Search results

Yeah. The union probably wouldn't have agreed to something that especially penalizes signing 35+ year old players if there weren't an attempt at cap shenanigans in the deal itself.

I don't think this deal is great or anything but anyone who's legit worked up about it has been poisoned by GM brain. It's a small deal for a 4th line guy. They can buy if they need to, they can probably trade it if they need to and the odds of it having a significant on-ice effect on the club...

So this middling team is somehow going to be even worse at guard next year?

Also you have to figure that there's enough of a divide between scouts and the GM that a scout can be honest with another team's scout and not worry about whether or not the GM then later decides to trade up or back or whatever. Especially if the two teams aren't drafting particularly near each...

Well, you can, you would just need to replace it with something that provides incentives for players to sign with smaller clubs. So, for instance, if you eliminated the draft but also eliminated a rookie wage scale then teams with cap space(usually bad teams) could offer highly sought after...

All of my criticisms aside, I bet the NHL draft does reasonably decent numbers during one of the deader times of the year for sports programming. So, no, they probably want to keep it.  Yeah, I have to be honest, that makes even less sense to me. And I don't think you've really summed up what...

Right so, again, what you are proposing is a larger departure from the stated goals of the draft than simply abandoning the draft altogether. If you simply abandoned the draft if the Blackhawks missed out on Bedard because he chose to sign with someone else, they could still try to sign Fantilli...

Except what you're suggesting both does away with the primary reason for the draft(giving the worst teams exclusive negotiating rights to the best prospects) while also not allowing for the mechanics of the salary cap to push those players to the teams with the most cap space(Again, usually the...

At that point though why even have a draft? Drafts are bad. They're stupid. They reward incompetence. They're anti-competitive.

The fact that we saw absolutely no trades suggests to me teams weren't all that interested in trading up because they think there's not a huge gap in the 20-50 range and/or they're really valuing the late 2nds/early 3rds that are usually the currency in those trades. So for all of the "they...

Well, no. What justifies it is that they clearly think he was the best player available in that spot. Obviously if you can trade down and get better value that'd be my preference but if you can't you're not going to take a player you like less because other scouting services have him rated...

I mean, fellas, we can't argue with that.

This definitely isn't a Dubas pick. He's not 22 and playing for a European team who may or may not exist.

I think the reports of them working the phones suggests they tried but probably couldn't talk anyone into it.

CHL Centers!

The NHL! Where excitement lives!

I've fogged out a bit. Have there been any trades at all?

Never. After all I did just quit my job to become Superman.

I don't know man, I'm still super worried that Matthews might choose to sign with the bankrupt team playing in a college stadium that can't win and consistently makes bad draft picks.

There's probably no single better representation of the difficulty the NHL has in marketing their players and growing the game vs. the NBA than in the suits their players wear on draft night.