2016 NHL Off-Season Thread

[TBGKon]

Stamkos signs long term and PK leaves the division?  Yeah....its a good day.

[DTConcepts]

1 hour ago, tp49 said:

I wish Garth Snow would have tried to fleece Edmonton as badly as New Jersey did today.

 

Garth has to sign Okposo or Martin, now that Stamkos is out of the picture.

 

He was trying to save cap space for him, and now that space should go to retaining one of our (arguably) best players, Martin or Okposo.

 

It'll be hard to see either of them go.

[CS85]

[Sport]

The NHL needs to hire a Director of Common Sense, someone who says "That's a bad idea because _________" just like every good entourage needs a "no" man. All 30 I mean 31 teams need to hire one as well. I'll work for anybody. Except any of the 7 Canadian teams, as is tradition. 

[BeerGuyJordan]

As a Preds fan, I think this trade is a great move for the future. It's just hard to be happy about seeing your Captain traded away out of nowhere, especially when he's held the role for six years and become the face of the franchise.

 

With Fisher possibly retiring after next season, and likely being left unprotected if he doesn't, I'm thinking the C might go to Neal.

[IceCap]

I'm going to go ahead and make a homer prediction. 

The Leafs will make the playoffs again before the Habs do. Subban was their cornerstone for the future and they traded him for a guy who 1) is on the wrong side of 30 and 2) under contract for another decade. 

 

Yeah, we lost on Stamkos. A born and bred Canadian boy from the GTA didn't want the pressure of actually playing where people care about hockey. Shocker. 

Still? The future looks bright for the Leafs. Brighter than at least two other Canadian teams as of this afternoon. 

[Sport]

 

[habsfan1]

 

[Sodboy13]

Apparently the Perds can get rawdogged on Cap Recapture if Weber retires before his 62-year contract is up, because it's Nashville's fault that Ed Snider was a dickhead and Marc Bergevin is a dullard.

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, too bad Nashville can't bar out-of-town bad contracts from their arena!

[ldconcepts]

Just puttin' this out there...

[Still MIGHTY]

Chiarelli has now traded away Tyler and Taylor... Huh. I mean, I can kind of get it from the Oilers perspective. They just drafted what they and many feel will be a star LW in Puljujarvi, and they've continually needed defensemen to build. Larsson is actually a pretty good defenseman just hidden away/underrated in New Jersey. But to do that 1-for-1 straight up is insane. Edmonton can only hope Larsson blossoms again, but yikes, that's a hard one to swallow. Hall as a Devil will be weird, considering he was the start of this "turnaround" for the Oilers. He was supposed to be the block to build out from. Strange.

 

Meanwhile, Montreal are the biggest idiots of the day. How do you do that? Hell, how have they even entertained the idea before now? Trading away PK Subban under any circumstances should equal walking papers for Bergevin. PK is an elite talent on the ice. He's an exciting, productive, and solid player. Off the ice, he is one of if not the most charismatic player in the league. He's fun. He's charitable. He's marketable as all hell, yet the Canadiens organization has done all they can to ostracize him and push him away. I just don't understand. And now the Habs will be punished with the ever-quickening diminishing returns of Shea Weber. Still good, but not for much longer and not at a level to justify that contract.

 

Also, Subban will be WASTED in Nashville. Not on the ice. That Preds defensive core is kinda scary. But in terms of league wide marketing? PK is going to languish. It's hard to promote a Nashville Predator to the country, but we'll see. I think that part is a travesty.

 

What does Montreal do with PK's hospital wing? It was just named LAST YEAR. PK was putting down roots to be THE face of the Montreal Canadiens, and the Habs just didn't want him to be that. For whatever dumb dumb reason.

[LMU]

2 minutes ago, Still MIGHTY said:

Chiarelli has now traded away Tyler and Taylor... Huh. I mean, I can kind of get it from the Oilers perspective. They just drafted what they and many feel will be a star LW in Puljujarvi, and they've continually needed defensemen to build. Larsson is actually a pretty good defenseman just hidden away/underrated in New Jersey. But to do that 1-for-1 straight up is insane. Edmonton can only hope Larsson blossoms again, but yikes, that's a hard one to swallow. Hall as a Devil will be weird, considering he was the start of this "turnaround" for the Oilers. He was supposed to be the block to build out from. Strange.

 

Meanwhile, Montreal are the biggest idiots of the day. How do you do that? Hell, how have they even entertained the idea before now? Trading away PK Subban under any circumstances should equal walking papers for Bergevin. PK is an elite talent on the ice. He's an exciting, productive, and solid player. Off the ice, he is one of if not the most charismatic player in the league. He's fun. He's charitable. He's marketable as all hell, yet the Canadiens organization has done all they can to ostracize him and push him away. I just don't understand. And now the Habs will be punished with the ever-quickening diminishing returns of Shea Weber. Still good, but not for much longer and not at a level to justify that contract.

 

Also, Subban will be WASTED in Nashville. Not on the ice. That Preds defensive core is kinda scary. But in terms of league wide marketing? PK is going to languish. It's hard to promote a Nashville Predator to the country, but we'll see. I think that part is a travesty.

 

What does Montreal do with PK's hospital wing? It was just named LAST YEAR. PK was putting down roots to be THE face of the Montreal Canadiens, and the Habs just didn't want him to be that. For whatever dumb dumb reason.

