_/ Official 2018 NHL Off-Season Thread: Kovalchuk Watch Edition \_

[UncleBen59]

Congrats to the Capitals on their first Stanley Cup win and to Vegas for their incredible first year.

Now for the notable events for the off-season:

June 22-23, 2018
NHL Entry Draft, American Airlines Center, Dallas

July 1, 2018
Free agency begins at noon.


Question becomes:

• Which big name player will be traded?
• Who will retire?
• Which long-standing player defects for a chance at the Cup?
• Where will Kovalchuk sign?
• Do we get a confirmation on Seattle?

 

[tmg.exe]

1. Erik Karlsson, because Melnyk be cheap.
2. Players don't retire under contract anymore but I expect Seabrook will develop an allergy to something that puts him on IR. I think for the most part the guys who were going to retire out of contract (Sedin, Sedin, Fisher) already have. Hartnell very well might still retire but I expect that'll only be after training camp if a tryout doesn't result in a contract.
3. Brent Burns? Maybe even a Burns+Thornton all-beard package?
4. Rangers because he's a gutless puke of a liar. "I want to come back for a chance to win the cup in the short term. But the team offering me the most money in the place I most want to be is the one team that just publicly announced a long slow rebuild. Well, back up the truck anyway."
5. Yes. The vote and official announce will be in September, but the vote will just be a formality after the June 20 board meeting.

 

[Doom67]

Bovado releases odds. Sens and Islanders with worse odds then I expected, Vegas with better odds then I expected. Still a lot of player movement to go...

Seems like a Western team would have to win it next year though, the conferences seem too even for the winners to be so heavily tilted East the last few years...

 

[Kevin_Nash_nWo]

Thread should be renamed 'Ovechkin Bender Watch'

Greatest championship celebrations ever

 

[UncleBen59]

Thread should be renamed 'Ovechkin Bender Watch'

Greatest championship celebrations ever

No one here has mod powers to do so.

If I could have, I would

 

[UncleBen59]

I dont know how I feel about this

 

[Baby_King_Bob]

I dont know how I feel about this

queazy. feel queazy.

probably doesn't go well for whoever gets 'em.

 

[Doom67]

It'll depend on the length of the contract I think. From what we've seen in the past, even as players get older, one with slapshot/one-timer dependence for production seem to not drop off as hard, well as long as they keep their power play time up (and in some cases they got better point totals off it, such as Jagr in the Ranger years). So if a team can set him up to be in the Ovechkin or Stamkos type spot I think he'll do pretty well. Still wouldnt want him on a longer contract though, he's 35, can't see him being a top line guy at 5on5....so what team out there needs an expensive 2nd liner that will need to eat up pp time to be productive?

 

[UncleBen59]

Erik Karlsson’s wife, Melinda, files order of protection against Mike Hoffman’s long-time girlfriend after alleged campaign of harassment. Team officials and Hoffman knew about harassment allegations for weeks, agent says.

It apparently got worse after Karlsson & his wife's son was stillborn back in April

And some of Karlsson's teammate's significant others have been chiming in:



Hoffman, has of course, denied this. Statement from the team:




I think we have a better picture of why Karlsson wanted out...

 

[Doom67]

The odd internet story out of the NBA Sixers and Twitter and now this...sports are getting different.

 

[Kevin_Nash_nWo]

Seems pretty obvious Hoffman's girlfriend is a psycho if other wives and girlfriends are saying what they're saying

 

[Doom67]

Seems to be the most likely case. 3 paragraphs that pretty much sum up the situation:

In an Instagram post following his son’s death, Erik Karlsson posted a photo of Axel’s tiny footprints. In the post, Karlsson thanked the city and the team’s fans for their love and support and wrote: “We feel very lucky to be Axel’s parents. Even though he was stillborn, we know we will hold him again one day under different circumstances and the joy he gave us will be with us forever.”

The post garnered more than 10,000 comments, with the overwhelming majority of them expressions of support and sympathy for the couple. However, one comment, posted by user @sandydandy45, stood out: “I feel bad for the baby he didn’t have a chance with Melinda popping pain killer medication everyday.”

