#lower UFA age.

[sergeifyodorov]

in fairness the reason for stating that the draft should be abolished is players' labour rights which is kind of fair however there are ways to improve players' rights that also are like. good for the long-term health of the league lmao

[chaiwu1314]

How come back black hair that stays up late, anxious, and sad and white?

What's the matter with premature gray hair? What should I do if I want to restore my black hair?

"The frost invades the temples before it arrives, youth thinks about the snow. A little distraction disturbs the way forward, and a lot of rugged youth."

The sentence "Lishuang invades temples before it arrives" tells how many people are heartbroken-they have white hair before they are 30 years old.

Early-born gray hair seems to have become a "normal phenomenon" in today's fast-paced living environment. More and more people are troubled by this situation. After trying various methods, they have little effect? Maybe it's because you haven't found the reason why you have gray hair early.

1. Some people turned white at the age of 30, and some were still black hair at the age of 40

This is described in the "Ancient Innocence" in the "Huangdi Neijing":

The woman "Six-seven-three-yang pulse decays above, the face is all burnt, and the hair starts to turn white."

The man "six or eight yang qi is exhausted, his face is burnt, and his temples are white."

In life, in recent years, it is often seen that some people have gray hair early at the age of 20, while some people still have dark and shiny hair at the age of 40.

In today's social environment, it is more common for colleagues and friends around you to have gray hair earlier than before. The increase in pressure, overtime work and stay up late, even the need to squeeze out the rest time, hair maintenance does not seem worth mentioning.

What caused the "early gray hair"? This may be due to problems with your internal organs, mood, diet, etc. (Genetic factors are beyond the scope of this article.)

2. Emotions, kidney deficiency, and diet can all cause premature gray hair

① Worry, you can really turn your head back

"White hair is three thousand feet long, and the fate is like a long one." Ancients have many stories about sorrow leading to gray hair, such as the most famous allusion of "Wu Zixu passed Zhaoguan and turned his head in sorrow overnight".

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that due to unsatisfactory emotions and excessive thoughts, qi stagnation and blood stasis result in gray hair.

"The surplus of hair is blood" means that when the blood is sufficient to maintain the daily physiological functions of the human body, there is "surplus" to nurture the growth of hair.

Conversely, if excessive thinking leads to stagnation of qi and blood, insufficient blood production or dysfunction, and unable to maintain the daily physiological needs of the internal organs, there is no free blood to nourish the hair. The hair will turn from black to chlorosis, from chlorosis to white, and then gradually Decline.

The reason for the gray hair of adolescents may be excessive study pressure, and the mental stress and fatigue caused by social and work pressures in the young and middle-aged. If the hair loses its support, the hair will white or fall out early.

② Kidney is not honorable and raises hair, it loses its maintenance

"The kidney governs the bones, produces the marrow, and stores the essence, and its blooms are in hair." Shaobaitou gives people a feeling of declining before old age, and the reason is mainly related to the ups and downs of the kidneys. It is pointed out in "Theories of Disease Origin and Symptoms" that if the blood qi is weak, the kidney qi is weak; if the kidney qi is weak, the bone marrow is exhausted, so the hair turns white.

Generally, it is divided into two situations. One is the innate endowment, the liver and kidney are insufficient, and the kidneys are not able to grow the hair and turn white; the second is the long-term bad habits, such as long-term overtime, staying up late, and too frequent intercourse.

③ "Fat House Happy Water" is also one of the "culprits"

For those office workers who are busy at work all day, they do not have time to choose a balanced diet. They generally choose food according to their own preferences, which leads to imbalance between Yin and Yang, and imbalanced nutrition will also cause us to age earlier. Black hair turned white hair.

For example, I like to drink carbonated drinks for a long time. There are basically no other nutrients in carbonated drinks except carbohydrates. Therefore, long-term drinking may increase the tendency of human malnutrition and cause gray hair.

Modern studies have shown that copper deficiency can reduce the melanin in the hair, so in order to prevent early graying of the hair, you should consume more copper-rich foods, such as eggs, soybeans, nuts, spinach, etc.

3. 3 ways to relieve early gray hair

"White to black" recipes emerge in endlessly, but most of them are unreliable or even harmful; some people even pull out white hair to reduce its number, but this method is not recommended. It is no problem to pull out a few gray hairs. If you pull out too much Will damage the hair follicles.

Is there no other way? Practice has proved that white hair is not irreversible, as long as certain obstacles are removed, the hair can still turn black.

For people over 40, changing these three methods can also reduce whiteheads to varying degrees.

(1) Smile, less than ten years

Be happy, don’t worry too much, don’t be too nervous, combine work and rest. In addition to the regularity of daily life and the adjustment of the intensity of work and study, you can also try qigong therapy-meditate and rest to stabilize your emotions.

Squatting, raising your toes and bowing your head: squat down so that your buttocks sit on your heels, lightly close your eyes, touch your tongue to your upper jaw, keep your mind peaceful, keep your pubic area in mind, breathe naturally, and sit quietly for about 9 breaths (a normal breath) One breath is one breath, 9 breaths is 9 breaths), hold the toes of your feet and pull upwards with your hands, while your head is lowered, imagine the essence of the internal organs traveling on your head, rest for a while and stop working.

(2) Eat less sugar and more black food

Eat less foods with high sugar content, and eat more beans, vegetables, and various animal organs, such as: peas, soybeans, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, animal liver, kidney, heart, etc.; It can also be supplemented with foods rich in tyrosine, such as chicken and lean beef.

In addition to supplementing the copper element in the daily diet, we can also relieve the "less whiteheads" through targeted diet therapy. If you want Ufa, you must eat more foods of the same color, that is, black food. It is recommended to eat sesame, black beans, black rice, and black dates that are used in the kidney meridian. Source: Photograph Network

Among them, black sesame seeds are known as the "King of Hundred Valleys". "Compendium of Materia Medica" said: Taking black sesame seeds for a hundred days can eliminate all chronic diseases. One year, the body is not hungry, the gray hair turns black in the second year, and the teeth fall out in three years.

It has the functions of invigorating the liver and kidney, moisturizing the five internal organs, replenishing vitality, growing muscles, and filling the brain. It can be used to improve dizziness caused by insufficient liver and kidney essence and blood, early white hair, hair loss, waist and knee weakness, weakness of limbs, difficult walking, and weakness of the five internal organs Damage, dry skin, dry intestines, constipation and other diseases, the efficacy of black hair and beauty is well-recognized. Source: Photograph Network

But its food and preparation methods are very particular. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: take flax, take the black one, and boil it as bait for nine steaming and nine drying.

After being moisturized by sunlight and rain and dew, the temperament is more gentle, and it will not get irritated for a long time. After the "nine steaming and nine drying" black sesame seeds, the nutrients are fully decomposed, the greasiness is greatly reduced, and it is easy for the body to absorb.

This method can be seen in the Jin Dynasty Taoist Ge Hong's "Baopuzi": 3 buckets of sesame seeds, steamed and dried, washed with water to remove the foam, steamed and dried, and repeated 9 times. At this time, the sesame skin and meat are separated. After removing the sesame skin, sauté fragrant, beaten into powder, mix with white honey or jujube paste to make marble-sized pellets, take 3 times a day, and take 1 pill each time with warm wine. Poisonous fish, dog meat, lettuce.

(3) Scalp massage to improve blood circulation

Scalp massage: daily before going to bed and after waking up the next day, rub the scalp with the fingers of both hands, starting from the forehead through the top of the head to the pillow for 2 to 5 minutes each time. 5~10 minutes each time.

Scalp massage has a good effect on promoting blood circulation, and it is also needed for health care of people with less whiteheads, and it must be persisted for a long time.

traction alopecia alopecia totalis spot baldness scarring alopecia androgenetic alopecia

[dollprose0-blog]

Does Free Agent Status Matter Anymore?

I still hear and read the term “buying free agent years” when people discuss NHL contracts, but I’m not sure it is relevant anymore.

It is interesting to note that since a salary cap was put in place after the 2005 lockout, the salaries of NHL players has actually changed significantly. Players don’t have to wait until unrestricted free agency to get paid huge money.

In 2003/2004 only two players in the top-30 highest paid were under 28 years of age: Jarome Iginla and Joe Thornton. Iginla was in his eighth season and was ninth in salary at $8 million, while Joe Thornton was the 29th highest paid player at $5.5 million in his seventh season.

Only four other players were in their twenties, while 24 of the top-30 highest salaries were 30 years of age or older.

In 2005/2006, the first year out of the lockout, we saw immediate change in the distribution of salaries.

Nine players 27 years of age and younger were now in the top-30 in cap hit, and 12 were under the age of 30.

By 2010/2011 the NHL pay structure had swung in the favour of younger players.

Only 12 players in the top-30 cap hits were 30+ years of age.

The top-three paid players were Alex Ovechkin ($9.5m), Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin ($8.7m each). They were 24, 22 and 23 and all on their second contract. They were the elite scorers in the game, so it makes sense they got paid big money, but other young players who were good and just out of their entry-level contracts like Anze Kopitar and Nicklas Backstrom were 17th and 18th in cap hit, while Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were tied for 26th in cap hit at $6.3 million.

In the three previous seasons Ovechkin, Malkin and Crosby were first, second and third in total points, Backstrom was eighth, Kane 17th, Kopitar 20th and Toews 38th. Toews had just finished second in Selke voting, and the others were all-stars. There were two D-men in the top-15 in cap hit: Zdeno Chara (ninth) and Brian Campbell (11th), while Henrik Lundqvist was the top goalie (16th). There were a total of three goalies in the top-30 and seven D-men.

Fast forward to today and the NHL salary structure is poised to change once again, at least for forwards.

Currently, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews are #1 and #2 in cap hit. Both are early into their second contracts. Jack Eichel (eighth) and Leon Draisaitl (23rd) are the only other players under 24. There are five D-men and two goalies in the top-30 cap hits.

But we are about to see a major influx of young players jump into the top-30, and likely the top-20.

Mitch Marner (94 points), Brayden Point (92), Mikko Rantanen (87), Sebastien Aho (83), Matthew Tkachuk (77) all finished in the top-31 in NHL scoring this year and will be 22 or 23 years young this season. Patrik Laine had a down season, by his standards, with 30-20-50, but over the past three seasons he is sixth in goals with 110 and trails only Matthews (111), McDavid and John Tavares (112), Nikita Kucherov (120) and Ovechkin (133). Laine will get a hefty raise, but I see him getting a bridge deal.

Jeff Skinner was a pending UFA and he signed an eight-year deal worth $72 million earlier this week. His $9 million cap hit is the 16th highest in the NHL. He had a career best 40 goals and 63 points last season. I think this was a desperate signing by the Sabres. They couldn’t afford to lose him, especially after how bad the Ryan O’Reilly trade looks less than a year later. Skinner is a good player, but he isn’t elite and has never produced more than 63 points, yet he makes $9 million a year.

Point had 41 goals and 92 points. Do you think his agent will want him taking less than Skinner? Can’t see why.

I think the days of buying UFA years are over for productive forwards. It used to be only the truly elite like Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin got big money out of their ELC, but this summer that is going to change, and once that door opens it will be impossible for NHL GMs to close.

Apr 17, 2019; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (16) pursues the play against Boston Bruins in game four of the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

I’d argue this is a good thing for teams. They will be locking up young players just entering their prime, instead of paying 27-30-year-olds big money. Your chances of having a young player not living up to his big contract are much lower than an older player. We have decades of data to prove what are the most productive years for the vast majority of NHL players, especially forwards, and it isn’t between the ages of 28-34.

I’m curious how teams and the agents will approach the signings.

Mitch Marner’s agent is looking for $10+ million/year contract, and if he gets it why wouldn’t Rantanen, Point or Aho command the same?

The past two seasons Marner has produced 48-115-163 in 164 games (.99 points per game), the 19th most points in NHL over that span. Rantanen has 60-111-171 in 155 games (1.10 PPG). 16th most points in NHL. Point has 73-85-158 in 161 games (0.98 PPG). 23rd most points in NHL. Aho has 59-89-148 in 160 games (0.94 PPG). 29th most points in NHL. Tkachuk has 58-68-126 in 148 games (0.85 PPG). 57th most points in NHL.

Then you look at some other stats courtesy of Corsica.

Player           P/60       GF%       CF%         PDO Marner        2.43        56.7         51.9         102.5 Rantanen    2.12        57.6         51.9         101.9 Point           2.50        60.5         52.0         103.3 Aho             2.16        57.9         55.5         101.1 Tkachuk      1.99        51.5         57.0          98.2

You can look at PK ability, the fact Point is the only centre and the best goal scorer, and I don’t see how anyone can suggest Point isn’t worth as much, if not more than Marner. I see Rantanen in same boat as Marner. I think Aho is right there as well. He doesn’t have the elite linemates like the other three and still has great numbers. Tkachuk is slightly below, but his ability to draw penalties and antagonize adds to his value as well.