Exactly why he had to be traded.  Gotta promote that Sun Belt Hockey!

 

 

[teddthebucfan]

You know, Edmonton, when two ECHL teams are starting to take shots at your GM I think it might be time to start rethinking things

[Kramerica Industries]

1 hour ago, Ice_Cap said:

Yeah, we lost on Stamkos. A born and bred Canadian boy from the GTA didn't want the pressure of actually playing where people care about hockey. Shocker. 

Still? The future looks bright for the Leafs. Brighter than at least two other Canadian teams as of this afternoon. 

 

Well, he opted to stay with the team that drafted him, who he's played his entire 8-year career with, and is built for success right now instead of still being a few years away, but, sure, I guess that's one way to both attack his character and attack the team's market as well, sure.

 

You should be glad, anyway. I know you read my post a few pages back, because you even gave a "like" to it, and in it I said that Stammer's value is not $10M or thereabouts. I'm thrilled he re-signed with Tampa because he re-signed at $8.5M, the same offer he got back in January, and it actually represents "only" a $1M raise from his previous salary. Lightning still have cap crunch concerns, no doubt, but if they wanted to keep #91, that's about as good as they could have possibly done. He gave them a discount. He was not signing with Toronto (or Detroit, or Buffalo, or whoever the hell) at $8.5M, and, frankly, he has not really been the same player (to date) since the broken leg injury in Nov. 2013 that he was prior to that. The Leafs are stacked in young talent, and by the time the talent truly begins to bloom, odds are Stammer won't even be as good then as he is now, which is still worrisome given the level he used to be at. 

 

I know that getting the hometown kid was something that the Toronto media was howling about for the last calendar year, but, truthfully, this is a blessing, and not even one in disguise, really. Value that cap flexibility, because if that cast of kids works out as well as you all hope they will, then there's going to need to be payroll space for their eventual raises, too.

 

--

 

Not much to say that hasn't already been said about the two Canadian teams that made trades today. Holy jeezus was that a terrible trade from the Oilers; I get that there's a desire to move out some of that "loser culture" talent, but Taylor Hall was just about the least of the Oilers problems. You want to send a message, then get rid of Nail or Eberle or something. Trading Hall for a top-4 D from the Devils, a team that traditionally plays a very conservative style that limits chances in their own zone at the expense of generating much of an offensive attack, is just terrible asset management. I like Adam Larsson! I wouldn't trade Nikita Kucherov for Adam Larsson though, would I? Heavens no. And trading Taylor Hall is just as stupid as that. As for the Habs...there really are no words there. PK should have been a Hab for life. Weber's contract can still ultimately burn the Preds via recapture, which kinda sucks for the Preds if and when that happens, but in the mean-time, Weber or Subban, it's literally no debate there. Subban is so much the better player, and younger too. I can't figure out what Montreal's incentive was here. Idiotic.

[rams80]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

 

Welcome to the Thrashers North?

[habsfan1]

22 minutes ago, Kramerica Industries said:

Weber or Subban, it's literally no debate there. Subban is so much the better player, and younger too. I can't figure out what Montreal's incentive was here. Idiotic.

 

It could be the locker room heat between PK and Michel Therrien. Idiotic isn't the word.

[Kramerica Industries]

Ah, yes. There's a healthy organizational culture right there - "when in doubt, choose the Francophone."

[mcj882000]

If that's the case then it'd be almost the exact same thing that happened with Patrick Roy in '95: star player clashes with coach, GM doesn't know what to do, so he trades the star; granted Subban didn't get so pissed he asked for a trade (as far as we know), but, uh, man. I dunno what it is about Montreal's culture if it has a knack for driving superstars away due to feuds with management, but if what you say is true then they need to fix it, and fast.

[habsfan1]

20 minutes ago, mcj882000 said:

If that's the case then it'd be almost the exact same thing that happened with Patrick Roy in '95: star player clashes with coach, GM doesn't know what to do, so he trades the star; granted Subban didn't get so pissed he asked for a trade (as far as we know), but, uh, man. I dunno what it is about Montreal's culture if it has a knack for driving superstars away due to feuds with management, but if what you say is true then they need to fix it, and fast.

 

I've known about the heat forever because I read the media sometimes. Most loyal Habs fans know about it too.

 

But even as a half francophone living in a suburb of Montreal, I completely do not agree with management's decision, if that's what it all came down to. And neither does anyone else for that matter. The actions of the front office heads are hurting us fans and most of us do not agree with the whole language thing. PK was very beloved over here, even if he only knew how to say "merci beaucoup" and only a few other basic french words. Only trolls were the ones making derogatory comments about him. They threw away a ton of money from Subban merch alone (which was a top seller).

 

Unlike the Predators fans who probably crashed their store's website due to everyone trying to order a new Subban t-shirt or jersey in drones through crazy web traffic, no one over here in enthusiastic (yet) to buy a new Shea Weber jersey/tee. A huge part of me feels bad for Shea Weber. This is not the welcome he deserved. The "Welcome to MTL Shea Weber" tweet from the official Habs Twitter was not well received. In a way, understandably.

 

It's all still just speculation that player/coach friction caused MB to make that drastic decision, which will most likely have negative consequences down the line. But whatever the truth is, it's just not looking good right now at all.