Confirmed with Link: Ethan Bear re-signed, $2.2M, 1yr

[LakeLivin]

We're really dancing in the dark when it comes to the health status/ projections for Bear and Gardiner. Presumably the Borg has a decent idea of what they're dealing with.

Having said that, reading between the lines of Waddell's quote about Gardiner, I'll be surprised if he starts the season with the Canes.

''Barring anything unforeseen, he'll come to camp and we'll go from there," Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal on July 7.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

We’ll see but we’ve been harsh on the guy. When healthy he looked good, but it depends on your expectations of him. I do think it’s possible he can manage the role, and of course maybe he can’t and we ltir him.

Maybe. If he's lost it because surgery, injuries, lack of playing and age have limited his mobility and effectiveness, but he's no longer injured, we can't LTIR him.

 

[A Star is Burns]

We're really dancing in the dark when it comes to the health status/ projections for Bear and Gardiner. Presumably the Borg has a decent idea of what they're dealing with.

Having said that, reading between the lines of Waddell's quote about Gardiner, I'll be surprised if he starts the season with the Canes.

''Barring anything unforeseen, he'll come to camp and we'll go from there," Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal on July 7.

I think that's more of an "it'd be terrible if something were to happen to you Jake" to intimidate him. If not, I suspect there's a masked individual with a tire iron in his future.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I think that's more of an "it'd be terrible if something were to happen to you Jake" to intimidate him. If not, I suspect there's a masked individual with a tire iron in his future.

 

[Chrispy]

We’ll see but we’ve been harsh on the guy. When healthy he looked good, but it depends on your expectations of him. I do think it’s possible he can manage the role, and of course maybe he can’t and we ltir him.

I think we've been harsh because we don't know when he was healthy and when he wasn't.

If most of the poor play was due to his back and hip, then that means he could be useful.
But the bigger question is whether Gardiner can return to an NHL level of play after back and hip surgeries. One of those alone is tough.

 

[LakeLivin]

I think that's more of an "it'd be terrible if something were to happen to you Jake" to intimidate him. If not, I suspect there's a masked individual with a tire iron in his future.

Hmm, have the Canes added Tonya Harding to the payroll?

On a serious note, Gardiner's Da Beauty League team Walser plays 6 times between Aug 1st and Aug 17th. They have a link to view each game, don't know if you can just sign up or if there's a fee involved. Those might give a decent indication as to where Gardiner is physically after the surgery, but even if he looks whole right now you've got to wonder about his durability across a full NHL season.

 

[bleedgreen]

I think we've been harsh because we don't know when he was healthy and when he wasn't.

If most of the poor play was due to his back and hip, then that means he could be useful.
But the bigger question is whether Gardiner can return to an NHL level of play after back and hip surgeries. One of those alone is tough.

I agree, but there’s a lot of resentment and negative talk about both Bear and Jake that are unfounded. We signed Jake, if he can be healthy enough to play then we have to deal with that. Bear is a capable player who struggled, this extension is not surprising. He has value in this league and we aren’t ones to sell low if we can help it. If it leads to Necas leaving I would be very upset, but those feelings would be more towards the Patches one year experiment than the two existing players we knew the cost of all along.

Of course Patches should score more than Necas but he’s a band aid one year player. If he does well we won’t sign him, we probably won’t if he doesn’t do that well. Not worth losing Necas imo but I know others will disagree. To me that’s the reason we would lose Necas, not either of these two defenseman who already play for us.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

It would rock if Bear proves to be a good middle-pairing-type guy and then we can trade him for a 2nd a 3rd and a 4th next offseason.

 

[MadeUpName]

I think that's more of an "it'd be terrible if something were to happen to you Jake" to intimidate him. If not, I suspect there's a masked individual with a tire iron in his future.

Gardiner and the team are out skating on the first day warming up.

Suddenly Brad Malone steps out on the ice in full gear for his 1-day PTO...

 

[WreckingCrew]

Gardiner and the team are out skating on the first day warming up.

Suddenly Brad Malone steps out on the ice in full gear for his 1-day PTO...

Just set up a preseason game against Edmonton and pay them "future considerations" to suit him up for the game

 

[MinJaBen]

Just set up a preseason game against Edmonton and pay them "future considerations" to suit him up for the game

What does Vegas get for this?

 

[Negan4Coach]

I’m not totally convinced that you, Boris and Moses Malone aren’t the same person.

Or are you guys pulling the ol three kids ina trench coat bit? It’s like some weird hive mind has control of youse guys accounts.

Yeah, we’re all TDA’s Alts, quiet frankly.

They don't need to be under the cap until the start of the season right?

It's far from ideal scenario, but they can cut $1.125M off the cap by sending Gardiner to Chicago. Add $762K from sending Chatfield down and you have almost $1.9M on top of the current $1.88 in cap space.

Nearly $4M should be enough for Necas. It's about $3M in dead cap for Gardiner, but it gets the job done.

It is completely outrageous that a team of this caliber is facing a shit choice like this- way to paint yourself into a corner, Borg.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

It is completely outrageous that a team of this caliber is facing a shit choice like this- way to paint yourself into a corner, Borg.

Does it raise to the level of disgusting or disgraceful?

 

[NotOpie]

Does it raise to the level of disgusting or disgraceful?

I believe outrageous is the word you're looking for....

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I believe outrageous is the word you're looking for....

Nope. Disgusting and disgraceful.

