The flying part affects his team travelling, and teams like Calgary fly way more often than the eastern teams.
I could find the numbers from 2017-2018, where Calgary ranked #2 with about 48,000 miles travelled.
Team on the east cost were quite a bit lower, with New Jersey and Pittsburgh about 34,000, or about 30% less.
I understand the travel is shorter. But do they fly that much less? It seems like JG’s fear of flying is at takeoff, which happens on a one hour flight as much as a 4 hour one. I imagine the NY area teams bus to the away games in the NY area. But do the devils fly to, say, Philly?
I understand the travel is shorter. But do they fly that much less? It seems like JG’s fear of flying is at takeoff, which happens on a one hour flight as much as a 4 hour one. I imagine the NY area teams bus to the away games in the NY area. But do the devils fly to, say, Philly?
Dunno why they would. It’s an hour and a half away.
Dunno why they would. It’s an hour and a half away.
If they do that’s insane.
Cause buses suck. But probably true. So NJ, NYI, NYR, Philly all in the same drivable area. Everywhere else is probably a flight. But that’s a fair bit.
That's the sad reality. Sometimes you need to learn to walk away from a bad hand. We're basically doomed if we keep going down this path of being a development squad for American based teams.
Yeah, I don't know how you can't look at the conference finals and not recognize the need to draft high.
Then there's the Flames:
(Bennett (4)->Heineman) oof.
It's almost crazy when you look at Rangers. They built a team through 1st round picks, being New York City and Igor breaking out. Barely anything at all to show for drafting in the 2nd round and later. Colorado hasn't done much better in their non-first round draft picks and the Oilers are the Oilers.
Spoiler!
Hayes does the college route free agency to sign with Rangers, another sought after college player, Poink, signs with Ranges over other teams that results in Trouba (Hayes->1st/Poink->Trouba).
Fox forces his way to New York.
Erixon forces himself to daddy's New York team. 1st and Erixon (plus) traded for Nash. Nash traded for Lindgren, K'Andre Miller, Strome (via Spooner lol).
Gaborik signs with Rangers for far less total contract than Minnesota offered the off-season before (78.5M for 10 years allegedly) and rumoured to be taking less than offered by Vancouver although the Sedins signings may have altered plans and no real contract offer existed. Gaborik->Brassard->Zibanejad.
Panarin signs for less to play in New York.
Even Copp was traded for a 1st now lol. Kreider, and Chytil pretty much rounding out the rest of the team as 1st round selections.
Since 2009, outside of Shesterkin, their non-first round draft picks that got more than a cup of a coffee so far include Fast (2010), Buchnevich (2013), Duclair (2013) (18 games with Rangers) and Graves (2013) (0 games with Rangers).
Colorado with Butcher, Pickard, O'Reilly and Barrie as only established NHL players, Meloche played 50 games this year with the Sharks so let's count him. They also got lucky that 2009 was the year I arbitrarily used and O'Reilly got them Compher and Barrie got them Kadri, so probably a fair year by chance.
Even the Oilers have them beat in quantity, McLeod, Jones, Bear, Marino, Khaira, Gustafsson, Reider, Pitlick, Marincin, Davidson, Lander.
Of course Tampa has quantity and quality with Colton, Raddysh, Katchouk, Cirelli, Joseph, Point, Erne, Paquette, Namestnikov, Kucherov, Nesterov, Palat, Gudas, Panik and technically Ingram started all four games for Nashville due to injury.
In that same time the Flames drafted Dube, Fox, Andersson, Kylington, Mangiapane, Kulak, Granlund, Gaudreau, Brossoit, Ferland for 10.
There's a couple like Slepyshev (opted to go back to the KHL), Gillies (19 games played this year with the carousel in New Jersey), Bournival (60 games in rookie season before becoming AHLer, etc. that I didn't think established themselves enough plus obviously recent draft picks still developing.
So between the Rangers, Oilers and Avalanche, only Shesterkin and McLeod are players that were drafted by their teams outside of the first round.
