2015/2016 NHL Thread: nO Canada

[The Incredible Hulk]

Better late than never!

First off, Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks on their third Stanley Cup Championship in the last 6 years.

Free agency started July 1st, at Noon EDT (not that anything happened), and with it the official dawn of a new season.....

Will anyone besides the Blackhawks and Kings ever win a Cup again?

How will the "Kessel Curse" impact the Pens?

Will the Bruins be able to ice a team after Don Sweeney is finished with them?

Where will the Coyotes be playing next season?

Las Vegas and who else will be expansion teams?

Will the San Jose Sharks be teal enough?

Is this the year a Canadian team finally hoists the Cup? (It's not)

Can Connor McDavid actually get the Oilers to the playoffs?

The answers to these questions and more, coming soon!

 

[Hush]

You forgot, Will you the Blues make it past the first round?

Also in Blues News.

@StLouisBlues: DONE DEAL! Vladimir Tarasenko has signed an eight-year, $60 million deal. >>> http://t.co/n8FNl3QgHs #stlblues http://t.co/tQg8xBzL1p

Bizarre annual salaries in this deal.....

@andystrickland: #stlblues Sign Tarasenko to 8 yr deal....breakdown as follows $8, $8, $7, $7, $9.5, $5.5, $9.5 $5

@andystrickland: Tarasenko is protected in the event of a work stoppage in 20-21 or 22-23. Yrs 6 and 8 of contract he'll make $5.5. #stlblues

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

that's a lot of money for a Russian player. Hopefully he stays motivated.

 

[Mechanix]

Is this the year a Canadian team finally hoists the Cup? (It's not)

Can Connor McDavid actually get the Oilers to the playoffs?

The answers to these questions and more, coming soon!

A Canadian team might not hoist the cup, but a lot of American teams are made up of mostly Canadian players. The Blackhawks team has more Canadians on it than any other nationality. To me, the whole Canadian vs. American teams is kind of moot.

And no, likely not this upcoming season. But he should get us damn close. Also because his being on the team has caused a lot of necessary changes, both in management and on the actual roster.

 

[Pink Ranger]

A Canadian team might not hoist the cup, but a lot of American teams are made up of mostly Canadian players. The Blackhawks team has more Canadians on it than any other nationality. To me, the whole Canadian vs. American teams is kind of moot.

And no, likely not this upcoming season. But he should get us damn close. Also because his being on the team has caused a lot of necessary changes, both in management and on the actual roster.

I think American teams are outscouting Canadian teams when it comes to Canadian talent. Canadian teams are getting lazy, assuming just because they don't need a passport to go to Oshawa or Kamloops that they automatically have the knowledge of what's available. I get the feeling they think the only undiscovered talent is in Europe or the American college system.

 

[Immortalfire]

You can never have too much teal.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

A Canadian team might not hoist the cup, but a lot of American teams are made up of mostly Canadian players. The Blackhawks team has more Canadians on it than any other nationality. To me, the whole Canadian vs. American teams is kind of moot.

And no, likely not this upcoming season. But he should get us damn close. Also because his being on the team has caused a lot of necessary changes, both in management and on the actual roster.

I realize that, but 7 out of the 30 teams (23.3%) are Canadian so just from a statistical standpoint alone, at least ONE of them should've won a Cup in the last 22 years.

Not to mention the Oilers, Flames, Senators, and Canucks have all lost in the SC Finals in the last 11 years (three of them in Game 7) which is pretty amazing in and of itself.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Patrick Sharpe traded to the Stars for Trevor Daley and a minor leaguer.

Really thought he would've fetched more than that.

The dismantling of the Hawks continues. Wonder if they'll try to resign Oduya now?

 

[Hush]

Crazy that they made the trade in-division but I guess that's what Happens when you tie your money up in two guys.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

And then Oduya follows Sharp to the Stars on a 2 year deal.

Stars are going to have a one or two year window here to win, before the majority of these guys they've acquired the last two years get put into an old age home.

 

[BigA]

T.J. Oshie sends Capitals care package to fan who cried after trade

Great story. Glad to have Oshie on the Caps.

 

[Themanofbat]

Lou Lamoriella is the new GM for the Leafs...

Not a bad move, he certainly turned a Mickey Mouse franchise into a serious Cup contender for over two decades... my only concern would be his age... he's 72...

 

[Hush]

T.J. Oshie sends Capitals care package to fan who cried after trade

Great story. Glad to have Oshie on the Caps.

Enjoy 15 goals a year and too much buzz.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Lou Lamoriella is the new GM for the Leafs...

Not a bad move, he certainly turned a Mickey Mouse franchise into a serious Cup contender for over two decades... my only concern would be his age... he's 72...

I'm guessing he's a figurehead at this point. The real GM of the Leafs will be a secret gestalt entity formed by Shanahan and Babcock a la Firestorm.

 

[Themanofbat]

I'm guessing he's a figurehead at this point. The real GM of the Leafs will be a secret gestalt entity formed by Shanahan and Babcock a la Firestorm.

