[Official] NHL Offseason Thread

[Prax]

Talk about anything NHL-related here between now and the start of the season in October.

Personally, as a habs fan, my off-season started in April, lol, however I had fun following the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL as they won the Calder Cup (they're our farm team).

Carey Price came in and completely dominated. Gainey's making it sound like he might be our starter next year depending on training camp. If he's truly ready, I can't fucking wait!

That along with all the other guys that were on the calder cup winning team, Sergei Kostitsyn, ben Maxwell, David Fischer, our russian guys who are coming over, etc, should make for a VERY interesting training camp in september!

 

[goleafsgo23]

Carey Price coming up and leading your farm team to the Calder Cup and winning playoff MVP is a sure way to get the Montreal scouts eyes open at you. (also winning the gold with Team Canada in the World Juniors this year winning MVP of that too). However, I see Carey Price starting for you guys the year after or maybe halfway through the 2008 season, but personally I do not think he's NHL calibre ready yet. But maybe he can prove me wrong.

as for the MAPLE LEAFS! haha,

we signed Antropov for a 2 year deal for 2 mil a year, I hope we don't suck at the draft like always, we signed Staffan Kronwall to a one year deal, so our defensive unit is going to be built with young players.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Hopefully the Sabres at least resign Drury, they need someone like him, He got laid out by Ottawa and it turned into a great Brawl with the goalies getting involved and it even looked like the Sabres coach wanted a go. Hopefully they keep all of the important roles because they did get close so they should be able to resign them for under the salary cap, but failing that Drury would be good to keep.

 

[goleafsgo23]

Hopefully the Sabres at least resign Drury, they need someone like him, He got laid out by Ottawa and it turned into a great Brawl with the goalies getting involved and it even looked like the Sabres coach wanted a go. Hopefully they keep all of the important roles because they did get close so they should be able to resign them for under the salary cap, but failing that Drury would be good to keep.

Drury and Briere want to stay in Buffalo, but its up to the Sabres management if they want to keep them or not. I think they will, because these two are Buffalo's franchise players (I won't give that title to Miller yet =P). The Sabres are one team that I am excited for because of their talent. Vanek, Pominville, Afinogenov, all great talents and are obviously contributers to Buffalo's great run. Buffalo is a speed team, and these new NHL rules do work in their favor. I was rooting for them when my team didnt make the playoffs

 

[Shadowmancer]

I read on ESPN I think that the Sabres fall into the catagory of they are everyones second favourite Team(I know it ain't true) Because of the style of play that they have, Like the Pheonix Suns it is different than the taditional style of play, it is exciting to watch. So Drury and Briere have said they want to stay in Buffalo, when did they say that I didn't here about that. Hopefully the Sharks also pick up some good talent in the Off season, I wanted it to be a Sharks-Sabres Stanley Cup Final last year.

 

[Prax]

Hopefully the Sabres at least resign Drury, they need someone like him, He got laid out by Ottawa and it turned into a great Brawl with the goalies getting involved and it even looked like the Sabres coach wanted a go. Hopefully they keep all of the important roles because they did get close so they should be able to resign them for under the salary cap, but failing that Drury would be good to keep.

Chris Drury is the most overrated player in the league. he's slated to get over 7 million dollars on the FA market this year, which I find completely ridiculous. People in Montreal say Saku Koivu is overpaid at 4.75, yet he had MORE POINTS than Drury this year on a team that basically just sucked. Drury on the other hand was on the best team in the league and he was still incredibly inconsistent and disapeared in the playoffs.

In my honest opinion Saku > Drury, and he'll do good for which ever team he signs with, but he certainly isn't worth the money he's slated to sign for. He's possibly the next Brad Richards, but x 10.

I thought Drury was better than Briere, but after watching both of them these playoffs, I realized they're both overrared, lol.

Don't get me wrong, they're both good players but they're going to get ridiculous amounts of money this year, much more than they deserve. And the teams that sign them are going to regret it in future years when the cap goes down.

