General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:It should definitely make for good theatre.  It'll be very interesting to watch games with no fans.  Dial up on the on-ice mics, and let us hear everything being said.  Get creative with cameras.  The NHL has an opportunity here to do something cool.

Anyone know when the tv contracts are up? Could generate a ton of money from media rights, on ice ad revenue, and tv commercials. Obviously not enough to cover the costs of having fans in attendance, but a team like the Sens that averaged just north of 12,000 fans a game could help bridge the gap. They could technically commercialize the crap out of the product. The NHL could also sell premium content like off-ice content, behind the scenes content, and even make deals with local vendors to sell concessions somehow and/or team up for promotions (ie: 67s pizza at Pizza Pizza).

67s pizza is at Gabriel's

Both are trash though.

Whatever. Garbage pizza nonetheless

Imagine the sens partnered up with businesses in the community to cross promote their products. Wouldn't that's be intelligent ....

Now would be a great time for them to finally try putting ads on players like they do in Europe. Players would not want to block the move since they are facing huge escrow.  Fans wouldn't care (much) since they want to see hockey. Not much competition for eyeballs.

wprager wrote:Now would be a great time for then to finally try putting ads on players like they do in Europe. Players would not want to block the move since they are facing huge escrow.  Fans wouldn't care (much) since they want to see hockey. Not much competition for eyeballs.

it will happen in time. it's just a question of when.

So the NHLPA decided to talk more about the proposal ? Everything is so anticlimactic in the NHL.

Yeah, no, let's not go putting ads on players please and thank you. Mic up the coaches. Get mics on the bench. Let's hear what's going on during the play and between whistles. Could be really cool.

tim1_2 wrote:Yeah, no, let's not go putting ads on players please and thank you.  Mic up the coaches.  Get mics on the bench.  Let's hear what's going on during the play and between whistles.  Could be really cool.

Would you pay for that? I wouldn't. But McDonalds *will* pay for, say, a shoulder patch.

Vancouver parted ways with the head of amateur scouting today. probably not a bad idea looking back at the history of drafting past the 1st round.

Sean Day was placed on unconditional waivers by the Rangers and will be bought out. Former highly touted player (exceptional status in OHL draft) he split his pro time between the AHL and ECHL. NHL size. Could be an interesting reclamation project.

I think the Wings are going to be a really fun team to watch next season. Good pipeline of players and shedding some bad contracts. Plus of course a top 5 pick in the draft.

LA should be a lot of fun also.

I think we see the continued demise of the Sharks, Preds and a few other teams who have seen their windows quickly close.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I think the Wings are going to be a really fun team to watch next season. Good pipeline of players and shedding some bad contracts. Plus of course a top 5 pick in the draft.

LA should be a lot of fun also.

I think we see the continued demise of the Sharks, Preds and a few other teams who have seen their windows quickly close.

I was a year early in picking the Wings to be better. They were hit by some bad injuries this year, but I think I was still wrong.

LA has a better pipeline than us for now. Dependant on where they draft this year, we should be able to overtake them for best pipes in the NHL.

wprager wrote:Sean Day was placed on unconditional waivers by the Rangers and will be bought out. Former highly touted player (exceptional status in OHL draft) he split his pro time between the AHL and ECHL.  NHL size. Could be an interesting reclamation project.

as an AHL contract. even then, depending on who is coming over or back to Belleville next year.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I think the Wings are going to be a really fun team to watch next season. Good pipeline of players and shedding some bad contracts. Plus of course a top 5 pick in the draft.

LA should be a lot of fun also.

I think we see the continued demise of the Sharks, Preds and a few other teams who have seen their windows quickly close.

i still think the preds could bounce back. they need to re-tool some pieces but they have a lot of good players IMO. they could be easily clear the Yotes in the round-robin.

Sharks are toast. Bare pipeline, and unlikely to want to go through a rebuild. it will be a few delicious years of watching them be mediocre. sad for Karlsson a little. I mean, he did not have to resign with them. and the writing was on the wall for them for a couple of years. Enjoy California!

LA will bounce back. but I wonder if they will get it all together in time for a few cup runs with still Kopitar and Doughty still playing primary roles. I think we're better positioned than they are.

I really dislike Detroit as a team and I'm uncertain how good they'll be. I find they are a few years behind in terms of icing a good team. they will likely be bottom dwellers for another few years, Stevie Y is the right guy probably to keep that ship on course and a full rebuild going. he'll also be crowned king over there if they ever rebuild and win a championship under his guidance.

Detroit certainly has some interesting pieces though. Zadina, Seider, Veleno, Rasmussen to name a few. Most importantly for them they have cap space again which hasn't been a liberty for them in quite some time. I count about $20M of space opening up for them on players aged 36 or older (plus Gagner).

And some interesting pieces like Mantha, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, and a few others. I'd maybe even dare take them ahead of the Sabres if they can sort out their goaltending woes. Maybe they take a one-year flyer on Anderson or something to keep them competitive. Who knows.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:Detroit certainly has some interesting pieces though. Zadina, Seider, Veleno, Rasmussen to name a few. Most importantly for them they have cap space again which hasn't been a liberty for them in quite some time. I count about $20M of space opening up for them on players aged 36 or older (plus Gagner).

And some interesting pieces like Mantha, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, and a few others. I'd maybe even dare take them ahead of the Sabres if they can sort out their goaltending woes. Maybe they take a one-year flyer on Anderson or something to keep them competitive. Who knows.

One of the problems with buffalo is also goaltending.

They have some interesting pieces. I’d place buffalo above them.

I say give buffalo another year of tending downwards and ottawa a year of trending upwards (hopefuly this happens next season) and we may be able to see Ottawa trade with Buffalo for Eichel. I think we have the pieces to do it (goalies, centers, and some D prospects at our disposal), just need to convince Eichel that it's the right spot for him and probably overpay so buffalo trades within the division. in that time though, super important to build up the trade value of the likes of Bransstrom, Hogberg, Gustavsson, Wolanin, Tierney, Logan Brown, Lajoie, amongst others

Eichel can be traded this year or the next, before his NTC kicks in. That would be a massive course correction and I can only see it happening if ownership brings in another GM.

I can definitely see this happening but, more likely, in the last year before his NTC. And I'd be shocked if they moved him within the Division. But I've been shocked before.

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:Detroit certainly has some interesting pieces though. Zadina, Seider, Veleno, Rasmussen to name a few. Most importantly for them they have cap space again which hasn't been a liberty for them in quite some time. I count about $20M of space opening up for them on players aged 36 or older (plus Gagner).

And some interesting pieces like Mantha, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, and a few others. I'd maybe even dare take them ahead of the Sabres if they can sort out their goaltending woes. Maybe they take a one-year flyer on Anderson or something to keep them competitive. Who knows.

One of the problems with buffalo is also goaltending.

They have some interesting pieces. I’d place buffalo above them.

On paper yes. But Detroit may surprise people a bit more next season.