Around the NHL 2023-24 Season

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

I don't think Tampa is going anywhere soon, but I do think that once the slide hits they will vanish faster than the Bruins. The distinction I would make between them and the Bruins is that the Bruins have really limited the number of big contracts that they have; I think this has allowed the Bruins to have much better depth down their line-up.  The Bruins currently have only 4 players with contracts higher than $6 million with Swayman possibly joining the group this offseason. Tampa has 8 players over $6 million and are still, reportedly, looking to keep Stamkos. The Bruins, to their credit, never seem to need players like Conor Sheary or Jonas Johansson to fill out their line-up.  Of course, Tampa has two recent cup wins so they know what they are doing.  

I agree, Tampa is good for now. Most of their key players are still in that 'peak age' before they hit a bit of a slide. Hedman?  The number of minutes have to be adding up for him over his career, but this team is in or near their prime in most areas, and they do have some 'decent' youth mixed in.

Now, they will not have either a first round pick or a 2nd rounder until 2026. That will potentially hurt them 4-5 years down the road. Their prospect pool is empty of any talent that you could even consider  anything but a potential fringe player. They have like NOTHING (Howard, a former 31st overall pick has a chance, but he seems more a small-ish tweener right now).  Other than Howard, they have had a total of ONE top 50 pick in the past 6 drafts and that one they traded away. 

But with the picks they traded away, they still have managed to keep the roster from being not 'too old'.  Pittsburgh is rapidly aging out (Crosby will be 37 at the start of next season, Malkin 38, Letang 37, Karlsson 33, Rust 32, Smith 33).  Tampa's key guys (Kucherov 30, Point 28, Hagel 25, Cirelli 26, Hedman 33, Sergachev 25), well, Tampa is in a lot better shape for the next year or two at least.

Edited May 24 by mjd1001

[Archie Lee]

3 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I agree, Tampa is good for now. Most of their key players are still in that 'peak age' before they hit a bit of a slide. Hedman?  The number of minutes have to be adding up for him over his career, but this team is in or near their prime in most areas, and they do have some 'decent' youth mixed in.

Now, they will not have either a first round pick or a 2nd rounder until 2026. That will potentially hurt them 4-5 years down the road. Their prospect pool is empty of any talent that you could even consider  anything but a potential fringe player. They have like NOTHING (Howard, a former 31st overall pick has a chance, but he seems more a small-ish tweener right now).  Other than Howard, they have had a total of ONE top 50 pick in the past 6 drafts and that one they traded away. 

But with the picks they traded away, they still have managed to keep the roster from being not 'too old'.  Pittsburgh is rapidly aging out (Crosby will be 37 at the start of next season, Malkin 38, Letang 37, Karlsson 33, Rust 32, Smith 33).  Tampa's key guys (Kucherov 30, Point 28, Hagel 25, Cirelli 26, Hedman 33, Sergachev 25), well, Tampa is in a lot better shape for the next year or two at least.

It's perhaps a different topic, but I do think that the struggles that Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit have had in getting out of their death spirals and back into the playoffs, has served as a cautionary tale to teams that might otherwise opt to start a rebuild.  When you purposefully decide to be a bad hockey team, the road to becoming good again can be long and dark. Teams are going to hold on and squeeze every win they can out of their aging line-ups.  Nobody above us or around us in the standings, is going to concede anything.     

[Brawndo]

Don Waddell has resigned as Canes GM.

Eric Tulsky is the interim GM 

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Don Waddell has resigned as Canes GM.

Eric Tulsky is the interim GM 

Me no likely Canes.  Would rather have seen that play out the other way with Tulsky walking.

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I don't think Tampa is going anywhere soon, but I do think that once the slide hits they will vanish faster than the Bruins. The distinction I would make between them and the Bruins is that the Bruins have really limited the number of big contracts that they have; I think this has allowed the Bruins to have much better depth down their line-up.  The Bruins currently have only 4 players with contracts higher than $6 million with Swayman possibly joining the group this offseason. Tampa has 8 players over $6 million and are still, reportedly, looking to keep Stamkos. The Bruins, to their credit, never seem to need players like Conor Sheary or Jonas Johansson to fill out their line-up.  Of course, Tampa has two recent cup wins so they know what they are doing.  

The lack of high end talent (those contracts above 6 million) is why the Bruins have been good but never great over the last period of time. They've lacked goal scoring more often than not. They did fill out their line up this year with bargain contracts and did a good job with it. What they do with the money they have now will maybe determine their fate. Tampa, well a lot hinges on Stamkos. 

[Flashsabre]

Jets hire Scott Arniel as coach. Good for him he has been an assistant forever.

Does that leave Seattle and Columbus looking for coaches? Columbus need a GM first before they hire a coach.

[Taro T]

35 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Jets hire Scott Arniel as coach. Good for him he has been an assistant forever.

Does that leave Seattle and Columbus looking for coaches? Columbus need a GM first before they hire a coach.

Always liked Arniel.  IF the Sabres were going to go for ANOTHER 1st time HC, he'd've been my preference.  (But they have done that far too often since canning Ruff, so no thank you to him even though he probably will be a good one.)

[dudacek]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:16 PM, PerreaultForever said:

Unquestionably a big miss on that one. There were some big mistakes all over in that draft though. We could have picked Tyson Jost (picked just 2 spots later than Nylander) 🙂

Imagine if we'd picked McAvoy. That was probably the only draft the Bruins won in recent memory with McAvoy and Frederic in the first round. Imagine if we'd picked McAvoy first round and Lindgren second (or even Peeke). Our entire D conversation over these years would have been different. But alas, we got Nylander and Asplund.   Is KA still making these same mistakes? Time will tell. 

All our GMs in these bad years are the same. Inexperienced guys who made big mistakes and the coaching hires have been horrible. Besides Kreuger, I think Jbots biggest mistake was trading Foligno. Heart and soul guys matter. 

If only Tim Murray had listened to Jerry Forton.

McAvoy was Forton’s guy that year but Murray wanted a guy to ride shotgun for Eichel

Edited May 25 by dudacek

[French Collection]

14 minutes ago, dudacek said:

If only Tim Murray had listened to Jerry Forton.

McAvoy was Forton’s guy that year but Murray wanted a guy to ride shotgun for Eichel

Murray’s background was scouting and he had success at that with Anaheim and Ottawa. He really missed there.

First pairing of McAvoy and Dahlin would look good.

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

Murray’s background was scouting and he had success at that with Anaheim and Ottawa. He really missed there.

First pairing of McAvoy and Dahlin would look good.

If we had had McAvoy-Dahlin I don't think we would have drafted Power, we'd likely have taken Beniers, and there's your 2C (or even 1C in time). 

But alas, Murray made a number of mistakes. His worst imo was trading for Lehner (we could have drafted Boeser or Konecny with that pick, among others) while Markstrom and Talbot were both on the block at the time. Just dumb. 

[French Collection]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

But alas, Murray made a number of mistakes. His worst imo was trading for Lehner (we could have drafted Boeser or Konecny with that pick, among others) while Markstrom and Talbot were both on the block at the time. Just dumb. 

He’d won a Calder Cup with Lehner so he valued him. Still dumb.

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, French Collection said:

He’d won a Calder Cup with Lehner so he valued him. Still dumb.

Oh definitely, and he had the Ottawa connection. Lehner was his guy but you'd have thought he'd have had better insight into his character. Guess he didn't care about that - or was just clueless. 

[PerreaultForever]

Rumours out of Boston are that Necas for Ullmark was discussed prior to the deadline and is being discussed again. There may be other parts involved of course. 

[Ducky]

On 5/24/2024 at 5:18 PM, Taro T said:

Always liked Arniel.  IF the Sabres were going to go for ANOTHER 1st time HC, he'd've been my preference.  (But they have done that far too often since canning Ruff, so no thank you to him even though he probably will be a good one.)

He was HC in Columbus for a year and a half.

[Taro T]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:02 AM, Ducky said:

He was HC in Columbus for a year and a half.

Totally forgot that.  🍺

[PromoTheRobot]

I don't know if anyone has been watching the PWHL final. (It's free on You tube.) But game 4 had the most insane ending. If you don't want to see the entire highlight reel, scroll to to 7:24 and start there.

 

 

 

[thewookie1]

50 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I don't know if anyone has been watching the PWHL final. (It's free on You tube.) But game 4 had the most insane ending. If you don't want to see the entire highlight reel, scroll to to 7:24 and start there.

Unless the PWHL has a different interpretation of interference; how this goal counted is beyond explanation

[JujuFish]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

Unless the PWHL has a different interpretation of interference; how this goal counted is beyond explanation

You didn't finish the video, I take it. The goal was disallowed for interference.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

Unless the PWHL has a different interpretation of interference; how this goal counted is beyond explanation

 

8 minutes ago, JujuFish said:

You didn't finish the video, I take it. The goal was disallowed for interference.

And Boston scored a minute later to force Game 5. What struck me was the willingness of the official to turn over a goal while Minnesota thought they won the title. And while contact with the goalie was fairly obvious you could argue the player was tripped into that contact. I've just never seen a call like that on a goal that won a title on home ice.

Edited May 27 by PromoTheRobot

[JujuFish]

12 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

you could argue the player was tripped into that contact

I don't think you can. That is as clear cut as it gets to me. And since we're talking about Boston potentially losing, I am the last person to want to admit that kind of thing.

[Flashsabre]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:02 AM, Ducky said:

He was HC in Columbus for a year and a half.

I’m not telling anyone to look up Mike Commodore’s comments on the Arniel hire with the Jets.😳😂

Commodore played for him in Columbus.

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, JujuFish said:

You didn't finish the video, I take it. The goal was disallowed for interference.

I thought the rest of it was just the trophy presentation lol

 

Wow though, if only the 99 playoffs had something like that happen

[Ducky]

3 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

I’m not telling anyone to look up Mike Commodore’s comments on the Arniel hire with the Jets.😳😂

Commodore played for him in Columbus.

Commodore played all of 30 games over two years after he left Columbus.

Seems Arnie was right?

[Flashsabre]

2 minutes ago, Ducky said:

Commodore played all of 30 games over two years after he left Columbus.

Seems Arnie was right?

Yeah, I just did a spot take when I read his comments yesterday.

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

I’m not telling anyone to look up Mike Commodore’s comments on the Arniel hire with the Jets.😳😂

Commodore played for him in Columbus.

Commodore seems to have a lot of (loud and opinionated) axes to grind with former coaches and some players. This is a regular thing for him which makes it start to lose credibility and makes one think maybe the problem was him.