2018-19 Off Season Thread

[Vegas]

Damn it's been a slow summer, not much going on.

Iginla retires:

Iginla to retire after 20 NHL seasons - Article - TSN

Watson pleads no contest to DV:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sp...estic-assault-arrest-nhl-nashville/749002002/

This is a paid site but I think I saw the first 10 articles are free. Interesting comments from Bettman, sounds like a set up for a slap on the wrist.

I hope Iginla enjoys his retirement. He was a great player for a lot of years. Would have been good to have him around last year for the power play.

 

[Psych3man]

sounds like a set up for a slap on the wrist.

Better fucking not be

 

[Deader2818]

Im sure Watson will get some form of punishment but the key thing to remember is Watson is an American so he doesn't face any deportation issues like Voynov.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I hope Iginla enjoys his retirement. He was a great player for a lot of years. Would have been good to have him around last year for the power play.

He grew on me as the years went by, I wasn't a major fan of him at first. In fact I thougth he was on his way to bust city at 11th overall in 1995 and was a fluke after he regressed badly from his rookie season with the sophomore slump. Boy did this guy prove me wrong, and he went on to have a fantastic career. I wish he would have won a Cup, he certainly deserved one. He and Kiprusoff carried the Flames to the 2003-04 SCFs, and I still think Gelinas' goal went in and the game should have been over.

That 1995 draft produced a lot of solid NHLers in almost every round - Sami Kapanen, Marc Savard and Michal Handzus in the 4th, Kiprusoff in the same darft in the 5th round, Stephane Robidas in the 7th and even Danny Markov who went on to play in 500+ games in the 9th (last) round.

Solid NHL draft...unless you're LA and you take Aki Berg 3rd overall and both Don MacLean and Pavel Rosa in the 2nd. Good old Al Murray.

=)~~

He played decent for an old timer in LA, but I don't think he was going to get much from anyone at his age. I do like how he showed the team he was still as driven to be a leader, winner and and do-whatever-it-takes player at 39 as he was 22-23.

This fight was awesome when he stuck up for Kopitar who got roughed up a little bit behind the net by Engelland. He absolutely crushed him and he showed Calgary this is what happens when you hit our star players, not what happened with Tkachuk and Doughty.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Im sure Watson will get some form of punishment but the key thing to remember is Watson is an American so he doesn't face any deportation issues like Voynov.

His residential status won't determine what level of consequence he gets from the NHL. Voynov's immigration status was affected because he committed a crime, violating his visa. Voynov had two courts to deal with, criminal law and immigration law. Both were separate and committing a crime on his visa status triggered the immigration law case.

If it was Dustin Brown who did that he would have received the same punishment in criminal law and by the NHL. The immigration law case didn't have any bearing on Voynov's NHL punishment and vice versa.

I'm just curious to see how Bettman handles this.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

TGIF ya moooks, I'm still on Florida time having returned from my annual sale conference last night to Ontario.

Easily the roughest overall trip from beginning to end with delays in Phoenix, Orlando and Dallas, getting in at 8pm Monday night when we had a company reception from 6-9pm, having to run full speed in slacks, a dress shirt and 30 pound backpack at Dallas Fort Worth yesterday from Gate A28 to A9 in less than 9 minutes and almost taking out an old couple because we were delayed leaving Orlando 20 minutes and then sat on the runway after landing in DFW for 35 minutes and damn near missing our connector to Ontario at 6:45 Dallas time.

I was dripping sweat and us 4 were the last to get on the plane as they were shutting the doors. The flight from Orlando to Dallas, we were sandwiched between a lady with her 4 month old and right in front of us was a family of 3 with the most obnoxious 3-4 year old boy who was having a tantrum for 2/3 of the 3 hour flight.

Because we were so late landing in Dallas my entire team's luggage didn't make the flight last night and it hasn't been delivered to the house yet. To boot I'm still on east coast time and was awake at 2:50am. I hate that state and thank god our 3 year deal is over with them and next year it'll be in Vegas. Trip from hell.

Anyway, looks like a slow week but spotted a few things:

Skinner traded to Sabres, EA Sports jokes about it:


Not fair value at all for him but he had a no trade list so Butterball wasn't going to get a lot with a restricted market. Would have been a nice addition to LA at that cost but maybe LA wasn't on his list of places to come or LA offered even less than what they received knowing they had the upper hand.

Karlsson asks for $6.5 million in arbitration, Vegas counters with $3.5 million:


El Oh El - one year wonder and I see a Cammalleri type award, around $3.5-4 million a season.

Going to recover today and get some work done - not a lot - and get settled in back home again. I caught an Uber to the airport at 4:15am Monday morning for a 6am flight and it's been a crazy week.

