Around The League; Offseason

[McMetal]

Florida must be really confident about how he fits with their team off the ice. Maybe it just took him a while to mature and/or he's finally found a good culture fit for him. Given the season he had, that's really good value on a medium-term contract.

 

[dahrougem2]

Y'all are hilarious about Duclair. I'd take him on this team in a second. Way better value and probably more consistent than Burakovsky.

Ehhhhh easy now. Duclair was spoonfed top offensive minutes with the Senators when he put up 40 points in 66 games. Burakovsky has outproduced him the last two seasons so I don't know how you can claim he'd be more consistent than Burakovsky?

Better value sure given this contract versus Burakovsky's. But consistent? Duclair is the definition of inconsistent.

 

[henchman21]

Florida must be really confident about how he fits with their team off the ice. Maybe it just took him a while to mature and/or he's finally found a good culture fit for him. Given the season he had, that's really good value on a medium-term contract.

Bill Zito has been the kid's biggest tire pumper for years.

 

[Balthazar]

Maybe it just took him a while to mature.

Nope, I don't buy that.

Did he get an agent this time or decided he was still good enough to be his own agent?

 

[henchman21]

'He died as a hero' — Matiss Kivlenieks remembered by Blue Jackets players, coaches as prankster with mischievous smile

 

[Pokecheque]

Ehhhhh easy now. Duclair was spoonfed top offensive minutes with the Senators when he put up 40 points in 66 games. Burakovsky has outproduced him the last two seasons so I don't know how you can claim he'd be more consistent than Burakovsky?

Better value sure given this contract versus Burakovsky's. But consistent? Duclair is the definition of inconsistent.

Duclair was "spoon-fed" those minutes on one of the worst teams in hockey. Who exactly were his linemates? Who was the guy setting him up for these goals and assists? And while they have Chabot it ain't like their blueline is packed to the gills with talent either.

Saying Duclair is more consistent than Burakovsky is certainly not a hill I'll die on, but I think his rep of being some headcase primadonna is wildly inflated out of proportion.

 

[dahrougem2]

Duclair was "spoon-fed" those minutes on one of the worst teams in hockey. Who exactly were his linemates? Who was the guy setting him up for these goals and assists? And while they have Chabot it ain't like their blueline is packed to the gills with talent either.

Saying Duclair is more consistent than Burakovsky is certainly not a hill I'll die on, but I think his rep of being some headcase primadonna is wildly inflated out of proportion.

Well I won't argue with you about the headcase thing but I most certainly don't think he's more consistent than Burakovsky who outproduced him last season and then again this season was basically scoring at a low-end 1st line rate while being given virtually zero PP1 time.

 

[Balthazar]

I think his rep of being some headcase primadonna is wildly inflated out of proportion.

He was on his 6th different NHL team at age 24.

 

[Pokecheque]

He was on his 6th different NHL team at age 24.

Yeah, that sure tells the whole story. Let's just go with that. Never mind the fact that Ottawa and Glendale are/were run by morons who supply the league with off-ice drama on the regular, or that virtually everyone wants outta Lumbus, or that Chicago is run by slimeballs who aided and abetted a sexual predator. Yep, it's all his fault isn't it.

I'd also add that there might be another issue at play but I'm pretty sure you and I have already had discussions on that subject and I've no interest in continuing it.

I'm not sitting here saying he's a saint--he probably does have some attitude about him. But I still think he's a good bet. The league is chock full of jerks and egomaniacs--don't kid yourself. The only two guys in the league who might be available that I'd like the Avs to steer way clear of due to personality issues are Evander Kane and Mike Hoffman.

 

[Pokecheque]

I mean....who the f*** cares that he's played on six different teams? Mike Sillinger played for nearly every single team in the entire league, there was never one story about him being a headcase, that's just the way things go sometimes.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

When animal control tells you that you need to catch the injured bird in your back yard and put it into a box so they can pick it up:

When you finally get the bird into the box:

 

[Metallo]

View attachment 453240

Who has an open wine bottle in their cupboard?

 

[Pokecheque]

When animal control tells you that you need to catch the injured bird in your back yard and put it into a box so they can pick it up:

View attachment 453240

When you finally get the bird into the box:

View attachment 453239

Ever since I moved to Nebraska I somehow get involved with at least one wildlife rescue situation a year. Mind you, one of them was my own fault--I didn't clear a massive bundle of sticks in the back yard, a rabbit set up her den in there, the dogs found it, and unfortunately I ended up saving only one of the litter. With birds its way more touch-and-go since they're so damned delicate but I think we saved a couple.

