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2025-26 NHL Miscellaneous Thread

The Blues placed Alexandre Texier on waivers yesterday for purposes of contract termination. He clears today and is a UFA. Reports indicated he’s headed to Montreal.

Buffalo placed goalie Alexander Georgiev on waivers today for purposes of contract termination. He’s headed to KHL Spartak.

Tampa placed Victor Hedman on LTIR.
 
Funny to me that Rantanen got a truck load full of the benefit of the doubt for that first incident, only to turn around one game later and say ... nah, I'm actually cosplaying small-hearted Grinch. This is often what happens when guys with no natural mean streak try to act tough, so I'm putting this recent spate of aggression at the feet of Glen Gulutzan.
 
I knew he was in trouble when he folded that lead arm down and took the contact pretty much directly on the shoulder joint. You can hit another player with that move, but not the wall. Rough end to what had been a rough season for Romanov.
 
Rantanen went from being "Not that kind of player." to a wannabe goon squad member in one game. Is he going to start going for knees or the head next? Maybe he could get some slewfooting techniques from Marchand's sorry ass? That didn't used to be his game, now, apparently, it is.

Jim
 
Remember the days when Carolina's valuation was in the bottom 5 every year? If you adjust by market size, the job that Dundon has done to build the value of the franchise is even more impressive. In other news, it's kind of odd to me that the Avalanche are so low on the list given their level of market saturation and the sports savvy of their ownership, but their revenue really lags behind what you'd expect for whatever reason. Also, these things are far from perfect but they do serve as an annual reminder of just how badly Fenway Sports Group have mismanaged the Penguins. To have basically flatline revenue growth in an era when EVERY other team is experiencing growth and the increasing cap demands more investment in roster costs is a really, really bad indicator of franchise health. No wonder they're looking to sell
 
Before everybody gets to where they're going for Thanksgiving (US edition), we can give some thought to the annual Thanksgiving Standings canard. In summary, any team that's 4 points or more removed from the playoffs at US Thanksgiving is basically doomed. Given the general malaise/parity in the league this year, that's not much of a list really.

In the East, you're only talking about the Sabres and Leafs(!). The West has a little more separation, and their drop zone list includes the Blues, Canucks, Flames and Predators. Obviously the Leafs are the feature act here. Most expected them to take a bit of a step back, but their defense and goaltending have taken a dive to the point where they seem to be unintentionally tanking. You could make a case for St Louis also being a surprise doldrum dweller. Jim Montgomery really seemed to have righted their ship last season and they didn't make substantial roster changes, but their goaltending has tanked and it shows. That minus 24 goal diff is ugly, with only the sad sack Preds keeping it out of last place. Calgary is a mild surprise here also, but I didn't think they were any good last season either. Now, with the new goalie smell worn off of young Dustin Wolf, they look like a typical one line NHL team ... which is what they have been for a couple of years.

So, who is a candidate to get their mess together out of that group? Toronto, obviously, but they do look well and truly broken right now. I'd also say St Louis, but that goaltending has to improve before I start believing in their chances.
 
Speaking of crappy goaltending ...

Buffalo has waived Alex Georgiev as a prelude to contract termination and he intends to sign with a KHL team. The amazing disappearing goaltender's NHL saga appears over. Somewhere, Tony DeAngelo is buying the bar a round tonight.

Sabres waive goalie Alexandar Georgiev to terminate contract - Buffalo Hockey Beat

Terminating goalie Alexander Georgiev's contract deal will end an odd three-month tenure in the organization for the two-time NHL All-Star.
www.buffalohockeybeat.com www.buffalohockeybeat.com
 
jeffbear said:
Speaking of crappy goaltending ...

Buffalo has waived Alex Georgiev as a prelude to contract termination and he intends to sign with a KHL team. The amazing disappearing goaltender's NHL saga appears over. Somewhere, Tony DeAngelo is buying the bar a round tonight.

Sabres waive goalie Alexandar Georgiev to terminate contract - Buffalo Hockey Beat

Terminating goalie Alexander Georgiev's contract deal will end an odd three-month tenure in the organization for the two-time NHL All-Star.
www.buffalohockeybeat.com www.buffalohockeybeat.com
Click to expand...
I posted that on Sunday. ;)

As for the standings canard, if the season ended today, there would be 1 Canadian team in the playoffs. As everyone expected, it’s Ottawa. Last season, 5 of 7 made the playoffs with only Vancouver and Calgary missing.
 
Meh ... I took the weekend off for the most part. You expect me to read everything? :0)

As for Canada ... I really don't care. I'm sick to death of that particular subject, to be honest. Edmonton is probably going to figure it out, as offense is generally the driving factor in these things. Montreal is one slim point out of the wildcard and neither Boston nor Washington look particularly convincing. Let's face it, most of the East looks kind of sketchy and the only thing making it look like a tough climb for teams like Toronto and NYR is the sheer volume of teams that they'd have to pass to get in the mix. But fully half those teams stink, so ... yeah.

Are we gonna hear all the banging on if we only end up with 2 or 3 Canadian teams in the playoffs? Probably. What does anyone want me to do about it, specifically? Or the league for that matter? If the season ended today, they'd be missing the biggest market in Canada, the defending Champs and the biggest star player in the league. Those are not good things, to be sure. But they'd have two of the three NY metro teams, huge markets in Detroit and Boston back in the mix and both LA market teams. All things considered, that's not a bad haul. And, the season doesn't end today, so the missing marketable teams ... the Canadiens, Rangers, Panthers, Leafs, Oilers and Blackhawks ... still have a say in their destinies.

Not to even mention my contention that 90% of the complaining about Canadian markets is really just an excuse to complain about something.
 
IMO all GMs/Execs have a sell-by date. Jim Rutherford and Ken Holland both blew by theirs YEARS ago, but in a league as risk-averse as the NHL ... they just keep getting job offers. And it's not just about age either. Sooner or later the new guys are just better at the job and in a cap era, you can't spend your way out of trouble like you could in the past.
 
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