good

its idiocy to tank an entire season. to instill a losing culture on your remaining troops is not the mark you want to leave behind
Edmonton is brought up over and over again. i feel sorry for those fans there. being a canadian market and all

even Columbus is doing better lol. and they lost their franchise forward in rick nash (with his star status now even being debatable. so maybe it was for the better he left)

and at the end of the season, having the lottery in place doesnt even guarantee you your season ending spot on the draft order

You didn't miss anything besides the "knowledgeable" Canucks fans asking cringe worthy questions :heckno:

Q&A is almost always a betafest

can't wait til training camp and preseason starts so I can see the prospects in action

I would've ask if the Comets would be moved to Abbotsford and change the name to the "Abbotsford Orcas"

I wanna watch Shinkaruk school some noobs in Abby!

Grabbing McCann at 24 have made the Kesler trade better and have also changed many opinions that's for sure. ;)

hopefully Jordan can be like is brother PK...

I agree. Especially when Benning was limited to 2 teams.

Looking back at other trades for centres.

Spezza and Ludwig Karlsson <-> Alex Chiasson / Alex Guptill / Nicholas Paul 2nd-round pick (2015)

Voracek / 1st (Couturier) / 3rd (Cousins) <-> Jeff Carter <-> Jack Johnson and 1st (Dano)

Richards + Bordson <-> Simmonds / Schenn / 2nd round (traded to Dallas for Grossman)

Overall, Kesler + 3rd got us Bonino, Sbisa, McCann, and Dorsett.

Limited to 2 teams to deal with and Kesler's health...I'm pretty happy. Sad to see him go, but like the value we got.

Ahh I'd much rather have Schneider's deal over Miller's. *sigh*

Kesler to ANA was a much better return for the Canucks than what Gillis for got for Schneider

The general return formula for a player an impact player of late looks to be a roster player + prospect + 1st rounder.

Gillis got for 1/3 lol.

Comparing the Kesler and Schneider trade makes absolutely no sense when they play completely different positions...

When was the last time a goalie got a massive return? Varlamov for a 1st and 2nd? I wouldn't even call that a massive return... goalies never get the roster player + prospect + 1st return

Under the circumstances at the time, 9th overall pick in a deep draft for Schneider was decent. If Horvat reaches his potential and becomes a Bergeron-lite it'll be a great return

schneiders projection and numbers were a lot better than Varlamov (iirc) where i think he struggled in WSH

and i dont think playing goalie position should hamper the return value. a good player is a good player, granted Schneider didnt have the same resume as Kesler

but yeah your right, i dont recall a roster player + 1st + prospect for a goalie being swapped in recent memory. but maybe there just havnt been top end goalies moved of late (that werent rentals)

and if Horvat or even McCann turn into a Bergeron lite that would solidify center

Kane and Toews signing for 10.5 mill for 8 years.

Dont doubt they deserve whatever they demand.
But they potentially messed up their teams future.
Alienates your fellow teammates and sets a precedents amongst every player who 'thinks' their elite.

If the Sedins brought us 2 Cups at 25/26 years old and got 10.5 each, I think we'd all be like
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kr2gystqT8.../s1600/484.jpg

would you turn down $84 million?

i can see players being worried about the team's future if they havent won a cup yet as they'd want to give the team an edge by taking less... but when you've already won 2 olympic gold medals and took home the stanley cup twice, all at the age of 26 (Toews), who cares what else goes on as long as you get paid?

With the rules of how the CBA, its really hard not to ask for this type of money on arguably two of the best hockey players in the game right now.

FYI, Stamkos will be UFA in 2 years. Of course, definitely not as decorated as Toews, but definitely compares to Kane in terms of individual efforts.

Dane Fox looks like a milder comic book guy lol

Won't having 2 guys (albeit great players) lock up $21m cap give the Blackhawks a lot less room to sign good players to build a contender? :suspicious:
I read that with these signings, a significant impact player is definitely gone, Sharp?

Yeah... pretty much. As much as they want and deserve a big paycheque, it's inevitable it will handcuff their team. As someone said earlier, maybe they don't care, cause they brought home 2 cups already. So they just want the money now.

They aren't the best "bang for buck" players with a 10.5mil caphit. But the organization can't afford to let these two walk... so they keep them, but bite the bullet in giving them a hefty raise.

It is what it is.

The salary cap goes up quite a bit year after year. The next 2-3 years could be difficult, but Chicago still has their core line until then.

In the meanwhile it will be difficult to sign players, unless they want to take a huge discount to sign with a team that could win the Stanley Cup.

The Blackhawks also have this advantage which helps them with lower salary good young players.. Scotty Bowman Bio - Chicago Blackhawks - Team

They are in good company as an organization that has consistently drafted well for the last 5+ years.

Of course the cap goes up but the 10M+ contracts aren't exactly what I call a bargain :lol

Looking at the Hawks roster for next year they'll only have 3M cap space to re-sign/replace:

Richards, Brad »
Kruger, Marcus »
Saad, Brandon »
Regin, Peter »
Oduya, Johnny »
Leddy, Nick »
Rozsival, Michal »
Rundblad, David »

Saad and Leddy should be getting raises. Is Chicago planning to have half their team of AHLers on ELC's for next season? :fuckthatshit:

LeBrun reporting that Sobotka signed with a KHL team, big blow for St. Louis if contract has no out clause, he's a key cog as their 3rd line center, great two way player.

Kings have same problem next year.

Williams
Stoll
Clifford
Toffoli
Pearson
Reghr (nah)
Martinez
Muzzin

18 million to sign 11.

These guys are solid guys that make the Kings, the playoff Kings.

Feel like I'm sucking up to Benning, but another good thing about the Kesler trade is IF Bonino provides comparable scoring to last year, he's signed for $1.8 million for next 3 years...

On the flip side, that's a lot of attractive assets that you can flip for picks/prospects