League News: NHL Talk - (News n' Scores n' Stuff) - 2020 Offseason Edition - Vol. 10

[Empty Goal Net]

Actually, thinking about this idly, it’d be sort of neat to prepare bubbles with East and West coast teams, and then switch the locations halfway (or don’t, no home fans so whatever, but maybe operating costs matter)

if the season is already destined to be weird, steer into it and give everyone more exposure to other markets if you’re playing in relative bubbles and time/scheduling is less of a factor

With bubble-based play, I'm guessing the league would base alignments on at least 4 main factors: 1) existing divisions and traditional rivalries, 2) competitiveness (and how they see the postseason playing out), 3) logistics (arena, practice and lodging capabilities), and 4) whether they expect any cross-border play at some point during the season. If they expect all of next season to be a pandemic special, there's no reason they can't create 4* 6-team divisions stateside, with a 7-team div in Canada. They could go two half-seasons, with full-bubble play in the first half and then some kind of switching in the second half. Any switching or traveling will be less practical if there's no cross-border team movement, since each Canadian team would have only 6 potential opponents.

I'm all for some degree of creativity if it allows safe play, even if we fans cannot attend.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Oh my. One less RD available for other teams. Seems like Hamonic will remain out West, leaving only Vatanen otherwise.

Ceci is not a good player. Furthermore, he’s never been a good player.

 

[Kalopsia]

Oh my. One less RD available for other teams. Seems like Hamonic will remain out West, leaving only Vatanen otherwise.

One of the things that hurts most about the Schultz signing is that Vatanen is still out there, and will probably end up signing for a bargain now that pretty much all the RHD spots are filled. I can accept that the guys like Tanev, Brodie, and Hamonic weren't stylistic fits, Shatty probably didn't want to come back here, and Barrie wanted somewhere that he could run the 1st unit power play, but Vatanen seems like a pure upgrade on Schultz and there's no reason I can think of for why he wouldn't want to sign here (aside from the Caps' apparent hatred of Finns). Schultz has the higher offensive peak, but in the three years since his peak he's played at a 32 point pace on the high scoring Pens while Vatanen's been on a 35 point pace on some pretty anemic Devils teams. Schultz is 4 inches taller, but he doesn't use his size at all. Vatanen's an injury risk, but no more than Schultz. I don't understand the rush to overpay Schultz when Vatanen was available.

 

[Todd Lazarchick]

One of the things that hurts most about the Schultz signing is that Vatanen is still out there, and will probably end up signing for a bargain now that pretty much all the RHD spots are filled. I can accept that the guys like Tanev, Brodie, and Hamonic weren't stylistic fits, Shatty probably didn't want to come back here, and Barrie wanted somewhere that he could run the 1st unit power play, but Vatanen seems like a pure upgrade on Schultz and there's no reason I can think of for why he wouldn't want to sign here (aside from the Caps' apparent hatred of Finns). Schultz has the higher offensive peak, but in the three years since his peak he's played at a 32 point pace on the high scoring Pens while Vatanen's been on a 35 point pace on some pretty anemic Devils teams. Schultz is 4 inches taller, but he doesn't use his size at all. Vatanen's an injury risk, but no more than Schultz. I don't understand the rush to overpay Schultz when Vatanen was available.

Maybe Lavi prefers Schultz. Maybe he was asking too much to begin with. Maybe Mac didn't want to be the last one standing without an upgrade. Seems a little asinine to assume Mac should have known how FA as going to play out for every suitor and FA out there a week plus later.

 

[Kalopsia]

Maybe Lavi prefers Schultz. Maybe he was asking too much to begin with. Maybe Mac didn't want to be the last one standing without an upgrade. Seems a little asinine to assume Mac should have known how FA as going to play out for every suitor and FA out there a week plus later.

