radoran

True enough, but then you get that whole international border hassle... I doubt that many current Leafs fans would "jump ship", and I think it would be pretty nice for both teams to have "away" games and still sleep in their own bed that night.

The issue, again, isn't the FANS in Tronno, it's the LEAFS OWNERSHIP.. Ownership has been against a second franchise in the market for years and shows no signs of changing. Again, they're the most valuable franchise in the league and have had to win zip since expansion to get there. What's the "up side" for them allowing another team in their market?

This is the NHL. Do you really think they're doing things because the FANS want them a certain way?

You've also, respectfully, just argued both that Tronno could support another team in Tronno, but that few Leafs fans in Tronno would "jump ship" for a team about an hour away (depending where in the GTA you live) in Hamilton. I'm not sure it goes both ways - and I'm not sure that Hamilton can support a team without support from SW Tronno Metro and the Niagara peninsula.

Related - I don't think Buffalo would be terribly happy with a team in Hamilton, either. Buffalo does a lot of cross-border business - and gets a good crowd from Hamilton for Habs games because of the Bulldogs. Because of the cross-border issues you note, having a team in Hamilton c/would work to dry up a good deal of that revenue.

I was just living in Buffalo during the whole "Coyotes to Hamilton" thing blew up and these were the major reasons cited for it not happening.

@radoran Hamilton has a lot better shot than Kitchener, granted. But I just know it's been discussed. And if New york can have two teams (hockey, baseball, AND football), then Canada's New York can certainly have two as well. They'd be able to fill both those arena's quite well.

I'm not disputing Tronno's ability to support the teams, I'm questioning whether the Leaes would allow it to happen. They're not the league's most valuable franchise despite 40 years of abject failure for nothing, you know.

Hamilton's a city of 500,000 with a Metro of under 700K. - about the same Metro size as Winnipeg except that Winnipeg doesn't have two established hockey teams (Leaes, Sabres) within a 90 minute drive.

Kings scored huge on the Richards trade. Simmonds is nothing special and schenn appears to be easily injured. Though Richards is out and might have a concussion. Guess it is kind of a wash/flyers win since at least the flyers have one of those players playing.

I'm gonna go ahead and opine that 25 games into the first season of a trade is an awful place to try to evaluate it.

Suppose, God forbid, Richards never plays another game for the Kings because of concussion. Did the Kings still come out "huge"?

Suppose Schenn turns into a 40/40 center in the next 3-4 years. Did the Kings still come out "huge"?

We also don't know what that No. 2 turns into. While a crapshoot to be sure, there are some high quality players who came out of the second round.

If anything, I think the trade is a bit of a wash on both sides at the moment. The Flyers (apparently) had to shake up the room (again) before being locked into long term contracts with NTCs. The Kings got a solid player who is playing the role he probably should have kept in Philly for a while longer.

Both teams could end up coming out "huge" on that deal. After 1/4 of a season, yes, the Kings have gotten more immediate impact on the scoresheet but we likely don't know the full impact the trade had on the Flyers off the scoresheet...

Two game suspension for Tootoo.

Fair enough.

Sounds like Buffalo needs to call up a career AHL goon for their next tilts with Boston and Nashville...

What's that? They don't play the Preds again? Good point.

But they close the season @ Boston...

<< Carolina/Islanders simply aren't going to be able to do that. >>

It's the AL East of hockey.

great comparison! Of couse, in the AL East Tampa with one of the most godawful stadiums in the league is competitive while the Orioles with the original "beautiful new stadium" is basically drawing flies...

Also, too, I totally forgot the Tronno Blue Jayes were in the AL East.

With the new alignment, you could potentially have team(s) with better records sitting at home simply due to alignment.

I think you *will* have this situation - and sooner than later.

Why not do this alignment for travel and scheduling purposes, and have the congerence winners as 1-2 seeds, based on record? Then the top 6 records from those divisions complete the playoff seedings.

That makes the most sense - and eliminates the ridiculous "3rd seed" division winner.

