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Eric Staal Thread

Did I see this correctly? Anaheim has scored a palsy 77 goals so far this season??? Philly next up at 91. Wow, that's a significant drop. Works out to: 0.5194805194805195 goals a game. Ugh.
 
LJG said:
James is channeling his inner Spock. "I endevour to be accurate".
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;)
I was too lazy to round off the calculator.

Turns out, somehow, Anaheim has tons of cap space. Ducks, Sabres, Coyotes and Jets all have pretty good cap situations.
Vancouver? The worst.

That being said, offer them Eric Staal and maybe a 2nd rounder..
for Jake Virtanen (I know, his stock dropped a little after wjc, in ppls eyes maybe... that's when you make a move!) radim vrbata and dam hamius. just to give them room ti fit staal's contract. gives them a vet and a pick, center for a playoff run a team in the thick of it maybe looking to take a chance this year.. dunno. Sedins won't be around long so it make no sense to trade away the future, but they have other prospects too in the pipelines.)
He's got pretty good stock. A RW. Power forward. Good skater. Great release. NA born finnish decent.
ok back to reality. :)
 
With the Canes only a couple of wins out of possibly sliding into 4th in the metro, Francis will be in "BUY" mode at the deadline!
 
The Canes have a long long way to go still to really be able to state they are in this (ie they really need 6 or more points here in the next 4 games (Pittsburgh, at St. Louis, Vancouver, at Pittsburgh and really they need to flat out beat Pittsburgh twice). But again this is the whole 'what if' problem we talked about before the season started. I would expect no matter what Ronnie isn't going to be what we could classify as a buyer at the deadline but certainly if we are sitting in a WC spot in mid February, which is still unlikely but definitely not impossible now, it will be a major 'complication' that Ronnie will need to navigate.

Its more likely that we won't need to worry about this come February and Ronnie won't have to worry about moving UFAs for picks/prospects when the time comes, but 'what if' we are one point out of the final WC or even sitting in the final WC spot come mid-February? Even if its the right thing to do in regards to the 'next 1 to 4 seasons plan', how easy is it going to be sell Versteeg, Eric Staal and Cam Ward in that scenario?

Of course on the flip side of this, one could argue that if we replaced Eric Staal with a younger capable prospect who is NHL ready or already in the NHL, it might not really move the 'playoff shot' needle one way or another. This current good run is being mostly fueled by Jordan Staal and the other players on the team.
 
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cmaleski2 said:
The Canes have a long long way to go still to really be able to state they are in this (ie they really need 6 or more points here in the next 4 games (Pittsburgh, at St. Louis, Vancouver, at Pittsburgh and really they need to flat out beat Pittsburgh twice). But again this is the whole 'what if' problem we talked about before the season started. I would expect no matter what Ronnie isn't going to be what we could classify as a buyer at the deadline but certainly if we are sitting in a WC spot in mid February, which is still unlikely but definitely not impossible now, it will be a major 'complication' that Ronnie will need to navigate.

Its more likely that we won't need to worry about this come February and Ronnie won't have to worry about moving UFAs for picks/prospects when the time comes, but 'what if' we are one point out of the final WC or even sitting in the final WC spot come mid-February? Even if its the right thing to do in regards to the 'next 1 to 4 seasons plan', how easy is it going to be sell Versteeg, Eric Staal and Cam Ward in that scenario?

Of course on the flip side of this, one could argue that if we replaced Eric Staal with a younger capable prospect who is NHL ready or already in the NHL, it might not really move the 'playoff shot' needle one way or another. This current good run is being mostly fueled by Jordan Staal and the other players on the team.
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This is what I brought up recently, or at what I was getting at.
Its more likely that we won't need to worry about this come February and Ronnie won't have to worry about moving UFAs for picks/prospects when the time comes, but 'what if' we are one point out of the final WC or even sitting in the final WC spot come mid-February? Even if its the right thing to do in regards to the 'next 1 to 4 seasons plan', how easy is it going to be sell Versteeg, Eric Staal and Cam Ward in that scenario?
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I don't know. As much as I have confidence in RF, if that scenario plays out it definitely will be a hard sell.

It is frustrating. The reality is that every single team out there needs to make money. If your team wins, typically this translates to more revenue and more potential thereof, correct? So how to you really sell that scenario then?
 
No one knows what conversations Ron Francis has had with his boss, but I'm hoping that he can convince the owner to focus on the long-term situation, not the playoffs. For a team that is losing money, that's easy for me to say, of course. My guess is that even if we're still near a playoff bubble, Francis will still look to move Staal and/or Versteeg - if he can get something valuable in return. If not, then I'll bet he'll let this season ride out and say goodbye to Eric during the summer.
 
If Francis loses track of his current rebuild process and gets anywhere near caught up in playoff talk this year, he is simply not going to be a good GM. Taking the eye off the ball (long term stability) for a pipe dream of making the playoffs with a team anchored by half of the top 6 D-men playing in their first NHL year would be idiotic. This team was not constructed to make the playoffs this year and even if by some wild fluke did would be swept in 4 games. For the first time in a decade this team seems to be rebuilding for the long haul in a positive way. Breaking that path would be more of the JR crap that caused this team to miss playoffs 8 of last 9 years and have an empty prospect pool.

Having said that, I don't think Francis cares about the playoffs this year and will continue to focus on the rebuild and the long term growth and stability of this franchise. He has done a pretty good job so far and will likely just continue down that path. Outside of the excitement about how the team is developing, I really don't get the playoff talk. The team still sits 13th in the Eastern conference, has played two more games than most other teams, and sits with an 8% chance of making playoffs per NHL Club Stats.
 
