Flyerfan52

Thanks phoenix & td. I spot check the Herald but have seen nothing. I figured other media in Calgary might have talked about it. We have Illegal Curve out here which is an accredited radio show (they have the freebies in the press box & access during player/management availability) that is a private station/site devoted to all things Jets. They seem to have their finger on the teams pulse more than those that work for better known media. Run/owned by 4 young guys that started doing this as university students I pretty much trust them more than the talking heads & scribes. They do give links to those on site but balance with links to the media that covers the opponent. I never see idle speculation from them as they seem straight shooters. I was hoping you had similar out there.

I know BT is dealing with Hanifin & other current RFAs right now but I wonder about if he's devoted much time to starting negotiations with Tkachuk. IMO he's by far the most important of the pending RFAs in the next 2 years. Add to that he has a need to find a goalie of the future unless he's really confident 1 of the current prospects (so little NHL experience) can fill the shoes of a starter within the next year or 2 as @ 36 Smith is a stopgap. Chevy is doing the same balancing act in Wpg. with the current Trouba fiasco, a few other RFAs (some pending arbitration) while having to think of Laine & Connor as RFA next year while Captain Wheeler (straw that stirs the drink & settled Laine down after that unfortunate own net goal) & led all RWs in assists & 3rd in points. Being an armchair GM is easy but with the # of balls the NHL 1s have in the air @ any time they have a tough job. We propose trades & offer opinions why they'd work but these guys deal with real people & personalities.

You need balance. For instance a Gaudreau/Monahan pairing comes in @ roughly = to McDavid's cap hit next season. If RNH is used on his wing that will be 18.5 so the Flames can add a 5,5 winger & come in cheaper than the Oiler 1st line even if they use a $1 million scrub on the other wing. For contrast the Jets top line of Scheifele/Wheeler/Connor came in @ 13.5 after allowing for Connor's bonuses. That'll be the cap hit for McDavid & the scrub never mind RNH. Add overpays like Lucic (who they mistakenly think will turn things around & become tradable) & they have no chance of adding a supporting cast. After Pronger demanded out in 2006 & was quickly followed by the rest of the good players Lowe got desperate enough to try to buy loyalty from players. OSing Penner @ 10 times his salary started them down a road of overpayments. That was followed by throwing rookies into the fire for lack of players & handing out $6 million 2nd contracts. Instead of those high picks attracting UFAs wanting to play with those #1 picks they had to overpay even the desperate leftovers to go to Edmonton. When you build a culture of losing being OK you reap what you sow. I figure Buffalo will find they have the same problem. Traded iler players talk about how different practices are with their new team. In Buffalo players like RoR talk about losing the will to play since the organization doesn't want to win either. Adding Dahlin won't turn around that culture. Examples like that are why I'm adamant about not using the tank for future gain model. It's worked for Pittsburgh twice but they invented & then perfected it. That's rare so other teams are better off with maintaining a mindset of winning & expecting players to buy in.

I decided to snoop on their board. The hopeless feeling I read is @ least as bad as when they realized Hall, Eberle, RNH & Schultz didn't = Gretzky, Kurri, Messier & Coffey. They now have 1 superstar (Gretz couldn't do it alone in LA but had a better supporting cast than McDavid), Draisaitl & RNH without a supporting cast up front. The D is a bunch of decent 3/4s without a 1/2 in sight. A year ago Talbot was a good (not great) goalie but they rode him too hard & probably ruined him (like so many players before) unless he fnds people to work with him to salvage his career like Dubnyk did. Step 1:get away from that poison environment. After seeing so many players ruined there I feel bad for their draft picks. The early 1s like Hall came in with stars in their eyes but now you see disappointment. Poor kids are thinking "why couldn't I have been picked #11 or 12 instead of 10.

I hope he's talking to Ian Clark who is voluntarily leaving the goalie coach position in Columbus. He did Bobrovsky a world of good.

C'mon, top 3 protected wouldn't have been the breaker unless BT is very naive. Top 3 protected might cost a 3rd some other year with the 1st being postponed but with everyone in the hockey world knowing about Dahlin BT failed by not protecting it. Even safegaurding only for 1st over all should have been a given. (& I liked the trade otherwise. But I never expected the Flames to be a lotto team. BT is paid to protect against even what he hoped were slim chances of a lottery pick.) Even in the trade for Stastny when there was no chance of the Jets missing the playoffs Chevy got top 3 protection.

That was a very odd trade with so many conditions attached. That 4th could rise to a 2nd. There was also a conditional 3rd based on the Flyers re-signing Mrazek. I wouldn't be surprised to see conditions like that attached by teams trading for other rentals soon. If the player produces the return goes up.

Offer him a PTO?

