James to me, peter
show details 3:30 PM (20 hours ago)

Okay, so…happy trails to Kotalik, Zherdev, Higgins and Joikinen… lets make way for Alex Frolov? Oh, and Wade Redden is on the team? And Vinny Prospal is considered a first liner?
Gents, I’m sorry to punch a dead horse in the face as hard as I can over and over and over and over again but Glen Sather is the weirdest. This guys signings… he has a taste for a certain type eh? The underachieving hints of greatness but generally super unmotivated …OH SHIT something is coming in over Twitternet (copyright): It says “Henrik Lundqvuist has been drawn by horses and quartered in central park and his pieces will be divided amoung European elite leagues in exchange for Michael Nylander, Alexei Yashin, Alexandre Daigle and Patrik Stefan!

Conrad to James, peter
show details 7:29 AM (4 hours ago)

I think $3M for Frolov is a pretty good deal – just under 20G and 50A in a bad season last year, though that was on a high-scoring Kings team and the Rangers…are not a high scoring team – but I agree that the move doesn’t scream “We have a plan and we’re sticking to it!” Especially when this team just had Zherdev, who is essentially the same player, and who is now on that other bastion of patience and careful deliberation, Philly, who used Zherdev to replace…Simon Gagne. (After trading for Andrej Mezaros!) These big market teams are ridiculous. I just don’t understand how the Rangers always have cap space to do SOMETHING. Is it because they draft like shit and never have young guys to re-sign? Watch for them to sign Semin next year.

I was just reading a quote by Brian Burkety-Brick, who was likening those front-loaded long term deals to a lawyer who gets a murderer off on a technicality. Which strikes me as a GM who doesn’t want to play on the same field as everyone else, AKA ridiculously, stupidly self-limiting. But then I remembered that Murray signed Spezza and Heatley – at the time our team’s young core guys – to only seven or eight year deals at about $8M per. My question – should he have have signed both of those guys to 14 year deals with three or four years of league minimum at the end to get their cap hits down to, say, $5M? Are you guys happier with short terms deals and higher cap hits for a player like Spezza?

Aside: I played NHL10 with the revamped Sens last night and won 5-0 over Pittzboorg. Chris Campoli had 2 goals and an assist, which I think bodes well for his arbitration hearing.

peter to James, me
show details 8:52 AM (3 hours ago)

Sorry for the delay in replying guys I was actually myself just in midtown Manhattan sigining a deal with the blueshirts…for whatever it is that I do…

I loved the Burke quote about people circumventing the cap and the so called spirit of the law. As someone who failed the LSAT’s on multiple occaissions let me tell you violating the spirit of a law on the books for less than five years which is full of more holes than hitler’s benz (too soon?) shouldn’t be his biggest concern right now. He’s pissed he doesn’t have anyone near the talent level to command a multi-year deal and we get to hear him cry about it.

In other news, last night I was changing a light bulb in my bathroom when I slipped on some wet porcelain and hit my head. When I came to I was blinded by an inspiration! What if you counted each player’s yearly salary as their yearly cap hit also? An idea so simple that surely someone must have thought of it previously. Turns out both the NFL and NBA use this “simple math”. The genius is that it allows you to adjust for fluctuating cap ceilings and floors. I never did get that lightbulb changed so I continue to pee in the dark. Will the NHL continue to whiz with the lights off? (that was a metaphor, try and keep up!)

There should be a limit on length of deals. 5 years max. 6 if the player has not signed a contract previously with a team that doesn’t own his draft rights and that deal is offered by the team that drafted him. It’s called the Bird rule in the NBA and LeBron James and Chris Bosh just thumbed their nose at it.

There’s also a radical theory where we could dvide players into categories. I won’t go into details but there’s a trememndously detailed article about radical labour re-alignment in the NBA. It’s directly tied to revenue which is something owners and players both benefit from
http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/957/20100720/the_path_to_a_permanent_peace_between_nba_players_and_owners/

James to peter, me
show details 10:11 AM (2 hours ago)

Yeah is not really the deal; the term and price are pretty reasonable it’s more the type of guys that they continuously sign in NY. What is with Sather and players like this? It seems like after they won the cup with Edmonton East, the Rangers have become the team where “some dude is playing right now.” Some elusive hired gun type surrounded by lesser versions of the same, little going on in the way of prospects in front of an incredible goaltender. Notice I didn’t even mention that they also have Wade Redden stuff going on. Anyway, I don’t know it’s just weird. I would be so frustrated if the Senators signed an Alexei Kovalev (former Ranger) every year. I really think Semin would be a perfect New York Ranger type guy. Joikenin was an awesome example btw.