I'm not saying he should've predicted it (although with the huge glut of RD on the market this year it was pretty obvious there'd be guys left out and available for bargains, so being the last job available would probably be a good thing), just that he didn't need to rush into signing Schultz in the first few hours of free agency and pay him more than guys like Shattenkirk and Barrie. Maybe Vatanen's agent totally misplayed things and asked for the moon, but that's the only way I can see this not being a mistake on MacLellan's part.

 

[BallardEra]

I'm glad the Caps stayed away from Ceci. Great guy whom I've met but he is not the answer.

Rutherford said he's a great two-way defenseman yet he only put up 8 points last year with the Leafs.

 

[Ridley Simon]

I'm glad the Caps stayed away from Ceci. Great guy whom I've met but he is not the answer.

Rutherford said he's a great two-way defenseman yet he only put up 8 points last year with the Leafs.

Rutherford says and does a lot of things that aren’t making a ton of sense these days.

 

[Chokingdogs]

Doc retired. Wonder what doofus they’ll bring in to replace him.

the nostalgic side of me wouldn’t mind Thorne coming back...but methinks his departure years ago was clouded in some minor scandal. I dunno?

 

[Calicaps]

Doc retired. Wonder what doofus they’ll bring in to replace him.

the nostalgic side of me wouldn’t mind Thorne coming back...but methinks his departure years ago was clouded in some minor scandal. I dunno?

Sad.

 

[caps4cup]

One of the things that hurts most about the Schultz signing is that Vatanen is still out there, and will probably end up signing for a bargain now that pretty much all the RHD spots are filled. I can accept that the guys like Tanev, Brodie, and Hamonic weren't stylistic fits, Shatty probably didn't want to come back here, and Barrie wanted somewhere that he could run the 1st unit power play, but Vatanen seems like a pure upgrade on Schultz and there's no reason I can think of for why he wouldn't want to sign here (aside from the Caps' apparent hatred of Finns). Schultz has the higher offensive peak, but in the three years since his peak he's played at a 32 point pace on the high scoring Pens while Vatanen's been on a 35 point pace on some pretty anemic Devils teams. Schultz is 4 inches taller, but he doesn't use his size at all. Vatanen's an injury risk, but no more than Schultz. I don't understand the rush to overpay Schultz when Vatanen was available.

Schultz might not be great but Vatanen is not very good either. His xG% is consistently awful and he’s had more than 15 points at 5v5 just once in his career. He’s really good on the PP but not very good offensively at 5v5 (in terms of points or play driving). Likely better defensively than Schultz though.

Sami Vatanen Should Be The First Devil Traded

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

I know it's about a month old but definitely worth 30 minutes of your time to check this TSN feature out.
TSN Original: The Problem of Pain

 

[Kalopsia]

Schultz might not be great but Vatanen is not very good either. His xG% is consistently awful and he’s had more than 15 points at 5v5 just once in his career. He’s really good on the PP but not very good offensively at 5v5 (in terms of points or play driving). Likely better defensively than Schultz though.

Sami Vatanen Should Be The First Devil Traded

As I said in a reply in the other thread, and tried to explain in the Schultz thread, xG% is not a meaningful stat. Even if it was, he's hardly been awful. He's been playing on a crummy Devil's team where just about everyone was below 50%, so the fact that he has a 48.86% over his three years with the Devils (better than Ovie, Kuzy, and Wilson and almost identical to Carlson over the same span) shouldn't be used to knock him.

As far as ES production, Vatanen over his whole career has 23 goals and 82 assists at ES over 434 games, which is 0.24 ESP/g. Schultz has 39 and 86 in 482 games for 0.26 ESP/g. Over an 82 game season, that works out to a difference of 1.4 points. If you limit it to just the last three seasons, Vatanen has 7+33 in 154 (0.26 ESP/g) and Schultz has 8+24 in 138 (0.23 ESP/g). They're pretty much even.