It took the league’s top defenceman just seven minutes to respond: “How dare you. You have been making fake accounts and buying hacked ones for months to harass me and my wife but this is an all new low even for you. You are a disgusting person.”

The Senators contract with Hoffman has 2 more years at a 5.2ish cap hit. He maintains that there is a 150% chance they are not involved in the bullying, so if it comes out that his fiance is behind it, then the questions will turn to figuring out if it was hidden from him or not and if he ends things with her...

 

[Baby_King_Bob]

It'll depend on the length of the contract I think. From what we've seen in the past, even as players get older, one with slapshot/one-timer dependence for production seem to not drop off as hard, well as long as they keep their power play time up (and in some cases they got better point totals off it, such as Jagr in the Ranger years). So if a team can set him up to be in the Ovechkin or Stamkos type spot I think he'll do pretty well. Still wouldnt want him on a longer contract though, he's 35, can't see him being a top line guy at 5on5....so what team out there needs an expensive 2nd liner that will need to eat up pp time to be productive?

I agree, my concern is whether his heart is really in this and what happens if he mentally checks out. Which isn't to question his heart -- obviously a very passionate guy -- I just wonder what his motivations are and what happens if he quickly realizes he shoulda just stayed at home

 

[Baby_King_Bob]

And some of Karlsson's teammate's significant others have been chiming in:

*EX* teammates is an important distinction here. If current teammate SOs felt free to speak you wonder how many would come out and call this girl a psycho. Obviously no current teammate SO would speak out about this...

Hoffman is either complicit or so incredibly stupid he's blind to it when no one else is. Either way, I'd think is career and reputation are irreparably damaged.

 

[Kevin_Nash_nWo]

And some of Karlsson's teammate's significant others have been chiming in:

*EX* teammates is an important distinction here. If current teammate SOs felt free to speak you wonder how many would come out and call this girl a psycho. Obviously no current teammate SO would speak out about this...

Hoffman is either complicit or so incredibly stupid he's blind to it when no one else is. Either way, I'd think is career and reputation are irreparably damaged.

I agree but if Hoffman ends up traded I bet the floodgates will open

 

[UncleBen59]

Hold on to your butts, everyone.

 

[Baby_King_Bob]

And some of Karlsson's teammate's significant others have been chiming in:

*EX* teammates is an important distinction here. If current teammate SOs felt free to speak you wonder how many would come out and call this girl a psycho. Obviously no current teammate SO would speak out about this...

Hoffman is either complicit or so incredibly stupid he's blind to it when no one else is. Either way, I'd think is career and reputation are irreparably damaged.

I agree but if Hoffman ends up traded I bet the floodgates will open

oh for sure, WAGs are a tight group and Karlsson's girl would be queen bee in that circle. I'd imagine the support would be widespread, especially to pile on against the...ummm..**** of the litter

 

[Doom67]

Tough decisions to be made in Washington on who to keep or on how much they want to forsake the future. I think the smart move would be to let Carlson go (guy deserves to get paid after his last sweetheart contract - 6 years at 4mil), and go after Mike Green (promoting Orlov to the power play). Trade Grubauer/Smith-Pelly (RFAs) - cause Grubby is ready to be a #1/getting expensive for a backup (with Holtby already getting paid well) and DSP is not going to be worth whatever he gets paid after this last playoffs (shooting at like 25% ?).

 

[tmg.exe]

I don't think any GMs are dumb enough to overpay DSP (or give any relevant assets for his rights)... sure he scored 7 playoff goals, but he also scored only 7 goals all regular season long, and this after having been so bad the preceding season he was bought out.

At best, he finds a team wiling to give him a one-way contract. But still fourth liner money.

 

[Doom67]

I guess we'll see. I never assume a desperate GM out there won't overpay. Joel Ward turned his big playoffs with Nashville into a 4 year 3mil per deal with the Caps (10 regular season goals followed by 7 playoff goals in 2 rounds). He never had those type of playoff numbers in DC but he did post better regular season numbers towards the end of his time as a Cap.

