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Provost

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Everything posted by Provost

  1. It definitely seems like a fired employee has all the passwords and still has control over their social media :D click on the link to their new plans…
  2. Rome wasn’t built in a day. The Bedard win speeds up the process significantly. The fact they have a metric shit ton of picks and cap space mean they have already done all the rebuild work. Infinite rebuilds just don’t work like you think they do, guys graduate to market value RFAs too quickly. I am confident they will start rebuilding their roster immediately. It can be through the UFA market (including unqualified RFAs), trades with surplus draft capital they have, or hockey trades where they swap roster players. They can still also fit in good players that other teams can’t afford who may not have a ton of term left, but are useful players. A guy like Garland for a late pick or Boeser they could get for pennies on the dollar and vastly improve their club without incurring any long term cap constraints. They can just simply let those guys walk at the end of their contracts as they will have prospects ready to fill in for cheaper. With how many teams have cap problems currently… you could create an entire very decent forward group for effectively nothing. Use your draft capital and cap space to sign a defence and goalie. It doesn’t make them a contender in a year… but it starts the process. Continuing to purposefully tank wastes Bedards ELC years because you don’t become a contender immediately out of a rebuild… it is several iterations of adding players and getting the right mix. Starting that process now leverages his ELC years. Continuing to try to stockpile picks when you already have a bunch doesn’t advance your cause much at all. The idea that all players on a roster need to be the same age is a fallacy. What a team needs is a critical mass of young talent, and then have players around them with a pipeline of more prospects in the pipeline to replace expiring veteran contracts with cheap ELC ones so they can afford when raises are due to their young stars. The Hawks already check all those boxes now. They already have a bunch of really good prospects, they will add Bedard plus another 18 prospects in the first three rounds over the next three years. That gives them about 7 years of almost guaranteee cheap ELC players inserting into the lineup each season. Guys will graduate at different rates to the NHL.
  3. Is the 4th sweater “Insert City Name Here” Coyotes?
  4. Hey… the roster they will have should be happy just to be in the NHL so maybe won’t make too much fuss! :D It isn’t unheard of for a team to play in a different stadium for a year… the Saints spent all 2005 playing “home” games elsewhere. I doubt it would happen since they have a place they agreed to play… but it would sure be a way to avoid a lame duck year in Arizona and daily bad press that would bring.
  5. Tough sell to the NHLPA. Having to pick where your family lives and effectively another 20 road games a year is complicated. As a temporary measure, and maybe dropping 20 games from Mullet and playing them at a neutral site… that isn’t a bad idea.
  6. Continues to show he is just a solid dude. How badly can an organization screw things up that they manage to alienate a guy who bleeds their team colours and has shown for decades what level of class and commitment to the community he has.
  7. .... hahahaha (I assume you are joking). We have no money to bring in anyone except league minimum players, so that is starkly different than Chicago. With the addition of Bedard (and their other 1st round pick this year, and their four 2nd round picks, and their two 3rd round picks), they are also going to move from an above average prospect pool, to one of the very best... if not the very best in the league. A bunch of high end prospects, including the best player outside of the NHL... and more than $40 million in cap space gives a whole lot of options for improving your team. Heck, they have multiple 1st and 2nd round picks for the next two years beyond this one that they can use for currency to trade for good players. The Canucks have one of the worst prospect pools in the league, likely won't improve it significantly with a mid round pick, no cap space to add players, and no excess roster players with trade value to make hockey trades. Trading Miller is probably the only practical way to retool the roster, but that opens up a hole at centre to help the defence and free up a little cap.
  8. It may, but we aren't likely to hear about it. A private meeting between the owner and Bettman, not even the BOG. The league can simply threaten to suspend or terminate the Coyotes membership if they have a defensible cause. There is no doubt they have cause right now, as the ownership got kicked out of an arena for failing to pay bills, is playing in a non-NHL arena, and has no viable plans to have one in the next several years. Add in that there is no guarantee the NHLPA even plays ball with agreeing to play in Mullett arena for what will be an indefinite period. They have working condition rules that are almost certainly not being fulfilled now. It is one thing to let it happen as a stopgap with an actual viable plan for the future, it is another thing to play out a year or two in front of a couple thousand people when everyone knows the team is going to relocate at some point. The league also gets to decide what a relocation fee would be, Meruelo is rich... but does he have enough liquid assets to cover hundreds of millions in a relocation fee, and the desire to do so? Especially if it is to just be a tenant in someone else's building. The only reason they play in Arizona next year is that they think they bad optics of playing in an empty college arena are preferable to the risk of the next stop being a failure because they rushed it. To me the most elegant way out, is to temporarily move the team to play its home games next season in an existing NHL calibre arena while options are being determined.. That gives a new market a chance to see NHL games and also make a pitch for buying and keeping the team. That would put Salt Lake City and Quebec City at the top of the list as they can host NHL games immediately. It won't be ideal as maybe fans won't fully get behind a team that may not be there permanently, but it certainly won't be worse than what it will look like at the Mullet arena. At least it will be a novelty in a new market and they will have the ability to paper the house with cheap tickets and have a full looking arena. It will also put an end point in the Arizona debacle which has become toxic and laughable. If Quebec wants to show they can support a team... selling out their arena for a "temporary" team and having corporate support buying boxes would go a long way in proving the business model. That also saves those US markets for bigger expansion dollars down the road when the league is more ready for that.
