Equally Obnoxious Hockey Trash Talk Thread, eh?

[MeatyPortion]

Suter and Parise still undecided. Not surprising as they're the two everyone's talking about. Yeah, Brodeur was brought up too but I think most people expected him to stay in NJ (although there were hopes of a Chicago destination *cough*). I bet it gets dragged out as long as possible so they can fully weigh their options and watch as teams scramble for them.

 

[sivdrinks]

Suter and Parise still undecided. Not surprising as they're the two everyone's talking about. Yeah, Brodeur was brought up too but I think most people expected him to stay in NJ (although there were hopes of a Chicago destination *cough*). I bet it gets dragged out as long as possible so they can fully weigh their options and watch as teams scramble for them.

Been following Zach pretty heavy. Seems to be mostly family related. His fiancé is from ND but is a teacher in NJ, family from Minnesota. I gotta believe it's between NJ and MN. I don't think anyone can realistically get him and Suter, maybe Philly if they trade Bryz for a case of beer to make cap space. Highly doubt Zach goes anywhere near a rival Devil team though.

 

[jtkratzer]

Doubt he needs the money, just wondering if he thinks Dallas is a contender or they were the only ones interested.

I don't know. I would like to think Philly wanted him back and they have to be seen as more of a contender than Dallas, but I'm sure Philly didn't want that kind of cap hit for a guy that is essentially a mentor.

 

[MeatyPortion]

Wow, Minnesota got both of them. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=637188

The Minnesota Wild landed the top forward and defenseman on the free agent market Wednesday.

Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported defenseman Ryan Suter agreed to terms with the Wild, and minutes later Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com and TSN reported that so too had forward Zach Parise, marking a monumental day in the history of the young franchise.

LeBrun reported both deals are for 13 years and $98 million, which locks them up through the 2024-25 season and would carry a salary cap hit of $7.538 million per campaign.

 

[sivdrinks]

Screw em, now him and Suter can take showers together. Should be an interesting rest of the day with teams scrambling to sign everyone else.

 

[jtkratzer]

Screw em, now him and Suter can take showers together. Should be an interesting rest of the day with teams scrambling to sign everyone else.

Wow. Surprised both went for 13 year deals. Minnesota hasn't really been a legit contender and both seem like guys that would want to go to places for that length of time where they'll have a chance to win several Cups.

I wonder if Heatley and Parise will play together.

 

[copyright1997]

I don't know. I would like to think Philly wanted him back and they have to be seen as more of a contender than Dallas, but I'm sure Philly didn't want that kind of cap hit for a guy that is essentially a mentor.

Jagr just wants to do a tour of the non cup winning teams of the NHL before he asks the Penguins to become one for the day (of his retirement). Which they won't grant.

 

[jtkratzer]

Jagr just wants to do a tour of the non cup winning teams of the NHL before he asks the Penguins to become one for the day (of his retirement). Which they won't grant.

Saw up to "asks the Penguins" in the preview and thought you were going to say something to the effect of asking them to let him come back to win another Cup.

 

[jtkratzer]

And Matt Carle gets $5.5 mil/yr for the next 6 from Tampa Bay.

That seems like overpayment for a guy that does put up some points, but also regularly struggles with the puck in his own end. He was much better with Pronger on the other side of the blue line with him.

 

[sivdrinks]

And Matt Carle gets $5.5 mil/yr for the next 6 from Tampa Bay.

That seems like overpayment for a guy that does put up some points, but also regularly struggles with the puck in his own end. He was much better with Pronger on the other side of the blue line with him.

Did Philly make an offer? Got some cash without him and Jagr, hoping for Ryan or Doan? I'm thinking the Devils go after Ryan. They got D
men to trade and he's from Jersey.

 

[jtkratzer]

It'd be nice to see Yandle in Philly.

 

[jtkratzer]

So, Luongo is ready to move on from the Nucks.

 

[emjay]

So, Luongo is ready to move on from the Nucks.

I'd really like to see him as a Leaf, but I'm not holding my breath...

 

[solbes]

Wow, I go to the cabin for a week and the Wild land Suter and Parise. Friggin Sweet! Was surprised Parise took $12M less than Philly offered and Suter took a few M less than someone else. Apparently they really wanted to play on the same team. This will really change the Wild's landscape for the next 8-10 years. Letting some guys go and trading a few others freed up some cap space. Nice job Chuck Fletcher!

Jason Garrison (watched him play college) went to Vancouver for $4.6M. Happy for him.

 

[paulster2626]

Wow, I go to the cabin for a week and the Wild land Suter and Parise. Friggin Sweet! Was surprised Parise took $12M less than Philly offered and Suter took a few M less than someone else. Apparently they really wanted to play on the same team. This will really change the Wild's landscape for the next 8-10 years. Letting some guys go and trading a few others freed up some cap space. Nice job Chuck Fletcher!

Jason Garrison (watched him play college) went to Vancouver for $4.6M. Happy for him.

Those contracts are a joke. Massive overpayment.

 

[solbes]

I don't think so, but the next few years will tell. 20 teams submitted offers for Parise. They each make very little in the last couple of years when they will no longer be playing. Best case, this team makes the playoffs next year and pushes deeper in 2-3 years. At a minimum it will sell a ton of jerseys and put butts back in the seats. Its been a tough few years here lately. Hometown kid everyone's been talking about for a year has returned.

 

[Homercidal]

Those contracts are a joke. Massive overpayment.

+1. Good luck finding any money to help those guys out down the road. On the plus side, there is every expectation that adding them will get the Wild into the playoffs.

On the downside, I think the Wings will have to play them several times a season now...

 

[jtkratzer]

Those signings will help them get to the playoffs, but they're not Cup contenders overnight because they added one forward and one defenseman. Parise was the most coveted free agent forward, but he's not a total game changer. He's only been over a point per game twice in his career. He drops from 0.82 points per game in the regular season to 0.70 in the playoffs.

I like the guy, and he's a solid American player, but he's not the difference between a non-playoff team and hoisting the Cup. He was tied at 22nd in the league with Patrick Sharp, who played 8 games fewer and 1:30 less per game last year and only 2 points ahead of Scott Hartnell. If you want to talk about the players or style around him...Matt Moulson played a full two minutes per game less, with the Islanders, and scored the same number of points. To put that in perspective, both players played the full 82 games. 2 minutes of ice time over 82 games is 164 minutes. That 164 minutes, at Parise's average ice time equates to over 7.5 games of ice time that Parise got more than Moulson. Using the same math, Parise had nearly 15 games worth of his ice time over what Sharp got on the ice to put up the same amount of points. Sharp's cap hit in '12-'13 will be $5.9 mil. Moulson's - approx $3.1 mil while Parise is over $7.5 mil.

That's a way too much money to drop on a guy that's only broken the 80 point plateau twice in 7 years.

Same goes with what Columbus wants for Rick Nash. The guy wasn't in the top 50 in scoring and has only cracked 70 points once in 9 years and is a -71 for his career. I know that's a goofy stat, but -71????

 

[solbes]

Sure, but you can't just look at a stat sheet and determine how much a guy or guy(s) might help your club. Suter will eat huge minutes and can help push the puck out of our zone. Neither of those would show up on a scoring stat sheet. Zach's points took a dip last year, but he also came back from a major injury and had a good playoff run. He had a couple of seasons as an 80+ point guy. He's obviously not a Malkin or Giroux, but he's a huge upgrade. I expect 70-75 points out of him playing with Koivu and Heater.

What I like just as much as anything is how we can move some of these 3rd line guys off of the 2nd line to where they should be. With all the injuries we had in the 2nd half of last year, we had 3rd line guys playing on the 1st line! You're not going to win many games like that and we didn't. And finally with some of our better prospects playing in Houston this year, we have a little bit of depth if injuries do happen. Yeah I'm drinking the red and green Kool-Aid, but its been awhile since we could be excited for the season to start.

 

[jtkratzer]

Sure, but you can't just look at a stat sheet and determine how much a guy or guy(s) might help your club. Suter will eat huge minutes and can help push the puck out of our zone. Neither of those would show up on a scoring stat sheet. Zach's points took a dip last year, but he also came back from a major injury and had a good playoff run. He had a couple of seasons as an 80+ point guy. He's obviously not a Malkin or Giroux, but he's a huge upgrade. I expect 70-75 points out of him playing with Koivu and Heater.

What I like just as much as anything is how we can move some of these 3rd line guys off of the 2nd line to where they should be. With all the injuries we had in the 2nd half of last year, we had 3rd line guys playing on the 1st line! You're not going to win many games like that and we didn't. And finally with some of our better prospects playing in Houston this year, we have a little bit of depth if injuries do happen. Yeah I'm drinking the red and green Kool-Aid, but its been awhile since we could be excited for the season to start.

You should be excited. Those guys should make Minnesota a better team. I used to live west of the cities and I'd love to see Minnesota compete regularly again.

I know there's far more to a player's game than the stat sheet, but you don't pay $98 million to a role player. Parise and Suter just became the 3rd and 4th players in the league to make $12 mil this year and along with Tyler Myers and Brad Richards, are the highest paid players in the league. That should put it into perspective. Parise is far from one of the top 5 or 10 players in the league, yet he makes the most money in the league. Their cap hits are tied for 7th overall.

Look at these names and numbers:
http://capgeek.com/leaders.php?type=CAP_HIT&position=-1&limit=25

And this list of 25 overpaid guys:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...les/1126771-the-nhls-25-most-overpaid-players

I'm just not convinced those guys are worth that kind of money and cap hit for the next 1.2 decades.

 

[paulster2626]

These contracts are ruining hockey. Can't wait to see te bitch-slap the league comes up with in the next CBA.

 

[jtkratzer]

These contracts are ruining hockey. Can't wait to see te bitch-slap the league comes up with in the next CBA.

It's tough because it's all about supply and demand. I think the ability to pay a guy $12 mil one year in a contract and $2 mil in another and have the same cap hit across the term is ridiculous.

 

[paulster2626]

The only reason there's no supply is because of the ability to hand out these stupid contracts in the first place.
Jordan Staal just got a 10 year deal for $60M? Luongo extended forever? WTF.

 

[jtkratzer]

The only reason there's no supply is because of the ability to hand out these stupid contracts in the first place.
Jordan Staal just got a 10 year deal for $60M? Luongo extended forever? WTF.

And then there are the no trade clauses or the inability to take on that kind of cap hit by other teams without swapping similar contracts. It seems to have reduced the number of rental players moving at the deadline on their last few months of a contract before UFA status.

 

[copyright1997]

These contracts show how great of a deal Pittsburgh got with Crosby, assuming he actually plays.

 

[jtkratzer]

These contracts show how great of a deal Pittsburgh got with Crosby, assuming he actually plays.

Not sure on that. I'm sure Pittsburgh had it in their minds about his fragility of late.

 

[paulster2626]

These contracts show how great of a deal Pittsburgh got with Crosby, assuming he actually plays.

Of course. He's the only player actually worth one of these contracts.

Seriously, if you're not top-5 in the League, then really these should not even be considered.

Crosby
Malkin
Stamkos
Chara
Kessel/Phaneuf :cross:

The only players who should be signed for "life". I remember a time when a 5-year deal was something big. Now it just seems kinda short. 5 years is acutally a pretty long time to commit to a player.

 

[Goofynewfie]

 

[sivdrinks]

Scott Stevens is finally behind the bench again, assistant coach with the Devils of course. Very exciting for Devils fans, hopefully he teaches guys how to hit again, especially over the middle.

 

[MeatyPortion]

Good news for Devils fans. I sense another potential run at the cup.