NHL Anti-Thread: Bad Business Decision Aggregator

[The_Admiral]

I don't think the number came up in our discussion of it last month, but I see now that the Hurricanes offered Chuck Kaiton an 80% pay cut to stay on. I don't know for sure what NHL radio broadcasters make, but I can't imagine it's enough to where one-fifth of it is enough to live comfortably on. Chicago Wolves broadcasters are probably making well over 20% of what low-end NHL broadcasters make. What a crass decision, imagine what terrible public relations this would be for the league if anyone cared.

[dfwabel]

10 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I don't think the number came up in our discussion of it last month, but I see now that the Hurricanes offered Chuck Kaiton an 80% pay cut to stay on. I don't know for sure what NHL radio broadcasters make, but I can't imagine it's enough to where one-fifth of it is enough to live comfortably on. Chicago Wolves broadcasters are probably making well over 20% of what low-end NHL broadcasters make. What a crass decision, imagine what terrible public relations this would be for the league if anyone cared.

FWIW, there might be a purge of long time, high priced folks there within Operations. 

Tom Ward, Senior VP of brand, community, partnership development left to join the Alliance of American Football. Then again, Ward likes startups as before the Hurricanes, he was with the expansion Hornets and Predators.

 

[Sodboy13]

Eugene Melnyk and the Senators are riding a 3-day streak of rake-stepping, and the most wonderful thing so far is that an NHL team is designating a section of its arena as the "Coke Zone," and it's not the locker rooms.

[Cosmic]

It really is like a bad owner from a movie trying to sabotage the team to move them— they announced they were going into a rebuild when they don’t have their first round pick in next year’s draft!

[charger77]

Tyler Seguin re-signs with Dallas 8 years $78.8 million

[Sodboy13]

Here's something to picture while we await the return for trading Erik Karlsson to San Jose:

 

 EDIT: aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha

Edited September 13, 2018 by Sodboy13
BAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

[Crabcake]

2 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Here's something to picture while we await the return for trading Erik Karlsson to San Jose:

 

 EDIT: aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha

What a joke of a franchise. 

 

*insert comment about how they were just a goal away from the SCF two years ago*

[The_Admiral]

6 hours ago, charger77 said:

Tyler Seguin re-signs with Dallas 8 years $78.8 million

 

He's compiling money as well as he compiles empty stats.

[Brian in Boston]

Seattle Hockey Partners and City of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will be at National Hockey League headquarters in New York tomorrow, making their formal pitch to land an NHL expansion franchise in time for the league's 2020 season. Participating in the presentation will be Tim Leiweke, President of Oak View Group, the entity charged with redeveloping the Seattle Center Coliseum and KeyArena; Seattle Hockey Partners majority owners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer; Seattle Hockey Partners President Tod Leiweke; and Mayor Durkan.

The 90-minute meeting with the NHL Executive Committee is expected to include information about Seattle's suitability as an NHL market, the arena's extensive renovation, and details regarding the team's headquarters and practice facility.

While a formal vote on expansion to Seattle will likely wait until the NHL Board of Governors meets in Florida in December, any positive response from the 10-member NHL Executive Committee all but seals the deal. The executive committee is chaired by Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, chairman of Delaware North, the company that just happens to have a deal in place with Oak View Group to serve as lead concessionaire at the renovated KeyArena. Another member of the executive committee is Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who employed Tod Leiweke as Lightning CEO from July of 2010 to July of 2015. Further, four of the eight remaining members of the executive committee are team owners of NHL franchises that play in arenas that are currently partnered with Oak View Group's marketing and promotions division.

Future of KeyArena hinges on Tuesday meeting with NHL executive committee              

[DG_ThenNowForever]

We're full speed ahead on NHL hockey here, which will be very exciting to hockey fans in the region.

 

The rest (read: most) of us want the SuperSonics. It would be so NHL to come to a new market and, in doing so, nuke that market's chances to secure a sport the city truly loves in favor of one it'll have to grow to like.

