This strikes me as a way of committing suicide by alcohol poisoning.
1/31/2010
The Pierre Maguire World Jrs drinking game
The Original can be found here...
This strikes me as a way of committing suicide by alcohol poisoning.
This strikes me as a way of committing suicide by alcohol poisoning.
The Phaneuf Trade....
First, thanks to Doug for doing my draft for me. Merci monsieur!
The following is a comment I wrote for the post and comments below, but it was too large and had to be posted on its own.
Here's what I think we are missing about the Phaneuf deal;
- The organization have a good read on Dion being the only pro team he has ever played for, and his Jr coach was Brent Sutter. The Flames know now what he is and could be. Sutter thinks the Leafs are getting a heck of a hockey player - and I think they are.
The truth though, is he is more Ed Jovanovski than Denis Potvin. He is never going to have more than average hockey sense, and he is unlikely going to iron out his defensive defficiencies. At best the Leafs have added the next Brian McCabe. Which is to say pretty good, but below the class of guys like Scott Stevens or Rob Blake that Phaneuf was initially projected to be.
Now factor in his considerable salary. He is being paid like a franchise defenseman despite it being questionable at best if he actually is one.
Rumors of him being a locker room cancer may have been the nail in the coffin.
So we have; an overpriced defenseman struggling to be the fourth best defenseman on his team (Bouwmeester, Regehr and Giordano were all ahead of him), and several glaring needs on a team that just emerged from a prolonged scoring drought that exposed the lack of weapons up front, and poor team off-ice and on-ice chemistry.
Here's the rest of what we give up;
- Frederik Sjostrom. Scored one very pretty goal for the Flames, but is a still a marginal NHL player.
- Keith Aulie. 6'6" behemoths without offense aren't great, but they aren't bad either. He's duplicated/replaceable by others in the organization. Still a project and not NHL ready (though maybe not for the Leafs).
The return:
- Nik Hagman, a speedy, gritty 20 goal scorer who got his notches without Kessel, signed for a very reasonable 3 years.
He's a lower tier top six forward or a very good third line winger.
- Matt Stajan, 25.
The Leafs played him like a 1st line center, but the reality is more that of a utility forward that can bounce between the 2nd and 3rd lines providing offensive juice and responsible play. Useful playmaker in the Kelly Kisio/Martin Straka/Stu Barnes mold. If they can sign him to a reasonable deal he's the teams next Craig Conroy.
- Ian White, 25
Here's where I think the meat of the trade is. White is an undersized puck mover with powerplay ability. Also, he's a gamer. White got better and better even when the team was bailing around him. Comfortably fits into our top four and the Flames will be auditioning him for a longer term contract.
- Jamal Mayers. A bottom six forward with some jam. Rumored to possess untapped offensive ability. Useful depth player, and will be cheap if he clicks.
Personally I think the return is still light for Phaneuf, except that with the future cap space the Flames get as a result (Patrick Sharp?). This cap space becomes the 'player to be named later' that the Flames can now sign in the off-season.
Phaneuf/Jokinen might have rented you Kovalchuk - but then what? Is anybody under the delusion that Kovalchuk wants to stay in Calgary when his contract runs out? I see him bolting for somewhere more cosmopolitan and with a larger Russian community. And it wouldn't hurt if there was lots of money. Like, say, in New York. Or Russia.
Would adding Kovalchuk have addressed any of the Flames needs? Certainly not in the long term, and potentially not in the short term. Which leaves you with not much other a large amount of money to spend when the year is up.
As for the rumored New York trade;
- Jokinen is a rental for whoever gets him as his contract is running out. I think it is fair to say Calgary was not going to resign him when it runs out. Factor in that he has been anything but dominant for Calgary, and its not like his stock is high either. I was hoping for a 2nd rnd draft pick, and don't particularly like Higgins or Kotalik - though both are fast larger sized bodies who could net 20 if things go right - Rene Bourque/Curtis Glencross types. Prust is a dime a dozen fringe guy salary filler.
I really really liked the Jokinen deal when it went down, but it clearly hasn't worked out. Is the return awesome? No.
Time will tell if either of these deals has long term implications, positively or negatively, but on their face, I don't hate either deal, but nor do I really love either of them.