I don’t see any of them coming in under $8 million a year, which would tie them for 28th in AAV next season courtesy of PuckPedia.

It will be fascinating to see which one signs first. Will that set the bar? Point plays in Tampa Bay and tax implications could impact his AAV. He will be taxed less than the others, so will his cap hit reflect that? Other teammates in Tampa have taken a lower cap hit because of this.

Which team signs their top-end RFA first?

I’ve heard for years about an offer sheet, and who should/would make one, but we haven’t seen one since the Calgary Flames offered Ryan O’Reilly a two-year deal during the 2013 lockout shortened season. Colorado matched it.

Until I see one I won’t believe a team would do it, but here is the compensation chart if you are interested.

$1,395,053 or below: None $1,395,054-$2,113,716: 3rd round pick. $2,113,717-$4,227,437: 2nd round pick. $4,227,438-$6,341,152: 1st and 3rd round picks. $6,341,153-$8,454,871: 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks. $8,454,872-$10,568,589: Two 1sts, one 2nd and one 3rd round picks. $10,568,590+: Four 1st round selections.

Offering $10.5 million makes the most sense as it only costs you two firsts, and one second and a third. However, I don’t see that being enough money to scare off any of those teams.

Would you want one of them at $12 million and sacrifice four first rounders? I can’t see it.

I think it is more realistic to see teams make an offer sheet on a middle six player on a team up against the cap.

Outside of these five young players, and Laine (who I think takes a bridge deal, which will still pay him at least $6 mill), there are some other good, young RFAs who are going to get big raises.

Timo Meier had 30 goals and 66 points. Kyle Connor had 34 goals and 66 points. What will the Canucks do with Brock Boeser (26-30-56 in 69 games)?

This will be the summer of the RFA, and despite Skinner having UFA status, I suspect at least four of these RFAs end up with a higher AAV this summer.

The younger players are getting more money early, and I don’t think the term “buying UFA years” carries the same cache it once did.

Source: https://oilersnation.com/2019/06/12/does-nhl-free-agent-status-matter-anymore/

[fiveonfir3]

Four Thoughts: Teenage Satellites

1. I’ll get to the draft later on, but I wanted to start this off with the “legal tampering period” leading up to when players can sign new contracts on 7/1. We all know there’s been more talk surrounding offer sheets this year than most and it comes with good reason. There’s not enough cap room to sign RFA’s. The NHL was way off of their cap projection of 83 million that the league came out with a couple months ago and wound up at 81.5 million after the NHLPA and the league attempted to work out a way to keep the labor peace. The biggest issue continues surround the NHLPA and escrow payments, which left uncontrolled, would’ve probably led to the union opting out of the CBA this September. I obviously have no proof of this, but it wouldn’t shock me if there was some loose handshake deal between the players and the league to keep the cap increases down for this year and next and in turn, keep the escrow payments down and this could possibly lead to both the league and the players not voting to opt out of the CBA. It’s been reported that the two sides were attempting the work out a cap ceiling figure over the next two seasons, so if that were truly the case, why even negotiate that if there was even some uncertainty that the 2020-2021 season was either going to be delayed or cancelled?  

2. The issue with RFA’s is something that’s going to have to be resolved in the next round of CBA negotiations. It’s one thing to punish teams that sign players to high priced, absurd contracts (Kevin Hayes) but it’s another to punish teams that draft exceptionally well, have their picks hit their peaks at 21-23 years of age and then want to get paid for their production and rightfully so. No, doing away with the salary cap is not a way to fix this issue but perhaps further contract length limits on RFA players or lowering the age of UFA’s from 27 to 25 might be the way to go here.

3. I’ll admit that the first time I heard Kakko say anything in English or Finnish was the day before the draft when the top picks were made available to the hockey media for the first time in Vancouver. Kakko seems like a pretty quiet kid off the ice, but he’s going to be a killer on it. The most “animated” I saw him all weekend was when a question asked to him of whether or not he deserved to be the top pick in the draft ahead of Jack Hughes and Kakko very bluntly said “yes”. There are a couple reasons why I preferred Kakko over Hughes since Kakko really burst onto the scene at the WJC. The Devils drafted Hughes based on his projected upside which he may or may not realize at some point. Kakko on the other hand, could be a physical beast in front of the net provided he puts in the hours at the gym to fill out his frame and grow. Players like Hughes will help the Devils win games. Players like Kakko help teams win World Junior gold, World Championship gold and perhaps in the future, Stanley Cups.

4. So where do NYR go from here? There’s still the question of what they’re going to do with Kreider and Buchnevich. I still can’t find any logic moving on from Buch unless for whatever reason he’s got completely unreasonable contract demands. You’d think he would be very open to returning provided his old SKA teammate Igor Shesterkin is going to be on the team in all likelihood. If NYR do move him, there needs to be a big piece coming back the other way. Kreider on the other hand, I don’t know what to make of. Is Kreider the Rangers’ fallback option if they can’t nail down Artemi Panarin? Also, are buyouts still in the pipeline? The Rangers have until Saturday to place Smith on waivers for buyout, whereas Shattenkirk’s NMC allows NYR the extra day if they want to go that route. Also the Rangers have been floating Vesey around the league as well. Very curious to see how that ends up.

4a. Lastly, it’s been a fun end to the season and as I’ve said on twitter, I’ve enjoyed getting back to doing these, how I’ve wanted and when I’ve wanted to do them. I may or might not do one more going over the free agent period and how NYR are set up for the 2019-2020 season.

[junker-town]

There’s a way to create even more Steelers vs. Le’Veon Bell drama in 2019

The transition tag would’ve give Pittsburgh a chance to recoup some value after losing Bell. Thankfully, they won’t use it.

Le’Veon Bell doesn’t want to be a Steeler unless he can glean a market-resetting long-term contract. Pittsburgh has made it clear it won’t meet his demands. And saddling him with the franchise tag for a third straight season wouldn’t just be prohibitively expensive — it would also likely trigger another lengthy holdout.

Bell failed to report to the team’s practice facility by Nov. 13, which means per the league’s collective bargaining agreement, he was obligated to sit the whole season out. With the 2018 season now over, he’ll be able to hit reset on his career after a year-long game of chicken where neither side blinked.

The league’s transition tag could’ve helped the Steelers recoup some assets in an offseason trade, and even help Bell secure a front-loaded big money deal in the process.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Steelers were thinking about doing just that. They won’t, though.

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert says they will not put tag on Le'Veon Bell, thus he will become a UFA

— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) February 20, 2019

Wait, what’s the transition tag?

The transition tag is a less-expensive version of the franchise tag that allows a player to garner contract offers from other interested teams. It offers a team the right of first refusal when it comes to one of its unrestricted free agents. That gives the free-agent-to-be more leverage than he’d have under the franchise designation — but it benefits his current team as well. The tagging franchise has the opportunity to match the terms of the contract its player would otherwise sign elsewhere.

Like the franchise tag, it also comes with a designated one-year contract. In this case, it’s the average salary of the top 10 highest-paid players at the tagged player’s position, or 120 percent of what the player earned the previous year. So, based on what Bell earned in 2017, the transition tag means he would be in line for the same $14.5 million that his franchise tag was supposed to be worth. That is, if he were to sign his transition tender (he wouldn’t).

Teams can use the transition tag once per season. Teams cannot use the transition tag and the franchise tag in the same year. And, unlike the franchise tag, if a player signs elsewhere, the club gets no compensation for its loss.

The transition tag effectively turns an unrestricted free agent into a restricted one, though without the added team security of receiving draft picks should the player leave. By tagging Bell, Pittsburgh could sit back and wait for other teams to make offers on the All-Pro tailback. Once he gets an offer to his liking, he’ll start the clock on the Steelers’ seven-day window to either match the contract or let him walk. That would give Pittsburgh the opportunity to re-sign Bell at a lower figure should his market never materialize, or use its transition tag-given right to sign him to an astronomical deal, then trade him to whichever interested party is offering the biggest return for Bell and his new contract.

Why didn’t Pittsburgh transition tag Bell?

It could’ve been a reasonable gambit for the club, but not a great one. James Conner has been a star in his own right filling in for Bell this past season season. Plus, teams rarely use the transition tag because it’s easy to game.

A team with oodles of cap space in 2019 — say, the Colts or Jets or Texans or really any of the 28 franchises carrying less salary into next year than Pittsburgh — could offer Bell a front-loaded contract. The Steelers would’ve had to match any deal to its exact terms, putting an incredible strain on their cap space.

A deal with big money over the first year or two would make sense, too. Bell isn’t getting any younger, so paying out the nose early in a contract to lessen the cost of a running back’s age 30+ seasons is a smart move. And Bell would happily sign any deal that gets him the guaranteed money for which he’s been searching, but especially so if he knows it puts Pittsburgh in a position where it can’t match.

On the other hand, the team doesn’t have many feasible options to recoup more than a supplemental draft pick in exchange for losing a homegrown talent. The Steelers could franchise tag Bell again, but that would be a major drain on the club’s offseason cap space in the lead up to any deal. Since Bell would be entering his third year under the designation, he would cost the team the average salary of the league’s five highest-paid quarterbacks — approximately $25-26 million, depending on how the rest of the year shakes out.

So the transition tag was on the table, but ultimately it probably wouldn’t have had much of an effect aside from earning Bell a contract that pays big over his first year or two with a new team. It would have at least given Pittsburgh the opportunity to retain Bell and extend the club’s window to work out a trade with a needy franchise. Thankfully for all parties, the Steelers are finally ready to just move on.

[tenminutemisconduct]

I have no concept how how drafts work in any sports realm and the whole expansion team concept is new to a lot of ppl but like can the new team just like take any players they want (that aren't exempt or 'saved') even players still under contracts with their current team???? (Why does sport have to be confusing)

Hi hello! I’m so so sorry this took me so long to respond to, but real life has been chaos lately. anyway, i’m gonna put most of the explanation under the cut bc it’s gonna be long.

A lot of this language was taken from the nhl website and either edited or explained. i’m not an expert, but i hope this is still helpful. Capfriendly is also a great website to check out, and if you’re feeling wild, they have an expansion draft tool you can play around with (x). Another good resource is this article from puck prose, especially the speculation on how Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) play into this whole Thing (x).

Also, all the players I used as examples either meet or are expected to meet eligibility requirements for the expansion draft based on the info available to the public. I tried as best I could, but I only know so much. 

Remember, this is based on what we know right now. Trades could happen. Players could waive their no move clauses. Right now, a lot of this is guesswok. 

THE BASICS: 

The Las Vegas team must select the following number of players at each position: 14 forwards, 9 defensemen and 3 goaltenders.

Essentially, teams have 2 options in terms of who to protect from the draft: 

a) Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender

b) Eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender

The Vegas team has to select at least 1 player from each of the 30 teams in the league.  It also has to select at least 20 players who are under contract for the 2017-18 season (instead of rookies coming into their draft year now like Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier)

The Las Vegas franchise must select players with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season’s upper limit for the salary cap. This is salary stuff that could be a whole different post, so i won’t get into that. 

* The Las Vegas franchise may not buy out any of the players selected in the Expansion Draft earlier than the summer following its first season. Any player Vegas drafts from an existing team has to be on their roster for at least a season. 

When is this all happening, actually?

The 30 NHL Clubs must submit their Protection List by 5:00 P.M. ET on Saturday, June 17, 2017. The Las Vegas team must submit their Expansion Draft Selections by 5:00 P.M. ET on June 20 and the announcement of their selections will be released on made on June 21.

THINGS TO NOTE: 

*All players who have currently effective and continuing “No Movement” clauses at the time of the Expansion Draft (and who to decline to waive such clauses) must be protected (and will be counted toward their club’s applicable protection limits). 

so basically, if a player has a no movement clause and doesn’t wave it, the team has to protect them (and that player counts as 1 of the total players in the options above).

* All first- and second-year professionals (nhl and ahl), as well as all unsigned draft choices, will be exempt from selection (and will not be counted toward their club’s applicable protection limits).  

According to the nhl (via General Fanager, may it rest in peace): 

“A Player aged 18 or 19 earns a year of professional experience by playing 10 or more NHL games in a given NHL season.”

“A player aged 20 or older (based on age on December 31 of calendar year in which the season starts) earns a year of professional experience by playing 10 or more Professional Games under a standard player contract in a given League Year.”

No rookies (or 2 year players like eichel) can be drafted - this also counts for draft picks that haven’t signed contracts yet. players in this category don’t count towards the team’s protection total. 

Players like Nikita Zaitsev who have played in another professional league like the KHL are still considered rookies according to the draft, so they’re exempt

*Vegas will be granted a 48 hour window prior to the draft to sign any pending free agent (RFA or UFA, one per team) that was left unprotected. If a team loses a player to Vegas during this signing window they will not have a player selected from their roster during this draft. 

