I get a chuckle when I take a peak at Kraken fans on the main boards. Not so much the absurd trade valuations for taking any contract >$1 mil, but the philosophy behind it. They talk endlessly about cheap players and optionality, which is well and good, but good players being available calls for adjustment, no? The Flyers legitimately can provide Seattle their best player, with a tiny bit of term.
They have their heads up their asses about emulating Vegas. Florida gifted them 2 top line players for nothing but the price of incompetence; Anaheim didn't even ask Bieksa to waive his NMC and gifted them Theodore to not select Manson; William Karlsson was traded with a 1st+2nd and almost impossibly emerged into a top line center; of course Minnesota handled expansion immaculately. Vegas got massive return on their investments, especially forming an entire top line forward group, that Seattle cannot possibly replicate. Not even because teams are savvier (maybe?), but because a lot of it was good fortune.
"We don't want age ~30 good players! Give us mediocre 4th liners. Salary cap blah blah!" Know what the first thing Vegas did after their unsustainable debut? Traded the farm for Pacioretty. Signed Stastny. Mark Stone was a little different. And it totally ignores Vegas selected James Neal and David Perron on 1 year deals! Though if Dave Hakstol was my coach, I'd probably full tank too.
To be fair, it's mostly just one dude, and he's uhh, something. I've gotten into it with him several times on the Kraken board. He's convinced Seattle can extort every single team for multiple firsts or else we just punish them by taking a cheap contract. Not every team is in cap hell dude. And you can't ice an entire roster of 800,000 dollar players.
Here's a couple of his greatest hits when discussing the Flyers.
Talking about Ghost: "I'd go for a salary retention and a first to choose him. If the Flyers balk then tell them you'll just grab Hagg and look elsewhere for deals."
"Seattle should just grab Braun or Hagg, play the guy so that he really shines and flip him at the deadline. Yeah but they're on expiring contracts and if they do a good enough job you get a decent pick for one of them at the TDL. And it shuts people up who think that Seattle should give everything away for free."
"Chosing Hagg wouldn't be a popularity move but simple pragmatics. If the Flyers don't want to negotiate a fair deal then Seattle can go to plan B."
"I didn't say it was an ideal plan but if a team doesn't want to negotiate a fair deal there aren't many options other than go to plan B and hope for the best."
"If the Flyers don't want to negotiate a fair deal then yeah, Seattle has to go for the lesser players as plan B."
"If the Flyers don't want to pay the price they shouldn't be surprised if they only lose a lesser player. Why should Seattle give freebies and deep discounts away to other teams?"
Comical stuff.
