habsfan1

Every player who gets drafted by the Arizona Coyotes will go from playing in a Junior arena to playing in another Junior arena. Not quite the NHL standard.

Gary Bettman's making that corporate buck. It's the players that are forced to settle for less.

12 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

I said it before and Ill say it again, Bettman wont stop until the Coyotes have tried every suburb of Phoenix. Mesa is actually further out than Glendale.

Even if it means they have to play here and only 5 people show up...

1 hour ago, gosioux76 said:

 

I know nobody likes to hear the realities of sports economics, but @Sodboy13 makes some really good points here. The NHL's return to Winnipeg may have been successful, but I can't imagine franchise owners and broadcast partners being enthusiastic about what adding a second small, but plucky Canadian market to the league will do it their valuations and revenue potential. 

 

I think there's no doubt that QC is the market that deserves a team.  But professional sports leagues aren't known to be charitable when it comes to profit potential. 

I won't deny that are some good points too. But there are some things that lead to confusion.

The part that's the most mind boggling is that even though Quebec City is not the most lucrative town, it can still sell hockey more than Arizona and it can still succeed. I find it absurd that the League executives would rather make more American dollars by other means (network money, etc) from a team that can't afford it's own building, low attendance, and low interest for the sport overall, instead of having a team in Canada where hockey simply sells.

I always thought Gary Bettman's job was to make money selling hockey. But from some of the things I read, it seems like he's content to continue making NHL money off of Arizona, in spite of the decades of hockey problems.

At least with Houston, their chances for success are high because the city is large, the building is suitable, and they have a good attendance history for the Aeros franchises.

34 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

 

I don't think showing demand for NHL hockey has ever been a pre-requisite when it comes to this league's expansion strategy. 

21 minutes ago, FinsUp1214 said:

Strangely enough, I only know one Avs fan here and he’s a co-worker who is originally from Denver anyways. One other co-worker is a Wild fan because he lived in Minnesota for a while, another co-worker is a Kraken fan because he worked in Seattle for a few years and adopted it as a second hometown, and a friend of mine is a Caps fan because she worked in DC for a few years. There’s a decent number of Knights fans here, but not nearly enough for me to say Utah is strongly Knights territory either.

 

This is a long way of saying I think there’s interest in hockey here, but those who are fans here either root for teams from places they have other connections to, or just recently hopped on to the Knights wagon. The Avs don’t really have a foothold here at all, so there wouldn’t be any worry of cutting into any sort of territory.

 

The biggest challenge for an SLC team would be the stadium. Soon-to-be-again Delta Celter wasn’t really built with hockey in mind and has bad sightlines, and as you mentioned,  Maverik Center (formerly E Center) in West Valley is a minor league stadium. They’d either have to build a new stadium and grit out a season or two at the Delta Center, or renovate either existing stadium. 

Quebec and Houston are the two big markets that are ahead, one of which really, really want their team back, the other is a strong candidate in a large US city that had good attendance for a few minor league franchises.

Any location can be a good place for hockey, if they grow a fanbase and are able to profit. Hockey in Vegas has been a massive success, so far.

When possible candidates like Portland, Kansas City, and Utah pop up in location discussions, it's ultimately going to depend on how much the league is going to expand.

Salt Lake City is an odd choice.

Their 12 000 seat arena for the ECHL Grizzlies is smaller than Winnipeg's building. They've never had much demand for NHL hockey, to my knowledge. If there are hardcore fans from that western area, I imagine they already support the Avs.

Translation: Gary Bettman is terribly disapointed by the results of the public referenda regarding the Coyotes' arena project in Tempe.

The Seattle Kraken hit 2 goal posts, come up short, and failed to complete the miracle comeback with less than 30 seconds left.

But if I'm going to be completely honest, the Stars/Kraken series was really fun. That was quite an accomplishment, for a 2 year old team.

6 minutes ago, MiK said:

And what's up with Draisaitl? He just looks... tired.

I can't blame him for running out of gas. McDrai carried this team on their backs.

Edmonton couldn't even get a win, after Draisaitl scored 4 for his team.

Will Connor McDavid ever make a Cup Final with the Oilers? I'm starting to have doubts.

8 hours ago, Cujo said:

What an accomplishment! I hope Toronto hangs a banner.

...

They don't want Florida anymore.

@IceCap At least Toronto got the monkey off their back.

Canes vs Panthers is an unexpected East Final.

Rangers vs Bruins seemed more likely.

Just when I thought the series was over, Leafs tie it late.

On 5/7/2023 at 10:05 PM, M4One said:

Would be disappointing if the Jets went full retro, especially as there's nothing really wrong with what they have now and is unique to them.  They would also become the fourth team to use that same three stripes pattern. 

 

If they do a full rebrand, I rather they go with something new and use the aviator blue as the primary colour.

The unique jerseys are cool, but this primary logo was a last-minute effort that was slapped together:

It can use an upgrade. If they go full retro like Ottawa, it's a bad idea. But if they recreate the classic roundel and use this modernized script and maybe the modernized Jet silhouette, there's potential for something great.

10 hours ago, Glover said:

Not sure who this is directed at, but I don’t think anyone is talking about punishing the 2010 team or players. I think we are saying it is silly to cry about your team having a bad 6 year stretch right after they win 3 Stanley Cups. 

Yeah, pretty much. I don't wish sickness on Bedard, Kane, Toews, or any player or organisation. I can separate the game from personal lives. Even though recent seasons have not been great for the Blackhawks, they are still fortunate enough to have had 3 Stanley Cups and multiple deep playoff runs.

The draft lottery is the luck of the draw. But if Montreal wasn't going to get Bedard, I would much rather see him go to a team like Columbus, San Jose, Vancover, or even Anaheim, to let someone else have their oppurtunity in the spotlight.

7 hours ago, Kevin W. said:

Did the Maple Leafs lose draft picks for having a pedophile ring operating out of their arena that Harold Ballard probably knew about?

Arizona and New Jersey were also punished by losing a first rounder for much less than covering up SA.

But Bettman wants Bedard in Chicago.

Maybe they do what WWE does and pipe in audio cheers for the TV broadcast...

7 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

Even with Bedard, Chicago is still in the very early stages of their rebuild and has a lot of work to do. Crosby came to Pittsburgh with Malkin & Fleury already in the system. The Oilers already had Draisaitl when McDavid got drafted.
 

Bedard is pretty much joining a blank slate. The Hawks do have a lot of picks + $40M in cap space, so we’ll see if they get aggressive to try and speed up the rebuild. 

McDavid is in year 8 and still not even a Cup Final. MacKinnon won a Cup before McDavid.

Chicago went from having a semi-competitive team to unloading as much as they could to finish all the way at the bottom...and it payed off. They even gave us top prospect Kirby Dach in exchange for generational prospect Connor Bedard.

54 minutes ago, WSU151 said:

 

ESPN knows the order before it’s announced on live TV. It’s how Kevin Weekes has his historical notes lined up. 

 

The “lottery” (and the NHL’s business decisions associated with it) is done well before they go on live TV. The TV show is just the results. 

 

Chicago getting the first pick was definitely a Bettman decision. Generational talents in the Winter Classic era will always go to the bluebloods. 

When Montreal won the draft lottery, there's a video of Gary Bettman consulting with the 3rd party who spun the balls, as he unenthusiastically announced the Canadiens as the winner.

This year, I haven't seen a video of the lottery spinner machine yet. Don't know if they'll ever release the footage.

Rigged.

56 minutes ago, Unocal said:

What fans? The ones that only show up in the playoffs?

That's what happens when you call out an opponent like that because they thought it would be the "easier" series.