Drunkard

If we trade on of our RHD to Edmonton we should also get them to throw in one of their LHD players or prospects. From my understanding they have more LHD than we have RHD so it shouldn't be hard to get one of them if we put up Bogosian or Pysyk.

By offering minority ownership rights with no control. That's right folks, you have the opportunity to give a rich guy 10's of millions of dollars so he can put it into his struggling franchise in a region full of sister fisters and you won't even have the authority to make any changes with the team. I can't believe people aren't banging down the door to his office.

The cap going down would be awesome for us and the handful of teams with plenty of cap space. Teams would have to let very capable players go to get under the cap and teams with cap space like ours would benefit big time. I hope the players association declines to raise the cap. The automatic riser may help RFA's and UFA's but it would hurt all the players already under contract by making them contribute more into escrow.

I agree. I think league average is something like 20% roster turnover each year. I think that future lineup looks pretty good adding Stamkos, some prospects graduating to the big club, and subtracting out the aging vets (Gionta, Molson, and Gorges).

What the are you talking about, sir? What kind of people would just throw the f word in without it meaning any thing? That's down right heathenous.

Is Pysyk the vet RHD on the 3rd pair or did you trade him in this scenario? Also, what did we get for Foligno and Larsson? Just wondering. Either way I like the projected lineup. I think it could contend for a cup (and rack up a ton of cusps) assuming the unnamed spots are filled with quality bargains.

Sweet. Did he cry? I hope he cried all over the court.

My whole point is don't half ass it with a 5 or 6 year deal. Lock him up for the full 8 years that you are allowed to under the CBA. Don't just give him a big money contract that eats up 1 or 2 UFA years that gives him the opportunity to reach free agency in his late 20's. If you're going to risk losing him in his prime then you might as well nickel and dime him with bridge deals because you're going to run the risk of losing him anyway. He already has 3 seasons accrued in the NHL. A 5 year deal only buys up 1 year of his UFA eligible career and a 6 year deal eats up 2. If we can't lock him up for the full 8 years then we should sign him to a 3 year bridge so he'll still have one more season as an RFA to try to get him signed long term.

No . That's why I said we need to lock him up for 8 years and not offer him a 6 year deal that only buys 1 or 2 of his UFA years. I'm arguing for locking him up for his entire 20's not letting him reach unrestricted free agency at 27 or 28.

I just don't see much point in offering him or any good player a 6 year deal after their ELC expires. At that point you aren't buying hardly any UFA years anyway so you might as well nickel and dime them with short term qualifying offers to save cap space and then try to lock them up at 25 or 26. Sure you run the risk of their production exploding off the charts and a team offer sheeting them but at least you'd get compensation if you let them walk at the point. Setting them up for free agency right in their prime seems like a bad idea. At least locking them up for 8 years after their ELC's you get all of their prime years.

I didn't see O'Reilly sticking up for his teammates later in the season either, but that play will always stick in my craw. I prefer leaders who will stick up for their teammates, especially ones who aren't known for being tough guys. You can still be a good captain/leader without that trait but I think it still has value, especially during playoff time when things get more chippy and the refs start to swallow their whistles.

I just don't think it matters. If it did then O'Reilly should have used that A on his chest to find the courage to stick up for Reinhart early in the season when he got knocked on his ass with absolutely no response from us. At least get in the guys face and start a shoving contest like an 8 year old. Hell, even Tyler Myers was good for that much.

So you offer him a shorter contract at 30 or you let him walk or trade his expiring contract. With any luck you've got younger replacements ready to step in and you still have him locked up for his entire prime. Let another team who is desperate for an upgrade to their defense (like we are now on the left hand side) overpay him for his declining years.

I'd be willing to pay him more than $5 million is he was willing to sign for the full 8 years. 8 years for $52 million (cap hit of $6.5 million) and front loaded as much as it's allowed in case we decide to move him later and at that point we'd have him locked up for his entire 20's. Why sign him for 5 or 6 years and risk losing him at 27 or 28? To save a few million on his cap hit? Lock him up for as long as possible if he's part of the core going forward.

The injury concerns still give me pause but if he ends up out long term or retiring early it wouldn't really impact us too negatively because: 1) We have Daddy Warbucks footing the bill and since he has no problem raising ticket prices consistently, I have no problem with him paying somebody to not play 2) Players on LTIR don't count against the cap so if it is something serious or long term it won't affect our ability to replace him The only real issue stems from nagging lesser health issues that could either have him miss time but not enough for us to put him on LTIR or replace him or if his injuries allow him to play but his production suffers. That would be the worst case scenario.