All kinds of stuff happened while I was gone for 4 days to the girls' mom voluntarily giving up her time (Mon-Tues) to us on late Sunday with no explanation* resulting with them being with us for 9 days straight (through my oldest daughter 12, by text - WTF?), to my youngest girl getting a 101 fever and throwing up yesterday randomly, to Mrs. Puck spending $60,000 on a new minivan** Wednesday and taking care of all 4 kids solo in my absence.

Florida can eat shit and die.

=)~~

* this is very important, we engaged in a custody battle on July 2 for the girls. Their mom experienced one of her every 36-40 month breakdowns and for some reason thought she could just pack up and take my kids to TX without my consent or even discussing it with me. Yeah no, it doesn't work like that especially if you're a heavily involved father like I am.

A judge ordered on July 26 the girls cannot leave CA without my consent, there will be a full hearing by 11/8/18 and a complete custody evaluation will be performed on all parties involved. Thus in the middle of a custody battle the voluntary placement was a shocker to us but has been noted and relayed to the attorney.

I may be a fuck up in a lot of places, but being a dad is not one of them. Those of you who know me have experienced and witnessed this with my kids and know that if you mess with my family, it's going to be one of the biggest mistakes of your life.

** she bought a Chrysler Pacifica, fully loaded hybrid. Holy shit, this is like the Benz of minivans. I never wanted one because I'm a guy but they have changed considerably. Wasn't expecting that at all, plus we didn't lose any cars including my Suburban so I'm stoked.

 

[LAKINGSFAN]

Puck, Glad you made it through all of that unscathed (for the most part).

I just happened to be listening to the NHL channel on XM radio this morning and the guys (didnt know their names) were saying that he rejected going to the Kings. Their reasoning was that he would have been on the "second" line and in Buffalo he will be playing with Eichal on the first line. He will be able to get a lot of points playing on that first line with him as opposed to the second line with the Kings. He will then be in a better place to renegotiate his upcoming contract with should result in a bigger $$$ amount.

 

[Kings4OT]

It could also backfire on Skinner. If he doesn't put up monstrous points with Eichel he wont get the pay day he thinks he should. With LA he wouldn't have to get massive points, just be steady and that would be easier IMO playing with Kopistar and Carter.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Ducks sign Gibson 8 years/$51.2 million extension:

Ducks sign Gibson to 8-year extension - Article - TSN

That's a $6.4 million cap hit, which will rank him the 5th highest paid goalie when this kicks in next summer. Taking the top 10 goalies, Price is ranked 1st at $10.5 million and Quick is 10th at $5.8 million. Of those 10, 5 have won at least 1 Cup (Quick, Crawford, Holtby, Fleury and Rask) with others having multiples (Quick, Crawford, Fleury).

I'm a bit surprised at the amount because while he is a solid goalie, I don't think this was a smart contract. He is young and will get better but his PO performances are questionable and he tends to get injured quite a bit. Add in the albatross contracts of Perry, Kessler, Getzlaf, a suspect Henrique signing recently (5 years/29.25 million/$5.85 million cap hit, will kick in when he is 29) and now this contract and they could be so cap strapped in 2-3 years it will be uglier than LA's situation.

Granted Quick is considerably older (32 vs 25) but he signed his deal when he was 26, Gibson at 25, but if you want to talk value Quick has delivered 2 Cups, 2 Jennings and 1 Conn Smythe vs 1 Jennings from Gibson to date. I think Quick has earned the first 5 years of his contract and so far so good so let's hope he continues to do that.

This Gibson signing however really puzzles me.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Puck, Glad you made it through all of that unscathed (for the most part).

I just happened to be listening to the NHL channel on XM radio this morning and the guys (didnt know their names) were saying that he rejected going to the Kings. Their reasoning was that he would have been on the "second" line and in Buffalo he will be playing with Eichal on the first line. He will be able to get a lot of points playing on that first line with him as opposed to the second line with the Kings. He will then be in a better place to renegotiate his upcoming contract with should result in a bigger $$$ amount.

Tell me about it, it was one hell of a rough week. Glad I'm home though and we will get through it all. At least my luggage was delivered unscathed Friday morning at 10:30am and the girls' mom came and picked them up around the same time so she didn't flake out this time.

I felt bad for them that they didn't see their mom for 10 days, but to be honest even in my absence Mrs. Puck updated me daily in Florida and said the girls seemed really happy at our home.

Let's hope the judge sees it the same way, their mom has a lot of documented issues that will be presented in court that are not going to paint a pretty picture. I'll share more details after everything is settled but trust me, we are in good shape from what I am seeing and what our attorney has confirmed.

We essentially want primary custody and mom can get visitation until she cleans her life up quite a bit. Then we can revisit 50/50 again at that time but for now they are best suited with us 90%+ of the time. This has gone on for almost 14 years and I had to do something about it this time.

RE: Skinner, I kind of figured that's what it was all about, positioning himself for a bigger payday. Makes sense, but he also could have competed for the RW1 position with Brown. I really enjoyed seeing Brown produce like a $5.85 million player last season again after a 5 year slump but I am not expecting a repeat of that - no one should and expectations should be tempered to not be disappointed.

