haroldsnepsts

Pretty much. 6 years at $5.75 mill AAV. Why couldn't Boston get this done??

Now they're claiming they offered him a 6 yr $33 million deal and he turned it down. So instead of continuing to negotiate with a promising young player, they traded him for peanuts. And apparently a former Bruins player came to Hamilton's defense and said he's a nice kid. What a disaster. Hamilton was an RFA, right? Even had Hamilton gotten an offer sheet the Bruins didn't want to match, at the price it would've taken I'm pretty sure Boston would've walked away with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounder. http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/787386 http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/786733

Honestly any sort of biased interest the league has in allowing this cap circumvention probably has more to do with the Coyotes than Pronger. My theory on him being allowed to be employed by the league while still a player, however, is that probably somewhere in his NHL employment contract there is a clause about not suing the league for things that occurred during his playing career, say for example post concussion syndrome. Better to have Chris Pronger under the umbrella of the NHL than to have a formerly feared defenseman hobble into a court room talking about how he can't play with his kids anymore. I think it was Steve Moore who had his disability payments withheld by the NHL because he wouldn't agree to their standard clause to waive any litigation against the NHL or its franchises.

I seriously checked the date on the OP to see if someone had bumped an old thread. Honestly I don't care much what Holland says, we'll see what he does. But I'm not holding my breath.

fixed. This article gives a good breakdown of the financial impact for both teams in the Pronger trade. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/making-sense-of-the-pronger-to-coyotes-trade/

They spend $525,000 a year (Pronger's current salary) but get to count the AAV of his full contract, which is $4.9 million, towards their cap. So it saves them money and helps them get to the cap floor.

So Pronger is an employee of the NHL front office while also being employed as an NHL player under contract (who just got traded) while also becoming eligible for the HHOF because of the new bylaws? That's some impressive Pronger physics. I wonder if the Coyotes will retire his jersey? He's the best d-man they've ever had.

I hear you. I don't think LA is really in rebuild mode though. Certainly not the way Boston is. Though I'm not quite sure what Boston is doing. Last season LA already had a thin blueline with the loss of Willie Mitchell, then the whole Voynov thing really set them back. Then you throw in Richards and Brown's decline. All of that is pretty fixable. And they still have Kopitar, Carter, Doughty, Gaborik, Quick, Martinez, Muzzin and now Lucic all in or around their prime. Plus kids like Toffoli and Pearson. Kopitar is going to get a huge contract next time but overall it's more tweaking than rebuilding. I know I've beaten this to death here over the last couple seasons but my main frustration comes from the lack of bolstering the blueline in Lidstrom's absence. I don't think the Wings have needed a series of bold moves, but they sure could've used at least one.

They've got a fair amount of youth still. Tofolli and Pearson are only 23. Other significant players 25 and under are Doughty, King, McNabb, and Voynov though his future with the team is uncertain, to say the least. Mainly I think they need to bite the bullet with Richards. The biggest mistake he's made as GM is being overly loyal and not using the compliance buyout on Richards last season. And it'll be interesting to see if Brown continues his downward trend in production. Captains do get dealt from time to time but he's been the face of the franchise since the Kings first started turning it around. I can't see them moving him, but he's becoming a grossly overpaid third liner.

It wasn't looking like that bad of a trade until the salary retention. Lucic had a down year and played like an idiot a lot the last season or so, and they were possibly going to lose him for nothing next season. But it does make the Hamilton trade look even worse since they freed up some cap space they could've used on him. It'll be interesting to see how Lucic plays on the Kings. They're a tough team but still know how to play in control, as opposed to the Bruins.

Because the only alternative to Holland's "kicked the tires" is to make the awful trade Boston did? That's like saying the Wings shouldn't get high draft picks so they don't turn into the Oilers.

If it is Neely, it's like he's trying to get rid of any player who's career with the Bruins might overshadow his own. Talbot to the Oilers for three picks. Pierre LeBrun ‏@Real_ESPNLeBrun 7m 7 minutes ago There you go, Talbot to the Oilers. That's the guy that made the most sense for Edmonton.

