Non-Minnesota NHL News XXIII

[57special]

One might believe that if one hates Dumba as much as you do.

It's not quite as simple as this because of the money, but keeping Scandella, Haula, and Tuch and losing Dumba? I can get behind that. Keeping Haula and Tuch would've saved us from acquiring Ennis and Foligno, maybe even Quincey.

I don't see that NS guy "hates" Dumba, just that he values him differently than some others. Just as some others don't think much of Haula's game. It was pretty much assumed around here last year that Ek would be a better option than Haula's at 3c. That may well be, eventually, but there might be a couple of painful years in between where we watch Haula flourish and Ek adjust to the NHL.

The fact that Foligno is making the same as Haula ...feels bad. We decide to go big and clunky while the rest of the league is trending towards fast and skilled.

 

[2Pair]

Yeah, it's good to see both players landing on their feet. Kuemper was kind of a problem child, but the last few seasons in Minnesota had to be pretty grim for him.

Also, a good reminder for people that still don't like that we didn't re-sign Folin:

Yeah, that part about Folin and his contract is pure bullshit. Just Fletcher trying to cover another terrible decision from the summer. There's no chance that Folin was holding out for more than he paid Quincey.

 

[BagHead]

It's not quite as simple as this because of the money, but keeping Scandella, Haula, and Tuch and losing Dumba? I can get behind that. Keeping Haula and Tuch would've saved us from acquiring Ennis and Foligno, maybe even Quincey.

I don't see that NS guy "hates" Dumba, just that he values him differently than some others. Just as some others don't think much of Haula's game. It was pretty much assumed around here last year that Ek would be a better option than Haula's at 3c. That may well be, eventually, but there might be a couple of painful years in between where we watch Haula flourish and Ek adjust to the NHL.

The fact that Foligno is making the same as Haula ...feels bad. We decide to go big and clunky while the rest of the league is trending towards fast and skilled.

Totally agree with that bolded part. Haula's game was underrated around here, and Ek will take time to get his game to an NHL level. In the end, Ek will probably be the better player, but that's probably two years away, maybe three. Maybe never. Haula's been really good for the Knights! "First or second line player" good. I don't know that he'll stay that good for them, but that's how he's been so far, and we saw flashes of that skill here, too. Do we see a 1st/2nd line player in Ek? I hope so, but there's no guarantee. Pretty safe bet he'll be an NHLer though, at least.

I'm not sure keeping Scandella, Haula and Tuch would have stopped us from making a terrible trade. We would actually have been in a worse cap position, probably having to trade Haula's rights because we wouldn't be able to afford to re-sign him, and then having to move Pominville as well, still. So, our top 4 looks the same, except it has Scandella instead of Dumba and costs about $2 million more this year in cap, and our forward look largely the same, as we'd need to swap cap with someone, which means some other terrible contract coming back if not Ennis. I feel like this team would be in almost the exact same boat. The upside is keeping Tuch (probably, depending on what the trade to get under the cap looks like in that scenerio). The downside is that we lose a defenseman who is cheaper, and has a unique skillset compared to the rest of our d-corps. Which is better? I don't really know. I don't think Fletcher really had a good option, and it's sort of sad that people are getting down on him when he was in a no-win situation.

 

[2Pair]

It's not quite as simple as this because of the money, but keeping Scandella, Haula, and Tuch and losing Dumba? I can get behind that. Keeping Haula and Tuch would've saved us from acquiring Ennis and Foligno, maybe even Quincey.

I don't see that NS guy "hates" Dumba, just that he values him differently than some others. Just as some others don't think much of Haula's game. It was pretty much assumed around here last year that Ek would be a better option than Haula's at 3c. That may well be, eventually, but there might be a couple of painful years in between where we watch Haula flourish and Ek adjust to the NHL.

The fact that Foligno is making the same as Haula ...feels bad. We decide to go big and clunky while the rest of the league is trending towards fast and skilled.

There's no chance that the Wild would've been able to keep Haula, Tuch, and Scandella without having to move somebody else that they wouldn't have wanted to.

 

[HollaHaula]

Judging from the box score and watching the highlights from last night's Ducks/Knights game, both Haula and Tuch had great games.

 

[57special]

Imagine a 3rd line of Haula, Coyle, and Tuch.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Imagine a 3rd line of Haula, Coyle, and Tuch.

Pretty nice, but losing Dumba for nothing and being forced to trade one of Granlund/Nino kind of puts a damper on it.

 

[Al Lagoon]

Enjoyed watching the Caps give the Hawks a smackdown tonight.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Enjoyed watching the Caps give the Hawks a smackdown tonight.

I was there in person. Was indeed fun to watch. But Capital One Arena is sort of a dump.

 

[Bazeek]

I guess that settles that:


Doesn't leave much hope that the expansion draft protection will be more favorable this time around.

 

[StealthClobber]

I think I speak for all Houston hockey fans when I say:

f***.

 

[NHL1674]

So we get to lose more players. Just f#@$ing awesome, Bettman. You've got several teams that could be relocated, but nope. We're gonna take from other teams again AND water down the talent pool.

