NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[Smitty-48]

Case in point, Rutherford can trade for Ryan Reaves, so what? What's he gonna do? Nobody has to answer the bell, they can smoke Crosby with impunity, if Reaves runs around trying to be an enforcer, he'll just take penalties and get suspended, there is no riding shotgun anymore, the refs cannot protect the players from themselves, and the league will not allow the players to do any enforcing, so it's open season, and everybody in Canada said that this was going to be the result, when Bettman started to run it like it was basketball.

If Leo Komarov elbows Crosby in the head, does he have to answer the bell with Ryan Reaves? Nope. What happens if the Pens try to retaliate against Matthews? The refs will just throw them out of the game, so there is no deterence, you can get away with anything in the NHL these days, whereas back when it was ostensibly "more violent", star players barely got their hair mussed.

The Canadian hockey fan has maintained all along; if you make it so only the refs can police the game, it's just going to be a parade of European style dives, stick fouls, and cheap shots against the star players, with no deterence at all; and what happened? Exactly what we said would happen, Americans, this was all done for you, not us.

Canadians put the red line in hockey for a reason, slow it down, makes more plays, otherwise it's just racing up and down chipping in and chipping out, which is boring, Canadians demanded that players answer the bell, for a reason, the game is inherently violent, you can't take the violence out, all you can do is make the players responsible to each other, nobody in Canada messed with this for a hundred years, then Gary Bettman & Co came along from New York, and tried to turn it into basketball, to please who? Not us, the Americans.

If there were boards in basketball and the players could run each other into them, integral to the game, quite sure all heck would break loose, they'd prolly start packing heat to the arena and end up shooting each other, the ghetto would explode onto the court, but that's why you can't run a hockey game like it's basketball, Gary, you can take the bench clearing brawls out, but that doesn't mean the players won't try to settle things, they'll just be forced to do it European style, cheap shots from the blindside and skate away. Oh was that a penalty? Whoopie fuckin' do, two minutes in the box, small price to pay.

You know Niskanen followed through, I know Niskanen followed through, and most importantly his royal highness prince Crosby knows Niskanen followed through, accidentally on purpose, the players are masters of that craft, but if you try to look it up in the Gary Bettman baskethockey rulebook; it's not in there. Intent to concuss, payback is a bitch? Prove it. Can't prove it, didn't happen.

[Smitty-48]

Pierre Mcguire says the Leafs are "in on Duchene'?

Certainly would be an upgrade on Bozak, because quite sure Babs could get Duchene back on track, and the Leafs could afford it, for a second line center, but what the Leafs would have on the table that Sakic would want is beyond me. Maybe Sakic asked about Nylander and the Leafs said take a lap, other than that, I don't see a conversation there.

I mean, if Sakic was smart and the Avs had a Shanaplan, they'd be all over that, Kapanen, Rychel, Bracco, Dermott, Nielsen, there's plenty of upside to what the Leafs would offer, particularly Dermott, but Sakic doesn't seem to have the mandate to do things right and build for two three years from now instead of just next year.

If I was Sakic, I'd say "I'll swap you Bozak for Duchene, but you have to give me Kapanen, Dermott, and a first next year to make that happen, that's like two firsts and a second for Duchene, Bozak as a lower cost stopgap for next year, when Colorado should be tanking for a high pick anyways.

If he just keeps going around asking for Nylander's and Hanafin's, he's just going to end up stuck with Duchene, and the way Pat Brisson is talking, Colorado has pretty much burned their bridges with the Duchene camp, so getting stuck with him at this point is just a mess that does nothing for him, better to just move on and take the picks and prospects which would actually be on the table.

The whole league knows the score, all the pressure is on Sakic to get something done, there's no pressure on anybody to give Sakic their A+ prospects, they'll just wait him out, Duchene is a complimentary player, there are other options, so Sakic has no leverage to get other teams to overpay.

Sure, the Leafs would like an upgrade on Tyler Bozak, but they're not trading Nylander for that, sure, Carolina would like to add a scoring center to compliment Jordan Staal, but they're not trading Hanafin for that, the sooner Joe just gets real, the sooner he'll get a deal done, otherwise, the league will just wait him out indefinitely, and the prices will be dropping not rising, as more and more teams just move on with other options and get their line-ups set for next year.

I get that Sakic thinks he has to hit a homerun, but what does he even think a homerun is, for an asset like Duchene? The Islanders turned down Duchene for Hamonic, and Hamonic is a 4D, if anybody is looking for scoring, JVR is on the market, 30 goals for $2 million less, no strings attached after next year, what Sakic apparently thinks is a homerun, is going to take a lot more than just Duchene straight up, Connor Brown had more goals than Duchene, for $800K, there are just too many options for a cheaper complimentary player, who can do 80-90% of what Duchene does.

