NHL 2012-2013: Tentative deal early Sunday January 6

Congrats Kings! For the past two years I've sprung for the Center Ice package and the Kings are one of the Western teams that I try to watch somewhat regularly. Quick is simply amazing.

I loved that poster the one fan had that read:

"My dad waited 44 years for a Stanley Cup. I'm 1 for 1!"

par wrote:

Well I hope I am wrong Its just very unusual for a team to win the Cup and NOT have massive salary cap / trading issues arise in the off season.

A lot of those teams are built on expensive veterans and rent-a-players, and/or have key players going into free agency.

Not this team, though. This squad was built on young players the team drafted/acquired. And the veterans they did go out and acquire (like Richards and Carter) are guys with long-term contracts, not guys that will be jumping into the FA waters.

Jonathan Quick is still under contract for 1 more year, which will get replaced with his long-term deal this offseason. He won't reach free agency.

The first line forwards, Brown, Kopitar, and Williams, are all under contract for at least the next 2 years.

Mike Richards and Jeff Carter are under contract through the end of the decade. They'll be around for as long as they're productive enough to keep.

Drew Doughty just signed his new deal. Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene have 2 years left on their deals. Rob Scuderi still has a year left too.

The main guys entering free agency are Jarret Stoll, Dustin Penner, and Colin Frazer.

And they are projected to have enough cap space to sign Quick, bring back any of these guys that they want, and still have a little bit left over for outside free agents.

The roster for the next 2 years at least looks like it will resemble the current one an awful lot, and there's a core of the team that will persist beyond that. If they don't continue to play at a high level, it won't be because they couldn't keep the squad together.

Thats awesome. Even though I'm a diehard Avs fan I always like to see good teams stay good, which is rare now a'days. Unless we're talking about the RedWings ><

This year's Kings were great to watch... true dynasty if they dont let it get to their heads...

PAR

The Kings have 16 mil and only 4 UFAs and 1 RFA. Quick can't even be signed to a contract extension until after free agenct starts. The only worry is the unknown of the next CBA and how that will affect the salary cap.

Edit: Looking over the numbers and HOLY CRAP did the Kings get lucky with injuries. The healthiest team wins the Stanley Cup.

So, when will Parise sign with somebody so I can stop listening to/reading people talk about him signing here or Female Doggo about people talking about him signing here. Both of which are super annoying.

Great playoff run by the Kings!

Can't wait to see what the offseason will bring. Very glad Sather didn't give up Del Zotto, McDonagh, Kreider, etc. for Nash. There's enough cap space this offseason to sign Nash or Parise. Rangers need a big body and more consistent goal scorer.

Nash is still in the middle of his contract. Anyone that gets him will need to trade for him. I don't envy the Columbus GM trying to make that trade. I'm sure everyone is throwing him anchors.

Draft is coming up pretty quick - looking forward to that. After that point though? It's going to be a quiet free agency, looks like, both because there aren't that many players out there and also because the uncertain CBA is hanging over all of the GMs' heads. I think many of them are probably putting off what deals they can until they know what the situation is - if the cap goes down (which sounds pretty certain).

I bet there are going to be a bunch of unresolved questions all summer. CBA will be the biggest of them.

nihilo wrote:

Draft is coming up pretty quick - looking forward to that. After that point though? It's going to be a quiet free agency, looks like, both because there aren't that many players out there and also because the uncertain CBA is hanging over all of the GMs' heads. I think many of them are probably putting off what deals they can until they know what the situation is - if the cap goes down (which sounds pretty certain).

There are only 4 big FAs (Parise, Suter, Semin, and Doan) and you'd have to think the Devils, Predators, and Coyotes will retain those guys. The second tier of guys is okay (Olli Jokinen, Ray Whitney
Barret Jackman, Jaromir Jagr, Matt Carle, Filip Kuba, Dustin Penner, Jason Garrison, Brad Stuart, Bryan Allen, Dennis Wideman) with maybe only Carle, Penner, and Garrison drawing a tonne of interest. Just not a fantastic crop this year.

