[News Roundup] Sunday musings from around the NHL

[transplant99]

Been years since i did one of these, but the more things change the more they stay the same.

Larry "Foster" Brooks off on an anti-NHL/pro NHLPA tangent like usual. Never change Foster.

Besmirching the sweater and cheapening the logo while enriching the bottom line by selling advertising patches on jerseys? The pandemic made the NHL do it.

I know, you don’t have to tell me because Deputy Bill Daly, in myriad interviews, has already told everyone that, “It is not the end of the world.”

Yes, I know, the ad money (Don’t you love how teams attempt to spin these sponsors as “patch partners,” or whatever other equally foolish euphemism they can find) will boost the salary cap, but there is that whole pesky means-to-an-end thing to consider.

It seems less than ideal that of the eight players on the Players’ Association search committee for Don Fehr’s replacement, Jacob Trouba is the youngest, and he is 28. Six are between 32-34.

I believe institutional knowledge is imperative, but in a league that is dominated by kids, was there no one among the 25-and-under crowd who had enough interest in this endeavor to volunteer? Or were the young’uns shunned?

Either way, not terribly impressive.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/15/nhl-sh...-cap-disaster/

KDP still doing his thing in Beantown

It’s not news that David Pastrnak likes to shoot as much as his arms and legs allow, so it’s equally unsurprising that his new coach wants the elite Czech winger to pick up right where he left off.

“If I can get 88 in the middle of the ice, 20 feet from the goalie,” mused Jim Montgomery, “I’m going to take that every time.”

Montgomery is wringing more goals out of his new team with changes he is orchestrating with the Bruins offense.

Hold on to your wayback machines: The last time the Bruins combined for 11 goals in their first two games of a season was 1990-91, when the scoring was easy in the then Original 21. They opened with four vs. the Flyers, then seven vs. the Nordiques — a quiet moment here for Allez Nords.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/...avid-pastrnak/

Duha also chimes in about game 1

In my experience, the one exception to that general rule of thumb is there is great value for any offseason addition to get off on the right foot.

You want to get that first point and first win, out of the way quickly, to ease some of the pressure of expectation that can build on expensive, highly visible newcomers. And so, for Kadri and his two fellow newcomers, Huberdeau and Weegar, it was mission accomplished. Kadri and Huberdeau had an assist apiece. Weegar contributed two. Flames’ defenseman Rasmus Andersson summed it neatly: You get on the scoresheet early and then you “don’t have to think about it anymore.”

It was reasonable to wonder what the Flames might look like in the opener. They’d had this bizarre stretch — of 12 consecutive losses in home-opening games — so history wasn’t on their side.

Moroever, they’d had an uneven exhibition season and looked decidedly unsettled. But once the puck dropped for real, coach Darryl Sutter had them playing the system pretty well. The structure was OK. They got a goal from the fourth line early and the best line overall was Kadri’s.

Sutter officially recorded his 700th career win as an NHL coach, which moved him into a tie for 10th place overall with Mike Babcock. Sutter tends to speak plainly about all manner of things, and it was clear the one thing he wanted to see happen in training camp — finding a winger to complement Kadri and Andrew Mangiapane on the second line — didn’t happen via the PTO route, with Sonny Milano failing to impress. They’ll be examining available options throughout the season, but the urgency will lessen if the first Plan B, Dillon Dube, plays as well on the line as he did in the opener.

https://theathletic.com/3693892/2022...chek-notebook/

[Erick Estrada]

LOL at Brooks trying to blame the NHL for the Oilers icing 17 one less skater. Holland mismanaged the Oilers salary cap situation all by himself as did any other GM that has no cap space. The NHL didn't force Holland to sign Nurse to a $9+ million contract. GM's should be punished for poor salary cap management, not provide get out of jail free cards. I'm sure the Rangers would live a big bump to the salary cap so they could go back to 90's levels of outpaying small market teams. Horrible take by Brooks.

[Flame On]

I'm sure the players will offer to hand back the jersey ad revenue to the greedy owners.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Flame On

I'm sure the players will offer to hand back the jersey ad revenue to the greedy owners.

The Vespasian effect.

The Roman emperor Vespasian, in a fiscal crisis, put a tax on public urinals. His son Titus complained that it was an undignified way to raise revenue. Vespasian took a coin that had been collected with the new tax, held it under Titus's nose, and said: ‘Does it smell, kid?’

The money never smells bad enough to make them give it back.

[SportsJunky]

Nugent-Bowman from the Athletic this morning:

“They were definitely coming fast,” defenceman Cody Ceci said. "They’re a little different-looking team than last year. They moved some pieces, but they picked up some great players. They’re a quick team. They transition well. They have good defencemen. "They’ve come at us strong early on in the past. They did it again.”

