NHL 2017-2018, now with 3% more kniggets

[Firesprocket]

Wow. Barry Trotz just stepped down as coach of the Capitals.

I suspect we'll be hearing from the Islanders VERY shortly.

Honestly I don't think Lou will pay out the money to hire Trotz.  He is certainly the hot coach of the moment, but I suspect he's going to command north of 2 million and probably north of that.  Trotz makes 1.5 million a year and the escalator if he won the cup was another 2 years at an additional 300k.

Julien makes 5 million a year
Quenneville 6 million a year
Babcock 6.25 million a year

None of those guys has won a cup in the past 3 years!

Todd McLellan is $3 mil a year
Dave Hakstol is $2 mil a year
Bruce Boudreau is 2.6 mil a year

None of these guys has sniffed a cup as a head coach.  If I was Trotz I'd be aiming for at least as much money as these last 3 guys and probably more.  Will he get that much eventually?  Most likely he will, but I don't think it will be with the Islanders.  The safe bet is he takes a year off, takes a TV job somewhere.  According to Capfriendly.com here is a list of teams whose head coaching contracts come due at the end of next season:

Columbus, San Jose, Anaheim, Colorado, and Nashville  ;D

St. Louis and Minnesota could and probably will fire Yeo and Boudreau if they either don't make the playoffs or make a deeper run.

Also Todd Reardon is 90% likely to be the next head coach. If he isn't I'd be shocked.

[wantec]

Reports are it was a combo of the money & term (5 years) that was the downfall. I think its a fair ask on Trotz's end (stability, pay similar to other cup winners), but I can see not wanting to be locked in for that long or pay top tier for a coach (which then might have the assistant coaches and on down the line come asking for big raises).

Getting a raise and extension is fair for winning the cup (although the roughly 20% raise seems small by itself), but it just sucks to see them not be able to work this out.

[Sharpnel]

Mike Hoffman just got traded twice today before lunch. Man did his grlfriend screw up his career. He's in Florida, now, by way of San Jose. god only knows where this man will be come sunset.

[JadeHellbringer]

Mike Hoffman just got traded twice today before lunch. Man did his grlfriend screw up his career. He's in Florida, now, by way of San Jose. god only knows where this man will be come sunset.

I was trying to think of the last time a player got traded twice in a day, and the best I could think of was Martin Jones leaving L.A. for Boston, then immediately to become the Kings' worst nightmare in San Jose within about two hours. Same idea for Ottawa here- you got rid of a talented but problematic player to somewhere you'll hardly ever have to face him, all so he could end up right back in your division later in the morning.

San Jose got rid of a bad contract, Florida got a very good forward, and I can't see any way Ottawa didn't punch themselves in the groin here. They were in a bad place- they had to move Hoffman, and everyone knew it, but that was still a pretty lousy return for a core part of their offense.

My dad called me a couple of nights ago asking what the hell was going on about it, because he'd seen a headline about the whole mess but didn't see the details. After giving him the cliff-notes version, his reply was "...wow. That woman must be a hell of a good cook for him not to have tossed her out in the lawn."

[ColBosch]

I went to look him up, and the second auto-fill result on Google was "Mike Hoffman wife," followed two places later by "Mike Hoffman girlfriend." Yeah, it's pretty gross stuff.

[JadeHellbringer]

Of course, her antics did prompt her to not only get her away from Karlsson's wife, but got her moved to a nice warm climate for her troubles too... so I'm not sure she really had a life lesson learned from all this.

"If I say unspeakable things about someone else and harass them mercilessly, I'll get to spend my winters in Miami!"

[gyedid]

I went to look him up, and the second auto-fill result on Google was "Mike Hoffman wife," followed two places later by "Mike Hoffman girlfriend." Yeah, it's pretty gross stuff.

This has been going on for some time apparently:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/rumours-karlssons-harassment-circulating-time/

Considering the Karlssons' tragedy earlier this past year, some of those comments--if true--are particularly odious, almost inhuman.


cheers,

Gabe

[Sharpnel]

This has been going on for some time apparently:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/rumours-karlssons-harassment-circulating-time/

Considering the Karlssons' tragedy earlier this past year, some of those comments--if true--are particularly odious, almost inhuman.


cheers,

Gabe

It's stories like this that make me hate all social media. The Internet has become a bully pulpit where folks spew their venom, relatively anonymously with little fear of repercussion.

[ColBosch]

It's stories like this that make me hate all social media. The Internet has become a bully pulpit where folks spew their venom, relatively anonymously with little fear of repercussion.

This has been going on for literally all of recorded history. Horrible behavior on social media - which, by the way, includes web forums - is barely any different from the whisper campaigns, attack broadsheets, and even graffiti of the past. Despite the fearmongering of the technophobes, social media has had many more positive results than negative. For example, a web forum for an old board game has allowed fans of that game from around the world to discuss it for the past twenty years and introduced new talent to the publisher. On a personal note, services like Facebook mean that I can keep in touch with my friends and family over the country and world in real time, allowing us to share our lives in a far more intimate and responsive manner than ever before.