Stephane Auger has been forced in to retirement. Good riddance.

Edit: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=634919&navid=DL|NHL|home

Ryan Suter will test Free Agency. Can anyone think of a bigger Free Agent D-man in recent years? He's only 27 years old. Niedermayer was 32 when he signed with the Ducks and Rafalski was 34. One team will vastly improve their defence this year (looking at Detroit and Minnesota to make a HUGE push for him).

After the massive drop-off the Blues suffered when Pietrangelo went down in the playoffs, the scuttlebutt is that they want to land another D-man that can be a difference maker. Throw in them finally landing Tarasanko, and there is hope they will make a push.

Of course, how much money Stillman is going to be willing to spend. This offseason will reveal a lot about what we can expect.

I can see A LOT of teams interested. Detroit just lost Lidstrom and need an immediate replacement (plus have his 7mil to spend). Canucks are always in the hunt for an upgrade and will move Luongo's contract at/around the draft. Minnesota is looking to make a splash and bring hometown boys Suter & Parise on. Rangers are always willing to spend money. Washington may see this as a chance to go in a different direction. The list goes on.

The desperate fan in me just wants Edmonton to throw him a ridiculous contract. The question is, is Suter more Lidstrom or more Redden? Defencemen tend to age well, but you can always get burnt - and Edmonton is sorely in need of a #1 Goalie as well. Suter is by far the most interesting FA in play this year - Top 3 forwards are much more easily aquired than Top 2 defencemen.

Dysplastic wrote:

The desperate fan in me just wants Edmonton to throw him a ridiculous contract. The question is, is Suter more Lidstrom or more Redden? Defencemen tend to age well, but you can always get burnt - and Edmonton is sorely in need of a #1 Goalie as well. Suter is by far the most interesting FA in play this year - Top 3 forwards are much more easily aquired than Top 2 defencemen.

I can't see any big name player willing to go to Edmonton. They'll be looking to either go to contenders.

I forgot that Radulov will get traded. That's a pretty big piece for a team. He will be an RFA and it's a risk for any team but the potential production could be outstanding.

I so badly want Minnesota to land Suter or Parise. As a Minnesota fan you get used to never getting a big free agent anything though, so I expect all the hype about Suter coming here to be closer to his/his wife's family and Parise coming home are just bargaining chips to get them better deals from NSH/NJ. I'm already feeling used and they haven't even turned us down yet.

I just hope Detroit gets nothing, Dad being a Michiganer I'm getting mighty tired of the Wings winning every year so if you're reading this, don't go Suter! Do you really want to be unfairly compared to Lidstrom forever? Them skates are too big to step into.

It's just going to be such a letdown, the Wild have so much cap space, the future looks good (at least on paper) for the prospects and even if we sign Suter/Parise or dare I dream both, we still have enough large contracts coming off the books in Heatley, Backstrom, and Pierre-I never play a game but still get paid $4M/year-Bouchard over the next 2 years that we won't have severe cap issues from it when it comes time to re-sign those youngsters. I really think we need Suter far more than Parise but also think he's less likely to be the one we get if we only get one.

Haha:

That is so classic. Wow! I would be laughing so histerically if that happened to me.

I want that shrine!!!

As a Washington Capitals fan i'll be disappointed to see Semin and Wideman leave, but in order to tie up our talent its got to be done. Playoffs aside, i think Wideman was one of our most effective players this past season, its just a shame he took a nose dive in the playoffs.

Semin is a tough one. The guy is clearly capable of scoring some big goals, and when he wants it he can really do some damage. The first round against the Bruins was arguably his finest few weeks in a Caps uniform. Blocking shots, hitting people, scoring goals. He did everything. He's not going to get anywhere near his $6m, but i can see him pitching in with 30 goals somewhere in the league.

