A few days ago, Kevin Burgundy from Stay Classy wrote a post about what kind of hockey player are you. I noticed that his list was incomplete. Needless to say, emails were exchanged and with his consent I decided to do part 2 of the list.
Last time I did this, it turned into a fairly moderate success, I partnered up with Don't Trade Vinny on that one when we did our misused hockey terms. This is what DTV had, and the official DGS reply.
So with the consent of the writer, here I go.
I'll start with what I wrote in the comments section of the original post.
The Jeff Carter: When not scoring on the ice, I score with my winger’s wife off it.
The Ian Laperriere: Block shots to the point where I have no face left.
The Chris Pronger: Use my elbows to leave opposing players looking up at me
The Stay-In The Kitchen Defensemen: A stay home defensemen with agoraphobia.
NHL Comparables: Wade Redden, Andrej Meszaros, every current blueliner on the Dallas Stars
The DJ-Goaltender: A goalie who loves strobe lights and goal horns followed by music.
NHL Comparables: Vesa ToskaLOL, Andrew Raycroft, CristoLOL Huet (Kevin added Pascal LOL-claire)
The True Stay At Home D-man: A defensemen who really stays at home, even when under pressure.NHL Comparables: Sami Salo, Mike Van Ryn, Paul Ranger
Moving on.
The Patient Forward: This guy is known for always being patient. As in a patient at the local hospital waiting for MRIs because he's always hurt.
NHL Examples: Marian Gaborik, Simon Gagne, Doug Weight, Paul Kariya
The Harry Potter: This guy is known for being totally invisible, like Harry Potter when under the Invisibility Cloak. You just never see him do anything even when he's on the ice.
NHL Examples: Lee Stempniak, Joe Thornton and Alex Semin during the post-season,
The Grinder (or hoagie, sub, sandwich): This guy loves his food. Enough said.
NHL Examples: Martin Brodeur, Tim Thomas, Kyle Wellwood
The Rioter: This guy is really talented, but he's somewhat reckless and therefore violence always seem to follow him, especially when he's playing well.
NHL Examples: Steve Downie, Dan Carcillo, every Montreal Canadiens player who caused a riot during the 2010 playoff run.
The Houdini Defensemen: This guy always seems to pull a disappearing act, especially when in the Defensive Zone.
NHL Examples: Mike Green, Tomas Kaberle, Lukas Krajicek, The Boston Bruins after the 1st period of Game 7 against the Flyers
The We Have A Legend Only Not: This guy shares a nickname with an NHL legend, too bad he doesn't play like one.
NHL Examples: Robert Esche, Ryan Parent, The 4th NHL Staal brother: Jarrett Stoll
The Smart Guy: This guy always seems to use his head or the heads of others to help his team out.
NHL Examples: Ian Laperriere, Roman Cechmanek, Goalies playing behind Keith Ballard
The Psycho-analyst: This guy likes to get into the heads of opponents in order to make sure that his team always the psychological advantage. He usually does simple things to amuse the simple minds of his opponents.
NHL Examples: Chris Pronger, Steve Yzerman when proposing trades to Paul Holmgren
With the season coming up soon enough. I think it's time to get a look at what team's have been working on during training camp. Lucky for you, the DGS-SuperSpies uncovered what's going on behind the scenes at all 30 NHL team's training camps. As a responsible human being, I have decided to post the shocking findings here for you to see. Today, we start with the Northeast division.
Montreal Canadiens
The Good: Will save money on pregame meals by being able to serve forwards from the kids menu.
The Bad: Decided to follow an idea presented by Down Goes Brown during the first around of the playoffs and are apparently going to start "Empty Net" as their goalie.
Secret Strategy for the New Season: Players have worked on riot escape in practice as Montreal citizens tend to riot after every game regardless of result.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Good: Can avoid worrying about such debates as "Who to draft in 2011?" because of their lack of draft picks.
The Bad: Have yet to find a way to remove Tomas Kaberle from the team.
Secret Strategy for the New Season: Will magically improve forward depth by re-signing Vesa Toskala and converting him to center.
Boston Bruins
The Good: Due the NHL's Salary Cap, the Bruins roster is set in stone with players such as Tim Thomas and Marc Savard still on the active roster and no way to move them.
The Bad: Will be forced to place Marc Savard on LTIR after he accidentally runs into Zdeno Chara's knee during practice causing Savard to suffer a concussion.
Secret Strategy for the New Season: Will avoid blowing 3-0 leads in the post-season by avoiding the post season altogether.
