4 hours ago, NHL HHOF said:

Does anyone know the game number that Wayne Gretzky scored his 894th goal in? How can I find out?

Gretzky scored #894 in his 1,477th game played.

1. Figuring it out was very easy: I went to his profile at Hockey Reference: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/gretzwa01.html

2. Saw that he came into his last season with 1,415 GP.

3. Brought up his gamelog from his final season: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/gretzwa01/gamelog/1999

4. Goal #894 came in his 62nd game of the year.

5. 1415 + 62 = 1477

1 hour ago, Buffalo Rick said:

Then we should see them in finals

Come on; you know that's not what I said.

Quote

The Sabres right now are better than them and Washington and losing Jack Quinn for half season cost us the seed.

Yeah, it would have been close. The Sabres had a Pts% of .556 with Quinn in the lineup, which equates to around 91 points in the standings, like the Red Wings. The Caps and Red Wings were really only in the playoff hunt more for the types of losses they had than the wins they were getting. Would have been closer, though.

1 hour ago, Tomdog said:

I read some of the article on his firing. Said they were expected to compete for a playoff spot this year. 
In what alternate universe was that?

looking at their roster makes me wonder how they finished as well as they did. 

It's almost as if Buffalo's management isn't amazing at assessing talent.

25 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Sure, and the Ellis trade was great for 4 games. 

 

We needed a #1 defenceman and there was a potential #1 right there....so he took a winger. Who doesn't want to play for Philly.  Brilliant!

Jiricek is already positively impacting results in Columbus, too. Big physical defenders with two-way skills trump all but the most productive wingers.

For a bit of fun, a comparison:

Pierre Luc-Dubois

78 GP, 15-24-39, -10

Cap Hit – $8.5M

Cost of Acquisition: traded for Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and Gabriel Vilardi

Warren Foegele:

77 GP, 17-20-37, +1

Cap Hit: $2.75M

Cost of Acquisition: traded for Ethan Bear

This trade-and-sign is the gift that keeps giving.

1 minute ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

 

It's all they have. Expectation should be within reason. 

 

They are 2 years away from ing being 2 years away.

 

The old tried and true Flyer motto.

The Oilers hit with three picks in 1979, then four in 1980 and three in 1981 and built a dynasty from it. They did in three years what most teams manage in 25 seasons. The Red Wings hit with six in 1989, four in 1990, and four in 1991, and that gave them a dynasty run which let the winning run on fumes for about 20 years.

When only two teams have ever done this, asking Briere to do it is just not a reasonable expectation.

2 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

 

Yep covered that here.

 

@JR Ewing

 

@flyercanuck

 

 

There's hope and then there's hopium.

11 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

They need so much help it would be very nice if Danny could just hit on his first 4 picks (2 1st and 2 2nds) alone.

 

If you can land 4 players who will help and stick for the rebuild it would be huge in about 4 years once MM is over.

 

It would be better than nice if Briere could draft four actual NHL players; it would be an astoundingly successful result. The Flyers have done this three times since they began drafting in 1967. It's really quite rare. My own line in the sand for "actual NHL player" is one who can play 250 games in this league. Note that I'm not saying star players or impact players, but one who can provide enough value to play for a few years.

2003: Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Colin Fraser, Alexandre Picard

1983: Rick Tocchet, Peter Zezel, Derrick Smith, Pelle Eklund

1972: Bill Barber, Tom Bladon, Jimmy Watson, Al MacAdam

Danny Briere will almost surely not draft four NHL players this June.

4 hours ago, Buffalo Rick said:

Edmonton has the star power but not much in keeping other teams out.

No, this is one where perception, particularly from people who don't watch many western games, doesn't match reality. You'll hear that the Oilers can't defend AND have terrible goaltending, but they have the 9th-lowest GA/GP in the NHL, and the 5th-lowest since the coaching change.

From Field of Schemes:

24 minutes ago, icehole said:

I'm starting to lean towards him not being the guy. I think that if he had that core of players that were stars and have been in the league 10 years, maybe he can be that guy. But he won't last that long to find out.

 

It's a shame though. He's my favorite coach since Lavi, and probably my second favorite flyers coach of all time behind Lavi. Flyers have had some unlikeable coaches. Speaking of Lavi, I don't know if he can make it to the end either. He has a good start on teams but flames out quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rangers flame out early this year.

He's in Philly for the rebuild, and was brought in for "accountability" and "culture change". If a winner is be made from this project (and getting a superstar is unlikely with the course they're taking) he won't be the coach by the time it happens.

