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2012-13 NHL Regular Season Thread


dlbalr

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Alexei Kovalev's time in Florida has come to an end. He isn't travelling with the team and their coach said an announcement on his playing status is pending. The only thing holding the announcement up is that Kovalev wants to be fully paid (if he gets released) while the Panthers are trying to encourage him to retire.

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Komi should beg to be put beside Markov where he would actually look like an NHLer again.

I could wear my old Komi jersey again ! :)

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Cam Ward is out 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain - the Habs play Carolina on Thursday.

That sucks, because Ward hasn't exactly been playing well. Carolina probably has a better chance of beating the Habs now without him.

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Stephen Weiss is out for the year. Is it sad that my first thought was "At least I don't have to hear Pierre Houde constantly butcher his first name when they play the Habs on Sunday?" In all seriousness, if this doesn't put Florida into selling mode, I don't know what will. Unfortunately for them, he was the Panthers' biggest trade chip.

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Hamrlik on waivers.

After his comments during the lockout, is it likely a team picks him up at risk of disrupting the dressing room?

I don't see him being claimed, a trade with retained salary is probably more likely.

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I don't see him being claimed, a trade with retained salary is probably more likely.

I suck at predictions lately. He was claimed by the Rangers; Tom Kostopoulos also was claimed by the Devils.

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Re-alignment has been approved by the NHLPA meaning that it's pretty much a rubber stamp process now for the owners to approve it for next season. The top three teams in the Habs' new division (with Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto) are guaranteed to make the playoffs while the top two teams in points not in the top three in their division will be wildcards. Statistically, the playoffs will be easier to make out West (8/14 get in) than the East (8/16). I'm surprised the PA agreed to this. It will be in affect for 2 years and then the issue will be revisited.

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8 years, $8.25 million per year. I like Getzlaf but that's way too much for my liking (tied for the 4th highest cap hit in the league).

Good to see GMs have learned from the lockout how to control their spending.

:rolleyes:

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8 years, $8.25 million per year. I like Getzlaf but that's way too much for my liking (tied for the 4th highest cap hit in the league).

That must be pretty close to the end of line. Can they fit Perry in? My guess is they are going to try.

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One thing that I just realized is that this is essentially the same money other top guys like Parise, Weber, Suter, Kovalchuk, Richards, etc all received in their deals, just without the fake years tacked on at the end. I would expect that trend to continue with the top UFA's this year, cap hits for those guys could be considerably higher than those from recent years.

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Re-alignment has been approved by the NHLPA meaning that it's pretty much a rubber stamp process now for the owners to approve it for next season. The top three teams in the Habs' new division (with Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto) are guaranteed to make the playoffs while the top two teams in points not in the top three in their division will be wildcards. Statistically, the playoffs will be easier to make out West (8/14 get in) than the East (8/16). I'm surprised the PA agreed to this. It will be in affect for 2 years and then the issue will be revisited.

Dlbair-- just going on what you have said--- the wildcards could come from same division? How would that facilitate divisional match-ups because obviously one would have to cross over?

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One thing that I just realized is that this is essentially the same money other top guys like Parise, Weber, Suter, Kovalchuk, Richards, etc all received in their deals, just without the fake years tacked on at the end. I would expect that trend to continue with the top UFA's this year, cap hits for those guys could be considerably higher than those from recent years.

Yeah...I'm no capologist, but it does look as though the result of the new CBA will be Big Names eating up an even larger % of your cap space. This will make mistakes on the UFA market even more catastrophic - but that won't instil much restraint when the feeding frenzy happens. I do think, though, that the Habs want to be organizationally positioned so that they're not shopping for top-tier UFAs like Parise (who all too often parlay a couple of over-the-moon seasons into massive paydays, then revert to being 75-point players) and more for affordable midrange guys like Cole or Whitney or Prust.

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Dlbair-- just going on what you have said--- the wildcards could come from same division? How would that facilitate divisional match-ups because obviously one would have to cross over?

Yes, the wildcards can come from the same division. Seeding wise, I suspect it would be the lower points team that would cross over. For example, let's say the following teams make the playoffs from the Central (the Habs' new division):

BOS, DET, MTL, BUF, OTT, with the last two being the wildcards. Buffalo would play Boston, Detroit would play Montreal, and Ottawa would cross over to play the top-seeded team in the Atlantic.

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Yes, the wildcards can come from the same division. Seeding wise, I suspect it would be the lower points team that would cross over. For example, let's say the following teams make the playoffs from the Central (the Habs' new division):

BOS, DET, MTL, BUF, OTT, with the last two being the wildcards. Buffalo would play Boston, Detroit would play Montreal, and Ottawa would cross over to play the top-seeded team in the Atlantic.

Yeah, the term wildcard would be redundant unless there was at least one alternative to the top 4 in each conference. I would add this, shouldn't the top seed play the bottom seed regardless of division?

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Yeah, the term wildcard would be redundant unless there was at least one alternative to the top 4 in each conference. I would add this, shouldn't the top seed play the bottom seed regardless of division?

If you make it so that the top seed points wise plays the bottom seed, you wind up potentially a double crossover and the main reason for this re-alignment is to eliminate as much travel as possible. Maybe there's something that says if both wildcards are from the same division, the first wildcard goes over. Since the full details haven't been fully announced by the league yet (they won't until it's ratified), we don't really know how the crossover will work.

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