NHL 2012-2013: Tentative deal early Sunday January 6

Outlandish wrote:

This is obviously just the case of the opening offer and expecting heavy negotiation, but man the owners didn't give a bloody thing as far as I can tell and asked for plenty. It might be just the opening salvo, but it does not fill me with hope that the season will start on time.

We'll see. As long as the owners are willing to negotiate, there is still plenty of times. I just hope they haven't said they wouldn't budge on some of those numbers. If so, we may be in trouble.

Yep it's an opener, but I worry about Donald Fehr being in on this representing the union, almost as much as I worry about Scott Boras being an agent who represents baseball players.

I hate the current CBA. Its broken from both sides perspective and I have 0 trust that they intelligently fix anything.

Flyers reportedly offering Shea Webber a 14-year, $100M sheet.

If they fix the CBA, i'll be honest, i'm going to miss these "comically ridiculous" contract offers.

Prederick wrote:

Flyers reportedly offering Shea Webber a 14-year, $100M sheet.

If they fix the CBA, i'll be honest, i'm going to miss these "comically ridiculous" contract offers.

Just crazy when I read that this morning, of course Nashville can match the offer, but the question is will they? I had hoped that maybe Detroit might give it a shot in getting him with the retirement of Lidstrom, but no luck there I guess. I can only hope that Nashville doesn't match the offer and he goes to Philly cause then Nashville will be looking a lot easier to beat this year with their two best D gone, it will be up to Renne to save them and he can't do it by himself. Could be very interesting in the Central this year for sure. I'm a huge Wings fan and I'm slightly worried this year could be very rough for them.

bluedemon wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Flyers reportedly offering Shea Webber a 14-year, $100M sheet.

If they fix the CBA, i'll be honest, i'm going to miss these "comically ridiculous" contract offers.

Just crazy when I read that this morning, of course Nashville can match the offer, but the question is will they? I had hoped that maybe Detroit might give it a shot in getting him with the retirement of Lidstrom, but no luck there I guess. I can only hope that Nashville doesn't match the offer and he goes to Philly cause then Nashville will be looking a lot easier to beat this year with their two best D gone, it will be up to Renne to save them and he can't do it by himself. Could be very interesting in the Central this year for sure. I'm a huge Wings fan and I'm slightly worried this year could be very rough for them.

I will be very surprised if they don't match it.

Holland needs to go.He hasn't signed an all star caliber free agent since hossa and that was for only one year. He throws a ton of money on an injury prone streak monster. This season will be a true test

Leroyog wrote:

He hasn't signed an all star caliber free agent since hossa

So, no offense or anything but...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/Rlmwj.jpg)

Rofl. It fits because that baby looks swedish.
IMAGE(http://home.comcast.net/~benjkilpatrick/wingswild.jpg)

Leroyog wrote:

Holland needs to go.He hasn't signed an all star caliber free agent since hossa and that was for only one year. He throws a ton of money on an injury prone streak monster. This season will be a true test

little early to be calling for that, eh? The problem is twofold: Detroit isn't the end-all-be-all destination it used to be and we were unfortunate enough to lose 3 top-four defensemen in two seasons. I think the Quincey deal only happened because we can't afford to let yet another veteran defenseman go right now.

That said, unless something major happens (Semin or Doan) this season's edition of the wings Wings looks to be more dependent on our unproven young guys (Brendan Smith, Jakub Kindl, and others) than any version of this team in recent memory. Not optimal in the eyes of the fans, but given the choice of a competitive but unfulfilling season (which is what I'm predicting) or mortgaging the farm to win now, I think Holland knows he's gotta keep the long-term picture in mind.

Not landing suter and parise kind of signaled rebuild to me. I dont blame those guys. I think its cool that they will get to play in their homeish town. But it does bug me that Hollands crowning achievement thus far is tootoo and resigning quincy. I hated the quincy trade. Gave up too much for a guy we gave up on years ago. 8th seed here we come!!!

Leroyog wrote:

Not landing suter and parise kind of signaled rebuild to me. I dont blame those guys. I think its cool that they will get to play in their homeish town. But it does bug me that Hollands crowning achievement thus far is tootoo and resigning quincy. I hated the quincy trade. Gave up too much for a guy we gave up on years ago. 8th seed here we come!!!

Nothing wrong being an 8th seed!

LA was my sleeper team because they reminded me of the '94 Canucks which was what got me REALLY into hockey.

