Around the League: 2019-2020 Regular Season

[jeffbear]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

These long rebuilds seem to be far too strenuous on organizations.

The Hurricanes are coming out of what amounted to a 8 year rebuild. It all but killed me, and laid absolute waste to the market. And honestly, the thing that finally tipped the scales was getting lucky with the lottery last year, getting the 2nd pick and landing Svechnikov. And yeah, it's different here in a non traditional market, but these nearly decade long, slow boil, grow through the draft when you never draft in the Top 5 kinds of rebuilds are tantamount to fan abuse. Just tank already.

 

[Habsy]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Columbus did everyone a favor taking out the Lightning.

 

[Sal_Butera]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

judging from these playoffs....BS luck has a lot to do with it

IMO - There was zero luck involved in CBJ wiping out TBay. Bobrovsky didn’t even have to shine. It was a thorough beating.

 

[jeffbear]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Columbus did everyone a favor taking out the Lightning.

I mean ... except for the Lightning, yeah.

 

[GEEMAN]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

The Hurricanes are coming out of what amounted to a 8 year rebuild. It all but killed me, and laid absolute waste to the market. And honestly, the thing that finally tipped the scales was getting lucky with the lottery last year, getting the 2nd pick and landing Svechnikov. And yeah, it's different here in a non traditional market, but these nearly decade long, slow boil, grow through the draft when you never draft in the Top 5 kinds of rebuilds are tantamount to fan abuse. Just tank already.

What is a ticket price for a midlevel decent seat?

 

[worm]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

IMO - There was zero luck involved in CBJ wiping out TBay. Bobrovsky didn’t even have to shine. It was a thorough beating.

hard to say zero luck

hedman getting hurt was some good luck
kucherov losing his marbles and getting suspended
vezina goalie putting up .856


i do not consider bob luck as he has been a good goalie but he did have to shine in games 2 and 3

 

[Sal_Butera]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

hard to say zero luck

hedman getting hurt was some good luck
kucherov losing his marbles and getting suspended
vezina goalie putting up .856


i do not consider bob luck as he has been a good goalie but he did have to shine in games 2 and 3

I’ll give you Hedman as he was injured coming into the playoffs with concussion issues.

Kucherov losing his marbles was strategically forced by CBJ game planning - targeting him physically. He played up to the Ruskie stereotype - hit them hard & often and they’ll eventually bend & break.

Vasilevsky has had issues on the big stage, sucked at the WJC ended up with bronze, has had one good playoff run...he’s more a creation of an elite regular season pond hockey team.

 

[GGpX]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

You don't need to tank, but it's the easiest way to acquire elite talent. This shouldn't even be up for argument. #1 franchise centers are almost always taken early in the first round of the draft. There's a problem if you're doing it for 5+ years and you're still in the basement.

Another problem is, most teams that end up in last over & over have shit front offices and do nothing to fix the underlying problem: You absolutely have to draft well.

Why has Deadmonton, Florida, Phoenix, Buffalo always stayed in the bottom of the league despite getting high draft picks while teams like Chicago and Colorado (Who has just arrived) are thriving? Absolute shit drafting outside of their top picks and even then, they manage to **** it up.

 

[GrandWazoo]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

You don't need to tank, but it's the easiest way to acquire elite talent. This shouldn't even be up for argument. #1 franchise centers are almost always taken early in the first round of the draft. There's a problem if you're doing it for 5+ years and you're still in the basement.

Another problem is, most teams that end up in last over & over have shit front offices and do nothing to fix the underlying problem: You absolutely have to draft well.

Why has Deadmonton, Florida, Phoenix, Buffalo always stayed in the bottom of the league despite getting high draft picks while teams like Chicago and Colorado (Who has just arrived) are thriving? Absolute shit drafting outside of their top picks and even then, they manage to **** it up.

This pretty much sums it up. If you draft and develop well, and manage your assets well of course, you will be fine, even without tanking. But if you do those things AND tank, it will definitely speed up the process. Tanking alone is never enough. Plus even when you tank, you still have to be lucky/good to find elite talent.

 

[GGpX]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Yup. Look where Chicago got Byfuglien, Keith, Seabrook, Saad, Panarin, Hjalmarsson, Shaw, Bolland, Bickell... Then how they were able to rob Patrick Sharp from Philly and Kris Versteeg from Bawstun. They also basically stole Erik Gustafson from Deadmonton, who apparently chose not to sign him. Jesus ****ing Christ could they ever use a player like him on that shit roster.

 

[GrandWazoo]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

And sign Hossa to a cap circumventing deal. Plus Keith, Tires and Kane on friendly deals. I think it's going to get harder for teams to build around superstars making 11-15M.

 

[GGpX]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Toews & Kane weren't on that friendly of a deal when they first signed, but since the cap was drastically rising every year, the deals turned into bargains. [Edit, I just checked, but there were a lot more players getting paid back then than I remembered, so I'll revise that thought] But now, yeah, superstar young players aren't getting the Tavares/MacKinnon-esque cheap 6 year deals anymore. They're all going to be like Matthews/Eichel/McDavid/Marner and get their real going rate immediately.

 

[GrandWazoo]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Yeah, those mid-price bridge deals seems like a things of the past now, and those were critical into building a championship team. If those young superstars gets UFA-like money right away after their entry contracts, the window is suddenly much more narrower.