GM's don't look at it like "good player on a bad team", what they see is "a player who was integral to that team being bad, he doesn't drive the bus, he needs to be on a bus with better drivers", but that just ain't worth that much, when you can put a $800k 6th round pick bouncing back and forth on a line with Matthews or Kadri, and he can get you 20 goals, Duchene just ain't worth the $6 million, if you're giving up a 1st and an A+ prospect, you're not giving it up for an overpriced passenger.

If there was no cap, Duchene could and would be moved with ease, but in a cap world, you don't surrender a homerun for a $6 million Duchene. Just look at Jonathan Marchessault, similar player to Duchene, scored 30 for FLA for only $925K, but they shipped him off to Vegas, why? Salary dump, too cheap to pay him, that's how cheap most of these teams are, but they're gonna pay for Duchene instead?

The rising star teams don't need him, they drafted their superstars, the big spending teams can't fit him under the cap, and the budget teams have no interest in spending $6 million on a player unless he's gonna put more butts in the seats, which Duchene wouldn't, so there's no market for Duchene, if there was the trade would have happened already, Joe just needs to cut his losses and move on, because there is risk to bringing him back, if he has another bad season, he will be worthless, effectively unmovable.

[Smitty-48]

I think the Leafs could get a little bit more creative with the Matthews contract than Edmonton is being with McDavid, first off all the Leafs should come with non hockey related revenue like they did with Stamkos, it's Bell and Rogers, endorsement tie in, deploy those deep non hockey related revenue pockets, then say to the Matthews camp, look, not only do we want to ice a team around you, but there's also going to be a lockout in 2020, so if you take a bit of a haircut on the AAV, we'll front load the contract so you basically get more than half up front, that way you don't have to worry about the lockout, or anything else for that matter, you're set for life on day one.

When they lock the players out in 2020, McDavid is going to be out 13.25 million bucks, you say to Matthews, we'll front load this so that for you it would be more like 3.25 million bucks, that's 10 million in your pocket that McDavid will be short.

[heydaralon]

Bombay needed a wake up call after his team got defeated by Iceland. His knee injury ended his career, but he managed to channel is energy into making his team the best they could be. He lived vicariously through all of them, particularly Charlie. Bombay's selfishness nearly broke apart his team, until he realized that without his guidance the team would be rudderless. The flying V became a trademark move for them and they wiped the ice with many a foe. Russ's knucklepuck also contributed.

[Smitty-48]

Now, see, in hockey, nobody would call anybody Bombay, they'd be the Bomber, Bombsie, Bomb-Bombs, Bayer, Bays, or maybe just Bo.

[heydaralon]

Now, see, in hockey, nobody would call anybody Bombay, they'd be the Bomber, Bombsie, Bomb-Bombs, Bayer, Bays, or maybe just Bo.

When you take the Ducks to the finals in 3 different films, you earn the right to be called by your real last name.

[Smitty-48]

Now, see, in hockey, nobody would call anybody Bombay, they'd be the Bomber, Bombsie, Bomb-Bombs, Bayer, Bays, or maybe just Bo.

When you take the Ducks to the finals in 3 different films, you earn the right to be called by your real last name.

Nobody wants that right, if they call you by your real last name, that means they don't like you.

Matthews, Marner, Nylander; becoming Mattie, Marns, and Nyls; rite de passage.

[heydaralon]

Now, see, in hockey, nobody would call anybody Bombay, they'd be the Bomber, Bombsie, Bomb-Bombs, Bayer, Bays, or maybe just Bo.

When you take the Ducks to the finals in 3 different films, you earn the right to be called by your real last name.

Nobody wants that right, if they call you by your real last name, that means they don't like you.

Bombay could be a hardass sure, but he also had the team's best interest at heart.

[Smitty-48]

When you ascend to true superstardom, they don't even have to use your name anymore, Mr. Hockey, The Rocket, The Great One, The Magnificent, The Moose, and if you're Mr. Orr they just call you Number 4, nuff said,

[heydaralon]

I never got into hockey. There's not much of a hockey scene in the Sunshine State. I can understand the appeal though. Its kind of crazy when you think about dudes sliding around on ice with razors attached to their feet. I saw a video years ago where a guy got his throat cut by a skate, and he was bleeding out on the ice. It was one of the most brutal sports injuries I've ever seen, right up there with Tyrone Prothro's leg injury from college football. I did go to a Solar Bears game one time and I found a puck under my seat which was pretty cool. Idk if that team exists anymore.