Building through the draft is no longer the recipe for the Cup, it's building through the top end of the draft. Bruins are the last team, and only team since Crosby's 2009 Penguins, to have no super impact players as a direct result of sucking and drafting high.
We saw with the Rangers and friends of yesteryears that you couldn't build a championship team through simply throwing money at free agents and outpriced players, 1994 notwithstanding, but you needed to be able to draft and develop like the Wings.
Now it should be obvious that you can't win without drafting high.
Since then the Hawks have already tried to retool and drafted Dach (3) while sending out high draft picks for Jones. The Kings have drafted Byfield (2) and Turcotte (5).
Hate to say it, but signing Gaudreau I think is just enough to keep the Flames in the perpetual state of mediocrity like Minnesota. At least if he doesn't sign I'd rather the Flames burn it down and go for Bedard.
Are you trying to prove my point? Yeah, Colorado looks like they may walk to the Cup largely because they are paying him 6M. Will see how they fare once he's making 12M but they'll still be building around Makar and Byram's second contracts, not UFA contracts.
Are you trying to prove my point? Yeah, Colorado looks like they may walk to the Cup largely because they are paying him 6M. Will see how they fare once he's making 12M but they'll still be building around Makar and Byram's second contracts, not UFA contracts.
I’m just commenting on how lucky they are. But most good teams have to pay their top guys top money. TB carries a lot of salary at the top end.
Makar is already on his second contract, and he wangled a $9Mx6 year contract - fairly similar situation to Gaudreau 6 years ago, subject to inflation.
You said "to keep them in a perpetual state of medicority"
We should be so lucky if they stay in this state with a chance to win every year.
Other teams pay their top stars accordingly and manage to ice competitive teams. The Flames should be no different.
Is Minnesota lucky too? Missed the playoffs once in the last 10 seasons, always had a chance to win, never did.
In 2019 the Flames had a 99 point player making 6.75M, point-per-game center making 6.38M, Selke quality winger making 4.85M, sandpaper second liner making 0.93M and Norris defenseman making 6.75M. Not bad group of 5 players making around 25M in cap.
In 2023 they'll have lost that Norris trophy winner completely, the point-per-game center has become a shell due to injuries (resulting in Selke quality winger becoming Selke quality center), but they'll likely be paying more than 30M now for four (3.5...).
I’m just commenting on how lucky they are. But most good teams have to pay their top guys top money. TB carries a lot of salary at the top end.
Makar is already on his second contract, and he wangled a $9Mx6 year contract - fairly similar situation to Gaudreau 6 years ago, subject to inflation.
Makar IMO is a teir above Johnny or Tkachuk.
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Makar is already on his second contract, and he wangled a $9Mx6 year contract - fairly similar situation to Gaudreau 6 years ago, subject to inflation.
I agree, they'll have a chance as long as Makar is on that RFA second contract. By the end of it I assume he'll be closer to a 20M player with a cap of 9M. Just like I think Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm and then Tkachuk's RFA contracts gave the Flames a chance, especially with Giordano bursting through the roof all of a sudden.
But because those guys gave the Flames a chance, they haven't recouped enough ELC/RFA players of note to build around.
I’m just commenting on how lucky they are. But most good teams have to pay their top guys top money. TB carries a lot of salary at the top end.
If you disbanded the team this off-season and each player signed at "fair market" UFA values for a year, it should be easy to see why Tampa is as good as they are.
Hedman is easily a 11M+ defenseman being paid 7.8M. Stamkos is a 10M+ forward being paid 8.5M. Point a 10M forward being paid 6.75M. Sergachev is making 4.8M, even Kucherov would be making notably more.
If Gaudreau signs for well under 10M, okay, absolutely the Flames have a chance to build around him.
But really the Flames main "savings" come from Lindholm, and of the two years left on that contract, one of them sees the Flames paying Monahan and Lucic 11M.
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