Wing Across The Pond

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-will-not-participate-in-2018-winter-olympics/c-288385598

This is one of those things that makes me think... are we all just schmucks who don't know what the hell they're on about? Because people "in the know" seem to think this guy is pretty decent and maybe just needs time/a squad built for him. Or is he just an average coach who is somehow getting chances for no reason (other than everyone else is in the playoffs)?

That's not the actual zamboni is it? In that, I swear it has Miller Lite written all over it, and no one seems to know what the hell is going on loooool Pretty neat stunt though!

Nice chart. I notice it says "Note: The new Las Vegas franchise will be slotted at #3 for the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery" - I was under the impression that they had the same odds as #3 but couldn't fall any lower. But the chart has them going as low as 6th? For an actual simulator this is a pretty cool site - http://nhllotterysimulator.com/

Oh man that is genius! Devil's advocate... that Celtics jersey still looks pretty sweet at least the ad fits with the rest of the jersey, unlike those European hockey ones. Guess I'm of a different ilk since in the UK advertising on sports jerseys is commonplace. However saying that, there have always been teams that have, for one reason or another (usually because certain countries have laws against advertising products on tv - mainly alcohol), worn jerseys without sponsors. Keeping on the green and white theme, Celtic FC sold their jerseys with the option to buy with or without a sponsor - https://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/pics-you-can-strangely-order-celtics-new-jersey-with-or-without-the-sponsor-on-the-front-23679 EDIT: Celtic also played the 2012-13 season without a sponsor I believe - https://www.idfootballdesk.com/media/celtic/celtic-players.jpg

For me, living in the UK, the Olympics is always a great occasion to see the best players in the world on free TV, with real excitement. Not next year. Shame. Get money on Russia probably.

Was gonna post in a new thread but I reckon it can go in here. Losing the streak means at least we now have one, final game to say goodbye to the Joe. It's not the way we wanted to say goodbye, but I'd have hated it if our last game of the season was on the road and not at JLA, Throw everything into the biggest send off we can and make that last game something really special. I mean, it's not ideal; that would be saying goodbye by winning the cup on home ice, but it also casts off the monkey on our backs that we knew was coming, and would have really sucked if the first season at the new arena was the season to break the streak. Real feeling of a new fresh start, what with loading picks at the deadline, not being a playoff team, new barn, youth movement going forward.

Wait... I'm seriously struggling to tell if this is sarcasm. If not your language is loaded. "Proven Top 9 winger", so anywhere not on the 4th line? "Proven Top 6 defenseman", so basically a bottom/second pair guy who was first pair on a team that had no one else? Damn I hope I'm getting played (if so, kudos to you )

Lol exactly, gotta be in the tournament to win it. And in this case our tournament is the lottery, and a Vanek doesn't help you win that. On a side note, I'm wondering if the retained salary is a goodwill to say "we're still here come July 1st". Vanek did say he was enjoying it here and hoped to stay. I mean if Florida makes the playoffs and Vanek doesn't pan out, they don't really lose anything; we get an Arizona pick and potentially Vanek back as a UFA. Not that I'd necessarily take him beyond the fact he's a good Austrian boy!

According to this (not sure how legit it is) we have a 23.5% chance to take top 3, 7.6% chance at #1. http://www.tankathon.com/nhl Worth nothing that it has Van, Dal, Vegas at 30% or less, so we're pretty similar there. But Colorado at nearly 50% to get a top 3 pick.

No doubt. I know it'll be a low 3rd but could up the prices of other pieces on this team now

Posted in TD thread, didn't want to be here so Holland went "meh okay" "Things haven't worked out here," general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press. "He and his agent let it be known he'd like to be elsewhere. He is restricted this summer and probably wouldn't have stayed, so we did the deal." http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2017/02/24/detroit-red-wings-tomas-jurco/98368816/ Not all that much of a trade for Holland to make when Chicago were looking at him for 6 weeks and he wanted out, but kudos on a 3rd!

Didn't want to be here apparently, "Things haven't worked out here," general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press. "He and his agent let it be known he'd like to be elsewhere. He is restricted this summer and probably wouldn't have stayed, so we did the deal." http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2017/02/24/detroit-red-wings-tomas-jurco/98368816/

So good. Just like his suspenseful goal decision

Such sad news. I'm not from the US, but even I could see that in his own way he did everything to keep a city going that was in such a bad place. Little Caesars Arena will be his final contribution to a city he loved. Sad news.

