Around the League 22: But how will it work next season?

[bleedgreen]

Counterpoint: I bet Guerin didn't do much homework, and settled for the quickest/easiest deal he could get. Because if he'd been working to improve, he could have told Staal "look, buddy, it's time to go, the best deal is Buffalo, open up that no-trade and let's get something cooking." But he didn't do that.

As always we all have opinions and the mileage varies.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

As always we all have opinions and the mileage varies.

Yep. It's not a killer either way. It's just a head scratcher, and I don't think it's defensible as a "good deal".

 

[bleedgreen]

Yep. It's not a killer either way. It's just a head scratcher, and I don't think it's defensible as a "good deal".

I think it was time for a change. They keep going with the same team and getting the same results. Time for something different. Addition by subtraction isn’t an unusual concept. They’re banking on being a better team for it in the end.

We are also likely over rating Staal’s value on the market currently. He may have rental value without taking something back, but otherwise you were taking salary back.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I think it was time for a change. They keep going with the same team and getting the same results. Time for something different. Addition by subtraction isn’t an unusual concept. They’re banking on being a better team for it in the end.

We are also likely over rating Staal’s value on the market currently. He may have rental value without taking something back, but otherwise you were taking salary back.

$3m for one year, for a guy who has scored 20 goals every year for the last gazillion years? Are you kidding?

 

[bleedgreen]

$3m for one year, for a guy who has scored 20 goals every year for the last gazillion years? Are you kidding?

He’s a locker room changer who would expect to play a high role. He isn’t as easy an add to your team as you’d think imo.

In the current market, yes even 3 million can be a big deal depending on the guy. He may have put up numbers in the end but I thought Staal had a tough year last year.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

He’s a locker room changer who would expect to play a high role. He isn’t as easy an add to your team as you’d think imo.

In the current market, yes even 3 million can be a big deal depending on the guy.

Staal's production is a bargain relative to his salary, though, and it has been for years at this point. I think that there's a lot of people undervaluing MoJo, too. He produced pretty well this season, 0.5 PPG, on a bad team. I still don't think it's a great trade because I would probably want draft picks if I was Guerin, but it could well be that he thinks that the Wild can do a re-tool on the fly via trade while still battling for a spot.

 

[bleedgreen]

Or that no one offered picks. Or that with a team growing younger quickly he wanted enough of a vet to help out without running the show.

 

[To Be Determined]

i really don't get it, but whatevs wild. it does make me wonder if this means the slugs are putting skinner back with jack? kevyn adams never struck me as dumb, so no way this is a reunite skinner/staal move. and they ain't paying the man 9meeeeellion dollary-doos to play on the third line.

skinner being away from eichel so much was a head-scratcher to me anyway, but maybe this is the gm's way to force the coach to put skinner back on the first line. because, as someone here pointed out previously, staal and skinner just never worked.

 

[Svechhammer]

I mean, sure, trade Staal, fine -- but if you want to dump a vet, why trade for a shittier guy that costs more, especially when they've both got a year left on their deals?

The question is not "why did they dump Staal". The question is, why did they spend extra money to get worse? Trade him for a 3rd if you're so desperate to get rid of him.

If the goal is to tank, adding a few bad players on big contracts isn't a terrible way to do it. You get worse, and then you get the added bonus of less cap space to tempt yourself into a move to improve things down the line. Pretty much guarantee being a bad team for a duration with a pretty defined timeline on when you might be able to come out of it.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If the goal is to tank, adding a few bad players on big contracts isn't a terrible way to do it. You get worse, and then you get the added bonus of less cap space to tempt yourself into a move to improve things down the line. Pretty much guarantee being a bad team for a duration with a pretty defined timeline on when you might be able to come out of it.

So you're spending money on something bad to avoid the "temptation" of spending that money on something good, rather than just not spending the money? OK.

 

[Svechhammer]

So you're spending money on something bad to avoid the "temptation" of spending that money on something good, rather than just not spending the money? OK.

Its Minny.... they have to appear like they are trying

 

[bleedgreen]

I think Staal to Buff is about appeasing Jack. He wants help and is sick of losing. They really need a second center who can carry some mail and this buys them a year. Hopefully their young guys are more ready the season after presuming Staal doesn’t stay there.

I hope Skinner goes back to Eichel too. That was just dumb.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

I don't think it was/is dumb. The Sabres are paying Skinner $9 mil a year. That's line driver money. If the player can't cut it alone (Skinner has shown the ability to elevate lesser players, albeit inconsistently), it causes havoc down the lineup. A better statline for Skiner and Eichel may not mean anything if the Middle 6 doesn't contribute.

