ska-T Palmtown

Obligatory mention of Benson being Buffalo or WHL this year - not ROC eligible ... unless my brain has completely shat the bed over the summer?

Sweet! Yeah, I have gone on a Benson/Quinn/Peterka kick lately. I only have a handful of graded cards. I tend to stick to HOF types for the premium you pay for graded. That said, I got a Dahlin and Power Young Guns, both graded 9, for pretty reasonable prices. I'll post some pics of the young Sabres once I get the rest delivered and cased up. I have a card for pretty much every player in the HHOF - anyone that played before 1950, they are not cards from their playing days, too expensive, but maybe some day? (Also, at least 30 of the players in the HHOF played before there were even hockey cards out there, so tribute sets are the only way to go - oh well) I started collecting in 1990, so Griffey Jr was my white whale. I never had the big deal Upper Deck Griffeys, but I had some others. Obviously, anything from like 1988 - 1998 is so cheap now unless you find a perfect one graded 10, so I have a few pages of Griffey in my baseball book.

I spared everyone full quote 🙂 The Bad around here is league parity. B-Leagues and above in and around Chicago are dominated by ex-Div 1 college players or higher. Fine, you can have your B-Leagues and your Elite A's (usually featuring several ECHL alum and sprinkling of former-AHL guys). The bad comes in when the "older" (like, late 20's) guys from that league don't want to have to skate as hard as they need to in order to keep up with the fresh crop of 23 yr olds and they drop down to C. We are not talking 4-yr starters at a major program, but 28 year old NCAA D1 guys who played a year or two at decent programs are now out there skating around with true beer leaguers and potting 6 goals in the first period before they have to leave because everyone wants to fight. 6'-3" D-men taking 80+ mph clappers from the blue line and laughing as they skate up to you to see if your leg is still attached after you accidentally blocked it. Total D-bags. Other than that - holy crap do I love playing!!

I know you were probably talking about peeps in WNY - but I finally got on the ice at the age of 35 and have been stinking up Chicago-area beer league hockey going on 10 years now! Thanks to the Kane/Toews Cup runs, beer league hockey in Chicago is amazing. I am on 5 teams at 4 different rinks and could probably play more if I clone myself. The thing that took me way too long to realize is that you don't really get that much better playing in games. I found a good partner to go to stick-n-pucks pretty regularly about 18 months ago and have definitely improved more in that time than the 8 1/2 year before that. The Blackhawks' practice facility is required by the city to be available for public use when the 'Hawks are not using it - lots of drop-in chances and two sheets of REALLY nice ice. Playing hockey is just so much effing fun!!

They are all too afraid of getting heat from 'Spacers about how they chose to spend their CBA mandated free time ... wise move, this place is brutal to those who have fun 😜

Was going to mention the same for the UC. 3 years older - but maybe a tad unfair since the two primary teams that call it home have either 6 or 7 championships during that time (can't remember when all the Bulls chips were) - so MAD playoff revenue from TWO sports (possibly enough to pay for the $130M cost entirely?) And I guess 2x the ticket revenue (I think NBA and NHL tickets are about the same in Chicago right now?) and the owner gets that sweet Sweet SWEET NBA TV money split. Wondering out loud how many other similar age arenas have a 2 (major) sport revenue stream? Definitely gives them a financial advantage. Solution: TPegs gets an NBA team 😉

I was thinking that #1 and #2 on the list are in totally different places with regards to recent success and "exciting hockey" - as are Vegas and Chicago. To me, Chicago being last pokes a hole in the "easy to beat" being higher on the list theory - although I am sure there is nuance to how many people reached saturation with the 'Hawks in the 2010's? Personally, "least hated" seems like a more apt theory. I'd choose the Sharks over any other Eastern Conference team, etc ... I suspect outside of Buffalo fandom, most NHL fans don't have much of a reason to hate the Sabres.

But the Avs being #1 and the hawks being near the bottom really shoots that theory down?

He did not seem to show any ill-effects from the achilles injury after his return last year. We have been told that the second injury was unrelated. I don't share the view of some on SS that JQ is injury prone. He had two unlucky injuries that were likely unrelated. I am hoping he will be at 0.75 ppg or above this year 🙂

From so very shallow digging, there appear to be plenty of teams that are close to the cap and several of them still have some RFAs to sign ... we might still shake one loose!

FWIW - I hockey guy I know that is fairly well plugged in with the coaching and training community had mentioned to me that Eichel was not working with the big trainer that most superstars were using at the time and i think he implied that the guy Eichel was using was kinda viewed as "out there" and in his opinion (please message me and I will send you a grain of salt in the mail 🙂) it was not unreasonable to think the less orthodox methods of the trainer potentially led to an off-season injury. (double checking, i think i have enough wiggle words in there to cover any defamation lawsuits brought) If there is sufficient curiosity from The Board At Large, I could reach back out to see if he would refresh me on the deets.