Are there bad people on social media? Yes, but they're bad people in real life as well, and the kind of person who would act in such reprehensible ways doesn't care about repercussions at all. For that matter, note that this person's behavior has come to public light and begun to affect her life, so there are repercussions.

[Firesprocket]

A definite lack of early wheeling and dealing at the draft this evening.  The first few picks seem to have been about what was expected.  Caps made a trade earlier to send Orpik and Grubauer for a 2nd round pick in this year's draft.  I'd call that pretty damn good for Washington and between okay and decent for Colorado.  That gives the Avs Varlomov and Grubauer in net next season, unless they can figure out some way to trade Varlamov elsewhere.

Buffalo has made the choice to non tenure Lehner, which I think is a horrible idea.  I suspect he will have no problem finding a job making at or more than what his previous contract was worth.

[Sharpnel]

I like the Avs getting Grubauer, but I'm not happy with Orpik and his contract. A nice salary dump by the Caps if they are intent on bringing Carlson back.

[Charlie 6]

According to WaPo, GMBM is willing to bring Orpik back if the Avs buyout his contract...not sure if that's a good idea, oh well.

[Firesprocket]

I like the Avs getting Grubauer, but I'm not happy with Orpik and his contract. A nice salary dump by the Caps if they are intent on bringing Carlson back.

Capfriendly.com is reporting Grubauer has a new 3 year deal at 3.3 mil+ a year.  Taking Orpik's contract on was the price of doing business.  Capfriendly is also reporting that Orpik has been placed on unconditional waivers and Sakic stating to him they would explore trade options or a buyout and it looks like the later is more likely.

This allows the Caps a good chunk of money to pay and make a competitive offer to Carlson.   I don't believe he will give the Caps a home town discount though.  GMBM seems to think he will get the deal done.  In a few hours though he can start talking to other teams.

According to WaPo, GMBM is willing to bring Orpik back if the Avs buyout his contract...not sure if that's a good idea, oh well.

I'm hoping he said that out of respect and doesn't actually follow through with it.  A guy like Ian Cole or Brandon Manning could likely be brought in for less than Orpik.

The rest of the NHL news for the day has Kovalchuk signing with the Kings for 6.25 mil for 3 years.  I don't think that gets them over the hump, but it makes the Pacific more interesting.

Last, but not least, Dougie Hamilton has been traded to the Hurricanes in a 5 player deal:

https://www.nhl.com/news/flames-trade-dougie-hamilton-micheal-ferland-to-hurricanes-for-noah-hanifin-elias-lindholm/c-299231490?tid=278542340

It looks like a decent trade both ways to me.  Multiple players who have either floundered or not lived up to their expectations and headed elsewhere for a change in scenery.

[Sharpnel]

Well, John Carlson just cashed in with his signing of an 8 year, $64 million deal.

[JadeHellbringer]

The Avs net will be interesting this season- not because it'll be a competition between Varlamov and Grubauer, but because it'll be interesting to see how long until Grubauer is starting. Varlamov's deal is up at the end of this coming season, and... let's be real, he's been decent, but not great. He's been very injury-prone, and takes a long time to recover from those injuries. When he's healthy he's good, but not top-level kind of play generally. He won't be returning to that net after 2019- the Grubauer deal was a big flashing sign in that regard, and the deal signed shortly after merely put the exclamation point on it.

So that's Grubauer's net when the 2020 season starts, and the question now is how long until Avs management sort of elbows Bednar along into making it happen a lot sooner. My guess is that the first modest losing streak (3 games-ish?) or Varlamov injury, Grubauer won't hand the keys back unless he REALLY forgets how to hockey. Nothing I've seen of him in Washington suggests he will.

I don't know if he's really a better goalie overall than Varlamov- we've seen him as a starter only briefly at the end of this past season, and being 'the guy' for a whole year is very different from backup duty, particularly on a team with a defense as questionable as the Avs. But, no question that the Avs are all in on him- here's hoping the gamble works out.

[Sharpnel]

Swiss cheese has less holes in it than the Avs defense.  ;D

[Firesprocket]

Varlamov's deal is up at the end of this coming season, and... let's be real, he's been decent, but not great. He's been very injury-prone, and takes a long time to recover from those injuries. When he's healthy he's good, but not top-level kind of play generally. He won't be returning to that net after 2019- the Grubauer deal was a big flashing sign in that regard, and the deal signed shortly after merely put the exclamation point on it.