About the PP... If there's data out there I'd love to see a heat map of positioning. One thing I noticed last night on the highlights I saw (can't watch much being in the UK, grr) the PP unit we're so deep to the net: both point guys were practically in the faceoff circles. It just meant that any PKers had no need for drastic movement, the clogged the area in front of the net and for a man advantage we didn't seem to make them work. I remember when we were a league leading PP team having two guys on the blue line, passing the puck and making the PK work until they were tired. It was more ruthless if anything rather than just being better skilled players. I think that may be the main problem with our D in general, just not as fit. I mean yeah Lids was a machine, Chelios too and it's no surprise they were so good for so long. Third period last night there were chances where our D didn't do anything wrong as such, but just couldn't react and simple chances were given up. And I guess that's why we get outshot 19-42. Kinda explains how we can be so inconsistent.

https://www.nhl.com/news/ken-hitchcock-fired-as-coach-of-st-louis/c-286333048

Vegas?

Not to mention we already have a cap hit until 2020-21 for Weiss. We'll be looking at about 1.5m-2m to buyout Howard depending on year, coupled with around 1.5, for Weiss means you eat 3m roughly for 3 years with neither player. I agree that the lower term in the off-season may temp a team who needs a short term goalie. 2 years at 10m sounds much better than 3 years at 15m. Yes it's very unlikely people will claim him, but his whole cap hit won't go. Looking at about 1m (league minimum + 375,000) as a hit just to not play him. That's not worth it in my view. Pay 1m a year to have 0 players, or pay the 5m to have an NHL calibre keeper (who may go on IR for full cap relief during the season anyway). Also worth noting that he does have a Modified-NTC which means he is open to moving if the team is right. But of course that depends on which teams, and their needs. EDIT: Looking at the cap hit for waiving Howard, it's likely much more than 1m. Halak (who has been mentioned recently as a similar situation) has a cap hit of 4.5m; post-waivers it's 3.5m, so I think that 1m for waiving Howard is just the relief. So you're still looking at around 4m cap hit for Howard to sit in the AHL. If someone can clarify that would be amazing.

I think it's not unreasonable to entertain two ideas: 1) Mraz is our future, or 2) we have two average keepers with flashes of brilliance, but who will be nothing more than that. Neither should be "untouchable", but most likely one has to go. A choice just needs to be made.

That would have been unbelievably cool.

Mods please delete, GDT already created.

Hey everyone, been lurking in the GDT SUs this season and thought I'd actually pipe up. Just checking what I'd need to do if I signed up? I like the work HockeyTown0001 does each time but is there a set format you like people to stick to? Or is it just the basics to open the thread? I'm based in the UK so generally I can get off work and start on a nice design much earlier than you guys over there (probably the only time that 5 hour time difference would be helpful lol). If not I can do a weekend game? I'll say I can take the 26th, just so it gives me a bit of time to lurk some more in the GDTs and get a feel, but generally would like to contribute Name's Gabe btw

This also seems to presume that if the decision was made to tank a season in order to get picks, that players would necessarily agree with it. You can have the intention to have a losing season, but the players will either continue to play to win, or will ask/need to be moved. The second just solves half the problem anyway if it dumps the more horrible contracts and frees up space. For me the whole question is moot. The teams mentioned that have tanked in the past, what were they like before they did? The real comparison is to say, would Chicago tank with 36yo Kane and Toews still earning 6m+ a year? My opinion would be a middle ground of seeing which contracts we want rid of (can afford to lose) and trade them to cap floor teams to picks. KH now seems to be trying too hard to get a return on pieces he overvalues, when he probably needs to swallow some pride and say "fine I'll take a 4th/5th (maybe even lower) for a guy like Helm". If he shops players around and nothing comes back, they're not worth what he wants for them unfortunately. Example, we could get a few good picks for Howard from a team in need of a proven starter. If they're not looking to deal players they'd probably give some picks. Goodness knows we've probably got enough kids to fill gaps without needing to bring players back the other way in a trade. As was said early on... these are two options, but there's a lot of space in between. Am I right in thinking as well, that Z isn't on a 35+ contract? He could retire this off-season and we wouldn't have the cap hit? EDIT: Soz, actually did my own research for once... from what I can tell, next year we'd be okay on Cap Recapture penalties for Z (since his AAV is lower than his salary) but the next three years we'd be screwed - around 2.5m year 1, then 5m, 5m. What's the likelihood his back injury flairs up and he's on LTIR in a few seasons? EDIT AGAIN: Was given slightly misleading/confused explanations of cap recapture. We'd be stuck for about 3m/year (around 11m difference on overall salary to AAV, divided by 4 years remaining). This is why I am not, and never will be, a GM

Pretty much Edmonton as well, no? Teams who have a style/system and who recruit based on that always tend to do better. So yeah I agree with you