Around the League Thread | Meaningful Games in March

[StreetHawk]

I've questioned how/when if things will take a big enough turn to be better but only being in year 6 of Yzerman. Even I won't rush to question things too much quite yet. It looks like an 8-10 year rebuild plan.

To be bad at the level of SJ, Chi, Ana is a lot. 30 point gap from Det to the best of that trio. Det was 20 points ahead of 5th worst last season and 11 the prior year.
He didn’t make the team Ana bad who are a bottom 5 team in 4 of the last 5 seasons.

 

[MS]

yeah, that was my point that hockey players won't be able to enjoy the number one reason to live in slc in the winter due to contract limits.

slc has 5 decent local ski hills that are basically slightly further than grouse or cypress. park city is more of an exclusive resort for apres ski stuff. snowbird and alta are the serious ski hills and brighton and solitude are good for variety.

Park City is a cool spot with a great vibe. Deer Valley just outside Park City is ... something else. It makes Whistler look like a shithole for hobos.

People REALLY like sun/heat and golf. I don't get it but I also hate both of those things.

I love sun/heat but with the caveat that I'm close to water and boats. Being in a desert in the sun is ... yuck.

I usually golf about twice a year but it's too freaking expensive for what it is. Especially when disc golfing is basically the same thing and it's free.

i like the religious weirdness too. smalltown utah is a trip.

I actually found it upsetting to drive through some of the shitty small towns in Northern Utah where people were obviously very poor and then you pass this massive church that literally looks like it's plated in gold and must have cost like $100 million to build.

 

[Vector]

All golf course should be converted into parks, public spaces, and nature reserves. This is my political platform.

 

[StreetHawk]

This feels like a prolonged funeral dirge for this team at this point.

EDIT:



Also, is the league sure Meruelo is the kind of guy they want owning a franchise again?

I don’t see him being back. No need to let him buy that auction land without a team and he doesn't seem to have the funds to cover the construction.

Besides, since the land in question is actually in PHX not Scottsdale, better to see what becomes of Footprint and the Suns plans when their extended lease, which I heard was 15 more years from 2022 to 2037, so 13 years from now, but 10 when it comes to planning on what to do with their current arena.

Always best for NBA/NHL to share an arena. AZ already hearing threats from DBacks on their stadium as well. Market the size of AZ, should not require public funds. I mean, where would you move a team that would be in as good a market?

 

[Nucker101]

The Canucks being hammered with Luongo's cap recapture penalty while this sort of blatant abuse happens multiple years in a row just makes it harder to swallow.

Especially since that recapture penalty wasn’t even grandfathered in. God I hate the way this league operates.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I don’t see him being back. No need to let him buy that auction land without a team and he doesn't seem to have the funds to cover the construction.

Besides, since the land in question is actually in PHX not Scottsdale, better to see what becomes of Footprint and the Suns plans when their extended lease, which I heard was 15 more years from 2022 to 2037, so 13 years from now, but 10 when it comes to planning on what to do with their current arena.

Always best for NBA/NHL to share an arena. AZ already hearing threats from DBacks on their stadium as well. Market the size of AZ, should not require public funds. I mean, where would you move a team that would be in as good a market?

It's Taj regurgitating radio bits, but worth sharing if accurate -



Even if the league is (somehow) smitten with Meruleo, I wonder if the PA files grievances and tries to put up roadblocks?

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Another year, more cap circumcision.

Just shows what it takes to win...

 

[Vector]

It's Taj regurgitating radio bits, but worth sharing if accurate -



Even if the league is (somehow) smitten with Meruleo, I wonder if the PA files grievances and tries to put up roadblocks?

I don't think the league is smitten with Meruelo. From what I can gather from the various insiders, it seems they are afraid of him. He's litigious and they don't want to get into a legal battle with a current owner. Once they've extradited themselves from the situation and promised to consider him for an expansion franchise, as long as they don't do something stupid like include it in a contract, they can just deny him when it comes up again.

