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Around The League - 2024-25 Regular Season

legoalie said:
The kid hasn't played a NHL game.. I have no problem with asking for a trade once you play at the NHL level... so you would be ok with all the hab draft picks this year that haven't played a NHL game demand a trade..
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I'm with you on this. Otherwise why not just abolish the draft and make everyone a FA from the get-go. I mean seriously, he didn't "like the vibe" so he wants out? I'm no fan of the Jets, but this isn't cool, IMO.
 
LesCanadiens said:
I'm with you on this. Otherwise why not just abolish the draft and make everyone a FA from the get-go. I mean seriously, he didn't "like the vibe" so he wants out? I'm no fan of the Jets, but this isn't cool, IMO.
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Canadian cities other than Toronto and Montreal are going to avoid drafting American NCAA players if they can. We nave seen that with Ottawa and Calgary passing on Buium for slightly less highly ranked d-men.
 
You can tell who's old and who's young in this discussion.

Professional sports in North America are the only career where individuals are frowned upon for wanting to choose where to work when entering the work space. Macklin Celibrini should not be placed in a situation where he has to sign with San Jose or whichever team theoretically trades for his right or he'll be shunned from the NHL for four years.

The draft is used to handcuff players and give them less rights, and with the aid of the CBA, it reduces player compensation. It makes no sense that players on entry level deals make so little.

I have absolutely no issue with players like McGroarty saying he won't sign with the team that drafted him.
 
Krustchev said:
Canadian cities other than Toronto and Montreal are going to avoid drafting American NCAA players if they can.
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Doubt it. It's happened with a handful of players in the last decade. More than 95% of drafted players who end up siging an ELC go with the same team that drafted them.

One day, a highly touted first round pick from the CHL is going to refuse to sign with the team that drafted him and possibly re-enter the draft. Teams aren't going to then worry about players from the CHL.
 
GGpX said:
You can tell who's old and who's young in this discussion.

Professional sports in North America are the only career where individuals are frowned upon for wanting to choose where to work when entering the work space. Macklin Celibrini should not be placed in a situation where he has to sign with San Jose or whichever team theoretically trades for his right or he'll be shunned from the NHL for four years.

The draft is used to handcuff players and give them less rights, and with the aid of the CBA, it reduces player compensation. It makes no sense that players on entry level deals make so little.

I have absolutely no issue with players like McGroarty saying he won't sign with the team that drafted him.
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This isn't like working for Dell or GM or as a healthcare worker. It's a league that needs equity of opportunity for teams and the cities they represent. It has to be fair. And it has to provide a chance for teams finishing lower to rebuild. Otherwise, you have no league worth talking about. Owners and fans should have a chance to both ice a competitive team or hope for one to cheer for. 3 year ELC and they're RFA. They get big money to play a game. They're all signed for a million bucks give or take before they even score one point in the NHL. Look at the draft lists, and you'll see a ton of players that got their ELC, got paid, and wound up being total busts.
 
GGpX said:
You can tell who's old and who's young in this discussion.

Professional sports in North America are the only career where individuals are frowned upon for wanting to choose where to work when entering the work space. Macklin Celibrini should not be placed in a situation where he has to sign with San Jose or whichever team theoretically trades for his right or he'll be shunned from the NHL for four years.

The draft is used to handcuff players and give them less rights, and with the aid of the CBA, it reduces player compensation. It makes no sense that players on entry level deals make so little.

I have absolutely no issue with players like McGroarty saying he won't sign with the team that drafted him.
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Pro sports leagues are not normal businesses. They need a degree of competitive balance to be able to be successful, because if the league isn’t competitive, teams will fail - there are only so many markets you can relocate franchises to. It’s a domain where some “socialism” is necessary for overall success. Most players accept this as the trade-off (lots for money for lack of choice where to play early on). Unfortunately there is a silly loophole for American NCAA players.
 
