The Official NHL 2014 Offseason Thread
 

Rather than putting this in the old regular season thread.

I was way behind the times this season, but I have the THN Future Watch issue if anybody wants a review, leave a team name, I'll post them as I can.

Jonathan Drouin in the #1 prospect, Johnny Whitehall (aka Gibson) was 2nd - these are done around December/January.

AVS!!!!

Probably should have 2014 in the title

As explained at the beginning of the magazine, each team received a letter grade, a system ranking (1-30), and a +/- score: where do they rank in comparison to where their average draft position was over the last 4 drafts. All NHLer regulars 21 and under also included

So a team ranked 1st, and has the highest avg draft spot would be even. Same for the team ranked 30 and picking 30th, on average.

Colorado
Ranked 9th (includes Landeskog and McKinnon)
Grade B
ADR even (9th/9th)

1- Chris Bigras (64 overall) - D - #32 2013 - Owen Sound (OHL)
2- Duncan Siemens - D - #11 2011 - Lake Erie (AHL)
3- Joey Hishon - C - #17 2010 - Lake Erie (AHL)
4- Calvin Pickard - G - #49 2010 - Lake Erie (AHL)
5- Stefan Elliott - D - #49 2009 - Lake Erie (AHL)
6- Sami Aittokallio - G - #107 2010 - Lake Erie (AHL)
7- Spencer Martin - G - #63 2013 - Missassauga (OHL)
8- Will Butcher - D - #123 2013 - U Denver (NCHC)
9- Mitchell Heard - C - #41 2012 - Lake Erie (AHL)
10- Trot Bourke - LW - #72 2012 - Prince George (WHL)

Sharks (aka perennial under achievers)

Jets please, thank you.

San Jose
Ranked 21 (includes Hertl and Nieto)
Grade C+
+/- even (21/21)

1- Mirco Mueller (17 overall) - D - #18 2013 -Everett (WHL)
2- Gabryel Boudreau - LW - #49 2013 - Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)
3- Taylor Doherty - D - #57 2009 - Worcester (AHL)
4- Freddie Hamilton - C - #129 2010 - Worcester (AHL)
5- Chris Tierney - C - #55 2012 - London (OHL)
6- Nick Petrecki - D - #28 2007 - Worcester (AHL)
7- Konrad Abeltshauser - D - #163 2010 - Worcester (AHL)
8- Harri Sateri - G - #106 2008 - Worcester (AHL)
9- Christophe Lalancette - C - #109 2012 - Drummondville (QMJHL)
10- Dylan Demelo - D - #179 2011 - Worcester (AHL)

Petrecki seems like he should be 30 years old...been around forever.

Winnipeg
Rank 8th (includes Trouba and Scheifele)
Grade B
+/- -4 (drafting 4th/rank 8th)

1- Josh Morrissey (30 overall) - D - #13 2013 - Prince Albert (WHL)
2- Nic Petan (57 overall) - C - #43 2013 - Portland (WHL)
3- Eric Comrie (73 overall) - G - #59 2013 - Tri-City (WHL)
4- Adam Lowry - C - #67 2011 - St. John's (AHL)
5- Andrew Copp - C - #104 2013 - Michigan (Big Ten)
6- Connor Hekkebucyk - G - #130 2012 - UMASS Lowell (Hockey East)
7- Julian Melchiori - D - #87 2010 - St. John's (AHL)
8- Scott Kosmachuk - RW - #70 2012 - Guelph (OHL)
9- JC Lipon - RW - #91 2013 - St. John's (AHL)
10- Ryan Olsen - C - #160 2012 - Kelowna (WHL)

Listening right now to WB/S Baby Pens and St John's in AHL Conference final.

I'll post my request hopefully in a few weeks!

Canes for now?

Didn't bring it with me to work, I'll get it later tonight

Not expecting anything pretty, anyway, so no rush. :)

Flyers, please!

Bruins?

Buffalo Sabres please!

