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2015-16 Season Miscellaneous News Thread

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ESPN is doing 30 for 30 on Ric Flair. Will they mention his Canes career? :thumbup:

Before the IceCaps , Dorton had a lot of wrestling on Tues nights. A young Flair would wrestle there.
 
Everyone keeps mentioning Cam taking a home discount. That assumes there is external demand for his services that would drive up the cost. That is a pretty big assumption at this point.
 
We're all pretty sure that at this point, Lack isn't ready to be a #1 goalie. For all Ward's faults and warts, his numbers were better than Lacks, for the season and over any short term stretch. So there are 4 questions to be answered. 1) Can Francis swing a trade for a legit #1 goalie, 2) in the event that #1 fails, are there any UFA goalies that are an upgrade to Ward, 3) if we're stuck with #2, aren't we in the same fix next year, unless Lack seizes the job?

If Francis can't swing option 1, we're in a goalie bind for a few years, unless he can do something next year. Altshuller and Ned should spend all of next season in Charlotte. If Francis re-signs Ward or the UFA goalie behind door #1, it really should only be for 1 year. In 2017-18, we have Lack in the last year of his contract and either Altshuller or Ned. So things might get worse before they get better in goal.
 
andyt said:
We're all pretty sure that at this point, Lack isn't ready to be a #1 goalie. For all Ward's faults and warts, his numbers were better than Lacks, for the season and over any short term stretch. So there are 4 questions to be answered. 1) Can Francis swing a trade for a legit #1 goalie, 2) in the event that #1 fails, are there any UFA goalies that are an upgrade to Ward, 3) if we're stuck with #2, aren't we in the same fix next year, unless Lack seizes the job?

If Francis can't swing option 1, we're in a goalie bind for a few years, unless he can do something next year. Altshuller and Ned should spend all of next season in Charlotte. If Francis re-signs Ward or the UFA goalie behind door #1, it really should only be for 1 year. In 2017-18, we have Lack in the last year of his contract and either Altshuller or Ned. So things might get worse before they get better in goal.
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1) Can Francis swing a trade for a legit #1 goalie?
He should try real hard, this is a good summer with pending expansion to find a starter.

2) In the event that #1 fails, are there any UFA goalies that are an upgrade to Ward?
Not really, maybe Reimer...but the UFA goalie pool seems weak this year.

3)If we're stuck with #2, aren't we in the same fix next year, unless Lack seizes the job?
Yes, unless the Canes draft another goalie early in the draft this year (Gustavsson) and either that youngster or Ned is ready to play based on a quick elevation through the system with their development.


The biggest problem I see with Ward is the fact he is not getting any better, nor is he getting younger...so banking on him to provide better numbers or more wins seems like a pipe dream. Similar to the Eric Staal situation, Francis may just decide it's time to go in a different direction and move on from the past and thank Cam for all his service over the years as a Cane.
 
The other issue is that Calgary also has a goaltending need, so carolina is going to be competing with Calgary for a goalie. Perhaps Calgary wants another son of Alberta-- Cam Ward?
 
Should be an interesting summer in Tampa. They are a really good young team that has a fantastic future but they have to figure out what to do with Stamkos and Drouin. For me the Drouin situation is almost more interesting. He was arguably their best forward in the conference finals and has a ton of talent...fun player to watch. The drama surrounding him during the year puts both he and Stevie Y in an interesting position. I assume if Stamkos leaves they would HAVE to keep Drouin which brings me to Stamkos. His playing in the game 7 sure seemed like a farewell tour to me. I got the sense he wanted to suit up for Tampa one last time before moving on. Just a hunch, but we will see.
 
The World Cup of Hockey rosters are gradually filtering out. As has been posted elsewhere, Sebastian Aho made Team Finland and Michal Jordan made Team Czech Republic. Team Europe will be announced at 6:09 pm tonight, Team USA at 6:13, Team North America at 6:16 and Team Canada at 6:22.

