Well, he has been in league quite long and even his last contract was $34.80M according to puckpedia and for career after that :
That will be my nickname for Demidov from now on. Russian gas!
his foundation is most definitely not sustained by his salary
Well that requires a picture, here he is, Russian Gas:
YUP!! Normal Laine is coming back step by step.
What he should do, and what every player should do, is get the surgery but take the additional time off to train. You can’t play in this league if you haven’t trained. Take an additional couple months off. It’ll do wonders.
Personally I'm too lazy too hold on to grudges on here.
That sounds fair. Id be happy with that. 5x35 is probably the limit I would do.
I was gonna comment on this but forgot. This is exactly my experience on similar sounding knee injuries. You cant change direction on the bad knee. In addition, you cant "circle" (sirklata) to the direction of your bad knee. You can circle to the other direction just fine but not to the direction/side of your bad knee. Not effectively in any case.
Im pretty sure Laine would take it if offered this off-season. This as there is some risk taking (and risk aversion) from both parties at that point. At next TDL or similar its gonna be a much steeper price, or basically a trade as Habs cant really pay that much. If Laine has another injury-riddled season then the price will be lower but Laine wont sign a long deal in such a scenario. Might be what Habs prefer as well.
Honestly his down games are so bad that I am not sure he's even worth that, but to be honest his once or twice a year 10 game streaks are enough to push a team into the playoffs. Doesn't make sense not to keep such a guy if you can surround him at ES with guys who can cover his defensive weaknesses (aka not Newhook and Dach).
It will all come down to how he plays next year. This year is just a warm up. Next year will determine things.
I don’t know either. I’m kind of clueless with cap stuff. If he’ll take a bit of a cut to stay—f***in right!
Yeah, I think he deserves a chance with a decent 2C and a full summer being healthy. He's starting to skate much better lately, so chances are he should be in good enough shape next year. I think we should also temper expectation regarding his 5 on 5 play. He's become a bit like (0old) Ovechkin, meaning he's not an F1 anymore, he's mostly an F3 or F2 who waits and pounces on chances. This is where I think there might be a clash or issues with MSL, as MSL plays a sort of layered offensive system that's very demanding on all three forwards. You can't really fall back and always be an F2 or F3. Its especially demanding on centers which is why Dach being broken hurt the team so much this year, but the wingers have to constantly be aware without the puck. He doesn't really make exceptions for individual players, more so he wants them to bring their own style, but within his philosophy.