The following is a comment I wrote for the post and comments below, but it was too large and had to be posted on its own.
Here's what I think we are missing about the Phaneuf deal;
- The organization have a good read on Dion being the only pro team he has ever played for, and his Jr coach was Brent Sutter. The Flames know now what he is and could be. Sutter thinks the Leafs are getting a heck of a hockey player - and I think they are.
The truth though, is he is more Ed Jovanovski than Denis Potvin. He is never going to have more than average hockey sense, and he is unlikely going to iron out his defensive defficiencies. At best the Leafs have added the next Brian McCabe. Which is to say pretty good, but below the class of guys like Scott Stevens or Rob Blake that Phaneuf was initially projected to be.
Now factor in his considerable salary. He is being paid like a franchise defenseman despite it being questionable at best if he actually is one.
Rumors of him being a locker room cancer may have been the nail in the coffin.
So we have; an overpriced defenseman struggling to be the fourth best defenseman on his team (Bouwmeester, Regehr and Giordano were all ahead of him), and several glaring needs on a team that just emerged from a prolonged scoring drought that exposed the lack of weapons up front, and poor team off-ice and on-ice chemistry.
Here's the rest of what we give up;
- Frederik Sjostrom. Scored one very pretty goal for the Flames, but is a still a marginal NHL player.
- Keith Aulie. 6'6" behemoths without offense aren't great, but they aren't bad either. He's duplicated/replaceable by others in the organization. Still a project and not NHL ready (though maybe not for the Leafs).
The return:
- Nik Hagman, a speedy, gritty 20 goal scorer who got his notches without Kessel, signed for a very reasonable 3 years.
He's a lower tier top six forward or a very good third line winger.
- Matt Stajan, 25.
The Leafs played him like a 1st line center, but the reality is more that of a utility forward that can bounce between the 2nd and 3rd lines providing offensive juice and responsible play. Useful playmaker in the Kelly Kisio/Martin Straka/Stu Barnes mold. If they can sign him to a reasonable deal he's the teams next Craig Conroy.
- Ian White, 25
Here's where I think the meat of the trade is. White is an undersized puck mover with powerplay ability. Also, he's a gamer. White got better and better even when the team was bailing around him. Comfortably fits into our top four and the Flames will be auditioning him for a longer term contract.
- Jamal Mayers. A bottom six forward with some jam. Rumored to possess untapped offensive ability. Useful depth player, and will be cheap if he clicks.
Personally I think the return is still light for Phaneuf, except that with the future cap space the Flames get as a result (Patrick Sharp?). This cap space becomes the 'player to be named later' that the Flames can now sign in the off-season.
Phaneuf/Jokinen might have rented you Kovalchuk - but then what? Is anybody under the delusion that Kovalchuk wants to stay in Calgary when his contract runs out? I see him bolting for somewhere more cosmopolitan and with a larger Russian community. And it wouldn't hurt if there was lots of money. Like, say, in New York. Or Russia.
Would adding Kovalchuk have addressed any of the Flames needs? Certainly not in the long term, and potentially not in the short term. Which leaves you with not much other a large amount of money to spend when the year is up.
As for the rumored New York trade;
- Jokinen is a rental for whoever gets him as his contract is running out. I think it is fair to say Calgary was not going to resign him when it runs out. Factor in that he has been anything but dominant for Calgary, and its not like his stock is high either. I was hoping for a 2nd rnd draft pick, and don't particularly like Higgins or Kotalik - though both are fast larger sized bodies who could net 20 if things go right - Rene Bourque/Curtis Glencross types. Prust is a dime a dozen fringe guy salary filler.
I really really liked the Jokinen deal when it went down, but it clearly hasn't worked out. Is the return awesome? No.
Time will tell if either of these deals has long term implications, positively or negatively, but on their face, I don't hate either deal, but nor do I really love either of them.
Gilmour Trade, the Sequel - discuss
Great WD guys, always good to talk to all the GMs not being drafted by Bob.
That said, the news of the day was the Phaneuf deal and the more it sinks in the worse it looks to me.Eric Duhatschek nails it in the Globe,I think but maybe I'm missing something.
