PavelValerievichDatsyuk

He was sort of a UFA 2009. He came from their minor system (after being traded from the bruins as a prospect) and should have been a RFA, but they made some kind of an error in qualifying him. You could actually argue that him being traded the first time was the fault of this mistake. If he was a RFA he would have had to sign for less than the 3.083 that he got and maybe they would have been able to keep him. It's kind of beside the point, though. My point was that It doesn't really matter for their situation if players see this as disloyal - they have their core (I know some people hate this phrase for some reason), big impact players locked. They'll need complimentary short term pieces for the next while. Players looking for a long term gig wouldn't be looking their way, anyway, because there's no space. And, also, no I don't think UFAs would see it disloyal. I think it's acknowledged that they'd like to keep him if it wasn't for cap constraints. You could even see it as loyalty that drove them to bring Versteeg back into the fold when they had the means/space.

I think the whole 'winning 2 cups' part would outweight the 'being traded twice' part for most people. Versteeg was never signed as a UFA by the Hawks, anyway, he was to traded for from the Panthers. UFAs looking for long term contracts probably wouldn't be looking at the Hawks since they have so many guys locked up and have little space. Their UFA additions will probably be like Richards for a while - short contacts to try to win a cup. Edit: depending on what happens to Kane, of course...

Yeah, and then millionaires would suddenly lose the motivation to donate. (I don't mean to suggest this was Subban's motivation - A general comment)

For those that are worried about his defensive game, first of all, he had the highest +/- on the Caps last year with +15. That's also higher than anyone on our team. He'll also be partnered with DK, whom I sure is a better on the defensive side than anyone he might have been paired with last year.

If Andersson and Ferraro are in the lineup while Jurco is out, I would be angry. The speculation doesn't work so cleanly, though. Team Howe doesn't have too many NHL forwards. Unless you take that to mean that Jurco-Larkin-Mantha (or Pulkkinen) will be a line for us. I think that's interesting in itself. They split up talent, teams' potential centers as: Datsyuk/Richards/Sheahan/Glendening/Helm/Nosek Z/Andersson Larkin/Athanasiou I must have missed some prospect centers. Maybe that means they're testing how Larkin can handle himself. Also, to me this might mean that Helm and Sheahan both playing wing might really be a possibility (I don't like the idea).

He was a beloved part of a golden age team. He was here 10 years straight (plus parts of 2 in the comeback attempt) Maltby wasn't here much longer with 14 years. He has a Cancer foundation that raises money for research and is active in the community. He seems like a pretty good guy that just let his demons get the better of him. I haven't read his book and don't know too much of his story, but there's many reasons why people turn to drugs. In hockey we've had a number of stories of enforcers dealing with depression that should guide most people against simplistically damning McCarty as you seem to want to. Maybe he was dealing something like Rick Rypien was. Maybe his brain looks like swiss cheese like Proberts did in the autopsy. I do know that McCarty's father died of cancer in 1995 (at age 49). Possibly that was a trigger to lead him down a dark path. Drugs are often a symptom of something else. Try a little empathy.

Huh. Thanks for your perspective. Mantha looks pretty good in those highlights. He scores 2 goals and started the play for the first one. It's hard for me to imagine that the guy that gets the game winner+1 out of 3. can be a "total let down." But I wasn't there so you had much more to judge on. He does have lax body language (maybe there's a better word for it). Even when he scores the first goal he looks like little effort is being exerted. To me it might be partly big man syndrome, where one stride gets you far than it would for others so it never looks like you're exerting as much. Also, Mantha was never advertised as a gritty board battle player - I think that his size created some false expectations for some people.

The one that left. I hope we keep the 1-3-1 configuration that really seemed to work. Last year it was with 1 defenceman, but it will be interesting to see what they do this year. Kronwall and Green will obviously each be on one of the PP units, but I also liked what DD was doing last year and I think there was take by Blashill of giving Smith some PP time. I guess 2 of those guys could play on the wall. Too many candidates is always a good problem.

Yeah, but honestly It would never really go away even if he was acquitted by a jury. It would always be tied to his name unless the accuser withdrew the charges (maybe not even then). I guess I meant pay to get it out of the news. A trial would make it a big story for a much longer period. But I withdraw my comment about him buying to make it go away. There's a lot of reasons for settling before a trial for both sides whether he's guilty or not and we obviously don't know what's going on. Always disliked Kane and let my cynical side get away from me for a second there.

With that much money you make things go away. Will be interesting to see if Kane is traded and what happens to his career as a result of all this.

Interesting. I don't know much about their prospects, but Subban's been given a lot of hype (some assumed to be inflated due to his family name, but nonetheless) so I thought he was in line. Subban's also the only one of their prospect goalies that has played a game in the NHL even if he's only played 1. Anyway, I think they'll take Gustavsson

Yeah, and Malcolm Subban has only played 1 NHL. They probably wouldn't trust him as a backup, but they'll want him to get more games. He'll get those games whenever Monster gets injures.

