NHL Off-Topic thread

[nikethebike]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Don't worry, I have it on good authority the fate of that franchise will be decided in two weeks' time....

Sorry, had to get one more of those in there. It's the joke that keeps on giving.

In all seriousness, that franchise move has been a disaster from day 1. That having been said, I sort of agree with Bettman that moving franchises around is bad for the league, and I believe that, given a stable franchise, hockey could do reasonably well in Phoenix area. There are so many transplants and snowbirds, who incidentally are there during the hockey season, and when they were briefly competitive (bookending the 2000's), they did draw okay (although moreso the early 2000s run).

I'm not saying I'd put a franchise there today if I were starting from scratch, but given that it's already there, and that Seattle has gotten their own franchise, I'm not sure where else I'd put it (especially as they have to relocate to the Central to balance the divisions). Maybe move Denver to the Central and move Arizona to Portland? A natural Portland-Seattle rivalry would be good for a league lacking in rivalries at the moment. Actually, that's just a pro-sports-wide problem right now, but that's a different thread....

If they need to stick with the north division they will need an 8:th canadian team in order to balance divisions... Just sayin'...

[DrJones]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

If the NHL sticks with pre-COVID divisions, Arizona moves to the Central and Seattle takes their spot in the Pacific.

If the North Division is still a thing going forward, I'd say it's 95% likely the Sabres would be the 8th team (Detroit and Minnesota are remote possibilities - the Bruins would be the most entertaining choice, but that'd never happen). Seattle doesn't make any sense to me. Unlike the gulf between Leafs and Sabres ticket prices, Kraken tickets will be expensive AF - nobody from BC is going to travel down there except for Canucks games, and other Canadian teams will have no resonance with Seattle fans. No way the NHL would sabotage their newest market by having 90% of its road games being played in other time zones.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Speaking of Sabres, I just saw their jerseys for today. Their sword logo on the front with the 90s Sabres head. Their reverse retros I believe.

Their current look is the best one they've ever had, but I always liked that Hasek era logo. Seeing a modernized version of it looks cool.

The logo they used in the late 00s....let's never talk about that again. Crazy how a team who had 2 of the cooler looking logos in hockey had an era in between them with one of the worst logos.


In other stories, just heard Bergevin said the Subban/Weber deal was the best one he ever made....Even as the exact opposite of a Habs fan, I think that deal sucked and should've never happened.

Subban deal is up next season, and he's almost won a cup once, and made conference finals another year. Weber is signed for 4 more years than Subban,only had one real playoff year, and has been injured in 2 of the seasons with Habs.

Although...if Weber retires while under contract, that cap hit on the Preds would be the biggest joke of a rule in NHL history.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Sad news.

Walter Gretzky passes away.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Seems a change to the draft is coming up.

Instead of a draft lottery for the top 3 picks, it will be for the top 2 only (so the worst team is guaranteed a top 3 pick). However, you can only win the lottery twice in a 5 year span, and teams can only jump up 10 spots (which I still feel is too high).

Dont think these rules will apply this year, but regardless, the 2021 draft is going to be the craziest draft in quite some time.

You're drafting guys in July who you have barely seen play over the past 18 months. This will be the ultimate "lottery ticket" draft yet. Imo it would be foolish to even trade up in this year's draft. If I were a GM, no amount of scouting would make me feel confident on this class. I wouldn't even be surprised to see more buyers at the deadline dealing away picks for short term rentals.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

MAJOR breaking news!

NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN!

ESPN will get to broadcast 4 Stanley cup finals from 2022-2028.

NHL back on ESPN for first time since 2003-2004 season.

This is great news for the NHL. Hopefully ESPN can do NHL justice and finally start giving it respect instead of pretending like it didnt even exist.

NBC I'd guess gets the other part of the deal. Although if they do, I wonder when they air games. Monday and Tuesday will be filled with WWE, so Wednesday probably has NHL on USA. But which night becomes NHL on ESPN night? Tuesday and Thursday?

[slickdtc]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

MAJOR breaking news!

NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN!

How much is the signing bonus though? [emoji23]

For real, best case scenario. Get some games on ESPN, get to also stick with your partner for the last 15 years. Win win.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

How much is the signing bonus though? [emoji23]

For real, best case scenario. Get some games on ESPN, get to also stick with your partner for the last 15 years. Win win.

Nobody knows what the deal is, but people speculating that since its 4 years of SCF, that means ESPN gets the big deal and NBC/USA gets the secondary deal.

