Confirmed with Link: Rangers Sign Brendan Smith (4 years x $4.35M)

[dstoffa]

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/the-new-avery-rule/

To me, this is one of the best articles ever on TPB

Sean's right about travel. I can personally attest to it. If your job offers you TDY, and you can make it work personally (wife, kids, family), your bank accounts, stock portfolios, and your retirement accounts will thank you.

Now just reading this story makes me wonder how other teams treat their athletes while on travel...

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Sean's right about travel. I can personally attest to it. If your job offers you TDY, and you can make it work personally (wife, kids, family), your bank accounts, stock portfolios, and your retirement accounts will thank you.

Now just reading this story makes me wonder how other teams treat their athletes while on travel...

I am not sure how the other teams do this, but the fact that Avery points it out as something while playing for the Rangers suggests the other teams he played for, didn't do that. He played for Detroit, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

 

[Riche16]

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/the-new-avery-rule/


To me, this is one of the best articles ever on TPB

Great read.

I will say this (from personal knowledge) the fact that he's literally tallied up per diem and calling it "tax free" is something the government is cracking down upon.

Those of us who travel regularly for work had been doing this for decades... until the IRS said "Hey, this is literally unclaimed income. The company claims it as a pre-tax expense (for some companies it is a MASSIVE expenditure... the NHL would no doubt fall into that category)... the employee takes it, and doesn't have to claim it! Where's Uncle Sam's chunk?!?!?"

My company changed the policy a few years back... now we can't just pocket the cash (we have expenditure cards, if you don't use it, you lose it and it can only be used for food) and eat a couple slices of pizza every night. It blows... and for some less fortunate than myself, it cost them half or more of their income (not salary, income)

I'd be very surprised if the NHL isn't taxed on it, or about to be.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Great read.

I will say this (from personal knowledge) the fact that he's literally tallied up per diem and calling it "tax free" is something the government is cracking down upon.

Those of us who travel regularly for work had been doing this for decades... until the IRS said "Hey, this is literally unclaimed income. The company claims it as a pre-tax expense (for some companies it is a MASSIVE expenditure... the NHL would no doubt fall into that category)... the employee takes it, and doesn't have to claim it! Where's Uncle Sam's chunk?!?!?"

My company changed the policy a few years back... now we can't just pocket the cash (we have expenditure cards, if you don't use it, you lose it and it can only be used for food) and eat a couple slices of pizza every night. It blows... and for some less fortunate than myself, it cost them half or more of their income (not salary, income)

I'd be very surprised if the NHL isn't taxed on it, or about to be.

A good point and something that happens here in Europe as well. My employer "fixed" that by having it grossed up.

 

[chosen]

You haven't been through anything like that. Not even with the Mets.

You talk about not being satisfied with mediocrity. You know what I was satisfied with in 2002? Beating the Islanders. That was the highlight of my season. Not a SCF appearance, or a Derek Stepan OT winner in game 7, or knocking off Montreal. It was beating the Islanders in January.

Beating the Devils? You can forget that. I went five calendar years watching the Rangers not beat the Devils in a game. Five years. Sound like fun?

Nowadays we get mad that the team that finished 6th in scoring doesn't have enough offense. Papa Johns sponsors our three-goal games. You know who sponsored our three-goal games back then? The ****ing full moon because they happened twice a month.

I can vividly remember random regular season wins from 99, 2000, 2001. I was a little kid. That's how often we won - it was an event when we won a game.

We used to be on the national game on fox almost every weekend, and over the course of those six years, I think we won like five of those games, getting embarrassed on national tv, week in, week out.

There was one reason to keep coming back though. You don't remember Brian Leetch. Compared to Brian Leetch, Ryan McDonagh is the slime dripping out from underneath an alley dumpster. The guy was God. And we traded him. We traded God.

But surely, all my suffering was part of the process. We surely got a lot out of the constant lottery picks - 4th overall, 9th overall, 8th overall, 10th overall, 11th overall, 12th overall, and 6th overall in that order. Nope. We got GOD DAMN NOTHING out of it. Only one of those picks went on to even play a game for the Rangers.