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

The Canucks being hammered with Luongo's cap recapture penalty while this sort of blatant abuse happens multiple years in a row just makes it harder to swallow.

It’s amazing how back and forth the NHL is with what is and isn’t circumventing the cap. Go on LTIR permanently instead of retiring? No penalty. Retire when you could have gone on LTIR? Full penalty. Although giving Jim Benning as little cap space as possible was a gift, but that’s not the point. Acquiring players that are injured at the deadline is cap circumvention. Acquiring players on LTIR that will never play again to increase the LTIR pool is completely fine though. Enforce everything that circumvents the cap or don’t have it at all.

There really should be a salary cap in the playoffs too. It punishes teams for being healthy. Plus it’s rediculous that if a team loses a player in October to injury and they miss 80% of the season add someone without circumventing the cap, and could miss the playoffs. But a team that has been in a playoff position all year can have someone injured right before the deadline can add 20m in salary because of LTIR.

 

[Jyrki]

Is anyone actually surprised? I mean, anyone?

Not at all, I thought it was widely accepted that McCrimmon can make the dead rise from their tombs every April.

 

[StreetHawk]

It’s amazing how back and forth the NHL is with what is and isn’t circumventing the cap. Go on LTIR permanently instead of retiring? No penalty. Retire when you could have gone on LTIR? Full penalty. Although giving Jim Benning as little cap space as possible was a gift, but that’s not the point. Acquiring players that are injured at the deadline is cap circumvention. Acquiring players on LTIR that will never play again to increase the LTIR pool is completely fine though. Enforce everything that circumvents the cap or don’t have it at all.

There really should be a salary cap in the playoffs too. It punishes teams for being healthy. Plus it’s rediculous that if a team loses a player in October to injury and they miss 80% of the season add someone without circumventing the cap, and could miss the playoffs. But a team that has been in a playoff position all year can have someone injured right before the deadline can add 20m in salary because of LTIR.

In season LTIR, if someone is out 12 weeks beginning in Dec, but returns in March, you really can't add a player because you need to become cap compliant when you player is set to return. But, a few weeks later that same player can go down in Jan and just wait out the regular season, then you can add a player and have your player return.

LTIR was meant to allow a team to upgrade their roster to offset the loss of a player long term (but with today's cap spending, most teams are capped out, so the only benefit is when the player is done for the year).

 

[Munber1]

Golden Knights management laughing about their latest CAP circumvention.

 

[Hansen]

It's Taj regurgitating radio bits, but worth sharing if accurate -



Even if the league is (somehow) smitten with Meruleo, I wonder if the PA files grievances and tries to put up roadblocks?

What happened in Vancouver with the Coyotes?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

What happened in Vancouver with the Coyotes?

That was the day the news broke about the pending relocation to Salt Lake City. Friedman was there for the CFKF Telethon, and I think he's just commenting on the feeling of betrayal amongst the players and how they were all blindsided after all the mismanagement they've endured. Friedman likely ran into a few of them and had private chats.

 

[SillyRabbit]

Golden Knights management laughing about their latest CAP circumvention.

Not only did they do this last year, they also did it back in 2022:



They put three guys on the LTIR so they could bring back Stone early in order to push for the playoffs (playoffs started two weeks later that year).

They would bring him back early this season too if they could.

They are by far the biggest abuses of the Cap in NHL history, given how repetitive it's gotten.

 

[StreetHawk]

That was the day the news broke about the pending relocation to Salt Lake City. Friedman was there for the CFKF Telethon, and I think he's just commenting on the feeling of betrayal amongst the players and how they were all blindsided after all the mismanagement they've endured. Friedman likely ran into a few of them and had private chats.

Failure on AZ organization and NHL as well. If they are brokering the transaction, then the proper thing to do with your PA partners is to send an AGM level person to the team in Van to be their point of contact. Situation will be fluid and likely AGM can't offer much but at least collects their concerns and relays that to the organization to try to get some answers.