 

[Sal_Butera]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Leafs are already approaching/in cap hell and they’ve yet to make it past the 1st round...

 

[GGpX]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

The Leafs have two really bad deals that are hurting them: Marleau (who I have to imagine they'll trade this summer) and Zaitsev. Outside of those two, it's not so bad.

If the Leafs were like Tampa Bay and had a bunch of good prospects coming up, I wouldn't be worried. But outside of Sandin, there's really not a lot there. We'll see if Bracco's play translates to the NHL or if he's a tweener. It's also why they're trying their hand every summer at KHL players. They need NHL-ready bodies to fill in.

 

[lecoqsportif]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Leafs are already approaching/in cap hell and they’ve yet to make it past the 1st round...

They have a young core, and that’s a big deal. After that, meh, manage the transient support cast.

This post-season is proof ya just gotta get into the dance, so they will be contenders for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

 

[GEEMAN]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Yeah, those mid-price bridge deals seems like a things of the past now, and those were critical into building a championship team. If those young superstars gets UFA-like money right away after their entry contracts, the window is suddenly much more narrower.

The optics have changed in the last few years .

First of all the NHL is the only sport where players never took a bigger share of salary .

Those discounts at some point was going to change .

They always took less for the team to help the cap .

Years ago McKinnon , Scheiffle , Morgan Reilly etc.... were not finished products .

They took fair many to secure their future but were not producing big numbers .

Nate was close to bust status , if he produced 90 plus points he wouldn't be getting 6 mil .

Now the studs of the game are among the best players in the game , and their payout will reward them soon enough .

I don't recall a group of 20-23 year olds dominating in this league like ever before .

Teams will need to rely on cheap ELC contracts .

Middle class ok players are gonna get squeezed big time .

 

[DonKay]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

They have a young core, and that’s a big deal. After that, meh, manage the transient support cast.

This post-season is proof ya just gotta get into the dance, so they will be contenders for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

Having 41 million a year tied up in four forwards (Tavares, Mathews, Marner, Nylander) is not going to make it easy to address other areas.

Wait until Morgan Reilly's contract is up for negotiation in a couple years, he will likely join the 10 million club also.

I still stand by what I said in the summer, signing Tavares is a no brainer for any team because he's a great talent.

But big picture outlook for the Leafs, Is he a building block piece like Mathews and Marner? I don't think so, Tavares will be 29 on opening day this coming year and is slowly but surely going to be taking a backseat to Mathews and Marner.

I can understand the emotional attachment to bringing the hometown boy home but I think this contract will be causing more headaches to this team going forward.

Dubas played hardball with Nylander this year and pretty much acknowledged that it was the reason they ****ed up this young forwards season.

They are about to do the same thing with Marner and the consequences are unpredictable.

Let's be honest this teams offense should have been built around Mathews, Marner and Nylander....but with Tavares in the fold it pretty much just dictated your salary structure and Mathews and Marner's people already know they are better than tavares, hence they will not want less money.

This contract will bite them in the ass in so many more ways than they think.

 

[GEEMAN]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

Having 41 million a year tied up in four forwards (Tavares, Mathews, Marner, Nylander) is not going to make it easy to address other areas.

Wait until Morgan Reilly's contract is up for negotiation in a couple years, he will likely join the 10 million club also.

I still stand by what I said in the summer, signing Tavares is a no brainer for any team because he's a great talent.

But big picture outlook for the Leafs, Is he a building block piece like Mathews and Marner? I don't think so, Tavares will be 29 on opening day this coming year and is slowly but surely going to be taking a backseat to Mathews and Marner.

I can understand the emotional attachment to bringing the hometown boy home but I think this contract will be causing more headaches to this team going forward.

Dubas played hardball with Nylander this year and pretty much acknowledged that it was the reason they ****ed up this young forwards season.

They are about to do the same thing with Marner and the consequences are unpredictable.

Let's be honest this teams offense should have been built around Mathews, Marner and Nylander....but with Tavares in the fold it pretty much just dictated your salary structure and Mathews and Marner's people already know they are better than tavares, hence they will not want less money.

This contract will bite them in the ass in so many more ways than they think.

You nailed it DK , 100 % .

I was trying to tell my Leaf buddies WTF was your regime thinking when they signed JT .

So you give your 5th most important player 11 mil just before you have to pay your 2 most important players in the last 20 years

First of all they didn't need JT , he can't help your porous D .

He didn't even move the needle in the playoffs .

What should of been a 5 year systemic organic rebuild ended on July 1 .

This regime foolishly thought that Marner and Matthews would take a home time discount .

Without that contract those 2 come in at around 9 mil and the rest slot in perfectly down the road .

Now , every move is a scramble job to fill a roster under the cap.

JT made sense for a Minny where there was no salary comparable and no key players had to get paid

Now key players will need to be moved to make it work

 

[jeffbear]

Re: Around the League - Playoffs 2019

What is a ticket price for a midlevel decent seat?

Box office prices are on that stupid Ticketmaster sliding scale, but the partial season ticket price runs $50-120 for basic seating other than 3rd level, depending on location. I have no idea what you consider decent, but my seats (full season package) in the lower level behind the goal where the home team shoots once cost me roughly $70 a game with a face value of $90 ... all US$