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2019-20 Miscellaneous NHL/Hockey News Thread

Well, Matheson isn't terrible, the Pens need competent D and he's signed to a better contract than Hornqvist ... so I get this from Jimmy's POV. For Florida, I guess Hornqvist fits with that grimy group of middle 6 forwards they have, but that dude is cooked, right? His production fell off the cliff the last two years and he was pretty well stapled to the Pens 4th line by the end of the year. He was never fast, but now he's basically a cinder block. I mean ... why would you trade a serviceable if slightly expensive D for that guy?

Edit ... I saw some comments and remembered that Matheson has a stupid contract structure that pays him a ton of bonus money in the last three years. Florida's new GM is just ditching a poison pill contract before the poison releases. In that case, Hornqvist is an appropriate return.
 
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I think Huala will test the free agent waters and likely sign elsewhere as centers are always in need around the league. The trade for Trochek looks pretty good for the Canes when you consider that Huala likely walks, Priskie and the Finn youngster are not high end prospects by any stretch and poor Wallmark never looked anything more than a spare part upon his arrival in Florida with the way he was utilized.
 
CanadaCanes said:
I think Huala will test the free agent waters and likely sign elsewhere as centers are always in need around the league. The trade for Trochek looks pretty good for the Canes when you consider that Huala likely walks, Priskie and the Finn youngster are not high end prospects by any stretch and poor Wallmark never looked anything more than a spare part upon his arrival in Florida with the way he was utilized.
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My father is a Panthers fan. After the trade, I told him he’d love Wallmark. After a few games, he called me and told me I was crazy. I told him that Q didn’t know how to use him properly.
 
Steven Stamkos has his Willis Reed moment last night, returning to the lineup and scoring a goal on his 3rd shift as the Lightning beat the Stars 5-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. Stamkos only played 5 shifts for 2:47 and didn’t play in the 2nd or 3rd periods but was on the bench for much of them. There was no word on whether he‘ll be available for game 4 on Friday. Khudobin gave up all 5 goals, on 29 shots and was relieved by Jake Oettinger to start the 3rd. The Stars were outshot 21-4 in the 2nd as the Lightning took control, scoring 3 times in the period to put the game away. There is speculation that Ben Bishop could get a start with games 4 and 5 as back to backs (why?).
 
Habsy said:
Yeah that’s it. Q.

Wallmark is pedestrian at best.
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Wallmark is fine as a depth center who can be used in a variety of roles. He's perfect as a fourth liner on a team like Carolina that uses its 4th line like a Swiss Army knife, and not so perfect on a team that tries to use its 4th line as a bludgeon. He certainly shouldn't the key to a multi-player trade, but if Huala walks on the Panthers that's what he's going to be. Anybody still wonder why they let Tallon go? They traded their 2nd line center for a utility forward, a slow offensive d-man who hadn't proven he could play in the NHL, a Finish checking winger and a rental center who didn;t produce much of anything at all. Congrats on falling for the the old "here's a bag of loose change for that crisp five dollar bill ... you could end up with more" trick. Not to mention Tallon also allowed Carolina to dump Scott Darling and Cliff Pu on him. Idiot.
 
andyt said:
Steven Stamkos has his Willis Reed moment last night, returning to the lineup and scoring a goal on his 3rd shift as the Lightning beat the Stars 5-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. Stamkos only played 5 shifts for 2:47 and didn’t play in the 2nd or 3rd periods but was on the bench for much of them. There was no word on whether he‘ll be available for game 4 on Friday. Khudobin gave up all 5 goals, on 29 shots and was relieved by Jake Oettinger to start the 3rd. The Stars were outshot 21-4 in the 2nd as the Lightning took control, scoring 3 times in the period to put the game away. There is speculation that Ben Bishop could get a start with games 4 and 5 as back to backs (why?).
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I can cover the why on the back to back games ... the NHL wanted 2 Saturday night games in the Finals and the only other way was to add a day off. And given the daily expense of maintaining the bubble, that would have offset the extra TV revenue. I don't know what the heck is wrong with Bishop, but whatever it is makes playing him a huge risk ... especially if he hasn't been facing live fire in practice. Tampa is NOT the kind of team you want to face cold.

On Stamkos ... I thought he was moving pretty well before he disappeared. He must have tweaked something, because I doubt his conditioning was an issue after Cooper made such a big public deal out him being 100% before he would allow him on the roster.

For the first time in the series, Dallas got the full fat Lightning attack in something more than short bursts. The Stars lost control of the neutral zone and got absolutely run over for long stretches of the game. I'm not sure that will serve as a breaking point in the series, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. It takes a ton of work to keep that Tampa offense off of your keeper and when they sense weakness the Lightning are merciless. It's not easy to muster that level of effort game in and game out, and if you don't get a cheap goal or two at the right time ... woof. It's a lot.
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
are the 2 new rinks in Morrisville having public skating sessions? I assume they are with limits of 30% like gyms.
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"Public" hockey is still private rentals only (people are organizing their own pick up games) so I don't think they have public skating yet, but I'd guess they're close to opening with limited capacities because they've started ice skating classes and they're ramping up organizationally and communicating protocols to re-start the adult leagues early next month.

 
The Pens/Panthers trade is official. Pe se send Patric Hornqvist to the Panthers for Mike Matheson and center Colton Sceviour. He had 6g, 10a in 69 games for the Panthers. He’s 31 years old and going into the last year of a 3 year/$3.6 million contract.
 
So the holdup was adding Sceviour to "even out the trade?" A career mucker? Whatever. Florida got rid of a dumb contract and Pittsburgh got rid of a burned out vet. Congrats to everyone.
 
Dreger tweeted that the Senators are expected to put Bobby Ryan on waivers for the purpose of buying him out. He has a $ 2 million bonus And $5.5 million salary this year and next.
 
BUNCH of those will follow, which is once again causing me to puzzle as to why the owners didn't even request compliance buyouts in the recently completed CBA negotiations. With a flat cap and dramatically reduced revenues meaning that a lot of clubs will be trying to operate even lower than the cap, there's going to be a ton of veterans floating around after having been bought out. That bloated contract you signed and then didn't live up to is a problem in a tight budget world, veteran player.
 
jeffbear said:
BUNCH of those will follow, which is once again causing me to puzzle as to why the owners didn't even request compliance buyouts in the recently completed CBA negotiations. With a flat cap and dramatically reduced revenues meaning that a lot of clubs will be trying to operate even lower than the cap, there's going to be a ton of veterans floating around after having been bought out. That bloated contract you signed and then didn't live up to is a problem in a tight budget world, veteran player.
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Maybe that was the price the owners had to pay for getting the escrow increased to 20% for 2020-21 and between 14-18% for 2021-22 or keeping the cap flat for a few years, even if revenue recovers.
 
Tampa coach Jon Cooper said that Stamkos will not play tonight but he hasn’t been ruled out for the rest of the series.
 
I heard something on the radio this morning that it’s maintenance due to back-to-back games. With the Lightning up 2-1 they feel it’s better to save him for tomorrow’s game.
 
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Habsy said:
I heard something on the radio this morning that it’s maintenance due to back-to-back games. With the Lightning up 2-1 they feel it’s better to save him for tomorrow’s game.
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Makes sense, especially since he didn’t play the 2nd or 3rd on Wednesday.
 
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