2022 NHL Offseason Thread

[Kooky01]

As A Stars fan, today went pretty well for us. We avoided Brent Burns (Don't want this team to become a retirement home), swooped up Mason Marchment and might be getting Klingberg back. Keep it up, Jim!

[mcj882000]

After all the speculation that he just wanted to go home, Gaudreau decides to go play for a team that did 30 points worse than the team he just left, who's won a playoff series in their entire existence, for less money, and in the end he didn't even go home???



(Jackets away games next season are gonna be fun to watch, though; he's gonna have Flames, Devils, maybe Flyers and Islanders fans all booing him out of their rinks!)

[Cosmic]

4 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

After all the speculation that he just wanted to go home, Gaudreau decides to go play for a team that did 30 points worse than the team he just left, who's won a playoff series in their entire existence, for less money, and in the end he didn't even go home???



(Jackets away games next season are gonna be fun to watch, though; he's gonna have Flames, Devils, maybe Flyers and Islanders fans all booing him out of their rinks!)

Wouldn't really be able to tell unless we knew what other offers were actually on the table. He's in the same country and time zone as his family now, so it's still an improvement. 

[Sport]

 

Retire Eric Robinson's number in the Nationwide Arena rafters. 

 

For real, though, I think word is out in the NHL that Columbus is a sneaky good place to be a professional hockey player. 

[Sport]

49 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

Wouldn't really be able to tell unless we knew what other offers were actually on the table. He's in the same country and time zone as his family now, so it's still an improvement. 

 

The Blue Jackets being in the Metro means his family can easily get to a lot of road games in MSG, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington. Pittsburgh and Boston are under 6 hour drives too. Even the 3 eastern Canadian teams are not difficult trips. His parents can drive to Columbus in 8 hours if they so choose, which probably feels like light speed compared to trying to get to Calgary out of Salem, New Jersey. It's not "home", but it's close enough. 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

After all the speculation that he just wanted to go home, Gaudreau decides to go play for a team that did 30 points worse than the team he just left, who's won a playoff series in their entire existence, for less money, and in the end he didn't even go home???

 

 

I'm more shocked than anyone, but the Blue Jackets aren't the same wayward organization they were ten years ago. The rebuild is looking steady, he's going to have some solid line mates, and if it's about points they were 18 points better than New Jersey a year ago, 20 points better than Philadelphia, and only 3 points worse than the Islanders. If staying in Calgary was a non-starter just due to geography then he's looking at eastern time zone teams and from what I heard, hometown Philly didn't even try to land him. If they were out then it probably came down to the Devils, Islanders, and Blue Jackets and it sounds like he's got some friends in Columbus who sold him on the city and the rebuild. 

[mcj882000]

5 hours ago, Cosmic said:

Wouldn't really be able to tell unless we knew what other offers were actually on the table. He's in the same country and time zone as his family now, so it's still an improvement. 

I mean, he's still 7-8 hours away from home by car; and yeah he could fly there, but he could fly there from anywhere and it'd be about the same.


Having a night to think about it, I actually have a theory for how this came about, based on everything I've read & pieced together: 
-He wanted to go to Philadelphia, more than anywhere else it sounds like, but then the DeAngelo trade last week maxed out their cap and apparently GM Fletcher felt moving some pieces around to make him fit would've been too hard, so they didn't even make an offer. 
-He wanted to go home to New Jersey, but they supposedly gave him what he may have felt like a lowball offer, especially when his original asking price was allegedly in the $12M(!) range; 
-He might have wanted to go to the Islanders, but they may have ran into either of those same exact problems; not enough cap space and/or a lowball offer.
-He couldn't go back to Calgary without having to eat some crow, because he'd already told them he wasn't coming back & presumably he wouldn't want to look like he was crawling back with his tail between his legs (even though Evgeni Malkin did exactly that a day prior). 

So with all that in mind, maybe all his grand plans to go home fell apart and he simply decided "Columbus offered me the most money, and they're sorta-kinda close to home... eh,  it". 

I mean, it at least makes it make sense to me... 

[DEAD!]

6 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

I mean, he's still 7-8 hours away from home by car; and yeah he could fly there, but he could fly there from anywhere and it'd be about the same.


Having a night to think about it, I actually have a theory for how this came about, based on everything I've read & pieced together: 
-He wanted to go to Philadelphia, more than anywhere else it sounds like, but then the DeAngelo trade last week maxed out their cap and apparently GM Fletcher felt moving some pieces around to make him fit would've been too hard, so they didn't even make an offer. 
-He wanted to go home to New Jersey, but they supposedly gave him what he may have felt like a lowball offer, especially when his original asking price was allegedly in the $12M(!) range; 
-He might have wanted to go to the Islanders, but they may have ran into either of those same exact problems; not enough cap space and/or a lowball offer.
-He couldn't go back to Calgary without having to eat some crow, because he'd already told them he wasn't coming back & presumably he wouldn't want to look like he was crawling back with his tail between his legs (even though Evgeni Malkin did exactly that a day prior). 

So with all that in mind, maybe all his grand plans to go home fell apart and he simply decided "Columbus offered me the most money, and they're sorta-kinda close to home... eh,  it". 

I mean, it at least makes it make sense to me... 

All of that may be true. Who knows? In three years, Gaudreau might seek a trade to any one of those teams if any of their situations improve. 

[Sport]

22 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

I mean, he's still 7-8 hours away from home by car; and yeah he could fly there, but he could fly there from anywhere and it'd be about the same.