Hmmmm... that's not as crazy as it sounds... Lamoriella has the connections with the other teams, and probably has a keen knowledgs on "who's who"...

 

[Pink Ranger]

Hmmmm... that's not as crazy as it sounds... Lamoriella has the connections with the other teams, and probably has a keen knowledgs on "who's who"...

Yeah, the whole order of events doesn't make sense. Let's hire the most expensive coach in NHL history, then make major roster moves that radically repositions the team for both the long- and short-term, and THEN we hire an experienced high-profile GM. I'm guessing Lou is their mainly for the office stuff and also for his credibility and rolodex. Shanahan already has this team set on wherever the hell it's going.

 

[BigA]

Enjoy 15 goals a year and too much buzz.

If he's playing with Backstrom and Ovechkin I'm expecting at least 30. Backstrom is one of the best passers in the game and Caps PP is usually right up top. He should get a lot of looks with the attention Ovi gets.

Oshie will be the best foward foward to play with Ovi and Backstrom. Anyone else that have put with them in the past was always good for 20 goals.

Even if plays on the second line with Kuznetsov and Burakovsky/Johannsom he should do pretty well. Kuzentsov is on most everyone's list as the the break out player this season.

Obviously, I'm bias as a Caps fan, but if he scores only 15 goals, I'll be pretty disappointed.

 

[Pink Ranger]

You know, upon a night's reflection, the Lou Lamoriello makes total sense now. The major decisions like hiring Mike Babcock and trading Phil Kessel, those were big decisions, which Shanahan is doing for reasons he believes are right for now, but that everybody knows could also seriously backfire for him and the team further down the road.

By hiring a serious GM after these decisions have been made, the new GM doesn't have to wear the consequences of them, and has the freedom to build the team from where it is now. So if Babcock doesn't work out for some reason, LL can just fire him without looking like an idiot. If the Kessel trade was (again) terrible in retrospect, he can dump those prospects without looking like he failed.

 

[Blind_Lawyer]

Nice. We signed Kesler to a six year extension and brought in his old buddy Kevin Bieksa.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Lou Lamoriella is the new GM for the Leafs...

Not a bad move, he certainly turned a Mickey Mouse franchise into a serious Cup contender for over two decades... my only concern would be his age... he's 72...

I love LL but this is the classic case of the once great GM/coach who's had the game pass him by. He really struggled in the post-lockout NHL era with the salary cap, adopting analytics, etc. Hell, the guy wouldnt even let his team wear a third jersey. He's as old school as it gets.

He's also by all accounts a control freak. He controlled everything with the Devils down to the marketing. I just don't see how he fits in with a Leafs organization who seems to have jumped on the forward-thinking bandwagon (finally) and who also has a management by committee approach?

He's a "name" and we know the Leafs love their names, but there's going to be a lot of egos in that room and it could be explosive. Will be interesting to watch nonetheless.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Enjoy 15 goals a year and too much buzz.

I always love the "go to" NHL fanboy trope to immediately crap on a player who just left the team.

Oshie does what he does. He got a bit over-hyped after the Sochi Olympics due to his shootout prowess and I think it created a lot of unrealistic expectations of the guy. He's a 20 goal, 50-60 point guy pretty consistently when he plays a whole season.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Eric Fehr to the Pens for 2 years.


Do Pittsburgh and Washington have some kind of unwritten transfer agreement where they have to swap a certain amount of players every offseason?

 

[Hush]

I always love the "go to" NHL fanboy trope to immediately crap on a player who just left the team.

Oshie does what he does. He got a bit over-hyped after the Sochi Olympics due to his shootout prowess and I think it created a lot of unrealistic expectations of the guy. He's a 20 goal, 50-60 point guy pretty consistently when he plays a whole season.

I was crapping on him while he was here, the kid isn't that good at hockey just sellin jerseys.
I know he is on a new team and just by virtue of playing with higher caliber players his point totals will rise just hard to see him be anything more than what he was here. He had exactly one season where he scored more than 20 goals. Since he is a Blue going to another team he will prolly score 50 and have an 80 point season and win like 3 cups with the caps.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Mike Richards charged with possession of controlled substance

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/...rged-with-possession-of-controlled-substance/

The Manitoba RCMP have announced that former Kings forward Mike Richards has been charged with possession of a controlled substance while entering Canada.

The announcement, which came Thursday morning, comes after a tumultuous summer in which Richards had his contract with Los Angeles terminated for a “material breach,” only for the NHLPA to later file a grievance on his behalf.

Shortly after the contract termination, TMZ reported that Richards’ border incident involved Oxycodone.

Per a recent report from TSN, sources claim police found “some pills in a single bottle” during a search, adding that “it was clearly intended for his personal use.”

I feel like the Kings are trying to blow this way out of proportion to try and get out of whats become a very bad contract for them. I mean, hell, Slava Voynov plead no contest to abusing his spouse but still remains on the team? But somehow Richards gets busted with a small amount of oxy and now he's all of a sudden materially breached his contract? The NHL has a substance abuse program that guys get put in for a lot worse, yet still remain on their teams.

 

[Themanofbat]

RIP Al...