 

[GoldiFox]

LeBrun said in his article today that Staal tried to structure his 10 team NTC list to include contenders that had recently inquired about him over the past few years and did not even consider that Buffalo would want him. He was shocked when he was traded and likely only didn't retire out of respect for Kevyn Adams

 

[tarheelhockey]

LeBrun said in his article today that Staal tried to structure his 10 team NTC list to include contenders that had recently inquired about him over the past few years and did not even consider that Buffalo would want him. He was shocked when he was traded and likely only didn't retire out of respect for Kevyn Adams

Holy ****ing yikes, that last sentence is not what I'd want to hear from a guy I just traded for.

 

[GoldiFox]

Holy ****ing yikes, that last sentence is not what I'd want to hear from a guy I just traded for.

it was more LeBrun's speculation:

"But now he has indeed been dealt. Against his will. The reason I don’t think retirement even crossed Staal’s mind after the shocking trade is because it’s his old teammate, Kevyn Adams, on the other side dealing for him."

For sure Staal wasn't happy with it at all according to LeBrun's sources.

 

[HisIceness]

Eric and Jeff when they meet up for the first time since Eric became a Sabre



Hopefully the jealousy that Eric had for Jeff goes away

 

[Svechhammer]

it was more LeBrun's speculation:

"But now he has indeed been dealt. Against his will. The reason I don’t think retirement even crossed Staal’s mind after the shocking trade is because it’s his old teammate, Kevyn Adams, on the other side dealing for him."

For sure Staal wasn't happy with it at all according to LeBrun's sources.

I just find it amusing that the two players we were most frustrated with over the last 10-15 years for coasting through large segments of a given year and being pouty when things didn't go their way are now both playing for a bad, bad Sabres organization with one player apparently furious that he is now there.

This is going to end so badly. I can't wait!

 

[cptjeff]

what do you mean by pay cut?

For some reason I had it in my head that he was earning $4m, not $3.1. Whoops.

 

[HisIceness]

From a couple days ago but worth a mention

 

[bleedgreen]

I just find it amusing that the two players we were most frustrated with over the last 10-15 years for coasting through large segments of a given year and being pouty when things didn't go their way are now both playing for a bad, bad Sabres organization with one player apparently furious that he is now there.

This is going to end so badly. I can't wait!

When did Skinner pout? For that matter when did Eric? Eric took it like a champ that they got rid of all the talent around him leaving him to do it home self. Neither did Skinner either. I thought the problem was that he didn’t pout enough? He came to work every day with a smile on his face and generally busted his ass. He was the one I thought who got tagged with not being angry enough about losing. Doesn’t really suggest pouting.

They both had flaws and they both lacked the quality of line mates you’d have liked them to have over much of their careers but neither pouted or complained.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Minnesota isn't resigning Koivu. I knew it was coming, but it still hurts. Guy has been my favorite Wild player for the longest time.

 

[NotOpie]

Same with the Calgary/NYR trades, also not in a vacuum. It's pretty easy to say that Dougie was a big win over Hanifin and Lindholm was maybe close to the same in terms of value of a win over Ferland. But we also got Fox from that deal... who also wouldn't sign with us. But we were able to flip Fox to NYR for 2 x 2nd round picks. So I dunno. That one is still murky. We got the best player in the deal in Dougie and even though we let Ferland go we still recouped some solid assets in 2 pretty high 2nd round picks. I think if we re-sign Dougie it's firmly a win but if we don't then it's a loss overall in terms of asset management, regardless of what happens with those picks.

Late to the party on this discussion, but even though they are currently lottery tickets, the 1st 2nd round pick we got from the Rangers yielded Jamieson Rees and Anttoni Honka. Boom or bust picks to be sure, but that's already two pretty good kicks at the can. Add in this year's Ranger's 2nd and I'm damn happy with the return for Fox.

 

[AD Skinner]

Minnesota isn't resigning Koivu. I knew it was coming, but it still hurts. Guy has been my favorite Wild player for the longest time.

He'd probably be redundant on this year's team but I always thought he'd make a good Cane. Defensively responsible, scoring touch, Finnish.

 

[tarheelhockey]

From a couple days ago but worth a mention

Sounds like a radio host in Calgary didn't follow the Canes very closely, and was going off old headlines.