Roster/Rumors/Speculation/Trade Talk - 2023-24: Hotel California

[Strickland]

Conspired to get him fired? Nowhere did I say that. He just could opt not to come over given the state of the organization.

He could, but then that would have meant signing another KHL deal and giving up good $$ and pushing your big pay day back by a year. Russian money beats the hell out of AHL $$. Especially the starting goalie for CSKA Moscow. But the NHL blows the KHL money out of the water.

So I find it hard to believe he was never coming over.

 

[periferal]

Probably because Isles country is not the same country that player was looking for.

Ah...So Lou is the reason that Trotz and Sorokin came here, but somehow his powers cease at Duchene.

Maybe next time Lou won't use 6M of cap on Mayfield/Engvall and instead outbid another team for an actual impact player.

 

[Strummergas]

Oh there's no question that Trotz isn't coming here to work for any combination of wang/snow. That said people aren't "carrying the one" here in that Malkin is the one that brought Lou in. So if that's the case it was Malkin that truly changed the culture around here...And I'm willing to bet that if Malkin could bring Lou here he could've brought Trotz in anyway even if another GM was hired.

I mean, shit, why stop there? The real praise should go to Malkin's mother and father for conceiving him in the first place! If Malkin's dad doesn't leave it in, no Scott Malkin!

 

[Throttle]

Ah...So Lou is the reason that Trotz and Sorokin came here, but somehow his powers cease at Duchene.

Maybe next time Lou won't use 6M of cap on Mayfield/Engvall and instead outbid another team for an actual impact player.

I thought one of your gripes was Lou overpaying every player.

Last I checked no one would confuse Duchene and winner in the same sentence either.

 

[periferal]

I thought one of your gripes was Lou overpaying every player.

If Lou gave Duchene 5M for 1 year that would've been better than Engvall and Mayfield getting 6.5M for 7 years.

If he's going to overpay I'd like Lou to overpay for actual impact players...Not bottom 6 ones.

Last I checked no one would confuse Duchene and winner in the same sentence either.

I promise you less would confuse Mayfield and sound defense or Engvall and scoring.

Duchene's 23-33-56 (in 58 games) would have won the Isles a handful more games if substituted out for Engvall's 7-11-18 (in 51 games).

So we're clear...You'd choose Engvall over Duchene for the same price - Or are you just playing Devil's advocate to be difficult?

 

[DerekKingSnipes]

Ah...So Lou is the reason that Trotz and Sorokin came here, but somehow his powers cease at Duchene.

Maybe next time Lou won't use 6M of cap on Mayfield/Engvall and instead outbid another team for an actual impact player.

Engvall and Mayfield deals are bad but Duchene had been known as a toxic guy. I mean first thing trotz did was get rid of him and johannsen and we know trotz cares about culture. Duchene is good fit in Dallas, not asked to be a leader or really top guy.

 

[Throttle]

If Lou gave Duchene 5M for 1 year that would've been better than Engvall and Mayfield getting 6.5M for 7 years.

If he's going to overpay I'd like Lou to overpay for actual impact players...Not bottom 6 ones.





I promise you less would confuse Mayfield and sound defense or Engvall and scoring.

Duchene's 23-33-56 (in 58 games) would have won the Isles a handful more games if substituted out for Engvall's 7-11-18 (in 51 games).

So we're clear...You'd choose Engvall over Duchene for the same price - Or are you just playing Devil's advocate to be difficult?

Duchene is so good your Trotz almighty bought his arse out one month into his job as GM.

 

[Zeeker]

Duchene is so good your Trotz almighty bought his arse out one month into his job as GM.

Wait, are you British? I feel like this explains a lot

 

[DerekKingSnipes]

If Lou gave Duchene 5M for 1 year that would've been better than Engvall and Mayfield getting 6.5M for 7 years.

If he's going to overpay I'd like Lou to overpay for actual impact players...Not bottom 6 ones.





I promise you less would confuse Mayfield and sound defense or Engvall and scoring.

Duchene's 23-33-56 (in 58 games) would have won the Isles a handful more games if substituted out for Engvall's 7-11-18 (in 51 games).