 

[larueskee]

Canes allowed the fewest goals in all of hockey last year. Just 202 of them. A lot of that was due to the third pairing. Don't have that anymore and I don't know how you improve on it with Gardiner and Bear on the team.

 

[LakeLivin]

Canes allowed the fewest goals in all of hockey last year. Just 202 of them. A lot of that was due to the third pairing. Don't have that anymore and I don't know how you improve on it with Gardiner and Bear on the team.

I don't know how HF bets work, but I'd be willing to wager that both Gardiner and Bear won't be on the roster when the season begins.

late edit: to clarify, I meant that at least one of them will be gone. Could be both, but at least one.

 

[ndp]

Canes allowed the fewest goals in all of hockey last year. Just 202 of them. A lot of that was due to the third pairing. Don't have that anymore and I don't know how you improve on it with Gardiner and Bear on the team.

That’s a pretty bold statement. I for one would love to see some data or even a decent explanation about how them allowing the fewest goals was because of the 3rd pair.

 

[Negan4Coach]

Does it raise to the level of disgusting or disgraceful?

If Gardiner and Bear are really the 3rd pair to start the season- it will absolutely be disgusting and I’ll be far from the only person on here who thinks so

 

[Ole Gil]

I agree, but there’s a lot of resentment and negative talk about both Bear and Jake that are unfounded. We signed Jake, if he can be healthy enough to play then we have to deal with that. Bear is a capable player who struggled, this extension is not surprising. He has value in this league and we aren’t ones to sell low if we can help it. If it leads to Necas leaving I would be very upset, but those feelings would be more towards the Patches one year experiment than the two existing players we knew the cost of all along.

Bear, I agree. He was okay playing tough minutes to start last year in a new system on a new team, and he's young. The horror stories revolving around Covid gives him a pass from me for the 2nd half. He's a fingers crossed guy. But now that he'll be on 3rd pair, hopefully, he'll thrive.

Gardiner I just didn't think was that good for the Canes when he was healthy. He was a -24 the full'ish season he played on a playoff team in 68 games. And he only had 24 points. Next worse was TVR at -7. Slavin and Hamilton were +30.

It just didn't feel like he was doing anything well, and a lot of things poorly. Certainly nobody was like "Oh no, Gardiner is hurt, we're screwed!" He just seems like a guy bad teams have in their lineups, because he's a little better than AHL callups.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

If Gardiner and Bear are really the 3rd pair to start the season- it will absolutely be disgusting and I’ll be far from the only person on here who thinks so

Even though I'm not a big fan of Bear, I'm fine with him being a 3rd pairing guy. Gardiner though, I agree with you for a few reasons. 1st, I'm not confident he can stay healthy. 2nd, he hasn't played in quite a while. 3rd, I never thought he was that great to begin with in Carolina. Lastly, that salary is just too much for a 3rd pairing role.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

That’s a pretty bold statement. I for one would love to see some data or even a decent explanation about how them allowing the fewest goals was because of the 3rd pair.

Bold is putting it nicely

 

[NotOpie]

Even though I'm not a big fan of Bear, I'm fine with him being a 3rd pairing guy. Gardiner though, I agree with you for a few reasons. 1st, I'm not confident he can stay healthy. 2nd, he hasn't played in quite a while. 3rd, I never thought he was that great to begin with in Carolina. Lastly, that salary is just too much for a 3rd pairing role.

.....not to mention he's been pretty average to bad defensively his entire career....

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Canes allowed the fewest goals in all of hockey last year. Just 202 of them. A lot of that was due to the third pairing. Don't have that anymore and I don't know how you improve on it with Gardiner and Bear on the team.

I think you might be over exaggerating the impact the 3rd pairing had and how irreplaceable they are. The 3rd pairing got exceedingly sheltered minutes against weak competition, less defensive zone starts and minimal minutes. The level of competition wasn't even close. They aren't the ones facing the other team's top lines shift after shift.

You should expect that those defensemen would have lower GA numbers. Even so, Cole, who played a whole season had the 3rd worst GA/60 among defensemen 5v5 so he didn't exactly stop the puck from going in.

For reference, here are the top 10 forwards that Cole faced the most last season by TOI 5v5 (in order of most to least):

Cole Sillinger, Ryan Reaves, Barclay Goodrow, Jake Evans, Janne Kuokkanen, Garnet Hathaway, Connor McMichael, JVR, Ondrej Kase, Kevin Rooney

By Comparison, here are the top 10 forwards that Pesce faced the most last season by 5v5 TOI (in order of most to least):

Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, Dylan Larkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Laine, Mitchel Marner.

Not even remotely comparable.

The season before, Jake Bean was exceedingly sheltered and had the lowest GA/60 of any Canes defenseman as well.

 

[larueskee]

That’s a pretty bold statement. I for one would love to see some data or even a decent explanation about how them allowing the fewest goals was because of the 3rd pair.

OK, I'll start with some playoff stats at even strength and I'll send you a link that you should play with. THe pair that gave up the most goals against at even strength was Skjei and Pesce. They gave up 10 at even strength. Slavin and DeAngelo gave up 7. Cole and Smith gave up 3. On the 4 on 5 pk Skjei and Pesce led the team in goals allowed with 7 and were one shy of leading the entire playoffs just behind Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci who gave up 8 as a pair. Cole and Slavin gave up 3 as a pairing. Interesting stat of the day was that in the 14 games Cole and Slavin were used as a pairing they allowed 0 goals against. Anyway play with this site you will find the truth here. Defensive Pairs - Natural Stat Trick