 

[CanuckleBerry]

That was the day the news broke about the pending relocation to Salt Lake City. Friedman was there for the CFKF Telethon, and I think he's just commenting on the feeling of betrayal amongst the players and how they were all blindsided after all the mismanagement they've endured. Friedman likely ran into a few of them and had private chats.

Maybe I missed something but I thought I heard that none of the Coyotes' players would even speak with the media following the game. Complete camera blackout while they were processing the messed up news. In private yeah who knows what was said.

 

[Canucker]

Not only did they do this last year, they also did it back in 2022:



They put three guys on the LTIR so they could bring back Stone early in order to push for the playoffs (playoffs started two weeks later that year).

They would bring him back early this season too if they could.

They are by far the biggest abuses of the Cap in NHL history, given how repetitive it's gotten.

I don't blame Vegas at all in this...the NHL has had ample time to correct this but don't seem to think this is a very important issue...we'll just have to wait for Vancouver to try it and it'll get corrected in a hurry, along with some penalties.

 

[VanillaCoke]

crying is for babies

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Maybe I missed something but I thought I heard that none of the Coyotes' players would even speak with the media following the game. Complete camera blackout while they were processing the messed up news. In private yeah who knows what was said.

They permitted Logan Cooley to answer questions only from their team media, and no other players were made available to the media. This was for post-game with the general media that's assembled. Makes sense they blocked that out so the players weren't answering a bunch of questions on the record. But I'm sure there's guys who have rapport with a guy like Friedman or others who - off the record - vented their feelings.

 

[vancityluongo]

phoenix/arizona has something vancouver folks would never understand - the sun is really nice. the extreme heat doesn't matter, especially for multi-millionaires with giant ac houses and pools. it's also affordable, relatively speaking. plus these guys aren't confronting the heat in the summer, a lot of them are back in lake country ontario, or sweden.

i can see why players love it as a destination. SLC seems fine, but not sure skiing is going to be a draw for NHLers

All golf course should be converted into parks, public spaces, and nature reserves. This is my political platform.

hell yeah. you're (likely) joking about it being a political platform but cities annexing golf courses could genuinely help solve so many problems. we should build affordable housing on the fairways. anyways

 

[Vector]

hell yeah. you're (likely) joking about it being a political platform but cities annexing golf courses could genuinely help solve so many problems. we should build affordable housing on the fairways. anyways

I do truly believe it.

Affordable housing should be where-ever the wealthiest communities are. When they pack-up and move/gentrify a new community, more affordable housing should pop-up right there too.

 

[MS]

The simple way to fix housing issues is to make it so that Canadian property can only be owned by Canadian citizens.

15% of Vancouver housing is empty because it's owned by foreigners living abroad. It's insane. We've let foreign demand price our own citizens out of housing and then there isn't enough housing for people even to rent affordably because such an obscene amount of property is sitting empty.

Anyway, the Coyotes are a joke and so is the fact that the NHL hasn't fixed the LTIR cheating debacle and Vegas is being allowed to do this yet again.

 

[StreetHawk]

phoenix/arizona has something vancouver folks would never understand - the sun is really nice. the extreme heat doesn't matter, especially for multi-millionaires with giant ac houses and pools. it's also affordable, relatively speaking. plus these guys aren't confronting the heat in the summer, a lot of them are back in lake country ontario, or sweden.

i can see why players love it as a destination. SLC seems fine, but not sure skiing is going to be a draw for NHLers



hell yeah. you're (likely) joking about it being a political platform but cities annexing golf courses could genuinely help solve so many problems. we should build affordable housing on the fairways. anyways

All true on AZ. Warm during the season and players leave when it’s scorching.

But I don’t feel bad for any player who signed a deal with AZ after they began going year to year on their lease with Glendale. That was the sign that the team may not be long for the state. If you opted to not believe that then that’s on you for being niave.

Maybe the only player who has a contract for next season who signed before that is Keller. Perhaps schmaltz too. But not Crouse who signed not long ago.

Any rfa it’s the luck of the draw where you get drafted to. Have to do your time to earn years towards ufa or be good enough to have the clout like Tkachuk to get out a year early.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I think we should start a riot!