2019-20 Off Season Thread

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

Way off topic, but playing around with Cap Friendly and it's interesting to see where teams are. Kings actually pretty far down the list currently, but they still need to ink Kempe (The good one. Well, the better one at least...).

Looking at the Avs, who look pretty poised for a good season, and Nathan McKinnon's agent needs to be fired or maybe worse. How on earth is McKinnon signed for 4 more years at $6.3 million? Their team is looking real solid and they have $16mil in cap space still. They already signed Donskoi ($3.9mil), Burakovski ($3.250 mil), and added Kadir's $4.5mil this off-season, and still have a ton of cap space.

Colorado Avalanche - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

The converse of that would be Vegas, who currently sit over the cap.

 

[LoCal Kings]

Not to mention the Avs had the 4th & 16th picks last month. Byram is a pretty sure bet D-man in a couple years, not sure about the C at 16th pick.

They have plenty of space to trade for another high quality player, or even a UFA next summer. Of course, it could all to shit if Grubauer doesn't hold up as a #1.

 

[Psych3man]

Joe Sakic has been an absolutely phenomenal GM. And I know the mother of a female orthopedic doc who works for the team who says Sakic is incredibly nice to be around and work for.
THAT'S how you run an organization. Smart, shrewd, gutsy and good to all your employees.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Looking at the Avs, who look pretty poised for a good season, and Nathan McKinnon's agent needs to be fired or maybe worse. How on earth is McKinnon signed for 4 more years at $6.3 million? Their team is looking real solid and they have $16mil in cap space still. They already signed Donskoi ($3.9mil), Burakovski ($3.250 mil), and added Kadir's $4.5mil this off-season, and still have a ton of cap space.

McKinnon signed that deal when GMs were locking up their stars for future performance, much like when Kopitar was locked up by Dumbo for 7 years/$47.6 million ($6.8 million AAV) and Doughty for 7 years/$56 million ($8 million). Between them they won 4 Stanley Cups, a Norris and a Selke on those contracts which were an absolute steal.

McKinnon had so so years the first 2 3 years of this contract but has blown up the last two seasons scoring 90+ points in both of them, slick move.

However that trend has shifted not from the GM side but from the RFA side, guys are not taking max 8 year terms anymore (Matthews, Aho and his Offer Sheet, probably Marner too with his new deal that he needs) and lesser term with higher AAV and banking on themselves to score big on their third contracts prior to UFA.

 

[Vegas]

Joe Sakic has been an absolutely phenomenal GM. And I know the mother of a female orthopedic doc who works for the team who says Sakic is incredibly nice to be around and work for.
THAT'S how you run an organization. Smart, shrewd, gutsy and good to all your employees.

Sakic is a classy guy. When he got drafted by Quebec, he signed his contract and went to play for the worst team in the league without complaining. Think of the contrast between him and Eric "my mommy doesn't want me to play in Quebec" Lindros.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Sakic is a classy guy. When he got drafted by Quebec, he signed his contract and went to play for the worst team in the league without complaining. Think of the contrast between him and Eric "my mommy doesn't want me to play in Quebec" Lindros.

It was actually his dad, Carl Lindros.

=)~~

But mommy works well too, Lindros was a bitchboy throughout his career. Great player but was never able to elevate his teammates enough to win.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Sources claiming Lucic traded to Calgary for James Neal, no further details yet.

He has 4 years/$19 million left on his deal including $11.5 million in signing bonuses (his contract is essentially buyout proof as well) and Neal has 4 years/$23 million with no signing bonuses. Cap hits are $6 million Lucic and $5.75 million Neal.

Lucic has NMCs in place all 4 years, Neal does not so he will most likely be exposed in the Seattle draft.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Looks like it's a straight up player for player, I'm assuming no trade protection for Neal played a role but then that doesn't explain why Calgary would make that deal.

I'm wondering if there was any salary retention as the sweetener.

 

[davnlaguna]

Looks like it's a straight up player for player, I'm assuming no trade protection for Neal played a role but then that doesn't explain why Calgary would make that deal.

I'm wondering if there was any salary retention as the sweetener.

Lucic 12.5% retained
From Twitter
Trade is now official. Factoring in the retained salary for Edmonton, the deal essentially breaks down like this:
- Flames get Lucic (5.25M AAV), conditional 2020 3rd round pick
- Oilers get Neal (6.5M AAV)

Both players have four years remaining on their deals.

 

[LoCal Kings]

Thank God the Kings weren't in on either of those players.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Lucic 12.5% retained
From Twitter
Trade is now official. Factoring in the retained salary for Edmonton, the deal essentially breaks down like this:
- Flames get Lucic (5.25M AAV), conditional 2020 3rd round pick
- Oilers get Neal (6.5M AAV)

Both players have four years remaining on their deals.

