Toews

The bridge is only worth doing if you are not confident in the player that you have being worth the money long term or if you are in the midst of contending for a Cup. I think there is a legitimate argument that Caufield presents a risk with his size and the recent injury history. Imo there was no risk with Pettersson or Hughes, if Benning hadn't screwed our cap, each of them should have received 8 years and we would have been better off doing those deals.

Now has 21 points in the playoffs. Will be a really interesting year for Lind next year.

Personally I don't care what players do in their personal lives unless they are out hurting or harming others. If Morant wants to play fake gangster, that is his choice. I feel little reason to feel any sort of moral outrage over it considering the rampant gun culture in the USA. Those same kids are already being influenced by rap music which is filled with lyrics about violence and degenerate behaviour. And as folks have already mentioned in this thread, politicians have championed the right for people to carry guns and the NRA has done everything they possibly can to put a stop to any gun control measures. I suppose I find it funny that people think that punishing one basketball player will have any effect whatsoever.

I would easily bet the under on that. Stern who was known to be notoriously heavy-handed gave Arenas that many games and that was for bringing a gun into the lockerroom. No way Morant gets anything close to that number, Jaren Jackson is a nice player but no one is tuning in to watch the Grizzlies play if Morant is out. I think they will give him 25 games max and that too reluctantly.

I think Alf is referring to the trade demand and the subsequent cap recapture. I had forgotten about that entirely, and can't really argue against it. Lu was looking out for himself when he retired and left us to hold the bag, it will be hard watching him lift a Cup.

I have been on the Florida bandwagon since early April or so but I can't necessarily blame folks for not cheering for them. They are pissy team when they are losing, even cheering for them I can't help hope for the likes of Tkachuk or Bennett to get rocked. Vegas is fairly bland in comparison.

That was far from "clear".

I agree with you, Babcock's style of coaching does produce immediate results, the issue is the impact on players long term. This isn't too different from hiring Tortorella, he too provided instant results for the Jackets but then they subsequently lost Bob, Panarin and Dubois in quick succession. I think he will get the young guys to buy-in but the interesting thing to see is whether he has learned anything from his exile and will choose a different route with some of the veterans on the team. If he doesn't and we hear some rumblings about player dissatisfaction then I wouldn't be surprised to see another significant exodus. Will be an interesting experiment to watch.

What??? No mention of Cindy Hicks. I was invested her story, you got to do better OP. Maybe you can do an interview with her next, ask her why she left those flowers behind. The people want to know!

Silovs is still young in goalie years, how about we wait for him to play some NHL games before we give up a bonafide starter.

We don't know this to be true at all. The Canucks have not had trouble retaining US players, Kesler took a discount and only left when it was clear that the window had closed. JT Miller signed a long term contract to be here. Calgary also lost Gaudreau, and who knows how much that played into Tkachuk's plans, talented players want to play with other talented players. It was clear that if he stayed in Calgary he would have to accept lesser linemates. FWIW Brady Tkachuk signed a long term contract with the Senators, Ottawa has some elite talent up front for him to play with.

I don't like Bettman but he wants the cap to go up. Its the players that are the ones in control of the escalator and they are also the ones who don't want to pay into escrow.

Did the owner do any scouting for him to be 'livid' about the selection? Benning was also around 5 years after that draft so clearly he wasn't nearly as 'livid' when he was making public proclamations for his support of Benning. Also it was the owner's choice to believe that they were one 'big move' away. Linden made it clear that they were not close and they chose to freeze him out and forced him to resign. This article just seems like doing damage control for an owner that has been accused of meddling in hockey operations. I am not the biggest fan of Benning but this seems to be a smear job and an attempt to throw him under the bus. Funnily enough the owner wasn't 'livid' with Ron Delorme, the guy that for years had full autonomy in running the scouting department and produced nothing, he is still around after multiple changes in management. Truly wonder what he has done to earn such loyalty from this ownership group.

Can't quite understand why people come into a thread just to complain about why it was created. If you don't like the topic, no one is forcing you to click on it and make a post. There are lots of topics on this forum that I don't bother visiting because I have nothing to contribute to the discussion. If a thread is not thread worthy then report it and let the mods make a decision on whether it needs to exist instead of derailing the thread. If I had to guess, the reason why people whine about any discussion on Jim Benning is because they do not want any reminders on how they were wrong to support him for all these years. Its not particularly surprising that the poster 'brown-bagging' the posts in this thread is someone who was obsessive compulsively defending Benning for 8 years by deflecting any criticism with 'but Gillis...'

Shanahan sounds like he can't get enough of himself, in what way is Dubas that way?

Dubas was competent (far from amazing) but after having Jim Benning for 8 years, even competent starts to look amazing.

Not much of a drinker but this was just delicious.

Matthews isn't going to Arizona and Anaheim, he will either re-sign with Toronto or be traded to LA or New York. Those are the only two markets where he has more money to earn more money off the ice in sponsorships. If I were to put together a proposal it would be Zibanejad, Schneider, 1st round pick for Matthews.

I think we will find a taker for Myers this offseason after the bonus has been paid out. NHL GMs have shown that they will go gaga over size and I wouldn't be surprised if someone bites on Myers.

A difference of 4.5% in cap at the cost of 36.7% in production last year. Bob has the right of it, every year right around this time this forum is filled with lopsided proposals trying to take advantage of teams who disappoint in the playoffs. Liljegren would have been 2nd among D on the Canucks in hits last season, right after Burroughs. He isn't that big but he is fairly strong and doesn't shy away from physicality. Nylander is also consistently one the Leafs best playoff performers every year just like he was this year. I agree that we don't really need any wingers so trading for Nylander doesn't make any sense but I would take Liljegren on our team quite easily. I doubt they would have any interest in trading him however, young RHD are rarely available unless for a premium.

Who knows if there is any interest from the younger brothers to supplant Francesco. The team hasn't been very good for quite some time. Since 2011 even though the value of the team has gone up, they have fallen in terms of franchise value relative to other NHL teams.

Agree completely. Trading both would have given us a surplus of assets and enough cap flexibility to make meaningful changes to the roster. Reminds me of the Flyers trading Carter and Richards, of course they ended up dumping their cap flexibility of Bryzgalov but the return they got for both was excellent value. And like you stated, moving two players doesn't amount to a rebuild.

The whole thing turns into a complete farce when you create a tiered justice system. You are essentially enabling certain players to take liberties.

Yes. Miller is way more productive than Dubois, but he is also quite a bit older and is also signed long term well into his 30s. Meanwhile Dubois is a RFA who seems intent on heading to Montreal, so that also has an effect on his value. The situation isn't analogous to your proposal at all, if Toronto wanted to blow it up, they can get a much nicer package of picks and prospects for Nylander. If saving cap was the goal they have other options than trading a 40 goal scorer. Also why would they trade 24 year old RHD who is coming into his own to keep a guy who nearly a full decade older. I love Schenn but he is not worth much more than the minimum at his age and skill set. I would welcome him back but if he wants more than 1.2M or so I am looking elsewhere.

The silver lining of not being in the playoffs is not having to deal with any more frustration from the officiating and supplemental discipline of this absolute joke of a league.