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2019 NHL Off Season News Thread

Billy G ... aka Billy Me, although I guess he's Billy GM now.

Another Rutherford protege like Francis, and I guess Jason Karmanos. More like Francis, really, given his playing career. 2nd consecutive Pens' AGM s to get hired to the big chair somewhere else, following Jason Botterill with the Sabres. Will it work in Minnesota? Who knows? Guerin has sort of been slotted as the guy overseeing player development and scouting in Pittsburgh while Jason Karmanos heads up the contracts and business stuff. But that's a pretty big front office in Pittsburgh so it's hard to keep up with who exactly does what. I've seen a lot of speculation that Leipold would probably go the "name" route with this hire after he went for the the wonk-ish career administrator last time. This fits that profile for sure. At least Guerin has put in his time learning the front office grind.
 
jeffbear said:
Billy G ... aka Billy Me, although I guess he's Billy GM now.

Another Rutherford protege like Francis, and I guess Jason Karmanos. More like Francis, really, given his playing career. 2nd consecutive Pens' AGM s to get hired to the big chair somewhere else, following Jason Botterill with the Sabres. Will it work in Minnesota? Who knows? Guerin has sort of been slotted as the guy overseeing player development and scouting in Pittsburgh while Jason Karmanos heads up the contracts and business stuff. But that's a pretty big front office in Pittsburgh so it's hard to keep up with who exactly does what. I've seen a lot of speculation that Leipold would probably go the "name" route with this hire after he went for the the wonk-ish career administrator last time. This fits that profile for sure. At least Guerin has put in his time learning the front office grind.
Click to expand...

Yep, with running the baby Pens for 2 years, Guerin has the organizational skills that Fenton apparently lacked.
 
Course correction ... pretty basic NHL stuff. If you hire a wonk and he fails, so you go hire a name brand former player.
 
Derrick Brassard signs with the Islanders, 1 year/$1.2 million. He was coming off a 5 year/$25 million contract signs with the Rangers.
 
andyt said:
Derrick Brassard signs with the Islanders, 1 year/$1.2 million. He was coming off a 5 year/$25 million contract signs with the Rangers.
Click to expand...
Worth noting that Brassard was absolutely invisible last season while bouncing between three teams. Just awful. That's not a contract, it's a career life raft.
 
Evgeny Kuznetsov has been banned from international hockey for 4 years by the IIHF for testing positive for a banned substance at the World Championships. Isabelle Khurshudyan reports that it was cocaine. You may recall video of him sitting next to a white powder earlier this year. The NHL cleared him in May.

 
Ok Kuznetsov, what is the story this time? Did someone spike something with cocaine while you were not looking? Did someone frame you by messing with your sample?

The NHL does not suspend for illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroine or weed, but if they do detect these substances in their twice a year drug testing they will privately offer the player help and treatment support. I expect the Caps and NHL will want to have a more in depth conversation about Kuzentsov's drug use with him this time. Either he started doing cocaine after the Vegas picture came to light and he denied ever using drugs, or he was lying then. Umm...yeah, I think we know which one it is.
 
Statements from the league, team and Kuznetsov. He’s voluntarily entering the counseling program and will meet with Bettman prior to training camp.

 
Again the goal of the substance abuse program is to have the entire process be a private as possible. But when you screw up as publicly as Kuznetsov did, twice, its pretty hard for all parties not to publicly address the situation (as they now appear to be doing).

Obviously Kuznetsov isn't the only NHL player who does cocaine, but that is 2 very public pieces of evidence that he does coming out in the last 3 months. That is as bad look for the league, Caps, and Kuznetsov.
 
Kuznetsov is a guy with all the talent in the world who, I believe, has only really ever shown maybe 75 to 80% of what he could actually do in the NHL. I hope whatever happens out of his current situation that it results in him being able to really do his thing night in and night out ... even if it's for a rival team.
 