Ottawa Senators
The Good: Have 2 great backup goaltenders who are great for 10-15 games a season
The Bad: Have a player married to Carrie Underwood, picking up Tony Romo's sloppy seconds has been known to cause problems.
Secret Strategy for the New Season: When in doubt, the fire the coach.
Buffalo Sabres
The Good:Have a GM who's willing to save players like Tomas Vanek from signing with Edmonton.
The Bad: Will no longer be able to score easy goals due to the fact that Vesa Toskala is no longer a goalie in this division.
Secret Strategy for the New Season: Will continue to fly under the radar and ride Ryan Miller for as long
Hey everyone. Just so you know starting tomorrow (September 2) and going every other day through September 12, I will be posting the Official DGS 2010-2011 Season Previews, we will be doing one division a day. At the end of this all, I'll post a recap that has links to all 6 posts and lists all 30 teams on one page (That will go up September 13).
In order to whet your appetite for the upcoming posts of awesomeness, I have a list of generalized NHL predictions here for you to see.
Kerry Fraser may be retired, but the NHL has hired a new referee who is legally blind in order to prove that the disabled can have successful careers.
Gary Bettman is still stupid. (I call this, "playing it safe")
Stephane Auger will screw with all of us by calling a game perfectly down the middle.
Kyle Wellwood will eat his way onto a team.
Antti Niemi will remain unemployed until he gives up his contract demand of "not having another NHL caliber goaltender on the roster" is met.
Rick DiPietro will end up on LTIR. (Playing it safe again am I)
Pierre McGuire will move to Massachusetts and marry his 'Monster' Zdeno Chara
Once Edmonton has its first cold snap in December, Taylor Hall will demand a trade out of Edmonton
Joe Thornton will lead the Sharks with clutch play during the regular season and post-season before finally giving out during the Finals and saying "What, you think I changed at all"
The Phoenix Coyotes will find their way back to Winnipeg
Hey guess what, it's Tuesday, and you are bored at work. Don't worry, we have a Tuesday morning coffee break for you today. So grab some coffee, a muffin and sit back and prepare to laugh with the links DGS has for you today!!!!
Hoosier Hockey helps take up the cause of bloggers being plagiarized. I support him fully (possibly because I believe in Blogger's Rights and possibly because I want to appear on his Podcast and possibly because Peter is a solid dude who's a great guy and huge DGS supporter). Enough said.
Discard What You Don't Need a blogging newcomer discusses how to draft your NHL fantasy team. If I could recommend one guy over the rest on this list, it's this guy right here, Jason is a solid up and coming blogger with a brighter future than his team, the Dallas Stars. He also has a brighter future than Taylor Hall once Hall gets the hell out of Edmonton.
Now that you've had some good reads, get back to work. Have a productive day, and we will see you tomorrow.
Digging around the internet I came across the following picture of Tuukka Rask, the Boston Bruins goaltender. Do me a favor, write something funny about it.
Well what do you know. It's Sunday again. What does that mean? *silence* It means it's Sunday Brunch time. So here we go.
A huge glove bump to DGS Supporter Don't Trade Vinny for helping me with today's discussion. (By the way, if you're not reading his blog, well you're probably illiterate because the guy is a comedic genius)
So it seems that Kovy gate is going nowhere, or is it? Today Ilya Kovalchuk announced that he is "taking his talent to south Beach to play for the Miami Heat" You know what that means. Tell me how it goes down with Kovy joining Bosh, Wade and James in Miami.
There's the scenario, now go forth and give me LULZ!
No seriously, look at the Bolts these days, all their Flyers related history. It's almost odd how the Flyers turned the Bolts into an extra AHL team, and how the Bolts kinda play like an AHL team these days too. I mean look at the Lawton/Tocchet era. Even the coaching staff currently has come Flyers connections. The head coach is some guy named Boucher, and as a long time Flyers fan, the name Boucher means a lot to me, mainly because he didn't totally suck this year when we needed him most, games 1 and 5 of the Finals not withstanding (don't worry Brian, I'll judge you based on the result of this series). Boucher's assistant, Dan Lacroix from the 1997 Dan Line of Dan Lacroix, Scott Daniels, and Dan Kordic.
The current Bolts line up features two Flyers rejects.
Let's see, when looking at future talent, the Bolts top agitator is Steve Downie, a guy who's so undisciplined and off the wall that even the Flyers wouldn't even keep him.
The blue line has former Flyer Randy Jones anchoring it's third pair, a guy so bad he lost his job to Ryan Parent/Oskars Bartulis.