Only award I didn't get right was the Adams. I chickened out on the Selke. I just went with what the media was telling me. Of all the Bruins to like (and there are very few) Bergeron is one.

Don't disagree with any of the awards. Campbell winning the Lady Byng is interesting as it has been awarded to forwards for a long time. Shame they didn't wise up and give it to Lidstrom. The guy is the epitome of that award.

Oh and the draft is this Friday.

Karlsson for the Norris is a little nuts to me. Weber or Chara were both better choices, their games are much more complete for the position. But neither of them had particularly great seasons this year, which is likely why it didn't happen. Still - I'd pick Chara over Karlsson every day of the week. I'd much rather be playing against Karlsson than Chara.

I don't mind Landeskog over Nugent-Hopkins for the Calder. Nuge would have run away with it if he had stayed healthy, but Landeskog had a good season.

It's interesting how dominant Malkin was in the Hart voting. Something like 144 first place votes, 2 second place and 1 third place vote. There was absolutely no question.

I heard that Karlsson does not kill penalties. That should disqualify him from Norris consideration.

I wasn't able to watch him this year but will keep an eye on him in the future. #westcoastbias

The Shanaban Will Arnett skits were funny. Here is the Dustin Brown one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZU8R...

nihilo wrote:

Karlsson for the Norris is a little nuts to me. Weber or Chara were both better choices, their games are much more complete for the position. But neither of them had particularly great seasons this year, which is likely why it didn't happen. Still - I'd pick Chara over Karlsson every day of the week. I'd much rather be playing against Karlsson than Chara.

goman wrote:

I heard that Karlsson does not kill penalties. That should disqualify him from Norris consideration.

I wasn't able to watch him this year but will keep an eye on him in the future. #westcoastbias

His PK time is very low but I don't think there's been an offensive season from a defencemen, that lacks the defensive negatives, in some time. As, nihilo said, none of the other usual candidates had great seasons. Karlsson was the only defencemen that brought a dominant factor. He's pretty damn good defensively too. I think he could be a very good PKer in the same way that Lidstrom is, using his stick to deflect and intercept passes, but considering it was his second year in the NHL and were playing him all the time on the PP and at ES it made sense to rest him for the PK. I would not want to see the best offensive defencemen named the Norris winner ever season but I feel Karlsson deserves it this year. As he gets older (and grows!) he'll start PKing and he'll be competing against Chara, Weber, Doughty, and Keith for the Norris on a yearly basis.

I'm really wondering about the goaltender situation for the Leafs next year. The available options for picking up veteran help weren't that deep and have gotten worse:
- Vokoun signed with Pittsburgh
- Harding re-signed with Minnesota (apparently he really loves Minnesota? His chances of being a starter are much higher elsewhere)
- Lindberg traded to Tampa Bay
- Thomas (who was a long shot that Boston would let go) is apparently having some sort of mental breakdown (I'm exaggerating, but really.. wtf?)

That leaves you with Luongo and Bernier as options still. Toronto and Florida are the two teams that might pickup Luongo, but with so many other goalies off the market, his price just went up. And LA has no reason to give up Bernier - they can afford to keep him as a backup for next year.

So is Burke going to field the Leafs with Reimer and Scrivens as his goaltenders? Go with two unproven youths again? That's probably the number one reason Toronto didn't make the playoffs last year. I'd be happy to have Lu (I can only imagine the media sh*tstorm, but I want him anyway), but I'm concerned about the price.

Reimer fought injuries last year, so maybe he'll get healthy and he can bounce back. I'd love that. I'm convinced that Giguere had a lot to do with Reimer's hot streak two years ago.

Scrivens was excellent in the AHL last year, during the regular season and playoffs. But if he is coming up to Toronto with mandate of saving the team, it's going to go badly and he'll have unfair amounts of pressure put on him.