  9. “Our loyal fans who supported the Coyotes over the years” Note how that is in the past tense. If they are playing at the Mullett arena next year it is because the league doesn’t think they can figure out and execute a relocation alternative fast enough to move this year. There is no re-engaging at this point. The best possible deal was attempted and shot down resoundingly. Starting from scratch with a new city in the area and a whole voting process would mean 5 years in a college arena that they may not even be allowed to play in that long. The league will take over decisions on this, and will certainly have mechanisms for doing so if the owner doesn’t want to be co-operative. They have the hammer of being able to suspend or terminate a team’s membership, effectively making its value zero. That just requires a 3/4ths vote by the BOG and reasonable grounds. No court in the world would say that the league hasn’t done everything they can to avoid that. The only question is whether this owner is going to have to come up with a relocation fee, or whether he will be made to sell the team.
  10. Yes, I do agree that Houston is a good choice… but really it is going to be a place that they for sure have a good arena so a guaranteed home. The market size won’t be the main consideration. They need it not to turn into a debacle again with temporary arenas, public referendums, etc.
  11. Assuming they are smart in Chicago, they will be changing gears immediately to building the team, so I suspect a lot of signings and trades. They won’t need help getting to the floor. With Bedard and a relatively flat cap (even if they increase it by more than $1 million like I assume will happen), they are one of the few teams with cap space AND real dollars to spend. I think they are a playoff team next season after adding quite a few bodies. Leveraging Bedard’s ELC years before they have to start paying market value will be very important.
  12. It is not going to be his choice in the end. With revenue sharing, other owners are subsidizing them. It is also a drag on league revenues so the owners and NHLPA have a vested interest in seeing that situation change. It was one thing when there was a realistic chance of a new arena and a deep pocket owner who could turn it around. There is no prospect of an end to Mullet arena debacle. They are not going to get a better deal than what Tempe voted down. It used almost no public money (just for roads and infrastructure). Starting a new option from the beginning means that if everything went perfectly, they are still 4-5 years away from an arena being built. Most likely it would be another year or two of planning and public votes only to have it fail.
  13. I am sure they want as large a TV market as possible, but don’t lose sight of the fact all markets aren’t created the same in terms of the popularity of hockey. Minneapolis is going to get bigger ratings than Atlanta or Phoenix. It is such a minor sport, that the total population isn’t anywhere near as important as the likely draw. Vegas wasn’t a big market, but with no other major league sports, and a visitor pool of fans it works.
  14. Yes, I meant conference... the teams we will be fighting for wildcard spots against. Chicago is the other one that will suddenly have the opportunity to be better really fast. It isn't just Bedard, it is lots of picks and lots of cap space. What does Philly have to do with anything? They have few picks and lots of older players on big dollar contracts... they aren't on the way up.
  15. Just think what it must be like to be a player on this team. Such a soap opera every year, at least you might have a glimmer of hope now I guess that it will become an actual major league franchise again in the near future. Don't get too settled though, who knows where you end up. What an attractive franchise to buy though... 24 picks in the first three rounds in the next three years and no long term bad contracts. If you have money to spend to the cap you can reinvent this team as a playoff team in a single year. Makes the Canucks life harder that we may have one more actual team in the division that isn't a gimme as far as beating in the standings. The Canucks and Sharks seem like the worst teams, with Calgary probably following soon as the contracts for the aging players they went all in with start to look bad.
  16. I think they will want to shut this mess down as quickly as possible. It would be an open wound and constant embarrassment to have a lame duck team spend the next several years playing in a college arena when there is no viable plan to have a new facility built.
  17. Wow… if this isn’t the final nail in the coffin for this failed experiment, I don’t know what could be. I wonder if they just bite the bullet and move this season rather than be a lame duck team playing out a season in a college arena. The Houston Coyotes are going to be good pretty fast. Lots of young assets, and suddenly the budget to spend to the cap. If they do it this year, they can take advantage of a depressed market. This is also going to put some massive upwards pressure on the salary cap over the next few years. Take away a franchise that contributes basically nothing to HRR, and replace them with a relocated team which will (at the start at least) be amongst the highest revenue teams.
  18. Well in case you have missed it the last 100 times or so that people have told you. Miller isn’t on a team friendly deal two months from now. He is getting paid market rates for his current production. Unfortunately, the likelihood of him producing at those same rates when he is 37 are pretty astronomical. Age related decline wasn’t factored into that contract. He is almost certainly going to become one of those dead weight contracts you think it is easy to shed. It could happen anywhere from next season to 3-4 seasons from now, but the odds are highly stacked against us contract aging well. Those contracts you suggested are impossible to move without further eroding our future.