Then I realized something, this Bolts/Flyers connection has gone back to the mid 90s.
The historical examples
When the Legion of Doom failed, Mikael Renberg was sent down to the Bolts in favor of Chris Gratton
When Gratton didn't help, he was sent down to give Renberg a 2nd chance
Sean Burke made his way to the Flyers a couple times in his career, he too spent time with the Bolts when he lost his A-game
Vinny Prospal got shipped between the Flyers/Bolts quite a few times.
After Antero Niitymaki sucked for the Flyers, he was sent down to the Bolts.
When Steve Eminger couldn't hack it in Philly, he was traded with Downie for Matt Carle
Simon Gagne and Randy Jones now join those ranks.
As for the future, I've obtained some exclusive pictures of the future of these franchises.
Being sent down to the Bolts:
Being Called up to the Orange and Black
Ok, I shall wake up now and stop dreaming. (DTV, you can stop crying now this was work of fiction, please don't sue me)
So it just came out that Scott Hartnell agreed to waive his NTC last year in order to be traded to the Edmonton Oilers for Sheldon Souray. Now, it's mind boggling as to way anyone in their right mind would ever waive an NTC to be traded IN TO Edmonton, so the DGSSuperSpies were put ont the case. Needless to say, their findings were eye opening.
Dan Carcillo told Hartnell, "Hey, Edmonton's not so bad, when I played in Phoenix, I had to visit Edmonton twice every year." *after Hartnell was out of earshot* "And I made sure to get suspended before every visit."
Blair Betts, who's from Edmonton said, "As a Ranger, I got to spend summer's in Edmonton and the weather was like 65 degrees every day and sunny, it was nice" *After Hartnell left the room* "Thank god I got to play in the Eastern conference"
Chris Pronger elbowed Hartnell in the head and said "Edmonton's awesome" before laughing uncontrollably.
Jeff Carter said, "Trust me dude, it'll be great for your career, showing your tough enough to play in Edmonton. Just don't bring Lisa, she's gonna hate the fact that I'm not...uhh...weather is bad in Edmonton. *Jeff then left to meet Lisa Hartnell and inform her of the great news*
Danny Briere tried to talk to Hartnell about this, but no one noticed the Hab-sized center as he's too short.
And of course, the dialog between Paul Holmgren and Scott Hartnell.
Paul Holmgren: Hey Scott, glad you could see me.
Scott Hartnell: Urgh me happy to see you to.
Paul: Well, we have a possible trade upcoming, and I need you to waive your NTC
Scott: Where do me go?
Paul: Well, uhh, the Western Conference, though sadly, you're being traded to a team that has no hope in the playoffs.
Scott: Sound not fun. Do me get trade to Shark?
Paul: Not the Sharks.
Scott: Loss Angels Kings, they has fun name Koptar.
Paul: Not the Kings, they wouldn't give us Jon Quick in return
Scott: Calgary Flam? They from close to mine cave.
Paul: Uhh, close actually. We want to trade you to Edmonton.
Scott: Ed-mon-ton?
Paul: Yes, we will be receiving Sheldon Souray in return for you.
Scott: Why do me need to trade to Edmonton?
Paul: Yes, the Edmonton Oilers, but don't worry. They promised that they will never play another game in Edmonton
Scott: Sound like good. Hartnell get angry when playing in Oiler.
As well all know, last season Jeff Carter lost his on ice scoring touch. To balance this, he allegedly started doing a lot of scoring off the ice, with a Mrs. Hartnell.
(Click on the pic to see it full sized)
Well, the DGS SuperSpies found an old laptop the other day, and on it were some old saved AIM conversations between Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell, we read them and found them quite enlightening.
(In the interest of full disclosure, the following conversation is parody created by the DGS minds and is a complete work of fiction.)
In the words of FlyersBuzzTap's Tweet: "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to dust, Arron Asham, you're dead to us"
(Notice the correct use of citations via the link)
Anyway, the peeps of DGS have decided to write Asham an open letter telling him how we feel about this; so here goes...
Dear Mr. Asham,
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that you'd jump right to the enemy. Arguably it wasn't your fault. But it sure seems like you recently have had a habit of fucking over your previous employers. Hell you went from the Islanders, to the Devils to the Flyers to the Penguins...guess this means you plan on being Whore-vechkin's bodyguard in 2011-2012 doesn't it? Seriously, show some fucking loyalty. The fans of Philadelphia embraced you, and of 700K is all you wanted, I'm pretty sure even Paul Holmgren could have found the money to sign you.