Just five seasons ago, WAS, BOS, and the Flyers were atrocious, both OTT and NJ were ridiculously good, and both NYI and TOR would have been in the playoffs. Who's strong and who's weak can change at a moment's notice, so there's no reason complaining about competitive imbalance. You're likely to end up on the wrong side of the imbalance soon enough.

One can easily see that the Flyers' 06-07 season is such an outlier on their record as to be outside of effective analysis. It's the only time since 1994 - 17 years - that the Flyers didn't make the postseason. Over that stretch they have one fewer first round exit (4) than the Canes have *appearances* (5).

The facts are that teams with big payrolls - like the Flyers - can turn things around quickly. Carolina/Islanders simply aren't going to be able to do that. Is it possible that Carolina could make the playoffs as a 4? Sure. But can you seriously see the Hurricanes being in the Top 3 of this "conference" on a consistent basis - EVER? They have five playoff appearances in 14 seasons in Carolina and, even with two Finals appearances, the All Star game and one of the league's exciting young players, they're 24th in home attendance trailing Florida, Tampa Bay and Nashville... They haven't made the playoffs in two years and aren't likely to do so this year, holding the third worst record in hockey having played two more games than the two teams behind them.

The Islanders? In fact, the Isles made the playoffs in 06-07 - losing in the first round. The Isles have been to the playoffs four times since 1994 and haven't been out of the first round since 1993. I wouldn't tout the 06-07 Isles as an example that shows the Isles can "compete" in this new "conference."

The Leafs haven't sniffed the postseason since the lockout.

Ottawa I would think has a better chance in their division of turning around and competing. Hell, they get to play Tronno and Florida six times apiece.

The four "conference" playoff system sucks... At least with the two-conference system, the SE Div team could luck into a first round home advantage. This way, they will almost never have home ice.

Hamilton/Kichener will never get NHL teams and I can't see Tronno allowing their monopoly of failure to be sullied by another franchise in the area who might have a commitment to, you know, actually winning something at some point.

Good for the Wings and I like the geographic nature of the Conferences (aside from the "Florida in the Northeast" angle - but they do have direct flights for snowbirds...). Tampa not only has a Cup, but also pretty good attendance numbers, if not actual "revenue." Florida? Well, there shouldn't be hockey in Miami...

I don't like the unbalanced "conferences" at all, though.

Oh, and the national sport of Canada is lacrosse. No, really.

The unbalanced "conferences" bug me. I wouldn't want to be in an eight team "conference" that gets four playoff spots when other teams are in a seven team "conference" with four playoff spots.

And the playoff matches - as a friend in Buffalo noted on Facebook - are going to get real boring real fast. We won't see Boston, Buffalo or Montreal until the Semis or Finals?? That kinda blows from where I sit.

Carolina may as well just fold up tents right now. There's no way IMHO that they can compete year in and year out with Philly, Pittsburgh, New York in any way in the forseeable future.

I'm sure there's someone who has one (Zetterberg?)) who's kept up their end of the bargain. But from a Flyers standpoint(Pronger, Richards, Carter, Bryzgalov, even Brieres regular seasons ), I'm just not seeing it. I doubt Isles fans (Yashin, DiPietro) would argue with me. I doubt that Caps fans (Ovechkin, Backstrom) would. I doubt Canuck fans (Luongo) would. Lightning fans? (LeCavalier) Doubt it. Hossa in Chicago? He's gone from a 100 point player to 50 his last 2 seasons. They lucked out getting rid of Campbell. And do you think the Rangers are glad they got out of Gomez AND Drurys boatanchor contracts?

You'd think guys who'd worked so hard to get where they are wouldn't change just because they finally hit their big payday, But apparently for the most part they do.

Bryzgalov has played a whopping 18 games of his nine year deal. I'm not forcefully disagreeing, but am suggesting you just MIGHT be jumping the gun a bit.

Richards and Crater seem to be working out pretty well for the Flyers :-)

Pronger's deal was designed to circumvent, until they got caught doing it...

