cross16

Looks like Boughner to SJ is getting closer to being official. Rocky Thompson a good hire to round out that bench. had a lot of positive buzz in the industry. Have to wonder how much the projected revenue drop over the next few seasons impacts these decision. That's a pretty questionable hire by SJ that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I don't disagree with the thought process or what your saying. I do think most firings right now would come as a surprise but i think 2 main variables will lead to some surprises. First being that amount of higher profile veteran coaches that are available (Boudreau, Gallant, Lavy and Babcock) and second with the cap remaining flat Gms will be limited in ways they can "improve" their team. That's why I think there are good chances we'll see a surprise or 2. These rae the ones I have my eye on. ARI - Tocchett only has 1 more year on his deal. Can he survive 3 years out of the playoffs and can that owner handle another year out of the playoffs? CHI - there are some suggestions a tear down rebuild is coming. Fired their long time president and it seems like Bowman could be next and there's not a lot of positive press around the job Colliton has done. CAR - Would be a surprise but Brind'Amour is on record that he doesn't seem himself as a career coach. CBJ- Torts has done a great job but i think he's always on the firing line to a certain extent.... TB - Coopers a great coach but if the Lightning flounder again what happens next? They are capped out and looking at some interesting coaching options that they could easily rationale are necessary to get that bump. Also appears to have only have 1 more year on his contract according to capfriendly. Van - Only 1 year on his deal and working for an impatient franchise. I think his future would hinge on the Canucks at minimum getting into the playoffs and he might even have to win a round. Goaltending has saved what as been a mostly mediocre season for that club. The other 2 that could be really left field surprised i'm with you on with Pitts and Wsh. I agree that if you look at this rationally there is no need for many of these organizations to make the change but I also think clubs are becoming less and less rationale when it comes to coaching.

The coaching world in the NHL is getting stranger every year. Technically SJ is still open as they have not officially hired Boughner even though some close to the team think it's a going to happen. I think more change will be coming, it always seems to. Vancovuer, Arizona, Chicago are all teams where you've read something about their coaches being under the microscope to a certain extent and generally you'll get a surprise or 2. I would look at teams like Carolina, Columbus and Tampa that have a certain probability of surprising us with a coaching change.

Very interesting article in the Athletic that attempts to find the best puck moving dmen in the league. They looked at things like success rate at entering and exiting the zone as well and their numbers moving the puck up the ice. Not only do I think the Flames best dman will surprise you but I think his ranking will really surprise.... Flames best damn in this analysis was... Rasmus Anderson. And not only is he the Flames best dman he is in he top 10 for the articles analysis. Long story short, he is showing up as one of the best puck moving dman in the NHL. What is also encouraging is they published who just missed the cut and 3 other Flames dman were on it (Gio, Brodie and Hanifin). Behind a pay wall so i don't to post much more but found it interesting. While I was surprised to see Rasmus so high It was good confirmation that the Flames D is very adept at moving the puck. This isn't the first analysis i've seen where they've shown up like this. Edit: in looking back i see JTech posted an article that looked at this as well. They used different data but arrived a similar conclusion in terms of the Flames have players rank high in this category. https://theathletic.com/1892364/2020/07/09/by-the-numbers-identifying-the-nhls-best-puck-moving-defensemen/?article_source=search&redirected=1

No the NHL has already declared the 19-20 season regular season over. I believe I read today they are going to count points collected in the play in round will be counted as playoff stats.

This would be hilarious. To be serious for a second though I would not do this. Nice to get the pick but I would still stick with the trade even without it.

The Detroit situation actually raises more questions for me than the Devils. Detroit seemed like a perfect fit for him and Yzerman would have a really good insight in to how good a coach/person he is. I actually like Blashill and think he is a good coach but if Gallant is truly an elite coach i'm surprised someone like Yzerman wouldn't jump on that. Just find it all very interesting.

That's another good example thank you. And i should add I don't think it makes him a bad coach either or not worth a call. Just a potential theory why he isn't everyone's first call or isn't getting scooped up right away.

Could be money yes, I wont pretend to know Jersey's budget. From everything I read Gallant is very well respected across hockey circles. The only thing that keeps coming up though is he can be really stubborn and rigid in what he wants out of players. The buzz out of Vegas is the reason they made the decision to let him go was they were clashing on certain players and the fit. Case in point, Vegas got both Gusev and Tatar and Gallant soured quickly on both to the point they had to trade them and see them play better elsewhere. That didn't sit well with the Vegas front office.

If I had to guess, I think the NHL will give the Flames a compensatory pick in the 4th or 5th round. That would seem to be fair to me.

The trade condition on the Lucic/Neal pick is still a topic of discussion. From Treliving yesterday: has heard no update and is looking to see what type of language is in the return to play agreement to see what, if anything, is prorated. Sounded a little frustrated that they would not pro rate it as he felt they were on pace to get the pick. doesn't have a sense one way or another how this will go. According to Frank Seravalli the NHL is looking into the process of setting up an arbitrator to hear sides on this and potentially look at a solution.

A couple updates from Bean yesterday: internal design to mimic Little Caesar’s. Specifically in terms of the lower bowl size and sloping of the upper levels. Expects fans in the upper levels will feel closer then in the Dome. Discussions are ongoing to have a hotel either attached or sharing land close to the new building. Sounds like this will happen it’s just a matter of time. Still feels good about their timeline and having everything done by Spring/Summer 2024.

Edit: Jtech and I did this at the same time. Interesting Ruff is getting another chance. I actually think he's a decent head coach especially if you want offence. Team's are pretty leaky defensively though which makes it a bit of a surprising hire. From everything I've seen and read Gallant seems like a good coach but now i'm starting to wonder if there is something there. Fired quickly in 2 places, his ex teammate passes on him in Detroit and now the Devils go another direction. Don't have anything I can add, just find it strange.

