GDT: Free Agency 2021

[HTFN]

People (and apparently Chis Drury for that matter) don't understand that the thing that makes Tom Wilson (and for a long time Ovechkin) impossible to really catch with a dirty hit is not that every other player is playing by a morally superior code, it's that they can't be caught.

Wilson is an insanely unique player because he isn't just a Mack Truck coming through, but he's amazingly fast and agile for that size. Again, NYR is just making insane choice after insane choice. We lost to BOS in 5 games, we're old as shit, why would you burn your rebuild to the ground to match our team when we might not even make the playoffs?

Lol you can tell because Wilson and Ovechkin hit each other more in one season than anyone else hits them, takes a rare set of skills or a few lucky bounces to even be in the ballpark

 

[Chokingdogs]

Unlike 99.9% of all the other nhl “tough guys”, reaves is the only one that I have legitimate concerns he can, and would, go out of his way to injure someone.

 

[Carlzner]

It’s not an awful trade for NYR but it’s absolutely hilarious how their entire offseason has revolved around Tom Wilson.

Incredible how much he has affected 3 rival franchises trajectory now

 

[trick9]

Drury is Dolan's puppet. It's him who is proud enough to blow his team up to keep his pride.

I wonder what kind of hockey they intend on playing... Reaves, Tinordi and Goodrow don't exactly fit on fast exciting hockey team and their team is filled with smaller kids who i don't see fitting in hard grinding hockey team.

 

[searle]

I almost feel bad for the guy who started the "rangers don't have a Tom Wilson problem" thread on the mains.

...almost

There's like 3 solid pages of just memes tearing him apart - the guys username is Pavel Buchnevich which was bad enough, now the Reaves trade

 

[JohnCarlsaurus]

I almost feel bad for the guy who started the "rangers don't have a Tom Wilson problem" thread on the mains.

...almost

There's like 3 solid pages of just memes tearing him apart - the guys username is Pavel Buchnevich which was bad enough, now the Reaves trade

It started off great and just keeps getting better

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Why? He is not even an NHL player.

Neither are Reaves or Tinordi.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

Rangers are on the schedule only three times this season, first game of the sesason here in D.C., mid Feb. at MSG and last game of the season at MSG.

Gallant did have Reaves in Vegas and remembered that he did use him at odd times during the SC final when I thought that someone with more skill would have been a better option. I'm still PO'd about the blatant crosscheck on Carlson from Reaves with him subsequently scoring a goal in the first game of the series and their only win.

 

[txpd]

Neither are Reaves or Tinordi.

Reaves has 686 NHL games and Tinordi 102. McIlrath has 66 and never more than 34 in a given season. I think those are 3 different classes of players.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Ron Francis GM... Dont pick Dillion who gets traded for 2 2nds. Take VV and trades him back to us for 1 of the Dillon 2nds. Well done GMBM

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Reaves has 686 NHL games and Tinordi 102. McIlrath has 66 and never more than 34 in a given season. I think those are 3 different classes of players.

They are the same class of player: none of them are good enough to play in the NHL in 2021-22 and all of them would be a liability to their teams if the intended purpose of them being on the ice was to help score more goals than the other team. Tinordi and Reaves know why they’re on the ice and if they want to make it a circus I’d rather lose McIlrath than Wilson.

 

[g00n]

Rangers are on the schedule only three times this season, first game of the sesason here in D.C., mid Feb. at MSG and last game of the season at MSG.

Gallant did have Reaves in Vegas and remembered that he did use him at odd times during the SC final when I thought that someone with more skill would have been a better option. I'm still PO'd about the blatant crosscheck on Carlson from Reaves with him subsequently scoring a goal in the first game of the series and their only win.

I'm going to guess right now Reaves gets dumped before the 2nd meeting.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

I'm going to guess right now Reaves gets dumped before the 2nd meeting.

Reaves is a plug and Vegas was up against the cap, they probably could have or should have gotten him for a 4th rounder at best.

 

[JohnCarlsaurus]

I'm going to guess right now Reaves gets dumped before the 2nd meeting.

That or he sits in the press box until they play us. Just like Ross Johnston with the Isles

 

[Hivemind]

Yes and no, but in my opinion it’s mostly no. Seabrook was one player too many and was never going to be worth his dollar value, that one was pretty obvious when it happened.

the rest of it, though…. That’s a core. They did just fine keeping them, and it wasn’t what ruined them. It was what they did from, like, 2014 on. The Saad/Panarin double switcheroo, hemorrhaging assets in the process, and burning the bridge that should have linked two eras of the franchise. They absolutely gutted the generation of the team they would need performance from to remain competitive (see:foundation) and then had to sell off their most valuable non-core assets to reset.

their plan never looked like a plan by that point, it was just a series of moves that, by the end of it, left them in a worse place without much to show for it. I think you could give GMBM the reigns in 2012 or whatever and they’d have been better off, certainly no worse, if the philosophies stayed the same.

