tOfficial 23-24 NHL season thread

[method]

Pavelski probably putting himself in the hall of fame this season.

 

[DragonFromTo]

4 lines. So even if an entire line for each team gets tossed, there’s still 15 more guys on the bench.

As a young man I played in more than one game where everyone on the ice was tossed and even one game where it happened twice.

 

[DragonFromTo]

While it doesn't involve as serious a matter as before (I hope) with this Corey Perry thing it's just wonderful to see the Blackhawks still having problems with honesty

 

[RP-29]

Pavelski probably putting himself in the hall of fame this season.

He should've been there without this season, but this is certainly helping solidify the resume.

Glad to see it; he's one of my favorites... ...hard working humble Wisconsin boy who plays a full 200' game and makes big grimy plays in big moments.

 

[RP-29]

While it doesn't involve as serious a matter as before (I hope) with this Corey Perry thing it's just wonderful to see the Blackhawks still having problems with honesty

I'm a Red Wings fan from Wisconsin who HATES the Blackhawks and pretty much everything "Chicago". I've been holding out tempered hope that this Corey Perry saga results in the Blackhawks forfeiting their 2024 first round pick somehow.

 

[method]

I'm a Red Wings fan from Wisconsin who HATES the Blackhawks and pretty much everything "Chicago". I've been holding out tempered hope that this Corey Perry saga results in the Blackhawks forfeiting their 2024 first round pick somehow.

The Oilers should give Corey Perry a wide berth.

 

[DragonFromTo]

I'm a Red Wings fan from Wisconsin who HATES the Blackhawks and pretty much everything "Chicago". I've been holding out tempered hope that this Corey Perry saga results in the Blackhawks forfeiting their 2024 first round pick somehow.

How is it possible that "Come clean immediately" is apparently not the #1 bullet point on everyone's organizational instructions after the mistakes that were made with Aldrich? It blows my fucking mind.

 

[Deep Dish Pizza Goat]

Was disappointed it wasn’t Bedards mom

 

[Swurv]

The Flyers need to put Carter Hart on left wing immediately.

 

[Deep Dish Pizza Goat]

rip gobucks would be fun to discuss the panthers BJ game with him. That Gudbranson sequence was awesome

 

[garvey]

Bedard doing that against the Blues in St. Louis makes it even better.

 

[Mr.Hockey]

Thinking the Wild shoulda fired Evason about 10 games sooner.

 

[RP-29]

The Leafs just gave Nylander a 8y $92M deal. They'll have over 50% of their cap tied up in 4 forwards next year and all four of them have no-trade/movement clauses in their contracts.

 

[DragonFromTo]

The Leafs just gave Nylander a 8y $92M deal. They'll have over 50% of their cap tied up in 4 forwards next year and all four of them have no-trade/movement clauses in their contracts.

All four are very productive and the one of the four that is most likely to suddenly decline has a contract that expires after just one more season.

 

[RP-29]

In the NHL, both can apply at the same time. The hard salary cap is a major factor.

The Leafs are paying their stars huge dollars; but in doing so, there's little room left on the cap to field a complete competitive team. So ultimately, the team will have offensive superstars to sell tickets, but won't have a complete team good enough to win playoff series.

 

[DragonFromTo]

In the NHL, both can apply at the same time. The hard salary cap is a major factor.

The Leafs are paying their stars huge dollars; but in doing so, there's little room left on the cap to field a complete competitive team. So ultimately, the team will have offensive superstars to sell tickets, but won't have a complete team good enough to win playoff series.

I know that's the narrative but I just don't buy it. Especially since these big numbers we're talking about will really only overlap for one season (as I said before). John Tavares is not going to be offered/paid $11 million on his next contract by Toronto and if he wants that he will have to go elsewhere.

Look at what Bertuzzi is providing for $5.5 million. Look at Domi's 3 goals for $3 mil. Look at Klingberg. Et cetera. That's where the waste is (all three of those contracts are finished after this season I might add). It's not the 4 guys who are all on pace for 70+ points (even "old" Tavares and "underachieving" Marner). You can certainly build a complete team around that structure, the question is whether or not the management will be able to.