I'd wish you luck in your future endeavors but in reality, the only thing I should be doing is wishing the fans of Penguins luck when you show up in 2011-12 wearing a Capitals uniform.
I mean, the only place I law less loyalty is how Dallas handled Mike Modano, and that's saying something.
On the other hand, you're a great reminder of NHL94, you occasionally sneak slapshots by unsuspecting goalies and have this one deke move that you used to out maneuver Mike Green and Jose Theodore in 2009. Honestly, that's not much of a accomplishment, going around a forward then beating Steve Penney with a wrist shot isn't much to be proud of. But hey, that's all your good at.
Thanks for the memories, you're gonna forget them all when Pronger's elbow meets your skull.
Good morning DGS Readers. Once again, it's Sunday, and we're serving brunch at DGS. What's that mean? It means that we have a question that we want answered in the funniest way possible. Who's gonna answer it? YOU ARE! the DGS readers! we love hearing from you.
So anyway, here we go.
Kyle Wellwood, Tim Thomas and Martin Brodeur walk into a restaurant that may or may not be an "all you can buffet" the reason why it's that way, the restaurant is owned by Stephane Auger and we all know what happens when he's in charge of something. Needless to say, how does this go down? (besides in a greasy, fattening mess of fried chicken)
So as we all know, the NHL just recently looked at possible rule changes at the RDO camp, well the DGS SuperSpies recently uncovered some other possible rule changes that were NOT tested at the RDO Camp. In the interest of public knowledge and full disclosure we're posting the list here for you to see.
After trying out 4 on 4, 3 on 3 and 2 on 2 overtimes, 1 on 1 and 0 on 0 were tried as well.
Goalie's were asked to go pad free, to avoid any debates as to whether pads were too big
New shootout format featuring empty nets. (NHL could just force all shooters to shoot on Vesa Toskala during the season to make this work)
Players were asked to play a 60 minute game officiated by Stephane Auger where the rules were applied fairly and consistently
Players wearing 87 for the Penguins were now called for diving
Games could now be canceled in favor of just a shootout
Teams on the PK would have the play goalie free and all penalties would last assigned length regardless of how many goals were scored. (note, Bettman still thinks the NHL would lack scoring with this rule)
Players were also forced to dress/change/shower in front of life sized posters of Pierre McGuire in order to prepare them for the experience of being interviewed by him after they get drafted.
In order to foster more scoring, pucks now entering the crease count as a goal, and pucks entering the back of the net count as 2 goals.
Defenseman throwing body checks in the defensive zone will now be called for a 2 minute penalty for "not allowing scoring chances"
Goalies who cover the puck in the goal crease are now subject to a "delay of game penalty"
Goalies can no longer leave crease to play puck or make saves.
Players were also taught to have sophomore slumps that make Steve Mason's look non-existent.
We all wonder how Eklund comes up with crazy trade rumors that never seem to happen. Needless to say, I figured I had to get some of what he was smoking his unique inspiration. Anyway, I was playing NHL 10 the other day again, and the offseason came around, and I started making trades...needless to say some of these trades reminded me of Eklund, here are the examples.
Draft Day 2010:
To PHL: Dustin Byfuglien and Duncan Keith
To CHI: Ryan Parent and Danny Briere
To PHL: Evgeni Nabokov
To SJS: Kimmo Timonen and Brian Boucher
To MTL: James van Riemsdyk, Nabokov and Braydon Coburn
To PHL: Halak, 3rd, 5th round draft picks
Free Agency Notables
Ilya Kovalchuk: signs with SJS 5 years, 8 cap hit
Patrick Marleau: signs with Dallas 6 years, 6 cap hit
Marty Turco: signs with SJS 3 years, 3.5 cap hit
Martin Biron: stays with NYI 2 years 2 cap hit
Antero Niitymaki: stays with TBL 3 years 3.2 cap hit
Toni Lydman: signs with PHL: 2 years, 2.6 cap hit
Arron Asham: stays with PHL: 2 years 1.1 cap hit
Rob Blake: signs with PHL: 1yr 2 cap hit
Leighton: stays with PHL: 3 yrs 900k cap hit
Flyers opening night roster
Gagne-Richards-Byfuglien
Hartnell-Carter-Giroux
Carcillo-Powe-Asham
Leino-Betts-Laperriere
Pronger-Carle
Lydman-Keith
Bartulis-Blake
Halak-Leighton
Scratches: Patrick Maroon, Jay McKee (Waiver claimed from Penguins), Johan Backlund
the Cap was 62 million, I had 340K in space
SO yeah notable trades I made with the Flyers during the season
November 2010
To TBL: Scott Hartnell, Oskars Bartulis and Jeff Carter
To PHL: Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier
To EDM: 1st round draft pick
To PHL: Braydon Coburn
Trade Deadline 2011
To LAK: Johan Backlund and Dan Carcillo
To PHL: Alex Frolov and Erik Ersberg
other trades I happened to see that made me LOL
To Van: Colton Orr
To Tor: Kyle Wellwood
To DET: Paul Martin, 1st Round draft pick
To NJD: Nick Lidstrom
To WSH: Sidney Crosby
To PIT: Alex Ovechkin
To WSH: Zdeno Chara
To BOS: Mike Green
To WSH: Tomas Vokoun
To FLA: Jose Theodore
To EDM: Sean Avery
To NYR: Fernando Pisani
Anyway: it hit me, Eklund sits with an XBOX all day playing the NHL video games, and the trade rumors he comes up with involve seeing if the video game will make them. After that we see that, well, Eklund's just giving us the AI version of things. Now back to reality and regularly scheduled programming.