I knew there had to be some type of salary retention, it made no sense otherwise for Calgary.

Looks like the conditional 3rd has two requirements to be met, Neal has to score at least 21 goals and Lucic has to score 10 less then Neal.

 

[LoCal Kings]

Remember Sakic's ability as a GM was being questioned heavily just a year and a half ago, right up to Duchene trade. Before that, Avs looked like a lost franchise with a couple of uber talented players. Here we are 18 months later, and the so called experts are fighting for a seat on the Avs Bandwagon. Most of the big moves and draft picks by Sakic are showing a strong promise of paying off.

My point: let's hope in another 18 months from now, we can say the same thing Rob Blake as we can about his old buddy Sakic. Certainly doesn't look that way now, but again, it looked real grim for Sakic not too long ago.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Remember Sakic's ability as a GM was being questioned heavily just a year and a half ago, right up to Duchene trade. Before that, Avs looked like a lost franchise with a couple of uber talented players. Here we are 18 months later, and the so called experts are fighting for a seat on the Avs Bandwagon. Most of the big moves and draft picks by Sakic are showing a strong promise of paying off.

My point: let's hope in another 18 months from now, we can say the same thing Rob Blake as we can about his old buddy Sakic. Certainly doesn't look that way now, but again, it looked real grim for Sakic not too long ago.

I'd like to believe this but there are significant differences between both Blake and Sakic's career trajectories and also the Avalanche and Kings' respective situations.

Sakic joined the team in 2010 as an adviser where he had input on player and personnel decisions and would represent the Avalanche at the Board of Governor meetings, and in 2013 he was named Executive VP of Hockey Ops and had the final say on all player and personnel decisions. In three years he elevated very fast, and he was strictly at the NHL level.

Blake joined the NHL Department of Hockey Operations as a Manager, not THE manager (DHO has 50 Blakes within the organization, it's an entry level position into hockey team management). He also assisted Shanahan in the DoPS. He essentially had his hand all over the place around the league and not focused on one specific area of team management. Some people will call that a plus, when you know a little bit about everything but that also makes you a jack of all trades, master of none.

In 2013 Dumbo hired him as Assistant GM, his main focus was being the GM of Manchester (2013-15) and Ontario (2015-18) with ex Kings bust draft pick Richard Seeley completing his first season as GM in Ontario but that reeked of the nepotism that has infiltrated the corporate offices of LA yet again like under Taylor. Blake's primary job was GM of Ontario, not truly assisting Dumbo.

Experience winner, Sakic hands down. In 3 years while getting his feet wet with solid mentors, Blake was getting his feet wet in the kiddie pool. You absolutely cannot substitute that kind of experience. Sakic was being groomed specifically for an NHL executive career, Blake was being groomed for an NHL management career. They are not the same, just like in our life and careers.

The next one, and probably the biggest one, is that Sakic inherited quite a stable of talented players. Going back 10 years to 2009, the Avalanche draft history looks like this (1st round):

2009
- 1/3 Duchene (although they hit the home run in this draft. They got O'Reilly at 2/33 and Barrie at 3/64. That's 3 NHL stars in the first 3 rounds of one draft and Sakic had all 3 when he became GM)
2010
- 1/17 Hishon (career derailed by concussions. Played only 13 NHL games, retired. Interesting part is the concussion was caused by Brayden McNabb, then of BUffalo's prospect pool, during the Memorial Cup in 2011 and he never recovered from it. We saw his hits here plenty, borderline dirty and then the high elbows and whatnot on Kopitar in 2018 vs Vegas that weren't called)
2011
- 1/2 Landeskog
- 1/11 Siemens (AHL, bust)
2012
- No 1st (Varlamov deal, Washintgton took Flip Forsberg at 1/11)
2013
- 1/1 McKinnon
2014
- 1/23 Bleakley (couldn't come to terms, rights traded, unsigned, reentered 2016 draft, Blues took him in 5th round. Minor leaguer, career looks pretty Bleakley)
2015
- 1/10 Rantanen
2016
- 1/10 - Jost
2017
- 1/4 Makar
2018
-1/16 Kaut
2019
- 1/4 Byram
- 1/16 Newhook

Obviously 2017-19 drafts are too early to tell, but Makar is already a stud and if you're keeping score in the last 10 years the Avalanche have had 12 1st round picks (4 in the top 5, 7 in the top 10, 4 between 11-19 and 1 after 20).
I won't depress you with LA's drafts by comparison, while they draft the Rantanans at 10th overall we get a mythological legend in Vilardi.

