NHL Offseason Thread

[The Jackal]

Few moves already, 'hawks dump Bickell with Teravainen to the 'canes who also just re-signed Cam Ward for two years.

Draft is only eight days away.

Most importantly, the Flyers are buying out RJ Umberger!

[Johnny93g]

Amazing time to be a Leafs fan. Top prospect system in the league, Auston Matthews a week away. 12 draft picks, which really means too many prospects, and some trading is gonna happen, plus, the whole city believes Stamkos is about 2 weeks away!!!

This is what you call HOPE!

[Pyser]

kings switch to kopitar as captain

[molson]

An NHL team on the Vegas strip really changes the dynamic of my trips there.

[cartman]

The Stars traded the negotiation rights for Goligoski to the Coyotes for a 5th round pick.

[Neuqua]

I'm so glad the Bickell era is over. I just hope Shaw re-signs for a decent number now.

I hate the salary cap.

[Izulde]

I'm going to have to start paying attention to the NHL now. Haven't since the mid-late '90s.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by molson

An NHL team on the Vegas strip really changes the dynamic of my trips there.

That's exciting that Vegas has a pro team!

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I'm going to have to start paying attention to the NHL now. Haven't since the mid-late '90s.

I'll be interested in how they choose to build the team. Vegas has a chance to get some quality players if the expansion draft rumors are true.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Dutch

That's exciting that Vegas has a pro team!

Absolutely! Now I can have a western conference team to cheer for that is literally a 5 hour drive or a 45 minute flight away from me.

I miss NHL live so this will help that out.

[muns]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I'll be interested in how they choose to build the team. Vegas has a chance to get some quality players if the expansion draft rumors are true.

+1

The pens are going to have some tough choices to make. Fleury being one of them.

[murrayyyyy]

Okay, so it's official. Someone school me on it.

[Izulde]

Yeah, it's been 20 years since I've followed NHL, so I'm way behind, too.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Okay, so it's official. Someone school me on it.

They start the 2017-18 seasons. Other 30 owners are splitting 500 Million.

I still don't think the NHL needed expansion, when there are a handful of teams that probably should relocate.

[The Jackal]

"The Las Vegas franchise will play in the $375 million T-Mobile Arena which opened earlier this year and have a home in the Pacific Division. They will also have the same draft lottery odds as the team finishing with the third-fewest points during the 2016-17 season. They are guaranteed to pick no lower than sixth in the 2017 draft."

[murrayyyyy]

* The Las Vegas franchise must select one player from each presently existing club for a total of 30 players (not including additional players who may be acquired as the result of violations of the Expansion Draft rules).

* The Las Vegas franchise must select the following number of players at each position: 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders.

* The Las Vegas franchise must select a minimum of 20 players who are under contract for the 2017-18 season.

* The Las Vegas franchise must select players with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season's upper limit for the salary cap.

* The Las Vegas franchise may not buy out any of the players selected in the Expansion Draft earlier than the summer following its first season.

The 30 NHL Clubs must submit their Protection List by 5:00 P.M. ET on Saturday, June 17, 2017. The Las Vegas team must submit their Expansion Draft Selections by 5:00 P.M. ET on June 20 and the announcement of their selections will be released on made on June 21.

[murrayyyyy]

Those rules seem like they can be really good on defense/goaltending early on.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Looking at those rules, I imagine (if it's not prohibited) we'll seem them take 1 or more players with a big contract number that are known to be planning to retire. That shouldn't count as them 'buying out" the deal.

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Looking at those rules, I imagine (if it's not prohibited) we'll seem them take 1 or more players with a big contract number that are known to be planning to retire. That shouldn't count as them 'buying out" the deal.

cough Marian Hossa cough

[MacroGuru]

Wow. I think the Western Conference is to tough to call them a playoff team, but dang, they could be tough quickly.

[stevew]

The protection rules are a bit weird too. Such as what you can expose, etc.

[bhlloy]

I tend to not agree that the team will be particularly good early on. They will be good compared to the absolute dross that have been NHL expansion teams in the past, sure. But teams aren't stupid and they aren't going to lose decent players for nothing. The list looks ok right now but that isn't going to be the final list, because any decent player that can't be protected will likely be dealt before the draft.