 

[RP-29]

I know that's the narrative but I just don't buy it. Especially since these big numbers we're talking about will really only overlap for one season (as I said before). John Tavares is not going to be offered/paid $11 million on his next contract by Toronto and if he wants that he will have to go elsewhere.

Look at what Bertuzzi is providing for $5.5 million. Look at Domi's 3 goals for $3 mil. Look at Klingberg. Et cetera. That's where the waste is (all three of those contracts are finished after this season I might add). It's not the 4 guys who are all on pace for 70+ points (even "old" Tavares and "underachieving" Marner). You can certainly build a complete team around that structure, the question is whether or not the management will be able to.

It's actively happening in Tampa. They finally had to pay all of their stars - which resulted in not being able to retain several quality depth players (like McDonaugh, Palat, Killorn, Gourde) that were key contributors to three straight Finals runs. Now Tampa is sliding down the standings as their quality depth has shallowed.

Unfortunately for Toronto, they didn't even squeeze one playoff run in before they had to pay all of their offensive stars big dollars and cripple their depth capabilities. I'm not saying it's impossible, but Toronto just made it a lot harder on themselves to build a team that can compete in the playoffs. Hypothetically, what if Bertuzzi was providing quality depth and you wanted to re-sign him; now you can't.

I'm not saying I wouldn't have re-signed Nylander for the contract he got; but if I did it would be under the mentality that I'm definitely letting Tavares' contract expire with no intention of re-signing him unless he's willing to latch back on for about half his current cap hit and I'd probably be shopping Marner for a huge player/prospect/pick haul to teams that he might consider waiving his NMC that would be a boon for building up necessary player depth at modest costs.

 

[DragonFromTo]

It's actively happening in Tampa. They finally had to pay all of their stars - which resulted in not being able to retain several quality depth players (like McDonaugh, Palat, Killorn, Gourde) that were key contributors to three straight Finals runs. Now Tampa is sliding down the standings as their quality depth has shallowed.

Unfortunately for Toronto, they didn't even squeeze one playoff run in before they had to pay all of their offensive stars big dollars and cripple their depth capabilities. I'm not saying it's impossible, but Toronto just made it a lot harder on themselves to build a team that can compete in the playoffs. Hypothetically, what if Bertuzzi was providing quality depth and you wanted to re-sign him; now you can't.

I'm not saying I wouldn't have re-signed Nylander for the contract he got; but if I did it would be under the mentality that I'm definitely letting Tavares' contract expire with no intention of re-signing him unless he's willing to latch back on for about half his current cap hit and I'd probably be shopping Marner for a huge player/prospect/pick haul to teams that he might consider waiving his NMC that would be a boon for building up necessary player depth at modest costs.

Sounds like in that position you have to actively churn through those depth pieces and find new ones. Doesn't that sound like exactly what the baseball team in Tampa does (successfully) with their entire roster?

"Hypothetically, what if Bertuzzi was providing quality depth and you wanted to re-sign him; now you can't."

I refer you to the Bill Veeck quote above. If your favourite team had signed Bertuzzi to an expensive free agent deal with term this offseason after a season "prodviding quality depth" for Toronto how many curse words would you have used?

You can't pay for depth under that type of structure. That doesn't mean that you can't get it.

 

[DragonFromTo]

It's actively happening in Tampa. They finally had to pay all of their stars - which resulted in not being able to retain several quality depth players (like McDonaugh, Palat, Killorn, Gourde) that were key contributors to three straight Finals runs. Now Tampa is sliding down the standings as their quality depth has shallowed.

Those forwards all seem like perfect examples of what the Veeck quote warns about and really McDonaugh fits it pretty well too

 

[RP-29]

You can't pay for depth under that type of structure. That doesn't mean that you can't get it.

Yeah, there's a great deal of elite scouting, wise decision making and good fortune involved to get good depth for cheap. How confident are you that Toronto Maple Leafs management can pull that off?