 

[Prax]

Carey Price coming up and leading your farm team to the Calder Cup and winning playoff MVP is a sure way to get the Montreal scouts eyes open at you. (also winning the gold with Team Canada in the World Juniors this year winning MVP of that too). However, I see Carey Price starting for you guys the year after or maybe halfway through the 2008 season, but personally I do not think he's NHL calibre ready yet. But maybe he can prove me wrong.

as for the MAPLE LEAFS! haha,

we signed Antropov for a 2 year deal for 2 mil a year, I hope we don't suck at the draft like always, we signed Staffan Kronwall to a one year deal, so our defensive unit is going to be built with young players.

Hey GoLeafs, nice to see a tame Leafs fan around here. Let's make a pact, we won't flame on each other because of our natural hatred for each other, ok?

Anyway...

A lot of people in Montreal are quick to say Carey price is the next coming of St. Patrick, I'm not that rash. He's the real deal and he will be elite someday, but let's not get ahead of ourselves either, he just played junior and minor-league hockey, nothing compared to the NHL. HOWEVER, he had an amazing camp last year, and if he can repeat that performance, he'll make the team and be our #1. Gainey said so himself that it's going to be a really tough decision.

Whether I'm willing to trade huet in order to make room for him, that's another story... I don't wanna go into the season with a goalie tandem with the average age of 20.


As for the leafs, lol, no comment. Seriously, I was surprised by the Antropov signing but it wasn't THAT bad. He played pretty well last season. Goleafs, do you think JFJ's going to shop McCabe around to make a push for Smyth and get some room under the cap?

You guys need to get rid of a D-man for sure for next year...

And I was thinking, would you do this deal:

Kovalev for Kubina.

I've thought this through thoroughly and I'll explain myself but I wanna hear what you think first.

 

[goleafsgo23]

Hey GoLeafs, nice to see a tame Leafs fan around here. Let's make a pact, we won't flame on each other because of our natural hatred for each other, ok?

Anyway...

A lot of people in Montreal are quick to say Carey price is the next coming of St. Patrick, I'm not that rash. He's the real deal and he will be elite someday, but let's not get ahead of ourselves either, he just played junior and minor-league hockey, nothing compared to the NHL. HOWEVER, he had an amazing camp last year, and if he can repeat that performance, he'll make the team and be our #1. Gainey said so himself that it's going to be a really tough decision.

Whether I'm willing to trade huet in order to make room for him, that's another story... I don't wanna go into thPe season with a goalie tandem with the average age of 20.


As for the leafs, lol, no comment. Seriously, I was surprised by the Antropov signing but it wasn't THAT bad. He played pretty well last season. Goleafs, do you think JFJ's going to shop McCabe around to make a push for Smyth and get some room under the cap?

You guys need to get rid of a D-man for sure for next year...

And I was thinking, would you do this deal:

Kovalev for Kubina.

I've thought this through thoroughly and I'll explain myself but I wanna hear what you think first.

Personally, I want McCabe to be traded to the Isles for Smyth, especially after this season, all that was coming out of my mouth was, "WTF McCABE!" I'd want McCabe to leave too because it will give a chance to the younger prospects to develop. But if this were to happen, this is how I see the Leafs defense:

Kaberle and Kubina
Colaiacovo and Gil
White and some rookie.

I have a feeling Kubina is not going to be traded, unless Anton Stralman decides to leave Sweden and play for us. But seriously, who wants to voluntarily take on Kubina's salary?

As for Kovalev for Kubina...maybe we can replace Kubina with Antropov haha. Kovalev was great in his earlier years, but now he's just become lazy away from the puck, and when he gets the puck he tries to do whatever he can. He's a fantastic stickhandler but unfortunately in the new NHL, you can't really get stuff done by yourself. Patrick Kane showed signs of that earlier as he was being scouted. Antropov is like that too. He hardly plays and when he does 'play' he takes a bunch of unnecessary penalties.

