The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Ducks re-signed Lindholm. 5.25M per year for 6 years. Now we wait and see what their next move will be.

Ducks will be one of the teams that'll be interesting to watch pre-expansion draft.

The problem for them, forward wise they have Vermette,Perry,Getzlaf,Kesler,Bieksa all with NMC,meaning they're auto-protected. So that's 4F/1D already protected. Meaning they can either have 3F/2D or 3 skaters also protected.

F wise, Rakell/Silfverberg are the main notables
D wise, Lindholm,Vatanen,Fowler,Despres are the notables

I'd be surprised if Rakell/Silfverberg aren't protected, so that means they'd have to go the 3F/2D route. Fowler/Despres are likely the odd men out in this situation.

Under this scenario,they'd still have 1F spot to protect(unless they want to use it up on Cogliano or something). A JVR-Fowler type deal would work out perfectly for Ducks,especially if Leafs take on as much of JVRs 16-17 cap hit as possible. Leafs have cap room to play with this year, and badly need D. Ducks could use a top 6 forward under 30 years old. Win-Win for both teams.

Rumor has it if you get a player to waive their NMC, then they don't have to be protected. If they get Kesler and Bieksa to waive, then they'll be fine.

If I was them, I'd try to use Fowler to try and dump Stoner's contract, Teravainen style.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

They better keep Ek up. He'll get more benefit staying in Minnesota than being anywhere else.

If they can play and they're proven to be able to play, then let them ****in' play.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Rumor has it if you get a player to waive their NMC, then they don't have to be protected. If they get Kesler and Bieksa to waive, then they'll be fine.

If I was them, I'd try to use Fowler to try and dump Stoner's contract, Teravainen style.

If either guy waives, they're going to Vegas. Would either guy want to give up being on Ducks to play on bad Vegas team at this point in careers?

Of all teams NMCs, Horton on Leafs is only one I see being a guaranteed NMC waive. Assuming he has one cause it switches over to a ntc in 2017, just don't know if it officially changes before or after expansion draft.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

HNIC tonight! Featuring the "Forever Rivals" Leafs-Habs!

Gonna be weird facing Habs with no PK. Minus 09-10, every season I've watched had either Koivu or Subban on Montreal. Sure, they still got Price, but skater wise,there was always that one guy specifically to look out for on your rival team. PK was the one Habs player I actually liked. Now it's easy to hate them again.

Game in Montreal too, so they get first look at "MNM". And a bonus, Bob Cole likely calling the game too.

[Money99]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

HNIC tonight! Featuring the "Forever Rivals" Leafs-Habs!

Gonna be weird facing Habs with no PK. Minus 09-10, every season I've watched had either Koivu or Subban on Montreal. Sure, they still got Price, but skater wise,there was always that one guy specifically to look out for on your rival team. PK was the one Habs player I actually liked. Now it's easy to hate them again.

Game in Montreal too, so they get first look at "MNM". And a bonus, Bob Cole likely calling the game too.

There was (another) interesting article on Puck Daddy about the PK-Weber deal:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/predators-puzzled-why-p-k-subban-didnt-fit-with-canadiens-133316300.html

Long and short of it was, PK was always in a great mood regardless how the team was playing.
Former teammates who've played with both said that Weber was/is very stoic who didn't approve of players being good moods after losses.

I can see Therien being ticked off with any player who appears to be loving life, and playing in the NHL, after losses.
What I don't get is, PK never gave less than 100% on any shift. Even in last years disastrous season, he was their best player nearly every game.

Weber's been great for the Habs so for their sake, I hope he keeps it up.
Subban's struggled a bit in Nashville, but I think he turns it around sooner than later.
It'll be in season 2 or 3 where we really see if Subban pulls ahead as far as value added compared to Weber.

[gopher_guy]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Dubnyk with 3 straight shutouts.

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

If either guy waives, they're going to Vegas. Would either guy want to give up being on Ducks to play on bad Vegas team at this point in careers?

Why would Vegas take bad contracts/players such as Bieksa or Kesler? This isn't 2011 anymore. Even if Anaheim follows my idea, they would still lose someone good, such as Josh Manson, but it wouldn't be as bad as the alternative.

Other guys that should be asked to waive that wouldn't be taken if McPhee has any sense: The Girardi/Staal dumpster fire, Jason Pominville, Francois Beauchemin, David Clarkson, Bobby Ryan, Dion Phaneuf, Tobias Enstrom and potentially more. There are some cases where I can see the player saying no if the team asked, such as Scott Hartnell, Marc-Andre Fleury and the like, but those overpaid vets can be pretty assured that they won't end up on Vegas. If McPhee wants to overpay some vets, that's what free agency is for; he should use the expansion draft to get reasonable contracts and young-ish players.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Vegas still needs to hit the cap floor. You can take all the younger/cheaper guys you want, but if you don't hit the floor, you're in big trouble. And no big money FA is gonna sign in Vegas in its first year.

And Vegas needs to sell merchandise and draw ratings too. Not like a Bieksa or Kesler is a big name guy, but big enough that they'd sell jerseys in Vegas and at least be the notables on what will be a bad team for its first few years.

Not to mention if Vegas does draft these big money guys to hit the cap floor, they could later trade them and retain salary in order to get a better return in a trade. If you got Kesler at 2m a year, I'm sure some team would give up a fair amount for him.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Lol Leafs D. Just trade for Trouba or Fowler already! Leafs D has sucked for as long as I can remember. When Bryan McCabe and Dion Phaneuf are 2 of the biggest name dmen you had the past decade+, you need to improve bad.

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Vegas doesn't need to hit the cap floor their first year, they just need to hit 44 M, which is an average of 1.9 M a player. This is easily doable without taking back bad players/contracts. Even if one comes up short, bad teams haven't had issues signing FAs in the past, just look at the Panthers or Coyotes.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Vegas doesn't need to hit the cap floor their first year, they just need to hit 44 M, which is an average of 1.9 M a player. This is easily doable without taking back bad players/contracts. Even if one comes up short, bad teams haven't had issues signing FAs in the past, just look at the Panthers or Coyotes.

It's 44M at the draft itself, but they still need to reach the cap floor by time the season itself begins. You kind of want to make a statement to your fanbase from the start and try and stand out as not just another expansion team who has abunch of nobodies for the first few years of your existence. NHL wants the Vegas team to be at least somewhat competitive. Not saying they'll take on every bigger name high salary guy on each team, but don't think it's so farfetched to think they wouldn't take a Kesler or Bieksa if they were available.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Wild are on fire and the Rangers put up 6 goals on the Lightning tonight.

I'm sure when baseball is over and I have more time to watch intently, both these teams will crash and burn.

[Kobalt]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Honest question, when does Toronto fans/media turn their backs on Matthews because he shows no emotion?

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2016-17 Regular Season Talk Thread

Honest question, when does Toronto fans/media turn their backs on Matthews because he shows no emotion?

Toronto media turns their backs on everyone at any given moment. They singlehandedly drive people away from the city.