NFT: NHL Free Agency Thread

In comment 12372890 MookGiants said:

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did you see that the Red Wings will travel the fewest miles in the NHL next year?

LOL, no. Why do you mention that to me out of curiousity? Because of my respect for Ken Holland's incessant whining skills?

but i'm not sure he gets a NMC to go along with that

He's tradeable right now and my guess is Gorton would trade him if Girardi would allow it.

In comment 12373118 MetsAreBack said:

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In comment 12372890 MookGiants said: Quote: did you see that the Red Wings will travel the fewest miles in the NHL next year? LOL, no. Why do you mention that to me out of curiousity? Because of my respect for Ken Holland's incessant whining skills?

Travel Miles - ( New Window )

In comment 12373118 MetsAreBack said:

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In comment 12372890 MookGiants said: Quote: did you see that the Red Wings will travel the fewest miles in the NHL next year? LOL, no. Why do you mention that to me out of curiousity? Because of my respect for Ken Holland's incessant whining skills?

Yes

In comment 12373118 MetsAreBack said:

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In comment 12372890 MookGiants said: Quote: did you see that the Red Wings will travel the fewest miles in the NHL next year? LOL, no. Why do you mention that to me out of curiousity? Because of my respect for Ken Holland's incessant whining skills?

That's exactly what I was thinking.

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According to War on Ice.

Or lack thereof. Each of the teams we hockey guys on BBI follow is mentioned in the article.
Blog: Why Hasn't Your Team Done Anything this Offseason? - ( New Window )

St Louis retiring means the Rangers got worse? Had he retired before the playoffs, things might have turned out very differently.

I agree with you, and I was struck with that comment that the Rangers got worse. I didn't post any of my editorial comments as I wanted to see folks' reactions. There were a couple of eyebrow-raisers in there.

Rangers got worse as a regular season team, IMO. They have some guys who can grow the team organically - Stepan, McDonagh, Kreider, etc. - but losing St. Louis/Talbot/Hagelin makes them worse over the course of the regular season. St. Louis is definitely a loss for the regular season.

I thought the linked piece below was interesting - about Subban's post-season play.
Gift for pjcas - ( New Window )

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Plus, other teams like the Islanders will probably have more 'organic growth'.

Replacing the 21 goals won't be easy, but on the whole Marty was pretty terrible last season. His possession numbers were awful.

Regarding Talbot....maybe I'm crazy, but I'm starting to get the feeling that Allaire can cobble together a reasonable backup out of almost anyone. Three years ago, who the hell was Cam Talbot?

Losing Hags could be trouble, but I'll be interested to see how Fast performs in a more prominent role.

A nice Sportsnet article featuring Doc Emrick. Whether you like him or not, there's no questioning his contributions to and importance in hockey broadcasting. I liked his comment on the mix of nationalities on any given team resulting in a 100% all-in mentality.
Sportsnet Q&A With Doc Emrick - ( New Window )

And I think his possession numbers were surprisingly weighed down by Stepan and not the other way around (could be wrong here).

Agreed on Allaire.

The Hags issue can be further mitigated if Glass is removed from the lineup. They'd have four good lines at that point.

I also think a bit of mean reversion is order, so my comments are colored by that.

I love Doc. Surprised he gets so much criticism in other circles. Thanks, pganut.

Raanta will be Talbot 2.0

I would be willing to bet there's very little drop-off. BA is outstanding.

simply because last year was their best season in franchise history and that level of play is unsustainable, especially when you're a mid-level puck possession team and all that.

Less to do with the players lost and more to do with simple mean reversion.

But its still a playoff team. And I actually think this team can be better.... if one of these Defenseman is traded for a solid 2nd/3rd line wing. This offense as currently constructed scares me and i think we'll all be disappointed, especially AV.

Get Glass the fuck off this team so we can start rolling 4 capable lines again... and upgrade the 2nd/3rd line Wing if for no other reason than we can't just assume MZA is going to come back healthy and as productive off as scary an injury as that was.

So I wonder if that reverts back to top ten as well?

I'm a bit higher on the forwards than you are, but wouldn't mind them signing a Fehr/Boyes/Semin. I think there's a lot more bottom six talent available than usual at this stage.

I still think Semin could be a good source of a "cheap" ~20 goals. The lazy Russian stigma does fit him but I'd still take a shot.

I said on here the day Carolina bought him out that I'd love to see them get him for a one year, <$2mill deal. He hasn't been good lately, but he was on a horrible roster and he still has elite skill. What is there to lose?

he's a guy i'd take a look at if we could just trade one of these defenders for a decent pick or two.

