[Signing] McDavid signs extension: 8 years, 12.5M per.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by robaur

The King of Secondary Assists.

His stats are inflated just like Westbrook's because McDavid always gets a touch while on the ice.

The Art Ross should go to Edmonton's Stat counters who, I would presume, are No Good.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Are we seriously arguing whether McDavid is the best player in the league?

Yes.

I know its a long thread but instead of replying in it you could use that time to catch up.

[robaur]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Are we seriously arguing whether McDavid is the best player in the league?

Who is the best player in the league?

James or Westbrook?

Crosby or McDavid?

It's James and Crosby.

Yay for Regular Season MVPs!!!!

[Stillman16]

Originally Posted by Locke

I dont know that I agree with that.

The Salary Cap will continue to rise, I cant even imagine a contraction while the PA has their escalator.

It'll keep going up, just not by much, which is pretty much the design.

If the NHLPA want to get rid of escrow the cap needs to go down!

The owners won't want to be on the hook for the short fall, so they will just say, "Ok you get less up front, and we'll cut you a check at the end of the season!".

Only way I see no escrow working with the linked cap...

[Locke]

The Art Ross is nice. You know whats nicer? The Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe. Again.

[Strange Brew]

If this is true it's going to be extremely fascinating. It is a great problem to have for the Oilers no doubt, and every team would take him at that contract. Every single team.

But now there is huge downside, with injury, not living up to expectations and a stagnant salary cap. It will be a great case study in just how much a great player should be paid.

[driveway]

Kid is definitely worth the money, but it will make championships harder. Draisaitl's contract is going to be interesting, there's no way to tell him he should take less because the captain did.

Oil are going to be in win-now mode for a while, hoping that players like Nurse and Pulljujarvi justify their high draft-selections while still cheap.

[Inglewood Jack]

ok how about best player as in, if you were starting a new franchise from scratch today and could pick any player, who would it be? even if you argued Crosby is currently better because he scores more goals, I'm still picking McAirportHug for production over the next decade. am interested to see what other plausible choices are.

[robaur]

Originally Posted by Locke

The Art Ross is nice. You know whats nicer? The Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe. Again.

I'm pretty sure that Crosby would win the Art Ross and Hart as well if he played with Malkin practically the entire season. He was 11 points behind and played 7 less games than McDavid. Get rid of those 7 games and add in the Malkin-factor...and Crosby runs away with the Art Ross and Hart.

Oh well - like you said, he has the Cup and Conn Smythe - back to back.

[robaur]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

ok how about best player as in, if you were starting a new franchise from scratch today and could pick any player, who would it be? even if you argued Crosby is currently better because he scores more goals, I'm still picking McAirportHug for production over the next decade. am interested to see what other plausible choices are.

You're trying to change fhe narrative in order to make the point that McDavid is better. This is what intelligent people do when they realize they won't win the original arguement.

Kudos !

[Locke]

Originally Posted by robaur

I'm pretty sure that Crosby would win the Art Ross and Hart as well if he played with Malkin practically the entire season. He was 11 points behind and played 7 less games than McDavid. Get rid of those 7 games and add in the Malkin-factor...and Crosby runs away with the Art Ross and Hart.

Oh well - like you said, he has the Cup and Conn Smythe - back to back.

The thing is: Crosby knows it.

He doesnt have to be 'The Man' in the regular season.

Art Ross? Old hat. Its like a comfy pair of shoes for Crosby. Doesnt need it.

He knows that the most important thing to do is save himself for the playoffs.

Can McDavid do that? Hell no. If hes not playing 20+ minutes a night the Oilers dont even get a sniff of the playoffs.

[IrishSpring2013]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Are we seriously arguing whether McDavid is the best player in the league?

some ppl see things differently then you... crosby was unreal in the playoffs.. elliot friedman this morning on sportsnet reiterated he's the best in the game..maybe you should understand that opinions and views can be different and not smother the thread with your usual arrogance..

