NFT: NHL Free Agency Thread

I hated Crosby in the Olympics, more in Vancouver than Sochi, but same thing I guess.

I just hate Bruins players, the Maple Leafs (the Canadiens other rival) just haven't been good in a while though I'm sure some of my Kessel hate comes from that - plus they kept feeding the Bruins)

starting to get a good rivalry with Ottawa.

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Players Tribune - ( New Window )

He's a whiny, dirty, cheap-shotting bleeding gash. He's exactly like Pepe LePew, his mentor.

I have no such problem with Ovie. Ovie might be dirty sometimes, but in an honest, straighforward way.

A Flying puck to the head won't quiet the whine of that a-hole.

and Crosby's slew footing pussy brand of the game.

In comment 12389160 Torrag said:

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He played his best two way season, was a factor in the locker room as a leaderand led the league in scoring. Price had an excellent year but it wasn't a historically great season. Which imo it needs to be to get goalies MVP consideration. Ovie deserved it. Fuck him.

Absolutely. Scoring 50+ goals in this day and kind of improving his 2 way game means he should've won easily.

In comment 12389072 BrettNYG10 said:

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Kessel was an excellent acquisition.

You also have the caps going 65-17 this year and the jackets 64-18.

Rangers probably shouldn't bother showing up Brett is fellating the rest of this division so much.

In the division, and I give the Penguins the edge at this point. I think the playoffs are harder than ever, though, with WAS/CBJ/NYI having styles the Rangers struggle quite a bit with. The margin between the division winner and a wild card is going to be really narrow.

Tanner Glass is better than we thought.
Glass - ( New Window )

...but no. He's not.

Jakub Voracek: has signed a 8-year deal with AAV of $8,250,000

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In comment 12394617 Torrag said:

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...but no. He's not.

Spoiler alert: It shows he's the worst.

By far.

In comment 12389076 Greg from LI said:

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And I don't think I'd say they're deep. They have better depth than they did, yes.

D isn't bad.

Maata-Letang
Pouliout-Lovejoy
Cole-Demoulin
Scuds

Word is Scuds and Kunitz are being shopped.
Pens d is young but I wouldn't call it poor.

In comment 12394685 BrettNYG10 said:

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Jakub Voracek: has signed a 8-year deal with AAV of $8,250,000

These contracts are so ridiculous.

I think, no?

Is borderline elite. It's worth it...for now.

It'll be interesting to see what this contract means to the Isles since they will be up against resigning Okposo. It will also be interesting to see what bearing this will have on a Strome contract as he is RFA in 2016.

In comment 12395506 BrettNYG10 said:

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I think, no?

Compared to some of the other contracts I suppose so but he had 22 goals in his best season. I know he had 81 pts and he's feisty but paying a 20 goal a year winger 8 mill? I guess this is how it's going. Isles fans can kiss Okposo goodbye.

Voracek is basically one tick below the elite wingers. I think he's an excellent player but if he's worth over 8 per, that means you have to give the cream of the crop close to 10. I just don't see how, without the cap really rising, this trend is sustainable. I feel like another lockout is inevitable when this CBA is up.

In comment 12395637 arcarsenal said:

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Voracek is basically one tick below the elite wingers. I think he's an excellent player but if he's worth over 8 per, that means you have to give the cream of the crop close to 10. I just don't see how, without the cap really rising, this trend is sustainable. I feel like another lockout is inevitable when this CBA is up.

the first thing to happen is you will have teams with superstar(s) and average players + rookies playing under them.

If the Islanders are smart, they extend Tavares NOW and spread that increase throughout the next 10 years.

Dave, I'd be interested in seeing another season of him at this level before doling that sort of money out. If he reverts back to a 60 point player, you probably regret that deal. Playmakers tend to age better than goal scorers (at least last study I read) and he'll only be 33 when the deal's up, though. So I think it's a slight overpayment, but could be okay long-term.

I think arc's right about a lockout. The owners have exerted tremendous leverage and keep fucking things up. The biggest issue is guys like Orpik, Girardi, and Pouliot more than guys like Voracek making a million more than he probably should.

In comment 12395649 BrettNYG10 said:

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Dave, I'd be interested in seeing another season of him at this level before doling that sort of money out. If he reverts back to a 60 point player, you probably regret that deal. Playmakers tend to age better than goal scorers (at least last study I read) and he'll only be 33 when the deal's up, though. So I think it's a slight overpayment, but could be okay long-term. I think arc's right about a lockout. The owners have exerted tremendous leverage and keep fucking things up. The biggest issue is guys like Orpik, Girardi, and Pouliot more than guys like Voracek making a million more than he probably should.

Brett, I agree.. the guys who are important to the teams but aren't superstars are being over paid. This is what's going to create the problem.

I think they realize the holes in the cap system (not hedging the CAD? lulz). But the teams just can't help themselves. The players should be pissed.

Toews and Kane got $10.5 each. Yahoo's analyst said Kopitar should fit into the Toews framework rather than the $12+ x 8+ Stamkos is expected to get.

$10 million is the mark for the ultra elites, at least going forward.

I think the restraint was mostly due to the lack of rise in the cap and the horrible UFA class.

For a Ward/Williams/Beleskey. There wasn't any deal I thought was egregiously stupid. Last year Orpik and Pouliot got stupid deals. Usually someone does something stupid, and I thought the weak supply would increase prices.