For 2 days, the Vegas team can sign a free agent from each team (that wasn’t included in the protected list). If Vegas drafts a free agent from a team, that team won’t have another player drafted to Vegas during the expansion draft. 

* Players with potential career-ending injuries who have missed more than the previous 60 consecutive games (or who otherwise have been confirmed to have a career-threatening injury) may not be used to satisfy a club’s player exposure requirements, unless approval is received from the NHL. Such players also may be deemed exempt from selection by the League.

if a player is on long-term IR, they can either be exempted from the draft or protected by their team. 

SPECIFICS: 

All teams must expose: 

a. 1 defenseman who is a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.  Examples: Tyson Barrie, Morgan Rielly

b.  2 forwards who are a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons. Examples: Nicklas Backstrom, Brandon Saad

c. 1 goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent (RFA) right before 2017-2018. Examples: John Gibson, Devan Dubnyk

THE REGULAR DRAFT:

So after the expansion drafted happens and every team and their fans collectively panic and run around screaming, the actual 2017 draft will happen. 

The Las Vegas franchise will be given the same odds in the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery as the team finishing with the third-fewest points during the 2016-17 regular season. Basically, for the purposes of the draft, the Vegas team existed this season and wasn’t very good. For reference, currently, the third-last team in the league is the Stars. 

The Las Vegas franchise’s First Round selection in the 2017 NHL Draft will be determined in accordance with the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery and, as a result, the Las Vegas franchise will be guaranteed no lower than the sixth overall selection. Vegas will draft their first player somewhere between 1st and 6th overall, based on the lottery. The top three picks will be awarded by lottery. 

For reference, here are the top 6 picks from last year’s draft: 

1) Auston Matthews © to the Toronto Maple Leafs

2) Patrik Laine (RW) to the Winnepeg Jets

3) Pierre-Luc Dubois (LW) to the Columbus Blue Jackets

4) Jesse Puljujarvi (RW) to the Edmonton Oilers

5) Olli Juolevi (D) to the Vancouver Canucks

6) Matthew Tkachuk (LW) to the Calgary Flames

The Las Vegas franchise then will select third in each subsequent round of the 2017 NHL Draft (subject to trades and other potential player transactions).

I tried to hit everything, but obviously this isn’t completely comprehensive. Sorry if this is still a little confusing, but honestly my best advice is to start paying attention to how your teams make moves as we get closer to the trade deadline, and then wait and see what happens. 

[thrashermaxey]

Geek Of The Week: Is Gustav A Must Have Next Season?

With most fantasy hockey leagues wrapping up sooner than later, one can’t help but start to look forward to the 2019 draft.   

During his time in Detroit this season Gustav Nyquist was given top-end deployment.  As Dylan Larkin broke out, Nyquist was attached to his hip and happy to go along for the ride. 

Of course all good things come to an end, with an expiring contract Nyquist was (predictably) moved at the deadline to the contending San Jose sharks for a second-round pick in 2019 and a conditional third in 2020. 

Heading into March 31, Nyquist had a career high in points with 57 in 77 games and was on pace to break 60 for the first time.  

Nyquist has hit the 20-goal mark in consecutive seasons and for the fourth time in his career.  It’s not all that uncommon for a player to put up a career high in points at the age of 29.  

Brad Marchand was the one that immediately came to mind with 85 points in 68 games (or 1.25 PPG) last season and he’s currently eclipsing that pace this year with 1.27 PPG (quick reminder to fantasy GMs that players don’t expire when they hit 30 years of age).  

Let’s be clear – Nyquist is no Marchand and his value is going to be highest in points-only formats. 

After eight seasons in the league, it’s likely that Nyquist will never block a lot of shots or throw a ton of hits.  He doesn’t take faceoffs from the wing regularly and he rarely takes penalties (12 PIM in 77 games this season). 

Nyquist is close to even during his NHL career at a plus-two over 496 games. At least he won’t kill you if your league still counts plus-minus.

Nyquist will be a UFA at the end of this season, something those in cap leagues will have to consider.  Alex McLean writes the weekly Dobber Capped article and he was kind enough to provide the numbers for Nyquist from his model projection.  It showed him coming in at 5.4M AAV with a five-year contract.  Check out his weekly article here – it’s a must-read for cap leaguers.

On a more positive note, Nyquist has decided to shoot the puck more over the last two seasons than he did the previous two, which bodes well for him. 

He threw a career high 213 shots on net last season and converted at 9.9 percent (21 goals).  This season he currently sits at 198 shots and is converting at 10.1 percent (20 goals).  That’s about as consistent as you can get over two seasons.

Nyquist has a career shooting percentage of 9.1, but he’s shooting more than ever so 10 percent feels just about right.  Some of the advanced stats point to sustainability here as well: 5-on-5 shooting percentage is at 8.8, PDO is 991, and IPP is at a healthy 68.7 percent.

The shot volume uptick over the last two seasons came with a modest increase in ice-time from 2016-17.  This tells us that he’s not shooting more simply because he’s getting more ice time.

Nyquist averaged 18:07 per game with Detroit this year, with 2:16 coming on the power play. 

Since the trade to San Jose, Nyquist has averaged 15:54 per contest with 2:01 coming on the power play.  Power-play time is critical for point producers, but don’t let his time with San Jose fool you.  We’re dealing with a small 15-game sample size that has seen recent injuries to both Erik Karlsson and Joe Pavelski. 

There’s no question that Nyquist loses power-play time when those offensive juggernauts return from injury.  Expect to see him somewhere around 30-35 percent of the team’s total power-play time next season, if he were to remain with the Sharks. The Sharks are just too deep up front, and if they run one primary unit Nyquist won’t make the cut.  There is an outside chance they split two units evenly, but don’t bank on that happening.

It is however, nice to know that Nyquist has the potential to get bumped to the top power play on a top team like the Sharks, if that team were to suffer a few key injuries.

There is no doubt that less ice time has hurt Nyquist’s numbers and we can see it in the small sample size.  He has 8 points in 15 games (44-point pace) since the trade with only one point coming on the power play. Compare that to his time in Detroit this season, where he had 49 points in 62 games (65 point pace) with 11 power-play points. 

The good news is Nyquist hasn’t stopped shooting in San Jose despite the lower ice time.  He’s averaging 2.33 shots-per-game.  That number is down from 2.62 shots-per-game earlier in the season with Detroit, but that can mostly be attributed to the loss of icetime.

So long as Nyquist continues to shoot the puck at the rate he’s been shooting for two seasons, and there’s no predictable reason to say he can’t, locking him in for 20 goals next season feels comfortable. 

The question becomes how many assists can Nyquist get next season?  Is he going to be a mediocre 45-point player or can he crack 60 with upside of 65?

These are the types of deeper picks that can win you the championship if you nail a few of them or float you into mediocrity if you miss on them.

It’s unclear whether the Sharks will be able to re-sign Nyquist as they have some serious work ahead of them with upcoming UFA’s: Erik Karlsson, Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi, and Joe Thornton. Timo Meier will also be due a big raise the following year as a UFA, so something or someone has to give.

Beyond San Jose it’s really anyone’s guess as to where Nyquist signs.  Regardless of where he ends up, he is likely to get paid as a top-six forward. 

When in doubt just follow the money, meaning he should see top-six deployment and more than 16 minutes per game wherever he ends up. 

Splitting the difference, we end up at 55 points (20 goals and 35 assists), which would be the second-highest output of his career. 

There’s a good chance Nyquist flies under the radar at next year’s drafts. He’s been around for a while and for the most part has been underwhelming.  Nyquist turns 30 next September, which will undoubtedly turn some GMs off.  Unless he re-signs with Detroit or San Jose, there will be some uncertainty as to the situation and deployment he will receive with his new team. 

If Nyquist happens to fall to the 45-50 point player area at your next draft, he’s definitely someone worth considering.

Follow me on Twitter @Mike_Zacour

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/geek-of-the-week/geek-of-the-week-is-gustav-a-must-have-next-season/

[thegloober]

The Hockey News’ 2018-19 Season Preview: New York Rangers

Henrik Lundqvist remains, but the Rangers could look vastly different by season’s end as they head towards a draft-and-develop rebuild.

The Hockey News’ 2018-19 Season Preview series dives into off-season transactions, best- and worst-case scenarios and one burning question for each team in reverse order of Stanley Cup odds.

Stanley Cup odds: 80-1

Key Additions: Adam McQuaid, D; Fredrik Claesson, D; Dustin Tokarski, G

Key Departures: David Desharnais, C; Ondrej Pavelec, G; Paul Carey, C; Ryan Sproul, D

BEST-CASE SCENARIO Not much is expected of the Rangers, as GM Jeff Gorton preps the franchise for a future built on the draft, rather than free agency. But we’ve seen rebuilding teams surprise in recent years, and New York has the foundation to make some noise. Despite the loss of Ryan McDonagh, the blueline still has a nice mix of veterans (Marc Staal), puck-movers (Brady Skjei) and veteran puck-movers (Kevin Shattenkirk).

Up front, the Rangers can hurt teams with their depth. There is no one star to key in on, but instead a sturdy cohort led by Mats Zuccarello, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. Behind them are tiers of youngsters, from Vladislav Namestnikov, Jimmy Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich to rookies Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil. They may not have a 65-point player this season, but if everybody contributes and most of the top-nine can hit 40, the Rangers won’t be a doormat.

In new coach David Quinn, the Rangers have brought in a communicator who knows how to shepherd young talent thanks to his days at Boston University. Handling the crease duties as always is Henrik Lundqvist, who is coming off a poor year but can still steal games.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO The Kings is toast, long live The King. Lundqvist posted his worst goals-against average last season (2.98) and it’s doubtful he’s going to find the fountain of youth at 36. Without that stability, the Rangers find themselves in a big hole. The team’s best offensive players are in the “potential” range and the established scorers are basically in a waiting room until the trade deadline: Kevin Hayes signed a one-year contract in the summer that makes him trade bait, while Zuccarello is also a pending UFA who would attract a nice return. The defense is a shadow of what it used to be.

In the here and now, that means a lot of losing. As good a coaching prospect as Quinn is, recent history has shown many first-year bench bosses need a season before their systems take hold (Jared Bednar in Colorado is a perfect example), which means a lot of pain in Year 1. Long term, this is not a problem: New York is not expected to contend this year and accruing more high-end prospects is the name of the game. Should the team really bottom out, they’d have a decent shot at Jack Hughes, the dynamic center and top prospect in the 2019 draft. His game would look great on Broadway.

BURNING QUESTION Are we witnessing the decline of Lundqvist in New York? From his debut campaign in 2005-06 all the way through to his age 33 season in 2015-16, Lundqvist, it could be argued, was the best and most consistent goaltender in the world. Across a decade-long span to begin his career, Lundqvist finished no lower than sixth in Vezina Trophy voting, winning the award once and landing himself on two end-of-season all-star squads. He fell out of the Vezina race three seasons back, however, and his combined numbers over the past two campaigns aren’t all that impressive. To wit, among the 31 goaltenders to have played at least 82 games over the past two seasons, Lundqvist’s .913 SP ties him for 20th, his 2.87 GAA is fourth-worst and once heralded as a game-stealer, he’s only posted four blankings in his past 120 games.

What suggests Lundqvist could be in for another difficult year is that the defense in front of him isn’t going to be able to provide him the type of insulation he’s grown accustomed to. The evidence of that was present last season, when the Rangers had the second-worst shots against per game total, and the blueline simply doesn’t have the wealth of talent necessary to keep playing heading in the right direction.

If any veteran keeper could laugh in the face of age-based decline, it’s Lundqvist, but the outlook isn’t awfully positive with the season on the horizon.

THE HOCKEY NEWS’ PREDICTION: 7th in the Metropolitan Division. Glimmers of hope are to be expected, but the Rangers are heading for the Eastern Conference basement. The early stages of a rebuild are always the most trying.

Tags

2018-19 season preview Featured post new york rangers

Source: https://bloghyped.com/the-hockey-news-2018-19-season-preview-new-york-rangers/

[sergeifyodorov]

Is this a safe place away from philly fans can i say out loud that i really like Gauthier and wish him all the best the way people have been treating this barely adult is crazy

unsure of the philly fan density round these parts but regardless of my affinity for the team I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!!!!!!!! nhlers and prospective nhlers have so few real labour rights as it is it is CRAZY to get mad at a teenager for. using them. where was this energy when we wanted bedard to refuse hawkdom... where was this energy (tumblr didn't exist) when lindros refused to play in quebec city!!!!!! i think fresh faced adults with 0 real job experience should be able to exercise their agency how they can and teams should reduce the risk of getting lindrossed by making their organizations safe comfortable and appealing places and UFA age should be lower than 25 also ☝️

[plms-hockey]

PLMS Scratchpad: Draft & Free Agency

The 2018 NHL Draft

From an excited Leafs fan’s perspective, it would have been nearly impossible for Kyle Dubas to live up to everyone’s individual hype trains. A modest but solid draft is probably a good dose of reality for everyone, as the new Maple Leafs GM didn’t make any massive waves in Dallas.