I think DSP goes to arbitration and the Caps likely walk away from it as Chiasson and Walker are cheaper options and I think Beagle is more valuable to the team.

 

[UncleBen59]

I don't think any GMs are dumb enough to overpay DSP (or give any relevant assets for his rights)... sure he scored 7 playoff goals, but he also scored only 7 goals all regular season long, and this after having been so bad the preceding season he was bought out.

At best, he finds a team wiling to give him a one-way contract. But still fourth liner money.

Chia will give him 3rd line money.


Ohh boy.


I'm starting to feel really bad for the players and the fans in Ottawa

 

[UncleBen59]

1 for 1. Yikes

 

[UncleBen59]

Rangers are out on Kovalchuk, Bruins have scheduled a meeting with him.

If it's like a 3 year, 4M AAV I would be fine with it.

 

[Doom67]

Trotz not coming back as the Caps coach. Me and Husker kind of discussed it a bit if he didn't get past the 2nd round and I was cool with him being gone then, or coming back. Part of me thinks the team will be better 4-5 years down the line if we don't have Trotz, because he has done a bad job over time bringing up the young talent (same as in Nashville). That said this team probably isnt going for the Cup in 4-5 years anyways, so it might be okay to make the short term solution.

Either way with Trotz winning the Cup here, he'll always have the love of the city and the Trotz out crowd won't be making noise the first losing streak next year, so I like the move overall. I like the guy they have lined up, AC Todd Reirden.

 

[UncleBen59]

I expect Tortz to go to the Isles now

 

[tmg.exe]

Hoffman traded twice today. First to San Jose for Boedker. Then to Florida for picks.

 

[UncleBen59]

Mike Hoffman and a 2018 7th from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Florida's 2019 2nd, 2018 4th and 2018 5th round picks.


I still think Karlsson gets traded.

 

[UncleBen59]

Vegas has reentered trade talks with Ottawa for Karlsson

 

[UncleBen59]

 

[BigRandal_ps3]

i want to get off bergevins wild ride.

srsly tho how is he still allowed to make deals that affect the team when its all but a guarantee he won't be here in like 2 years?


just fire him, trade price and weber.


or sign tavares, trade patch and a 2nd for a 2C, draft zadina and win the cup. either one

 

[69los]

Nothing official yet but Trotz to the Isles is looking like a done deal.

Early numbers are 5 years/$4M per.

 

[69los]

And it's official.

 

[UncleBen59]

No way in Hell Tavares is leaving NYI now


Rumor is that Patches will be traded on draft night, most likely destination is LA

 

[69los]

Worse case scenario was JT balling out last season which helped Bailey have his best season and secure a long-term deal. Then JT ditches us in the off-season only for Bailey to remember he's Josh Bailey which makes his contract Ladd 2.0.

Lou, Trotz, JT re-signs(?), top-4 D-man(?), #1 goalie (probably Grubauer)(?). With picks 11 and 12, I'm expecting some deals to go down tonight.

 

[tmg.exe]

There’s some talk of Craig Anderson to NYI.

 

[69los]

Grub went to the Avs, probably because we can't afford take on Orpik which also means more competition for Carlson.

Looking like Lehner or Anderson. Either way, whatever goalie the Isles pick up is like a combination of win-now and stop-gap if they can get Sorokin in a couple years.

 

[69los]

Well damn, wasn't expecting that but if we were going to keep the picks, looks like we got 2 pretty good ones. Have 2 2nd's tomorrow so chance for deals are still there.

 

[UncleBen59]

Apparently everyone is waiting for Tavares and Kovalchuk to sign to start trading

 

[Deleted member 4121907]

 

[69los]

lol @ 2018 Olympic MVP.

