Official Hockey discussion thread

Yeah, he's currently getting 8/yr right? I think offering him 6/yr for three years is extremely generious, but hey, I'm not Don Sweeney.
 
Yeah, he's currently getting 8/yr right? I think offering him 6/yr for three years is extremely generious, but hey, I'm not Don Sweeney.
The FA market will be interesting this year a flat cap that a lot of teams are up against. The few teams with cap room (plus obviously Seattle) have some good opportunities to turn that cap space into really nice assets, even moreso than the past. But I have to think the more middle (and maybe lower tier high end) free agents will end up signing shorter term deals and hope to cash in once the cap moves upwards/other contracts fall off the books. For a guy like Hall, any contender wanting to sign him most likely has to deal off assets to clear cap space making his overall price ,money and assets (picks and prospects), higher than normal. I think he will find his market fairly limited.

it will be an interesting off season to see how that all plays out
 
Seattle will get a couple teams out of cap hell, but only a couple, since they have to grab at least $60 million in cap space from the 30 eligible teams. Ironically the most capped team, the Knights, can't be touched.

I'm really excited for the off season.
 
For sure. Anyone else scratching their heads with the Kraken's first signing? Like, who the hell is this guy? WHY this guy? Why now and not after you've signed your fleurys and karlssons and thorntons and the like?
 
For sure. Anyone else scratching their heads with the Kraken's first signing? Like, who the hell is this guy? WHY this guy? Why now and not after you've signed your fleurys and karlssons and thorntons and the like?
They're padding out their AHL team. The Knights did the same thing.
 
So I kinda regret not re-upping my NHL subscription. I've been watching the game recaps and they're insane. not to mention how close the games are.

That being said, Boston made it through, not bad. The headline read "WSH gets eliminated due to aging core," or something stupid like that, because Boston is no younger tbh.
Edmonton got swept, WTF? Goes to show you need secondary scoring. This... I'm just shocked. they weren't counting on the second coming of 1993 Roy v. 2.0
Avs are through, no surprised there.
Vegas will be through any second now. Can we talk for a minute on how much of a beast Fleury is? Can we talk about how much of a beast VEGAS as a whole is? Stone has been incredible.
Pittsburgh is in a similar situation to EDM that they can't rely on just Malkin and Crosby, who have been non-factors so far.

These playoffs got real serious real quick. I love it.
 
Pens are out. Not surprised, they lost a couple of games due to horrible mistakes, specifically Jarry basically gifting a goal to Bailey.
 
Jarry gifted the Islanders that series. Pens were well ahead on xGs and Corsi. It helps that the Islanders play low-event anti-hockey, but yeah. Sucks for the Pens that they don't have a goalie and the second MAF replacement experiment has failed.
 
Jarry gifted the Islanders that series. Pens were well ahead on xGs and Corsi. It helps that the Islanders play low-event anti-hockey, but yeah. Sucks for the Pens that they don't have a goalie and the second MAF replacement experiment has failed.
100%, Unlike Roy, Murray, Bennington, etc, who showed maturity and hockey sense beyond their years when rookies, Jarry is all too human, normal and average and made stereotypical rookie mistakes.

Even so, I am nervouse about Boston's chances.... Hall was a very good pick up to add to their secondary scoring, but.... will he be enough? Unlike Pittsburgh, Boston's top guys are playing like they're supposed to. Crosby, Malkin and Guentzel were complete non-factors. They vanished. How much credit is due to NYI and how much to Malkin and Crosby being old and Guentzel just off his game can be debated, and because of that.... I'm nervous.
 
So how 'bout them Leafs, eh? LOL Good on MTL. These playoffs get more interesting by the minute. McDavid, out. Mathews, out. Crosby, Out. The Avalanche just steamrolling through. Fun times.
 
Was watching a podcast and they were discussing Ovie's contract and they said a couple of things that made me go "Hmm..." The first was, "This is and advanced Sidney Crosby conversation." Which... yeah.... What WILL happen to crosby when his contract runs out? If he's smart, he'd just retire honestly. He can retire knowing he never made the cover of an EA NHL game and never won the Selke.