That said, here is my "amatur" GM analysis. You are trading a key asset, Phaneuf, when he is underperforming. By definition you are not getting full value for him. If you wanted offense, could you not have made the much-talked about deal for Kovalchuk? Let's say you couldn't, fair enough, is Hagman the best you could have gotten?
This is one bottle of wine that will not get better with the passage of time.
That said, the news of the day was the Phaneuf deal and the more it sinks in the worse it looks to me.Eric Duhatschek nails it in the Globe,I think but maybe I'm missing something.
That said, here is my "amatur" GM analysis. You are trading a key asset, Phaneuf, when he is underperforming. By definition you are not getting full value for him. If you wanted offense, could you not have made the much-talked about deal for Kovalchuk? Let's say you couldn't, fair enough, is Hagman the best you could have gotten?
This is one bottle of wine that will not get better with the passage of time.
1/30/2010
1/29/2010
Battle Of Alberta?
I got tickets to the Oilers game last night - not so hard to come by for some reason. It was painful to watch these stiffs in Oiler blue do a poor impression of an AHL team but it was hartening to look up and see the out of town scoreboard: 'Canes Win (because at this point it is all about the pick, baby) and Flames lose (because while Oiler fans might have hoped against hope that they were not this bad when the season began, Flame fans had really convinced themselves that they had improved on last year's team when, clearly, they have not).
Saturday will see these two doormats duel it out for the, once convented, Battle of Alberta Crown and I am reminded of one of my favorite Harry Neal quotes (referring to a mid-80's game between two Norris Division doormats the Leafs, of course, and the North Stars during a lackluster 2-2 game): "These teams are so bad, they can't even beat each other."
There will be a winner on Saturday and it should be the Flames. On paper they possess an NHL roster and even as I revel in their mediocrity I suspect that they will find a way into the playoffs but if not, there should be someone paying the price in Cowtown. In today's NHL going from bad to gawd-awful, like the Oilers have, at least comes with a shiny new lottery pick (fall for Hall! sin bin for Seguin!) but nothing good comes from finishing just out of the playoffs - I know, becasue that has been Edmonton's recipie for far too long.
Saturday will see these two doormats duel it out for the, once convented, Battle of Alberta Crown and I am reminded of one of my favorite Harry Neal quotes (referring to a mid-80's game between two Norris Division doormats the Leafs, of course, and the North Stars during a lackluster 2-2 game): "These teams are so bad, they can't even beat each other."
There will be a winner on Saturday and it should be the Flames. On paper they possess an NHL roster and even as I revel in their mediocrity I suspect that they will find a way into the playoffs but if not, there should be someone paying the price in Cowtown. In today's NHL going from bad to gawd-awful, like the Oilers have, at least comes with a shiny new lottery pick (fall for Hall! sin bin for Seguin!) but nothing good comes from finishing just out of the playoffs - I know, becasue that has been Edmonton's recipie for far too long.
1/27/2010
WD2 Drop List
I know some of you already posted your preliminary drops with your line-ups, thanks by the way, but just to centralize things could you repost your preliminary and (once finalized) your final WD2 drops here. Thanks.
1/26/2010
1/25/2010
Pre WD2 Week 18 Line-Ups
I guess Provisional drops are desirable if you have time.
Drop deadline is Friday at 6pm though WD2 occurs obn Sunday at 11 am MST
But Week 18 Line-ups are due Today by 6pm MST...So Do what needs to be done! Please post here...
Drop deadline is Friday at 6pm though WD2 occurs obn Sunday at 11 am MST
But Week 18 Line-ups are due Today by 6pm MST...So Do what needs to be done! Please post here...
1/23/2010
1/22/2010
1/19/2010
Waiver Wire Update
Knights Templar make successful bid for J.Ruutu-L OTT and waive Hagman-L TOR, who is now available to be bid on with week 18 line-ups.
1/17/2010
Week 17 Line ups
Hey... apparently I'm in a hockey pool! And I'm expected to submit line-ups! Weekly line ups!
I play Ovechkin and Crosby!
R.
I play Ovechkin and Crosby!
R.
1/16/2010
1/15/2010
1/13/2010
Waiver Wire
Shadowmen successfully claim Lucic-L BST off the waiver wire. They drop Ruutu-L OTT who is available to be bid on with week 17 line-ups.
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