Team Russia left Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Radulov off the roster but added Slava Voynov. Considering the circumstances under which he left the Kings, and the IIHF/NHL discipline agreement, it's unlikely that he'll stay on the roster. "We will obviously have to review his status with the Players' Association prior to the start of the tournament in September," Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN. "It is not my current expectation that this player will be deemed eligible to play in the World Cup of Hockey." Kovalchuk was scratched during the KHL playoffs.
 
andyt said:
Pat Bush will receive the Chet Stewart Award, for service to officiating education, from USA Hockey. Most of you who play have probably run into him but he's also been one of the video replay officials at Canes games.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article80371367.html
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15 years or so ago he was one of my Learn To Play coaches at Cary/Garner, assisting Ben Swafford. He also reffed the occasional youth game I coached, usually paired up with a kid ref getting started -- congrats Pat!
 
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Thanks for posting. I've known bushy for 20+ years. Like BH said, he was with us in the early 90's for learn to play. From there he was an off ice official with the ice caps and when the canes came to town he became one of the goal replay judges.
His primary interest was always reffing. a great guy!
 
That's an odd move. Draft day deal coming?
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Hard to say without knowing what the Kings are thinking...is this personal (ie Brown isn't working hard enough) or is it a factor that Brown's general contribution has severely waned over the past 4 years and the Kings are looking to give the C to one of their high end contributers (ie Kopitar or Doughty).

Brown had a 6 year stretch where he averaged 27 goals per year (I adjusted his 18 goals in the lockout to give him a full season pace (32 goals) that season). Then his last 3 years he has averaged only 12 goals per year. I don't know if the Kings are looking to move on or just are looking for a leadership change. But yeah, that is a strange thing to do this early in the offseason.

Here is the LA Times take on it:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/la-sp-kings-captain-analysis-20160527-snap-story.html
 
Cmal, see Larry Brooks' comment about the World Cup rosters in today's column:
Kris Letang’s omission from Team Canada was the biggest roster shock on Friday, though Jack Johnson’s inclusion on Team USA (coupled with Justin Faulk’s exclusion) wasn’t far behind.
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cmaleski2 said:
Hard to say without knowing what the Kings are thinking...is this personal (ie Brown isn't working hard enough) or is it a factor that Brown's general contribution has severely waned over the past 4 years and the Kings are looking to give the C to one of their high end contributers (ie Kopitar or Doughty).

Brown had a 6 year stretch where he averaged 27 goals per year (I adjusted his 18 goals in the lockout to give him a full season pace (32 goals) that season). Then his last 3 years he has averaged only 12 goals per year. I don't know if the Kings are looking to move on or just are looking for a leadership change. But yeah, that is a strange thing to do this early in the offseason.

Here is the LA Times take on it:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/la-sp-kings-captain-analysis-20160527-snap-story.html
Click to expand...

Frankly, they made a mistake giving Brown the C when they did and have been fighting to get his consistency up to par ever since. Sound familiar? Because THAT's the comparison to Staal that should be drawn to this situation.

IMO everybody on EARTH puts too much importance on Captains. Is it a big deal? Sure, but anyone who has ever played a team sport at a high level would tell you that VERY few successful teams have just one leader that carries the weight on his or her shoulders. It just doesn't work that way. Yet, fans, media, even front offices act like that C is some sort of sacred designation ... to the point where it flat out ruins some guys when they get it and don't deserve it. I say demystify that thing. If nobody on your team deserves it, then skip it ... go with three As. If you make a mistake and hand it to the wrong guy, take it off ... sooner rather than later so it doesn't fester. Oh, and your best player isn't always the right guy to be the Captain. In fact, in my personal experience it's VERY rare that your best player is your best leader.

There's a lot to be gained from having great leadership on your team, but heaping tons of pressure on the single guy with a C on his shirt? That's really pretty dumb.
 
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