 

[UncleBen59]

For Elias Lindholm & Noah Hanifin

 

[Doom67]

Looks like Orpik will be bought out (by Colorado), wonder where he ends up. Wouldn't be shocked to see the Caps try to bring him back for cheap as a depth/penalty kill specialist role. Though I wonder what kind of impact it would have on his leadership role.

Carlson taking calls from other teams right now, probably a negotiation tactic to get his price up. His last deal was a sweetheart deal for the Caps so its his turn to get paid, don't blame him one bit. Caps made space to give him a good contract so it'll be up to him or if someone else just comes in with an insane offer. If he does end up leaving I'd like to see the Caps carry most of the cap space, bring back Green and go after Karlsson whenever it is that the Sens will be forced to move him (??).

I don't think Carlson is overly vital to the team but it seems like the Caps should just go all in on the remaining Ovie/Backstrom years. Either way I'm gonna be content for a long long time.

 

[tmg.exe]

If the Caps get another team to buy out Orpik’s contract then sign him again cheap, they are going to be *so* scrutinized for possible cap circumvention. Even if they didn’t ‘conspire’ people will suggest they did, and when other teams do the same thing they’ll be scrutinized even harder until the league punishes one such team at random then changes the rules.

 

[tmg.exe]

Well Carlson got his 8x8 from the Caps.

 

[UncleBen59]

The Patches to LA trade apparently died because he refused to accept the contract offer LA gave to him.


Looks like BDR could be calling it a career but I can see him signing a 1-2 year deal at 4AAV max with the Bruins or another contender in a last shot attempt to win the cup. He's 34 so it will be interesting to see what he does.


If this happens I think Myers or Perrault would be traded as a cap dump... or they dump Mason to Carolina or another goalie needy team. Stastny fitted well with the Jets so I can see why Chevy would try to make it happen some how.


This I just found funny. It's when Kovalchuk would play the Devils at the Prudential Center

 

[Doom67]

If the Caps get another team to buy out Orpik’s contract then sign him again cheap, they are going to be *so* scrutinized for possible cap circumvention. Even if they didn’t ‘conspire’ people will suggest they did, and when other teams do the same thing they’ll be scrutinized even harder until the league punishes one such team at random then changes the rules.

Yeah. No doubt. I think a rule addition to the buyout rule that could be added in the next agreement would be that players cannot return to any team they played on in the previous season (or X amount of days or any team that at one point had him during the time of the contract, though this could end up hurting a player if he is moved around quite a bit). Who knows what Orpik even wants right now, I haven't seen any comments from him.

Overall I think the Caps have taken the right (cold-hearted) approach to this off-season. Can't be easy telling someone that played his heart out and had his best run on the team that he's too expensive for the contract the team agreed to and thus he was going to be traded to Colorado. Not sure what went on with Trotz behind the scenes and his reasons but the org really believes in Todd Reirden and had him pegged to be the next coach for awhile...

--

8x8 seems a bit steep cause I think Orlov or Niskanen could put up similar point totals on the power play and are better defensively, but there aren't a lot of RD out there and the Caps need to make the best of the next 3-4 years and there isn't really options they can guarantee to give them a better shot in that window. So I'm cool with it. Already gonna be in trouble towards the end of that contract with the deal Oshie is on.

Maybe the Caps use these guys to help re-tool towards the end of their contracts (retain some of the contracts - should be possible while rebuilding - and get some picks for teams looking for the veteran guys with playoff experience).

 

[UncleBen59]

Realistically, we'd have to move Backes and DK to make this work and sign Carlo/McAvoy/DeBrusk/Bjork/Henein/etc.

I still think he re-signs with the Isles

 

[UncleBen59]

 

[Baby_King_Bob]

what's the stastny contract gonna be....? surely less than 6x6, no?

man would it have been nice to have Little coming up UFA this year

 

[UncleBen59]

what's the stastny contract gonna be....? surely less than 6x6, no?

man would it have been nice to have Little coming up UFA this year

Stastny already got the big contract, so 6x6 doesnt sound too far-fetched. Jets just dont have the cap room unless they make it. They gotta pay Hellebuyck, Morressey and Trouba among others.