The most popular sport in the world is football. Not American football, but European football. Watch European football and tell me how good the parity there is when the six same clubs run Europe. And people keep watching. And attending games. And paying for jerseys. And tons of sponsors want to be associated with those leagues & teams. Tell me how, exactly, the parity - or lack thereof - has hurt European football.

Or, if you want something closer to home, the same 5-6 baseball teams (Yankees, Dodgers, etc.) spend more than the rest to build their contending teams, while teams like the Pirates and the Rays struggle to pay half of what those other teams do. While the MLB's somewhat stagnated, it's not dying any time soon. It's not a coincidence that the biggest monetary contracts in North America are for baseball players. It's going to be a while before we see a 10 year, $700M fully guaranteed contract in football.

Salary caps, ELCs, restricted free agency, etc. were not created to make the sport "fair". Fair is a word in a world where pigs fly. There's no such thing as fair. The owners in hockey are shortsighted idiots for the most part, but as conservative business men who are more preoccupied with not losing money (instead potentially making money), they do as Bettman wants. Their real intentions with all those things is simple: Keeping costs down.

In American football, Caleb Williams was taken first overall and his contract is $39.5M fully guaranteed over 4 years. In comparison, Macklin Celebrini's contract is $950k / year with the possibility of getting $3.5M in bonuses per season, assuming he reaches those bonuses, for three years. While the financials in American football and hockey are significantly different, football doesn't make 11 to 39 times more money annually than hockey does. So why does the first overall pick in hockey make (if all bonuses are reached) 30-35% annually what the first pick in football makes? Trust me, it's not to make the NHL "fair", I'll tell you right now.

By the way, ELCs don't guarantee them a million bucks. The vast majority of players that sign their ELCs never play in the NHL and they'll be making their AHL salary of $80k annually.

The argument that they're playing a game and getting compensated for it, then implying they should be thankful, holds no weight for me. I'd rather see the players get paid than the owners.
 
With all that said, sports are better for us, the consumers, when athletes have less rights. The NHL would be infinitely better overnight if teams could cut the Anderson, Gallagher, Darnell Nurse, etc. types and relieve themselves of those huge caphits with minimal penalty.

American football is king in North America because the system is created to crush the players. Careers are short, there are always new players ready to step in for league minimum, so a player can't afford to hold out. When a player has any kind of leverage, he's going to use it. But that applies to a very small percentage of players in the NFL.

So, if a player has an opportunity to gain leverage and tell the team to fuck off, I have no problem with it. It sucks for the fans of the team he's on, sure, but he's well within his right.
 
Except no one, except freakish snow dwellers, gives a shit about hockey. An uncompetitive league, with a thin talent pool, could go into a death spiral. Basically the cup final would be an annual affair between NYR and TML, with occasional appearances by MTL, BOS, DET and CHI.

Probably a billion people around the world tuned today into to see Mbappe’s home debut with Real Madrid. The talent pool for this sport is bigly gigantic, so they they need to be sharp to stay at the summit.
 
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That said, if Philly (popular US destination?) and Winnipeg had allowed these kids to burn a contract year as is the practice for elite NCAA prospects, would we be having this discussion?
 
lecoqsportif said:
Except no one, except freakish snow dwellers, gives a shit about hockey. An uncompetitive league could go into a death spiral.

Probably a billion people around the world tuned today into to see Mbappe’s home debut with Real Madrid.
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Assuming the current rules are abolished and it becomes more of a free for all with minimal restrictions.

I don't think it'd go in a death spiral. The owners would make substantically less money, though. And the players would probably make more.
 
lecoqsportif said:
That said, if Philly (popular US destination?) and Winnipeg had allowed these kids to burn a contract year as is the practice for elite NCAA prospects, would we be having this discussion?
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Bingo.

Those two wanted out because the organizations fucked around with them. Both of them wanted to sign there, burn a year of their ELC by playing a game or two, then continue. Both organizations played hardball and the players used their leverage.
 
Yup. I get the NHL is a co-op and an old boys league, but they also need to acknowledge reality as it is.

Stupid mistakes by PHI (no surprise) and WPG (a little surprised) there.
 
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