The interesting thing is if you are putting the Blues up as the template to follow you are proving BrewCrew's point. The Blues don't really draft for size (especially when you take out Petrangelo at 4th overall) and most of the players on their team that they've drafted are more skilled than sized. They went to the free agent market or trades to get players like Sundqvist, Thornburn and Schenn to make their team tough. If you look at their drafts you won't find a fixation on size. Obviously them finding Paryenko helps too and thta was a great pick, but it's not like the Flames haven't tired to find guys like that either. I'm with Brewcrew, the flames don't focus on smaller players they focus on skilled players but the problem being when you are drafting high in the draft it's harder to find players who are both big and skilled. They've rolled the dice on guys like Ruzicka, Posposil, trying to get the combination but it isn't easy.

Not directly no but they are already there. BMO Centre is right across the street and is about to undergo a 500 million expansion and there are about a half dozen hotels within a 15 min walk or 3 minute cab ride in the area. Long term they want to see more but the plan is to let the arena be a catalyst as opposed to build it all as part of the same project, but there is already a lot of infrastructure in the area.

They did do a great job, it's a beautiful building. I like how open the main concourse is and how they incorporated the history all throughout the building. That's one of the biggest things I hope they do with the new buildings is doing a better job of celebrating Calgary's sporting past. Would be great to have some kind of Hall of Fame in there as well rather than the Forever a Flame program. As fantastic a building as that is I think the Flames will get a very scaled down version of it. The cost of that area almost doubled from original estimates and I don't think you will get support for that here. I think some of the extra amenities, like the restaurants for example, they won't build into the new building and instead will allow them to pop up around the area, which i'm actually ok with.

I too disagree with the take that Button is not a good scout, I think he is a very good scout. If you look at the talent level post Button to pre he improved it quite a bit and he should get more credit for the 04 team. He was the one who laid the ground work for that team with some very good low key moves that at the time you thought he was crazy, but they panned out well. His draft record is above average but let down by the fact they had some issue signing players but not sure where the fault lies for that. At the end of the day I think his eye for talent is strong and where he doomed himself as a GM was the business side of things. he is actually one of my favorite media scouts to follow. I'm pretty happy with Pelletier myself and so far he's actually progressing as one of the strongest of the later 1st round/early 2nd round picks. but a number of metrics. I think he has some of the highest upside of players taken in that range and with how wide open it was in the 20 -40 range it's very much splitting hairs here to argue one player over another.

On top of that the bigger ice actually encourages trapping and a slower game because you just need to keep them to the outside. I barely even watch the Olympics when they are on international ice because I find the quality of the game terrible. Interestingly enough if anyone is going to switch it seems more likely it would be the IIHF, not the NHL. https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/international-hockey-competitions-may-move-nhl-sized-ice/

The idea of moving to international ice has died in recent years. I think there is so much feedback that comes from watching the NHLers play on it now (that isn't positive) that there is enough evidence to show it's not a good idea. The quality of the game gets worse IMO, not better. I have not heard that come up in years and the NHL seems pretty happy with the state of their game. On some of the calls i've been on, the Flames have been very clear to mention they know there was some feedback that came out of Rogers arena that they have heard and want to correct. It's something they've learned from and not necessarily one they wish to emulate 100%.

Calgary Municipal Land Corporation announced both the architectural firms and the construction companies today. HOK also designed Little Ceasars arena and Rogers Place, among many others, in Edmonton and Dialog worked with the Calgary Public Library. Dialog is Calgary based. Plan is still for this to be completed in summer of 2024. https://flamesnation.ca/2020/06/24/new-arena-will-be-designed-by-hok-and-dialog-opens-in-2024/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

have they had it consistently? Where did the goalie come from before that? Are we blaming Sigalet for the 9 or 10 other goalie coaches that came before him who have also not developed someone in house? Lightning have Vasilevsky but had nothing before that so do you give that goalie coach credit? I'm not even defending Sigalet I just find the process of trying to identify the problem interesting, as well why people think if Sigalet goes the problem would be solved.

This is where I get to on Sigalet, how do you know this? how do you know none of them were impacted by him? Sigalet tends to get a lot of praise from the people that work with him. Personally i don't have a voice in this because I admit I don't know if he is going a good job or not because i'm not there and personally I don't think fans can really judge the work a goalie coach is doing. there are so many variables that impact the output of a goalie to link it to the coach is foolish IMO. I think there has been some positives for Sigalet in Kari Ramo (until he got hurt his game was pretty good), Rittich, Smith and Talbot. You want more results sure but I would lean more towards it being a talent issue then I would it being a Sigalet issue myself. but i'm also not super invested in it either. If the Flames feel there is a better coach out there then by all means pull the trigger, I just think analysis of this situation isn't really a fans job.

That won't work unless they give him a 2 year deal. You need to be under contract or an RFA to meet the exposure requirements and unless they sign him to a 2 year deal he won't qualify. I don't see why Gilles would stick around for 2 more years, nor should the Flames want him to. Flames just need to bring Parsons and Schneider back on 1 year deals next year and they are fine. Both will meet the requirements for exposure next summer and if Parsons turns it around you can keep him and if not it won't matter anyway as he would not be taken.

No surprise but Wolf is invited to the summer camp for World Juniors. On another positive note, so is last year's 5th rounder Josh Nodler.

I think the later would be the strategy. There is also exposing Parsons who, unless things do a 180, would be highly unlikely to be claimed.