As for Burke…this guy…can we just call him Statements from here on out? The guy makes frigging state-ments. Sometimes I enjoy how he doesn’t hold them close to his chest but it comes at the price of his openness being pretty irritating 4 out of 5 times. The upside, of course, is that it feels like you get a peek into the leafs boardroom (Skype meeting at Chili’s). “We’re not pursuing Ilya Kovalchuk!” Awesome…phew! “I am not firing Ron Wilson.” Great, because that’s working for the rest of the East. “We’re shopping Tomas Kaberle” Super, Ottawa is going to be more offensive this year. The fewer all star defensemen on your team, the better.

Thinking Cap (take THAT Ottawa Sun): When the cap was introduced it took a little getting used to that the cap hit and a player’s per year salary earnings were two different numbers. I’m going to guess that it’s a conspiracy involving a clandestine society of entertainment lawyers slowly changing how the league works so only people with a J.D. can understand how the league’s finances operate. Escrow? Im no Harvey Globetrotter.
I think its pretty interesting the 5 year contract limit idea. I think the NHLPA would never go for it. Players think in terms that every year cold be potentially career ending. Example, Kovalchuk’s post-signing OTR interview he was talking about how pro-sport is a job with an uncertain future (true) and how now with this contract he can rest easy because he is “set for life” (at 102M also slightly true). By my standards Chris Kelly is set for life. What I’m saying is I get that Anton Volchenkov wants to be able to pay for that adamantium skeleton replacement surgery he’ll need when he retires but also wants enough left over to send his daughter to the finest Krumping Adademy…but can I get a DiPietro for maybe even a TEN year limit on contracts? Surely guys who make half a million dollaridoos ABSOLUTE MINIMUM per year can get into that.

Ps. Did anyone see that half hour top 10 Agitators special that they had on TSN? It was pretty entertaining. I was a little bummed that Eddy Shack made the list but Jarrko Ruutu didn’t.

Conrad to James, peter
show details 10:32 AM (1 hour ago)

Hey Pete, that’s a great article you linked to. Sometimes I think the NBA’s CBA is overly complicated, but then that’s only because I’m a hockey fan and the NHL’s was scribbled on the back of a Tim Horton’s honey cruller.

James, I agree with you about the Rangers. I wonder if they’re trying to leverage what advantage they have in a city where every free agent naturally wants to live. Attract the FAs, throw them together and see what happens, which is a strategy (thankfully) unavailable to the Ottawas of the world. (Though the Museum of Nature was recently renovated, which is why Sergio Gonchar signed on. He’s got a season’s pass.) I also think that Sather probably has dementia / is using the player power rankings from video games. Cheechoo is an 82 out of 100!

I was listening to the great Pension Plan Puppets podcast this morning, and they had MC79 on (he’s kind of scarily smart at analysis, by the way, which makes it a bittersweet fact that he’s an Oilers fan). MC79 talked about how 1st round picks are worth less today than they every have been (you don’t get the player as long, their RFA contracts pay out earlier, etc. Look at Tampa already freaking out about signing Stamkos, who’s going to get like $6M per in his THIRD YEAR), and so maybe Burke shouldn’t get flak for trading away a couple for Kessel. But how on the other hand his tendency to provide unsolicited opinion backs him into a corner, i.e. “I would never use an offer sheet” and so can’t. And then trades away more picks for the rights to Kessel than he would have had to give up if he had just used…AN OFFER SHEET. Anyways, what was my point? That franchise is fucked.

I would support a limit on deals, though I agree it needs to be higher than in basketball given the way players are always almost dying out there. I’d say 8 years, i.e. the kind of deal Spezza / Heatley got. That way when you have to re-sign your player in his third or fourth year a max deal brings him to about 30. If it’s the team that drafted him, I’d extend that ceiling to 10 years.

I didn’t see the agitator thing. You know, it took me about three years, but I’m on board with Roooootoooootto now. I’d re-sign him for the same terms.

peter to me, James
show details 3:43 PM (18 hours ago)

Oh man, I’m totally hyperventilating right now!!! Don Brennan is like a gift from the comedy gods!

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2010/07/27/14848221.html

I’ll let you guys have first crack, I’m too spazzed out to make proper fun of this

James to peter, me
show details 4:22 PM (17 hours ago)

I cant even touch this garbage dump. You want real comedy gold…go to the article announcing Rick Wamsley as the Sens new goaltending coach on TSN.ca. The internet btw. All these leafs fans like “HORRIBLE MOVE LOL!!! THEY MUST WANT TO GET FIRST PICK NEXT YEAR!!!” even Sens fans or leafs fans posing as such…either way “Another terrible move by Murray. He needs to wake up or get fired!”  Like………………………………………….what? Pages of comments over a goalie coach hiring? Shit is wild. Look, I hate the leafs. Always have…but seriously, they could hire Jacques Plante’s grandghostcousin as their team doctor…im not going to pretend that I have anything to say either way about that. The internet is special I guess. Sidebar- when is Internet 2 coming out?

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