  19. That is a fair comment, you do have to layer on the long term cap already committed to the equation though in guys like OEL and Miller. Also that we don’t have all these young guys signed to cheap long term deals to leverage future cap efficiencies with inflation like Chicago did. We will be paying market rates for them to keep them. I like a $7.35 million dollar Petterson a whole lot more than an $11 million dollar Petterson in terms of building a winner. With all that in mind, do I think we we can successfully build fast enough around Petterson and Hughes… or that they are good enough on their own to make up for some bad money on the books? Do I see stud prospects in the system who will come in and contribute near the top of the lineup and give us cap flexibility due to their cheap ELCs? Nope. I think the next few years will at best bring us to being an average team that will compete for one of the last playoff spots. I think it is no secret I think we should have not signed Miller and actually done major surgery, including Petterson and Hughes if the price is right. My aim is a Cup, and not making the first round of the playoffs. I don’t see a likely path to that goal in the foreseeable future. We are hoping for miracles at this point.
  20. He can be a good player and it still be a bad trade. Most of the players brought in are good pickups (Mikheyev, Kuzmenko, Hronek) if you look at them in a vacuum without consideration of team building and the salary cap. We are already over the cap with a bad roster this year, next year the raises due Hronek and Petterson will probably add an extra $7-8 million on the cap, completely erasing any savings from Myers coming off the books and a projected big cap increase. We will be hard pressed to keep a squad together that can’t even make the playoffs, never mind improving on it. It was unnecessary at the time is happened, as we aren’t a team in contention. We need the picks to get good players on ELCs. Who knows what opportunities we could have had with cap space in the summer and could have kept the picks and maybe even picked up more assets. If they want to rebuild the team and do major surgery… get rid of existing players and cap first. Don’t back yourself into a corner and have ti take extreme and costly measures to get out of it.
  21. Them not rating him high doesn’t mean someone won’t pick them based on their own list… it just means there is a greater likelihood he isn’t worth the higher pick someone might take them at.
  22. If you look at the 1st round draft rankings from Button and Pronman for the past many years they outperform everyone else by a long ways in correctly identifying talent. No one can be perfect as development is a huge part, but I take Button’s expertise as to the best selections any day of the week. Depending on if there isn’t one of the top D available, this is a time I probably trade down. #11 isn’t that much more likely to pan out than #20. If you can add a 2nd rounder to drop a few slots and take advantage of a team that loves a specific winger available in your spot… maybe it is worth it. Since we are (mistakenly) in a win now mode… maybe trading the pick to make a bunch of cap space also furthers that aim. There will be solid players available if we have the space to take them on.
  23. There you go stretching the truth again… If Cole Sillinger is your definition of a “really good player”, we might have come to the crux of some of your perception issues. He is trying 4th line minutes, scored 3 goals with a total of 11 points last year… and is a career -45. Vilardi is so far maybe an average 3rd line calibre player who has some upside left…. But is being outproduced by an off year Garland who we can’t give away for free. Then you have to go back almost 30 years to find some gems on the list… scouting is far different now and much less likely to find players other teams missed.
  24. If I had a nickel for every time someone predicted the bright future of one of our prospects (and turned out to be wrong), I would currently be enjoying a life of leisure on Bora Bora. Podkolzin had better work out, he is a top 10 pick and they are supposed to be pretty much locks for at least being regular NHLers, and should mostly be in the top half of the lineup. 2nd and 3rd rounders should range in the 25-33% range for hitting on. We aren’t at that rate. In the later rounds combined you should get a player that at least plays 100 NHL games every couple of years from all those picks. We aren’t at that rate either. I like what the farm is doing lately and all the money spent on player development, but the proof needs to be in the pudding. Aside from Ian Clark working some magic, our brightest farm team development star in a decade is bloody Guillaume Brisebois.
  25. For those that keep making rosters assuming all our prospects are going to be NHLers. Do you know how many regular roster players we have now that we drafted outside the first round? What a more than decade of picks has produced? One. Thatcher Demko (2nd round, 36th OA) The next best prospects are Brisebois (3rd round, 66th OA) from 8 years ago and who has managed to develop into an AHL player capable of being an injury call up…. And Hoglander (2nd round, 40th OA) who is so far a tweener that may or may not develop into a useful player. The only “steal” we have unearthed in later rounds and has a solid chance of being a regular NHLer, is Silovs (6th round, 156 OA). Even if you count players we drafted and are playing somewhere else, the list of guys we drafted in the last 15 years (beyond the 1st round) and are playing regular minutes anywhere are all stars Ben Hutton and Forsling. We haven’t been good at drafting players and haven’t been good at developing players. Yet every year people crow about how our prospects will come in and rescue the team from its cap hell.
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