Keep in mind that the same players who have major chemistry one season may not replicate that the next season, we have seen that with both Kopitar/Brown, Kopitar/Camalleri, O'Sullivan, Carter/Toffoli/Pearson, even Doughty/Muzzin. There is no guarantee you have the same spot locked down after a successful season and a lot of intangibles play into that.

Skinner could very well could have started the season on a line with Kopitar and Kovalchuk, which is not a bad place to be even compared to being on Eichel's wing so I think he short sold himself a little bit if that was his true motivation.

It could also backfire on Skinner. If he doesn't put up monstrous points with Eichel he wont get the pay day he thinks he should. With LA he wouldn't have to get massive points, just be steady and that would be easier IMO playing with Kopistar and Carter.

Bingo. Props to him for going for the hay maker but if it's a swing and a miss he will not be in a good position next summer for a fat contract.

At least in LA he would not only look good but he would be on a competing team and not in rebuild mode as well.

 

[LoCal Kings]

If Skinner was unwilling to sign an extension for whatever the Kings were offering, it may have very well been the Kings who pulled the plug on the trade. (Sounds similar as to why Pacioretty trade didn't materialize at draft).

Buffalo obviously gave up very little, but had the cap space to take on Skinner's $$$ cap hit. The difference is that the Kings' trade offer would have had to include at least one roster player in order to make cap space. Perhaps they didn't want to give up said roster player(s) for another potential 1-yr rental.

 

[davnlaguna]

So a friend of my wife drank margaritas out of the cup over the weekend. Don’t know how he was invited to the party

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Good Iafallo article:

Kings’ Iafallo has potential to become a sophomore surprise

Spot on, he did a lot of the dirty work but definitely needs to score more this season in addition to doing what he normally does.

Kovalchuk will most likely occupy that LW1 spot he had last year so he will have to make the most of his minutes no matter what line he lands on.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Yesterday was August 9, the date when one of the most important things went down in history...Pucky got snipped 5 years ago. Fourth kid was enough.

=)~~

It has been 30 years since Gretzky was traded to LA on 8/9/88. Pretty crazy how fast 3 decades has zipped on by and what has happened since in the NHL. Never thought I'd be sitting here seeing the Kings as two time champs and Gretzky not having a damn thing to do with either title.

Good reads on the deal from a few sources:

'The Trade' Retrospective: What became of other players in Gretzky deal between Kings, Oilers?

30th Anniversary of 'The Trade' - Wayne Gretzky Joins the LA Kings


Say what you want about McNall, but he was so passionate about the Kings and making them a winner. He literally went to jail to try and achieve that goal. Not too many owners out there like that at all.

 

[LAKINGSFAN]

I remember watching the press conference in complete shock/happiness. I couldnt believe this was happening. I had hated him for so long (because the Oilers would always beat the Kings). Back then with no social media etc. I had no idea that this was even being talked about. Still shocked that the team that was build with 99 that the Kings were not able to win a cup.

 

[Psych3man]

I remember walking out of my grad school practicum at Northwestern Hospital listening to the news on my Walkman (!). They announced Wayne Gretzky was traded and I thought they were kidding. Then they mentioned to the Kings and I thought it was an April Fools joke. I walked to the el and then home on cloud 9 when I realized it was true.

 

[davnlaguna]

I remember walking out of my grad school practicum at Northwestern Hospital listening to the news on my Walkman (!). They announced Wayne Gretzky was traded and I thought they were kidding. Then they mentioned to the Kings and I thought it was an April Fools joke. I walked to the el and then home on cloud 9 when I realized it was true.

I was in the Kings store off Bristol in Santa Ana when I heard. Bought a sweatshirt. Wish I could find it. Had the new Kings logo on the front and the rest of the Symthe on the back. The store manager gave me 30% employee discount because he was so happy

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I was 13 and in OH visiting friends and family for the summer, we had just moved to CA 2 years earlier. I was putting around with an old friend at the old rink I played at and the news broke. Obviously no social media and interwebz back then so I am not even sure how or who found out but it spread like wildfire throughout the rink.

Lots of TO, Detroit and Rangers fans skated there and they were in disbelief, many were saying why didn't he end up on (insert their favorite team here)?

Meanwhile, I was sporting my purple and gold Robitaille jersey and went for a speed skate victory lap hooting and hollering, which pissed them off even more.

=)~~

 

[Kings4OT]

That whole era was a blur for me as it was later teenage years....the only thing that really sticks out for me is McSorely

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Vilardi will not be in Rookie Camp and I'm thinking maybe not even in Training Camp. His back seems to be a major issue.

Kings' Gabriel Vilardi: Ruled out for rookie camp

People wonder why he fell to 11th and the Kings took him, it's the possibility that he may not fulfill his potential. Considering he just turned 19 on Aug 16 and to have this many back issues at that age is concerning.