Tampa signed Pat Maroon on Sunday. 1 year deal worth $900K. Frankly, this is spending a whole season's wages on a deadline deal kind of player. I don't see Maroon being able to keep up with the rest of Tampa's forwards on a regular shift. He'll be of use in the playoffs when things slog down a bit, and maybe he's enough of an old pro to ride the season out in the presser waiting for the chance to do just that ... but this seems dumb to me. Oh, and also ... Maroon almost certainly could have gotten more cash elsewhere.
 
If they have to bury Maroon in the minors he won't hit their cap at all. It's only a money risk, I'm sure that helped the decision.
 
Sinclair closed its purchase of the Fox Regional Sports Networks. They’ll like be rebranded as Diamond Sports (region). Hopefully there won’t be many outward facing changes.

awfulannouncing.com

Sinclair's purchase of Fox RSNs approved by Justice Department

There will be no last minute shift in the thought process, and a multi-billion deal will not be torpedoed. On Friday, Sinclair announced that their purchase of the Fox RSNs (which was agreed to back in May) had been approved by the Justice Department. They’re now the Sinclair RSNs, current...
awfulannouncing.com
 
Jesse Puljujarvi signed with Karpat in Liiga. He has a clause which would allow him to return to the NHL before December 1, not coincidentally the last date a RFA can sign and still play during the season.

I remember sitting in PNC for the 2016 draft party screaming for Francis to trade up when he fell to 4th. We had 2 first rounders that year, 13 (Jake Bean) and 21 (Julien Gauthier). A pick and Faulk and we could have had him. Might things have worked out differently off we could have ended up with an all-Finn line of Aho, Turbo and him? Who knows?

This may also impact Tukka Tieksola, who we drafted in the 4th round this year. He played for Karpat’s junior team and was seen as a near lock to make the senior team this year.

 
andyt said:
Sinclair closed its purchase of the Fox Regional Sports Networks. They’ll like be rebranded as Diamond Sports (region). Hopefully there won’t be many outward facing changes.

awfulannouncing.com

Sinclair's purchase of Fox RSNs approved by Justice Department

There will be no last minute shift in the thought process, and a multi-billion deal will not be torpedoed. On Friday, Sinclair announced that their purchase of the Fox RSNs (which was agreed to back in May) had been approved by the Justice Department. They’re now the Sinclair RSNs, current...
awfulannouncing.com
Click to expand...
I noted that they didn't mention Spectrum in the list of carriage agreements and I don't think that Sinclair has an agreement with our local cable megalith as of yet. Now we get to sweat THAT out. Fun times.
 
andyt said:
Jesse Puljujarvi signed with Karpat in Liiga. He has a clause which would allow him to return to the NHL before December 1, not coincidentally the last date a RFA can sign and still play during the season.

I remember sitting in PNC for the 2016 draft party screaming for Francis to trade up when he fell to 4th. We had 2 first rounders that year, 13 (Jake Bean) and 21 (Julien Gauthier). A pick and Faulk and we could have had him. Might things have worked out differently off we could have ended up with an all-Finn line of Aho, Turbo and him? Who knows?

This may also impact Tukka Tieksola, who we drafted in the 4th round this year. He played for Karpat’s junior team and was seen as a near lock to make the senior team this year.

Click to expand...

Hopefully the kid can collect his wits back in Finland and end up back in the NHL eventually.
 
I don't see how Edmonton doesn't trade the kid. If you believe Puljujarvi's agent, and I have no reason not to, none of this has anything to do with his next contract. It has everything to do with him never wanting to play in Edmonton again. The Oilers have already lost this kid, there is no reason not to move him. Trade him to Ottawa for one of the 3 2nd round picks they have in next year's draft and let him fight there for the
top 6 spot he thinks he's been denied. He's not going to play for Edmonton again, ever.

As much fun as it would be for the Canes to dabble in some sort of hopes that Puljujarvi and Aho have the same magic they showed in World Juniors years ago, there is no real spot for the kid here. The kid isn't going to find an NHL starting role around these parts, not this coming season. Isn't Montreal where all Finns want to go play?
 
For me, a guy like Puljujarvi would only get a real shot in the NHL at this point on a bad team ... and hopefully one that's rebuilding. Maybe LA or Anaheim would be good fits. Ottawa yeah ... but who wants to go there with their current situation?
 
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