Having a night to think about it, I actually have a theory for how this came about, based on everything I've read & pieced together: 
-He wanted to go to Philadelphia, more than anywhere else it sounds like, but then the DeAngelo trade last week maxed out their cap and apparently GM Fletcher felt moving some pieces around to make him fit would've been too hard, so they didn't even make an offer. 
-He wanted to go home to New Jersey, but they supposedly gave him what he may have felt like a lowball offer, especially when his original asking price was allegedly in the $12M(!) range; 
-He might have wanted to go to the Islanders, but they may have ran into either of those same exact problems; not enough cap space and/or a lowball offer.
-He couldn't go back to Calgary without having to eat some crow, because he'd already told them he wasn't coming back & presumably he wouldn't want to look like he was crawling back with his tail between his legs (even though Evgeni Malkin did exactly that a day prior). 

So with all that in mind, maybe all his grand plans to go home fell apart and he simply decided "Columbus offered me the most money, and they're sorta-kinda close to home... eh,  it". 

I mean, it at least makes it make sense to me... 

 

I think that's exactly what happened. Going back to Calgary wasn't going to happen because it's too far away from South Jersey, but that also told every other Western Conference and Canadian team that they need not apply. Like the Kraken and Ducks have cap space out the ass right now, but he wasn't staying West. The teams in the Eastern time zone needed to have the right cap situation which cuts the list down even further to the Flyers, Devils, Islanders, and Blue Jackets. He almost certainly wanted to go to Philly as his number one destination, but the Flyers boned their chance and didn't even make an offer. Pierre Lebrun says the Islanders didn't make an offer either, which means he only got offers from New Jersey and Columbus. New Jersey presumably came in low because they thought they had him over a barrel, pretty sure he wasn't interested in anywhere else and knew Philly and NYI weren't offering. That's when he (his agent) called Columbus, who were as surprised as the rest of us to hear from his camp, and asked if they could beat New Jersey's offer. I would've loved to be a fly on the wall in the CBJ GM's office when they got the call. I think Gaudreau's buddies who play with the Blue Jackets and have played for them in the past did some convincing because there's no way this was one of his top 3 destinations.

 

This is the reality of a cap league in a year where the cap won't go up for a while. That's why Letang and Malkin stayed with Pittsburgh because their options were more limited than you'd think. There just aren't a lot of teams who could reasonably swing a big deal. If geography wasn't an issue Johnny Gaudreau is probably still a Flame right now. 

[Crabcake]

Caps probably slightly overpaid for Darcy but they haven’t had an actual solid starting goalie since 2018 Braden Holtby went nuclear in the playoffs and before that he was shaky enough to make Grubauer start Games 1+2 of R1, so not even sure if that counts. Hopefully this stabilizes the net for us. 
 

There have been other moves that the Caps community in general seems excited about, like signing Dylan Strome and trading for Connor Brown. I’m not much of an NHL fan these days, I follow the Caps scores but I don’t really know if these middle/bottom six guys are any good, but it seems encouraging that GMBM knows that Ovi has a year or two more of legitimate competing left in him so I’m glad to see him go all out for it. There’s going to be an inevitable rebuild/dry period when Ovi retires/gets too old so might as well go all in now. 

[The_Admiral]

On 7/13/2022 at 7:40 PM, Ridleylash said:

 

God these guys are so funny I can't even stand it. How can they be so good at everything.

[Ridleylash]

Oof, Kent Hughes eating a big fat L lmao

[spartacat_12]

On 7/13/2022 at 5:08 PM, DoctorWhom said:

Tampa once again proving the salary cap doesn't exist. 

 

I mean they had to trade away McDonagh and let Palat walk for nothing. And I like Nick Paul, but giving a 27 year old 3rd liner an 8 year deal in order to get the cap hit down isn't always the best long term strategy. 

[Ridleylash]

Calgary's really about to lose both Gaudreau and Tkachuk lmao

[BBTV]

On 7/14/2022 at 2:46 AM, mcj882000 said:

After all the speculation that he just wanted to go home, Gaudreau decides to go play for a team that did 30 points worse than the team he just left, who's won a playoff series in their entire existence, for less money, and in the end he didn't even go home???
 

 

He did want to go home, and reiterated that even after he signed with CBJ.  He said that the Flyers told him they wouldn't be able to clear the cap room to sign him so he should look elsewhere, so they didn't even try.  

[Brass]

Tkachuk to Florida. Looks like Huberdeau, Weegar, and a 1st/prospects heading back to Calgary.

[Ridleylash]

Florida what the :censored: are you guys doing lmao

[DEAD!]

So both Calgary and Florida lost in the 2nd round to their interstate/provincial rival and decided to make a trade with each other.

[Sport]

The Blue Jackets extended Laine for 4 years, but everything has a price and they had to send Oliver Bjorkstrand to Seattle for a 2nd and 3rd round pick to get under the cap. I hate that for my beloved Blue Jackets, but love that for my beloved Kraken. Bjorkstrand has 4 more years left on his deal and the analytics nerds think it's one of the most efficient contracts in the league. It's a semi-homecoming for Bjorkstrand because he played his junior hockey in Portland. Kraken fans are going to love this dude. I'm really bummed about it. 

 

He scored one of the biggest goals in franchise history so we'll always have that. The rest of the league has no idea how good he is. I will miss having him. 

[dont care]

9 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

Florida what the are you guys doing lmao

 Being Florida. 

[Crabcake]

9 hours ago, Brass said:

Tkachuk to Florida. Looks like Huberdeau, Weegar, and a 1st/prospects heading back to Calgary.

It looks like a ridiculous overpay by Florida at first glance. But Huberdeau and Weegar are both on expiring contracts and Tkachuk just signed an 8-year extension with Florida. So it’s probably still an overpay, but perhaps not as gross of one as you’d think at first glance.