned over Hextall's trade brilliance when most of his dealings came at a time where teams piss 2nds like they don't exist. He made surprisingly few trades involving actual NHL players—less than 10, by my count—so I'm struggling to find where, outside of those Timonen and Coburn deals, the "magic" myth comes from. He got a 3rd for Rinaldo, that was cool, but...what else? Jordan Weal and a 3rd to dump Lecavalier and Luke Schenn? Gave away Nick Cousins for next-to-nothing. But there's no f***ing groundspring of savvy Hextall moves out there. He rearranged a lot of deckchairs.

 

[Hasbro]

Consider how all the previous speculation from lesser known insiders turned out to be wrong, I wouldn't be surprised if this is untrue as well.

From the sounds of it Giroux's family prefers Florida, if he intended to re-sign with Philly in the offseason I'm not quite sure why his family preference mattered for 2 months. At least not enough to sway him that far in one direction.

Sakic needs to get him on the phone and make the whipping sound when Giroux talks about his wife wanting to be in Florida.

 

[Hasbro]

Wow, Hextall is so omnipotent he could have stopped Colorado and Florida sources talking to the media.

There are no Colorado sources.