Briere has been the best - and cheapest - of the three "#1 Cs, one of which we absolutely must sign (and convert to W) or the universe will end tomorrow." Aside from his career year in Buffalo, his stats - and play - are the best of his career. Yes, he had an injury-wracked season.

That said, I think long-term contracts aren't a very good idea for most players. I do think that the "hunger" is necessary to keep the edge and that security can breed complacency. I would have hoped that the Yashin/DiPietro debacles would have dissuaded GMs from following the lead of the esteemed Mike Millbury, but I'm wrong, of course.

What's the limit? Is Crosby's 5Y/$43.5M a good deal? Is five years the longest?

And, again, it's about choosing the PLAYERS. Would you have given Nick Lidstrom a 10 year deal 10 years ago? Joe Sakic? Mark Messier? There's no question that ALL players aren't worthy of such and I would argue that the occurrance is RARE (just LOOK at those three names!). I would also argue that giving a career contract to a guy in his early 20s might not be the best thing.

You need a guy who brings his own fire. Who wants to succeed whether it's in pond hockey or the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They DO exist.

We'll see how Bryzgalov does, but I'm honestly not looking forward to a 38, 39 and 40 year old $5.6M goalie...

and still hasn't figured out career long contracts leave little motivation for any player.

Except for that whole "winning" thing which does, you know, actually does mean something to some players.

Not everybody. But some players...

still hasn't figured out which players to give career long contracts...

I don't mean to sound like a Briere hater, because that's not the case, you're absolutely correct that of the big 3 centers the year we signed him he's been the best. his cap number is big and he's little, i hope he can play to his high level for the duration of the deal, i fear his tenure here may be sullied by his making 6.3 million and playing 35 games with 28 pts in his last year due to injury, (the chronic ones that come with age) that's all i'm saying.

The only rub there is that they would need to make that decision, apparently, before the next season (CBA expiry: 9/15/12).

Unless he breaks down a bit this season, I can't see the Flyers taking the (potential) buyout unless they decide to tear everything down and rebuild ground-up.

His size and injury situation is definitely a concern.

I hope we can buy someone out with the new cba, him briere, bryzgalov, someone....there are some boat anchor contrats on this roster.

I think Briere is working out fine. He's got three more years, but of the three "#1 Cs" that "had to be signed" he's worked out the best - Drury and Gomez being the other two. Aside from ths 06-07 year and his injury year in 08-09, he's had better numbers in his time in Philly than anywhere else.

He was also the cheapest.

Pronger's deal is a definite worry. They clearly intended to circumvent the cap there (IMO).

I'm a Bryzgalov fan, but nine years at $5.6M per is too much for too long...

I don't know who might be against a "special buy out period" - the NHLPA would be foolish as it would allow some players who were bought out to double up on compensation for the bought out years.

They might do it anyway, though...

The only other immediate long range deals are JVR and Coburn.

Crater could score 50 in back to back seasons and I'd still consider this trade a "plus" for the Flyers.

Really, the best bet is to buy him out if teams get a special buy out period after the new CBA, or trade him to a team needing to hit the cap floor.

If there is a special buyout period, I would agree that he's gone unless there's a tremendous turaround in health prospects.

Concussion-type symptoms are certainly cause for not playing (see: Primeau, Laperriere, etc.) and verifiable from "independent" sources.

As for trades, he does have one of those pesky NTCs...

Tootoo made the choice to drive headlong into the crease. He wasn't "squeezed into it" by the defenseman.

That's illegal. It's also a really really cheap play on another player, just back from concussion. "Intent to injure" seems obvious - or else Tootoo is a complete moron*

If I'm Miller, I'm willing to take a minor on that to show his team and the opposition (now and later) that he's not fragile and not going to take it.

* willing to accept this possiblity

If I read the situation correctly, Pronger's contract will be against the cap for the annual number, but he can be put on LTIR when the season begins (as Laperriere is).

The rub is that that space can't be used to sign players in the offseason - again, if I read it right.

They cannot buy him out. He cannot "retire."

