UKNuck96

I get what the OP is trying to day (i believe) Its that while its absolutely great we have demko locked up for 5mill the point is that goalies as a whole are not an area you make massive savings on regardless of quality, due to the generally lower spread of cap hit from them, and the fact you have less of them on the team, so you can go cheap with a goalie it doesn't really save you much, So the point is its great that demko is locked up for a great hit, but its not as big a saving against the cap as people celebrate it is, and that its better to manage the spread of cap hits of your forwards as not only do you have a greater number of them, even at the top end you have a far greater spread of cap hits that its more critical to manage these, and this is where the focus of cap saving should come in. Its not like some people are saying on there that OP is saying we should go get cheaper goalies, if anything he saying the opposite that its not that big of a deal to save a few mill on a goalie, providing you are more efficient with the forwards

Pretty much echo this - hope they make the call before season starts or just after once all the LTIR kicks in after day 1, and we see how the rosters shake down. either we keep him with having conversations that either he gets traded or signed but not walks, or we have already shifted him and have pivoted towards a post miller team. what I don’t want is uncertainty which means we may lose him but also haven’t made the moves to move on from him

I’ve found it to be a bit different, there are always a lot of new people and casual fans as it’s very much family friendly and actually has more female spectators then male. but most are extremely knowledgeable and are hardcore fans. But the crowds in UK ice hockey are often very friendly and welcoming and always willing to help out and teach people the game who are new. The quality I will admit isn’t the greatest but the clubs are starting to hold their own in European competitions (CHL) against other clubs outside of the Swiss and Swedish teams. But because most of the clubs are of a similarish level the entertainment and tension is there making it entertaining. also crowds and noice they make is fantastic. If you ever get a chance to go to a Sheffield Nottingham Derby they can lift the roof off, and that’s only with crowds of about 8-10k. because it’s not as corporate as sports in NA there isn’t as much suits going, added to being a minor sport you get passionate fans more so that casual followers with money which makes the atmosphere at some games absolutely amazing

That is hardly cut and dry at all. I would like to think that isn’t the main focus of the evidence they have otherwise it’s just purely a he said she said, which are hard to convict on. Cases like this are hard to convict so for them to bring it forward they must have more than that.

the level does vary drastically, there have been some ex nhl players play in the league (usually they didn't really crack the nhl) the top players are AHL level, but the majority are probably ECHL/VHL level of player. But because of the way it works, you get some good players, some okay ones and then some local talent. Ideally the British contingent you have is good, as this can make the difference between rolling two lines and short shifting vs rolling 3/4 lines . Internationally we had a good run a few years back and managed to get ourselves into the elite division, however we finished bottom of the group in this years championship resulting in us being relegated back down to division a

I used to when I was in Uni many years ago, unfortunately where i moved there wasn't access to a rink and when i could get one the ice time is ridiculous so i haven't played in about 16 years. At uni we were the last team on, and one of the players knew the guy who locked up (family friend) so we were able to lock up when we were done. We trained at 10pm to about 2am, didnt usually get home till 6am afterwards. Now im near enough to a rink and to a team that isnt in the EIHL however any time on the ice is usually recreational with the family, although my son looks to want to start playing which would be cool

So since its off season and a little bit quiet on the boards (apart from incessant refreshing to see what @Vintage Canuck has posted in the trades forum) I though I would introduce you all to some of the Hockey we have over here in the UK. Currently is the 4th Highest Average attendance of all European leagues despite it being little known outside of a few hockey towns (Nottingham, Cardiff, Sheffield and Newcastle (albeit Newcastle no longer has a team). I will say the figures were helped by some larger drop off in crowds post covid for the last season, but average attendance in the UK hasnt be that bad for the size of the league. there are 5 teams in the top 100 teams in Europe the League itself has 10 team Belfast Giants (Northern Ireland) Cardif Devils (Wales) Coventry Blaze (England) Dundee Stars (Scotland) Fife Flyers (Scotland) Glasgow Clan (Scotland) Guildford Flames (England) Manchester Storm (England) Nottingham Panthers (England) Sheffield Steelers (England) since the current league was created following the collapse of the Ice Hockey Super league in 2003 it has been through a number of teams but has usually operated with 10 teams, 12 I believe was the largest it grew to. The Scottish teams are relative new to the league which Prior to that there was just a single team in Edinburgh. There also has been some noise in Newcastle with the football club being taken over by the Saudi PIF and Reuban Brothers that they may try and recreate the failed attempt of a sporting club Newcastle concept with the Football, Rugby, Basketball (the UKs most successful team) and also bring back the Ice Hockey team out of the arena. However how much of that is speculation vs reality I do not know. Salary wise players earn between £12,000 to about £50,000 for the top end players at the tops teams with the average around the £28k. That's not per week that's Per annum so without further ado here are some highlight clips - feel free to ask any questions as I know there are a few UK based canucks fans who follow the league over here <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FEliteIceHockeyLeague%2Fvideos%2F1942774129068696%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe> and of course a highs highlight from the last season Goal horns Biggest rivalry in the league would be the Nottingham (founded 1946) and Sheffield (founded 1991) this is partly down not to the sport but the rivalry between two cities separated by 32 miles of the M1 motorway, it also goes back to the miners strikes in the 80s in which the Nottingham miners didnt strike

Does your parliament have Parliamentary Privilege like we have in the UK where they are immune from prosecution for what they say in the house. in the UK they have used this to get around court orders and gagging orders to name people in instances such as this.