That’s not to say it was a bad draft. Even though the Leafs have made some playoff acquisition trades at the deadline in the past two years to shore themselves up for the playoffs, they still managed to inject nine new prospects into the system. More importantly, not a single one of them are bearing any wild red flags. In fact, we did see flairs and hints of the shift in philosophy that we expected from Dubas.

After claiming he didn’t know where his reputation for trading down came from in an interview before the draft, Dubas’ first move was to trade the 25th overall pick for the 29th and the 76th pick, a third rounder. The 29th pick was used to select Rasmus Sandin, a left-handed defenseman from Dubas’ Soo Greyhounds. While I like this pick, it caused some ripples because a touted center prospect and first-round faller, Joe Veleno, was still on the board and was then picked by Detroit at 30th.

I personally believe a lot of the gut negative reactions came from people clinging to the names they know going into the draft, where Veleno had been well known as one of the few available centers. The reaction was a lot more dramatic than called for by the actual projected value difference between the picks. We don’t know why the Leafs didn’t pick Veleno, but it’s important to remember that other teams also skipped him 28 times before the Leafs did and there were even a few scouting folks who had Sandin ahead of Veleno anyway.

The bottom line is we won’t know who’s right for at least a year or two, maybe more.

The fandom is understandingly twitchy considering that the Leafs used to have a habit of drafting the first coke machine they could get their hands on. Even though you may have selected a different guy, it’s important to remember that picking Sandin isn’t some 6 foot 7 defenseman who’s legs have the flexibility of a tree trunk. Sandin projects to be a potential top-4 defender and is a safe bet, with a high floor, even if he doesn’t likely have the high ceiling some people hoped for in the first round.

It’s also not fair to only look at the 29th pick alone—especially considering all things indicate that Sandin would have been their pick at 25 anyway. This makes the extra third rounder basically a free lottery ticket, and the 76th that Dubas acquired by trading down turned into perhaps my favorite prospect in this crop.

Seymon Der-Arguchintsev.

Say that three times fast.

SDA is small center who played on a terrible Peterborough Petes OHL team. He’s a skilled playmaker who still produced effectively even though he didn’t have much in the way of help putting his passes into the net. He’s also the youngest player in the entire draft. Had he been born just one day later then he wouldn’t have been draft eligible until 2019, which means you can look at his production this year more like a Draft-1 year, knowing he has a lot of room to grow both his game and mature physically. As a Russian import, he also has the freedom to play in the AHL or another league next year (unlike North American CHLer’s who have to go to the NHL or nothing) if Peterborough looks like a bad fit. This gives the Leafs that much more control over his development which, as mentioned earlier, he has lots of extra time to work on.

On the other side of the age scale, one of my other favorites is second-round pick Sean Durzi, an overage RHD from the Owen Sound Attack. After going undrafted in 2017, he’s looked dominant this year. He’s also a Leafs lifer and has been lighting up his twitter with how excited he is to be drafted by Toronto.

Which doesn’t say much about his game but is, in fact, delightful.

All in all, the Leafs clearly didn’t prioritize size and instead seemed to take a lot of guys noted for their “Hockey IQ”. They took some good high ceiling flyers in the later rounds (notably SDA and Filip Kral, a Czech LHD out from the Spokane Chiefs). One kind of surprising trend was the scouting reports on a high number of their picks noted skating as a weakness, which is a bit shocking considering the way the game is moving. My hair-brained working theory is that the Leafs see this as a fixable problem and therefore an inefficiency to exploit.

The Leafs have had highly touted skating coach Barb Underhill, former Olympic figure skater turned NHL skating guru, and others who have produced amazing results on the Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning, with whom Underhill also works. The example that most comes to mind is Travis Dermott, who was also knocked for foot speed and skating in his draft year and is now considered one of the best skaters on the Leafs’ squad.

It’s purely speculation but if they had a strategy that involved their skating experts evaluating the skating deficits of their potential picks for fixability, or if they simply believe they have a good chance of fixing most prospects’ weakness in this area, then they’ve got themselves a clever formula for obtaining talents, like on ice intelligence and puck handling skills, that aren’t so easily taught.

 Free Agency Thoughts

To be honest, NHL free agency is usually a pretty barren desert, with most big name UFAs signing extensions before Free Agency even begins on July 1st. This year is no different, with one exception.

It’s looking like John Tavares will hit Free Agency, or at least get really close.

Tavares, the New York Islanders’ crown jewel of a top-ten center, made it to the “courting period” which began on June 24th. He will entertain pitches from five NHL teams in LA this week, as well as up to four others remotely.

It’s been confirmed that the Leafs are, in fact, one of the five teams who will give a full pitch in California.

The Leafs have historically been linked to native-born UFAs. They even got to the interview stage with Steven Stamkos before he signed his extension in Tampa. However, the script is pretty different than it was a few years ago, with Tampa a dominant force and Toronto… not that.

Tavares on the other hand plays on a New York Islanders squad that allowed the most goals against in the NHL last year and has spent years facing arena issues that make it uncertain where they will even play year to year. And currently Toronto’s window is wide open with one of the strongest youth cores in the league.

The Leafs have also been cited as willing to “get creative” with their offer. With the massive amount of cap space they have in the 2018-19 season, before Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have to ink new deals next summer, they could feasibly offer Tavares a one-year max deal of almost 16 million dollars. They would then have the option to sign him to a second, longer term, deal at a lower AAV or let him walk to someone that can offer him more. The second deal would make this pretty blatant cap circumvention, but the Leafs don't have two capologists as AGMs for nothing.

In all likelihood, inherently risk-averse and loyal NHLer that Tavares is, he won’t take a one-year max deal and will take the 8-year, 88 million dollar deal the Isles are reportedly offering him.

There are obviously other UFAs and trade targets to think about but they don’t really matter until the John Tavares is off the board.

[gatewaycitygoals-blog]

Free Agent Centers: Joe Thornton

This is the first installment of posts in regards to possible free agent centers the St. Louis Blues could target this off season:

Jumbo Joe Thornton Center San Jose Sharks

Jumbo Joe isn’t a fan favorite in St. Louis. He has had a dubious rep in the gateway city after a questionable hit on David Perron which ultimately lead to a terrible concussion and several ongoing post concussion symptoms today. Fast  forward almost a decade: Perron has left, returned, and left the Blues again and Jumbo Joe is facing free agency.

Thornton has been a mainstay on the Sharks for quite some time, but it might be time for the Sharks to put their former captain out to pasture. Joe will be 39 by the time the NHL season starts, and he missed a portion of last season with injury. He was only able to compete in 47 games last season. His stat line read:

Games: 47 Goals: 13 Assists: 23 Points: 36

In his shortened season he was good for 0.77 points per game. This would put him between Schenn: 0.85 PPG and Stastny 0.63 PPG to put his productivity into perspective. 

So would an aging veteran like Joe Thornton be an addition to the Blues?  The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, under the right circumstances.

Jumbo Joe is no longer a top tier center. If his age hasn’t finally caught up to him already, it will. At 39, you can’t expect him to take top line minutes. The question is: under what circumstances is he coming to the Blues. 

Much of the Blues off season will be determined by whether or not they can land their number 1 choice. The top free agent center is John Tavares. With JT on the roster, the Blues would immediately be a cup contender. Without a signing like Tavares, the Blues will again be in an uphill battle for a cup, and maybe even for a playoff berth. Does Thornton fit into either or both of these roles? The answer is both.

Thornton has been a big part of the San Jose special teams units for quite awhile. Think back to our last encounter with them in the WCF and you might remember them complaining more penalties needed to be called to get their red hot power play unit on the ice. The Blues were second to last in PP% last season. If that unit had been even league average, the Blues might have been in the playoffs. With the departure of David Backes, the Blues lacked a big body to park in front of the goalie when on the man advantage. Last season, Thornton had 7 of his 13 goals on the power play, and 11 of his 23 assists on the power play. 

His presence would immediately upgrade out special teams units, which would eventually add up to more points in the standings. 

So when he isn’t on the special teams units, where would he fit on our lines? My take: 3rd line center. Look towards a familiar face to see how it might work. David Backes in Boston. A former captain known for his physicality and grit still finding success later in his career by playing fewer minutes against lower level opponents. Backes averaged 15:23 TOI last season compared to 19:14 TOI in his last season with the Blues. If the Blues land Tavares, our top two centers are Tavares and Schenn. This would be one of the best 1-2 punches in the league, and allow Thornton to sit comfy on our 3rd line on the road to a possible cup. If the Blues fail to land Tavares, Schenn  would remain on our top line, and youngster Robert Thomas would be penciled in as our 2nd line center. Thomas is a highly skilled player who would benefit from playing along side other top 6 forwards. In this scenario, the Blues are hoping to make the playoffs, but still building for the future. Thomas would benefit more from a season as a 2nd line center with some growing pains, than he would from a bottom 6 role with players who aren’t likely to score even when handed a good opportunity. 

Thornton could also pair well with some of our younger players who would benefit from a physical veteran beside them. Look no further than Fabbri and Kyrou. They are both younger smaller players who would benefit from a player known to stick up for his teammates like Thornton. Thornton provides the best skill and protection combination of any player or prospective player. 

The key is what is market like for Jumbo Joe. Let’s take a look at some stats from our friends at CapFriendly.com for a look at what players over the age of 35 can get:

You’ll see Joe is playing on the most expensive of the deals, with his old friend Patrick Marleau coming in 2nd. They are both UFA’s this season, and neither is likely to sniff anything close to their previous contract. No team will be willing to offer much more than 1 or 2 years in term to a player of Thornton’s age, especially coming off an injury. Would a 2 year, 3.5 million avg/year deal be enough for Thornton? I can’t see him getting a better deal anywhere else. This would put him in the same basket as Patrik Berglund $3.85 mil a year and Vladi Sobotka $3.5 mil a year. Both of those players look to inhabit the same 3rd line role as Thornton, but neither have the ability on the power player that Jumbo Joe does. The Blues could look to dump either Berglund or Sobotka this off season, and make a 1-for1 trade on their roster and salary cap for Joe Thornton. Tavares would likely take up a large portion of our cap space, but the ability to trade out under performing players like Berglund or Sobotka and replace them with Joe Thornton for no extra salary cap hit would be the best possible scenario. Sobotka can be moved to any team, and Berglung has a modified no trade clause. This means, Berglund would submit a 20 team no trade list, and any team not listed, the Blues could trade him to. Don’t expect anything more than a very late round draft pick for Berglund, in a move that would be mostly a salary cap dump. 

So do you want to see Jumbo Joe in Blue and gold?

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

Trending Topics: Hurricanes shakeup leaves plenty of questions

Thomas Dundon has made significant changes since becoming the majority owner of the Hurricanes. (Chris Seward/Raleigh News & Observer/TNS)

Big news out of Carolina this week, as their lovable new owner shanked his well-respected, long-tenured GM that everyone liked up until about one minute before he got, ahem, “promoted.”

Subprime loan mogul Tom Dundon made his first big impact on the team he just bought in early January, moving Ron Francis to the role of “president of hockey operations” with no clear duties, and saying he will replace the Hall of Famer with a GM who will report directly to the owner.

Put another way: Dundon wants to make all player personnel decisions and Francis wasn’t about to give him that power, despite whose signature was on his paychecks.

Elliotte Friedman said during the intermission show for Wednesday’s Canucks/Coyotes game (why did I watch it?) that part of this may stem from Dundon perhaps wanting Francis to make a big move at the deadline and he didn’t do it. Aaron Ward reported a little while before that surprising reveal that the decision was made about five days before the actual announcement; that means the decision came on March 2. That day, Carolina won its second straight against a Metro opponent, winning 3-1 against New Jersey after winning 4-1 in Philly the night before. However, since the deadline, the Hurricanes were just 2-2-1, with their most recent loss coming on the 6th, when they got smoked at Minnesota 6-2.

Dundon, then, might have given Francis a week or so to get something going, maybe make up some ground in the playoff race. Didn’t happen.

A lot of people who liked Francis’s approach as recently as this past summer are now ready to shiv the guy because his big bet on a goalie hasn’t worked out. Now, to be fair it’s more than reasonable to criticize the Darling contract…. in hindsight. I don’t recall too many people saying it was too much money or term this summer; the consensus seemed to be that Darling had earned the shot as a legit No. 1 and Carolina was moving to address what had been a serious problem in Raleigh for a very long time.

Yes, Darling has been pathetic this year (.887 in 35 appearances). But are we really going to sit here and say, “Ah well, his career is over after 35 admittedly very bad games?” Because you’re not gonna believe this, but Carey Price had a season in which he went .900 over 35 games one time. He had another one in his second year in the league, when he went .897 for a 35-game stretch in the middle of a season. I’m not arguing that Scott Darling is Carey Price, obviously, but the point is that even elite goaltenders can have bad stretches of 35, 40 games. Darling isn’t elite, but if the best in the world can do it, why can’t a guy who might be a lower-end starter?