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is he has good value to us for 2016 and 2017 season. It's this year where we dont need him, frankly. After that though Boyle is gone and Yandle is likely gone too (which would be a shame... but I see Boston giving him at least $6 mil a year)

What a fuckin bargain McD is by the way. $4.5 mil/year ... say what you want about Girardi.. the two kind of offset... $10 mil/year for those two guys is well done... just a damn shame they decide to give Girardi a NMC. It just wasn't necessary.

But I don't think Klein's a great bargain. He's a really good #5 defenseman, IMV (which is the part people most disagree with). I don't view him as a middle pairing guy - if you do, then it's a great deal.

How about Tavares at $5.5, MAB? Imagine having both of those deals...

$60 per ticket, blue line, row 16 near (Rangers) bench (comes with Club Parking upgrade... my ass doesn't like to walk).

The same tix at MSG are $150 and you cant get them as there's a long waiting list. Fuckin' Florida - they dont deserve a franchise or to get to see a Cup hoisted before us (again)

See you January 2.... you're invited.

you'd dump Klein for a 2nd round pick and use the cap savings to acquire a Boyes or Semin?

I would agree with that (but there must be a team out there willing to give a 2nd and 3rd... or 2nd and midlevel prospect... for him you'd think)

And go to the Tampa and FL games. I'll let you know, obviously, but make sure to book our restaurant shortly.

I regret not going to more non-Ranger Panther games when I lived down there.

Assuming Girardi is immovable (or the return is unacceptable), yes. I'm fine with Diaz/McIlrath battling it out for the 6th spot, and potentially having Skjei come up mid-year if they're unsatisfactory.

I'd have thought the team could get a 2nd for Klein at the draft, but it seems as if the buyers are exerting their leverage over teams trying to dump guys for cap reasons... Hopefully the fact (?) we don't HAVE to move Klein gives us a bit of leverage. I do think other teams could view him as a second pairing guy, and those tend to go for #2's...

I like both Boyes and Semin. Boyes seems the lower-risk with a nice reward, but I'd prefer Semin.

and its a hike, 40 minutes without traffic, up to Sunrise. So I'm hard pressed to go to more than 15 games - will sell a ton of these.

But you can't beat the price to these games - incredible views and player exposure. 4-5x in most other markets. Completely unsustainable model - they have to move eventually.

I may fly up to that Tampa game too depending on how we look early in the year, but I'm going to two games at MSG the prior week (we face IIRC Washington and Anaheim just before Christmas when I'm up there with family), so not sure the wife will allow it.

And they've been shitty for so long that there were only a handful of matchups we wanted to see.

Didn't the team stop 'scalping' tickets? My dad would negotiate at the box office, but they apparently stopped doing that last year.

I hope they stay for my dad's sake (he only goes to a handful a year as well), but I agree with you - totally unsustainable.

but despite tons of empty seats, they frustratingly wouldnt budge on things like free bonus tickets and perks like getting to the Rangers locker room on Jan 2.

They do deeply discount full season prices versus box office and mini plans though so if your Dad wants to get to some games, have him reach out to me. I'll give him my face cost on games I dont want to go to, an half price or 2/3 price on some of the less attractive weekday games.

Argue with the isles assessment.

I think all of the fans here pretty much are in agreement. As long as strait is as far away from the ice as possible it'll be a good season.
Petrov (guy who's coming over from the KHL) gives them flexibility to move someone for a pick or another prospect but I think Garth is waiting to see which teams need to cut cap right before the season before swooping in and making a move

I go to two or three Panthers games a year -- usually pay $30/$40 a ticket and sit in section 112 (in the corner where the opponent shoots twice) eight to fifteen rows up. Great seats for a ridiculous price. When the Panthers get good (this year?), those price will change, but right now it's a sweet deal. A couple of my former players are playing in the league; so it's fun to go see them, in particular.

They had a good season but didn't really improve in the off season and we've seen this before where an upstart slips back (Columbus/Colorado).
Let's see if they aren't a fluke with a better Columbus team.