Vector wrote:
nihilo wrote:

Karlsson for the Norris is a little nuts to me. Weber or Chara were both better choices, their games are much more complete for the position. But neither of them had particularly great seasons this year, which is likely why it didn't happen. Still - I'd pick Chara over Karlsson every day of the week. I'd much rather be playing against Karlsson than Chara.

goman wrote:

I heard that Karlsson does not kill penalties. That should disqualify him from Norris consideration.

I wasn't able to watch him this year but will keep an eye on him in the future. #westcoastbias

His PK time is very low but I don't think there's been an offensive season from a defencemen, that lacks the defensive negatives, in some time. As, nihilo said, none of the other usual candidates had great seasons. Karlsson was the only defencemen that brought a dominant factor. He's pretty damn good defensively too. I think he could be a very good PKer in the same way that Lidstrom is, using his stick to deflect and intercept passes, but considering it was his second year in the NHL and were playing him all the time on the PP and at ES it made sense to rest him for the PK. I would not want to see the best offensive defencemen named the Norris winner ever season but I feel Karlsson deserves it this year. As he gets older (and grows!) he'll start PKing and he'll be competing against Chara, Weber, Doughty, and Keith for the Norris on a yearly basis.

I think defensively Karlsson really benefited from having Kuba playing so well beside him. They definitely helped each other out, but when I watch Karlsson I see an okay defensive game at best. He's super young - that's valid - and he'll be getting better. I really wonder what he'll look like next year if Kuba leaves the Senators though. I don't mind an offensive defenceman winning it, but I wouldn't have picked him. He barely beat out Weber in the voting (second year in a row for Weber to barely miss the Norris).

So the Jets are still in the Southeast Division.

The NHL 2012-2013 schedule came out today.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...|NHL|home

Season starts Oct 11, pending you know what of course.

nihilo wrote:

I'm really wondering about the goaltender situation for the Leafs next year. The available options for picking up veteran help weren't that deep and have gotten worse:
- Vokoun signed with Pittsburgh
- Harding re-signed with Minnesota (apparently he really loves Minnesota? His chances of being a starter are much higher elsewhere)
- Lindberg traded to Tampa Bay
- Thomas (who was a long shot that Boston would let go) is apparently having some sort of mental breakdown (I'm exaggerating, but really.. wtf?)

That leaves you with Luongo and Bernier as options still. Toronto and Florida are the two teams that might pickup Luongo, but with so many other goalies off the market, his price just went up. And LA has no reason to give up Bernier - they can afford to keep him as a backup for next year.

So is Burke going to field the Leafs with Reimer and Scrivens as his goaltenders? Go with two unproven youths again? That's probably the number one reason Toronto didn't make the playoffs last year. I'd be happy to have Lu (I can only imagine the media sh*tstorm, but I want him anyway), but I'm concerned about the price.

Reimer fought injuries last year, so maybe he'll get healthy and he can bounce back. I'd love that. I'm convinced that Giguere had a lot to do with Reimer's hot streak two years ago.

Scrivens was excellent in the AHL last year, during the regular season and playoffs. But if he is coming up to Toronto with mandate of saving the team, it's going to go badly and he'll have unfair amounts of pressure put on him.

I think Minnesota's Backstrom might be available as well but the price might be too much for a one year option. Luongo is will get traded and apparently there are three teams bidding against each other.

nihilo wrote:

I think defensively Karlsson really benefited from having Kuba playing so well beside him. They definitely helped each other out, but when I watch Karlsson I see an okay defensive game at best. He's super young - that's valid - and he'll be getting better. I really wonder what he'll look like next year if Kuba leaves the Senators though. I don't mind an offensive defenceman winning it, but I wouldn't have picked him. He barely beat out Weber in the voting (second year in a row for Weber to barely miss the Norris).

I think they're grooming Cowen to be the defensive stalwart of the future. It will be interesting to see how he fairs without a reliable veteran.

goman wrote:

So the Jets are still in the Southeast Division.

The NHL 2012-2013 schedule came out today.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...|NHL|home

Season starts Oct 11, pending you know what of course.