What will be available are the expensive vets who might be ok for a season or two and teams are looking to get rid of, but I don't think that is how you want to start building an expansion team.

A good example is everyone's team has Tyler Myers, but there is no way the Jets are letting an asset that they gave up a lot for just go in an expansion draft. That caliber of player is just not going to be there by the time it rolls around.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by General Mike

They start the 2017-18 seasons. Other 30 owners are splitting 500 Million.

I still don't think the NHL needed expansion, when there are a handful of teams that probably should relocate.

So is this from a talent perspective or a "not a cold city" perspective?

For the first point, didn't we just have a Stanley Cup between 2 back goalies? To think that there aren't 30 more guys in the entire world that could play in the NHL is absurd.

For the second point (since I hear it more I have a bit more to say about it) can we examine who filled their arenas last year? A 100 pt team in the largest city in the US was 27th in filling capacity of their stadium. The 28th team is the only team in their Northern state. If you want to, bring up Atlanta. You know that city who couldn't sell out baseball playoff games for the Braves when they won their division every single year. While we are on baseball, it's a warm weather sport, correct? Get rid of the Yankees, Twins, Cubs, White Sox, Mets, Jays, Rockies etc... because they might have to play a game in April or October/November when it is cold. I swear this has to be the one argument that shows the intelligence of their fan base. What's the last "fog" game the NHL had and where was it located? Wild guess, Bruins in an old arena in 88? Thank god there's been no new technology since then.

Heck, maybe you can get away with arguing that there isn't a super fan base for the sport but no league would be dumb enough to make an attempt by playing regular season games that count in a new market like London, Mexico City, or even China. Oh wait, the NFL... The first outdoor NHL game was in Vegas, the NHL awards are always in Vegas.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

A good example is everyone's team has Tyler Myers, but there is no way the Jets are letting an asset that they gave up a lot for just go in an expansion draft. That caliber of player is just not going to be there by the time it rolls around.

I both agree and disagree with this. Myers probably won't be available because the Jets will trade either him or Trouba before that happens.

However, the Jets in particular are almost guaranteed to lose a reasonably decent player. They just have a huge pool of assets that aren't necessarily stars but that either are, or are very likely to quickly grow into, solid top 9 players. They can't protect them all and one of them is going to get picked up.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

So is this from a talent perspective or a "not a cold city" perspective?

Neither. It's from the perspective that there are a few teams that aren't adequately supported in their current locations. Taking one guy off each team isn't going to have much of an effect and I don't mind southern teams if people come to the games.

[Neuqua]

Bummer seeing the Blackhawks trade Shaw to Montreal for 2 2nd rounders.

Shaw and Gallagher are going to be the NHL's most hated duo to play against in a while.

[Fidatelo]

So exciting for the Jets to take Laine, I was genuinely concerned that Chevy might go off the board. Sure hope he becomes the sniper we've been needing so badly.

[Fidatelo]

So the Jets moved up 4 spots from 22 to 18 to grab Stanley, by giving up 36 in exchange for 79. Lots of comments on the AIH boards are really down on Stanley, but the local TSN radio station indicated that Chevy and his scouts had Stanley ranked 'way higher' and so they got aggressive to ensure they could grab him. I'm not really sure what to think, though it's hard to get too down about drafting a dude that's over 6'7" to play defense.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Weber for Subban seems like it warrants a mention here.

Taylor Hall to the Devils, eh maybe not nearly as much so, but still.

[Logan]

Also Stamkos sticking in TB.

That was a crazy half hour of hockey news.

Can't say I understand that deal from Montreal's perspective.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Weber for Subban seems like it warrants a mention here.

Taylor Hall to the Devils, eh maybe not nearly as much so, but still.

That shocked me, I was hoping they both would have been traded out of the conference.

[The Jackal]

That Hall trade was just awful for the Oilers.

Weber is still a beast (though starting to decline) but trading Subban from 27-31 years old for Weber 31-40 ... oof.

