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

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:Big win for EDM imo. He's going to play with either McDavid or LD and get some powerplay time. I think EDM is much better this year

Better because it’s hard to be any worse but much better? I’m still not seeing them make the playoffs so far.

Defensively they're still a mess

They still look like a bottom 10 if not bottom 5 team defensively.
Chichi destroyed this team. He took an unruly young squad and traded them away for a bunch of half assed talent. Good luck Holland. I think this will be the first time we see a mega celebrity like Mcdavid ask for a trade.

I think he would have asked out had they not brought in Holland, now they have a real gm. Hard to say, that's a good point for sure. What would he bring back in trade?

Goodness....so much in theory. But...anything at or over 10 can be crippling no matter how good the player. Look at all the teams in cap trouble

PTFlea wrote:I think he would have asked out had they not brought in Holland, now they have a real gm.  Hard to say, that's a good point for sure.  What would he bring back in trade?

Goodness....so much in theory.  But...anything at or over 10 can be crippling no matter how good the player.  Look at all the teams in cap trouble

That’s a good point. What would come in exchange. It be so many assets or a few quality exceptional assets.
But if Gretzky can get traded...

They said Chichi was a competent GM too and he destroyed that team. Holland has been good but the last few years in Detroit weren’t all that good. He gave big contracts to players they didn’t reLly need to either keep or commit to. He should have seen the decline of the team sooner and acted on it by trading players sooner. Mind you IIRC ownership in Detroit believed they should have continued on winning.

PTFlea wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:James Neil traded for Lucic.
I would think Edmonton has a better chance to redeem this trade when it’s all said in done.
Swapping ugly for ugly I guess

Yeah, I hate this for Calgary.  They must have absolutely needed Neal to be gone, not just wanted him gone because he wasn't working out.  They must have sensed a major disruption in his unhappiness, because you don't take on Lucic at his age with that contract unless you're desperate.

Totally agree. I would be surprised if Neal doesn't have a huge year. Neal was set up to fail from day one. a big name free agent signing brought in for scoring gets thrown onto the 3rd line from the beginning because the coach had a hard-on for Lindholm. Could have and should have been handled way differently.

I would have loved Ottawa getting neal if we got a sweetener, I totally agree, he'll be good.

James Neal is an a-hole. I think he's kind of like Hoffman, except with less ability to produce offensively now. There's a reason he doesn't stick around anywhere.

tim1_2 wrote:James Neal is an a-hole.  I think he's kind of like Hoffman, except with less ability to produce offensively now.  There's a reason he doesn't stick around anywhere.

See now, he might be such an arse that Calgary simply wanted to get rid of him for whatever they could get, even if it meant a meatball with eyes like Lucic. I'm so curious to find out the real reason, although I'm sure we never will.

Nashville gives Colton Sissons a 7 year, 20 million dollar contract.

7 years for Sissons. Job security right there. Good for him.

tim1_2 wrote:James Neal is an a-hole.  I think he's kind of like Hoffman, except with less ability to produce offensively now.  There's a reason he doesn't stick around anywhere.

That would make some sense then as to why he didn't produce. He was pouting when he wasn't put where, in all fairness, where he should have been put from the start.

HF crashed, what's happening...

Nothing to see, Toronto trades sparks for Clarkson for ltir cap space

That trade is a little puzzling. I feel like a lot of these cap circumvention should be dealt with in the next CBA

Flo The Action wrote:That trade is a little puzzling. I feel like a lot of these cap circumvention should be dealt with in the next CBA

That and signing bonuses that allow owners with money to pay players in one lump sum.

Can someone explain how trading for Clarkson is helping the Leafs circumvent the cap? It's one thing like the situation with Lupul, where his AAV was already counter against their cap. Putting him on LTIR allowed then to spend over the cap.

Not Clarkson's cap hit is new, so they really only cleared Sparks' cap hit of $750K.

I'm missing something too. I think the only savings is from moving Sparks and even then they signed Neuvirth to a pto so did they really even save money aside from that $750K?

Yeah, apparently the Clarkson contract somehow helps them with signings now, including Marner.

https://tipofthetower.com/2019/07/22/toronto-maple-leafs-adding-michal-neuvirth-backup-goalie-competition/

I still don't get it. If someone finds a better explanation, let me know.

I haven’t read that link yet. It helps them now, but hurts them during the season. They better hope they stay healthy all year, and considering they were one of the healthiest teams last year, I don’t think they will have that luck this year. They are screwed in season. I can explain all this more later. Driving now.