Carolina
Rank 5th (includes Skinner, Faulk, Murphy, Lindholm)
Grade B+
+/- +5 (Rank 5/ADR 10)

1- Brock McGinn - LW - #47 2012 - Guelph (OHL)
2- Michal Jordan - D - #105 2008 - Charlotte (AHL)
3- Victor Rask - C - #42 2011 - Charlotte (AHL)
4- Trevor Carrick - D - #115 2012 - Sudbury (OHL)
5- Phil DiGiuseppe - LW - #38 2012 - U Michigan (Big Ten)
6- Brett Pesce - D - #66 2013 - New Hampshire (Hockey East)
7- Sergey Tolchinsky - LW - FA 2013 - SS Marie (OHL)
8- Daniel Altshuller - G - #69 2012 - Oshawa (OHL)
9- Keegan Lowe - D - #73 2011 - Charlotte (AHL)
10- Jaccob Slavin - D - #120 2012 - Colorado College (NCHC)

Obviously, high ranking based mainly on the guys already in the NHL...which isn't a bad thing.

Philadelphia
Rank 27th (includes Couturier)
Grade C+
+/- even (rank 27/ADR 27)

1- Scott Laughton (15 overall) - C - #20 2012 - Oshawa (OHL)
2- Samuel Morin (56 overall) - D - #12 2013 - Rimouski (QMJHL)
3- Shayne Gostisbehere - D - #78 2012 - Union (ECAC)
4- Nick Cousins - C - #68 2011 - Adirondack (AHL)
5- Mark Alt - D - Trade w/ CAR 2013 - Adirondack (AHL)
6- Anthony Stolarz - G - #45 2012 - London (OHL)
7- Robert Hagg - D - #41 2013 - Ornskoldsvik (Swed)
8- Taylor Leier - LW - #117 2012 - Portland (WHL)
9- Oliver Lauridsen - D - #196 2009 - Adirondack (AHL)
10- Petr Straka - RW - #FA 2013 - Adirondack (AHL)

Not Flyers related, but your buddy Dumoulin ranked Pens 2nd prospect, #45 overall.

Boston
Ranked 15th (includes Hamilton)
Grade B-
+/- +2 (rank 15/ADR 17)

1- Malcolm Subban (25 overall) - G - #24 2012 - Providence (AHL)
2- Joe Morrow (50 overall) - D - Trade w/ DAL 2013 - Providence (AHL)
3- Ryan Spooner (59 overall) - C - #45 2010 - Providence (AHL)
4- Niklas Svedberg - G - FA 2012 - Providence (AHL)
5- David Warsofsky - D - Trade w/ STL 2010 - Providence (AHL)
6- Alexander Khokhlachev - C - #40 2011 - Providence (AHL)
7- Brian Ferlin - RW - #121 2011 - Cornell (ECAC)
8- Linus Arnesson - D - #60 2013 - Djurgarden (Swed)
9- Anthony Camara - LW - #81 2011 - Providence (AHL)
10- Jared Knight - -C - #32 2010 - Providence (AHL)

Buffalo
Ranked 6th (includes Girgensons)
Grade B+
+/- +2 (rank 6/ADR 8)

1-Rasmus Ristolainen (7 overall) - D - #8 2013 - Rochester (AHL)
2- Nikita Zadrov (8 overall) - D - #16 2013 - London (OHL)
3- Mikhail Grigorenko (42 overall) - C - #12 2012 - Quebec (QMJHL)
4- Joel Armia (54 overall) - RW - #16 2011 - Rochester (AHL)
5- Jake McCabe - D - #44 2012 - U Wisconsin (Big Ten)
6- Johan Larsson - C - Trade w/ MIN 2013 - Rochester (AHL)
7- JT Compher - C - #35 2013 - U Michigan (Big Ten)
8- Nick Baptiste - RW - #69 2013 - Sudbury (OHL)
9- Gustav Possler - RW - #130 2013 - Modo (Swed)
10- Brayden McNabb - D - #66 2009 - Rochester (AHL)

So Penguins hiring Jim Rutherford as GM.

More and more, hard not to listen to the rumors swirling about the management structure of this team.

Marketing > winning, at least it seems that way.