 

[kfan22]

So who would slide into the Central once Seattle gets a team..Vegas??

 

[BagHead]

I would guess Arizona. Geographically, they make the most sense. I'd assume they want to keep all the Californian and Canadian teams together. So... you know, it's either them or Vegas.

While thinking about this, I found a pretty cool map on Reddit. It's a map of the closest NHL teams geographically to each US County. That Reddit link is the original post, and it's got some interesting, and surprising facts in it.

 

[Wabit]

So who would slide into the Central once Seattle gets a team..Vegas??

I'd kind of like to see eight 4 team Divisions (similar to the NFL). 4 Division winners (1-4 seed) and 4 WC teams (5-8 seed) in each conference.

 

[2Pair]

I'd kind of like to see eight 4 team Divisions (similar to the NFL). 4 Division winners (1-4 seed) and 4 WC teams (5-8 seed) in each conference.

Can the wild be in the same division as Chicago, Colorado, and Dallas? If yes, then I'm favor of your plan.

 

[Wabit]

Can the wild be in the same division as Chicago, Colorado, and Dallas? If yes, then I'm favor of your plan.

Was thinking Jets, MN, Chi, and STL; it's a brutal Division, but geographically it works well. Or the NHL could do 2 Canadian divisions if they wanted, it would at least guarantee that Canada is left out of the Playoffs. Lots of options really.

 

[Nsjohnson]

Man am I stoked.

Assuming I am still living here in 20-21, which I may not be, but if I am I will DEF be in that arena when the Wild come here. I am regularly by Key Arena.

They'll have to do something about parking, I'll say that!

I saw a few people bashing Seattle and wishing an expansion was going to a 'hockey' city. I can tell they have never been here and don't know anyone here. The majority of people I know, well mainly men I suppose, are hockey fans or are at least pro-hockey. And there are SO many transplants here, including myself from hockey cities.

I regularly see Pens, Hawks, Canucks, Wild, Sharks, and Kings jerseys and hats when I am in the City.

 

[FVM]

So we get to lose more players. Just f#@$ing awesome, Bettman. You've got several teams that could be relocated, but nope. We're gonna take from other teams again AND water down the talent pool.

I think this is a pretty selfish take. The pain of losing a player is nothing compared to losing your team. Minnesota fans should know this well.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Seattle is middle of the pack for WHL attendance but there is that solid fanbase in place. The bigger picture is drawing from the rest of Washington (Spokane, Tri-Cities, etc.), from Portland, from greater Vancouver. It makes good sense, maybe even more so than Vegas. Especially with the NBA void. Teams have a few years to prepare for an expansion but it is a tough process as we saw, one that seems to favor franchises in a rebuild mode over contenders.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

So we get to lose more players. Just f#@$ing awesome, Bettman. You've got several teams that could be relocated, but nope. We're gonna take from other teams again AND water down the talent pool.

I'm good with one more; even out the conferences.

I don't think Bettman force fed the owners an opportunity to each cash a $20 million check.

 

[HollaHaula]

Seattle is middle of the pack for WHL attendance but there is that solid fanbase in place. The bigger picture is drawing from the rest of Washington (Spokane, Tri-Cities, etc.), from Portland, from greater Vancouver. It makes good sense, maybe even more so than Vegas. Especially with the NBA void. Teams have a few years to prepare for an expansion but it is a tough process as we saw, one that seems to favor franchises in a rebuild mode over contenders.

Shouldn't be too hard given that the current Canucks' management is running their team into the ground. Some Canucks fans will be looking for a secondary team.

I'm excited for this. Seattle's fans are always very passionate and that's what the NHL needs.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

4 divisions, 4 teams each (before considering relocation):

Seattle, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary
San Jose, LA, Anaheim, Colorado
Vegas, Arizona, Dallas, Nashville (probably gets screwed the most)
Minnesota, Winnipeg, Chicago, St. Louis

TB, Florida, Carolina, Washington
NYR, NYI, NJD, Boston/Buffalo
Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo/Boston
Detroit, Columbus, Philly, Pittsburgh

 

[57special]

Parise has GOT to waive for this draft, right?

One fringe benefit of KK not signing with us is that he will be protected in the draft.

Suter
Spurgeon(contract up, maybe fading?)
Brodin(contract up, still young'ish)
Dumba(Spurgeon replacement by this point?)

Nino
Granlund
Coyle
Zucker
Ek
Kunin


Parise, Koivu, and Staal wouldn't be very appealing for Seattle. I would hope that Parise would waive if he is a still a viable player.

Greenway, Kaprizov, Sokolov should still be protected.

Dubnyk?(might be at the end)

If Fletcher can avoid giving out NMC's in the interim , then we should be in reasonable shape. Deciding which Dmen to protect will be the question once again.

 

[Wild11MN]

Way too early to speculate on expansion part II. We have no idea what the team will be like at that point.

Glad to see the salary cap going up though! Finally!