[The_Admiral]

The league should have been in Seattle years ago; the omission of the American Pacific Northwest from their footprint has been far more egregious than the Southeast they saw fit to cover so well. But I have a bad taste in my mouth over precisely what you said: that the NBA is what people really want, which I understand completely, and this would appear to get in the way of that. I'd rather have the Sonics back too if it came down to one or the other.

[Brian in Boston]

TSN's Pierre LeBrun is reporting via Twitter that National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman has revealed that the NHL Executive Committee's "formal recommendation was to proceed with expansion application" submitted by Seattle Hockey Partners. LeBrun goes on to tweet that there is "still some due diligence to be done on Seattle's part but all is pointing to a full Board of Governors vote on Seattle expansion come Dec. 3-4" and that "Bettman says launch of team in fall of 2020 would be ideal but depends on some factors"... namely, the expiration of the league's current collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players' Association and a possible lockout. 

KING 5 (KING-TV), 710 ESPN Seattle, seattlepi.com, and MyNorthwest are all running with the story.

Pierre LeBrun Twitter feed

KING 5 - Seattle one step closer to an NHL team with board approval

710 ESPN Seattle Twitter feed
 

seattlepi.com - The Latest: NHL moving forward with Seattle expansion bid

MyNorthwest - NHL executive committee recommends Seattle expansion team

[Cosmic]

I think I saw in a story yesterday that the BoG has never voted against the committee's recommendation on expansion, so that's pretty much it for Seattle.

[Mac the Knife]

1 hour ago, Cosmic said:

I think I saw in a story yesterday that the BoG has never voted against the committee's recommendation on expansion, so that's pretty much it for Seattle.

 

Meanwhile, the guys from Quebec City who applied before Las Vegas are saying, "So... when's our turn coming?" 

[Cosmic]

1 hour ago, Mac the Knife said:

 

Meanwhile, the guys from Quebec City who applied before Las Vegas are saying, "So... when's our turn coming?" 

That $2M nonrefundable deposit from Quebec City might be the biggest scam ever pulled. At this point, we just need to hope the Coyotes, Hurricanes, or Panthers go nuclear. The only positive is it's one fewer relocation market the NHL has in its pocket.

[Mac the Knife]

8 hours ago, Cosmic said:

That $2M nonrefundable deposit from Quebec City might be the biggest scam ever pulled. At this point, we just need to hope the Coyotes, Hurricanes, or Panthers go nuclear. The only positive is it's one fewer relocation market the NHL has in its pocket.

 

I was thinking about this last night... I want an NFL-style divisional alignment of 8 divisions of 4 teams when Seattle's admitted.  Have the top two in a division qualify, have the 8 division titlists plus the next top 8 no matter what division they come from, I don't care.  But this 'finish in the top three of your division and your in, and if not you might have a chance at one of two wild card slot' system doesn't work.  There are NHL franchises that might as well not even play the 2018-19 season because they have no chance of making the playoffs based solely on this dumb-ass playoff format.

[Cosmic]

11 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

Have the top two in a division qualify, have the 8 division titlists plus the next top 8 no matter what division they come from, I don't care. 

I'm a little confused about your plan. Top two in a division make the playoffs, or only division winners are guaranteed to make it?

 

The current NHL system is hard to explain and that 2-3 matchup in the first round can end a really good team's season early, but I don't think it keeps teams out of the playoffs unfairly. For that to happen, I think the 6th place team in one conference's division would have to be better than the third place team in the other division. I like conferences; I'm not interested in a Vancouver-Florida first round matchup.

[Mac the Knife]

8 hours ago, Cosmic said:

I'm a little confused about your plan. Top two in a division make the playoffs, or only division winners are guaranteed to make it?

I'm saying do it any way you want; just make it so that any team is only competing over the course of the regular season with 3 other teams for a playoff spot, rather than in a division with 7 others in a format where the deck is stacked against certain markets.