All of the Caps are in a funk this season. Be interesting to see if any of them come out of it with the new coach.

Semin's got talent, but durability and commitment are definitely issues.

I wouldn't give up much to get him. Really depends on what Washington wants in return...

Walker's cap hit stays at $1.7M, but if his paid salary escaltes to $2M, it *might* have scared some people off claiming him.

Walker would likely have been on the roster if not for cap purposes.

Can we get a new tag for "blog posts". This is definitely not a "News Article". The bleacher report is a blog, stop acting like it is a legitimate new source.

I think the problem is that philly.com links to Bleacher Report off it's main pages - giving an additional air of legitimacy that clearly isn't earned.

I know it doesn't help our cap situation if he's claimed but frankly I'd be happy to see him gone once and for all.

We can argue whether trading Gagne was a smart move but in the end TB - now LA - got a solid 2-way winger who puts up points and we got a banged-up stiff who hasn't done a damn thing for us. Now the only thing left is to dump him.

I think this move - like Nodl - is an indication that they are willing to lose players. In fact, are TRYING to lose players because of their cap and total contract situation.

Walker at $850K is not a bad deal for a team and Homer obviously feels the Flyers can swing the $850K hit if they lose him.

I'd think Bartulis comes up if Walker is claimed. His $600K plus "Walker" at $850K is still less than Walker's hit alone.

They've then freed up two contract spots as well.

I have no doubt if the right deal comes along to move him to the contender, he will wave his NMC/NTC. Maybe reluctantly, but he'll wave it.

No question. I just really don't see that realistically happening.

As was pointed out, with all the cap implications on the contenders, the "right move" becomes very difficult to conceive of, much less find a reason for doing. His "actual cost" goes down over the season, but teams still need to fit under the overall annual cap.

There are also no real clear-cut "contenders" (there are a lot of "nagannas") to make such a move meaningful to him. He's already on an accepted "contender."

Yes, my Flyers shirt has 44 TIMONEN on the back of it, but if the right deal came along, I'd say "go!"

A 78-game-a-year Sabre fan can dream, right?

Plus, Selanne-Koivu-Leino? :-)

It took some time for Leino to get going in Philly. To me, he's really the kind of player that is made better by the players he plays with.

What I mean is: Hartnell + Briere + Leino < HartnellBriereLeino

- greater than the sum of it's parts.

It probably would have behooved Leino to have stayed on that line, but if someone waves $11 million in front of you, you tend to sign the paper.

He's in no way a $4M forward.

Well, we'll see tomorrow night if he found his way out of the woods. Of even more concern to me is if Jagr is rushing back to soon.

Bryzgalov is a streaky goalie in terms of shut down ability. Always has been. Always will be. But with a stable, reliable and familiar defense in front of him, he can be the steady stay-at-home goalie that makes the stops you need goalies to make and doesn't give up soft goals.

The "familiarity" on D is both between the goalie and D and the pairings amongst themselves. Bad bounces, odd deflections, etc. are often a result of players out of position or matchups lost in the shuffle. It's no accident that both goalies have played well with most of the Flyers' regular set D on the ice and had problems as they've shuffled pairings and disrupted chemistry.

And he's a head case - all goalies are head cases.

Jagr is coming back too soon in my esteemed medical opinion. Why they feel the need to potentially aggravate a known ailment of Jagr's - the groin - is beyond me. He's aggravated it twice in the past month and came back too soon the first time. Why not let him take the time?

Yes, you're in sixth - but you're 3 points behind first with two games in hand. And three points out of eighth with one in hand.

Have Jagr meet you in Buffalo.

I don't believe in "listening to the player" above all else. I believe in looking at what it takes an injury to "heal" and getting the player back to a true 100%. Err on the side of caution and maybe lose a game or two in the regular season vs. reinjuring the player severely or establishing a chronic problem.

Playoffs are a different story, for me, because of their immediate proximity to the off-season and long term ability to heal. That policy also has it's dangers - especially if you let a player like Laperriere make his own decision.

the flyers don't have a decision to make. holmgren made it.

+1