The Swamp

brian wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:49 pmMy guess would be both sides are thinking they can hopefully iron out the differences regarding escrow payments and some of the other stuff in the next CBA, but that it makes more sense to kick that can down the road for a few more years.

The escrow portion still somewhat confuses me in terms of just how tightly defined HRR is and who on the PA side gets full access to the books and audit rights.

The '22 Olympics will be a good canary in the coalmine to see how well (or poorly) negotiations for the next CBA are going. If they can work that out satisfactorily in 2020-ish, the rest of the stuff should fall into place.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:52 pm

brian wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:49 pm Maybe I'm overly naive or optimistic, but I think the players and owners finally realize they have a framework that is largely working. Revenues and salaries are up, not as many teams are bleeding money.

My guess would be both sides are thinking they can hopefully iron out the differences regarding escrow payments and some of the other stuff in the next CBA, but that it makes more sense to kick that can down the road for a few more years.

The one thing I'd like to see worked out is a framework for allowing NHL players in the Winter Olympics. The owners have no motivation for doing so, but I think it does add interest in the league.

I don't think it does. Sending NHL players to Nagano 20 years ago has not created any more interest. And we lost the Canada Cup/World Cup because of it. I would have had a 2000 World Cup in the new arenas in Sunbelt instead. The final in San Jose.

I can't get behind this. Imagine if MLB stopped next year to go to Tokyo.

The Crosby game was a go-to-the-bar event on par with a World Cup match; nothing the NHL does garners that sort of interest outside of the two cities involved (at best).

mister d wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:56 pm The Crosby game was a go-to-the-bar event on par with a World Cup match; nothing the NHL does garners that sort of interest outside of the two cities involved (at best).

What about the US' 1996 World Cup victory?

I wouldn’t advocate stopping the NHL season for a tournament that doesn’t already have an enormous built-in audience.

First thought is that Point deal is extremely team-friendly for TB but they didn’t buy any UFA years did they?

No, but I think he's Arb eligible RFA at conclusion of this bridge deal. I summarized some of the national writers' takes in a text thread.

Micah calls it "extraordinarily team friendly". Evolving Wild calls it a bargain. Travis Yost says it's sick. CapFriendly cannot find a truly comparable contract. Dom says he's projected to outperform the deal 95% of the time, also says the win rate to be worth this deal is 1.75, and that Point's win rate is 3.6. Down Goes Brown jokes that FL's tax rate must be -40%

I get that but I get the deal from Point’s standpoint too. If TB isn’t buying any UFA years, he’s probably getting not much more than he’d get in his arb years walking up to FA. I mean it’s obviously a good deal for TB but it’s not ridiculous. It kicks the can down the road to a point where their cap situation could be better but it could be worse too. All that said I still can’t believe he couldn’t get 3/$24M pretty easily.

Kinda surprised to hear that contract or not, he won't be recovered from offseason hip surgery until late October.

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:14 pm Kinda surprised to hear that contract or not, he won't be recovered from offseason hip surgery until late October.

All the more reason why it seems like he could have “held out” (not in the classic sense of the term as far as a striking worker) for a little more money.

I read something somewhere that both player and team lose leverage if the player remains unsigned after the season starts. Way too much nuance to it, and other useless shit rolling around my head, for me to opine on it here, but that was my takeaway.

ETA - the actual salary is prorated up for the cap. So, player X signs for $5m exactly one half through the season, then it's a $10m cap hit for the year for that team.

Apparently Nylander's 6.9 AAV counted as 10.2 last year.

Now that Marner and Point are signed, I wonder how long Rantanen will hold out. I had read that both parties were waiting for Marner to set the market. Getting awfully close to the start of the season. Also, kind of surprised to see that Byfuglien hasn't still hasn't reported yet to Winnipeg.

On a side note - I guess listening to Brian talk up Gusev a year ago had an effect on me, as I took a late-round flier on him in the Fantasy draft. I also picked Makar, so hopefully one of them is rookie of the year.

Nope, that'll be my boy Jack, feeding Nikita, for the Calder.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:24 pm Hey I'll take Lucic doing anything at all positive, and isn't taking 2 stupid penalties a game. 

Cause Neal did nothing. 

Nothing. 

Didn't score, didn't defend, didn't cover, didn't control space or time. He skated in circles, disengaged from play, and waited, then complained about his usage. 

He's done.

You are buying into Oilers hype it's like Cowboys hype.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:59 pm You are buying into Oilers hype it's like Cowboys hype.

Just tweaking you, Degen. Neal had a nice game last night. Let’s see if he can keep it up.

I know Carolina is good, but I’m shocked that they were able to outshoot Tampa Bay 44-13.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:55 pm I know Carolina is good, but I’m shocked that they were able to outshoot Tampa Bay 44-13.

And the Lightning still got a point!

No shots in the second period at all, and they totally controlled the first period, even though the Lightning were up 3-1 at the end.

One of the popular questions in the pre-season for the Red Wings was if Anthony Mantha could reach the 30-goal plateau. He got one-sixth of the way there after about 26 hours of the season.

Looking forward to the fanbase breakout when he eventually goes five games without a goal at some point.

...