Bringing by my own thread ... is that uncool on the interwebs? lol Just wondering if anyone with a semi-current collecting hobby know much about these like ultra thick "exquisite" cards? They don't have any embedded pieces of jerseys or jock straps - but hella thick card board ...

who he be?

It really is an interesting and unique situation for the NHL because the Junior Leagues are also businesses trying to make money and it is really the only sport where there is viable competition to the NCAA for athletes. I am not sure what leverage the NCAA has, but I am sure they would be opposed to anything that would dilute some of the attraction power they are gaining. I don't know that too many NCAA hockey players get significant NIL money, but the potential is there. Baseball is sorta the closest comparison due to young drafting age and a vast minor league network. The difference is that if the draftee does not make it into the minor leagues, their only viable option is really NCAA. Basketball can draft from HS (or have they changed since Lebron?) - but if they don't sign with team, I think they are free to sign wherever, so there is strong incentive for the pro team to only select HS players they think can jump right away? I dunno, shooty hoops is not really my thing. Similarly, if a college football player declares for the NFL draft, they are forfeiting NCAA eligibility and there are restrictions on when they can declare. And teams would be wary of drafting younger players due to the substantial monetary investments. Point is - the structure of the hockey world in North America, and worldwide, really complicate any "fair" set of rules and defies comparison to any other North American sport. *editors note - Ska-T has only a surface knowledge level of anything discussed above. So little, in fact, that it might be hard to even call him a novice. And European football? Ha, that kid has no clue about how any of that works ....

FWIW, Little Caesar's in Chicago is also not very good ... it seems like it should be free. And the only Detroit-style is Jet's. This may correlate with random chants of "Detroit Sucks" still breaking out at 'Hawks home games even when they are not playing the Wings, lol.

I remember seeing some hand-wringing (in general, not by LGR that I recall) about "we already pay cozens 2C money!!" Yet, looking at that social media post, it appears TB decided they could pay their 3C $6.25M. Granted, TB has some rolling cap issues ... but they also have two recent cups. shrug.

LOL, right? It is similar to baseball. I recently went through all my sports cards from the early 90's - there were probably 300+ "top prospect" or "first round draft" cards between baseball and hockey and maybe ... 10 (?) made any sort of impact. The difference is both MLB and the NHL have very deep and established minor leagues so there is very little pressure when taking a first rounder. NBA allows drafting of teenagers, but the team had better be darned tootin' sure the kid can handle it because the set back for whiffing on a high 1st round pick is way worse. *on the prospect card note - I mean R2D2, Murray, and Rousek got "top guns" cards FFS.

Well, he certainly is not mine.

Even if it was an "overpay" [and that is being litigated in the trade thread, not asking for that to start here] - I sorta feel like the McLeod trade falls in the "evidence the initial assertion of this thread was wrong" bin? If it is true (the initial assertion alleged by the thread title), imagine how hard GMKA is working to get these done ... might be impressive, lol.

Not directing this at you - it is just a good place to start my rant 🙂 I don't think characterizing Carolina picking up a bunch of UFAs we did not want in the same light as Buffalo TRADING away Montour, Reinhart, and Okposo is reasonable. Honestly, it is annoying - it is like listening to a three year old child repeat the same joke off of a TV show for weeks cuz it got a laugh once. Again, only three players of any consequence on FLA's roster were drafter by FLA. Friggin' Vegas probably had zero. Why does Buffalo take the heat for ROR ... the Avalanche "cast him off", too. Honestly, the Calgary and Columbus "cast-offs" on FLAs roster were far more influential in the playoffs and it seems like the "which former-Sabre will win the cup" schtick is just a desperate attempt to pretend the Sabres have any real relevance in the NHL, which they honestly (and very sadly) don't. Phew - I feel lighter after getting that off my chest, lol.

I think the willful exclusion from consideration that any number of these prospects may have actually SHRUNK since the last time they were measured due to the crushing weight of Sabrespace expectations on their shoulders to not only be erroneous, but downright disingenuous!!! <angry noises!>

To be clear, I only reacted as "sad" because I am sad that Buffalo has no one like that to come back and help 😞 Datsyuk is a freaking legend.

Wait. Hold on. Just this morning I was thinking "I liked the Chicken Head better" ... and there it is. Let me try this ... "I liked the Sabres being perennial playoff contender better" ... no reason to doubt this will work.

nothing about the *you're?