I can see the argument for not wanting Stamkos because he'll command a huge contract and we'll soon have other players we need to lock up (Ristolainen, Eichel, Reinhart, and our eventual answer at top pairing LHD) and I can see the argument for not wanting to give him a huge contract because of his recent health issues including his broken leg and blood clots. What I don't get is the arguments about not wanting him if he wants to play center or expresses an interest in being the captain. Stamkos is a top 10 center in this league in his prime and some people want to pass because he wants to play his natural position? That makes no sense to me, especially since 2 of our centers (O'Reilly and Reinhart) have proven to be very effective players on the wing. Plus if we keep Reinhart at wing long enough, we may even be able to lock him up long term without having to pay the center position premium and we can always move him or O'Reilly back to center as needed for injuries and things like that. The captaincy argument is even more confusing. Who really cares about the C or A on a guys jersey? Leaders will be leaders regardless of who's wearing what letters and to pass on a guy with his goal scoring abilities because of a reason like that makes no sense. I just don't see the Captaincy as having any impact whatsoever on Murray's decision.

Tough crowd. Topics bleed into other topics sometimes. It happens. However, if my post impeded your desire to compartmentalize that much, I'll get back on topic. Lebron sucks and he never deserves to win another game. If that means the other mistake by the lake (Cleveland) doesn't win another game because of it, then so be it. I just don't see any reason to root for him whatsoever. What's more, the guy's ego is over inflated as it is. Him being the primary reason for the Cavs to get their first championship would only give that douchebag even more of a messiah complex. Is that what you want? Not I, so until my brain evolves the power to dole out tumors and/or some sort of super aids to my enemies which just an ill thought pointed in a deserved direction I have to be content with hoping Golden States runs the table on that prima donna and turns him back into the whiny crybaby that he is.

But I said I meant it in a good Christian way. Doesn't invoking Jesus give you carte blanche to say basically anything offensive you want? The GOP uses it to discriminate against gay people, transgenders, climate change, and anything scientific so I should as least be able to use it to wish for my list of hated sport people to get tumors in their butts that somehow also get stricken with aids.

Try living in the south. Somehow home to the super patriots even though they are the only part of the country to actually commit treason and they still celebrate a war they lost with re-enactments.

What can I say, it's a gift. I can easily name a dozen or more professional athletes I hate more than him, but none play basketball. He's the main reason I stopped watching espn and it sucks that I still pay anywhere from 6 to 15 bucks of my directv bill each month for it and I don't even watch it. It's not his fault channels aren't offered a la carte but I still hate the man and hope he gets aids or ass cancer or something horrible. Then throw his decaying carcass on the pile with the corpses of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Dan Marino, Bryan Cox, Chris Neil, Jerry Jones, Milan Lucic, and some others that are too numerous to name and purge the earth of them all at once. I know it'll never happen, but the thought of it makes me smile.

It has nothing to do with Cleveland. If he wasn't on the team I'd have no problem with them winning. That whole Decision nonsense is what made me hate his guts. The whole charity angle was just an excuse for him to make a big show out of leaving the Cavs to go to Miami of all horrible places and it was nothing but attention and grandstanding. that guy. He should die in a fire (and I mean that in a good wholesome Christian way).

Screw Lebron James. I don't watch basketball much at all and haven't watched a single minute this season but I hope Lebron never wins another game again for the rest of his life. I hope Curry and GS run up the score on Cleveland and every game is a blowout and they come out with a new gif or jpeg of Lebron whining and crying like a little bitch.

I didn't want O'Reilly but it had way more to do with having Eichel and Reinhart already and not Zemgus. I'll admit to being wrong at this point, even though prior to the trade I admitted that it would be highly beneficial for the first couple of seasons at least. To make myself feel better after the fact I also convinced myself that after Eichel and Reinhart developed into true top line NHL centers that we'd easily be able to trade O'Reilly to a team like Toronto because our their void of capable centers for the back half of his contract. That may still be the case but if we do end up trading O'Reilly down the road to a team to save cap space it likely won't be Toronto.

Ditto. I wouldn't give up Reinhart for anyone in this draft outside of possibly Matthews or Laine and even then I probably wouldn't either just because Reinhart has already proven he can succeed at this level and is versatile to play center or wing.

I don't want to spend the money on Stamkos but I think he could pot 60 goals at least once during his contract playing with some combination of O'Reilly, Reinhart, Eichel, and whomever we lined him up with. Especially since those guys (with the possible exception of Eichel) seem to be pass first guys. I think he'd regularly score 30-40 during the first half of his contract as well. I just imagine injuries and age catching up with him by the latter half of the deal.