Let’s also keep in mind that Carolina entered the season with one of the lowest payrolls in the league — they currently have more than $15.8 million in untapped cap space — since their previous owner was a notorious penny-pincher except when it concerned guys who had won a Cup for him in 2006. For a long time, the Hurricanes were just sort of scraping by, financially. Now a billionaire sweeps into town, says he doesn’t care as much about making money with the team (it’s a tax write-off baby!!!) and just wants to win.

Give a smart GM resources to actually sign players, without having to sell a bunch of futures for a no-sure-thing deadline transaction just to maybe get into the playoffs and then get demolished by an actual good team, and he’s probably going to produce for you.

The question, I guess, is how the people praising this move went from saying Francis was taking a smart approach at building a winning roster before the season started to saying his vision was fundamentally flawed because of one bad bet on a goalie based on a rather small sample size. (Likewise, if we’re all supposed to be mad about the Josh Jooris signing or Marcus Krueger trades, I think that’s going overboard. Wasn’t that kinda sorta the team Going For It?)

Seems to me that much like when Terry Pegula bought the Sabres — and said he was taking off the budgetary training wheels, so the team could pursue a Stanley Cup — a lot of people are more than happy to buy a line of talk from some rich guy who might be better than the old owner in some ways, but also seems like he just wants to pal around with pro athletes and be in a club of other rich guys who own sports teams.

And by the way, let me know how that Sabres’ Cup pursuit is going, fellas. I think maybe just being a rich guy saying you’re willing to throw money at the problem isn’t gonna solve that problem. Might just be me.

Indeed, Friedman also said Dundon wants to be more like Mark Cuban. And hey, Cuban’s on the sidelines making an ass of himself, but you can’t say he hasn’t built a good, solid franchise. The Dallas Mavericks once had the best record in the NBA and went to a Finals once, before finally winning it five years later in 2011, just 11 years after Cuban first bought the team. I’m saying “just” as a joke there. That’s a long time, and while the Mavs never missed the playoffs with Cuban as the owner until 2013, they also lost in the first or second round on a pretty regular basis.

Point is, being a prominent-in-the-media, fingers-in-the-pie owner doesn’t really guarantee you any kind of success. Seems like Pegula has been in on a lot of Sabres hockey decisions, and you see where that’s gotten them. And how is that working out for Eugene Melnyk in Ottawa? When owners want final say on personnel decisions, they do of course get it. But since most of those guys couldn’t have picked a star player on their team out of a lineup before buying it, maybe that’s something best left to the guys who get paid to at least be able to name 10 NHL players.

You hear rumors about what Dundon might have been pushing for, tradewise. Big-name players who would have absolutely helped the Hurricanes. You also hear what the asks for those players were, including some promising young players who would have likely blossomed in their primes and become some of those “Why can’t the Hurricanes get guys like that?” players in three or four years, while the players Francis would have traded for aged into their 30s.

The NHL is of course overly deferential to playing experience when it comes to decision-making, which is why so many GMs are former players in the first place. It’s a problem to be sure, but at least these guys have spent decades in the game, right? What in Dundon’s background gives anyone the impression that he is qualified to make these decisions? This isn’t charging someone living below the poverty line 29 percent interest on an auto loan; it’s making hockey decisions.

Friedman also quoted Dundon as saying he thinks Francis is a “valuable resource. But our styles couldn’t be any [more] different. It is no more complicated than that.” Dundon further added he doesn’t “want to make decisions,” which might be true; he probably just wants a guy who makes the decisions he would also make anyway. Dundon also pushed back against the idea that a deadline deal-or-no-deal wasn’t the issue here, but that, like saying Francis is a “valuable resource” strikes one as being particularly politic at a time when people around the league and certainly within the fanbase aren’t happy with this move.

Dundon will have to prove he doesn’t just want a yes-man as GM, who will aggressively and needlessly pick up the phone any time Dundon says to go get a player. In the meantime, who wants to take bets on the UFA who shoots 21 percent in this year’s playoffs to get a Ville Leino contract from Francis’s replacement on July 1? And who wants to take bets on how many of the media dopes saying the Francis firing was a savvy move also say that contract is a good bet?

We all have our biases, right? People like me thought Francis was doing a good job because his transactions reflected a willingness to listen to the “smart” “analytics” people he hired (some of whom happen to be professional acquaintances of mine, in the interest of full disclosure), and some of us were already highly skeptical of Dundon’s over-the-top framing of himself as a Solutions Guy. It’s hard to foresee what’s actually going to happen with this roster in the months ahead. Dundon might demand some big changes and get them from a guy whose job it is to say, “Right away, Mr. Dundon,” and nothing more.

And maybe that’s all the team needs; after all, most people thought they were a goalie away from being competitive before it turned out they got the wrong goalie (at least this year). Another big-money add might push this team over the top. But then again, after however-many years of subpar goaltending and low shooting percentages, maybe you say that all the talent Francis amassed wasn’t being maximized by coach Bill Peters. All the underlyings are there now and, in recent years, have been there before.

Peters is in his fourth year as coach and, despite improving talent every single season, has bee in the same range of wins (30 to 36) the entire time. This year’s Hurricanes team should eclipse that (they have 29 in 67 as I type this).

And here are the team’s rankings in shooting percentages from 2014-15 to present: 29th, 28th, 20th, and 28th. Save percentage? 27th, 29th, 27th, and 31st. The latter number you say, “Well, Cam Ward.” But also, Eddie Lack, Anton Khudobin, and Scott Darling. All of them came to Carolina with good save percentages. All of them posted .902 or less. Ward’s number over the last four years is the best of the bunch at .908, and that number also stinks. So maybe, just maybe, if we can acknowledge Darryl Sutter’s system likely suppressed LA’s shooting percentage, maybe it’s possible Peters’ has a negative impact on save percentage (and shooting percentage ha ha ha).

What I guess I’m saying is, if you’re gonna fire someone, fire the coach whose team never seems to be able to put it together, despite the fact that everyone agrees the GM built a respectable roster. Hey, maybe Peters is just a little more pliable. Or perhaps if Francis had been just a little more willing to sell off a few high picks to get a real needle-mover like Tomas Tatar(???), we wouldn’t be in this mess.

But people are picking sides now. And for some reason, plenty of them seem to want to side with the meddlesome owner. In the NHL, that’s always a good look that works out for all involved.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here .

[crisscolferison]

What season to drink wine on the body good

A small amount of alcohol will benefit the body! As long as the amount is good, on the contrary, are bad.

Low degree of wine is the first choice. Drink a small amount of wine on the body is easy; you can speed up the body's blood circulation! The most beneficial to the body of red wine good softening of the blood vessels to have a degree. First, drinking before going to sleep on sleep is not good, will affect the quality of sleep, excessive drinking, will make it difficult for people to sleep, waking up will feel tired. Check out on wine palm springs.

Recommended when buying red wine to buy genuine wine, because some red wine is against the color of industrial raw materials out, this wine is better to drink than drink, but harmful to the body. Health wine, but most companies like to exaggerate the effect, be careful when buying! Drink more alcohol will have a negative effect!

A small amount of alcohol can help reduce the risk of leg artery disease, the survey found that people who drink 1-13 times a week, the older the risk of leg artery disease than those who do not drink Lower by 44%. As people age, the arteries in the legs become progressively hardened, affecting blood circulation to the legs, ankles, and feet, causing leg pain, burning sensation, cold hands and feet, discoloration of the skin, and proper alcohol consumption can improve this situation.

     Now a wide range of alcohol, white wine, wine, medicine, beer, rice wine, etc., different degrees of alcohol the degree of alcohol is not the same, drinking health at around 6:00 the best, that is, dinner. Because the decomposition of alcohol by the liver requires a variety of enzymes and vitamins involved, and the human body at this time the decomposition of the hangover enzyme is relatively more conducive to the decomposition of ethanol, then the night will not affect people's lives and work, some people It also helps to promote sleep. According to their physical condition, under normal circumstances, the higher the alcohol level of the wine, then the amount of alcohol should be reduced accordingly, from a day's total, the liquor should generally be controlled at about 50 ml, about 100 ml of wine control, rice wine also Can be about 100 ml, red wine control in 150 ml -200 ml, beer control in about 500 ml is appropriate.

Winter can be used to soak Wuhuo drink, Polygonum/Shouwu can warm liver and kidney, blood beauty, UFA, often drink Wuliangye great benefits.

Afraid of cold people can also drink antler wine; antler wine can make up for strength and blood to fill the essence of impotence, the most suitable person to drink yang constitution.

Liquor in the composition is very complex, only the aroma of Maotai in up to more than 70 species, many of these substances are necessary for human health. Insomnia that drinks a small amount of liquor before going to sleep is conducive to sleep and can stimulate the secretion of gastric juice and saliva, play a role in the stomach. In addition, the amount of drinking liquor there is ventilation and cold, Shujinhuoxue role. However, due to the high degree of white wine, do not drink too much, otherwise easily lead to alcoholism, damage to the liver and brain cells; pregnant women drink a lot will endanger the health of the fetus.

 Ordinary people drink white wine, a high degree of liquor - such as Maotai 52 °, daily consumption of the best not more than two to two; low alcohol - such as 38 ° Wuliangye, the daily best not more than three two.

 Beauty can be drunk wine    

Wine contains large amounts of sugars, organic acids, amino acids, and vitamins, has a high nutritional value, in particular, the amino acid content, higher than many other wines --17 amino acids such as rice wine containing, Of which seven are essential to the human body. Because rice wine is rice as raw material, after a long period of saccharification and fermentation, raw materials, starch, and protein are enzymatically decomposed into small molecules, easily digested and absorbed by the human body, therefore, rice wine is also listed as nutritional drinks liqueur. The lower the degree of rice wine, the taste of popular, especially for female beauty, anti-aging elderly have a certain effect, more suitable for daily drinking.  

 Degrees at 15 ° plus rice wine, daily consumption of more than 8 two do not; degree of about 20 ° Hua Diao wine, daily consumption of more than 6 two do not.

 Beer can be stomach digestion  

 Beer is a high-calorie alcoholic beverage, 1 liter of beer is equivalent to 200 grams of bread or 500 grams of potatoes, beer also contains 17 kinds of amino acids, 12 kinds of vitamins, known as "liquid bread", we can see its nutrition, Rich. The beer has an appetite, stimulate gastric acid secretion, improve digestion, but the higher the heat of beer, the metabolism in the body faster, so easy to overweight people to gain weight, resulting in "beer belly." In addition, gout patients must not drink beer, which purines easily lead to severe pain.  

 Taking Tsingtao Beer as an example, its degree is about 4 °. It is better not to drink more than two bottles (1250 ml) daily.

 Cardiovascular protection wine    

Vintage wine is also a low vitamin content is very rich, and manganese, zinc, molybdenum, selenium and other trace elements. Cardiologists have proved that drinking a small amount of red wine a day can reduce plasma viscosity, making thrombus difficult to form and prevent atherosclerosis.  

 To China Great Wall dry red wine, for example, the degree of 12 °, the daily amount of drinking to 42 appropriate.  

 Wine also have to drink in accordance with the degree of the

A current lot of types of medicinal wine, the production process is not the same. Common wine according to the production of raw materials are divided into ginseng wine, antler wine, wolfberry wine, wine, Angelica; according to efficacy is divided into: FIT fitness wine, detoxification wine, fever detoxification wine, qi and blood wine, The degree of medicated wine is decided by the medicinal liquor, the consumption of ginseng liquor can refer to the high liquor , and the consumption of wolfberry yellow wine can refer to the low-grade rice wine.  

Four best drinking realm: the best varieties: red wine

Liquor, beer, fruit wine points, from a health point of view, when one of the wine red wine as excellent. According to the researchers, there is a plant pigment in red wine ingredient. This substance with antioxidant and platelet inhibitory dual "identity" to protect the elasticity of blood vessels and blood flow, the heart will not be ischemic, often drinking red wine, the risk of heart disease will be reduced by half.

Best Time: Afternoon safety day two in the afternoon after drinking safer. Because a few hours in the morning, the stomach of alcohol decomposition of alcohol - alcohol dehydrogenase concentration is low, drink the same amount of wine, more easily absorbed than in the afternoon, so that the blood alcohol concentration increased. On the liver, brain and other organs caused greater damage. In addition, fasting, bedtime, flu or emotional excitement should not be drunk, especially white wine, so as to avoid cardiovascular damage.

 The best drink: 2 to 3 cups of human liver metabolism of alcohol per day about 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. Although red wine is wholesome, but not excessive drinking, preferably 2 to 3 cups a day.

