LOL
The people on my ignore list have done plenty to earn their spots there. I don't just ignore people because I disagree with them. I ignore them because they either spout blatant flamebait/troll takes (like a certain poster named after a Tolkein character, for instance), or because they engage in every conversation in bad faith. I don't think anyone wants to see me go page-after-page-after-page with certain posters around here, as they ignore everything that doesn't fit their narrative and spout open contempt at any evidence or analytics presented. It doesn't make it a rewarding experience for me to post here, and plenty of others don't find the non-stop bickering with those posters fun either. I also know for certain that I'm not alone in my feelings towards those posters, since I've discussed it via PM with multiple others on HFCaps.
It takes more than just disagreements to end up on my ignore list. I haven't agreed a whole lot with Cali or txpd lately, but both are usually attempting to make genuine points in good faith (usually) so it's worth engaging with them.
If there's a particular point that you would like to see me address, feel free to point it out.
When you literally say "The Orpik thing had no bearing on the team the Caps iced during their Cup run" and you ALSO have a large portion of your argument resting on one team getting additional revenue from winning the Cup, I think the "translation" there isn't exactly a huge leap. You've based your argument around the Cup this whole time (and continue to do so), so it's easy to mistake your argument for being about who wins the Cup.
Except nobody cheated. They exploited a loophole, sure. But what they did is still legal, has been legal for a long time, and they aren't the only team to exploit that loophole. Hell, they aren't even the only team to win a cup thanks to getting a MVP-caliber player back for the playoffs after using their LTIR money to exceed the cap. The 2015 Blackhawks did this with Patrick Kane (who tied for the playoff lead in points that year). A couple teams raised a bit of a stink about it then, too. But nothing happened.
Fun fact, the team that lost to that 2015 Blackhawks team in the finals? Tampa Bay.
The league did nothing about it then, and they'll do little more than symbolic gestures this time as well. The "gloating" isn't highlighting anything to these owners and GMs that they don't already know. The owners won't risk getting into a CBA pissing match with the NHLPA over this. The players won't want to fix this, because LTIR is one of their ways to get paid in excess of the 50/50 HRR split, and LTIR'd players still want their playoff bonuses.
It's also an exceptionally rare situation. You need an injured superstar and a team that's good enough to still make the playoffs without said superstar for the remainder of the season (or the whole season in the case of Tampa). And by opting for this route, you close off any realistic chance of your LTIR'd star coming back before the playoffs to help you clinch your division or home ice advantage (or even to get into game shape and build chemistry). You aren't going to see teams decide to sideline star players like MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, or Panarin to try and load up beyond the salary cap. As Doug Armstrong said when asked why he didn't load up beyond the cap like the Blackhawks did in 2015 -
“To me, it was black and white because (Steen) wants to come back,” said Armstrong in the piece by Seravalli. “We weren’t going to add a piece better than Alex Steen. If we’ve got eight or nine games left, and he can help us secure home-ice, I’ll take Alex Steen before anybody that got traded at that deadline.” (And that's just Alex Steen, who while at his peak in 2015, is nowhere near the caliber of player the Lightning or Blackhawks sidelined)
So we have an incredibly rare loophole that's difficult to exploit, would require amending the CBA to close, and very little incentive from either the players or the owners to close it. There will be a surface level investigation to placate those who are upset, but unless we start to see some real comments promising action from the heads of the players union or Bill Daly/Gary Bettman there's very little evidence to suggest that anything meaningful will happen.
The LTIRment loophole is far more commonly abused, yet the league has only nibbled around the edges on that one as well. The league has even openly flaunted this one, both with Hossa's inclusion to the HHOF while still under contract and when the league hired Pronger as head of DoPS while he was still under contract with the Flyers (and later Coyotes).
. It would be nice to see some old time posters from ESPN boards post on here more, especially those who posted more prospect information.