THEN they said, "Can you imagine Crosby anywhere other than the Pens? Can you see Ovie anywhere other than Washington? No!"

I'm like, "Um, YES. Yes we can." If Wayne MOTHERFUCKING Gretzky can get traded ANYBODY CAN. Tavares left NYI, Jagr left the Pens, Karlsson left the Sens... This shit DOES HAPPEN. Jesus fucking christ.
 
I mean, with Sid, it will depend on his health. He has one of the best value contracts in the league today, with over point-per-game production and a huge amount of WAR. If he's still healthy when his contract expires in 2025, I can see him taking one-year deals as long as he wants. It's getting harder and harder for players to produce into their late 30s, but if anyone can stay relevant, it's Sidney the Kidney.
 
I mean, with Sid, it will depend on his health. He has one of the best value contracts in the league today, with over point-per-game production and a huge amount of WAR. If he's still healthy when his contract expires in 2025, I can see him taking one-year deals as long as he wants. It's getting harder and harder for players to produce into their late 30s, but if anyone can stay relevant, it's Sidney the Kidney.
Especially because of his well-rounded game. He may not score 30+ goals a season, but his face-off game, defensive game and passing can still be on point.
 
Well, Buffalo won the lottery and Seattle picks at number 2. I'm actually pretty excited about this. BUF will get Powers, let's see what happens since they've drafted other "stud" defensemen and have gone nowhere on their blueline.
 
Well, there's been little player development for Rasmus Dahlin, and there's no supporting cast in Buffalo. They're a really horrible franchise, one of the worst in recent NHL history. At least the Sens, who have an atrocious owner as well, have charted a pretty clear plan out of their tank - things look really good in Ottawa right now as the kids continue to develop, and another high 1st round pick on the way, and reinforcements coming next year.

And I'm going to talk about Ottawa a bit, they've really restocked the cupboard fast.
On D: Thomas Chabot (a very good D), Artem Zub just broke out, Jake Sanderson and Jacob Bernard-Docker coming next year (Sanderson likely). Erik Brannstrom may continue to develop, as well, but yeah.
On F: Josh Norris scored on a 60 point pace as Ottawa's top line centre. Not great, but not bad, he projects as a bottom third top C or a top third 2C in the league. Drake Batherson scored on almost a 30 goal pace and he looks like he's going to grow more, and of course there's Timmy Stützle, who was on a 40+ point rookie season, pretty good!
G: OK this isn't good.
 
I was telling a friend of mine about OTT as well. They're surprisingly full of elite players. I was thinking, if I were to make an all-star OTT team I have plenty of picks. Can you imagine a team with Yashin, Alfredson, Spezza, Karlsson, Chara, Stone, Hoffman, Dzingle? Holy crap! Can't think of a goalie though.... Hasek doesn't count.
 
So Malkin, 35, is having knee surgery and most likely missing training camp on a contract year. When he got hurt he missed the last 23 games of the season and tried coming back in the playoffs, but obviously wasn't much help. Reminded me of when crosby played with a broken wrist and scored zero goals.

The Jack Eichel drama made me think about just how much pressure are these athletes under to play injured, cut their rehabing short or not being able to say, fuck it, i'm sitting out. Malkin is the caliber of player who can dictate what he wants to do. So, was it that he's contract is expiring? Is it his innate competitveness? Like, dude..... As soon as you got hurt and knew you needed surgery it's like, "Aight peeps, I'm done for the season, best of luck in the playoffs, getting the surgery NOW to ensure I can come back NEXT season at 100%. I commend players' attempts to come back to the playoffs hurt and try to help their team, but they don't. Can't think of a single instance a hurt player made a signicant difference in a series. There's a difference in being able to play and being able to play WELL. I feel like there should be more advocacy to letting players rehab/get the care and rest they need versus cutting their careers shorter and just being ineffective, because they were rushed back.
 
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