Best food: fish egg dishes fasting alcohol is detrimental to health, the choice of the best of both the food can be full of blessing, but also reduce the harm of alcohol. From the metabolic laws of alcohol, the best case of vegetables when pushing high protein and vitamin-rich foods. Such as fresh vegetables, fresh fish, lean meat, beans, eggs and so on. Be careful not to use salted fish, sausage, bacon wine, because such a lot of smoked food containing nitrosamines pigment and nitrite, and alcohol reaction, not only hurt the liver, but also damage the oral and esophageal mucosa, and even induce cancer.

Drinking time is very important to your health. Physiological rhythms, to adapt to changes in the diurnal yin and yang can not get sick. During the day is a positive, night is a shade, and the wine is hot and hot wine, the higher the alcohol the higher the positive, so night drinking will help yin-yang, Yang Sheng is overcast, not only affect the gastrointestinal digestion and quality of sleep over time, On the human body will cause a lot of harm. Drinking alcohol at night can damage the retina, preventing the retina from producing photochromic pigments, diminishing their ability to discern objects in the dark. Therefore, the best time to drink is every afternoon after two o'clock.

The study found that people who had fasting alcohol consumed had a higher rate of death than those who consumed alcohol only at mealtime. Because of fasting, the body of amino acids and folic acid serious defect, and alcohol hinder the absorption of methionine and folic acid, leading to colon cancer. At the same time, fasting alcohol consumption has greatly enhanced the blood alcohol concentration, increased the harm of alcohol on the human body.

Drinking alcohol while drinking tea, but also a wrong way to drink. Chinese theory of yin and yang learn that alcohol spicy syrup, first into the lungs, lungs and colorectal phase, drinking should take its rising sun, so that yang, lung stronger, and promote blood circulation. Bitter tea, is a shade, the main drop if drunk tea will alcoholic drive kidney. Kidney water, aquatic temperature, wet is dry, so the formation of cold stagnation. Cold laxity leads to frequent urination voiding, impotence, testicular pain, dry stool embolism. Therefore, if you like with Cola, green tea, and other consumers, it is best to choose the lower alcohol content, the smaller the concentration of wine.

Wine is brewed from grains or fruits, with the tenet of "liquid bread."

For good health is to teach more beneficial nutrients to the human body, teach less harmful substances, and relatively low calories. Liquor is the most unhelpful, because liquor in addition to itself contains a lot of ethanol (that is, alcohol content), but also contains other harmful ingredients, such as organic acids, higher alcohols, esters, aldehydes, polyols, and phenols. In the process of brewing white spirit, some toxic substances have also been produced, including methanol, aldehyde, fusel oil, lead, and cyanide, which have a great impact on the health of the human body.

The wine is a grape-based wine, is a nutrient-rich beverage. It contains the body's three major nutrients needed to maintain life: vitamins, sugar, and protein. In alcoholic drinks, it contains a higher mineral content, and its rich iron and vitamin B12 can cure anemia. As the wine's pH between ph2 to ph2.5, with the same pH value of gastric juice, can promote digestion, increase appetite, reduce blood fat, soften blood vessels, for the treatment and prevention of a variety of diseases have a role.

As for beer, contains 17 kinds of amino acids, of which 8 are required for the human body. In addition to vitamins B1, B2, B6, C and niacin and pantothenic acid. Among them, vitamin B family and hops extract can increase appetite, help digestion, and diuretic swelling, niacin has softened blood vessels, lower blood pressure, improve blood circulation, prevent arteriosclerosis, while sugar can provide a lot of heat, as for a large number of The carbon dioxide can heat Jie Shu, Sheng Jin only drink.

The polyacid content of red wine is quite high, so it has an excellent effect on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, helps prevent diseases such as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease and also reduces the risk of osteoporosis and "TARAY" Other important effects.

Many types of beer, draft beer, cooked beer, low-alcohol beer, fruity beer. The composition of beer is different, people's body is not the same, so drinking beer also varies from person to person.

Draft beer: also known as fresh beer, this beer without sterilization, has a unique beer flavor, but not easy to save. On the basis of draft beer there is a pure draft beer, pure draft beer without sterilization, but in the processing, the process requires rigorous filtration process, the microorganisms, impurities removed, stored for a few months will not be metamorphosed by The vast number of consumers of all ages. As the live yeast in wine after filling, and even in the human body can continue to carry out biochemical reactions, so this beer is easy to drink fat, more suitable for thin people to drink.

Cooked beer: The average general beer is to be sterilized, after killing bacteria called cooked beer. Because the wine yeast has been warmed to death, will not continue to ferment, good stability, so fat people drink more appropriate.

Dry beer: This beer is derived from wine, wine contains different concentrations of sugar, ordinary beer will have some sugar residue, dry beer using special yeast to the remaining sugar to continue fermentation, the sugar down to a certain Concentration, called dry beer. Suitable for those who are afraid to get fat and have diabetes to drink. Of course, people with diabetes still do not advocate drinking.

Low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer: the use of special processes so the yeast does not ferment sugar, only produce aroma substances, in addition to alcohol, beer has all the characteristics, taste, taste good. Ordinary beer alcohol is about 3.5% alcohol-free beer control the general alcohol content below 1%, not to say that there is no alcohol content. This kind of beer is a low-grade beer, except that its saccharified wort is lower in alcohol and alcohol than low-grade beers, making it suitable for consumption by women, children and those who are sick and old.

Sports beer: ordinary people to drink water to add water, athletes in addition to water loss, but also lose a lot of trace elements in the body, according to the athletes own circumstances, in the beer inside the athletes, need to add trace elements and nutrients, after the game can drink sports beer to recover physical strength. Suitable for people after sports to supplement the lost nutrients.

Several "best" beer

Best temperature: about 12 degrees better.

First, under this temperature regulation, many aromas can be played out normally.

Second, at this temperature, the carbon dioxide inside the wine will act slowly, Carbon dioxide quickly disappeared, the taste is not good, the temperature is too low and not good, affecting the volatility of the aroma so that the taste is not good. Professor Han also reminded everyone to drink beer, do not put ice, because the beer itself has been very light, ice will affect the taste.

 The best taste: at least one beer to drink more than 15 ml, is to drink beer to your mouth, beer should not be slow to drink fine drink. If you drink less cannot fill the mouth, the wine warming in the mouth will increase the bitterness, can not feel the unique flavor of the beer.

The best environment: conditional on the refrigerator, generally stored in a cool place, to avoid the sun. Should not be frozen, not only affects the taste will cause an explosion, repeatedly frozen thaw on the wine itself is not good.

Wine health care

1, increase appetite

2, the prevention and treatment of wine on cerebral thrombosis

3, wine can prevent kidney stones

4, wine can prevent breast cancer

5, wine can inhibit fat absorption

6, red wine, prevention and treatment of retinal degeneration

7, wine helps To improve memory

8, wine can control cold beer, spleen, and appetizers and other effects, some people think of it as an everyday soft drink, or even as "liquid bread." Thus, some men must drink beer every meal, instead of beer to drink. If the content of alcohol, beer is indeed not high, only 4% to 6%. If it's nutrition, each can of beer is not as good as 25 grams of bread. But all have a negative impact, but I think red wine is better than beer, more than liquor is much better.

[othersportsnews-blog]

Fantasy Hockey - news, rumors and more on all 30 NHL groups

New Post has been published on https://othersportsnews.com/fantasy-hockey-news-rumors-and-more-on-all-30-nhl-groups/

Fantasy Hockey - news, rumors and more on all 30 NHL groups

When you might be an avid supporter of a certain NHL staff — and retain up to day on all the news and rumors concerning that franchise — there are 29 many others enjoying in 2016-17.

As a fantasy operator, it can be a little bit complicated to retain tabs on every little thing.

That’s where by the Fantasy 30 comes in — a rundown of the most fantasy-suitable updates on every staff. Here is what’s happening all around the NHL this week.

Here is a checklist of the best players continue to offered in the majority of ESPN leagues, as very well as hugely owned players who should really be dropped.

A search at numerous strains in position to be submit-All-Star crack fantasy stars, additionally risers and fallers in the most up-to-date relaxation-of-period major-250 rankings.

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Anaheim Ducks: Look for Brandon Montour to sub in once again Thursday if Sami Vatanen isn’t really however completely ready to return from a lower-human body personal injury. Relishing a major-4 function, which includes minutes with the secondary electrical power perform, the 22-year-aged rookie has a objective and 8 pictures (additionally-just one) by two the latest phone-up contests for the Ducks. Plus, mentor Randy Carlyle has been impressed with his perform completely. A dynasty asset for these eyeing the extended fantasy video game, Montour also sporting activities opportunity as an outside-the-box asset in DFS grand prize swimming pools. As extended as he is enjoying, of training course.

Arizona Coyotes: A single of the league’s most sought-immediately after trade rentals is underneath the temperature once again. Martin Hanzal skipped Wednesday’s exercise because of to ailment. When loosely projected to in truth perform the Montreal Canadiens Thursday, Hanzal’s fantasy entrepreneurs should really double-look at at video game time. A advisable routine with the fragile middle, completely.

Boston Bruins: Seizing the reins as new bench boss in Boston, Bruce Cassidy seems committed to getting more out of two players in certain: David Backes and Ryan Spooner. Judging from the B’s most up-to-date exercise, Backes is slated to skate on a major line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, whilst Spooner is shifted back to middle together with youthful firecracker Frank Vatrano. Under-undertaking to day, the two are well worth monitoring by the closing two months of the period.

Buffalo Sabres: After crashing difficult into the boards Tuesday, ahead Evander Kane is ‘iffy‘ for Thursday’s video game with the traveling to Ducks. The underrated fantasy asset has sixteen objectives in 30 games since Dec. 3.

Calgary Flames: As the Flames appreciate their mandated 5-day crack, a reminder that, not Johnny Gaudreau, not Sean Monahan, but Mikael Backlund qualified prospects the club in details (38) and electrical power-perform details (13), sitting down second only to Monahan in pictures (136). And whilst Gaudreau has admittedly performed much less games, Backlund’s additionally-seven on the period positively glows in comparison to ‘Johnny Hockey’s’ minus-eighteen. Well worth mentioning, since Matthew Tkachuk‘s linemate continues to be offered in more than 40 percent of ESPN leagues.

Carolina Hurricanes: In hope of inspiring offensive achievement comparable to that from earlier this campaign, mentor Invoice Peters is re-configuring his major line, bumping Victor Rask back up to middle Jeff Skinner and Lee Stempniak. Even with sporting 32 details on the period, Rask has not registered a objective or help in ten games. This shuffle should really support.

Chicago Blackhawks: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman “wouldn’t be astonished if the Hawks acquire a search at Thomas Vanek” — a shift that might also make sense for the Detroit Purple Wings, since they can re-sign the pending UFA in the offseason. Primary Detroit in objectives, electrical power-perform details, and details for every video game, Vanek should really blossom more if provided the prospect to be part of a scoring line with Jonathan Toews.

Colorado Avalanche: The Avalanche could have Tyson Barrie back Thursday. Having difficulties with a lower-human body situation, Barrie has skipped six of the past 8 games. Look at in forward of puck fall with the traveling to Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of activating the club’s major defenseman.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Searching to exploit this week’s best line in Columbus? The ahead trio of Brandon Dubinsky, Boone Jenner, and Cam Atkinson have merged for 4 objectives, 5 assists, and 23 pictures in 3 games (additionally-8). Accountable for 5 of these details (additionally-4), Dubinsky is owned in only 30 percent of ESPN leagues.

Dallas Stars: Rumblings of Patrick Sharp moving forward of the trade deadline are not quieting substantially. If the Stars keep on to tumble out of cozy playoff contention, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun indicates they could shift the pending UFA forward of March 1st — and the Blackhawks might be eager to re-get the veteran ahead. Correct now, Sharp is competing on a 3rd line with Devin Shore and Radek Faksa. A shift back to Chicago would unquestionably bolster the 35-year-old’s flagging fantasy benefit.

Detroit Purple Wings: Goalie Jimmy Howard might be a whilst however from returning to Detroit’s crease. Sensation a ‘little tweak’ for the duration of this week’s rehab assignment with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the veteran netminder re-aggravated a knee personal injury that has stored him out of NHL motion since December. The Purple Wings insist the setback isn’t really that major. We are going to see.

Edmonton Oilers: Approaching the conclusion of the Oilers’ extended mid-winter crack, we can search ahead to goalie Cam Talbot holding fort versus the traveling to Blackhawks Saturday. An outwardly promising matchup for Talbot, next up this season’s earlier 31-preserve shutout earn around Chicago.

Florida Panthers: Worried about Jonathan Huberdeau experience any residual unwell results from past autumn’s Achilles personal injury? You should not be. Chatting with reporter Harvey Fialkov, Huberdeau insists he “has not manufactured any adjustment to skating since [his] recovery” and “feels like he is skating [at] a hundred percent”. Again on the Panthers’ No. one line with Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr, Huberdeau appeared no even worse for dress in in scoring a objective on six pictures his first video game back past Friday.