An argument could be made the Kings moved those picks to win now - and I agree with that and what we are seeing now is the price that was paid for those moves, and the Kings did win 2 Cups while Colorado's last one was almost 20 years ago - but Sakic had a lot more to work with than Blake,has better experience than Blake, inherited much better players than what Blake did (Greg Sherman actually drafted Duchene, O'Reilly, Barrie, Landeskog and McKinnon. Sakic's run started with Rantanan in 2015) and he isn't afraid to pull significant deals to better his team (Duchene, Barrie, salary retention, letting coveted perceived prospects go if necessary for one reason or another) even if it meant a step back in the short run.

He simply is a better GM and more savvy so I'm not holding out for a similar success record for Blake.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Had to go back and look at the Kings' picks for the same time frame because it was bugging me:

2009
- 1/5 Schenn (flipped for Richards)
2010
- 1/15 Forbort
2011
- No 1st (Penner trade, Edmonton)
2012
- 1/30 Pearson
2013
- No 1st (Carter traded, Columbus. They had the option of picking in 2012 or 2013)
2014
- 1/29 Kempe
2015
- No 1st (Lucic trade, Boston)
2016
- No 1st (Sekera trade, Carolina)
2017
- 1/11 Vilardi
2018
- 1/20 Kupari
2019
- 1/5 Turcotte
- 1/22 Bjornfot

Keeping score, 8 1st round picks (2 in the top 5, same 2 in the top 10, 2 between 11-19 and 4 after 20. No 1st round picks in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016).

 

[LoCal Kings]

The only move Sakic made recently that seems a bit odd to me was playing Makar in the playoffs. Thus forefeiting his Seattle Expansion draft exempt status. I totally get the idea of giving the kid valuable experience, and moreover, once you make the playoffs, do whatever it takes to win. But now they gotta use a spot to protect him in 2021.

Of course he appears well worth it. But for their sake, I hope those 10 playoff games for Makar were worth giving up an exempt spot in 2021.

Good news for the Kings, a large number of players they project to be on roster at end of 2020-21 and/or early 2021-22 season will be Seattle exempt.

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/predators-sign-colton-sissons-to-7-year-contract-175918852.html

Off topic but interesting read. Nashville locking up roll players to long term deals.

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

Ummmm.... Alex Faust?

 

[PuckinUgly57]

The only move Sakic made recently that seems a bit odd to me was playing Makar in the playoffs. Thus forefeiting his Seattle Expansion draft exempt status. I totally get the idea of giving the kid valuable experience, and moreover, once you make the playoffs, do whatever it takes to win. But now they gotta use a spot to protect him in 2021.

Of course he appears well worth it. But for their sake, I hope those 10 playoff games for Makar were worth giving up an exempt spot in 2021.

Good news for the Kings, a large number of players they project to be on roster at end of 2020-21 and/or early 2021-22 season will be Seattle exempt.

I don't think any GM is thinking about protection from the ED for Seattle vs developing their own talent at this point when it comes to players who are just starting their careers off.

If they are, that's extremely short sighted because the guys who are exempt now may not be in 2 years so it makes sense to play every prospect you can to see what you have. Sakic, like most other GMs, are in "we will deal with it later" mode and they should be.

The reality is the second Makar signed that ELC, he was not going to be exempt because of his age when he signed. May as well play the kid and see what he can do, and he looked solid in the playoffs.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Ummmm.... Alex Faust?

I'm really really curious to see who he knows. There is no logical reason this guy should have taken over Miller's spot, he is awful and adds minimal to the in game experience.

He knows someone or is close to someone within the organization to have landed this gig, which makes sense when you think about it considering all the unqualified people in high paying roles in LA currently. We never heard of him until it was announced he will take Miller's spot.

I tolerated him in 2017-18 thinking he should get a shot, I shouldn't compare him to Miller much like we shouldn't compare our next serious relationship to the last one. I wanted to be fair.

This season however he didn't get a pass and he seriously should not be in that role. He is uninformed and doesn't know the game of hockey. He is a dumbass.

He has a great voice, it's meant for something like this but that's more along the lines of Jeopardy and not LA Kings hockey.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/predators-sign-colton-sissons-to-7-year-contract-175918852.html

Off topic but interesting read. Nashville locking up roll players to long term deals.

Poile is one of the most respected and best GMs in the business, I trust that guy over Blake any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I do think $20 million is an overpay though so maybe he sees something we don't. He got a steal in Arvidsson, he's probably banking on similar results.