The Flames came at the Oilers in waves. They had no answers over the first 20 minutes
The Flames are expected to be one of the NHL’s top teams and the Oilers’ main competition for Pacific Division supremacy. They have at least two lines that can score and maybe three.
The Oilers had no answers for them on defence — at least over the first 20 minutes if we’re being charitable.
That was a big problem Saturday. It also has the potential to sink their season — and a playoff run — if it doesn’t get bolstered.
For now, improvement will have to come internally.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

LOL at Brooks trying to blame the NHL for the Oilers icing 17 one less skater. Holland mismanaged the Oilers salary cap situation all by himself as did any other GM that has no cap space. The NHL didn't force Holland to sign Nurse to a $9+ million contract. GM's should be punished for poor salary cap management, not provide get out of jail free cards. I'm sure the Rangers would live a big bump to the salary cap so they could go back to 90's levels of outpaying small market teams. Horrible take by Brooks.

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

Just ridiculous to blame the league the handling of the salary cap by the Oilers. Brooks needs to ride off into the sunset as he's so out of touch now.

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

The Campbell contract is going to blow up in their faces, it might already be happening. 135 NHL games played, no more than 22 games in a season prior to last year, and it's not like last season was Vezina calibre or anything.

Ken Holland saw hardworking cap managers like Craig McTavish, Kevin Lowe, Peter Chiarelli, an overcrowded marketplace and said, "Me too!."

[simmer2]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Just ridiculous to blame the league the handling of the salary cap by the Oilers. Brooks needs to ride off into the sunset as he's so out of touch now.

From Brian Burke's book re Brooks: "I have lifelong contempt for Brooks, who.....is the worst of the hockey media business, a true weasel."

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

And all of this with Smith doing a fishy LTIR and Keith “retiring”.

[Northendzone]

But what other options were out there for the oilers than Campbell.

I’d also think that the oilers had to do something in net as I’d have to think that McD is getting tired of spinning his wheels.

[Kasi]

Probably better to just bet on Skinner and then sign someone who is a capable backup at backup prices rather than spend 5/25 on an actual backup. Aka sign someone like Campbell but as an actual backup or pull a trade like we did for Vladar.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

But what other options were out there for the oilers than Campbell.

I’d also think that the oilers had to do something in net as I’d have to think that McD is getting tired of spinning his wheels.

There weren’t a lot of options on the free agent market. There best play would have been to try and trade for goalie that was depth on another team but had upside. A mystery box would have been better. Heck, Mike Smith would have been better and cheaper.

I also doubt they had to pay 5 x $5 million for Campbell. He signed the deal almost instantly so it’s not like there was a bidding war. If they waited him out, they could have likely got him for less, but they acted like trailer trash winning the lottery. They tied themselves down for 5 years to a 30 year old goalie with only 137 NHL games and no resume as a clear #1 goalie. Even Toronto preferred to let him go rather than clear space for him.

[Kasi]

Aka they should have done what the leafs did with Samsonov who is likely a better goalie than Campbell at a fraction of the cost.

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

I don't understand why they pay Kane so much when there was no other team bidding against them. May be the guy sitting on Holland's right shoulder whisper $3 and then the guy on his left shoulder whisper $4 and the guy on the left counter $5 and the right side guy said $5.125?


And Kulak getting paid $2.75M?

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's pretty amazing. None of the other 31 teams had to do that.

The Oilers signed like $21M in discretionary AAVs in the off-season, well after the cap ceiling was known:

Janmark 1.25M (now mostly buried in AHL)
Campbell 5M
Kane 5.125M
Yamamoto 3.1M
JPRV 3M
Kulak 2.75M

It's not even poor long-term planning...it was poor immediate execution

Janmark is a real head scratcher, like why would you sign a depth veteran to half a million above league minimum just to bury him in the minors?

[memphusk]

Oilers are no good. That's why.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Party Elephant

Janmark is a real head scratcher, like why would you sign a depth veteran to half a million above league minimum just to bury him in the minors?

I think they were under the impression that other teams would be falling over themselves to do the Oilers a favour and help them with their cap problems. Janmark became a casualty of their inept cap management.

[GioforPM]

It's funny - the Oilers aren't really overpaying their stars, except for Nurse. Their cap issues are Nurse, money for non-players like Neal and Lucic, and not biting the bullet and cutting ties with some guys like Puljujarvi and Yamamoto.

[Steve Bozek]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

It's funny - the Oilers aren't really overpaying their stars, except for Nurse. Their cap issues are Nurse, money for non-players like Neal and Lucic, and not biting the bullet and cutting ties with some guys like Puljujarvi and Yamamoto.

If Nurse was paid what he’s worth, they probably wouldn’t be in cap trouble…