News and Notes XXII: Now With More Finnish!

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Joe McGrath

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I'd think Jordan is about as untouchable as there is outside of the obvious names that have been thrown around all summer. I know Waddell (or whoever) said only Aho is really safe, but it makes no sense to deal Jordan when they're lacking in centers as it is, and he's really the biggest two-way threat they have.

Yep. Of all the people Brind’amour is likely to want on his team, I’d assume the 2 way center that plays all situations 20 minutes a night is in the top 2 or 3.
 

Joe McGrath

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I briefly got into it with Cory about Stempniak killing penalties last year (and several people here because they were too dense to realize Stempniak was a regular penalty killer for most of his career before the Canes. After I pointed that out Cory said he would still rather have Williams killing penalties because he had done it more recently which was complete bullshit. It takes like 10 minutes to look up SH ice time.
 

Anton Babchuk

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I briefly got into it with Cory about Stempniak killing penalties last year (and several people here because they were too dense to realize Stempniak was a regular penalty killer for most of his career before the Canes. After I pointed that out Cory said he would still rather have Williams killing penalties because he had done it more recently which was complete bull****. It takes like 10 minutes to look up SH ice time.
my favorite cory interaction was him claiming that khudobin was injury prone and thus shouldn't be extended because he had only played 20 NHL games in five seasons prior, totally ignoring that he was in the AHL/ECHL for four of those five seasons and was a back-up during the lockout shortened season for the fifth. he's a credentialed writer who is too lazy to even pull up hockeyDB or wikipedia.
 

A Star is Burns

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It was an interesting interview. On the one hand, I get how he might be upset with a guy he thought was on the outs getting taken care of before him. On the other hand, wasn't Cole a difficult sign on an occasion or two? If Joni was easier to sign, so be it.

He isn't wrong about Skinner in general, but I do disagree that you can't write off flaws as growing pains early. They did drop the ball on instilling defensive accountability as he developed, but perhaps they were so worried about getting him back in an offensive groove during his injury years, that the defensive stuff fell by the wayside. This team has also been so starved for goals, I understand it too. As we saw the other year, it might just be on him and his will a well.

I've seen some online that thought he was upset at Skinner potentially blocking trades, but it seemed more like he didn't understand why you would if you're no longer wanted, and wondered why a guy that was in his situation when signing the contract even had a clause.
 

bleedgreen

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That interview is awesome, and I have a ton of respect for Cole. He said he used to call Skinner out back when they played together. He's right about all of it. Skinner got away with bloody murder. He was a petulant little brat for the two or three years after his rookie year. The team chalked it up to being young or whatever when in the past people were held accountable. He doesnt like that Jeff got a NTC in the first place, which is something I've seen criticized across the league as this all played out. He was way to young to get one, and Cole is right that Skinner had not earned it. JR gave in.

I love Skinner but I think everything Cole says is true. Good on him for being honest.

I think its interesting that it comes out that JR had been shopping Pitts for months prior to resigning him. I don't know that we knew that.
 

Big Daddy Cane

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That interview is awesome, and I have a ton of respect for Cole. He said he used to call Skinner out back when they played together. He's right about all of it. Skinner got away with bloody murder. He was a petulant little brat for the two or three years after his rookie year. The team chalked it up to being young or whatever when in the past people were held accountable. He doesnt like that Jeff got a NTC in the first place, which is something I've seen criticized across the league as this all played out. He was way to young to get one, and Cole is right that Skinner had not earned it. JR gave in.

I love Skinner but I think everything Cole says is true. Good on him for being honest.

I think its interesting that it comes out that JR had been shopping Pitts for months prior to resigning him. I don't know that we knew that.

NTCs are neither earned nor given. They’re negotiated. Skinner sacrificed something to get it, be it an extra year or term or more likely, more money on an annual basis.

JR got burned badly in the Staal and Ward 3rd contract negotiations; to put in into perspective, the 2018 equivalents for Staal and Ward are ~$11.57 mil and ~$8.82 mil respectively. To avoid a repeat, he took an aggressive approach with Skinner. If anyone wants to criticize JR here, do it for that reason; do it for misreading the type of player Skinner would become.
 
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