Aside from Kubina, I think with the signing of Kronwall, Andy Wozniewski will lose his slot to him.

 

[Prax]

Here's the thing, as a Habs fan I'm willing to take on Kubina's salary if it means getting rid of Kovalev's. Kubina makes a little more but that's acceptable to me because we have the cap space.

Toronto needs and has always needed someone to play with Sundin, I think Kovalev can do that. He's never had a bonafine superstar to play with in Montreal, he can really break out if we could have sundin centering him.

and Kubina solves a lot of our defensive woes.

Obviously the main issue i see with this is that I wouldn't want to play against Kovalev 8 times a year, because he's turn it on for at least 3 of those games, hahaha. Honestly, other than that I see this as an almost perfect deal.

 

[goleafsgo23]

Honestly, I wouldn't want any team to play anybody 8 times a year, because this new schedule is ridiculous. Talk about horrible marketing. Sure it raises 'rivalries' and whatever, but you need someone like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin to go out west and play other rising stars like Jack Johnson in LA or Dion Phaneuf in Calgary every year, not once every five. That makes a ton of sense if you're using Sidney Crosby to market your game. There's a lot of things that are going wrong in the NHL, especially with this rumor of 2 more teams being added to the league, airing the games on Versus when 80% of viewers here in the States don't even have the fucking station. I think the NHL should suck up to ESPN and get their spots back even if it was in ESPN2. Obviously the last thing I want, is for me not to be able to watch a good rivalry game prime time because I can't get the stupid channel and seeing the national cup stacking championships or the spelling bee on ESPN(2). It's just ridiculous the path the NHL is going down.

 

[Prax]

I agree partially with what your saying, but to tell you the truth, I like what they've done in terms of rivalries. If it wasn't for the 8 inter-division games, Leafs/Habs wouldn't be what it is, neither would Sens/Habs or Sens/Leafs, etc etc. It would be good, just not as good. But I do agree that Sidney Crosby needs to play in every city every year, there's no excuse for that. But this schedule was an experiment that's ending next year, and then it should change to something better i would imagine.

The versus thing is inexcusable too.

But I don't mind playing the Leafs 8 times a year, nor any other team in my division, it makes for great hockey. But it does bother me that Detroit and Nashville get to play St. Louis, Columbus and Chicago 8 times a year, for sure.

 

[Prax]

NHL Awards tonight. Anyone else excited?

TRISH STRATUS IS GOING TO BE THERE

Meh, not only are they predictable but the NHL doesn't even put on a good show (other than getting Trish Stratus). But I'm going to watch them anyway

 

[Prax]

Timonen and Hartnell to Philly for the pick Nashville had given them for Forsberg.

Wow, out of nowhere move considering they're both UFAs in like a week and a half. But the Flyers locked them both up to multi-year contracts right after.

hartnell's going to get 4.2 a year (too much IMO, but Hartnell's good).

Timonen's going to get 6.3 a year (about right, he deserves it, but I'm P.O.d cause it just pushes Souray's value on the UFA market sky - the fact that he signed before the 1st of July anyway)

Wow... Philly just ruined everyone's shit.

 

[goleafsgo23]

Prax, did you manage to catch the draft?

St. Louis really had it in for them, they could have drafted Perron, Esposito and Cherepenov in the first round. That's a big what if question right there.

It was also nice to see an American player drafted 1st, 2 years in a row, as well as two Americans taken in the first two picks. Shows how far our country has come along in terms of developing talent.

In other draft notes, a former of teammate of mine that was drafted last year by the Rangers in the 1st round signed with the team a few months ago. I can't wait to see him play this year.

 

[Prax]

I actually only got the end Leafs, I had to work until 9PM, but I got home just in time to catch my Habs second pick. VERY happy with my teams picks. McDonah #12, best Defenseman in the entire draft, and Patiecerry or something #22, a power forward. Exactly what we need. Speaking of Americans, 5 our 9 picks where americans, which is pretty ridiculous (six of our picks were defensemen).

