Curt

I would be more worried about Washington’s gt if they planned on starting Holtby, though they do need to solve their backup question. I think they have plenty of F depth with Ove, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Oshie, Vrana, Wilson, Eller, and Haeglin. Pens I think improved this offseason, but need their top guys to stay healthy. Philly has a deep roster, but i don’t think they have the top end players that some other teams in the division do. Bs have a lot of holes, need to get healthy and need to see what their D works without Krug. Rangers could surprise. That have the top end guys, and a lot of talented young guys who may or may not be ready for the next step. I’m not positive that Islanders get in. They could but it’s no given. This division is kind of interesting in that there are a lot of young goalies with good teams who are depending on them. Washington, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Islanders, and Flyers all have goalies 25 or under with no more than one season as a starter. Tough to predict what some teams are going to get in net.

If they liked Sheahan that much over Lazar, they probably would have signed him in the offseason. He doesn’t even have a contract yet and they just signed Lazar to a multi team deal. Not saying that Sheahan won’t make the team or play, but I wouldn’t be penciling him in over Thompson, Lazar or Reider just yet.

Meh, maybe he just doesn’t see a move coming soon, and wants to keep it positive. A couple months ago, the most positive thing he could muster was “they are our goalies right now”.

I don’t fully agree with your assessment of the division. Why do you project Flyers out to tops in the division? I do see them among the better teams, but I don’t see where they are clearly ahead of Washington in particular. I think the division is Washington up top, NJ at the bottom, and a jumble in the middle.

Did Carter ever have that speed???

If they could move Okposo cheaply, I think they would. If Okposo becomes so bad that he can’t even play even on the 4th line, they definitely would be trying to move on from him any way that’s feasible. Im sure that the players on the team would have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand they love Okposo and hate to see him go. On the other hand, if someone is not playing up to par, they know it, and they are all adults who understand that this is a business as well as a game. Players get moved all the time. There are respectful, classy ways to do it. But anyway, this discussion wasn’t about “dumping” Okposo. It was about waiving him to the taxi squad in order to save cap space, knowing that no one would claim him, and whether or not there is a way that Okposo and the team would be ok with questionable optics of it. It could potentially be spun as a positive thing, for the team, but would the players go for it?

Interesting, but I can’t imagine that 2-way players are guaranteed their NHL rate by opting out, even for medical reasons. Otherwise I think dozens of AHL vets would be scrambling to find medical reasons to opt out. Seems like the lawyers would have noticed that in the fine print.

I understand what you are saying, that it could be viewed as disrespectful. However, I feel like there is an approach to it that could be acceptable to all. It could approached/viewed as Okposo being a leader, helping out the team, and maybe increasing their ability to make improvements for a playoff run. I don’t know if he would be inclined to view it that way though, and I’m sure they would get his sign off beforehand. These are paper transactions only. It would have no effect on Okposo’s ability to be a part of the NHL team at all times.

Nope. Okposo would be paid the same whether on the NHL roster, taxi squad, or AHL. This is true of any player with a one way deal.

I thought the same thing. He has Larson stats, usage and play style. He possession numbers aren’t as good though.

Yeah, definitely is a collective bargaining issue. Was just theorizing about changes. You are probably in the right, from a moral standpoint.

Potential 4th line C and PKer. Big body, pretty good at FOs.

Retire? If you can’t play hockey anymore, shouldn’t you retire? If you physically can’t play, how can you fulfill the terms of your contract? I’ll add this because someone will probably ask. Insurance, NHL players have insurance in case of injury to protect against future earnings losses. If you need to retire due to a chronic injury, use the insurance. Also, being an NHL player is not guaranteed. If you get injured, can’t play, and can’t fulfill your contract then I don’t see why you should be guaranteed to get paid anyway.

Well, Ottawa didn’t even give out the Gaborik contract, but that’s neither here nor there. I feel like the heart of the issue isn’t this trade, but rather the silliness of how LTIR itself can be used.

My real question on this topic is, why does LTIR exist in its current form? I get it for a player who is out for a season due to injury, but why these guys who are never coming back to play? I think should be a limit to how long a player can be on LTIR. Even if it’s very lenient, like 1.5 NHL seasons, 120 NHL games, or 18 calendar months. It would do a lot to combat the silliness.

Yeah, possible solution. Can’t think of a reason that it couldn’t work. Except that the owners would never vote in favor of it.

TB did give up two useful players and a 2nd round pick (in addition to taking on a bunch of real world $$$) just to clear $3M in cap space.

In a vacuum, I don’t love it either. It’s lame. But with a cap league, these things take place. It happens in all cap leagues, NFL and NBA included. It’s well within the current rules.

Agreed. They are well run, but losing your best player for the season is one heck of a brilliant way to keep your team in tact.

Player salary is a factor in every trade. As soon as there is a salary cap, a bunch of rules come to manage that cap. As soon as you create a cap, then cap space becomes an asset. It’s part of the deal. And TB did benefit on the ice from this trade. It allows them to ice all their other (better) players.

I think Sid is still better than Eichel. He should be healthy. He will be 33 for the entirety of this coming season.

And all that had to happen to get cap compliant was for their best player to sit out the season! Genius! What cap wizards! Although my understanding is that he will be back for the playoffs, which is kind of a sketchy rule.

Capitals, Penguins, Flyers are probably the top 3. Boston could end up in that group, but are badly injured to start the season and are getting old. As a result they are probably in the group below. Then we have a group of Rangers, Islanders and Sabres (along with Boston) who will probably duke it out for the 4th playoff spot. Then there is NJ at the bottom. Thats how I see it shaking out. So Buffalo could very well make the playoffs, but they are in the toughest division so it’s going to be difficult.

I guess he didn’t want to travel around with the NHL team during a pandemic while receiving AHL pay and not actually playing in any hockey games.

We all watched the team last season. Were the PK goals primarily because the goalies let in a bunch of bad goals, or because the PK was bad and gave up a lot of excellent shots against? I would argue that it’s primarily the later, at least in Ullmark’s case.