Phoenix CXVI: Soft Deadlines (or ~ As Soon As Practicable)

[Dirty Old Man]

Oh crap, what's the thread title for CXVII?

 

[DyerMaker66*]

So you're basically saying that every NHL franchise should be cash-flush enough to essentially let its owners wipe their butts with Benjamins rather than get the maximum impact for the minimum expenditure? In what kind of Bizarro-world of business practices do you believe the NHL exists?

Hitting the cap-floor = "cash-flush enough to essentially let its owners wipe their butts with Benjamins"

I love your low-water mark.

No such thing as an "empty roster spot."

They are paying him and he is playing for another team. It is an empty roster spot using money that still needs to be filled with a player.

His place will be filled by someone,
either through promotion from the prospect pool or by trade or UFA signing

You mean they won't just dress 10 guys?!?!

That's the problem? He's going to be replaced and they're going to have him on the books still.

The bottom line is that Vermette's value for the Coyotes was at a low point - not just because of his low point total, but because of how his style of play had degraded to the point where he was more of a liability than an asset on the ice.
You'd have to have watched him play to understand this, of course, but the love affair HF seems to have with Vermette is with the version of him from several years ago, not the current iteration.

Only the highly attuned Coyotes fan can really tell you how Vermette plays.

Well, Domi and Duclair didn't do too badly eclipsing Vermette last season,

That usually happens when you play more games. You might be surprised to hear they scored more points than me last year, too.

What players?

Take your pick.
http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/

If the Coyotes threw money at a warm body like the Islanders did at Casey Cizikas, you'd just be on here tearing them down for poor judgment and a terrible contract. If you want me to call a spade a spade, then I will - there is nothing the Coyotes can do that will prompt you to give them any credit at all.

When compared to paying someone not to play for them, I wouldn't at all.

Just for fun, I'd like to see you point out a time that I did this. With any team.

No, I wouldn't and that's libel, so please stop.

Speaking as a (now former) STH, I have no issue with them being frugal.

Apathy is a hell of a drug.

Given the caliber of UFA players available to throw money at, I'd rather them save it and use it on guys in our system. Don Maloney might have thought it was wonderful to throw millions at guys like Kyle Chipchura and Brad Richardson to get above the cap floor, but I don't. That's stupid spending.

Paying someone to play for another team is a lot dumber. Like... waaaaay worse.

If Pronger and Datsyuk help us to ice young kids who can play but whose max entry level contracts leave us short in actual dollars spent, then mas alla! I'd rather ice a team with potential than with plugs.

Or they could try to compliment their draftees with hockey players, again the two aren't mutually exclusive, you can ice prospects and actual hockey players, too!

"Potential"

You don't know that any more than I do.

Yes, I do because I'm not sp

And the only people for whom the optics are bad, at least right now, are for the team's critics and folks who are making assumptions about their finances.

Well, the problem with this whole "barely clearing the cap floor" is that with Pronger and Datsyuk's cap hits, the Coyotes now have less space to the cap CEILING than they do to the cap FLOOR.

While spending less money and adding 0 players, because they're cheap.

But hey, it looks like they're spending more money and that's what really counts.

And if you think it's a bad message to send in THIS market, may I introduce you to Tony La Russa and Dave Stewart of the Arizona Diamondbacks? The guys who dropped a staggeringly huge contract on unproven Cuban prospect Yasmany Tomas (and gave up their rights in the international free agent market to do so), dropped an even larger one on Zack Grienke, traded a can't-miss blue-chip prospect and their best outfielder to Atlanta to get Shelby Miller, who has been a train wreck of almost stupendous proportions, and basically given away their past who-knows-how-many first-round picks? Or maybe I can introduce you to the Suns and their history of player acquisitions and trades over the past few years.

This market is HUNGRY for a team that makes decisions that are smart. Buying out Vermette, based on his play over the past two or three seasons, was smart. If any other team in the league had done it, nobody would be batting an eyelash. But because it's the COYOTES, it's some sort of apocalyptic nightmare scenario or a shell game. [/QUOTE]

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Go here, please:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2112011