I would've probably preferred picking Charepanov 12th and Petrecki 22nd but what we did works.

As for St. Louis, I understand why they didn't draft Charepanov, and why a lot of teams passed on the 5th overall pick, it's because there's no transfer agreement and if he decides to stay in Russia it's a waste of a 1st round pick. Now with only 3 Russian players being picked in the draft, Russia's going to start feeling the pressure with their teams receiving bad names for not being able to draft their players into the nHL, and hopefully something will happen with the transfer agreement.

As for Esposito, I'm SOOO happy we didn't pick him up, as the rumors suggested in Montreal. HJe went from #1 ranked to #8 ranked to #11th ranked. That means there's a problem with th eplayer. 19 or so GMs can't be wrong looking past him, don't you think?

BTW, What do you think of the Toskala trade?

 

[goleafsgo23]

I actually only got the end Leafs, I had to work until 9PM, but I got home just in time to catch my Habs second pick. VERY happy with my teams picks. McDonah #12, best Defenseman in the entire draft, and Patiecerry or something #22, a power forward. Exactly what we need. Speaking of Americans, 5 our 9 picks where americans, which is pretty ridiculous (six of our picks were defensemen).

I would've probably preferred picking Charepanov 12th and Petrecki 22nd but what we did works.

As for St. Louis, I understand why they didn't draft Charepanov, and why a lot of teams passed on the 5th overall pick, it's because there's no transfer agreement and if he decides to stay in Russia it's a waste of a 1st round pick. Now with only 3 Russian players being picked in the draft, Russia's going to start feeling the pressure with their teams receiving bad names for not being able to draft their players into the nHL, and hopefully something will happen with the transfer agreement.

As for Esposito, I'm SOOO happy we didn't pick him up, as the rumors suggested in Montreal. HJe went from #1 ranked to #8 ranked to #11th ranked. That means there's a problem with th eplayer. 19 or so GMs can't be wrong looking past him, don't you think?

BTW, What do you think of the Toskala trade?

3 picks was a little too high of a price (then again, the Leafs kinda suck when it comes to drafting), but overall, I like the Toskala acquisition, but the Bell one I'm not too sure about. He's a great player when he's 100% but other than that, he isn't too much of an asset.

As for Toskala, it's a good pick up. In fact, it's a great pickup. JS Aubin isn't going to be back, and Justin Pogge isn't ready to play in the NHL yet. Raycroft to me isn't really too consistent yet, and Toskala should prove to be a formidable back up, if not, I think he's capable of challenging and pushing Raycroft as they will be battling for that #1 spot.

 

[goleafsgo23]

Oh my God.....Buffalo took a hit today. Flyers sign Briere, Drury is heading to broadway...wow. Looks like the likes of Vanek, Pominville and Afinogenov are going to have to step up now.

 

[JBBO3314]

How about my broadway blueshirts buying away. Lets just hope this doesn't back fire like it did a few years ago when they where buying everyone. Gomez and Drury should make an immediate impact and hopefully that final push toward the cup.

 

[Prax]

How about my broadway blueshirts buying away. Lets just hope this doesn't back fire like it did a few years ago when they where buying everyone. Gomez and Drury should make an immediate impact and hopefully that final push toward the cup.

If GMs of other teams are smart it'll backfire. They barely have enough cap room to sign everyone they need to. If Shanny gets offered 7 million somewhere else (I wouldn't be surprised), and Lunqvist gets an offer sheet from another team (again stupid if no one does it.. the rangers HAVE to match), and they're screwed.

 

[a7xoff]

Gah I can't belive Gomez is on the Rangers... At the same time I can look who the Devils GM is... I'm notgetting into that though, Yah the Rangers could have set themselves up big time by getting Gomez and Drury, but like Prax said it can backfire, We'l have to wait and see still plenty of offseason left to go... I just hope mabey the Devils bring up Steve Gionta who supposivily better then his brother Brian