Please explain to the class what is being worked on by the organization. I'd love to hear that master plan. What we saw as changes for both the short & long term somehow seems not to be working. People complained abou D Sutter trading draft picks but are giving BT a pass for that. Difference is as GM Sutter got his team to the payoffs every year.

Lack traded to NJ for defenseman Dalton Prout. Prout assigned to AHL.

Nenshi reminds me of our mayor. Ours has a vision of rapid transit we can't afford during a time regular ridership is falling because service is so ineptly run (but fares keep going up). Meanwhile the cost of that rapid transit that few want/need rises as the feasibility studies show it to be a hair brained idea. Ours also figures re-opening Portage & Main (the windiest, coldest intersection in NA) to pedestrian traffic is a great idea even though there was an underground walkway built to faciltate closing it due to the highest death tolls occuring @ what is the junction of the 2 busiest streets in town. They all want a heritage but don't seem to realize that heritage isn't what will have you remembered in a good light. As far as the cleanup isn't that supposed to be funded by all 3 levels of government? I know finally it all came together for the flooding of reserves in the north out here. In the meantime the residents lived in hotels in & around Wpg. which probably cost as much as rebuilding those towns, Various departments will obviously fight over which pays what @ all levels (as if the money doesn't come out of the taxpayer's pocket regardless). Whether the cleanup is done for a sports facility or housing it still will need to be done. But politicians think short range as by the time a long range project starts to pay off odds are some other person will have been elected in their stead.

I'm not sure how the funding would have to work for Calgary so I guess there would be a lot of horse trading needed but in the last 2 Jets game I saw how the ice suffers when a NBA team (the main tenant in most American barns) suffers. In Boston & @ Barklay there had been NBA the day before & the ice made the ponds I played on look better. In most barns in Canada the ice only comes out for concerts but those aren't as hard to adjust for as basketball. Wpg. had an owner that built with some government help (mostly getting extra lottery machines & a bigger cut of the pie from those voluntary taxes) while a different set of owners of the Bombers got a sweetheat deal but ended up with inferior construction & those dreaded cost over-runs. The problem might be that Calgary is trying to tie their entire sports scene into 1 package. Jets/Moose sharing an arena & practice facility works while the separate entity of the CFL team is miles away. There also aren't a CHL team nor others like the Roughnecks throwing a spanner in to cause the need for a building that needs that many uses. Maybe shedding the non-hockey parts to others might help so the Stamps, Hitmen & Roughnecks could play out of more suitable locations. WHL doesn't need a NHL arena with 2/3s closed off while football nor lacross are played on ice. The new arena should be the main concern as the NHL is the main game in Canada. 2nd comes the CFL but it draws well even outdoors as the fans like to brag about braving the elements. WHL can make money in any decent local arena. Not sure how many fans the lacross attracts but probably not a need for 20+ thousand seats. Concentrate on the 1 part that makes money. Lets the new owners of the rest of those teams sort out deals that help keep the more minor parts solvent.

Didn't those costs rise from 485 to 604. 5 with Katz only adding 15? Easy to hide #s for all levels of government. We'll get it back via taxes on the area or a surtax on tickets. What was the cost of infrastucture to get people there?

Houston would be a best case scenario should the NHL finally decide to end the farce of a team in Arizona. Market size similar & Houston has a history of supporting pro hockey including the Aeros of the old WHA. There is also the built in cross state rivalry with Dallas. The Houston time zone meshes nicely with the Central division. Add an expansion team in Seattle to balance divisions (with the owners pocketing the $650 million) & they might have got something right for a change. QC is most likely to be used as a fall back plan for if/when an eastern franchise has to be moved (like Wpg. was). With the cap & revenue sharing a more or less fool proof albeit small market that will fill the joint for fear of losing another team. A smaller market but 1/2 a million interested customers > 5 million potential 1s where only 10 thousand have any interest.

Look @ the time stamp.

Other than Gio our core D ranges from 24-27 which is usually prime for defensemen as D does take longer to translate from junior or Euro leagues. In goal we are indeed betting the farm on 35 year old Smith as the Flames really do seem to have a blind spot as far as developing goalies. The last top ender we had was Kipper who we had to trade for. But as long as I can remember goalies when they finally become greats have a tendancy to play to higher ages. From Sawchuk to the current Lindqvist & Luongo the best seem to last a while. Patrick Roy & Marty Brodeur are 2 more that were good well into their 40s. It would be nice to have 1 developed in house for a change. Goalies are a different breed to start but it's funny how even where they were developed as youths goes in cycles. For a while it was PQ, the Finland & recently the US seems to have 1 heck of a system based on what we see in the WJC. Up front the core is still young with Monahan, Gaudreau & Tkackuk.

I hope Santa brings you your wish.