 

[caps4cup]

As I said in a reply in the other thread, and tried to explain in the Schultz thread, xG% is not a meaningful stat. Even if it was, he's hardly been awful. He's been playing on a crummy Devil's team where just about everyone was below 50%, so the fact that he has a 48.86% over his three years with the Devils (better than Ovie, Kuzy, and Wilson and almost identical to Carlson over the same span) shouldn't be used to knock him.

As far as ES production, Vatanen over his whole career has 23 goals and 82 assists at ES over 434 games, which is 0.24 ESP/g. Schultz has 39 and 86 in 482 games for 0.26 ESP/g. Over an 82 game season, that works out to a difference of 1.4 points. If you limit it to just the last three seasons, Vatanen has 7+33 in 154 (0.26 ESP/g) and Schultz has 8+24 in 138 (0.23 ESP/g). They're pretty much even.

He’s had 5 straight seasons (and 6 out of 8) of having a negative relative xGF%. Yes, he’s been on a crummy Devils team, but he’s been part of the problem as well.

As for Kuznetsov and Ovechkin, they’ve been a disaster defensively since Reirden took over, so it’s not surprising they have low xGF%’s. They score a lot and give up about the same. But their shooting talent has helped them consistently outperform their xGF%’s.

As for Schultz, I never said he was great or even better than Vatanen. I think both are pretty flawed. Schultz will probably drive play more offensively, Vatanen will be better defensively, while both produce pretty similarly at ES, but need more PP time to be truly effective. I certainly wouldn’t be against Vatanen for say 2mil or so, but I’m not so sure he’s any better than Schultz. And if BMac thinks Schultz is a better fit and can turn it around with a much better partner, then I’m fine with that, even if I think the contract is a bit too rich.

 

[txpd]

Doc Emrick is retiring. I will miss him. I will always remember his call of Eller's goal. I expect that John Forslund will be the new guy

 

[Corby78]

I wish it would have been Pierre who retired. Never been a huge doc fan but he was better than most of the guys out there and he loved hockey which carries a lot of weight with me.

I’ve never got over Tom Mees, so everyone falls short to me.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Doc Emrick is retiring. I will miss him. I will always remember his call of Eller's goal. I expect that John Forslund will be the new guy

Who is that in your avatar?

 

[AtNightWeFly]

I'll miss Doc no doubt. But it was painful listening to him stumble over words lately.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I wish it would have been Pierre who retired. Never been a huge doc fan but he was better than most of the guys out there and he loved hockey which carries a lot of weight with me.

I’ve never got over Tom Mees, so everyone falls short to me.

Tom Mees was so good, but Docis right there too IMO.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I'll miss Doc no doubt. But it was painful listening to him stumble over words lately.

for me, noticeable yes, painful no. It’s a fast game and his pipes were among the best for my tastes. Doc and Bill Clement....sign me up...

 

[txpd]

Who is that in your avatar?

Maria Fassi. LPGA player from Mexico. A new favorite for the off season.

 

[txpd]

The new guy for next season.

 

[Marshall]

Request for clarification: is there a second buyout window coming up, or did I imagine that?

 

[tenken00]

Request for clarification: is there a second buyout window coming up, or did I imagine that?

I believe that there is a second buyout window for teams with any arbitration cases in order to be cap compliant after a ruling. Not sure if that rule has changed or not in light of the current situation though.

 

[Melkor]

I wish it would have been Pierre who retired. Never been a huge doc fan but he was better than most of the guys out there and he loved hockey which carries a lot of weight with me.

I’ve never got over Tom Mees, so everyone falls short to me.

When it comes to loving hockey nobody on that broadcast team comes close to Pierre, buddy. He's really the most overhated person in hockey I've ever seen.

 

[Ridley Simon]

When it comes to loving hockey nobody on that broadcast team comes close to Pierre, buddy. He's really the most overhated person in hockey I've ever seen.

It’s the Pens LUV he shows so openly. At least to Caps fans eyes. And probably Flyers, Rangers, Islanders, Devils......

So these boards don’t like him.