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2023-24 NHL Misc. Thread

CanadaCanes said:
Stay clear of the Canes Facebook groups clamoring for The Jeff Skinner Reunion Tour…🤣
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One of the stats guys I pay attention to points out that at this stage of both of their careers, Skinner is basically the equivalent of Tarasenko ... but for some reason comes with much more reputational baggage. And yes, we just watched Tarasenko throwing his body around in the playoffs playing actual defense and forechecking. Now, ask yourself ... does he do that in the regular season? No, he does not, so I think the comparison works. And Skinner is probably a better pure goal scorer at this stage, if for no other reason than he still has some zip on his shot.

Am I saying Carolina should go try and get Skinner off the damaged goods rack? No. But he's not complete garbage either. He's just a diminishing offensive asset that wasn't even close to worth his contract in Buffalo anymore. Honestly, a solidly constructed team looking for a third line scoring winger could do worse. Especially if you could get him on a one year deal.
 
jeffbear said:
One of the stats guys I pay attention to points out that at this stage of both of their careers, Skinner is basically the equivalent of Tarasenko ... but for some reason comes with much more reputational baggage. And yes, we just watched Tarasenko throwing his body around in the playoffs playing actual defense and forechecking. Now, ask yourself ... does he do that in the regular season? No, he does not, so I think the comparison works. And Skinner is probably a better pure goal scorer at this stage, if for no other reason than he still has some zip on his shot.

Am I saying Carolina should go try and get Skinner off the damaged goods rack? No. But he's not complete garbage either. He's just a diminishing offensive asset that wasn't even close to worth his contract in Buffalo anymore. Honestly, a solidly constructed team looking for a third line scoring winger could do worse. Especially if you could get him on a one year deal.
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He probably would be willing to play for $2-$3 million in a place where he thinks he fits best since he now has his buyout money from the Sabres secured. Most guys that get the big buyout are willing to come down quite a few notches financially for a competitive team under the right circumstances.
 
CanadaCanes said:
He probably would be willing to play for $2-$3 million in a place where he thinks he fits best since he now has his buyout money from the Sabres secured. Most guys that get the big buyout are willing to come down quite a few notches financially for a competitive team under the right circumstances.
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Or he can do the Kane thing and sign for a schlub team and figure on going to a contender at the deadline. Either way, Skinner won't be unemployed too long. Come to think of it, Utah might be a good middle ground spot. Get Skinny's agent on the phone, willya/
 
NoMich said:
The new Ducks unis have been revealed. Not too bad.
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VERY orange-forward. No black, no red, no blue ... check, check, check. At least they're unique. No eggplant or green though? Meh. I really don't see why this franchise keeps fighting their old, perfect uniforms.

NoMich said:
The new Kings unis have been revealed. Not bad at all. Needs some purple in there, though.
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Very Gretzky era ... which is kind of boring but fine. Another franchise that's afraid to wear their best historical colors.
 
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jeffbear said:
Or he can do the Kane thing and sign for a schlub team and figure on going to a contender at the deadline. Either way, Skinner won't be unemployed too long. Come to think of it, Utah might be a good middle ground spot. Get Skinny's agent on the phone, willya/
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If Skinner is going to end up a UFA, there should be zero excuse for him to not end his 'never made the playoffs' streak.

Hear are the final number if Buffalo is done with Skinner:

Canes got Cliff Pu and draft picks they used to select, Pyotr Kochetkov, Alexander Nikishin, and a 6th round pick which we traded along with Scott Darling for James Reimer. We proceeded to make the playoffs 6 straight years after the Skinner trade.

Buffalo got Jeff Skinner for 6 seasons. He totaled 153 Goals 138 Assists and was a -34. Averages per season of 26 Goals 23 Assists -6.

The actual total salary to be paid to Jeff Skinner by Buffalo for averaging 49 points a season (not considering Escrow)?

$6 million + $10 million + $10 million + $10 million + $10 million + $10 million + $14.667 million buyout (payable over 6 years)

That is as tidy $70.666 million paid to Skinner by Buffalo for 6 seasons of play. $11.777 million per season for an average of 49 points, no playoffs, not much attention to D. Congrats Buffalo, THAT trade and contract was a complete disaster.

Skinner will fit in nicely on the cheap with some contender that is willing to shelter the heck out of him and accept what he is. This should be a slam dunk 'make the playoffs' opportunity for him.
 
To be honest, I do not blame Buffalo for taking that chance on Skinner. He had some great potential, especially once he matured into a fully grown ass adult man. Hell, just two seasons ago, he got over 80 points.
 
