saskhab

Christoslav Halaebieghton.

One of the problems with the percieved slow rebuilding is that we had two promising drafts that have been less fruitful for the team than expected. Those were the Houle drafts of 1998 and 2000. 1998 is still a resounding success with Markov and Ryder (even with the Chouinard over Gagne fiasco), but losing Ribs and Beauchemin for virtually nothing (Niinimaa) stings. And we didn't get anything from the 2000 draft except for Garth Murray and Kovalev, despite being promised good things from the top 3 picks (Hainsey, Hossa, and Balej). Our 2001 Draft could be a coup if Perezhogin and Plekanec work out long term as top 9 forwards, and Milroy establishes himself as a NHLer. 2002 looks to be Higgins only. Our draft record from '03 on looks pretty good. We've been breaking in 3 2003 picks this year (Kostitysn, Lapierre, Halak), and have 3 others on our AHL team (Urquhart, O'Byrne, Locke). 2004 has yielded one NHLer (Streit), one player who has gotten a cup of coffee (Grabovski), and two very promising international performers (Chipchura & Emelin). We can't ask much more from our '05 crop to date, especially Latendresse, Price, S Kostitsyn, and D'Agostini. And we at the very least have 2 of the best forwards in the WHL out of the '06 draft (White & Maxwell), plus a good WJC tourney from Valentenko. The drafting has been ace. The rest of it is open for debate, though. Not everything is about the draft, though, especially in an age of 25-27 year old UFAs.

Gainey has to be very aggressive at the draft. If he can move some salaries, our situation will be a lot better. If we have a shot at moving up in the draft and picking a potential impact player, that would be great. If we don't, but have a shot at picking up a core roster player right now, that should definitely be looked into. The main thing that concerns me is that any sense of personality this team once had seems to have disappeared. He needs to make a bold statement about just who is a member of this team's core and who isn't this offseason. If the team makes the playoffs or not seems really insigificant at this point, and very unlikely if you ask me. I can't see this team getting hot and making it. They get temporarily lifted in emotion but then panic and let their guard down and get burned. There's no positive pattern right now.

Last year was a lot different. The team was confident at the time, and it was realistic to think they could do some damage in the post-season. This year, there is no confidence. It's not about the draft year... someone can flip that around on you quite easily, because last year's draft was deeper, we could afford to make a run and take a later pick, because there wasn't a steep drop off in talent in the later picks. This year, there is, so best secure the best possible pick we can. Plus, the confidence issue.

Here's to hoping we drop to 7th worst... and then win the draft lottery, bumping us up 5 spots to the 2nd overall pick! It's happened before (that a team who won the draft lotto was too far back to move up to the 1st pick). Here's to hoping. A loss to St. Louis tomorrow would do wonders.

I have absolutely no problem with an Abby/Leighton combo playing out the string. Why the team forced Halak into this situation is beyond me. A 21 year old breaking in at this stage in his career is pretty much unprecedented in the NHL. The AHL is a completely different league. One of the funniest stats from last year in the AHL was that Huet's 4 game conditioning stint made him statistically the worst goalie in the league that year, yet he went on to lead the NHL in save percentage in the same season. Halak needs to be in a winning atmosphere right now and experience the playoffs in the AHL. In 2005, he was a junior goalie. Last year, he was a late season AHL callup from the ECHL. This kind of rise is remarkable to the level of one of the best AHL goalies this season. We shouldn't be pushing it. Let the vets sort this season out, if they can. If they can't, well, so be it. We have an excuse to dismantle the core.

That was all Wang's neogiation/decision. Probably part of the reason Smith didn't work out. Wang wanted to make that signing the previous offseason with DiPietro, but they ran into problems with insurance ont he deal. Apparently those issues were solved in the next year, and Wang went ahead with it. Snow let his boss handle the DiPietro file and has worked around it. Wang had also advised Milbury on the Yashin contract, since Yashin was supposed to be a tough signing. Wang simply told Milbury to "go long" and they'd get it done. So they did. Fortunately, DiPietro's contract value is fairly reasonable, whereas Yashin's is ridiculous.

Halak should be finishing what he started in the AHL. He's been rushed. Not many goalies can play in the NHL at 21 (maximum 3 at any given time, usually just 1). He's an AHL rookie, remember. I fear he's due for a major regression in his development next year as a result.

Having one of those guys isn't really that crippling. Indy eventually did win it all with Peyton at top dollar, while winning the division year in year out. Tampa can do the same if they choose one horse, not 3. That's their problem. You play a risk with a high end strategy, but that's what it is... a strategy. It's not perfect, it's a choice over another strategy (spend less on high end to acquire better depth and variety). We will see teams of both mindsets win the Cup, that is for sure. And the teams that do win will likely have a couple of high return players, be they vets playing way better than their salary, or players still in rookie contracts contributing big time.

Ignorance is bliss is the lesson, I suppose.

Might as well include the Bay area in terms of markets that got a 2nd chance (Oakland/California and then San Jose). It's sickening that the PA government was put through this, but they painted themselves into this corner with giving the Pirates a new ballpark with no contribution from that pitiful franchise. Years of bad management before Mario came really crippled the team, and the years under him didn't really help a lot, either, except in terms of credibility and respect from the community (not the ledger). Pro teams shouldn't get gov't handouts and free facilities to play in. They're essentially subsidies, it's why they don't work. Mario is going to make money in KC off of short term revenue windfalls and free rent, and the citizens there are going to get hurt in the long term after the short term benefits. It's lose-lose for the fans, and win-win for the Penguins' ownership.

The media IS different than 1993. Back in '93, print still dominated. Now it's instant information. Stories break quicker, and the first to the story generally commands it. There is a greater chance for errors, misquotes, and complete fabrications in this reality.

I have enough of a hard time believing anything out of Russia's "mainstream" press, let alone tabloid sports journals. This is a country with major free press issues. Any article that has any Russian nationalist bent to it whatsoever should be scrutinized heavily.

I'd be way more concerned if there was no media outcry after this team's performance since Christmas. Someone mentioned if they were playing at Philly's level they wouldn't care as much. Well, THEY ARE playing at that level. And people are rightfully pissed off and embarassed by it. Worse off, the team expects miracles from a 21 year old AHL rookie goalie to turn the team around on his own, since it's obvious no one else on the team could do it. There's a lot of things going wrong right now. Good thing there were quite a number of things going right in previous years that we should recover in time. I'm angry that we're stuck in netural on our rebuild process. We do need a 90 degree correction. Hopefully the long spring we're going to have gives everyone in management a chance to get away from the poisonous atmosphere for a few weeks and come back refreshed and with an aggressive plan for the summer, because we need life breathed back into this program from somewhere.