2 minutes ago, radoran said:

Four seven playoff game rounds is a massive mountain to climb and arguably the most difficult tournament in professional sport.

 

There is no way to shortcut this reality.

 

You don't have to build "a good team" - you have to build a team that will beat four other teams' good team in four seven game playoff rounds.

100%

This sentiment of "Oh, but he never won a Cup" seems to be widespread among the media, players and fans.

At some point we may have to realize that the attitude of Stanley Cup or bust is not reasonable in an era with a salary cap, 32 teams, especially when randomness, goaltending (which is another species of randomness), and overtimes plays such a big role in who ultimately wins. And now, above all of that, we have a new model, which grants the best chance to win the Cup to the team whose General Manager is able to use LTIR to over-load his team with more impact players and still be cap-compliant during the regular season. This was raised to comic levels by Tampa Bay and Vegas, who had Kucherov and Stone practicing for a month before the playoffs, before finally being ready to go immediately after the end of the regular season.

A million things have to go right in order to win the Cup and anybody with an approach of "Hey; if we get in we have a chance" is deluding themselves.

2 minutes ago, radoran said:

Anyone who thinks the Flyers are anywhere near this possibility should contact my realtor about this nice bridge on lower Manhattan that heads out to one of the boroughs... Beautiful views of the harbor.

 

They're plucky and have a strong Give a Sh|t/60 but, no, they're not remotely ready.

@radoran Right. He's not a bad coach at all, and I don't think he abuses his staff like some coaches, but his style wears on the players and the message gets old after about three seasons.

Sources: NHL, Arizona Coyotes working on agreement to sell and relocate to Salt Lake City

Frank Seravalli

UPDATE [3:02 p.m. ET]: Sources tell Daily Faceoff that the NHL, Arizona Coyotes and Smith Entertainment Group have made significant and meaningful progress on an agreement that would see the Coyotes franchise sold and relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah. The machinations of the potential deal, which would have a renamed and rebranded franchise playing in Salt Lake in October, are mentioned below in the original story from Wednesday morning. The NHL sent an update memo to the Board of Governors on Wednesday amid media speculation. Sources said Coyotes players have been informed a “verbal” agreement is in place, but we have received pushback on that characterization of talks. To date, no deal has been completed. There is much work to be done, and it’s complicated and will involve many layers and lawyers. Stay tuned.

_____

The NHL is concurrently drafting two versions of a league schedule matrix for the 2024-25 season, one with the Arizona Coyotes and another with the Coyotes franchise playing in Salt Lake City in the event of relocation, multiple sources told Daily Faceoff.

That does not mean the NHL has firmed up plans to relocate the franchise yet, just that the league has a viable contingency plan for next season. But the news comes on the heels of billionaire prospective owner Ryan Smith publicly soliciting potential names for an NHL team in Utah earlier this week.

As the NHL has been working on dual paths, multiple sources indicate Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo is intimately involved in both. The first, of course, involves the Coyotes remaining in the Phoenix area by building a new arena via Arizona State Land Trust auction, which is scheduled for June 27.

But there is a real possibility that the Coyotes franchise is not based in Arizona come June 27.

The second path involves Meruelo selling control of the franchise in a multi-layered process that would include Smith Entertainment Group paying north of $1.2 billion, part of which is a relocation fee that would be distributed to league owners. Smith owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz and the yet-to-be renamed NHL team would temporarily play in the basketball-oriented Delta Center until a multipurpose arena could be built to adequately house both teams.

“We are interested. We are ready, and we’re a partner,” Smith told The Athletic this week. “The arena is done. We think we have a solution. And that’s my message to the NHL.”

An announcement on a sale and relocation could come as soon as April 18, the day after the Coyotes’ final regular season home game at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University. Sources continually cautioned that no deal is done, Meruelo remains steadfast in his belief that he can build a gleaming new palace for the Desert Dogs, and the NHL is working hard to avoid a long and protracted battle that could surface if Meruelo is not satisfied with the terms of a transaction. Sources briefed on the ongoing discussions indicated Meruelo could receive up to $1 billion for the Coyotes. The exact figures of the proposed transaction are speculated and all details and mechanics of a proposed deal remain fluid.

“Lots of moving pieces,” one source said. “Nothing is resolved at this point.”

The NHL still has time to play this out for next season, but the clock is ticking. The sale and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg was not substantially complete until May 20, 2011, and not formally announced until May 31. If a Coyotes sale and relocation does not materialize by late May, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said last month that waiting until a June land auction date would likely ensure the Coyotes will play at least one more season at Mullett Arena.