[bhlloy]

Two absolutely insane trades. Hall is a top 5 winger in the league and Subban is a top 5 defender. I can see both ending up on a top 10 list of worst NHL trades ever in a few years

[BishopMVP]

I don't think the PK Subban one is quite THAT bad. No idea why Montreal's never loved him behind the scenes, but there's been enough smoke there having him with a NMC was a risk. And as bad as Weber's deal looks superficially, the actual cash was so front loaded he'll be getting paid peanuts the last couple years and there's no shortage of teams who'll take a contract with a high cap hit and low cash payout.

So it really comes down to whether Subban or Weber is better over the next 5 years... where yes, I'd lean Subban, but it's not a big difference, especially if you prefer more defensive defensemen, which I believe has always been part of the Montreal FO's issue with Subban.

[bhlloy]

Sorry, I'd put very good money on Weber being a traffic cone by the start of the season after next. He looked like his mobility was already starting to go in the Anaheim series (which was the only time I'd watched him last year) and his advanced stats have been pretty negative for the last few years

I think Subban is going to clearly be the better player over the next 5 years and Weber ends up being one of the worst contracts in the league. Big defenseman usually end up going pretty quickly

[The Jackal]

Agreed, I've always loved Weber, but this trade doesn't make a lot of sense. Price/Weber will be an awesome backbone for a couple of years but do they have enough else to be contenders?

The Hall trade is still probably worse though. At least I can understand that Weber is awesome, but Hall is maybe a top 5 winger in the league and you got.. Adam Larsson.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by Logan

Also Stamkos sticking in TB.

That was a crazy half hour of hockey news.

Can't say I understand that deal from Montreal's perspective.

same here...but twitter said they won the deal...wtf

[Johnny93g]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

Amazing time to be a Leafs fan. Top prospect system in the league, Auston Matthews a week away. 12 draft picks, which really means too many prospects, and some trading is gonna happen, plus, the whole city believes Stamkos is about 2 weeks away!!!

This is what you call HOPE!

1/2 ain't bad!

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by The Jackal

The Hall trade is still probably worse though. At least I can understand that Weber is awesome, but Hall is maybe a top 5 winger in the league and you got.. Adam Larsson.

Apparently Chiarelli wanted to clear space to sign Milan Lucic! Guy's allergic to 40+ goal wingers. I'm glad that clown's out of Boston, though his replacement is even worse...

[murrayyyyy]

So did Nashville just break the NHL 16 trading rules and built a dynasty team?

Subban (27), Josi (25), Ekholm (25), Ellis (25) on the backside. Foresberg (21) and Neal (28) up front. How many players can they keep or can Vegas just draft Poile? That guy seems to know what he is doing.

[bhlloy]

They can protect all 4, but will likely lose a good young forward as a result (you can protect 8 skaters or 3D/7F). And yeah, Poile is amazing. Possibly the best GM in all of sports right now - he got Forsberg for nothing, Johansen for Jones and now Subban for Weber.

For those who don't think this was an absolute travesty of a steal for Nashville:
https://twitter.com/travisyost/statu...812288/photo/1

[Young Drachma]

Shout out to Ray Shero.

[MikeVic]

Do you think there are GMs out there kicking themselves for not offering to get Subban or Hall. Both trades seem kind of dumb from the perspective of the team that traded them away.

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Do you think there are GMs out there kicking themselves for not offering to get Subban or Hall. Both trades seem kind of dumb from the perspective of the team that traded them away.

If the Oilers were dead set on a fairly young but NHL proven, decent cap hit, right handed defenseman who hasn't quite lived up to potential, there weren't a lot of teams that could offer that honestly. Plenty of teams could offer different packages that would have been much better, mostly centered around prospects - but for instance it's rumored the Oilers asked for Hamonic from NYI and Rastolainen from BUF and they both said no.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

For those who don't think this was an absolute travesty of a steal for Nashville:

And yet you just dealt the face of the franchise.

An injury to Subban, a major slump by Subban, a slow start, any number of things ... suddenly you have an irate fan base & some seats start to get warmer.