Look ... I hope that's going to be the case, but our OWNER is the issue. He's done it before. We get anywhere close to playoff contention and all bets are off.
 
jeffbear said:
Look ... I hope that's going to be the case, but our OWNER is the issue. He's done it before. We get anywhere close to playoff contention and all bets are off.
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Do we honestly know it has been PK forcing JR to chase those playoff dreams? Given JRs track record in Pittsburgh to date he seem to be continuing the win now and screw everything else mentality he had in Carolina.

On the business side it seems PK has authorized Waddell to reset on tickets/pricing that have resulted in short term attendance losses. There seems to at least be a plan to rebuild some value on the ticket side for the long term as the freebies are not as prevalent as they were in the past. As the team on the ice is mirroring (rebuilding) what seems to be happening on the ticket side I want to remain faithful that they stick to long term plans all around. Nothing will boost season ticket sales like a young team that will be built to legitimately compete for the near future.
 
I really don't get the playoff talk. The team still sits 13th in the Eastern conference, has played two more games than most other teams, and sits with an 8% chance of making playoffs per NHL Club Stats.
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Just covering the 'what if?' here, not stating that its likely to happen. The reason that is perfectly valid to discuss this is the Canes are starting to win more than they lose. They just have run off 8 points in their last 6 games. Can they keep that pace up over the last 39 games? Probably not. But 'What if' they did? Well, they would make the playoffs if they did (95 points, 95% chance per sportsclubstats.com). It won't take much for this all to swing the other way (ie if they get less than 4 out of the next 8 points they are probably pretty close to done without some sort of huge surge). But 'what if' that doesn't happen and the Canes get another 6 points out of the next 4 games?

I'm more worried about the potential impacts to Ronnie's ability to simply and without hesitation trade away UFAs than anything else. I'm under no illusions that the Canes would be anything more than 1st round fodder and potentially could damage their future somewhat by actually making the playoffs. The Canes play over the next 3 weeks will drive this discussion. Its not easy to sell the owner or many fans on 'yeah, we are right on the playoff bubble or currently hold the last WC spot, but the best thing for the franchise is for us to jettison some top line players for some draft picks and prospects and then just pray we somehow don't completely fall apart and miss the playoffs yet again'. My concern is 'what if' we actually get to that point, even if its still a long shot that we do. If you are pulling for that to 100% not happen, the Canes need to get back to losing more games than they win because these last 6 (or even last 9 games) are a step in the wrong direction.
 
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CarolinaPen said:
If Francis loses track of his current rebuild process and gets anywhere near caught up in playoff talk this year, he is simply not going to be a good GM. Taking the eye off the ball (long term stability) for a pipe dream of making the playoffs with a team anchored by half of the top 6 D-men playing in their first NHL year would be idiotic. This team was not constructed to make the playoffs this year and even if by some wild fluke did would be swept in 4 games. For the first time in a decade this team seems to be rebuilding for the long haul in a positive way. Breaking that path would be more of the JR crap that caused this team to miss playoffs 8 of last 9 years and have an empty prospect pool.

Having said that, I don't think Francis cares about the playoffs this year and will continue to focus on the rebuild and the long term growth and stability of this franchise. He has done a pretty good job so far and will likely just continue down that path. Outside of the excitement about how the team is developing, I really don't get the playoff talk. The team still sits 13th in the Eastern conference, has played two more games than most other teams, and sits with an 8% chance of making playoffs per NHL Club Stats.
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There is absolutely no "hope we make the playoff talks" so people, please stop bringing that up. :) I think we are all _firmly_ on the rebuild wagon and the point is that we are afraid from precedent that if the team is sniffing something come tradedeadline, that somehow idiocy will prevail and derail.
 
Thanks JN, that explains my point much clearer. Although I would state that I'm probably one of the few here that actually would be 100% ok if this team does pull off the long shot and makes the playoffs. It would complicate things for sure but I can't root for this team to start losing games until we are dead and buried. The dirt has been shoveled on this team's grave for the last 2 months here but damn if this team isn't still trying to crawl out of the grave still.

Again it won't take much to seal this team's fate of definitely missing the playoffs, but this team is prolonging that with their play over the last 3 weeks. 3 more weeks of that same level of play and we continue this conversation (for good or bad). 3 weeks of one point per game or less and we can all move on with discussion of the return we should hope for when Ronnie starts the purge.
 
The best thing that could happen to this team between now and the end of the season would be for them to continue to play hard and develop the youth that has finally taken shape while moving almost all the UFA guys for draft picks and prospects that will help build a better future sooner rather than later. The Canes are positioned well to get assets back for E. Staal, Versteeg and Liles...with perhaps Ward and McClement also garnering some minor interest. They already sit with two first round draft picks with the chance to add a third if they play their cards right! They will have lots of cap space come summer if Wardo and Eric are off the books...so clean slate for Ronnie to really mold this team into his own.
 
I am not rooting for the team to lose....which is actually different than my stance the past couple of years once we got to this point of the season. I want the team to continue to play well and for the younger guys to continue to develop and gain experience. I now see a future vision which is something that lacked for many years. I think the schedule and results will take care of itself.

There was dirt shoveled on this team because they bombed the month of November. That month killed any hope (which wasn't much anyways) of making the playoffs. They are definitely playing better, but if we use the last 3 weeks as a guide they are 5-3-2 over that time. 12 points in that 10 game span. Even that level of play continued through the rest of the year does not get them in the playoffs.

I guess the reason I am sensitive about playoff talk regarding the Hurricanes is because I don't want it to take hold and grow into something that would impact long term rebuilding decisions. This franchise has a bad history of seemingly making decisions based on Internet board and media opinions. Like JamesNorthern said I am worried that "idiocy will prevail and derail" the hope and excitement I am feeling about the future of this team. That really should become the organizations new motto if they manage to screw this rebuild up!
 
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