George McPhee II

[RandyHolt]

i will be at the game tonight section 112 unlit torch concealed with my flask, with easy access to free advertising space

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Except the same players that choked lead the charge in winning cup after cup.

Within the context of turning the vorner, Shanahan (pre Holland) was a pretty big add. Murphy too to a lesser extent. Shanahan is certainly a bigger addition than Mcphee has ever made, or will likely ever make.

 

[g00n]

The plot thickens!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/report-team-inquired-burke-160133117--nhl.html

"An unnamed hockey team has approached the Maple Leafs about the availability of former president and general manager Brian Burke, who remains with the team as an advisor, according to Toronto Sun report. "

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Well coincidentally, Ruff was about as tenured as McPhee....so there is hope.

Burke will make heads explode...damn that would be amusing to watch.


Also, Fasth just extended, so my idea of trading for Hiller isn't dead yet...

 

[Langway]

The initial Burke report:

There's a big-name free agent out there by the name of Brian Burke. Have any teams expressed interest in hiring Burke in some capacity?

Dreger: At least one team has reached out to the Toronto Maple Leafs to ask permission to speak with Brian Burke. Now, what would his role be? It would either be in a consulting or a scouting capacity, perhaps in the front office.

Brian Burke is looking for a bridge opportunity, an opportunity that may lead to a job with an organization as their next general manager. So teams are kicking tires on Burke.

Sounds more like Buffalo since the Caps have never really stocked up on front offices types. Pegula seems more likely to shell out for such a thing.

Edit: Back to Anaheim:

@THNRyanKennedy: Brian Burke joins Anaheim as part-time pro scout.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Nice move by the Ducks
NHLAdamK
Leafs announce Brian Burke has taken part-time pro scouting job with Anaheim Ducks, effective immediately

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Not like he wouldn't walk for another GM job though unless he's just taking a slower easier job to kind of wind down into retirement...in a much warmer area.

 

[Ridley Simon]

If only GMGM didn't suffer the incredible bad luck of winning the 2004 draft lottery saddling him with Ovechkin instead of that franchise PMD Cam Barker that he always wanted to build around. Why does it always rain on him?

Staturbation time:

Let's assume a "deep" playoff run would mean at least the conference finals, which Burke's teams have done twice. In the 15 years of the GMGM era, 5 GMs (Holland, Lamoriello, Lacroix, Rutherford, Gainey) have done better that and also won the Cup, 1 lost in the finals (Regier), and 1 has never gotten past the WCF (Wilson). The only GM to make the conference finals more than twice in the cap era is Holland.

I hate to mention him...but Ray Shero has 2 SC finals, 1 win. So add him to your list.

 

[BobbyCarpenter]

McPhee is not the problem.

It is Ted.

 

[Capitlols]

Would McPhee consider resigning a la Cerrato?

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Dead last

 

[Capsman]

McPhee is not the problem.

It is Ted.

Who insists on keeping McPhee. If you really believe Ted is dictating personnel issues, I have a bridge to sell you in San Francisco. He certainly wouldn't be pushing for dumpster dives.

 

[tycoonheart]

Would McPhee consider resigning a la Cerrato?

Cerrato was fired dude. Snyder verified it in an interview. Cerrato himself has said he was fired many times.

 

[Koized]

I really can't believe they finally get a second line center then replace Semin with Wolski. What a joke.

 

[Ovechkin]

Capitals
Wizards
Mystics
Groupon losing $$$

See a pattern?

 

[DanTHEMan71]

I really can't believe they finally get a second line center then replace Semin with Wolski. What a joke.

Yep.

My biggest pet peave of McPhee's moves this summer is the fact that we let Semin go after getting Ribiero.

Sure Nick and Ovi aren't playing like 09-10 Nick and Ovi. But nevertheless, I really thought we could have an amazing one-two punch on our top 6 if we kept Sasha. Ribeiro would've been our 09-10 Fleischmann, setting up Semin for 30-40g.

Ribeiro-Ovechkin/Backstrom-Semin or Backstrom-Ovechkin/Semin-Ribeiro is what I was immensely excited to see before Semin signed. Our PP could've been amazing. Ribeiro and Semin on a line would be crazy fun to watch.

Semin seems revitalized in Carolina now. I'd even say he's better than Ovechkin today .

I'm not fully familiar with the new CBA and how the cap will change. All I know is we currently have $6.3M in cap space and Semin got $7M for 1 year. We could've easily afforded him for this season if we used our one of our two amnesty buyouts on Hamrlik or Poti and/or if we never signed Crabb or Hillen or Wolski or Fehr.

The only reason I wouldn't have signed him is if he wanted more than 1-2 years because I think the cap is going down a significant amount in 2014 and we can't carry so many big money contracts for long.

But if we could've signed him for 1 year @ $7M, why the heck didn't we if we weren't going to replace him properly. Did McPhee think we'd get Doan, Kostitsyn, or Mueller? Because those were the only legitimate top 6 guys on the market at the time that could've somewhat replaced Semin. Even if it was for only 1 or 2 years, we needed Semin to bridge the gap until Kuznetsov and Forsberg come over.

I don't know what McPhee's reasoning was. Regardless, it's his fault we entered the season with only one goal-scorer, then expected him to turn his career + the whole offence back around, by himself, after 2 career lows, and with no supporting scoring depth this year.