In comment 12374504 BrettNYG10 said:

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Rangers got worse as a regular season team, IMO. They have some guys who can grow the team organically - Stepan, McDonagh, Kreider, etc. - but losing St. Louis/Talbot/Hagelin makes them worse over the course of the regular season. St. Louis is definitely a loss for the regular season. I thought the linked piece below was interesting - about Subban's post-season play. Gift for pjcas - ( New Window )

just catching up on this thread after some time away, thanks Brett. I disagree a little, though the author knows far more than me (LOL - doesn't stop me from disagreeing). I'm not saying Markov wasn't injured, I hope he was, but Subban is normally NOT a sound defensive defenseman. He is below average, but very good offensively. if he were good defensively he wouldn't have been the Norris trophy winner, but a healthy scratch in every single Olympic game but one I believe. and he played sparingly. and not to household names either (Marc-Édouard Vlasic or Jay Bouwmeester for example).

I like Subban, though he's overpaid, but he is what he is, he's a slightly better Keith Yandle with an agitator element to his game.

But he's more than a little better than Yandle.
He is deadly on the PP with a 1 timer, probably the best I can think of in the game.

better defensively (and in terms of aggression).

Yandle will hit a little, but not get involved as physically as Subban. I can't see Yandle two-handing anyone like Subban did Stone in the playoffs.

the Klein remarks at all. I've seen it all over too. The guy was our best defenseman for most of the year and quite frankly was superb. He was the most improved player on the whole roster for much of the season, and was an impact player, playing above and beyond what should have been expected....

...then he gets hurt and didn't play as well as he had been (which was at a high level in my opinion) and suddenly that's all people can remember. He's a bargain and a very good low pair d-man who could fill in on a pair that plays more in a pinch. Very confusing to me why anyone would suggest otherwise.

In comment 12375972 hudson said:

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They had a good season but didn't really improve in the off season and we've seen this before where an upstart slips back (Columbus/Colorado). Let's see if they aren't a fluke with a better Columbus team.

CBJ just got killed by injuries last year. Had they been healthier, they'd have been in the playoffs. They went on a tear to close out the reg. season.

MAB: Thanks, I'll let him know.

Nomad: Do you coach?

pj: I'm with you on Subban. I was surprised when he won the Norris a few years back. He's a great player, but is inconsistent defensively.

hudson: The Avalanche had shitty possession numbers, while the Islanders were strong this year. Apparently they also led the league in high quality scoring chances (I saw this in a tweet two months ago but couldn't find it), making their poor S% a huge outlier.

Seth: I agree, he's a really good bottom pairing defenseman. I initially wanted to move him for cap reasons, but if we can fit him, I'd love him back. I completely disagree with him being our best defenseman, though, and do think he had a career year. He struggled when he played against better competition.

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and captain Ryan McDonagh who is looking to build off of his outstanding play in the 2015 Playoffs

New York Rangers Analysis: The Blue Line Group - ( New Window )

Was ol' Brit mainlining some bacon grease before that pic?

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Oilers to honour Sather - ( New Window )

In comment 12375305 JayBinQueens said:

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Argue with the isles assessment. I think all of the fans here pretty much are in agreement. As long as strait is as far away from the ice as possible it'll be a good season. Petrov (guy who's coming over from the KHL) gives them flexibility to move someone for a pick or another prospect but I think Garth is waiting to see which teams need to cut cap right before the season before swooping in and making a move

I don't know how any of these teams that need to add salary to be to the floor haven't acquired Grabner. A team like Arizona or New Jersey could use him. I don't want them to trade him but apparently he's the guy that is supposed to be moved.

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In comment 12377748 Deej said:

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Last year Petrov, at age 25, scored 5-10-15 in 47 KHL games. To put that into perspective, the Rangers prospect Pavel Buchnevich doubled that production in the same league -- 13-17-30 in 48 games -- at AGE 20 and decided to re-up in the KHL because it would be too hard to crack our roster this season. Petrov is likely a JAG, and may even end up an AHL JAG.

Someone I respect over on HF says he thinks Buch needed another year of development anyway, and that he doesn't think it matters that it's in Russia over Hartford.

Hopefully we get him signed when the KHL season ends and he can finish the year in Hartford.

but we have 9 NHL defenseman (incl Skjei supposedly ready by mid-year) and a fuckload of cap dollars invested in this bunch.

Someone's got to go and it'd be real disappointing if they ended up waiving McIlraith instead of freeing up some much needed cap space (not to mention giving DMc away for nothing)

He just might be the only one that can actually be moved. That doesn't mean anywhere here hates him - but tough decisions still need to be made by Gorton this offseason. We're not done yet.

Wise.

Like someone (it may have been you) posted, having Klein for next year might be really important - we'll need replacements for Yandle/Boyle. Skjei and McIlrath can take their spots, but that won't work if McIlrath takes Klein's this year.