So we're clear...You'd choose Engvall over Duchene for the same price - Or are you just playing Devil's advocate to be difficult?

Duchene is a center, everyone would have hammered Lou for getting more centers lol.

 

[CupHolders]

The bubble playoffs and the 2021 run were one of the few bright spots for me during the pandemic. I thought the NHL did an awesome job with those tournaments and it really helped me keep my sanity while most of the world was shut down. Fond memories of those playoff runs.

The 1993 run happened at a very special moment in my life. I always remember it as fondly (sometimes more so) than the cup wins.

 

[SI]

If Lou gave Duchene 5M for 1 year that would've been better than Engvall and Mayfield getting 6.5M for 7 years.

If he's going to overpay I'd like Lou to overpay for actual impact players...Not bottom 6 ones.





I promise you less would confuse Mayfield and sound defense or Engvall and scoring.

Duchene's 23-33-56 (in 58 games) would have won the Isles a handful more games if substituted out for Engvall's 7-11-18 (in 51 games).

So we're clear...You'd choose Engvall over Duchene for the same price - Or are you just playing Devil's advocate to be difficult?

YOU claimed Duchene was a LOSER.

 

[seafoam]

Duchene also would have never came here.

 

[leeroggy]

This speculation is getting silly

I already have enough Jim Cramer in my life because of my profession, now this forum is also full of it!

None of us KNOW about Sorokin, Lou, etc.

One thing that is fact, from the 30 for 30 Of Miracles and Men, is that Lou has enormous credibility with Russian players due to how he helped Fetisov change the Russian attitude towards lifetime service to their system.

Lou's history with Russian players is long and deep.

 

[Top Corner]

Granted, it's 2:15 am in the morning here for me, but I don't really see this at all, to be real honest.

Viewed from the outside, Malkin is not a "hockey guy". He's also one of the most hands-off owners I think I've ever witnessed. We don't hear a thing about what he thinks or how involved he is.

Sure, the owners have gotta decide on a GM, but for all intents and purposes, Lou was brought in and left to do the hockey work. Other than get the ok on the dollar amounts, he seems to have had free reign from day 1.

I don't think there's any indication whatsoever that Malkin himself would have taken on the task of going out and searching for the team's next coach. When was the last time an owner went out an did that?

Maybe there are examples.

Also, Lou brought Trotz in like weeks after the Cup was won. The offseason had just started.

He was way ahead of the game. He lured him in before anyone else had noticed Trotz would even be available, right. It kind of came outta nowhere.

There certainly was no statement out of DC at that point that they weren't (going to be able) to continue working with him. In the aftermath, it sounded like Lou went straight in and offered him a contract that Washington had no desire to match. Like boom. When no-one was suspecting it.

I don't really get a take that seems to be insuating that Trotz had no choice but to take this job.

Or am I misunderstanding you here?

We can’t forget that he had just won a cup but was being replaced with no income coming in , for those that have been fired it certainly plays with your confidence. Either way, the Isles were a joke under Wang years but under the new ownership it was a new start and if Lou was good with signing on, so might have been Trotz under any other GM.

 

[PJGooch]

We can’t forget that he had just won a cup but was being replaced with no income coming in , for those that have been fired it certainly plays with your confidence. Either way, the Isles were a joke under Wang years but under the new ownership it was a new start and if Lou was good with signing on, so might have been Trotz under any other GM.

It was well-known throughout the league that the front office and hockey operations under Snow was a complete and utter clusterf***. So the idea that a respected, Cup-winning coach would sign on to that just to keep getting paid is off base. There's at least a reasonable chance that Trotz says "Thanks but no thanks" and waits a year for other opportunities rather than jump into a situation run by unknown owners and front-office buffoons.

 

[Strickland]

It was well-known throughout the league that the front office and hockey operations under Snow was a complete and utter clusterf***. So the idea that a respected, Cup-winning coach would sign on to that just to keep getting paid is off base. There's at least a reasonable chance that Trotz says "Thanks but no thanks" and waits a year for other opportunities rather than jump into a situation run by unknown owners and front-office buffoons.