As much as I want the Jets in a sane division I don't want it at the cost of the proposed realignment that was vetoed.

Vector wrote:

I think Minnesota's Backstrom might be available as well but the price might be too much for a one year option.

I don't think there's any way Backstrom will be available before the trade deadline. The Wild were doing surprisingly well last year until almost literally the entire top 6 other than Heatley got injured. They had no depth in call ups, and so went in the tank; just far too many man-games lost from their top players.

This year, there's a very large influx of young players some of which are expected to make the team immediately and some which are considered near-ready but will likely be in Houston to start the year. The call-ups should be quite a bit better, so there's no reason to think the Wild can't make the playoffs next year. There's no chance you trade a goalie who's been as good as Backstrom has been when you have playoff aspirations. Harding has been solid, but has yet to prove he can simply take the job and hold it, or have his body hold up for an entire season's work. Hackett is still unproven. I don't think there's any way they trade Backstrom unless the team just gets off to an abysmal start, and even then he has a no-trade clause which I imagine he'll be unlikely to waive unless he's going to someone who's contending or offers him some more years and he's already age 35.

The GM is quoted with: "We have no interest in trading Backstrom. None." according to Michael Russo, the Star-Tribunes Wild beat writer. That seems pretty unequivocal to me, doesn't seem like he hedged at all there. Still, I hope Backs is traded at the deadline, I like seeing us pick up assets and playoffs or not we're not really a serious threat to win the Cup quite yet (prove me wrong, please!).

Bobrovsky has been traded to the Blue Jackets. That's one less team looking for a goaltender. I doubt Toronto was very interested in him, so Bobrovsky off the market doesn't put them in any worse of a position.

Vector wrote:

I think Minnesota's Backstrom might be available as well but the price might be too much for a one year option. Luongo is will get traded and apparently there are three teams bidding against each other.

Who could the third team be? I've only heard Toronto and Florida as being interested in Luongo.

I've been way too caught up in the Euros lately... hope the Kings fans around here winning the Cup. The best part about their great cap situation you guys were talking about? They deal their only bad contract for a top-6 forward when they made the Carter trade

Staying in the SouthEast division is good for the Jets' playoff chances with the SouthEast being the weakest division in hockey and the East being the weaker conference.

Interesting to see Bergeron winning the Selke when he played easier defensive minutes than he has in the past few years. Mind you, it was the same thing with Kesler last season. If Backes puts up stronger offensive numbers next season I bet he wins it next year.

Microstat related but if you're a fan of an NHL team you should totally take a look at the Player Usage Charts. It gives you a pretty good idea of how players were used by teams and the difficulty of their ice-time. Plus they look neat.

nihilo wrote:

Bobrovsky has been traded to the Blue Jackets. That's one less team looking for a goaltender. I doubt Toronto was very interested in him, so Bobrovsky off the market doesn't put them in any worse of a position.

Who could the third team be? I've only heard Toronto and Florida as being interested in Luongo.

When I had my unrealistic hopes of the Habs dealing Price and going with a cheaper platoon Bobrovsky was one of the guys I thought would be a good fit for that situation. He's almost certainly better than Steve Mason (though that isn't saying much) but Columbus outside of goal is much weaker than last year after dealing Carter and Vermette. They really should have fired their GM this year and brought somebody else in.

File this under "Garth Snow is the craziest GM in the league":
http://www.bluejacketsxtra.com/conte...

Snow offered every pick in this draft to Columbus in exchange for Columbus' #2 pick, Ryan Murray. Every pick in the draft. I don't have words for that level of crazy. What's more, Columbus' GM Howson didn't take it! Huh? Apparently they felt that the draft was very thin this year - but that's just nuts.

In other news, Luongo has apparently narrowed his list of acceptable trade partners down to just Florida:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/roberto-luongo-wants-florida-panthers-trade-canucks-asking-141402247--nhl.html

I think the Leafs will still chase him (who he's willing to accept a trade to can change), but I don't know.. it's not looking too good right now.