Rick Nash has been traded to the Rangers. Full details aren't on cbc yet..
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/07/23/sp-nhl-rick-nash.html

Wee!

Nash + AHL defenseman Steven Delisle (6'5") + 3rd round pick for Dubinsky, Anisimov, Tim Erixon, and a 1st round pick (probably a 25-30 pick).

VERY happy about this trade. Had high hopes for Erixon and am sad to see him go but when you can get Nash (a former #1 pick) for this price, you have to jump. Glad to see we still have D prospect McIlrath. Sather absolutely played Howson. Can't wait to see what Nash can do with Richards feeding him and Gaborik on the other side.

Rangers also free up more cap space assuring that we will have the funds to resign unrestricted free agents after this season and perhaps make a move for another free agent.

It's pretty clear at this point that given the limited number of teams Nash was willing to go to, and given that Howson couldn't trade with Detroit, that this was the best deal he was going to get. Not sure that Sather "played" Howson, more like Howson had a gun to his head and didn't really have much of a choice.

NYR absolutely got the best player, and didn't give up that much to get him. That being said, something about this trade just doesn't sit right for me in NYR. I've been really sour on Nash for a while now, and I'm not convinced he'll perform up to expectations in NY, or, even if he does, that he's the missing piece to a cup. There's something about the Rangers lineup that just looks too much like a blender of statistically good players, rather than forming a core of players with great chemistry, that worries me. (I'm not a Rangers fan but by no means a Rangers hater either - they're probably my favorite Atlantic division team).

We'll see how well this works out for NYR. But I have no idea how Columbus digs itself out of its pit.

double post

Rangers current roster of centers is Richards, Stepan, Kreider, Boyle, Rupp, and recent signee Jeff Halpern.

With Kreider showing in the playoffs that he's ready to join the NHL ranks, Stepan becoming a legitimate 2nd line center, Boyle being healthy, and the signing of Jeff Halpern, Dubinsky and Anisimov became that much more expendable. One of the Rangers biggest holes last year was faceoff win % which they addressed by picking up Halpern (5th in the NHL in faceoffs last year). Perfect guy to throw on the ice for that critical defensive zone draw.

They were able to keep the defensive core together and with a healthy Staal and Sauer, I have no doubt the Rangers will have a top 3 defense this season, if not best in the league.

Last year the only considerable goal threat was Gaborik. Now the Rangers have another threat in Nash. One thing the Richards-Gaborik line was missing was a big body in front of the net. They now have that in Nash. I'm extremely excited to see the Richards-Gaborik-Nash line. Unfortunately Gaborik is out until around December.

2nd line will most likely be Stepan-Callahan-Pyatt
3rd line: Kreider-Hagelin-??
4th line: Boyle-Asham-Haley/Rupp

Rangers need a RW for that 3rd line. Could it be Shane Doan? Dubinsky + Anisimov was around $7.5 million in salary. Nash is $7.8 million. Rangers have around $13 million in cap space; plenty for Doan.

After missing Staal and Sauer for the majority of the season, the Rangers D corps is healthy with Bickel on the bench and a great opportunity for 1st round pick Brady Skeji or top-touted prospect Dylan McIlrath.

Girardi-McDonagh
Staal-Sauer
MDZ-Stralman

I'm very very excited for this season.

As for Columbus, they might just take next years' first overall pick away from Edmonton (tired of seeing Edmonton pick first). With another first round pick now from the Rangers, Columbus has a very real possibility to grab 2 young stars. With their increased depth at the Center position (Dubi and Anisimov), Columbus may be a pretty serious team in 2-4 years.

Here's what I remember about Nash. He made a mistake to let the Coyotes tie it. He had to do something to make up for his mistake:

Here's what I remember about Anisimov. Guy can score 20 goals but was soft as a butter. This is from the 2012 playoffs. After Backstrom knocks him down, Ward knocks him down again in front of the net.

The only part I like about it is that I get to see him more often now that he's in the east. Although only twice as often this year than if he was still a Blue Jacket. Would I have enjoyed buying a Nash Hurricanes jersey? Yup. But I figured our chances were precisely bupkis.

Shea Weber is a Predator for life. 14 years, 110 million.

Gumbie wrote:

Shea Weber is a Predator for life. 14 years, 110 million. :)

2009: Roberto Luongo is a Canuck for life. 12 years, 64 million.

2012: FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU

How does anyone (who isn't a player) (or their agent) still think these deals are a good idea?

These long term contracts are a joke! Players get angry at their team or the team decides it's not working out and trying to trade the player away becomes a nightmare! Lame.