Nobody wants this, but I've thought about it in light of that Glencross article/discussion. If this was part of a verbal agreement then I'm glad we kept it. It keeps the reputation of the organization high and shows our young players that we're loyal and we'll pay them back if they take some discounts to help out the team. Also, the reputation always matters to UFAs. We've had a couple of disgruntled employees jump come to us (Alfie) or choose us (Modano). And I think both Green and Tootoo came in part due to Helm's positive reports. And Cleary will probably just end up playing in GR which could be good to ensure some quality guidance since Blashill's gone (don't know the new coach).

The purple octopus that Conklin had was great. To go against Mrazek's Peter Griffin mask, Howard should have put the giant chicken on his and declared war!

Nah, Feds won 2 Selkes and was so good on the defensive side that Bowman put him on the Blue line. I get the OV comparison in the sense that he had dynamic speed made for some great rushes, though.

It's think it's pretty hard for us to judge which one is correct or reliable. Hockey's cap says we're 964,545 over the cap. General Fanager says we have 375,457 cap space left and Nhlnumbers say we have 385,000 under the cap. I wonder what's up with the discrepancy. I like the General Fanager's about page, though. They basically say they loved Capgeek and trying to carry on for them and they include links to a few cancer organizations. Edit: Got to the bottom of it: hockey's cap includes ferrarro while the others don't. nhlnumbers includes Lashoff while the others don't. There might be a couple differences that I didn't catch.

One person said they thought his potential was to steal games like Price. I used Price to show that even the best goalies go through growing pains. I was not comparing the 2. I think Mrazek has already reigned in his game somewhat. I think his aggressive, confident approach is a strength. I think he's in the process of understanding his angles and recovery time at the NHL level.

Well, he's essentially saying the same thing you are. He thinks he made a mistake and regrets it He point totals are actually not on a straight "downward progression": 10-11: 43 pts. 11-12: 48 pts. 12-13: 26 pts. (38 GP) lockout shortened 13-14: 24 pts. (40 GP) 14-15: 35 pts He's been pretty steady for points even though he's played for some pretty awful Flames teams and was injured half of 13-14. He's 32. A guy like him should be able to get a 2-3 year deal. This year teams just seem to up against the cap this year and have been hugging the check book a little tighter. Edit: I just hope Helm and Abdelkader don't read these articles.

You've said this a few times, but I guess you haven't read people's responses. He's been there for his 3 years. It's not a possibility for him to play there. We'd have to send through waivers and there's 0% chance he'd make it through. Furthermore, playing more in the AHL wouldn't help his game - he needs to just get used to the higher skill level/faster pace etc... Somebody else mentioned Carey Price - we all saw him struggle for years. Few, if any, goalies enter the league as all stars - they go through some growing pains.

It's too bad the Flames don't take him. 35 pts. (13 goals) this past year - that isn't bad (only 1 less assist than Sheahan's numbers). They have changed GMs since his last contract so I guess Burke doesn't feel the same sense of loyalty as Feaster might have.

I think he meant more that Stamkos wouldn't want to go there since they're rebuilding and it looks like they won't be competing for quite a while.

Yeah, saw some Zidlicky to islanders rumours I also read Franson to Boston, but that would make brain hurt after the Hamilton and Boychuck trades. Buffalo makes some sense.

Yeah, No takers for Zidlicky, Gustavesson, Weiss, Franson, Stempniak. Not saying the first 3 would any great pickup, but I feel like all those guys should be able to find a spot. Seems like a weird offseason. Maybe other GMs have taken up Holland's tiring kicking methods.

Not necassarily. If they both play solidly Jimmy would still have value. I think our best case scenario is that they split time and Mrazek proves he could handle the full load. Then we could get a good return for Howard. If Mrazek runs away with it and Jimmy is post-Injury Jimmy, we'd have an expensive but solid backup for 3 more years, or we do a Luongo-like salary dump deal. I know Luo's deal was much bigger and he had a history of being a truly elite goalie so it's a bit different, but in the same vein of the value being getting rid of an unneeded contract+role player in return. That wouldn't be the worst thing either - We will need cap space as much as anything in the next couple years (DD, Sheahan, Helm Abby, Mraz heading soon to be free agents) True and it would only be for 3 years and could be a great situation for us especially with a D corps still sort of in transition. These next 4 years could allow for a smooth transition, but Jimmy might not be okay with that situation. Likely, if he loses his job he'll want another shot at a starting position.

Have we tired of the "Franzen's career is over" conversation only to start the "Datsyuk's career is over" conversion? Haha, I'm guessing you mean cause he was around for some rivalry years