All the moves you accuse them of "gutting the generation" and "sell off their non-core assets" are directly related to the salary cap. That's them struggling with the fact they were in cap hell because they had 51.5% of their available cap (this is as far back as CapFriendly goes, RIP CapGeek) tied up in those five core skaters (plus a $6M Corey Crawford, who could also be considered core). They don't have to unload Niklas Hjalmarsson, Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd, Andrew Shaw, and Bryan Bickell if not for that salary cap hell. Giving up Teuvo Teravainen is a direct result of them having to unload Bickell's contract, which is a direct result of cap hell. All of this traces back to the fact that they have an incredibly top heavy salary cap allocation, and most of the players in that top half begin to drag. Toews being a 50-60 point player instead of a 70-80 under a $10.5M contract has an awful lot to do with their decline. As does the regression of Keith, Seabrook, and Hossa. None of them become outright awful (aside of eventually Seabrook), but Kane is the only one that doesn't have a significant decline in performance as they go thru this period.

The Saad/Panarin switcheroo was dumb, but it didn't cause them to hemorrhage assets. They gained assets from the initial Saad trade, Panarin came for free from Europe, and then the only assets they shipped with him on the return were Tyler Motte and a 6th round pick (and they got Anton Forsberg and a 5th round pick back). That's definitely not hemorrhaging assets in the process of those trades, unless you think Tyler Motte is somehow the key here. Also, another irony here is that the reason they traded for Saad back is the type of thing you were lauding the Capitals for, treating their players like human beings. They brought Saad back because Toews wanted his friend back, and they were trying to find a way to help improve Toew's game.

 

[Hivemind]

Reaves is maybe a healthy scratch sometimes for the Rags, but Gallant likes him so I could see him getting a jersey on a regular basis. Tinordi is probably their #7 when fully healthy. Goodrow is drastically overpaid, but he's also definitely a capable hockey player.


My only goals for opening night are to avoid players getting hurt and avoid Wilson being suspended.

 

[HeyMattyB]

It keeps getting better.

 

[max21]

According to the Rangers board as long as he breaks the jaw of someone on the Caps or Isles it’s a steal!

 

[g00n]

According to the Rangers board as long as he breaks the jaw of someone on the Caps or Isles it’s a steal!

It's pretty clear that's what this is all about. They'll be looking to injure Caps.

Our FO had better be in the ear of the league before the season starts. And Wilson had better be on good behavior during the preseason.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

And to think that all the Rangers had to do was offer the Capitals a 3rd pick with the agreement they wouldn't dress Wilson for any of the games against the Rangers. Could have saved them both salary and a roster spot.

 

[StrikingDistance]

My favorite tweet reply:

“why pay him, just give him a fraction of tom wilson’s ownership of the franchise”

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[HTFN]

All the moves you accuse them of "gutting the generation" and "sell off their non-core assets" are directly related to the salary cap. That's them struggling with the fact they were in cap hell because they had 51.5% of their available cap (this is as far back as CapFriendly goes, RIP CapGeek) tied up in those five core skaters (plus a $6M Corey Crawford, who could also be considered core). They don't have to unload Niklas Hjalmarsson, Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd, Andrew Shaw, and Bryan Bickell if not for that salary cap hell. Giving up Teuvo Teravainen is a direct result of them having to unload Bickell's contract, which is a direct result of cap hell. All of this traces back to the fact that they have an incredibly top heavy salary cap allocation, and most of the players in that top half begin to drag. Toews being a 50-60 point player instead of a 70-80 under a $10.5M contract has an awful lot to do with their decline. As does the regression of Keith, Seabrook, and Hossa. None of them become outright awful (aside of eventually Seabrook), but Kane is the only one that doesn't have a significant decline in performance as they go thru this period.

The Saad/Panarin switcheroo was dumb, but it didn't cause them to hemorrhage assets. They gained assets from the initial Saad trade, Panarin came for free from Europe, and then the only assets they shipped with him on the return were Tyler Motte and a 6th round pick (and they got Anton Forsberg and a 5th round pick back). That's definitely not hemorrhaging assets in the process of those trades, unless you think Tyler Motte is somehow the key here. Also, another irony here is that the reason they traded for Saad back is the type of thing you were lauding the Capitals for, treating their players like human beings. They brought Saad back because Toews wanted his friend back, and they were trying to find a way to help improve Toew's game.

lol, the prince of the good faith arguments.

What part of "not mismanaging the middle tier of their roster would have allowed them to remain competitive even with a selection of "bloat" contracts are you just not getting? You keep saying "oh, they did this because this". Show me the Capitals' Bickell. They did too much, and then tried to aggressively get out of that and f***ed the whole thing up. You'll note that I'm not in favor of handing out 4 more ring of honor contracts and trying to bring Jay Beagle back, and neither is GMBM...

They very actively could have avoided it by doing what I've actually been a proponent of the whole time: managing your team through a three year window and making sure that the parts you're rotating in and out allow you a modicum of freedom and don't have to, say, give up Teuvo Teravainen. You deciding not to count Panarin as an asset is... a choice. To my memory they traded Saad, people went "yeah, that's what you do to stay competitive", they scooped up Panarin, looked scarier, mismanaged the whole thing (which I guess I'm in favor of because I like that my team is letting some of their players stay after outliving their "value") and walked themselves right into a wall. The Capitals are Chicago when they have to trade Wilson and Orlov just because they're the only parts anybody wants to take to get them out of cap trouble without payment.

I genuinely can't believe the attitude you have with people when you do this shit all day. My only options are: do it your way, or become Chicago's champion because no contract could be a bad contract. You leave absolutely zero room for nuance and critical thinking.

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

Would have liked to have seen the Caps give him a chance.

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

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