That exact thing currently happens in the third period as teams play for the loser point, then hope for the extra point in OT or shootout. The existing point structure provides even more incentive for conservative play in the third period than ties did.

Ansar Khan ‏@AnsarKhanMLive 1m 1 minute ago Wings have signed forward Joakim Andersson to a one-year deal for $815,000. He was a restricted free agent.

No, you're not. It depends on how you interpret toughest to play against. He's certainly not the most physical or the toughest to beat defensively, but I think he'd be in the conversation. He's still scary to play against because he can kill you offensively.

My thinking Karlsson shouldn't have won isn't because he's bad defensively, though honestly he is not as good as guys like Doughty, Suter, Weber, and Keith. He still makes some pretty awful coverage mistakes. He is an elite offensive defenseman, but he is not among the elite as a complete defenseman. Of course, he is still only 25. But he had a really poor start to this season. Lucky for him hockey writers seem to barely do their jobs anymore so they remember the incredible run the Sens went on and forget Karlsson's poor play in the first three months of the season. If you don't need to play great all season, then Giordano should have been in the conversation. He did play great all year long until he got injured. Another part of it is just my beef with how lazy hockey writers seem to have gotten during a time when it is easier to watch games around the league than ever before. If Doughty played for a Canadian team there likely would've been endless stories about the huge minutes he was playing at a very high level. If Karlsson played for Nashville we'd probably just now be reading about how there's this defenseman for the Preds who's pretty good.

Karlsson winning the Norris again is kind of the death knell for that award for me. Don't get me wrong, he's a great player but even Sens fans acknowledge that he had a bad start to the year. The award is allegedly "given to the defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position." By giving it to Karlsson this season in spite of his bad Sep-Dec they've removed both the "all-round" part and now the "throughout the season" portion as well. If they were giving the award for best two-thirds of a season then it should be Giordano's. Apparently hockey writers have about as long of memory as the younger members at hfboards. If you've played well in the last month then you're the greatest of all time.

Agreed. If Bettman claims that "opening the expansion process" doesn't necessarily mean anything, you can guarantee the exact opposite is true. The league is definitely expanding. I hate Bettman but he's no idiot and is always thinking way ahead on any move he makes. The lockouts were a meticulously calculated financial decision, as is expansion. If this wasn't something he thought would bring more money to his owners, he wouldn't have even uttered the word.

I agree but you have to remember the owners will get a $500+ million franchise fee for a new team. If they move an existing franchise, the owners get nothing and it's another acknowledged failure of one of Bettman's southern teams. It'd be better for the league if they moved an existing franchise, but more money for the owners and Gary if they expand. I wonder which one will win out...

If the Feds take 50% and their agents 25%, they need to fire their accountant and their agent.

I thought someone had said that the players don't actually write the articles. At the bottom Avery is listed as "contributor." I don't doubt he's a smart guy and definite marches to his own drummer, often in an interesting way off the ice. On the ice he was an idiot though. And he glosses over the part that he "decided" to retire because no one in the NHL wanted him anymore. Avery had a great skillset, it just wasn't worth all the baggage and distractions that came with him anymore. He's still only 35 years old and could still be playing in the NHL if he ever figured out how to be a professional and a good teammate.

Panthers aren't going to re-sign Kopecky. http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/782869 An overpaid aging former Red Wing? Someone please hide this information from Holland.

Agreed. Keith is a great defenseman but he makes Backes look like a choirboy. I have no idea why he doesn't have more of a rep for his cheapshots, stickwork, and then chirping a guy who's clearly concussed.

I think it's completely on a case by case basis. Wayne Gretzky won a few things in his career but that didn't translate to coaching. One thing you can pretty much count on if Cheli is an assistant coach though is that team fitness will probably be very high.

I'm just glad to have the drama over and start what will hopefully be a new phase of the Red Wings. Welcome (back) to the Red Wings coach!