The_Kaptan

My welcome in Philadelphia - Vincent Lecavalier And in the same vein Mario reincarnated: My 2013-14 playoff goals highlight reel - directed by Sidney Crosby.

I just read a report that Steigerwald filed a lawsuit for attempted murder and is trying to get the kid tried as an adult.

What made Weber a realistic shot was the questionable financial situation the Preds were in combined with the fact that you could realistically afford to sign him at the maximum level contract. In order to poach Carlson or Subban you'd have to offer a contract way outside of their realistic value on the market, otherwise you have to expect that both of their teams, who aren't suffering money issues like the Preds were, will match. It's not realistic to expect that offering a sheet on either of those guys will lead to actually getting them unless Howson is suddenly hired by their clubs or one of the GMs suffers an aneurism in the middle of signing the matching offer sheet alone in a cold war bunker with a door that has a week long time release that can only be interrupted from the inside, or unless the Flyers make a salary offer so brain dead that it makes the Scott Gomez deal look like pure genius, and even that's not a guarantee.

Really? All three of those guys come off the cap at the end of the year. In a year where cap space isn't going to be a problem because there's nobody left to spend it on why would you give up a first round pick much less two to get rid of those guys?

People can say what they want to about Clarke, but I think despite some of his bad decisions he still put the team in the position to win most of the time. We (I mean the Flyers) had a real shot to win the cup the year before the lockout (damn you Fedotenko!). If we hadn't run into Tampa, if it wasn't for Feds, if we'd won just one more game I really think we'd have beaten Calgary that year. Obviously Clarke couldn't hash it anymore once the cap was in place, but we could have done worse than Clarke as gm for those years he was there. Hindsight is 20/20. And of course, there were injuries. Lots of them. Every year. I wa calling for McCrossin's head after the Lindros incident was over and done with (personally at least, I wasn't posting o philly.com at the time), and it seems like during Clarke's tenure there was always too many guys out at the wrong times. I know injuries are part of hockey, but it always seemed like the Flyers were high up on the list of man-games lost, and that also forces the gm's hand sometimes if you expect to be competitive.

Oh, I absolutely agree. That why I can't get too bent out of shape by how our team looks right now. We saw last year when everybody panicked because we traded away so many goals in Carter and Richards and everyone questioned whether the the kids could make them up. And they did. I think the one thing we haven't done well as an organization for many years is the one thing we're actually being forced into doing this year, and that's essentially taking the time to evaluate what we really have in a lot of our young players. Personally, I'm really looking forward to seeing Gus and MAB and the rest of the kids this year, and I think we might be pleasantly surprised by what we see in them. Obviously you have to worry about the sophmore slump, and maybe one or two will disappoint, but all in all I think at the very least Vorachek and Simmonds will see improvement even if BSchenn and Couts and Read struggle. The only thing I would caution people against is expecting too much from Schenn and Couts in terms of offense. They've only been in the league a year now, and while they showed a lot of promise you don't necessarily grow into the game so quickly just because you have a year of experience. Even Giroux had a couple of promising but not earth shattering seasons before last year.

Hahaha. Well, that's why I'm asking. The last time I heard anything about the guy he was the next great defenseman that everybody in the league wanted on their team. Sounds like he's just Carle part deux with a worse contract, in which case, he can stay in Calgary.

What's everybody's opinion of Jay Bouwmeester? As far as I can tell he seems to have gone off the track a bit when he went to Calgary, but I understand the Flames are willing to deal him and while his cap hit is large it's not that far off from Carle's. He always seemed like the kind of guy who might actually be able to fit in well with the players we have as I recall what they were saying about him back when he was playing for Florida, but being that I haven't heard much about him since going to Calgary I was wondering what anyone knows about him now. Does anyone think he could be a good trade target for the Flyers in wake of our need for another legit defenseman? Or is he just more of what we already have?

This is true but in all fairness I think we all recognize that Danny had a down year that really isn't indicative of how good he is.

I think anyone who doesn't like this deal needs to understand that market values change over time. Everybody who remembers Hartnell's contract when he signed it was saying he was overpaid at the time. Nobody would agree with that now. I think some of this we overpaid for x player stuff is basing their opinion on the reality of the market 3 or 4 years ago. Look at Carle's contract. Hell, even Briere's contract doesn't seem as unreasonable now as it used to considering it wasn't a 10+ year deal.

I keep seeing this, and I gotta be honest, I think this is totally unrealistic. First of all, Weber is a franchise player, and a guy who people (at least or especially in Nashville) will pay to watch. The reason you need to trade assets back to Nashville is that they can't afford to take the hit from a PR standpoint without getting something exciting for the franchise back, and the fate of hockey in Nashville more or less depends on him. Four first round picks is nothing to shake a stick at, especially with the Preds track record of drafting and grooming players, but those players are years away from playing in the NHL and that franchise needs something NOW to keep it viable. This is why it's unrealistic to expect that Nashville won't match the offer unless they get something back. And as far as what they're expecting back, it'll be one of the young guys (Schenn or Couts) and another roster player and two picks. If I'm Nashville, I don't care how much its going to cost me to keep Weber, but that's the return I need to get back to make this work. I know what all of us are willing to give up (Vorachek, Read, Mez, etc.) but those guys are guys who are nice to have, great for team depth, guys who you need to have on your team to be successful. But those aren't core guys, those are the in-betweens that are better than role players but not stars. I'd love to get away with this deal giving up someone like Vorachek and Mez, but it's not happening for the same reasons it wouldn't happen if the shoe was on the other foot. This isn't an NHL video game, this is real life, and Poile isn't the NHL equivalent of Ed Wade. That being said, if the cost is one of the young guys and another roster player not named Giroux, I still do the deal, because Weber is a cornerstone guy who'll legitimize your defense for the next 10 years while the core comes into it's prime and we have time to build the rest of the roster up. I guarantee you that while the deal may hurt in the short term, in the long term it will pay HUGE dividends. Plus, Weber (just like Pronger) is a born Flyer, how can we not want him to come here?

The problem is the money the Preds are gonna have to spend just to keep him for one year. Sure, they can trade him afterwards, but they're going to be out 27 million dollars for a one year rental. Yeah, they'll get a lot in return, but the question is would management want to spend that kind of money for a guy they won't hang on to? This is why I think Weber will be a Flyer and the Flyers are going to send some players Nashville's way. If the Preds are only going to get picks, they'll sign the offer sheet (if they don't just decide to do that outright and keep him despite the money) but at the end of the day the best thing for the organization would be to pry away a couple quality players and a couple picks that'll keep the team financially solvent and give their fans SOMETHING to say that they didn't get entirely shafted in this deal.

Indeed. I usually lurk nowadays, but every now and then I have to stretch my fingers. And it's been hard to stay away today, much to the chagrin of my employer, I'm sure.

Essentially what the bonus does is allow him to collect the money in a lump sum at the beginning of the year. In this case he gets the money July 1st of next year- this means the preds would have to come up with 27 mil before July 1st next year, and any subsequent years. On top of this (as I understand it) signing bonus money is not counted in the salary rollback that is being discussed in the new CBA, so the team who gets him would still be on the hook for the full amount. I may be incorrect about that though, so don't quote me.

I could have been a tightrope walker: the key to good balance By Scott Hartnell