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2025-26 NHL Miscellaneous Thread

Well, Philly got Zegras extended now that they don’t have half their Cap space tied up in that dumb Carlsson offer sheet. It’s a doozy too. $9.125 mil AAV for 4 years. Seems like they paid the long contract premium without actually getting the long contract commitment from the player. And all that for a guy who’s never even sniffed point per game production. Briere is having himself a weird off season.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Briere really and truly comes across as a complete dumbass in his role. I feel bad for Flyers fans. Almost.
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Hard to get a read, honestly. Briere had a really good off season last summer and they were a legit playoff contender right from the start. I thought Tocchet was a solid hire, the Zegras move was a good one, and getting Drysdale was a nice boost to their blueline. He also managed to get Tocchet to play the kids and give the creative guys some rope, which is not exactly his strong suit. And getting Woll to platoon with Vladar was a good call this summer. But there’s also been some strange stuff … dumping Bobby Brink made no sense, that offer sheet to Carlsson was just so reckless and now he’s deeply over-paid Zegras on a medium range extension. I still see their trajectory as trending positive, but there’s been some pretty big red flags too.
 
Chicago finished up an extension for Bedard and don’t look now, but we’ve got ourselves a budding trend. Like Zegras, he also went for mid-length term without really giving up any money. 5 years, $15 million AAV, full UFA at age 25 when he’s done. These kids are smart to not be selling off UFA years unless they’re either getting over-compensated for it or they really believe in the team’s program. The Cap is still going up, so they want to get back into the pool as soon as they can.

The thing is, in the past we’ve seen teams get by with getting below or current market pricing on shorter than max term deals. This is a dangerous trend for teams with young star players. It’s even more dangerous for teams that also have a lot of inflated veteran contracts on guys who are declining. If this shift sticks, teams are going to have to be VERY wary to pay only for current production as much as possible. It may even lead to shorter contracts across the board, including free agent contracts. Honestly, the transition would be rough but in the long run that would be better for everyone. This thing where guys have to be under-paid until free agency at which time they are wildly over-paid is kind of bonkers.
 
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I edited that just to change "boot came" to "boot camp” … because I stared at it for like a minute and a half trying to figure out what it meant … lol.

FWIW, I’ve not seen Tyler Johnson working in a media role, but I think Jack Johnson is pretty good. Maroon just seems over his head, but maybe he’ll grow into it. I remember when Mike Johnson first started and he was awful and now he’s quite polished. So, there’s always room to improve. It helps if you’re a natural communicator though, and Maroon ain’t that. I have zero interest in anything Ryan Reaves might ever have to say. On any subject.
 
jeffbear said:
I edited that just to change "boot came" to "boot camp” … because I stared at it for like a minute and a half trying to figure out what it meant … lol.

FWIW, I’ve not seen Tyler Johnson working in a media role, but I think Jack Johnson is pretty good. Maroon just seems over his head, but maybe he’ll grow into it. I remember when Mike Johnson first started and he was awful and now he’s quite polished. So, there’s always room to improve. It helps if you’re a natural communicator though, and Maroon ain’t that. I have zero interest in anything Ryan Reaves might ever have to say. On any subject.
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Came, camp, whatever. I’ve been on a typo roll lately.
 
Dallas signed Robertson, 1 year, $12 million. He’ll be a UFA after the season but can sign an extension after January 1.
 
With Robertson signed, the Stars are almost $1.4 million over the cap with 23 players, including Seguin on IR. His $9.85 million comes off next season, so they’ll have a pile of money to throw at Robertson on January 1. When the new CBA kicks in on 9/15, teams will only be able to offer their free agents to a 7 year contract, but functionally, this is year 1 of an 8 year contract, albeit with a lower first year salary.
 
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Yep. This looks like some CBA/salary cap maneuvering by Dallas that will allow them to pay Jason Robertson the big bucks he is looking for while not creating a huge impact to the current roster. Give him the $12 million for this season, deal with some minor cap issues to get to compliance for this season, and then sign him to a bigger AAV/term extension after January 1st when a number like $14 million+ doesn't hurt as much with the higher cap and Seguin no longer under contract.

Now if you want to get all technical about this, handshake agreements are illegal. That being the case, don't expect either side to come right out and say what the plan is.
 
I honestly don’t trust the goodwill between Robertson and the Stars nearly that much. Maybe they get to next summer and feel like extending the deal, maybe not. Either way, they managed to kick the can down the road a year. They don’t have enough money to get better so they’re just counting on the roster that has failed together past the 2nd round of the playoffs for two straight years just doing better next time. But at least they don’t have to blow it up … even though they might be better off doing just that.
 
It really would have been interesting to see what the numbers submitted to the arbitrator were.

Speaking of which, Jet Greaves and the Jackets have a hearing tomorrow. The numbers are mind boggling. The team submitted $2.8 million. Greaves submitted $7.5 million. In his first year as a starter, he had a 2.60/.908 stat line in 55 games. His number would make him the 11th highest paid goalie in the league.
 
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