Speculation: Could we see a massacre this offesason with teams blowing it up trying to chase the Vegas method?

[ThreeOfAPerfectPair]

NHL GM's often quickly change the structure of their team to try and emulate the most recent success stories in the league, are we going to see the same thing this offseason? Teams letting go of expensive "high-end" players for effective "money-ball" value ones?

Click to read more...

 

[BleedBlue14]

Who exactly are the money ball players left around? I don't see this being a thing. Vegas had a lot of speed and almost every player on their roster have career years. Hard to emulate that.

Side note. If anyone wants to do this blow up and has a 1C they want for a money ball player I offer you Berglund or Jaskin if you just want to go ahead and throw away a top 6 C (preferably elite, preferably right handed. Open to negotiations thou).

 

[almostawake]

More likely you'll see some teams try to make over their bottom 6 to add more speed.

But top 6 is hard to makeover without downgrading.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Doing what Vegas did will be next to impossible

 

[Leviathan]

I think teams were already trying to do what Vegas did this year, but Vegas was able to do it all at once whereas other teams are bogged down with older models and slower players they can't just ditch. I think pretty much every team now wants to get younger and faster and cheaper so I don't see there being many places to dump off those contracts.

 

[Kraken Jokes]

The thing to learn from Vegas is that there are many hidden gems throughout the league, so you need to be more open-minded. There are guys that teams are willing to move for pennies that still have top-6 forward, top-4 defence potential despite being 23+ and not having an impact yet.

Also, put your players in a position to succeed. Play them with players that compliment them. Put them in roles they'd be excited about playing. Don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Don't punish them for every little mistake so that they're second-guessing themselves at every turn.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Paul Byron for 3 1st rounders....

Teams who try and emulate a cup winner will always be behind. It's best to try and build the best team you can and see what tweaks you need to make.

More than likely future winners will be be a team with superstars and good drafting/trade/fa signings to fill in the other spots.

Vegas came into the year with no superstars and we'll have to see if all this production will continue cementing some as stars.

 

[Halla]

no.

 

[Grub]

I think the expansion method is a total disaster to be frank. A team winning the cup after 1 year in the league is comical.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

No, because teams that "blow it up" won't have an expansion draft to re-build with like VGN did.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I think the expansion method is a total disaster to be frank. A team winning the cup after 1 year in the league is comical.

I think it's great. The whole "expansion draft was a disaster" is such revisionist history here on HF. Teams were able to protect, for the most part, their 8-9 best veteran skaters, their best goalie AND all of their best young players and prospects. They cobbled together a team with a couple of high profile players, some guys that needed a chance, and a bunch of cast offs from other teams. Before the season started, people predicted them to be one of the worst teams in the NHL and were calling McPhee and idiot for how he handled the draft. In hindsight, kudos to him for using it to take advantage of a few teams that wanted to get rid of some dead weight / bad contracts.

The team reminds me a bit of the 05/06 Canes. A few guys nobody wanted (Whitney was bought out, nobody but Carolina offered Stillman a deal), a good coach that pulled all the right strings, a relatively no name defense, some hot goaltending at the right time, and a team that played with a chip on their shoulder.

 

[Jumptheshark]

McPhee went from nut job to Einstein in 10 months

 

[mcpw]

I can definitely see some teams trying to trade a fourth round pick for Huberdeau and Dadonov.

 

[Mike Jones]

A GM shouldn't try this and probably won't. One of the keys to Vegas' success this season was an overly generous expansion draft generating a number of significant trades allowing existing teams to protect key players. There's no way to repeat that - even for the next expansion team.

If GMs want to remodel their teams after Vegas they need to focus on depth, drafting, development, speed - really all the things they should have been doing even before the Vegas expansion.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I’d LOVE to see some team strip down their roster and try to rebuild using only waiver claims, cap dumps, and castoffs that teams are willing to give them for a 4th.

Five lottery-pick seasons later, people would be all “is the Vegas method flawed???”

 

[tarheelhockey]

BTW, I love how there’s a Vegas “method” now.


“You can have a team, but you’re not allowed to have any really good players.”

“Okay”

That’s the method.

 

[Wingsfan 4 life]

Nope, but it would be funny if teams started scrambling to emulate the Vegas model after one season, and then find out in a decade later that this Vegas model was really a version of the Carolina 06 model.

Not saying Vegas won't make the playoffs for another decade or so, but teams won't really start emulating until they see sustained success.

 

[93gilmour93]

This is a one in a million what Vegas has done. It will never be matched again so just enjoy the ride and hopefully it ends with the Stanley Cup

 

[rt]

Poor teams with small budgets have been attempting this since the salary cap was implemented. It hasn’t worked for any of them yet.

 

[CupInSIX]

Ain't no method to this madness. Ain't no height restrictions on this ride.


Someone tell Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron they should be coasting with their big $$$ contracts. They're doing it wrong.
Well, Brad's definitely doing something wrong.

 

[chet1926]

There is no Vegas model. Their model is simply have every player on the roster have career years by a country mile, then have your goalie go all world. If you can do that, then you can"copy" their formula.

But in seriousness, their formula is unsustainable and it might get it done this year, but when those players start coming back to reality and closer to their career averages they are probably a borderline playoff team.

 

[Bazeek]

I think you'll see some GM's giving a long hard look at the assumptions they've made about some of the "role players" on their current rosters. Whether or not that results in any moves is hard to say.

I think coaches probably have more to learn from Vegas than GM's.

 

[trellaine201]

They will be lucky to make the playoffs next year IMO. Everything is gone right. All the bounces etc.

So NO.

 

[Bazeek]

There is no Vegas model. Their model is simply have every player on the roster have career years by a country mile, then have your goalie go all world. If you can do that, then you can"copy" their formula.

But in seriousness, their formula is unsustainable and it might get it done this year, but when those players start coming back to reality and closer to their career averages they are probably a borderline playoff team.

The problem is that a lot of their best players' career averages came while playing in completely different roles. Erik Haula wasn't getting fed piles of powerplay time in Minnesota; he was playing in the bottom 6 and on the PK. If he continues in his current role in Vegas, his numbers aren't likely to go down much. The same could likely be said for many of their better players.

I don't think they'll get to the cup final again next year or anything, but I don't see any reason they can't be a consistent playoff team for the immediate future. Their challenge is really going to be to continue building a farm system without the high draft picks they may have been anticipating before this season.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

There is no Vegas model. Their model is simply have every player on the roster have career years by a country mile, then have your goalie go all world. If you can do that, then you can"copy" their formula.

But in seriousness, their formula is unsustainable and it might get it done this year, but when those players start coming back to reality and closer to their career averages they are probably a borderline playoff team.

I don't disagree but i think a fair amount of their players were misused and under preformed until now. Yes there stats are unsustainable but i don't think the drop will be as bad as career averages for a lot of these players. I think they will play somewhere in between their average and career high. I also imagine if i am right about that and Flower keeps playing at a respectable level they will easily make the play offs next year. Keep in mind all the goalie injuries this team had this year and still found ways to win. MAF is doing a lot of the lifting in the post season but he didn't to get them to it.