If the SCF ends up on ABC as well, that would be huge as well. For the NHL, getting games promoted as part of "championship June" alongside the NBA finals (maybe even instances where every day has either NBA finals or SCF) is obviously big for them.

I'd take ESPN/ABC over NBC/NBCSN/USA. But if the secondary deal is both NBC and USA, then having NBC,ESPN,ABC and USA hosting hockey will be great for the league. I personally will love seeing the NHL promotion for USA on WWE. USA is already an upgrade over NBCSN with them having 10m more subscribers than NBCSN had.

I wonder what talent they'd get. ESPN did let go many hockey people a couple of years back. Guys like Lebrun went to TSN. TSN has made some firings recently, perhaps ESPN looks for those people to possibly cover hockey. Maybe Dan O'Toole jumps to ESPN (doesn't seem like SN wants him, and TSNs firing was controversial).

[pietasterp]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

The problem is if the majority of the games or a significant number of them are only on ESPN+, in which case, this is sort of a downgrade for me, since I have no interest in yet another streaming service. We'll see how it goes, but presumably, having hockey on an "all sports" network that doesn't have to share time with "Law & Order" reruns and the like should - in theory - be a win.

Also, just the coverage of hockey on ESPN ought to improve, given how overboard ESPN goes with 'covering' their own broadcast events (want 4 straight hours of post-game analysis of a Cincinnati-Jacksonville Monday Night Football game that nobody watched? You're in luck!!). Seriously. ESPN covers the NBA like it's the Cuban missile crisis, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that they (over)paid $1.4 Billion/year to carry the league's games.

Anyway, as long as they bring back the ESPN hockey night theme music, I suppose that's a win for the US fans in and of itself.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

ESPN+ definitely will be part of the deal, but heres hoping it's a secondary part of their coverage.

Like if they want to show HNIC games on Saturday night, they could opt for showing the SN feed on ESPN+ if they want.

[nikethebike]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

MAJOR breaking news!

NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN!

NHL back on ESPN for first time since 2003-2004 season.

I wonder what the cap hit will be during these 7 seasons... Is it a Loui deal? 🤣


They better bring back the ESPN hockey theme. Being a guy growing up in the nineties nothing screams NHL more than that song to me. NHL2K5 was awesome in part just due to the music and presentation.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

I wonder what the cap hit will be during these 7 seasons... Is it a Loui deal? [emoji1787]


They better bring back the ESPN hockey theme. Being a guy growing up in the nineties nothing screams NHL more than that song to me. NHL2K5 was awesome in part just due to the music and presentation.

I believe the NHL did say the cap wasn't going up next season, but hopefully it can go up lots soon.

I know for the Leafs, they've been banking on the cap going up. Their current core with a cap over 90m is definitely what they've been planning for. Those 11m cap hits are still big, but that would feel like an 8-9m cap hit with the salary caps of the last several years.

[slickdtc]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Yeah, if NHL didn’t negotiate for at least some of the SCF games to be on ABC, they ****ed up. But then again, first few weren’t on NBC either. They played the first 2-3 on NBCSN. I think that’s the most confusing part for the average (dumb) consumer. Stick to one network for the series.

[nikethebike]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

I believe the NHL did say the cap wasn't going up next season, but hopefully it can go up lots soon.

I know for the Leafs, they've been banking on the cap going up. Their current core with a cap over 90m is definitely what they've been planning for. Those 11m cap hits are still big, but that would feel like an 8-9m cap hit with the salary caps of the last several years.

It was a joke... As in what will the cap hit be for ESPN to sign NHL for 7 years...


You know when you need to explain a joke, it failed... 🤣

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Not sure how I feel about the 75 games being on ESPN+ vs just 25 on ESPN/ABC.



NBC's old deal was 2b for 10 years(200m per year). Reports saying ESPN is 2.8b for 7 years (400m per year). Canadian deal is about 450m. So that's 850m guaranteed. Add in whatever NBC will pay, and that's over 1B now for TV deals PER YEAR. I'd say maybe 300m from NBC?

Sure, NBA and NFL are well above that, but for reference, MLBs TV deal is around 2b or so I believe between Turner,ESPN,FOX. NHLs popularity has more chances of going up thanks to this deal than MLB re upping their deals on the same networks with same fanbase.

I'm reading through some comments and its funny how stupid some people are. They're ripping ESPN for airing hockey because hockey "isn't a sport" and "hockey's dying", like seriously? What world do people live in where they dont think hockey is a sport. NHL is more profitable today than ever before. Love seeing some people claim being a multi billion dollar global company is considered dying and unpopular.