Canes sign Semin for a year and some cheddar (conveniently placing them above the cap floor). Could be interesting, could be nothing. He's got talent, and could be very interesting alongside the Staals. Or he could be a liability. We'll (hopefully) see in a few months.

ColdForged wrote:

Canes sign Semin for a year and some cheddar (conveniently placing them above the cap floor). Could be interesting, could be nothing. He's got talent, and could be very interesting alongside the Staals. Or he could be a liability. We'll (hopefully) see in a few months.

Based on the press release and what I've been reading, it sounds like the front office did their due diligence from a "fit" perspective. Talent-wise, no question this is an upgrade for the Canes. They definitely needed another scorer and playmaker on the wing.

Given the way the Canes have performed over the past two years, this is definitely a gamble worth taking IMO.

Semin's a terrific signing for Carolina though if they could have changed a slightly lower salary for a couple more years it would have been even better. Washington as a whole and Semin in particular got really screwed up by Hunter's coaching but up until this year he's been a terrific hockey player (20th in goal-scoring over the last 5 years I believe). He's also good defensively - over the last 3 years Washington's top forwards have conceded goals at a lower rate playing with Semin than without. Finally, despite "he disappears come playoff time" narrative his career playoff scoring rate is only 3 points/82 games less than Zach Parise.

I was really, really, really hoping the Habs would sign Semin to fill the gaping LW hole in their lineup but Marc Bergevin seems more interested in building a grinding and character team than a team that out-scores the opposition.

I don't think Semin's issue was the coaching so much as it was the system. He never liked it, never put out the effort in it and his numbers reflected it strongly. It's sad, because as you point out he could have thrived under it had he wanted to, he just didn't. Here's hoping he'll take a shine to Carolina's way of doing things, or that they'll change it to suit him, otherwise they just wasted a whole lot of dough.

AnimeJ wrote:

I don't think Semin's issue was the coaching so much as it was the system. He never liked it, never put out the effort in it and his numbers reflected it strongly. It's sad, because as you point out he could have thrived under it had he wanted to, he just didn't. Here's hoping he'll take a shine to Carolina's way of doing things, or that they'll change it to suit him, otherwise they just wasted a whole lot of dough.

The team-wide numbers were abysmal under Hunter's puck-conceding system though, it wasn't just a Semin issue. The Hunter-for-Boudreau coaching change was the worst switch made last season (Cunneyworth-for-Martin the other change in consideration there). Semin did just fine under Boudreau's run-and-gun, did fine under Boudraeu's more structured approach, and still put up 54 points in a bad situation last year so he should be fine. His shooting percentage last year was well below his career average so a little regression there and getting his normal 18-minutes/game of ice-time should help his counting numbers improve by a bit.

A lot of the reason that numbers across the board were lower than previous years was because the system was completely different than the power offense that the team had been built around. That said, most players adapted much better, including Ovechkin. Semin didn't, made his displeasure known and was cut loose after what was quite frankly one of the best playoff runs I've ever seen out of the Caps in 15 years of fandom. To me, it was really good to see what may have been a return to the 98 playoffs, despite a few games that were clearly marred by subpar performance. Semin, however, was routinely subpar, regardless of everything else going on, something that I see as being sour grapes on his part. I don't fault him that, the 'grind it in' offense wasn't what he signed on for in the first place. But it clearly showed what kind of individual he is(quite frankly, a more important thing than any physical skill at the game), and what you're left with is the fact that despite stellar numbers, he sat around waiting as a free agent for a rather long time.

As a point of comparison, Randy Moss. When he's putting up numbers, he's good. However, there are numerous documented instances of him dropping catchable passes with the apparent intent of not getting leveled by a defender. Semin, in my book, isn't much different.

Crazy good article dissecting Semin.

In short, put him on a team with strong leadership and a line with a strong center and he may just be that 50-goal scorer everyone says he has the talent to be.

Good pickup for the Canes.

FSeven wrote:

Crazy good article dissecting Semin.

In short, put him on a team with strong leadership and a line with a strong center and he may just be that 50-goal scorer everyone says he has the talent to be.

Good pickup for the Canes.

Thanks for the link, FSeven -- that's a great read.

There's already been talk about the one-year deal being an audition for a longer-term deal. Regardless, the Canes have had a strong offseason in terms of accomplishing their stated goal -- improve their top 6. A Staal-Staal-Semin first line and a Ruutu-Skinner-Jokinen second line would be exciting to watch.