 

My case against what they do now is best exemplified by the Metropolitan Division.  Of that division's eight teams, five are in not major markets, but super markets (as opposed to supermarkets) which, while they can't offer players too much in direct compensation thanks to a salary cap, can offer them options to seek millions in other ways (endorsements, etc.)  The sixth (Pittsburgh) has developed a winning tradition that is attractive to players along with the ability to be a big fish in a small pond, which can be equally attractive to players.  By contrast, Columbus and Raleigh, each of which are great cities in their own right, stand no chance of developing into consistent playoff participants.  Those markets' fans have zero incentive to see games unless their teams for some reason get hot and contend for one of the two coveted 'wild card' slots, because three of those other six teams in their division are guaranteed to have locked up those the division is guaranteed.

 

So when Seattle's added?  Keep the Metropolitan Division.  Put the three New York area teams in there along with, say, a Boston.  Go to an 8 division format of 4 teams each.  Each division champ is guaranteed a playoff spot.  From there?  I don't care.  If you want to make it so the top two in a division qualify to make your field of 16?  Fine.  If you want to allow all four teams from the same division to qualify?  Fine.  I just think the 4 division alignment and playoff format was a bad idea from the beginning, and I'd really like to see it end.  If expansion to Seattle gets it done?  I say, welcome, Seattle!

[Still MIGHTY]

46 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

I'm saying do it any way you want; just make it so that any team is only competing over the course of the regular season with 3 other teams for a playoff spot, rather than in a division with 7 others in a format where the deck is stacked against certain markets.

 

My case against what they do now is best exemplified by the Metropolitan Division.  Of that division's eight teams, five are in not major markets, but super markets (as opposed to supermarkets) which, while they can't offer players too much in direct compensation thanks to a salary cap, can offer them options to seek millions in other ways (endorsements, etc.)  The sixth (Pittsburgh) has developed a winning tradition that is attractive to players along with the ability to be a big fish in a small pond, which can be equally attractive to players.  By contrast, Columbus and Raleigh, each of which are great cities in their own right, stand no chance of developing into consistent playoff participants.  Those markets' fans have zero incentive to see games unless their teams for some reason get hot and contend for one of the two coveted 'wild card' slots, because three of those other six teams in their division are guaranteed to have locked up those the division is guaranteed.

 

So when Seattle's added?  Keep the Metropolitan Division.  Put the three New York area teams in there along with, say, a Boston.  Go to an 8 division format of 4 teams each.  Each division champ is guaranteed a playoff spot.  From there?  I don't care.  If you want to make it so the top two in a division qualify to make your field of 16?  Fine.  If you want to allow all four teams from the same division to qualify?  Fine.  I just think the 4 division alignment and playoff format was a bad idea from the beginning, and I'd really like to see it end.  If expansion to Seattle gets it done?  I say, welcome, Seattle!

 

Um, no, to almost all of that.

 

Your super/major market thing means mostly nothing in the NHL. See Winnipeg's success last season and prospective success this season. See both the Rangers and Islanders probably missing the playoffs. See Chicago's last place finish last season. See Toronto's years of struggles. See Montreal's current struggle. Columbus has finally rounded into form thanks to competent management. "Your" Hurricanes have faltered because of bad management. That's what succeeds in the NHL. Good vs. Bad Management. The other stuff doesn't matter as much as it does in other sports.

 

I'm not against 8 divisions of four teams once Seattle comes in, however, Boston's not getting split from Montreal, so your "super market" division doesn't work there.

 

And knowing the NHL, they probably stick with the format they have for a bit. So Seattle would go into the current Pacific, but that would mean pushing out one Pacific team to the Central, to which the choices would be Vegas (newest team, closerish to Colorado) or Arizona (furthest east).

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The NHL's playoff format is inscrutable to me and I'm not willing to learn.

 

Of the four "major" American sports, the NBA does it the cleanest. Top eight in each conference. Done.