[Gaudfather]

The Penguins have shown that you can commit to your top guys and still manage the cap for success. When Malkin and Crosby were signed they were eating about 30% of the total cap, and the Penguins have still managed to ice SC winning rosters. Not saying this automatically applies to the Oilers, but they are not crippled out of the gate either. The question is can Chia find those depth contributors at bargain rates. That is the real issue.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

ok how about best player as in, if you were starting a new franchise from scratch today and could pick any player, who would it be? even if you argued Crosby is currently better because he scores more goals, I'm still picking McAirportHug for production over the next decade. am interested to see what other plausible choices are.

Nobody mentioned best player "starting a new franchise".

The question was asked, "are we arguing that McDavid is not the best player in the league".

Sydney Crosby, right now, is the best player in the NHL, hands down.

And yes winning the SC and Conn Smythe two years in a row is indeed, evidence.

Because winning the SC and being the best player on a SC team is kind of what ever player strives for.

McDavid is not that player right now and IMO was pretty damn average in rhe SC playoffs.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Are we seriously arguing whether McDavid is the best player in the league?

I believe that Crosby is the best, most complete player in the league.

McDavid might surpass him, but it hasn't happened yet (IMO).

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by robaur

I'm pretty sure that Crosby would win the Art Ross and Hart as well if he played with Malkin practically the entire season. He was 11 points behind and played 7 less games than McDavid. Get rid of those 7 games and add in the Malkin-factor...and Crosby runs away with the Art Ross and Hart.

Oh well - like you said, he has the Cup and Conn Smythe - back to back.

Again, McDavid's peers considered him the most outstanding player in the league last year. So none of us outside of Edmonton agree with the players, but their opinion counts bit more than ours. So arguably he is now.

But wasn't taking last year. Or even next year. Was talking during the duration of this new contract, where most would expect him to certainly be the best in the league.

[Manhattanboy]

The term surprises me to be honest. From his point of view I would have thought a bridge to cover a couple more years of the pain of having to play for that joke of a franchise and then he high-tails it out of Dodge for a large US market such as the Rangers and cashes in on the huge sponsorship deals that will follow. Its not like his play is going to diminish over the period of a short term deal.

[Strange Brew]

If the debate after two years in the league is whether McDavid is better than Crosby then he's already won.

I remember posters on here at the start of the season arguing Monahan was, at the time, better than McDavid. Point is , CP may not be the spot for an objective discussion on the matter.

Personally I take Crosby if we're talking about just next season. Anything more than that it's McDavid.

Most importantly I don't think either are unbeatable.

[Beninho]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

^The escalator only allows the union to move the cap by 5% above what it would normally be. They can't make it grow 5% every year without fail. If revenues contract or stagnate, the cap contracts or stagnates, even with the escalator, since the union always uses it. (then bitches about how unfair escrow is).



A lockout is a 100% certainty already. The question is whether either side is willing to push for another cancelled season.

When McDavid's contract is announced, expect to see big dollars paid as bonuses at times. Lockout proofing is a thing as players and agents make sure they get money, even when they help halt the league entirely.

Yup, cap shouldn't of gone up this year either

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

^The escalator only allows the union to move the cap by 5% above what it would normally be. They can't make it grow 5% every year without fail. If revenues contract or stagnate, the cap contracts or stagnates, even with the escalator, since the union always uses it. (then bitches about how unfair escrow is).



A lockout is a 100% certainty already. The question is whether either side is willing to push for another cancelled season.

When McDavid's contract is announced, expect to see big dollars paid as bonuses at times. Lockout proofing is a thing as players and agents make sure they get money, even when they help halt the league entirely.

I suppose the union is banking on the addition of LV as a means for league revenue increase next season which is reasonable. However as long as the Canadian dollar is trash league revenue is going to remain largely flat and using the escalator puts money in the pockets of pending UFA's while taking money out of the pockets of players under contract which seems to be causing some friction within the union. Players may hate escrow but without it they can't have the escalator so they may need to be realistic in that the salary cap isn't going to hit those magical numbers forecasted years back. What's worse for the NHL is that with Cable TV industry on the decline they face lower future income on their TV deals. We may be close to the golden age of salaries in the NHL.