Ok, so we know there's a lot of talk of movement in the NHL in terms of franchise relocations. Phoenix, the Islanders, any southern market team that fails to make money, have all been mentioned as possibly moving in the next few years. We here at DGS would like to talk about possible movement in the NHL, somewhat seriously....oh bloody hell who are we kidding? We're gonna have a lot of fun with this.
A huge glove bump, stick tap, and thank you from DGS goes to the following people who really helped make this post possible:
Don't Trade Vinny
Peter from Hoosier Hockey
HockeyBroad
Now of course to have an intelligent discussion about this topic, we need to solve a few problems, like Gary Bettman
So, now that we solved that problem. We can move on and begin discussing possible NHL expansions.
We'll start with Phoenix. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing the Coyotes move back to Winnipeg. Also, perhaps my Canadian readers and friends could answer this for me, why has no one suggested Regina/Saskatoon as destinations for an NHL franchise, they're decently sized cities? Is there something that I'm missing? (Like conditions that make Edmonton look nice?)
(Hoosier Hockey's Peter Evans supplied me with this: "Regina/Saskatoon will not work seeing as they don't have the much needed corporate money necessary to have a team. Yes, the Credit Union Centre can barely accomidate an NHL franchise (I mean that in the loosest way possible), but the corporate dollars just aren't there. ") If anyone wants to dispute the findings of Mr. Evans, I'm all ears.
Mississauga, Ontario is a another place that I think a team could go.
If the Coyotes need to stay in the USA, then perhaps we could give Portland, Maine a shot (Wikipedia gives the metro area of Portland at around 500,000 people)and Milwaukee, Wisconsin could get a look as well. These destinations could work for the Islanders.
Peter Evans from Hoosier Hockey has offered his opinions on some of my ideas
Portland, OR- I don't see this happening. The city has just thrown a ton of money into converting their baseball stadium into an MLS facility. They've hit a stand still on the possible location of a new minor league stadium and the city LOVES their arena that's used for their WHL franchise. I'm just not buying the city building a new facility.
Seattle- Key Arena is a horrible place to watch a hockey game. Also, it would be too small and needs renovation. Seattle doesn't want to throw down money stuff such as this. I don't see it happening.
Kansas City- New arena and they're hungry for a tenant. Here's the issue: That city does not care about hockey. They have trouble keeping minor league teams. The Scouts lasted all of two seasons and when they had preseason games last year, they couldn't even give the seats away.
Hamilton, ON- No way. Too many issues with the league not really wanting a team there. TSN estimated that with stadium renovations, fees and money spent to Toronto and Buffalo on market infringement it would cost almost a billion dollars just to have the team. That's a huge set up fee. Also I honestly believe that if you put a team in Hamilton, Buffalo will be gone within a decade.
Portland, ME- Too small, not enough corporate money. No major arena.
Quebec City- Plans in place to build a new arena, an owner waiting in the wings, tons of corporate money. More a matter of when rather than if.
Winnipeg- An arena that will need minimal renovation, ownership groups frothing at the mouth, enough community support to ensure sellouts at an incredibly high rate. Referenced as the first city on Bettman's list.
Milwaukee- They were on the short list during that last decade of expansion. There isn't much interest in pursuing NHL hockey up there. I don't really see it happening.
Hartford- The arena needs renovation. There is interest in bringing them back, it's a possibility, but I don't see it happening before bringing back QC and Winnipeg.
