shrader

I'm always curious to see what people consider to be a monopoly. When it comes to sports, beyond just the different levels of hockey, I've also considered the other sports as competition as well. So within the sports world, the Leafs are also competing with the Blue Jays, Raptors, and Argos (let's ignore ownership overlap for now and just consider this as an example). So to me, saying the Leafs (or any other team) has an NHL monopoly feels like saying Snickers has a monopoly on chocolate covered peanut candy bars. That may well be the fact, but it's a small piece of the much larger candy bar market.

Let's not leave Buffalo out of the equation as well. We've got enough posters here from southern Ontario to speak for that. And before we throw the term monopoly around, we do need to remember the various other levels of hockey that exist around the area, especially the AHL and junior teams. There's far more hockey available than most tend to think about when this topic comes up. I had it to some extent in the Boston area, with all of the college programs in the area. It's nice for the fans to have those multiple price points available. It's not an argument for or against adding a team, but I wanted to mention it. It's not the NHL or bust in some of these larger markets.

Chicago's throwing in the pick, right? Also, Chicago goes over the 40 contract limit with that deal, so they'll probably have to send us their top two prospects to balance it out.

Do they typically get much of a crowd for a wednesday night game?

The new emojis suck, so insert confused face here. For the record, I agree with the first part of your serious answer, at least with those 3 topping 20 anyway.

First round picks don't really go for rentals all that often anymore anyway. It has to be a fairly high end player to grab that return, and even then, you may still very well be looking at a deal where it's conditioned on re-signing. When it comes to the Sabres picks, I feel like the only one that could be in play would be their own. The San Jose and St Louis picks are still tied up in their conditions, so it's tough to trade something that isn't yet concrete.

I really don't know what to make of that market since it's so much bigger than anything else. I know how close all of it is, but I've never really thought of that as 3 teams in the same area, especially since the Devils will probably pull from the rest of their state (stealing from the Philly fan pool a bit). I don't know the Toronto surrounding area all that much. Do they have anything even remotely similar in terms of a surrounding area to pull from? It again gets complicated by Buffalo, especially in this day in age where they are going to be far more protective of their market than they would in the 60s-70s (not to say that they weren't protective then). Thanks for this history lesson. For some reason I thought the Islanders were from the WHA, but looking back, they were just there to keep the WHA out. And the Mets? Total brain fart there.

But those gains do come at the cost to the already existing team. So right off the bat there's one team who would never sign off on the deal. Now if you're another large market watching that, you're probably not signing off either, in case the same thing comes knocking on your door somewhere down the road. I'd imagine that Buffalo wouldn't like it either, since it would eat away at some of their support in southern Ontario. I also don't think you'd get that big boost in merchandise sales. They would sell tickets, but very few are going to jump ship away from the team they've followed their whole life. That may happen over time with success (and that's a big if), but it would take a very long time. The league would much rather get that increase in fans from day 1 and hope that their product can draw in more. I don't fault them for believing in their product. The biggest part of it though, is that their main source of money comes from the commercial dollars, sponsors. If you put a team in an already existing market, you're just dividing that area's pool between two clubs. Put a team in a new city, you now have an entirely new source of dollars. This situation in the NFL should be interesting to watch. I wouldn't be surprised if the long term plan there is to see who is successful and then eventually move the red-headed step child to a new market.

He did trade them, but none were rentals. Each deal was for someone with term remaining on their contracts. So from that perspective, it's no different than the current comment about Botterill and rentals.

Look at all of the cases where there are two teams in one city. Outside of LA, they're all a product of league mergers. Both of the LA scenarios are very unique cases. Putting a new team in an already established market is just not something they do. They want to create new markets and revenue streams.

It's like that in every single walk of life. Doctors will tell someone that they are at a high risk of developing diabetes. They wo't know how to change that number itself, but they can focus on the individual components like dieting or exercise.

I'm wondering if it might be possible to structure a contract that is more difficult to void than others. This might be something I'll have to dig around for when I have a little free time.

We moved into a new office building yesterday and today, someone has hung a 2014 Michelle Obama calendar in her cube. Yeah, I’m very confused by this one.

Do you know what rules exist for the termination of the existing AHL contract? That has to happen in some form in order to jump to the NHL but I can’t quickly find any explanation of the process. I don’t know if any AHL CBA outlines specifics for that process.

I can't call that one a hip check. It was the ever so rare butt check. I can't even remember seeing a scenario where that kind of hit was possible, let alone one where the hit actually happened.

It would take a hell of a lot of creativity to make a salary like Kane's work with this team longterm. That's not the kind of guy they'll be looking at. But that's not to say you don't move a prospect or pick here or there to add a piece. Let's not forget that this team moved out a marginal prospect (Pu) and 3 picks (2nd, 3rd, 6th round) for Skinner. That's the kind of deal they're going to make if/when they do something. It won't be someone of the level of Skinner in return, but those are the kind of pieces you'll see in play from the Sabre end. If they do trade a first, it's going to have to be for someone with term remaining on their contract. It's hardly sacrificing the future.

That's exactly what it is. They've already got Dahlin and Pilut out there. They don't want to throw out a lineup where 50% of the defensemen are rookies. And even though Dahlin is the budding superstar, there's the lack of experience.

124 = 31*4. So that was the total number of lines across the league.

I'm pretty sure they just talked about the embarrassing elf costumes they'll force the rookies to wear at the Christmas party.

The legal disclaimer at the end? That was actually just Marty talking at his normal pace.

The fancy version with the nice cars or just plain old uber?

If you want to go with a baseball analogy, wouldn't it have to be something more like Pirates fans taking shots at Reds fans, two teams so far off of any radar?

They'd have to up the draft pick I mentioned earlier to a 3rd rounder if they want Moulson.

I just watched it for the first time on Sunday. Unfortunately, I then followed it up with the sequel.

They gave us a new coffee mug during the move. It seems like the perfect option, just enough weight to both travel distance and do damage.