The Leetch trade? What did we get back for God? Four guys who would never play for the Rangers, and a pick that turned into Lauri Korpikoski. Thanks for the memories, Brian.

In fact, only one single player -exactly one- drafted from 1998 to 2004 went on to become a major piece for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqivst. 7th round pick.

I'm so glad we had all those lottery picks. I'm so glad we traded our greatest ever player for more picks. I'm so glad we tanked for a 7th rounder. It turned into so much of substance. All the hype about rebuilding. Tank this and tear that down. The last time we rebuilt, I can count one, single, solitary FINGER what we got out of it.

And then we turned it around from the 2004 deadline to the start of the 2006 season. How? By bringing in Jagr, Straka, Nylander, Rozsival, and Malik. VETERANS who actually played in the NHL, so we could actually put a damn NHL team together.

I have seen the Rangers rebuild. It was a hopeless, funless, completely free of substance experience that left us WORSE OFF when we finished than when we started.

Don't tell me about the benefits of rebuilding until you've lived through a rebuild. Don't call this iteration of the Rangers "mediocre" until you've really been through something hard. What you've seen is ****ing Candyland in comparison. Until you've lived a rebuild, you have no idea how horrible it actually is and what a disaster it actually turns out to be.

I agree with you in your clash with Pavel, bit what we got for Leetch was certainly not less than what Leetch had left.

 

[nyr2k2]

This deal looks even better with some of the other signings like Alzner.

 

[RangerFan10]

Because I don't consider offense to be who can skate the puck out of the zone and pass it out of the zone, as well. Thats important, but not what I'd consider offense. To me, offense is points, creating quality scoring chances. Smith does not put up points. If this was just a one season thing where he had good underlying stats, we could maybe say it was just an unlucky offensive season, but this has been his whole career. He has absolutely no offense in his game. Doesn't make him a bad player, but as bad as Staal is offensively, and I completely agree that we are talking about one of the worst offensively players in the NHL, Smith has not proven to be much better offensively, despite people wanting him to be. He has to prove it, he's had a long NHL career, and hasn't.

Offense has to start somewhere, and Staal can make it look really difficult to get the puck out of the zone.

I also think it's not relevant to talk about what they've done to this point in their career. Staal now vs. Staal pre-eye injury are two different players. It's sad, but it is what it is. He already didn't stand out offensively. Every once in a while he'd show a glimpse, he'd jump into the play, skate it up, keep it in, rip a shot past a goalie that made you realize he had some flare to his offensive game, just didn't always use it. You don't see that anymore. It wasn't an "unlucky" offensive season to me. Maybe agree to disagree, but we were all watching the same player out there.

What I like about Smith is he has a little of what McDonagh has...he's calm and doesn't rush plays. If forecheck pressure is on he's the king of subtle plays to shake the forecheck and make a quality outlet pass. I don't see him turn it over that often.

Staal, on the other hand, 8/10 usually ends up turning it over and then maybe he gets it back with a really long reach, but that's zone time spent in the defensive end.

Outlet passes are just as much a part of offense if not more important than a defensman getting points in the offensive zone, especially if maybe some of those points are just "lucky" from throwing it into traffic

 

[Bluenote13]

This deal looks even better with some of the other signings like Alzner.

Yeah I don't get why you would not like this, people are forgetting we paid two high draft picks to get him in the first place. The deal looks to be right at market value, and truthfully because of the player and the team need it becomes even better.

 

[kovazub94]

Yeah I don't get why you would not like this, people are forgetting we paid two high draft picks to get him in the first place. The deal looks to be right at market value, and truthfully because of the player and the team need it becomes even better.

Yup, now we have a point of reference for a UFAD. Followed by would you prefer Smith or Alzner?

 

[Suavecito]

The off-season after 2018-2019 is gonna be one giant B. Smith hate-fest.

As a die-hard Wings fan I never loved/hated Smith.

I think the Wings are in full-screw-up mode as long as Blashill is behind the bench.

Glad that he did re-sign though - he always came across as a good guy, but he did have many of my fellow Wings fans ticked off.

 

[nyr2k2]

Yup, now we have a point of reference for a UFAD. Followed by would you prefer Smith or Alzner?