Are we talking about the Pirates?

#BylsmaOut

Pretty much what they're becoming.

The Steelers have been bad recently, but at least have the sense to keep the "product" people and the business people separate for the most part.

This was just....Wow

Thornton, Bruins will miss each other

Columbus trades RJ Umberger + 4th round pick

Philadelphia trades Scott Hartnell

I know Hartnell isn't the player he once was but that seemed really curious when I saw it.

And Hartnell had a NMC. So sort of curious he'd OK the move. Unless he made the initial request?

Don't fully understand it. Sure Philly gets out of those last few years of his deal in 17/18 and 18/19. But no savings today.

Yeah this is a weird move. I'm going to reserve judgement until I see what else they do - but this is a downgrade.

4.6m vs 4.75m, so not saving cap space. Maybe Umberger is faster? I'm not really sure. Hextall seems serious about increasing team speed, and Hartnell is not very fleet of foot.

Also very possible they turn around and try to trade Umberger somewhere else, since he doesn't have a NTC and Hartnell did.

Umberger is not very quick. He was a healthy scratch in I believe 2 games vs the Penguins in round 1 this year.

Buyout wise it's pretty minimal difference dollar wise, just that a buy out of Hartnell would carry on longer because of length of remaining contract. And Comcast could eat that if they really wanted to.

R.J. Umberger buyout from CapGeek.com
2014-15: $1,600,000
2015-16: $1,600,000
2016-17: $1,600,000
2017-18: $1,500,000
2018-19: $1,500,000
2019-20: $1,500,000

Scott Hartnell buyout from CapGeek.com
2014-15: $1,250,000
2015-16: $1,250,000
2016-17: $1,250,000
2017-18: $1,750,000
2018-19: $3,250,000
2019-20: $1,500,000
2020-21: $1,500,000
2021-22: $1,500,000
2022-23: $1,500,000
2023-24: $1,500,000

Clearly, Hartnell feels his best shot at a Cup is going through Columbus to LA.

LOL. More like PJ Stock, Lyndon Byers and John Wensink. john wensink challenges the minny bench - YouTube

Saw on Twitter that Richards/Carter were traded on 6/23/11 and JVR was traded on 6/23/12. Not sure what happened last year...maybe separate knob on the alarm?

It wouldn't make any sense for the Flyers to buy-out Umberger. Either they see him as a good complement to Couturier/Read for the third line or they like that they could move him in a trade easier than Hartnell.

It's a head scratcher but let's see what else, if anything, Hexy has up his sleeve for the roster. He's maintained that he wants to build through the draft and keep young players - I'm still hoping he can somehow pry the #1 from Florida..

Pat Burns, finally, inducted into the HOF

Along with Hasek, Forsberg, Modano, Blake and Bill McCreary

Fuck yeah! Hard to argue with any of those selections, but they finally got the biggest one right. Doesn't eliminate the wrongdoing of not inducting him while he was alive but good to see none the less

I kind of wonder what the process is like for someone like McCreary

After watching years of hockey, you recognize names. But what exactly is the standard for an official to make the HHOF?

"Well, once, in a playoff game, he called a penalty in OT...so he's legit!"

Lindros should make it next year...

what if his dad won't let him?

Flyers sign Schenn long term...

Hope he got a NMC

Will he force a trade to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame?

SI

Stupid Larry Bertuzzi...

Since when is two years long term?

Very reasonable bridge contract, 2.5m per year.

Awesome Chicago Tribune title

:D

SI

just quoting TSN.... but yeah, great contract for philly

trades and draft and stuff today, right?

I believe so, yes.

TSN is reporting Kesler to the Ducks for Bonino, Sbisa and the 24th overall pick.

Jesus that's a steal. Bonino is good but also at the peak of his value, Sbisa is terrible (sad face as he's one of my favorite players and looked like he was a stud at one point) and the #24 is nothing.

Good thing Vancouver didn't move him at the draft! The package on the table then was far bigger than that. What a train wreck that front office has become.

Garrison to TB. Canucks dismantling.