Los Angeles Kings: Like it or not, Peter Budaj will possible see a reduce in workload when March arrives. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun indicates GM Dean Lombardi might search to the trade market place if Jonathan Swift hits a velocity bump forward of his prognosticated healthful comeback: “… The Kings are intently monitoring Jonathan Quick’s recovery. The star goalie was in entire tools for the first time past week. He’s predicted back in March at some point. But if, for whatever cause, there is a setback or any sign by March one that Swift cannot be a issue this period, it truly is probable the Kings would search to get a goalie to assistance unsung hero Peter Budaj in web for the stretch/playoff run …” Mainly unheralded for selecting up the slack in web by a whopping 45 starts off, Budaj has been somewhat shaky of late. And he faces a challenging activity in striving to interesting down a warming Panthers squad in Florida Thursday.

Montreal Canadiens: Forward Brendan Gallagher is because of to return from a hand personal injury earlier than anticipated. Not Thursday in Arizona, but before long. Maybe Saturday vs . the St. Louis Blues. The diminutive winger is pegged to slide in on Alex Galchenyuk‘s wing when completely ready.

Minnesota Wild: After his preliminary a few-video game style of the NHL, ahead prospect Alex Tuch has been reassigned to the minors, which indicates mentor Bruce Boudreau is completely ready to pulley Charlie Coyle back up to the wing within just the Wild’s major six. Not at his best in wrapping up January, Coyle flourished most not too long ago in centering a 3rd line with Nino Niederreiter and veteran Jason Pominville.

Nashville Predators: At past, competing guiding a entire complement of healthful major-4 defensemen can only bode very well for goalie Pekka Rinne. Furthermore, Rinne has permitted only a few whole objectives in his past a few appearances completely. Unleash the Preds’ No. one as you normally would.

New Jersey Devils: In the midst of the Devils’ extended crack, it truly is well worth noting that A) the perennially streaky Adam Henrique has scored in 4 of his past 5 games (additionally a few assists), and B) former sixth-general draft pick Pavel Zacha (2015) seems to be modifying to existence in the large league, with 4 objectives and a few helpers since Jan. 17. A projected dynasty commodity for decades to occur, Zacha is spoken for in only one.6 percent of ESPN leagues. Just a minor fantasy fodder forward of Jersey’s return to the ice Sunday.

New York Islanders: New head mentor Doug Bodyweight is rolling with the identical strains in Philadelphia Thursday, immediately after Monday’s 6-5 extra time victory around the Toronto Maple Leafs. Get note, skating on a major line with John Tavares, Anders Lee and Josh Bailey have merged for 4 objectives and 8 assists in a few games. Fantasy darkish-horse Ryan Strome has also flourished of late, with six details in 4 games.

New York Rangers: You should not foresee any significant blue-line additions in Manhattan forward of the March 1st deadline, in accordance to Larry Brooks of the New York Article. Looking at the trade ‘cost’ of a major-pair partner for Ryan McDonagh, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton is possible to depart his blue line as is — at minimum till the offseason. As this kind of, McDonagh, Nick Holden, and rookie Brady Skjei challenge to keep on being fastened as your major-a few Rangers fantasy defensemen, in purchase.

Ottawa Senators: Craig Anderson (private) is projected to return to motion for the Senators versus the Islanders on Saturday, or the Sabres Tuesday. If all goes very well, Mike Condon‘s tour as Ottawa’s go-to concerning the pipes is nearing an conclusion. Ahead of taking time off for family in early December, Anderson racked up a two.forty six objectives-versus ordinary and .924 preserve percentage.

Philadelphia Flyers: Adhering to his a few-video game banishment to the push box, Shayne Gostisbehere is back in motion versus the Islanders Thursday, paired with veteran Mark Streit and anchoring the club’s major electrical power perform. We foresee an encouraged DFS performance from the talented youngster, in response to mentor Dave Hakstol’s really public kick in the caboose.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Numerous NHL Insiders – which includes our individual Pierre LeBrun – have discussed the real probability of the Penguins buying and selling Marc-Andre Fleury to the Stars ahead of this winter’s deadline. Owned in more than sixty percent of ESPN leagues, Fleury has started all of once in virtually a thirty day period – a 4-one victory around the Blues. A shift to any fifty percent-baked contender would at minimum supply the veteran the prospect to compete. If you’ve held on to Fleury this extended, might as very well give it a further week or so.

San Jose Sharks: Adhering to Martin Jones‘ start Thursday in Boston, go on and pencil in Aaron Dell for Saturday’s tilt in Philadelphia. Not only has the Sharks’ reliable backup been idle since Jan. 24, but he was income in shutting out the Flyers earlier this period (Dec. 30).

St. Louis Blues: Give ahead Alexander Steen an extra-extended search versus the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday. Not only is Steen at present “clicking” with major linemates Vladimir Tarasenko and Paul Stastny, but the ex-Leaf plainly enjoys scoring versus his former staff (six objectives, nine assists in ten games).

Tampa Bay Lightning: The Lightning are pretty banged-up once again. When Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn are optimistically ‘probable’ for their next match in Minnesota, fellow ahead Tyler Johnson will be re-evaluated Friday. If probable, alter your lineups accordingly.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Frederik Andersen continues to be ‘the guy’ in Toronto. Even with denying 39 of 40 pictures in Tuesday’s 3-one victory around the Stars, backup Curtis McElhinney isn’t really tapped to perform Thursday, when the Blues pay a visit to. Intellect you, a tighter performance from Leafs’ skaters – like we saw in entrance of McElhinney Tuesday – should really supply Andersen a prospect at redemption immediately after his 4 the latest forgettable starts off (19 objectives permitted).

Vancouver Canucks: It seems to be Markus Granlund‘s switch adjacent the Sedins on the Canucks’ major line. There is certainly minor else well worth mentioning about a club that has scored six whole objectives in 4 straight losses.

Washington Capitals: Interested in a lower-value DFS asset? Capitals ahead Brett Connolly has been all-cylinders-a-firin’. Gelling nicely with linemates Lars Eller and Andre Burakovsky, the 24-year-aged has a few objectives and a few assists in 4 games (additionally-six). Washington hosts the Purple Wings Thursday.

Winnipeg Jets: With goalie Ondrej Pavelec (concussion) shelved about a week, Connor Hellebuyck will get the possibility to reassert himself as a legit No. one alternative in Winnipeg. The Jets host the Blackhawks, Lightning, and Stars – Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday, respectively.

Source connection

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Thoughts on Philly goaltending, Connolly, Hirose, Bobrovsky, Lehner and more (Mar 25)

Ramblings: Thoughts on Philly goaltending, Connolly, Hirose, Bobrovsky, Lehner and more (Mar 25)

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Now available for pre-sale – the 13th annual Interactive Playoff Draft List. Pre-order it here. It will be Friday April 5. If you bought the Ultimate Fantasy Pack in the summer, this will be included in that purchase. It is not included in the Keeper Fantasy Pack.

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The Flyers have lost five of seven games and their playoff hopes hang by a thread. The team would have preferred not to toss young Carter Hart into the fire at this stage in his development, but they know that he represents their best shot at getting there. So the Flyers will juggle three goalies and ride Hart in all but the second of back-to-backs. Which was the case Sunday when Brian Elliott got the start (and took the loss).

It would be interesting to see how things shake out for Philadelphia between the pipes in the summer with both Elliott and Cam Talbot as UFAs. A thought I have is that the team re-signs one of them to be Hart’s backup, giving Hart the reins next season in what I think is a full year ahead of their original plan for him. On one hand you have a veteran who still seems to be adequate when called upon, but is injury prone. At 33, I think what you’re seeing from Elliott is what you get. On the other hand you have Talbot who seems to have completely fallen apart, and what I suspect started to happen when his life changed upon the birth of his twins a couple of years ago. He could fill in as a backup and at the age of 31 I think could at least rebound a little. He could shoulder the load whenever Hart stumbles or is injured. The point is, I suspect that one of the two will be back with the Flyers next season.

Brett Connolly’s career season continues to get better. He has eight points in his last six games. This is particularly impressive because his ice time is actually declining from quarter to quarter. Here is his quarterly breakdown:

  Quarter

GP

G

A

PTS

SOG

PPP

PPTOI

TOI

1

19

2

8

10

34

1

1:12

13:10

2

22

7

7

14

36

1

1:06

14:13

3

22

6

3

9

31

0

0:11

12:20

4

13

6

5

11

27

0

0:04

12:04

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The favored goaltender for the Islanders has swung back to Robin Lehner. After Thomas Greiss was pulled March 21 against Montreal after giving up four goals on 22 shots, Lehner has started two straight games. He has stopped 65 of 67 and given the fact that Coach Barry Trotz rides the hot hand, I suspect this is late enough in the season for Lehner to ride this wave into the playoffs. Both goaltenders have 22 wins and SV% at 0.926 or higher (Lehner at 0.928). I don’t think the Islanders or Lehner are thinking about a contract, given the need to focus on the task at hand. But the reality is, Lehner is an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Isles have a ton of cap space and Lehner’s season is demanding a decent chunk of change, one that exceeds the $3.33 million that Greiss makes next year. The Isles do have a couple of young stud goalies on the way in Ilya Sorokin and Linus Soderstrom and really just need a goalie like Lehner for another two years, but I don’t think he signs for anything under three. I think there are plenty of teams willing to sign him for three years and $15 million-plus. At that price point, he will be a starter next year at 55 games be it with a new team or with this one. You don’t put $5 million per year on the bench for 40 games the way it’s happened for him this year at $1.5.

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He was held off the scoresheet for the fifth consecutive day but Vinnie Hinostroza had five shots on goal. We’ve been talking Hinostroza a lot here lately. Over the last three weeks (11 games), Hinostroza leads all Arizona forwards with five goals and six points, as well as 35 shots (tops Clayton Keller’s 30). His ice time has seen a bump lately as well, averaging over 16 minutes per game lately and 17:54 on Sunday. I’m bullish about him for next season.

The Coyotes have struggled to score this year, it’s no secret. They started the season with just three goals in five games, and their current rut is at four goals in the last four games. They’ve been shut out seven (!) times this year in all, including Sunday. They were held to just a single goal on 17 occasions. That’s 24 of 76 games (31.6%) scoring one goal or not at all. The Coyotes are 23rd in the NHL on the power play and second in shorthanded goals. But at even strength the team has just 139 goals, which sits 30th. I don’t really see a magic wand that can be waved over them in the summer that will make this an NHL team that ranks in the top half for offense, so being “bullish” on Hinostroza is all relative. If he finishes in the top three on the team in scoring next year, that may just mean something like 48 or 50 points.

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Petr Mrazek has been on fire this quarter though he didn’t get the start Sunday (Curtis McElhinney spotted him, and had a strong game to bounce back from a poor one on March 21). But Mrazek has posted a Quality Start in nine of his last 11 games. His last RBS (what we define as a Really Bad Start – 0.850 SV% or lower) was way back on January 20. Mrazek’s last 11 games:

9-2-0, 1.63 GAA and 0.944 SV% with 3 SO and 9 QS

Mrazek is yet another unrestricted free agent in the summer ahead and he’s completely revived his career. The Hurricanes were likely going to move on from him come July and now I think they’re interested in hearing what he’s looking for. If I was GM Don Waddell, I would see if I can’t lock him in for two years at a low cap rate of perhaps under $3 million. If this team can hang onto a playoff spot on the back of Mrazek playing another five or six strong games, he’ll be looking for a lot more. Carolina was a destination for one of the many UFA goaltenders this summer and Mrazek is doing what he can to shut the door on that opportunity for those people such as the aforementioned Talbot, Elliott and Lehner.

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One goalie is not unrestricted this summer is of course Carey Price. His numbers this season overall are mediocre but if you delve deeper you can see that the superstar is back. He has Quality Starts in six of his last seven games and since November 23 he has the following numbers:

27-18-3, 2.37 GAA, 0.923 SV%, 3 SO and 32 QS (65.3%)

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Colin Wilson has seen a surge in ice time with Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen on the sidelines, seeing 17:48 Sunday and 19:01 Sunday. He’s still on the third line but he’s been a member of the top PP unit. No points Sunday, but he had two Saturday and has four in four games if you’re reaching for a short-term option on Wednesday, their next game. Then again, that game is against the white-hot Golden Knights so…maybe not.

JT Compher and Alex Kerfoot have been Nathan MacKinnon’s wingers, even on the power play. Compher has been snakebitten but Kerfoot has three points in two games, two on the power play.

Erik Johnson, who had six BLKS Sunday, has 21 of them in his last seven games.

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It’s a tight game and a desperate, if a longshot, run for a playoff spot. And Erik Gustafsson led Chicago in ice time with 23:33, and PP time with 3:40. We already know he’s the real deal but this kind of reliance from his coach bodes well for him maintaining his status as “the man” on the blue line next season.