Smith is the better skater and has shown he can excel in our system. He fit in really, really well here and on some nights was our best defender. We got him on a good deal. I'll take him over Alzner every day of the week at this point.

 

[silverfish]

Yup, now we have a point of reference for a UFAD. Followed by would you prefer Smith or Alzner?

Let's see what Franson signs for first and then decide.

 

[True Blue]

The years and dollars make it work. Much more the years.

 

[kovazub94]

Smith is the better skater and has shown he can excel in our system. He fit in really, really well here and on some nights was our best defender. We got him on a good deal. I'll take him over Alzner every day of the week at this point.

Oh, I agree. I hope it will be a rhetorical question in the future when Smith contract is brought up.

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

I think it's hilarious that people crucify Stepan for his FO% but Hayes gets a pass whose percentage has been worse every year.

Nope, Hayes had a significantly better year on face offs than his first two seasons in the NHL: 45.66% vs around 36%. I though the difference was very noticeable.

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Let's see what Franson signs for first and then decide.

If he even gets an NHL contract.

 

[GordonGecko]

I will say this (from personal knowledge) the fact that he's literally tallied up per diem and calling it "tax free" is something the government is cracking down upon.

Those of us who travel regularly for work had been doing this for decades... until the IRS said "Hey, this is literally unclaimed income. The company claims it as a pre-tax expense (for some companies it is a MASSIVE expenditure... the NHL would no doubt fall into that category)... the employee takes it, and doesn't have to claim it! Where's Uncle Sam's chunk?!?!?"

What Avery did is currently tax evasion by statute.

The IRS does allow employees to collect a tax free per diem as reimbursement for expenses, but the employee is legally required to submit an expense report and cannot keep the money without spending it on bonafide expenses, otherwise it must be reported as ordinary income

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Yup, now we have a point of reference for a UFAD. Followed by would you prefer Smith or Alzner?

Smith is good, Alzner is bad.

Easy. I'm SO happy the Habs gave Alzner that contract. Their top-4 is awful outside Petry.

 

[Machinehead]

Smith is good, Alzner is bad.

Easy. I'm SO happy the Habs gave Alzner that contract. Their top-4 is awful outside Petry.

Poor Petry

 

[Inferno]

i think weber gets a lot of crap here on being a horribad defenseman..i think hes better than the numbers say..but i think hes nowhere near worth his contract, and trading Subban for him was idiotic on a whole other scale.

 

[Kaapodonna]

i think weber gets a lot of crap here on being a horribad defenseman..i think hes better than the numbers say..but i think hes nowhere near worth his contract, and trading Subban for him was idiotic on a whole other scale.

Montreal is great at bad trades! I remember how happy I was when they took Gomer from us. That Suban trade may be one of the worst in the past 10 years.

 

[GordonGecko]

Montreal is great at bad trades! I remember how happy I was when they took Gomer from us. That Suban trade may be one of the worst in the past 10 years.

You know Gorts could be convinced to let go of Staal...

 

[Levitate]

i think weber gets a lot of crap here on being a horribad defenseman..i think hes better than the numbers say..but i think hes nowhere near worth his contract, and trading Subban for him was idiotic on a whole other scale.

He has the same problems that Girardi does. Not very mobile at this point, poor with the puck when it comes to passing or managing it in the defensive zone. He's better at stuff like being physical and regaining the puck than Girardi is, and ultimately isn't *as* bad, but he still has some pretty big issues for a guy getting that much money.

His scoring makes up for a lot of it for sure but still

 

[Krams]

Montreal is great at bad trades! I remember how happy I was when they took Gomer from us. That Suban trade may be one of the worst in the past 10 years.

It may be the worst in the past 10 years. Weber's contract runs until 2025-26 (!!) at a cap hit of $7.85m.

 

[Krams]

He has the same problems that Girardi does. Not very mobile at this point, poor with the puck when it comes to passing or managing it in the defensive zone. He's better at stuff like being physical and regaining the puck than Girardi is, and ultimately isn't *as* bad, but he still has some pretty big issues for a guy getting that much money.

His scoring makes up for a lot of it for sure but still

Obviously he isn't as bad at this point. But give it another 4 seasons and then revisit it.