Word to the wise, don't forget to put screens in your windows--it cuts down on reflections, which cuts down on birds smashing into them. I realized this too late with a poor dove that took a run at my kitchen window...couldn't save the poor bloke.

 

[MarkT]

So Minny buys those two guys out for the expansion draft is that the consensus...
Has any team been ravaged worse than that team from the two expansion drafts

I don't agree with that consensus.

Compare the two situations

Without buyouts:
2021-2022 Suter (36) & Parise (37) Combined: 15.1m
2022-2023 Suter (37) & Parise (38) Combined: 15.1m
2023-2024 Suter (38) & Parise (39) Combined: 15.1m
2024-2025 Suter (39) & Parise (40) Combined: 15.1m

With buyouts:
2021-2022 dead cap hits: 4.7m
2022-2023 dead cap hits: 12.7m
2023-2024 dead cap hits: 14.7m
2024-2025 dead cap hits: 14.7m

The only way this is a bad move is if you think Suter (and Parise) were going to continue to be useful players for the next four years. People are looking at the cap hits and freaking out, but if both Suter and Parise are no longer NHL-quality players, you're looking at essentially 15.1m in dead cap for all four years. Plus you've got the added feature of them being locker-room leaders who would probably become increasingly bigger distractions as their ice time diminished (remember all the stories about Parise these playoffs?).

So in terms of their value to the team, Parise was already getting healthy scratched, and how long do you think Suter's body holds up after consistently leading the league in minutes. If you didn't buy them out you'd basically be praying they get perma-injured eventually and go on LTIR. Even in that case, that's a ton of money to have on LTIR.

The other option of course would be to trade them, but Parise likely had negative value even with retained salary, and Suter had a NTC he was extremely unlikely to waive (and also may have had less value than people think given the term left on his deal).

So from a Minny perspective, sure they lose Suter on the back-end, but they have the cap space to replace him for this season. And even if they kept him, they'd probably have to start looking for replacements for his ice time and role within the next 2-4 years. This gives them an extra 10m to fill Suter's role in year one, 2m+ in year two, and then an entry-level deal in years 3 and 4. If Guerin can find (and develop) a good young defenseman on a 3 year ELC which starts in 2022-23 or 2023-24, then this will work out perfectly.

 

[Islay1989]

Y'all are hilarious about Duclair. I'd take him on this team in a second. Way better value and probably more consistent than Burakovsky.

Don't talk like that about the golden boy

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[MarkT]

I'm amazed there hasn't been more trades. At this point I assume there actually have been a bunch of trades, but they are with Seattle and haven't been announced yet.

 

[MarkT]

Edit: Makes sense. He's out until December (at least) after surgery.

 

[EXTRAS]

Heiskanen signs 8y x 8.45M

Was hoping to get Makar for that amount, but I guess that hope is dashed into a million pieces now.

 

[MarkT]

This is so dumb to me. If he wants to sign with Seattle, they can sign him in free agency. Why pass up on a free player already under contract from Florida? Hell, they could pick someone like Radko Gudas and immediately flip him for futures if they want. It just seems like terrible asset management to me.

 

[Bender]

This is so dumb to me. If he wants to sign with Seattle, they can sign him in free agency. Why pass up on a free player already under contract from Florida? Hell, they could pick someone like Radko Gudas and immediately flip him for futures if they want. It just seems like terrible asset management to me.

Maybe they don't want to get into a potential bidding war with other teams? It does seem odd though because they shouldn't have salary cap issues right away and if they do, they did it wrong.

 

[Bender]

Heiskanen signs 8y x 8.45M

Was hoping to get Makar for that amount, but I guess that hope is dashed into a million pieces now.

Always thought that Makar would get between $8.5M and $9M x 8 years.

This one doesn't seem like a it's a hard one to get done at all - that's the market value for him and you're locking him up until he's 30.

 

[MarkT]

Maybe they don't want to get into a potential bidding war with other teams? It does seem odd though because they shouldn't have salary cap issues right away and if they do, they did it wrong.

I get the reasoning - it's the same as trading for a player's rights, but the way I see it, the value here is they're trading whoever they would have got from Florida (and they are going to have some decent players exposed) for the rights to Driedger. To me, that's far too high a price to pay just for an exclusive negotiation window. If I'm in charge of Seattle, the only thing I'm doing during the window is negotiating with RFAs I'm considering picking so I can find out if I still want them after I hear their contract demands.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[MarkT]