That was really the main issue with him while he was here.  He would get injured and be out for a protracted period of time.  Michal Neuvirth ended up replacing him because he could stay healthy and play at nearly the same level.  Neuvirth, or course, then started getting issued later and Holtby caught fire and the rest was academic.  One of the draft picks in that trade then became Filip Forsberg which will, which effectively became Martin Erat (pardon me while I lament, again).

I think he's still a hair better than his career stats assuming you give him NHL mid-grade defense in front of him.  Something he has never had.  Grubauer is probably an upgrade and perhaps snags them 3 or 4 more standings points.  That's enough to get them out of a wild card, but still facing another really good team within the Central and not much better than they are now).

Varlamov should be an attractive option for another team out there if Sakic decides to trade him.  If it doesn't work out, then he is a UFA at the end of the year.  I suspect Robin Lehner signs first and then Varlamov gets traded after the fact.  Lehner is a UFA after the Sabres didn't tenure him and offer.  I get it that Lehner has been the starter for some of the worst years in Sabres history, but he isn't as bad as his goals against, nor the reason why they stunk so bad this year.  If I were the Flames or the Islanders I'd tenure him a contract.  They both have the money and need a strong need for starting goal tender.

[JadeHellbringer]

I'd back you on Lehner. In both his and Varlamov's cases, decent B-level goalie with an absolutely horrendous defense in front of them- I'd put Patrick Roy in his prime in net for the 2017 Avs and feel pretty bad about his chances, really.

Other side of it, of course, is wondering how much a good defense makes a goaltender look better. I typed that intending to give an example, and now no one comes to mind. Crawford maybe? I guess?

[Firesprocket]

Other side of it, of course, is wondering how much a good defense makes a goaltender look better. I typed that intending to give an example, and now no one comes to mind. Crawford maybe? I guess?

I think Crawford has shut the door on that idea.  At least I think he has.  The defense he had in front of him for those cup runs has been eroded by the salary caps.  Despite the fact he's had worse talent in front of him his GAA and Sv% have been consistent.  I think the only knock on him is his potential durability.  He's never played 60 games in a season.  I don't think that is really an issue though.  If you have a good backup, let him play more and keep Crawford fresher for the post season.  Up until this season the 'Hawks had Ray Emery, Antti Raanta, and Scott Darling all played between 20-30 so games a season as a back up.  Anton Forsberg sort of broke that model of consistency.

I think the example I can best bring up would be Craig Anderson.  The couple years where the Sens seem to have at least an decent d-corp around him and he manages a 92 sv%.  In other years when the rest of the team plays poorly his GAA and Sv PCT become bloated.

[wantec]

Other side of it, of course, is wondering how much a good defense makes a goaltender look better. I typed that intending to give an example, and now no one comes to mind. Crawford maybe? I guess?

EDIT: Take Holtby as an example of bad defense throwing off a goalie's stats
End of EDIT

Holtby this year's regular season vs the two previous years & this year's playoffs. Two time Vezina finalist, one time winner, Conn Smythe #3.

His GAA went from a 2.20 (15-16), 2.07 (16-17), 2.16 (17-18 playoffs) to a 2.99 (17-18 reg season).

His save % went from .922, .925, .922 to a .907.

And just to in case you thought those were just on him, he faced a higher shot per min rate (.537) this past regular season than the other seasons/playoffs (.469, .459, .461).

After the Caps traded for Kempny and tweaked the defensive scheme a bit, shots against dropped and Holtby's performance increased. Even if Holtby kept his .907 save percentage, that would have resulted in 9.5 more goals against this playoffs, which would have made it a much shorter postseason for the Caps

[Firesprocket]

After the Caps traded for Kempny and tweaked the defensive scheme a bit, shots against dropped and Holtby's performance increased. Even if Holtby kept his .907 save percentage, that would have resulted in 9.5 more goals against this playoffs, which would have made it a much shorter postseason for the Caps

As a pro, this was Holtby's worst season.  Prior to this past 3 seasons the defense that was in front of him was average to mediocre.  I'd say his body of work speaks for itself in that he's not a man made by the team or system in front of him.  Anyone is falliable though if you have substandard talent in front of you playing defense or you start trying to tinker with something that isn't broken such as was the case when Kolzig was the goalie coach during Adam Oates tenure as head coach.

Pens traded Sheary and Hunwick today for a pick(s) in a cash/cap saving move.  With rumors floating about that they are trying to shop Ryan O'Reily, I was trying to figure out who was going to pass him the puck.  Then I remembered, that Jack Eichel is in Buffalo!  Granted he isn't shabby at all and an injury derailed what would have been another year of increased production.  I still can't figure out why you'd lock him up for 10 mil a year though.

[JadeHellbringer]

Wait, where did I pick on Holtby in my post?

[wantec]

Didn't say you did. I was giving him as an example of bad defense throwing off a goalie's performance numbers.

I'll go back and trim your quote to just that part