Trades and Potential Trades

doesn't that make them even more valuable, both Honka and Nichuskin still on ELCs.
Honka has been really good and he's well in to his 2nd full AHL season. He's coming w/ some marinade anyway.
i still think Nichuskin can be elite. id throw him right in to a top 6 role immediately.

 

I said it poorly, Honka and Nichuskin are more valuable because they're cheaper.
That's why I don't think a package of Bogo and Kane would be very close to getting it done. Bogosian and Kane were overpayed injury risks which made them much riskier and not all that valuable.

 

It's not mute, it's part of the juggling act deciding how a gm has to cash in the money that will eventually go bad.

Yes, I completely agree, they likely wouldn't have been a part of winning anything, but they still have to replace the talent to win something. It took Chicago 10 years to replace anything close to what overpaid and declining (assuming he was kept) Chelios would have brought and 5 years to come close to replacing injury plagued Zhamnov for example...and then those players still had to learn how to win. They cleared internal budget and landed assets...and it was useless.

It might work out great...provided they stick to a straight numbers/quantity approach. I think they're going about it in a way most likely to generate long term sustained success. It will take a couple of extra years to do that and it also means NOT going after Stamkos.

 

Kovalchuk rule, it was amended in the previous CBA. The cap hit is for the total salary prior to the player's season in which they turn 41. His total contract was 45.5, but he turns 41 the last year when he gets 4 million. I'm guessing term and dollars were largely agreed upon as the rule came into effect only weeks before the contract extension was signed. It was one of the reasons I was so confused by the timing of the extension. Obviously PC did the right thing, timing of extensions = UNDERADED

 

I don't think Stamkos gets traded this season.
I don't think he signs in Toronto either. He cares about his image and brand too much in my opinion. He has to win and erase some of the playoff demons and I don't think he wants to wait until the back half of his career to do that. One of these years, he's going to lose a little of that shot like Kovalchuk or Hossa or (insert great shooter here) and then he can't play to his contract.

I still think TB is the frontrunner by a mile. No matter what Yzerman's ego is telling him, this will be an ownership decision at the end of the day and Vinik isn't going to risk it unless Stamkos really has a problem with coaching and management.

 

Then again, Toronto added 35% onto coaching contracts. A contract bigger than Kovalchuk's might get Stamkos to shelf that winning attitude.

 

Filling your team with talent is every teams challenge. Looks like fat phils career's peaked anyway, perfect timing as they'll soon regret that deal. Phaneuf already 30 and overpaid getting paid like a #1 d-man and aging. Yes, the picks are no guarantee, but they were no better off and it looks like they sold high on teh phil, in a couple of years with that deal the pens might be thinking buyout.

 

If it wasn't for the amount of RFA's and FA's which is eight combined in the next two years, signing stamkos would be a no-brainer, unfortunately for stevie y, he's strapped down and has to negotiate with him.

 

Miles of capspace opens up for the leafs after unloading kessel, clarkson and phaneuf, and hopefully they buyout lupul at the end of the season. After they get rid of cowan and mickalek's deals they'll have miles of cap space to sign rfa's, fa's aggresively go after teams that can't fit players into their cap like the hawks last year with sharp, this time it'll be the leafs instead of the stars that get those type of players.

 

If the Canes don't sweep this weekend I believe they will look to trade Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Versteeg, If they sweep then they may make a trade for another scorer and they have LA's first round draft pick to dangle for that one.

 

Capspace gaurantees nothing but wasted time (time is an asset) if they don't replace the actual talent.

My point is that all of this is just the easy part. The hard part is much longer and sloppier than most in the media and blogs are making it out to be. Too many voices are a little too excited about unloading tangible quality talent. Acquisitions are very hit and miss even with the best front offices.

As far as landing the top talent, outside of very rare exceptions, Toronto isn't going to get quality vets to waive their NTCs to go play under a Lou culture without a 'wink-wink' equally some other promise of compensation.

 

Well, you shoulda told Buffalo fans this! Oh, wait, you did.

Getting better is much harder than getting shitty. Although TM did pluck some top talent over the past year.

 

You can't have one without the other. So many veterens played under lou with SC rings in jersey. I have yet to hear any negative talk about the culture. If anything , the circus in TO has moved out of town. Anytime you try to be the best out of 30 clubs its not easy, hell I have yet to win one fantasy championship after over 10 years in any sport.

 

I just think Bob is being cautionary here; he's not shitting on your parade. Getting out from under bad contracts is hard, and GM's deserve applause when they pull it off. But it's not even the start of rebuilding - it's a necessary step to really go full-bore with the tear-down phase.

TOR has not gotten better; they did put them in a position where it's possible to get better in the future. Even getting good is really hard; getting to SC contender status takes a combination of: a (really) smart FO with a solid plan; a lot of time & patience; smart moves, and some luck. You take any one of these out of the equation and you resemble the Panthers of recent vintage or the Oil of today (and the foreseeable future*).

IMO, the four factors are in place in TOR, so optimism is reasonable. But it is speculative - by definition - to state this.

(* EDM could rise as early as next season, but we are demanded to have a wait-and-see attitude.)

 

Am I happier today than 2010 when BB went out to get kessel and fanoof? YES

 

There are exactly 3 players that have hung around the league the last few years from Lou's last championship.

Either his philosophy doesn't allow him to realize the talent right in front of him or he's chasing players out (gomez, Rafalski, Kovalchuk, Martin, Oduya, etc.). He treats players like it's 1985 and refuses to acknowlegde market value.

The reason there's nothing bad coming out of Toronto is because Shanahan issued a gag-order, they don't acquire anybody who would break ranks, and they've unloaded any player that might actually say something.

What player, with any sense of self-preservation, would speak out against the unholy triumvirate of Lou-Shanny-Babs?

 

This is all I'm doing.
I've seen alot of things that tell me they're going to come out of this very well, it's just going to be a couple years longer than many people think.

Can't rebuild until things are torn down, and they're torn down yet.

 

I'm not. That was fun, trainwreck fun.

When they don't even offer Stamkos a contract, I will urge Leafs fans to rejoice that their patience will be rewararded...eventually.

 

Well said.

Especially the "luck" part. There's a huge element of chance in there, draft year, people dying, CBA changes aligning with circumstances, etc. CHI and PIT were oozing with dumb luck coming out of the lockout.

 

Totally wrong, they unloaded kessel and phaneuf for obvious reasons other than they speak out. Kessel never liked to talk to reporters and fanoof was the most phony baloney politically correct say all the same old cliche lines you'll find in the league.