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College Star and recent UFA signee Taro Hirose has an assist in each of his three games with the Red Wings. His PP time has been slowly increased (albeit small sample) and he’s been producing while playing with Thomas Vanek and Frans Nielsen, two capable veterans but hardly the elite performers  they used to be.  You can read his scouting report on DP right here.

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Sergei Bobrovsky returned in style Sunday and posted his second shutout in three games. The Blue Jackets really came to play and seemed as though Josh Anderson was the second coming of Tom Wilson in the way that he carried them – three points, plus-4, two PIM and one SOG. Anderson has quietly put together a strong year and lately he’s been huge with nine points in eight games (30 shots, 26 Hits). He, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel have formed a very strong second line and if team chemistry is finally starting to mesh, Columbus could make the playoffs after all.

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See you next Monday.

        from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-thoughts-on-philly-goaltending-connolly-hirose-bobrovsky-lehner-and-more-mar-25/

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DGB Grab Bag: Free Agency, Contract Announcements, and Draft Busts

Welcome to Sean McIndoe's weekly grab bag, where he writes on a variety of NHL topics. You can follow him on Twitter. Check out the Biscuits podcast with Sean and Dave Lozo as they discuss the events of the week.

Three stars of comedy

The third star: Justin Williams' hair. The winger's legendary salad was in fine form when it came time to sign with the Hurricanes, as former teammate Mike Commodore made sure to point out.

The second star: Jaromir Jagr. I'm still not quite sure what to make of Jagr's social media presence. People seem to like it, even if it sometimes has that whole "Grandpa doesn't totally get the internet, but we're just impressed he figured how to log on" vibe. But this was funny. I think. I'm honestly not sure.

The first star: The Benn brothers. With the Habs and the Stars reportedly going down to wire on bidding for Alexander Radulov, Jamie and Jordie decided to settle things the Canadian way.

Even better, the joke eventually turned into an official announcement of Radulov's signing.

Outrage of the week

The issue: Somebody signed an unrestricted free agent. The outrage: The contract seems kind of terrible. Is it justified: Probably, since almost every UFA deal ends up being a huge mistake. But since we've now made it through the first week of the open market, let's take this opportunity to do a quick summary of some of the major moves. (As always with this sort of thing, "good" and "bad" are from the perspective of the team and not the players, because in the end we all turn our backs on the noble working class.)

The Good

This is always the shorter list this time of year, but there were some decent signings to be found.

Kevin Shattenkirk. The Rangers get a bargain and kept the term short enough that there's minimal risk. Shattenkirk gets to play for his hometown team and could still have time for one more nice contract four years down the road. Hard to argue with any of it.

Justin Williams. He got good money, but nothing crazy. And while you can make your jokes about Mr. Game Seven choosing a team that hasn't been to the playoffs in eight years, you'd better get them in now—the Hurricanes are going to be good soon.

Pretty much everyone who signed for less than $1.5 million. Hell, lump in Brian Elliott and Ryan Miller, too. These guys are the bargains, and almost always represent low-risk signings. This year, it was interesting to see so many get done right out of the gate rather than waiting a few weeks for desperation to kick in.

The Bad

In the interest of time, we'll limit this section to five names. It could be a lot more.

Karl Azner. This is the annual "not as bad as everyone thought it was going to be, but still bad" contract. Or, as I like to call it, the Matt Beleskey Memorial Award.

T.J. Oshie. The cap hit isn't disastrous, but going to maximum eight years might be. The Capitals sure seem to have made a mess of their off-season, and already had to give away Marcus Johansson. Letting decent but aging wingers walk away for nothing is painful, but it's the sort of tough call a smart team has to be willing to make.

Patrick Marleau. Sure, the Leafs have a ton of cap space, so overpaying isn't the end of the world, but they have a two-year window before the cap gets crazy, and they just gave three years to a 37-year-old who plays the one position that's already a team strength. Even assuming they wiggle out of the deal after two years, it's still iffy. If they don't, it could be a disaster when they're a contender facing a cap crunch in 2019 and Marleau is a $6 million 40-year-old coming off a 12-goal season.

Nick Bonino. The good news is that this year's Dave Bolland cost less than the actual Dave Bolland. So… progress?

Dan Girardi. Steve Yzerman burns an entire season trading away useful players while missing the playoffs by one point, all in the name of creating cap room which he then uses on… Dan Girardi. I mean, I know I've spent the last year completely alone on the "maybe Yzerman is merely a good GM and not the all-knowing Jedi we all agreed he was" bandwagon, but I can make room if anyone wants on board.

The Contrarian Hot Take

The one team everyone else is ripping that I'll kind of, sort of defend.

Dmitry Kulikov and Steve Mason. Both are coming off bad seasons and might, in fact, be bad players. And both got over $4 million a season on multi-year deals. But here's the thing: They got them from Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. So if the Jets are going to sign free agents, it's going to cost too much money. Call it the Winnipeg Tax.

I'm always piling on the Jets because their GM never makes trades and their owner never fires anyone, and they just seem happy to repeatedly miss the playoffs by ten points while mumbling about the future. I can't exactly turn around now and burn them for at least trying to get a little better. Ideally, they'd be a franchise that uses all the tools in the toolbox, but until that day comes, paying too much for so-so free agents is marginally better than nothing.

Obscure former player of the week

Now that July has arrived, restricted free agents can sign offer sheets. They won't, because this is the NHL and all that talk about doing everything possible to win is for players laying their bodies on the line, not GMs who don't want to mess up their golf schedule by making a colleague angry. But in theory, it could happen.

There's a reasonably long history of NHL offer sheets, most of which were matched. Not many of those players would be considered obscure. After all, why target another team's player if they're not already an established star? You wouldn't… unless you were a vengeful Harry Sinden, which leads us to this week's obscure player: winger Dave Thomlinson.

Thomlinson has two claims to fame: not being Dave Tomlinson (that was another early 90s forward), and being the most obscure RFA offer sheet signing in NHL history.

He was a third-round pick by the Maple Leafs in 1985, a draft that most Toronto fans remember for other things. He never played for the Leafs, signed with the Blues in 1987, and finally made his NHL debut in St. Louis during the 1989-90 season. He played 19 games, scoring once, and followed that up with three games and zero points in 1990-91. He did manage three goals in that year's playoffs, but by the end of the season he was 24 years old and had never played close to a full season. All in all, not much to get excited about.

Then something weird happened. Ron Caron and the Blues went a little crazy targeting other teams' restricted free agents, signing Scott Stevens away from Washington in 1990 and Brendan Shanahan from New Jersey in 1991. In between, they went after Boston's Dave Christian. That didn't sit well with Sinden and the Bruins, who didn't even believe Christian qualified for free agency in the first place. Sinden retaliated by apparently signing any Blues RFAs he could find. That ended up being tough guy Glenn Featherstone, plus Thomlinson.

Under the old NHL system, the two teams were allowed to negotiate a compensation package, and they ended up just agreeing to swap Thomlinson, Featherstone, and draft picks for Christian. Thomlinson played 12 games for the Bruins before heading to the Rangers and later the Kings as a free agent. He ended up playing a total of 42 NHL games, scoring just that one regular-season goal.

Just think: The NHL is a league where nobody will offer sheet Leon Draisaitl, but somebody once went after Dave Thomlinson. Consider it further proof that everything was more fun in the 90s.

Be It Resolved

Connor McDavid signed his new contract this week, and it carried the highest full-season cap hit in NHL history. That's fine, because as we discussed last week, he's more than worth it. Besides, his deal came in at $12.5 million a season, which was slightly lower than the $13 million that had been rumored.

So sure, all of that was fine, but here's the problem: The Oilers just announced the deal with a boring old media event and press release. The Canadiens did the same for Carey Price, as did the Sharks with Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Come on, guys. If you're going to be giving out eight- or nine-figure deals, then let's at least make the announcement interesting.

So be it resolved: From now on, NHL teams signing major extensions are only allowed to announce the length of the deal. Then, when it comes to the cap hit, they have to reveal it the way any important numerical value should always be revealed: by using the little mountain climber guy from Price Is Right.

Just imagine the Oilers having a press conference to announce that McDavid has signed for eight more years, then breaking out the Price Is Right mountain with "$0" at the bottom and "$15 million" at the very top. You're telling me you wouldn't be screaming at your TV once that yodeling started and you had to see how high the little dude with the pickax, lederhosen, and #97 Oilers jersey would get?

You could even have custom price ranges for different players. Jack Eichel's could go from $0 to $10 million. John Tavares could be $0 to $12 million. Dan Giradri's could go from $0 to "literally anything that isn't $0," and the little guy could go shooting off the edge like a skateboarder at the X Games.

Let's make this happen, NHL teams. There's still time before next summer's Austin Matthews contract.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

In terms of cap hit, the biggest UFA signing so far has been Joe Thornton, who got an $8 million deal to return to the Sharks for one season. That's a big number, but it's fitting for a former first overall pick in the draft.

Of course, Thornton wasn't the only former top pick to hit the open market this week. Nail Yakupov was also available to the highest bidder, and that turned to be the Colorado Avalanche, who gave him, um, not quite $8 million. The Avs will be Yakupov's third team.

Yakupov's already widely considered one of the bigger draft busts in recent memory, so today let's travel back five years to the days leading up to the 2012 draft and see if we can piece together where it all went wrong.

It's June 20, 2012, and we're just 48 hours away from the first round of the draft. The NHL has decided to put together a few video packages on the top prospects to get you hyped up, including one for the presumptive No. 1 pick.

It goes without saying that the Oilers own the No. 1 overall pick thanks to a lottery win. This would be the third straight year they'd have it, which prompted the NHL to create a new rule to prevent lottery winners from winning the top pick again for a period of several years. The new rule was hailed as "completely fair" and "just common sense" and passed unanimously.

Sorry, none of that is true. I just wanted to try to retroactively make Connor McDavid happy for a few seconds.

Our clip starts with Yakupov doing that thing where he threateningly points his stick at you like he's Westley from the Princess Bride. Hockey video people love this pose so much. It's their favorite thing, slightly ahead of the "stick over the shoulders" pose, which we also get from Yakupov a few seconds later. Please note that neither of these poses ever actually happen in a hockey game. Do other sports do this? Do NFL draft picks have to pose like they're going to do a Karate Kid crane kick? I feel like this is just hockey.

"You want skill? Check. You want hands? Check. You want game-breaking offensive ability? Check." And after you're done checking, you will see that Nail Yakupov does not have any of those things.

Wait, is it possible the guy was actually saying "Czech"? Was he trying to tell the Oilers to pick Tomas Hertl instead? He knew! The narrator guy knew!

Next up we get the director of NHL Central Scouting, Dan Marr, who tells us that Yakupov is the sort of player who "just jumps at you." He then presumably adds, "You know, assuming 'you' are a defenseman on the other team trying to stop him from going to your net."

"I'm not like Bure, or someone like Ovechkin," says Yakupov. Wait, he knew, too! Why didn't the Oilers watch this clip before they made their pick? One two-minute video would have saved them millions of dollars. That's inexcusable. (Unless it had an unskippable 30-second ad at the front, because literally nobody has ever waited until the end of one of those.)

All kidding aside, Yakupov was really good in junior. When you're shattering Steven Stamkos records, you've got something. I make fun of him now, but five years ago I was 100 percent sure he was going to score 60 goals in the NHL. I'm still maybe 20 percent convinced it might happen, especially if can turn things around in Colorado and make it back to the NHL someday.

Next we meet Yakupov's friend and teammate, Alex Galchenyuk. He's introduced to us with a shot of him making the same face every Montreal fan makes now when they're told that the Habs might have to trade him because mumble mumble they have too much scoring?

"Like his Russian idol Pavel Bure, Nail is also a game-breaker." No, see, he just told us he wasn't like Bure. I thought you were cool, narrator guy.

We close with Yakupov telling us how much he loves to celebrate goals. That part, at least, turned out to be accurate. Remember when he got a little too excited against the Kings and all the old-school guys lost their minds? That was really Yakupov's first memorable NHL moment. Also, as it turns out, his only one.

"Sometimes it's crazy, and it's stupid." Man, he's not even an Oiler yet and he's already memorized the team's front-office slogan.

That ends our clip. If you'd like to live more of the Nail Yakupov experience, here's a clip of him being drafted first overall and being showered with can't-miss praise. And here's a far better one of him immediately afterward, as some poor rep from Upper Deck tries to get him to do some post-draft marketing that he has less than zero interest in. Seriously, I can't recommend that clip enough. I don't know what kind of day you're having at work, but I guarantee it's not "guy who has to get Nail Yakupov to look up and make eye contact long enough to open a pack of hockey cards" bad.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them. When someone tells you they are not Pavel Bure or Alex Ovechkin, really really believe them." —Maya Angelou, failed NHL scout.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com.

DGB Grab Bag: Free Agency, Contract Announcements, and Draft Busts published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv