The_Admiral

old woman rambling about smoke shops and other stuff, wants to know what's going on with these Russians, I don't think any of that had to do with the Coyotes

And now we get the Wise Old Indian Chief making us reexamine ourselves.

"The Coyotes organization is a wonderful organization and has given back to the community in so many ways."

Well, looks like they're giving back 200 million dollars.

Ooh! There's a Dave and Buster's coming!

And he wasn't even a Glendale resident. I don't know how he can vote out the council members.

There's a guy in a Coyotes sweater comparing this to domestic abuse.

EDIT: now he's cutting a wrestling promo, this is uncomf

Supposedly there's some fine print in Arizona where a city contract can be negated in the first three years, but that looks a little gray.

It can be negated if there was a conflict of interest, which there was in Tindall working as counsel for the city and then the Coyotes in a short timeframe.

The NHL isn't letting Phoenix get away from them now with 2016's #1 overall pick coming out of Phoenix youth hockey. I expect this year's deux ex machina to be the announcement of a new Suns/Coyotes/ASU arena out near Tempe or Scottsdale.

No, he was most certainly interested in the Coyotes at one point (I want to say pre-Glendale, maybe a second time recently?), but I think he's come to the conclusion that the NHL isn't really something he has to do.

Friedman:

11. One last note about meetings: expect to see some clarification on the compensation issue when the GMs and Board of Governors sit down in Las Vegas. Some of the biggest supporters of the idea didn’t expect it to involve Dan Bylsma or Peter Chiarelli, who were fired by their previous teams. Mike Babcock? Yes. No question. The wildcard in all this is one exec said Commissioner Gary Bettman made it very clear he wanted a black-and-white rule without controversy, which didn’t happen. Could he scrap it altogether? Not sure, and, right now, he’s got other things to worry about. I also wondered if it’s possible Buffalo and Edmonton could get their picks back, but there’s no answer at this point. But I do think the fired-employee issue gets cleared up.

They didn't read the terms before they voted for it, did they.

Jim Rutherford is so incompetent that he can't even game the OITGDNHL system of demanding compensation for people you fired:

When the Buffalo Sabres hired Dan Bylsma to serve as the team’s bench boss, they agreed to provide the Pittsburgh Penguins with a third-round draft pick as compensation. That’s because Bylsma was still under contract with the Penguins, even though he had been fired.

And yet the Penguins didn’t seek compensation when the New Jersey Devils hired Ray Shero under similar circumstances. So why the double standard?

“The rule is not as clear as it should be,” Penguins GM Jim Rutherford told Trib Total Media. “We felt that the intent of the rule was for employees that were still with the team, that were working with the team, not terminated employees.

“Once Edmonton (gave Boston) a pick for (former Bruins GM) Peter Chiarelli — when he was a terminated employee — we decided to ask for picks for future employees.”

In Rutherford's rickety defense, it really is a stupid system. Thank the Red Wings for being so butthurt over Jim Nill boogieing off to Dallas to build a team with no defensemen.

OH GOD IT'S STARTING AGAIN

Wasn't there talk of the CCSLC buying an ABA team? I recall we were going to field a team that would take down the Atlanta Krunk Wolverines.

I think you'll find that most people would be in favor of a completely separate AAA league for the western and/or southern U.S., it's grafting a few pet projects to a traditionally low-travel northeastern league that has people upset. I mean, they're not being made to play a full schedule. That's illegitimate.

No, it's been confirmed that the California teams get special dispensation to not play a full schedule because their precious existence is so important to hockey.

It was actually "Le club de hockey junior de Montréal," which sounds nice. Better than the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

Travel subsidies killed them, IIRC.

I miss the Montreal Juniors. That was a nice identity. It was quasi-Maroons.

Sometimes I don't know what to make of St. John's. I want them to have a team because what a cool-ass city with the jellybean houses, but the isolation is a pain for team travel and shuttling prospects. I thought the Q would turn out to be a good fit for them, but it actually ended up being much worse. Maybe having Montreal as an affiliate rather than Winnipeg will help, but even this is supposed to be a stopgap until the arena in Laval is ready.

I know full well that the economics of minor-league hockey don't always allow for it, but I wish the AHL were better about committing to locations and not just saying "yeah we're doing this for a year or two until something better comes along." It's been a dick move to Utica, Glens Falls, and St. John's.

AHL alignment is set for next year:

East

Atlantic: Bridgeport, Hartford, Hershey, Lehigh Valley, Portland Pirates, Providence, Springfield, W-B/S

North: Albany, Binghamton, Rochester, St. John’s, Syracuse, Toronto, Utica

West

Central: Charlotte, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Iowa, Lake Erie, Manitoba, Milwaukee, Rockford

Pacific: Bakersfield, Ontario, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, Stockton, Texas

Do the two teams in Texas get the special snowflake schedule, or do they have to play full slates like everyone else?

No, Tyler Seguin, late starts would be worse for the Central, not better.

The Sharks signed a lease extension to stay in San Jose, so the dream of Bay Area hockey in a world-class city is dead.

I understand why they did it, but it doesn't look good in those colors.

Yeah, I think the Amtrak Buffalo is terrific. The color scheme may not be, and the uniforms certainly weren't, but like you said, they had the right answer.

Hey, they got three games of playoff revenue, all they have to do is not spend it all on Tom Sestito.

Fans wouldn't be the issue. The Civic Center may be after the whole "ripped out everything that was nailed down in the locker room and paid for by the Civic Center when you grabbed the team" bit.

Vancouver's all like "don't blame us, those were professional misappropriators! They took a bus in and everything!"

A lot, if I'm not mistaken. The MTS Centre was cited as being among North America's busier arenas before the Jets came back, so I'm guessing they book the place pretty solid.