For me the issue comes because of to many teams, and having a closed system (cap draft etc) which actually rewards failure. team will go boom and bust, and this is rewarded rather then looking for sustainability. If the draft was scrapped it would massively help - but its not going to happen. For me there has to be a realisation that there is a single prize in the NHL and with 32 teams that its just going to be years and decades for some teams to get to the top. I think a couple of things need to happen, A) grow the league and then split it into separate leagues similar to the current conferences except they don't play against each other and only in their conference. Push a bigger focus on winning the conference league as a feat unto itself and class these as championships. then also have a play in style system for those just missing out - and have the team at this point play across the conference for it. in round 1 proper play cross conference and mix it up. b) keep things as they are but have a more things to win. Obviously the Stanley cup is the pinnacle but in European Soccer a team in England can play in the premier league, league cup, FA cup and one of Europa Conference, Europa League, Champions league (and with the European competition, can start in one and end up in another). But I think the NHL can handle having some knock out cup competitions that are done either as a single game, or a home and away leg, with each round being a completely new draw. Set time aside in the calendar for it and have it finish before trade deadline. That way teams can get a good cup run, win a different trophy etc, as a team to win the stanley cup has to endure and survive attrition, a knockoup style cup any team could beat any team on the night, meaning attritional hockey isn't as relevant to winning the cup. c) have the 4 divisional winners automatically get into the playoffs and give them a bye, then make the qualification spots wider, Make winning a division mean something

As much as i hate the suggestion i think this is where maybe a more basketball style of accruing personal fouls before minutes are given in the box might help. keep some of the minor issues as personal fouls like over the glass, interference etc and some of the more serious ones goes straight to the box. while its a personal foul it results in an offensive face off and that player cannot be on the ice to start the shift. after they accrue enough personal fouls each one results in going to the box. also reclassify some of the penalties so that they dont give away 2 mins and have more result in offensive zone face offs

Could have done with that in regulation, but looking at the table in order to get into the wild card spot, we would need same points as LA (as it stands) so it’s LA realistically we need to catch not just beat out Vegas

hopefully we can pick up 3 points against the blues. Although I think our best route into the playoffs will be to try and overhaul the Oilers into 3rd, as I cannot see us making up the gap for the wildcard spots, especially with the teams around us having games in hand.

What’s hilarious as well is they ended up in the playoffs as they drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland. Kept Italy scoreless for 93 mins which is what the Swiss needed to top the group After that game the Swiss coach sent the Irish FA 9.3kg of Swiss chocolate as a thank you. also the changes to European qualifying helped cause the situation with only the group winners auto going through and having others get playoff spots through the nations cup. also changing the play off from a two leg tie, but into 3 separate 4 team group qualification tracks is what made this possible and the structure of the draw of those groups which made certain combinations more likely due to prohibited matching (ie Russia Ukraine - although there are other draws which are restricted such as Spain Gibraltar )

if that was the case Benning would likely also still have a job. I would have been interesting what BB would have been able to do with the bubble team.

I don’t disagree. The concept of nationality didn’t really exist at that point so there wasn’t a clear definition of x was this and y was that. Plus a whole shared and intermingled culture. for me though the carolean period of Sweden is a far greater example of their power, strength, absolute balls of the Swedish people, and one we can categorically say was Swedish

Swedes we’re not really Viking, Norse and Danes were. Some land that is in modern day Sweden fell into that area. More apt analogy would be a reference to the carolean era of King Charles XI and XII when they were the great power in Europe and their absolute craziness of their musket charges

I like a lot of Hansens takes and I think he would do well if he went down the GM route.

With you on this. I know some people didn’t want Dermott but if you break it down to Hamonic for Dermott it’s not a bad trade at all, we get younger and cheaper, and hopefully he can kick on here as well. it’s not a stellar trade by any means but it’s an improvement

That’s not a bad deal

That’s a poor argument at best, if it was just oel then we have space. NYR have less space and opportunity than us so it’s not that

Except nothing blockbuster /a chip has moved. Lots of volume and a fair bit of low 1st may as well be second picks. Market doesn’t indicate we will get what we want so far

Scanlin isn’t a miss due to OEL, most players from that route prefer to stay in the USA it’s pretty well documented. OEL has no bearing on Scanlin.

How do you know we are close, and how do you know aqua man is sticking his oar in?

Doubt he will clear to make the trade (even if Halak waived his clause)

I rated Myers when he was a flyer and was gutted when he was traded to the predators. I would stick a claim in, he is a project but at the same time he was playing 18 mins a night just the other season and playing well. Deffo worth a claim