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2019-20 Canes Miscellaneous News Thread

TheBigKahuna said:
Sounds like Forslund wanted guaranteed, 82 game money but intends to do a LOT of games for NBC. I honestly can't blame either side for how this panned out. The Canes wanted to pay him for "games worked". And his intentions were to keep adding more and more NBC games to his schedule.
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Where did you read that?
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Sounds like Forslund wanted guaranteed, 82 game money but intends to do a LOT of games for NBC. I honestly can't blame either side for how this panned out. The Canes wanted to pay him for "games worked". And his intentions were to keep adding more and more NBC games to his schedule.
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I've heard this as well but haven't seen it actually reported by anyone. Put it this way, Johnny has the complete backing of his media colleagues and I don't think they're reporting on this news so much as reacting to it on a personal level ... at least not to date. Maybe someone will take a dispassionate look at this eventually, but honestly ... Dundon needs to start doing a better job handling public relations to avoid the scenario where a personnel decision based on facts and logic can get spun as something rash, cheap and reactionary. He allowed the Kaiton thing to get out of control and he's doing it again. The guy does a really good job handling the hockey side of the franchise, but this kind of stuff is going to continue to keep him from building a good relationship with the market at large.

My long term fear here is that the way he's setting up the long term personnel scenario on the ice will inevitably involve a fair amount of roster turnover, which can sometimes be painful for the fan base. His silence surrounding the Skinner and Faulk deals is a little bit ominous to me. If he makes a value/benefit analysis and does something in the future like moving out another popular player like Hamilton or Teravainen, even if done within the confines of a wise long term strategy ... then he better have learned how to better break "bad news" to his fan base or else it could get really weird around here. NOT saying that those two guys will be dealt anytime soon ... just laying out plausible scenarios. We're always going to have budget constraints and that's always going to lead to unpopular personnel decisions. That's just a fact of life in this kind of market. I just wish he could do a better job of being a straight shooter when it comes to being honest and transparent with his decision making.
 
Sadly, the pandemic has created all sorts of new problems and challenges for many pro sports franchises and Waddell’s early comments on the Forslund stuff sounds a lot like the structure was geared around how all this Covid stuff plays out in terms of fans in the stands, what next season looks like, etc. I think you are going to see a ton of cost cutting by several pro franchises and some of those decisions are certainly not going to go over well here and many other places.
 
The cap being flat works harder against teams who had plans to spend big this summer, which is not Carolina's situation. Ideally you'd like to upgrade in net and maybe make a tweak or two on the forward lines, but you can more than likely hunker down with mostly the group that you have and figure something out. You're still looking at growth curves for some pretty impactful players like Svech and Necas and other that Williams (who almost certainly won't be back anyway) nobody's really in decline. I don't think this team ever got anywhere near hitting its stride in 19-20, but I don't feel like they were structurally flawed so much they struggled to incorporate some of the new faces. Guys like Dzingle, Gardiner and Skjei just never really found traction. Other than Dzingle, though ... it always seemed like a matter of time. I could see rolling that group out, hoping for a rebound year from Nino and Gardiner, hoping for a growing comfort level from Skjei, plugging gaps with quality minor league depth ... and hoping to be able to pry a starting goaltender away from somebody in worse cap shape. That's a decent, but not unreasonable amount of hope. For once, I was kind of hoping for compliance buyouts so that Carolina could shed one of the goalies and Dzingle to make some room ... but alas.
 
I can rationalize away the inability to fix some of our mistakes by enjoying other teams now having to live with theirs without a buyout option.
 
Elsker said:
I can rationalize away the inability to fix some of our mistakes by enjoying other teams now having to live with theirs without a buyout option.
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Sure ... that's a pretty low bar, actually. Carolina's lingering issues are fairly manageable, especially compared to the more serious structural issues found in the rest of the East. And age issues are a big deal too, and Carolina really has none of that aside from Williams. Boston, Toronto and Carolina (in the East) look to be in very decent shape in terms of taking what they have a moving forward with a flat Cap. And some of the teams that loaded up with youth that hasn't really paid off in full yet are probably OK going forward as well ... which weirdly includes the Rangers for once. With the focus on adding talent in the draft getting even bigger over the next three seasons, we REALLY need to see that first overall pick this year go to the West if Carolina doesn't end up with it. Landing Lafreniere could cover up a world of sins for somebody like Pittsburgh.
 
OK, this is pretty cool. This video traces all the machinations from the Canes trading Ron Francis to the Leafs in 2004. From that trade, the Canes got the pick that became Brock McGinn, one of the picks went to the Blues in 2006 in the Doug Weight trade. One of the picks cycled back to the Leafs, which they used to select James Reimer.

 
Paulie Walnuts said:
Canes staying at Royal York Hotel It's a block from the arena. the other Toronto hotel is not picked yet

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God I hate that hotel...the Canadian music and radio industry’s annual conference was held there for years and I had to stay there. Fortunately it moved to another hotel a couple of years ago.
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
You would think the other hotel picked will also be very close to the arena. And maybe they pick the 2 low bidders.
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There really aren’t a lot of hotels in the immediate vicinity of the arena. There is an Intercontinental and Ritz Carlton about halfway between the arena and Rogers Centre. There is a Westin at the harbor. I’d think they’d have to use one of those that have conference facilities.
 
andyt said:
There really aren’t a lot of hotels in the immediate vicinity of the arena. There is an Intercontinental and Ritz Carlton about halfway between the arena and Rogers Centre. There is a Westin at the harbor. I’d think they’d have to use one of those that have conference facilities.
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The Marriott at Eaton Centre--which is very nice--and the Sheraton are also pretty close to the arena.
 
HeyKurtz said:
God I hate that hotel...the Canadian music and radio industry’s annual conference was held there for years and I had to stay there. Fortunately it moved to another hotel a couple of years ago.
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I hate it too. It's got all the stiffness that sometimes comes with "classic" hotels, with none of the charm of top shelf staff. There are a ton of really good hotels in Toronto, and the York isn't one of them.

I'm assuming the Westin will probably end up being the other hotel because of proximity and their convention space ... but Marriott (they own the Westin brand) can be a difficult corporate partner to deal with. Which would also apply to the Marriott at Easton Centre ... also a large convention footprint, same stodgy corporate structure.
 
Has anyone heard any updates on the Forslund negotiations? The idea of him not being there with us to restart the season is disheartening and would really dampen my enthusiasm. He's such an iconic part of the broadcast, and at a time when we will be completely dependent on the broadcast, it would be such a shame to not have him in the booth.
 
Sounds like there are no talks with Forslund right now. Maybe he could sign on to do the playoffs if NBC does not use him but I assume they will.
 
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