apuszczalowski

They couldn't even make the extended playoffs with additional teams added after a shorten season Like usual though fans will complain if everyone isn't optimistic that all the young guys will just improve to superstars and the team will magically make the playoffs because they have another season under their belt

But with that logic you could argue that all of FA is just teams plugging holes...... yes the couple of Big Fish are taking their time deciding what to do like every year, but most teams can also multi task and make other moves to fill other holes too Its about 6 hours in and the goalie pile has already been picked through while buffalo has dumpster dived to make sure they obtained 2 bottom of the pile players spending just $1.4 mil. The Sabres will have alot of cap space to overpay some nice lower/mid tier guys to fill out the roster.

2 Veteran minimum (basically) signings and re-signing Zemgus One team needed a goalie and had to attract one to come there, the other one was re-signed to a place he wanted to go back to.

Are you forgetting about Reider and now Irwin?

Depends, He doesn't have alot of mileage, and with the last year being when he's 36, its not too bad Lots of goalies still play into their mid-late 30's. maybe not at a high level, but its not horrible

is that the new 5x5?

According to some above he has, in Nashville I believe

Guess he was too quick?

it may have been cheaper to sign the other Jack Johnson........

A sparking Butt Plug? Ouch

True, and I'm not going to argue that, but not every roster spot is going to be top tier players, there have to be some to fill the bottom

And yet they are letting him walk? I'm not saying I like their plan, but 3rd line C isn't something you need to put all your focus into at the start of FA unless thats the only need your team has...

Were you expecting more in the $700k salary range?

So there we go, TP got the laptop working and they reeled in their big fish!

I think that with Eichel and Staal both #1&2, they already feel they have improved by getting a legitimate #2 C, now its replacing a #3 C for larson which isn't likely to be a big splash kind of deal or something they are going to focus on right away. Especially if they feel that maybe someone like Casey could take that role this year.

With Staal now, outside of Depth what were you expecting? Eichel and Staal are the top 2.

Is that taking into account the Zemgus deal?

I believe there was a stat that out of all the teams in Canada, the Oilers were either the busiest, or spent the most on the 1st day of FA in the last bunch of years it hasn't really helped.....

Are you sure he could afford a NEW laptop, don't they have an internal budget to deal with now?

Although Crickets can be more entertaining then taxes most of the time......

Has there been any signings to discuss? Its either a frenzied tax discussion or crickets I guess.....

I do agree that there is a greater advantage in teams whos revenue is in Canadian or American funds, but its also a big advantage to attract players when you can get them slightly lower because they don't have to pay income tax on a large portion of their salary

But no team, no matter the financial advantages they have are good all the time. How many states in the US have no income tax? How many of those states have NHL franchises? The Coyotes and Panthers have been bad because they have poor fanbases with low attendance causing them to have internal budgets/Caps. Having a salary cap in the NHL helps to limit any advantage they may gain because theres only so much that can be spent. The advantage is supposed to be that players will take less then other places to play there because they end up making the same or more because they aren't paying as much in taxes.

Tampa has been one of the leagues better teams for years, Vegas has had one season where they weren't in the top 4 in their short existence. Dallas has been one of the better teams during the regular season in the league

To be fair, Vegas has been one of the best teams in the NHL and has been to Western conference finals and Cup finals in their short existence, and Dallas was also in the Finals too. Its not like they haven't been really good just because they weren't the 1 team every year that gets the cup