Many questions remain, but one stands out: with all of this is happening behind the scenes, why did the Coyotes release arena renderings and a strongly worded commitment to Arizona last week?

Perhaps the answer is that Meruelo intends to win the June 27 land auction and develop that sports and entertainment district in the hopes of luring the NHL back to Arizona with a future expansion franchise. Sources said part of the agreement to sell now could include language that would allow Meruelo to ‘reactivate’ the Coyotes franchise in future years, including name and trademarks, if a new arena is built and terms and conditions of the agreement with the NHL are met.

That part shouldn’t be a surprise to hockey fans. After two decades of wandering in the desert, the NHL has ardently supported hockey in Phoenix at every turn, and commissioner Gary Bettman doesn’t have any intention of leaving fans or the market high and dry.

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/sources-nhl-drafting-2024-25-schedule-version-with-coyotes-relocated-to-salt-lake-city

9 minutes ago, FD19372 said:

It probably was the right move, and Walker not being here isn't the main reason for the Flyers struggles..by ANY stretch of the imagination. I don't think it's a total coincidence, however, that they've struggled more defensively and offensively since he was traded to the Avs.

The combination of losing their best two-way defender and gaining a sub-replacement one is a thing.

1 minute ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Walker had a great year, but trading him was the right move. We're supposed to be rebuilding. They should have traded Seeler too. Among others.

Yeah, I don't disagree with trading him at all. He's on the wrong side of 30 and not a core player going forward. The "keep him around" part was in reference to the post to which I originally was responding, where the other poster was asking which players could be expected to maintain their level of play.

56 minutes ago, flyerrod said:

Who knew Walker was a critical piece of this team…….

As cheesy as it may be to quote myself...

On 1/17/2024 at 1:44 PM, JR Ewing said:

 

I think this is a *very* good way to look at things.

 

GF% and CorsiFor% tend to match up very well with each other: if a player is having unsustainable good luck, it should show up with a GF% a lot higher than expected (sort of like the entire Canucks team this year). The opposite generally holds true if his GF% is much lower than his CorsiFor%, but either way, as the games pile up, there's a tendency for these numbers to be pretty close to each other, plus or minus a couple of percent. A gap of 5-10% usually reverts to the mean.

 

If you look at those and their PDO, it's a decent look at whether or not a player has been getting the bounces: over 1.0, and the player's numbers are (except in the rare case of superstars) probably not sustainable, and if it's lower than 1.0, his results are unsustainably low.

 

Nick Seeler

GF%: 58.8%, CF%: 50.2%, PDO: 1.014

 

Sean Walker

GF%: 54.6%, 52 CF%, 0.996

 

So yes, just as you point out, Seeler's results are due for a collapse. When it will happen, nobody knows, but when a player is a getting a lot more of the goals than the possession indicates, with a high PDO, the regression is coming.

 

Walker, though, is getting results that are matching is play. He seems worth holding on to, for me.

I don't know if it's so much that Ersson has been badly over-worked as that the the club traded their best blue-liner and added their worst one during this stretch.

10 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

 

After LOL I thought of the deal Briere made with Owen Tippett this year... made me appreciate it all the more. It could've been another Skinner. To be fair (IIRC) Skinner got his $72mil after the 40-goal season - the only 40-goal season so far. Maybe it's a blessing the Flyers only had Couturier and Frost dealing to Tippett this year.

Owen Tippett is an offense-first guy who is below average defensively, and he's still light years better than Skinner, who has no interest or ability to help on the defensive side of the puck and would rather do just about anything other than dig in the corners. Skinner is overpaid by about $4.5M and Tippett's next contract is right on the money for AAV.

I know who'd I rather have every day.

10 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

 

Flyers' fans have renamed it Tortorella hockey this year. It's probably fair but is it a knock? I'm not sure. Can teams sustain their style into the POs? Is the stamina required unrealistic? It's an interesting question. I don't know if there is an answer. So much goes into winning the Cup...

 

I think the chief difference between them is that Torts generally treats his players with respect while Sutter's players mostly despised him and felt constantly disrespected. Tortorella usually stands up for his players and doesn't air dirty laundry to the media, while Sutter's teams have locked him out of the dressing room rather than be subjected to more of his sh|t.