Side Rant:

This roster has been gradually picked apart the wrong way by McPhee since the Montreal "debacle". In hindsight, I don't think coaching has been our problem the last few years. It's been McPhee's decision making.

Lindy Ruff just got fired after 16 years in Buffalo. He had his ups and downs but eventually management had to move on. Long tenured staff eventually get fired. When the decision needs to be made, there's no point waiting around.

McPhee's been with us for 15. He too has had his ups and downs, but I feel he has lucked out into a lot of ups. He joined the team the only year they made the Finals. The team's "Golden Years" were primarily the result our of high draft picks that we got from our "Dark Years" in the mid 2000s. That being the stretch that McPhee slowly steered the franchise into after joining in 97. None of the picks that gave us that amazing 4 year run were steals.The majority of his success is due to relying Ovechkin and now Ovi's the new Jagr.

Lindy Ruff was worth keeping around this long. McPhee wasn't. He's gotta go.

 

[brs03]

Amnesty buyouts don't grant you the cap space for this season. They're equivalent to stashing the players in the minors for this season, which means only a small portion of their cap hit gets relieved. Using an amnesty buyout on a player that was going to be a UFA this offseason would literally be the stupidest possible way to use them, because you'd get absolutely no "amnesty" out of them.

The thing with keeping Semin is that, realistically, they would have had to move another cap hit somewhere to have any faith that they could do it. Carlson wasn't signed until the last minute; if they had any reason to believe he might cost them more than he did, that's even more cap space that you have to plan to keep. And of course amnesty buyouts were not a slam dunk, and neither was it a slam dunk that the cap would stay at 70 mil for this season.

They likely could have signed Semin if they really wanted him. But it would have required them to move other pieces around and take a big leap of faith wrt the cap this season. They would have been setting themself up to get burned if negotiations went any other way. So if they really were ready to just move on from the player, no reason to expect them to take that level of risk with him.

(and this is coming from someone who would have been glad to see Semin come back... neither side had all that much reason to make it happen, given the other moving parts, that's all)

 

[Halpysback*]

Amnesty buyouts don't grant you the cap space for this season. They're equivalent to stashing the players in the minors for this season, which means only a small portion of their cap hit gets relieved. Using an amnesty buyout on a player that was going to be a UFA this offseason would literally be the stupidest possible way to use them, because you'd get absolutely no "amnesty" out of them.

The thing with keeping Semin is that, realistically, they would have had to move another cap hit somewhere to have any faith that they could do it. Carlson wasn't signed until the last minute; if they had any reason to believe he might cost them more than he did, that's even more cap space that you have to plan to keep. And of course amnesty buyouts were not a slam dunk, and neither was it a slam dunk that the cap would stay at 70 mil for this season.

They likely could have signed Semin if they really wanted him. But it would have required them to move other pieces around and take a big leap of faith wrt the cap this season. They would have been setting themself up to get burned if negotiations went any other way. So if they really were ready to just move on from the player, no reason to expect them to take that level of risk with him.

(and this is coming from someone who would have been glad to see Semin come back... neither side had all that much reason to make it happen, given the other moving parts, that's all)

I believe we're more than his cap hit under the cap.

Also we have about 10 million in cap space that contributes about as much to this team combined as I do.

 

[Ajax1995]

I believe we're more than his cap hit under the cap.

Also we have about 10 million in cap space that contributes about as much to this team combined as I do.

Plus in the offseason you are allowed to exceed the cap by 10% I believe so they could have gotten everyone they wanted to sign signed and then figured it out. Resigning Semin for the same deal he got in Carolina would not have stopped them from resigning Carlson.

 

[IkeaMonkey*]

I believe we're more than his cap hit under the cap.

Also we have about 10 million in cap space that contributes about as much to this team combined as I do.

 

[brs03]

Plus in the offseason you are allowed to exceed the cap by 10% I believe so they could have gotten everyone they wanted to sign signed and then figured it out. Resigning Semin for the same deal he got in Carolina would not have stopped them from resigning Carlson.

Only if they were confident the cap would stay at ~70 mil for this season.

I might have chanced it. If they were ready to move on from the player, would explain why they wouldn't (because they obviously could have cleared the space if they really wanted to).

 

[Ajax1995]

Only if they were confident the cap would stay at ~70 mil for this season.

I might have chanced it. If they were ready to move on from the player, would explain why they wouldn't (because they obviously could have cleared the space if they really wanted to).

There were already a bunch of teams right up against $70 mil this offseason. There was never any way they were going to drop it substantially for this season and even if they dropped it at all there would have been time for all those teams to get compliant.

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

They could and should have brought in another scoring winger for less then Semin was signed for. Parenteau, Hudler, Whitney, Sullivan, and Samuelsson were all options.

But there's still be the issues at the back, on defense, and with 8 and 19.

 

[brs03]

PA, Samuelsson, Whitney would have been interesting options for sure (would have been in favor of that. Heck, I would have gone hard after Parise and moved other money around accordingly). Hudler sucks so I'm glad we weren't the team to overpay for him, though.

 

[brs03]

There were already a bunch of teams right up against $70 mil this offseason. There was never any way they were going to drop it substantially for this season and even if they dropped it at all there would have been time for all those teams to get compliant.

Yes, but it was always conceivable that the compliance process would involve some sort of future penalties (as they do with cap recapture or bonus overages).

Like I said, I would have chanced it. If the org was ready to move on from Semin, though, I get why they wouldn't consider him worth the risk. I don't know, I have no idea what the front office thinks.