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2025-26 NHL Miscellaneous Thread

Taking advantage of those signing bonuses before the rule changes on September 16th limit those to 60% of the contract value. The era of 95% payouts in signing bonuses is thankfully coming to an end soon.

Oh, and I agree that with the cap where it is, Celebrini is worth every penny of that contract. Just think about what Celebrini's NEXT contract is going to look like if he puts up 120 points each season over the next 5 seasons (his final entry level season this coming season and the first 4 seasons of that new contract). This new contract walks him to his first UFA opportunity.

The first $20 million AAV contract is not that far off. It will be interesting to see who becomes the first player to sign an 8 figure AAV contract with the Canes. I assume that player will not be any of our current players given their current contracts.
 
I never, ever thought I’d see those type of contracts associated with the Canes. Dundon, Tulsky, et al need to make the most of their window now!
 
CanadaCanes said:
Makar probably gets what…$16-$18 million AAV?
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If Makar can get back in the 90 point range, yeah it probably takes $18 mil or more to get him at even a middling term. I think that’s the reason he hasn’t signed an extension yet, in fact. He had kind of a clunky season last year with injuries and how the playoffs went down. He’s probably better off sitting at the table coming off of something closer to his 2024-25 season’s output. But we’re talking about a guy who’s worst expected goals share is 52% … and that was his rookie year. He’s averaged a ridiculous 56% XGF across his career. His actual goals share is even more stupid … pushing 60%. Makar and MacKinnon move the needle in ways nobody in the league really does. Not even McDavid.
 
Aaron Portzline, who covers Columbus for The Athletic, has a column today asking if hockey on the radio is a dying art. With Columbus moving to a simulcast model, they’re the 5th team to do so; the Canes, Sabres, Stars and Blues are the others. And the Leafs team doesn’t travel, they call road games from a studio in Toronto.

www.nytimes.com

Is NHL hockey on the radio a dying art? Veteran broadcasters worry about its future

Five teams now have gone to a radio-TV simulcast. What's behind the change, and what are listeners missing?
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
Teams making statements limiting the commercial and cost concerns involved in shifting to simulcasts are, to be frank, lying. I think they’re trying to mitigate the emotional damage caused, which is understandable I guess. At least Dundon was straight about it. He said the obvious bit up front … radio no longer brings in revenues to justify the additional expense.
 
jeffbear said:
Teams making statements limiting the commercial and cost concerns involved in shifting to simulcasts are, to be frank, lying. I think they’re trying to mitigate the emotional damage caused, which is understandable I guess. At least Dundon was straight about it. He said the obvious bit up front … radio no longer brings in revenues to justify the additional expense.
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IIRC, at the time they said it was something like 1,000 or so people listening on the radio.
 
Yeah, that’s about what I remember as well. And look, Dundon didn’t have to axe Forslund at the same time he was rolling up the radio side. I think that was a mistake even if he’d choose to do it again. That’s where most of the lasting damage was done in this market. I’m not familiar enough with what’s going on in Portland to know what other parallels there might be. I suspect that the issues are real similar in Columbus though.

IIRC the Sabres went to a simulcast while Rick Jeanneret (sp?) was still there and I’m sure it helped that they had their broadcasting icon in place to smooth the transition. In retrospect it probably would have been wise for Dundon to pay the money to keep Forslund on board, presuming he would have been cool to do the simulcast. He started in radio, so it wouldn’t have been a big ask. But he was expensive, and I get it … even if I’m deeply in the minority. I’m pretty sure St Louis integrated their broadcasts during a period when the Cardinals were also making sweeping changes. Not sure what the deal was in Dallas, but they’ve got high dollar TV talent with Bogorad and Reaugh in the booth and a fairly large cast in studio. Their TV broadcasts are top shelf.
 
NoMich said:
John was still our play by play guy for at least the first season of the simulcast.
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Yep, Kaiton and the Canes parted ways in July 2018. Forslund’s contract expired at the end of the 2019-20 season, so he called 2 simulcast seasons. The 2020 bubble playoffs started after his contract expired, so that was Maniscalco’s first time behind the mic.
 
It’s not like I can turn on an NHL game in a hotel room when traveling or watch a game when on national TV. I used to be able to stream 99.9FM the fan, but that’s tricky. Thus, in many ways radio was the easiest way to follow hockey. Now if I want to watch or listen, I’m spending money for ESPN+, Sirius Radio or an app. Seems to me, if the league wants to continue to grow a sport, make it easy to
find. Hell, I used to be able to switch on AM radio after a Canes game and pick up a Bruins game on my way home.
I think it’s easier to find and watch WNBA games than an NHL game.
 
SlapShots said:
It’s not like I can turn on an NHL game in a hotel room when traveling or watch a game when on national TV. I used to be able to stream 99.9FM the fan, but that’s tricky. Thus, in many ways radio was the easiest way to follow hockey. Now if I want to watch or listen, I’m spending money for ESPN+, Sirius Radio or an app. Seems to me, if the league wants to continue to grow a sport, make it easy to
find. Hell, I used to be able to switch on AM radio after a Canes game and pick up a Bruins game on my way home.
I think it’s easier to find and watch WNBA games than an NHL game.
Click to expand...
I believe the radio broadcasts of all NHL games are streamed for free using the NHL app.
 
NoMich said:
John was still our play by play guy for at least the first season of the simulcast.
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There ya go … I’ve never really cared, so I got my timings wrong. It still SEEMED like all that stuff sort of happened at the same time to me. Maybe because the uproar about Kaiton hadn’t fully died down when they eventually axed Johnny.
 
HeyKurtz said:
I believe the radio broadcasts of all NHL games are streamed for free using the NHL app.
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Correct, although I think they still require you to access in market games through the team’s distribution network. Which just means hitting a button on the Canes app, I think. I dunno. I can’t remember the last time I got stuck listening to the radio feed.
 
jeffbear said:
Correct, although I think they still require you to access in market games through the team’s distribution network. Which just means hitting a button on the Canes app, I think. I dunno. I can’t remember the last time I got stuck listening to the radio feed.
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I’ve always connected on the WRAL Sports Fan app if I was out and about. Tomato, tomahto.
 
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