Guys are willing to push themselves for somebody who challenges them, but not so much for coaches who kick players in the back on the bench, constantly kick/throw garbage cans around the room, forbid them to eat on flights if they lose, etc. When Jonathon Huberdeau left the game due to injury, the press was amused when Sutter said he left "to take a ****" but the player and his teammates felt it was disrespectful and belittling of him being hurt. When Jakob Pelletier made his NHL debut, Sutter was dismissive, asking what his number was and that he has a long way to go as a player, which was another point against him with Flames players.

Sutter is a throwback to the days when coaches were allowed to abuse players as they wished, and I've never heard that Tortorella pulls any of that kind of crap. It's just one player after another who has say that's demanding but fair, and that he always sticks up for them.

1 hour ago, RonJeremy said:

Behind every great wingers success is a skilled playmaking center.

I love it when teams other than my own over-pay low calorie wingers after being paired up with a high end centre who brings them career highs. The Sabres pairing Jeff Skinner with Jack Eichel and then laying out a $9M AAV, will never not be funny.

My guess is that people around here will think that I just care about stats, but it couldn't be further from the truth. I like to read the numbers because it gives me an understanding of what happened when I can’t watch. It surrounds the player’s upside & downside in some ways.

But for me, the sport has always been about one-on-one battles when it comes to serious hockey. Not the hockey you see in January between a top 4 team and one out of the playoffs, but between evenly-matched skill during the Spring. Some refer to it as Darryl Sutter hockey, and I guess that's right, although I didn’t really like him as a HC because he makes his teams play that way all season, so they're gassed come playoffs – but I ramble.

When I watch d-men in their own end, I watch who comes out of the corners with the puck. Along the boards, I watch to see which forward gets the puck out over the line when they have the chance; who ties up the guys stick in the slot. Things like that. I love watching the beautiful plays, of course, because the skill makes watching the game fun & exciting. But the trenches are, for me, where games are won and lost once the skill becomes neutralized.

I've seen Jeff Skinner score some pretty goals, and that's great, but I'm not sure I ever saw Jeff Skinner come off the boards with the puck when it was contested. To me, that is a problem when people are discussing numbers getting close to 8,9,10, etc million dollars per season.

8 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Fantastic post.

 

  Man, as a fan I have to admit I struggled for years with post career. CTE. I admit I love the hits, love Fighting in the game. Probie, Kocur, Domi, just loved them. Hated concussions but felt, well, they are paid more in a solid year than I make in ten. I cared but wanted to win. 

  My perspective changed when my oldest came home from Afghanistan for the third time. She had seen things and done things. Her best friend died twenty feet away. Without giving away personal facts, there are two days a year that she gets blind drunk. It's been eight years and PTSD is still here.

  So my perspective has changed quite a lot. I want to win now, but I do care about concussion issues much more than before. We have heard about a good dozen who CTE has claimed. There are dozens upon dozens who need help.  I don't want to hear about the next player Dead at fifty. Safety absolutely has to come first, full stop.

This is where I'm at as well. I *loved* the energy and emotion in games back when there was a lot more fighting, but it's tough to see so many men dying so young, and their last years being spent in so much pain. When I was a kid, the constant message was "nobody really gets hurt in hockey fights" and that it was just fat lips and black eyes. Just check out this article from the CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-enforcers-study-1.6838788

2 minutes ago, Cheesesteak said:

reddit.nhlbite.com for anyone needing a new stream...that other site cut away from game and is stuck in some WPT loop

 

http://reddit.nhlbite.com

To add my bit to the pile... For anybody who has a VPN, this site has amazing quality:

https://nhl66.ir/

40 minutes ago, hmc687 said:

 

Precisely.  Arizona is a sorry franchise, just like you say.  So too is Buffalo, Columbus, and Anaheim.

 

You think Bettman and company wanted the next face of hockey to play THERE?!?  Or ANY of those places???

 

No chance.

This is such a silly point of conversation, just like most ridiculous conspiracy theories. Nobody can prove that the NHL didn't rig the draft in Edmonton's favour just like nobody can prove that the Easter Bunny doesn't exist. So what; it doesn't make it true.

46 minutes ago, hmc687 said:

 

NHL has a Canadian and Original 6 bias.  Always catering to those clubs.  Of course Buffalo and Arizona were robbed of McDavid and ofc Anaheim and Columbus were robbed of Bedard.

Arizona? The league has bent over backwards to keep that sorry franchise where they are, to the extent that they're now playing in a tiny college arena where the fans of opposing teams outnumber people cheering for the Coyotes. The team is almost literally just a dumping grounds for LTIR contracts.