Last year was the first time Voracek produced at that level. If he drops back to a 60ish point guy, that contract is going to be an albatross.

I just think the scaling is off and there's not enough room for it to adjust. It definitely has a lot to do with the mid-tier guys getting overpaid because it's jamming the best players in the league and the players a notch below that into a tiny quadrant all the way at the top.

Maybe they're banking on some more compliance buyouts after they lock the players out again.

At some point it has to recover and we should see more consistent growth. This is an outlier atm imo.

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Suck it Fish!

In comment 12395649 BrettNYG10 said:

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Dave, I'd be interested in seeing another season of him at this level before doling that sort of money out. If he reverts back to a 60 point player, you probably regret that deal. Playmakers tend to age better than goal scorers (at least last study I read) and he'll only be 33 when the deal's up, though. So I think it's a slight overpayment, but could be okay long-term. I think arc's right about a lockout. The owners have exerted tremendous leverage and keep fucking things up. The biggest issue is guys like Orpik, Girardi, and Pouliot more than guys like Voracek making a million more than he probably should.

What's ridiculous is Crosby earning 700k more than Vorachuk.
The NHL cap is absurd, poorly constructed, socialism.

How much do you think Crosby or Ovechkin are being cheated each year so Phoenix has a team?

--barf--

Pretty underwhelming HOF crop this year in general it seems

not the for-realzies HOF

I wish the Rangers re-signed Jagr in 2008 (I think it was). Never liked Drury. Also, apparently Jagr had an option that would have kicked in had he led the league in goals - which he didn't only because Jonathan fucking Cheechoo scored the last game of the season.

Also, Patrick Kane subject to a police probe apparently.
Kane - ( New Window )

Lundqvist apparently said this in a Swedish interview:

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“I’ve questioned why we’re not more pissed off after a loss”, Henrik admits.

I think it's because Girardi sucks.
Expressen - ( New Window )

finally sign Galchenyuk. two year deal as expected.

Not good.

probably very little left in those tires but I liked him when he was here.

They still i believe only have 11 forwards signed (one of which wont play until december) and under $2 million left in cap space to work with. Maybe they have plans to somehow move/settle with Dupuis (another guy I liked when he was here... I'm starting to get hudson)

As for us, i guess this what we have is the training camp roster. I still prefer one more proven forward and one less expensive D-Man... but Gorton's hands may be completely tied by all the damn NMCs.

Affect the cap next season?

Dave, I came across this:

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The equity portion may not figure in revenue calculations for the purposes of the salary cap. “We were told to expect $120M per year in added revenue… $4M per team,” one governor said.

Later on:

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Bettman confirmed that revenue tied to this deal is considered “hockey-related revenue” which the NHL has to share with the players and tied to the salary cap. More revenue means a higher cap. James Mirtle of the Globe & Mail projected that the cap could see an increase of around $2.5 million once the money from this deal impacts the hockey-related revenue.

So looks to be a next year event.
CBS Sports - ( New Window )

The equity portion not counting is sort of bullshit. MLBAM will likely IPO and fetch a stupid valuation. Nice way of circumventing the cap for the owners IMO.

In comment 12407235 BrettNYG10 said:

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The equity portion not counting is sort of bullshit. MLBAM will likely IPO and fetch a stupid valuation. Nice way of circumventing the cap for the owners IMO.

Yup. Look for MSG to do something similar. Grantland had something on this. MSG will sign a 20 year deal with MSG Network on the cheap. Under CBA rights (the article was NBA), the bean counters look passed that deal and assign a fair value to the rights, since the Knicks owner stands on both sides of the deal. But then MSG spins off MSG Network into a stand alone entity, giving each MSG shareholder one share of MSG Network. The new company has a huge valuation because it has long term below market TV deals; and the bean counters stop looking passed the terms of the below market deal, since MSG Network is now a different entity. Players get screwed out of their share of the equity of MSG Network (which is based on the discounted TV deal).

Oh well.

I don't follow MSG's stock that closely (I've been meaning to make it a project at work, but you know how those things are), but the deal was below analyst estimates - and they were accounting for a bit of that self-dealing already.

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oh my.

Hope the solution is proactively creating space prior to the end of next season rather than searching for answers next summer.

In comment 12407401 Deej said:

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In comment 12407235 BrettNYG10 said: Quote: The equity portion not counting is sort of bullshit. MLBAM will likely IPO and fetch a stupid valuation. Nice way of circumventing the cap for the owners IMO. Yup. Look for MSG to do something similar. Grantland had something on this. MSG will sign a 20 year deal with MSG Network on the cheap. Under CBA rights (the article was NBA), the bean counters look passed that deal and assign a fair value to the rights, since the Knicks owner stands on both sides of the deal. But then MSG spins off MSG Network into a stand alone entity, giving each MSG shareholder one share of MSG Network. The new company has a huge valuation because it has long term below market TV deals; and the bean counters stop looking passed the terms of the below market deal, since MSG Network is now a different entity. Players get screwed out of their share of the equity of MSG Network (which is based on the discounted TV deal).

This is all true and I'm glad that at least it's getting some minor publicity, but we have to imagine that it'll be close to the top of the agenda next time the CBA is negotiated right?

4 yrs, $15M. I like him and liked him on Ottawa before. Emerging young player. May be a bit of an overpay given his career high is 39 points, but he did just complete his first 81 game campaign. At 24, maybe they think that he breaks out and are betting on the come, and then it's a reasonable contract.