Skinner was coming off of his first season in Buffalo when Jason Botterill* signed him to that stupid contract. 8 years by $9.00 million AAV. Skinner was coming off a 40 goal season and Buffalo was in free fall, so they really needed to get him signed. The Sabres structured it for an easier buyout at the tail end, but the ramp down doesn't kick in until NEXT summer. So they're paying a bit of a premium to get rid of him at 32 years old instead of 33. It's basically a $10 million per year deal until the last two seasons. Was Skinner EVER worth that much? Nah, probably not, but if you're Buffalo and your team sucks and your owner is a jerk, then you pay a premium if you plan on keeping guys who move the needle offensively.

*it must be noted that Botterill was a disaster as a GM and he was working in a terrible market for an ownership group that is sketchy and meddling. If you're wondering where is is now, Ron Francis rescued him with an AGM job in Seattle because of course he did. He's an old Pens front office guy and Francis is a board member of the old boy's club.
 
jeffbear said:
Follow up ... I'm SO freaking glad the Canes got rid of Francis. We'd still be halfway through a slow, deliberate, safe rebuild and the front office would be full of Pens retreads like Botterill and Jason Karmanos.
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Can you imagine Francis trading for Nino? Or Trocheck, Skjei and Vatanen on the same day?

His only redeeming quality was that he was an early analytics adopter, bringing Eric Tulsky into the organization and promoting Darren Yorke.
 
Oh, Ronnie did plenty of good things as GM, mostly related to scouting and draft management. He also hired Ron Peters' sorry backside and kept him here despite knowing that he was an abusive jackass. He had zero feel for goalies, and was pretty much 0-fer on that score ... and hasn't done much better with netmiders in Seattle. But on the upside, he hired Tulsky and Yorke, re-stocked the scouting group with sharp minds, did a good job with contract management and generally drafted well once he took over player personnel in 2011. Sure, he had his misses (Phil DiGiuseppi at 38, Hayden Fleury at 7, the general concept of Julien Gauthier) but he drafted way more than the average number of guys who made the NHL over his run including gems like Aho, Slavin, Pesce, Necas, Lindholm, Hanifin and McGinn and quality trade fodder like Rask, Roy, Foegle, Lorentz, Makiniemi and Geekie.

But bold, he was not. And is not. And fortune really does favor the bold. Honestly, I think he cares more about his reputation than championships at this point. And that lack of ambition for the club drives his famous caution. I'm 100% confident that he'll leave the next guy a tidy house when they finally get tired of him in Seattle. Just like he did here.
 
CanadaCanes said:
There was Riverboat Ron in Charlotte and Stand Pat Ron in Raleigh...two Ron's dont make a right...
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It was easy being "Riverboat Ron" when he had Cam Newton on the squad.

What play should we run here, coach?
Pffft...I don't know. Just let Cam run it.
But coach, it's a 4th and 20 on the 50!
I don't care. Just let Cam do something with it. It'll be better than a punt.
/Cam runs for a first down to the 10 yard line.
 
NoMich said:
It was easy being "Riverboat Ron" when he had Cam Newton on the squad.

What play should we run here, coach?
Pffft...I don't know. Just let Cam run it.
But coach, it's a 4th and 20 on the 50!
I don't care. Just let Cam do something with it. It'll be better than a punt.
/Cam runs for a first down to the 10 yard line.
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That was a fun time.
 
NHL rule changes for next season:

www.nhl.com

NHL announces rule changes for 2024-25 season | NHL.com

Coach’s challenge for puck out of play, face-off procedure following icing among adjustments
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com

Coaches challenge for puck over glass

If your goalie knocks the net off its pegs, you cannot change the players on the ice

After an icing, the offensive player taking the faceoff also will receive one warning for a faceoff violation (which is useless because they fail to penalize the Defensive center faceoff violations after the warning)

No sitting on the boards officially a rule, with a team getting one warning first before a penalty.

Pretty vanilla/boring stuff.
 
Canucks re-sign Teddy Blueger, 2 years/$3.6 million. He's getting the NHL minimum both years, the rest is signing bonus.
 
cmaleski2 said:
If your goalie knocks the net off its pegs, you cannot change the players on the ice
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Some coach is going to lose his mind when his goalie gets called for this after getting tripped or run over by somebody like Zack Hyman. You KNOW it's going to happen
 
The Blues hired Claude Julien as an assistant coach and promoted Steve Ott to associate head coach. This is the first time that Julien has ever been an assistant coach. His first coaching job was head coach of the Hull Olympiques for 1 season in 1996-97 and won the Memorial Cup. He was out of coaching for 3 years before taking over AHL Hamilton in 2000. He was promoted by the Habs midway through his 3rd season in Hamilton.
 
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