Fanpuck33

I don't understand the comparison. I don't recall hearing any rumblings of Aho being disgruntled in Carolina. He just didn't have a contract and the Habs came along and gave him a great deal. With Kotkianiemi, reports are saying he wanted out after the Final benching and was telling people close to him he had played his last game as a Hab. Bergevin had to be aware of this, so not getting a center this off-season is inexcusable.

Only if he is content to play on a series of one year deals, which most pro athletes are not willing to do when given the option of a longer term deal that is fair. Especially in contact sports where you are always on hit away from being done. Or one bad season from making league minimum. It's like how NFLers almost never agree to be franchise tagged multiple times. They make more money per year that way, but the lack of years of guaranteed money influences them to take multi-year deals that net less money.

Sure he can if he isn't given a qualifying offer next year. That's how restricted free agency works.

Suzuki will be extended long before it gets to that point.

Nobody is getting screwed if he has a bad season. He has a bad season, you don't tender him and you've lost a 1st and a 3rd. Not ideal, but hardly crippling. Is every team that gives up a 1st at the trade deadline screwed for a long time? He has a great season, he's getting a huge extension anyway. He has a mediocre season and he still probably gets a solid bridge deal rather than risking a series of 1 year deals. The part about the Canes not being a lock for a late 1st is the one thing I agree with. They lost their best D, a really good young D, and replaced them with Tony D'Angelo. There is your source of locker room issues. They also took a huge step back in goal. Not extending Nedeljkovic in favor of signing Fredrick Andersson for more money is perhaps the most baffling move of the off-season. But Montreal is screwed if they do not match. They don't have the center depth to absorb the loss of Kotkianiemi. NHL players know that offer sheet deals are player friendly; that's not going to cause any issues in the room.

It does happen, but most pro athletes are not willing to bet on themselves by taking a series of 1 year deals when a long term contract is on the table, at least when it is not a lowball offer. Especially not in sports as physical as hockey. More often than not, players who do bet on themselves end up losing millions.

Bergevin tried to take advantage of an owner who had just lost a quarter of his net worth a few months prior and ensured they wouldn't be able to buy into any UFA years. It was every bit as "icky" as this offer.

It's only a 1 year offer because that is all they had to offer in order to put pressure on Montreal to match. With a one year deal, a signing bonus doesn't impact the deal in any significant way, so they were free to make it an amusing middle finger. It does not give any indication that it is not a serious offer. They want JK. They are not stupid enough to risk losing draft picks for a player they don't actually want.

Of course revenge is part of it. I mean, announcing it in French and putting in a $20.00 signing bonus makes that plain as day. But they wouldn't risk making the offer if they weren't willing to risk overpaying for a year before signing him to a lesser bridge deal. There is zero chance they let Hamilton walk in order to do this. Frankly, that notion is preposterous. Of course not, but there is no doubt they will make a move to free up the space to match. If he doesn't have a breakout season, then they aren't on the hook long term and can trade him. If he does breakout, then they'd be giving him a big contract anyway. It is no more of a dick move than Bergevin offering Aho a huge signing bonus trying to take advantage of the Hurricanes owner after he lost a quarter billion dollars trying to save a failing football league. Most in hockey circles see EVERY offer sheet as a dick move. All the talk about being against some kind of GM-code. Yet nobody retaliated against Philly when they offered Kesler or Weber. Nobody went after Edmonton after they offered Vanek and signed Penner. Nobody went after San Jose for Hjarlmarsson or Calgary for O'Rielly. The only other time there was a vengeance offer was when St. Louis offered Bernier after they matched Vancouver's offer on Backes. Offer sheets end up just being business. There has never been open season on a team to get back at them for giving out an offer sheet.

They wouldn't have done this JUST for revenge. They're not just going to let him walk if Montreal doesn't match. And what does this have to do with having to worry about offer sheets for the next 5 years?

He didn't get disciplined for talking about the Logan Mailloux situation; he was disciplined for completely losing it and attacking the person saying the disgusting things. That discussion didn't get shut down just because of the topic - it got shut down because it turned into a bunch of mudslinging.

Anyone interested in joining for the 2021 season?

I thought I read a PHR article the other day and Anisimov was listed as one of the top available players. Or maybe not (https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2021/08/poll-how-many-top-unsigned-free-agents-will-play-in-nhl-this-season.html). He was just mentioned as having the highest points per game in limited action. I must have imagined him being ranked higher than Bozak.

I don't think anyone holds Bozak in especially high regard. I don't think anyone is even saying he is that good. It's just that Staal was ineffective last year, while Bozak was still serviceable.

Based on those numbers, how was Staal better? Bozak had better faceoffs numbers and more points in fewer games. We're talking about a bottom 6 C, so I don't know how relevant it is to bring up those seasons. Staal was still a 2nd liner back then, getting 17-18 minutes a game and powerplay time. He couldn't even pull off that role in Buffalo and was not very effective for Montreal in a 4th line role on the whole. He had a huge dropoff in 2021 and as your stats indicated, was much less effective that Bozak.

Yeah. Glendale is just a suburb of Phoenix, which is the 11th largest metropolitan area in the US. They just gave the Coyotes and Cardinals a better deal to build facilities than the city of Phoenix itself did. It will be interesting to see if anything actually comes of this or if it is just another empty threat. They seem to have similar issues with the city every few years. Is the city really finally done with the team? If this really is the end for Glendale, are there any real options to stay in the Phoenix area? From what I understand, the Suns' arena where they started out was even worse for hockey than where the Isles played in Brooklyn. I've always said that you should give a city long enough for kids to grow up with NHL hockey who can grow into season ticket holders. The Coyotes have been there long enough that if they haven't grown a fan base that can allow the team to thrive, it isn't going to happen. It's hard. To imagine Phoenix or any other suburb building them a new arena. You can be sure the league will want to keep the team in the US. So Houston has to be the top option. 5th largest metro area and far enough away from Dallas that the Stars shouldn't be upset about another team in the state. They've tried twice already in Atlanta (9th), so they're out. San Francisco (12th) is too close to San Jose, plus they couldn't even agree with the 49ers on a stadium and they now play practically in San Jose themselves. The "Inland Empire" (13th) is practically just an extension of LA and they don't need another team. Baltimore (20th) is too close to D.C. That leaves only San Diego (17th) as the largest city without a team. Does California really need another team? Losing their NFL team is certainly not a great sign. In Canada, it's hard not to give consideration to Quebec City. The Jets have done very well, as fast as I know, since coming back to Winnipeg and they even have one of the smaller arenas in the league, if not the smallest. If it's working for them in the cap era, you would have to think it could work in Quebec City again. The only way I see Hamilton ever getting a team is if the Pegulas move the Sabres across the border.

Wasn't aware of any suspensions stemming from that thread, but not surprised. I have to imagine johnnyhasbeen was suspended as well. Commandant took things too far in response to johnny, but johnny's posts were some of the most vile things I've seen posted here in years. It was certainly disappointing seeing him back to his old ways. Yeah, and Columbus was worse off down than middle after the PLD trade than Montreal ever was and he still got put on the wing after just a handful of games. He is not an option at center in this league any more, especially with the Habs.

As much as I tend to disagree with him, I agree with the sentiment. But I feel like if he was gone for good, he wouldn't still be checking the forum daily.

It's like what we talked about the other day, a lot of people don't think of lines in the traditional way any more where 3rd liner means shut-down line that gets as much even strength ice time as the 1st line. Especially for a team whose shutdown line was also their top scoring line for much of Danault's tenure here, that way of thinking about lines had kind of gone out the door. It's like how people would jump all over you if you called Danault a 3rd liner. And for the love of all that is holy... It's not Pholeing. It's not Phoeling. It's not Pheoling. It's Poehling.

Haha, this issue has come up before and in the past I've always ordered my lines with the traditional checking line being the 3rd line. I also tended to draw fire for listing the Danault line as the 3rd line when they were getting top 6 minutes. I have since come around and ordered my lines based on ice time as opposed to role. So if you read the explanation of my lines, you will see that is precisely why I placed Toffoli on that line. Hoffman and Drouin are not good fits for that role, so playing Toffoli or Anderson on their off-side is the best option and I give Toffoli the edge because I think he deserves more ice time than Anderson. It also explains why I split up Toffoli from the top line. If he goes there, that means you have to slot Anderson onto the checking line and you've got two RW playing on their off-wing and have to play a LW at RW on the Evans line, and my gosh do we not want Evans playing with both Drouin and Hoffman. You could slot Armia onto that line, but Drouin and Hoffman are worthless on a 4th line. Is that based solely on his junior career where he had a 31 goal season one year and was over a point-per game for one season? Sure, better goal production than Evans, but in a much tighter scoring league, Evans was twice a point-per-game player at Notre Dame and nearly was a 3rd time. Their AHL numbers are similar, with the slight edge going to Evans. At the NHL level, in 7 years Pacquette has never topped 20 points. Evans had more points this year than 4 of Pacquette's NHL seasons. Pacquette is past the point of having offensive potential, while Evans is just starting to crack his. Give him more ice than Pacquette all day long.

Wow, the USA pulls out the gold medal count in the last day. The men's track team finally got their first gold in the 4x400, then the women followed through in the same event. Then the real shocker - gold in the Women's Omnium, our first ever women's gold in track cycling. Finally, our indoor Women's Volleyball won their first gold after settling for silver and bronze on numerous occasions. Now only six months till the Winter Games in Beijing!

He'd be a nice piece, but if they are going to move assets, I can't see it being done for a winger. The only way I see them bringing in a winger if it is a change-of-scenary deal involving Drouin, similar to the Domi/Anderson deal.

Credit to Canada's defense for carrying them to gold. That's crazy to win three knockout round games in a row while only scoring from the dot.

He's solid. I believe he also does sliding sports at the Winter Olympics. He does does fine with those and track, but of course those are also racing events, albeit short ones. Field events... it's harder to judge because most of the field coverage here is just brief clips of jumps and throws in between track races. They also have an injured hammer thrower doing color, and she is pretty wodden and not great at exchanging with the other commentators. Congrats to Damian Warner, winner of the ultimate Summer Olympic event, the decathlon. NBC shockingly provided pretty good coverage last night, after breezing through most of the first day. Of course, they also ruined it by reserving the final event of it and the heptathlon till 10pm tonight.