If the front office under Snow was such a clusterf***, then why did Lou basically keep all of them over the past 6 years? He’s running with Snow’s team! Hasn’t fired a single one of them. And hasn’t made any significant hires outside either besides his cap guy.

Anyway Lou sucks, he’s made this team a smoking ruin, one that’s gonna take years and years to fix. And he’s not done f***ing up, not even close. He’s got a potential top 10 pick burning a hole in his pocket.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Yup. Trotz won a Cup in Washington and immediately left because they wouldn't pay him what he wanted. at that point, the Isles were the only team in the league with a vacancy. Lou was part of why he came, but the $20 million contract he got spoke volumes to Trotz. And had Lou not been the GM and Snow offered him that $20 million, does he turn it down? Considering it's probably the entirety of what he had made in his career to that point?

Snow stunk. But $20 million for an NHL coach covers a lot of odor, yknow?

I'll step back at this point, because I now see that Trotz seems to have been cornered into becoming the Islanders' head coach two weeks after winning the Cup.

Heck, now I'm realizing that maybe Lou was nothing more than a coniving agent of deceit, calling up Barry and painting a dark picture about how the Islanders would be his only coaching option! No other team would possibly be in need a coach any time soon, much less look to replace theirs with him. No other team would have a owner ready to offer such a handsome sum for his services.

If so, pretty doggone dirty tactics there. And Malkin writing the checks makes him complicit in this scheme to boot!

One way or another, we really lucked out that the market forced Barry into this situation.

And to think that so many of us have been so duped into believing that "Owner hires Lou -> Lou hires Barry -> Isles are a playoff team 3 years running" was a story of success for all parties involved.

This scenario never needed that middle man, dagnabbit!

 

[PJGooch]

If the front office under Snow was such a clusterf***, then why did Lou basically keep all of them over the past 6 years? He’s running with Snow’s team! Hasn’t fired a single one of them. And hasn’t made any significant hires outside either besides his cap guy.

Anyway Lou sucks, he’s made this team a smoking ruin, one that’s gonna take years and years to fix. And he’s not done f***ing up, not even close. He’s got a potential top 10 pick burning a hole in his pocket.

The first part of your statement is 100% wrong, and I already wasted two minutes checking just to be sure.

 

[TeamKidd]

....so now that we won last night, who are we buying at the deadline?

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

This speculation is getting silly

I already have enough Jim Cramer in my life because of my profession, now this forum is also full of it!

None of us KNOW about Sorokin, Lou, etc.

One thing that is fact, from the 30 for 30 Of Miracles and Men, is that Lou has enormous credibility with Russian players due to how he helped Fetisov change the Russian attitude towards lifetime service to their system.

Lou's history with Russian players is long and deep.

Lou should've bought NVDA

 

[Strickland]

Kautonen, Klatt, Chris Lamoriello. All high in the front office. All hired by Snow. All still with the team. Six years later!

 

[PJGooch]

Kautonen, Klatt, Chris Lamoriello. All high in the front office. All hired by Snow. All still with the team. Six years later!

Two amateur scouts/scouting directors and the GM's son. OK.

Now come back with the list of people hired, oddly, in Summer 2018. The assistant GM, Korn, Greco...

"Snow's team"

 

[Strickland]

Two amateur scouts/scouting directors and the GM's son. OK.

Now come back with the list of people hired, oddly, in Summer 2018. The assistant GM, Korn, Greco...

"Snow's team"

Yeah that’s Snow’s Front Office. It was small under Garth, it’s still small under Lou. The three most senior members of the front office under Snow are still the three most senior members of the front office under Lou.

“Totally wrong” though. I’m sure glad you checked.

 

[PJGooch]

Yeah that’s Snow’s Front Office. It was small under Garth, it’s still small under Lou. The three most senior members of the front office under Snow are still the three most senior members of the front office under Lou.

“Totally wrong” though. I’m sure glad you checked.

You said the front office and hockey ops were totally the same outside of one hire. You were wrong.

Nearly the entire coaching staff changed too.

Try again.

 

[saintunspecified]

Duchene is a center, everyone would have hammered Lou for getting more centers lol.

Duchene has gone from Nashville to Dallas. Places just like New York.