Now, onto NHL expansion...
No, not the Gary Bettman kind.
No, not the Sami Salo kind either.
I mean, expanding the NHL to 32 teams like the NFL.
Here me out, I have an idea for this and I think it could work. I'll do the divisions, with how I work it.
Eastern Conference
Division A Flyers Rangers Devils Penguins
Division B Hurricanes Thrashers Lightning Panthers
Division C Islanders: Now in Mississauga or Hamilton** Canadiens Maple Leafs Senators
Division D Bruins Sabres Hartford (Expansion) Capitals
Western Conference
Division A St Louis Chicago Detroit Columbus
Division B Minnesota Dallas Nashville Milwaukee (Expansion)
Division C
San Jose
Los Angeles
Anaheim
Colorado
Division D
Phoenix (Back in Winnipeg or in Regina/Saskatoon)
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
I tried to keep rivalries together (Easter Div A and West Div B) while working geographically, also I kept the Canadian teams together in hopes that they draw big revenue by playing each other a lot.
As for the schedule:
other 3 teams in division
Inter-division games: 24
play 8x (4 home/4 road)
Other 3 divisions in conference
play 4x (2 home 2 road) 48
For 72 games.
Play 1 out of conference division 2x (1 home/1 road)
that's 80 games.
Play 3 teams that finished in your divisional slot (1st place vs 1st place) out of conference 2x (1 home, 1 road) for 6 more games
That's an 86 game schedule, and that's my thoughts on the topic. If you agree/disagree discuss it here. I've enlisted the help of HoosierHockey and Don't Trade Vinny for their views on the topic.
Don't Trade Vinny added this to regarding the NHL Preseason:
Extend the preseason from 4 games to at least eight games for every team, with some of the games being played in a neutral market. Then, we could see what markets generate potential expansion sites.
Places with huge collegiate hockey markets (Dakotas, Maine, etc.) could host preseason games. For instance, Boston vs. Philly preseason in Maine. Chicago vs. Vancouver or Calgary in the Dakotas.
Other places the NHL has considered could then be used also. San Jose vs. Colorado in Las Vegas. St. Louis vs. Chicago in Kansas City. Toronto vs.Ottawa in Hamilton. Columbus vs. Nashville in Indy. Not only could the sites be geographically specific based on teams, but could also be great in between travel points during the preseason, which could in turn provide less early season fatigue for everyone which could then in turn make the exciting first year players break out quicker and/or avoid that typical freshmen late season breakdown.
I happen to think that he's onto something there, of course, 86 games, plus 8 in the preseason means camps would open Sept 1, (8 games player between Sept 8 and 27) and the Regular season would start October 1 and run to April 15, playoffs begin April 20 and run through June 25 like they do now.
**- Note from Hoosier Hockey's Peter Evans: There is just absolutely no way in the world that the Islanders would move out of that New York market. The amount of money they bring in, in terms of TV revenue and advertising dollars is just way too high to leave. The more likely option is that they either A) Move to Queens (next to Citi Field), B) Move into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn or the more likely C) They remain where they are with a new arena devoid of pretty much any of the things Wang wanted built with the Lighthouse Project.)
I hope this Sunday is treating you well, I'm honestly probably still in bed, and due to the great Auto-post feature, don't actually have to get up to post this. But that is neither here nor there. Today, we have yet another DGS-discussion and we hope that you the fans can get behind.
Today, we're taking a look into a possible future, one where the NHL is actually run by competent people, and the idiots have been fired.
Anyway, we're sitting somewhere, probably New Orleans, and Gary Bettman, Glen Sather, Paul Holmgren, John Ferguson Jr, Brian Lawton and Darryl Sutter have just decided to start a business together.
We here at DGS want to know, what do you think happens!
Today, we start looking at the Flyers wings. Like my pieces on goaltending, defense, and centers, we're gonna talk about the wings.
Dan Carcillo: Should be an effective player during the 4 minutes of time he gets to show his talents when not in the penalty box or serving a suspension. Should be traded at the deadline with the worst defensemen we have to the Maple Leafs for Luke Schenn, ala Downie/Eminger for Matt Carle.
Riley Cote: Unlike Brett Favre, I expect Riley to stay retired.
Claude Giroux: The little guy is gonna step up his game, finally bringing his playmaking skills to the regular season as well as the playoffs. If not, well, then he won't get a pick RFA payday at the end of the year.
Scott Hartnell: Hopefully will speed up due to the lack of resistance of the hair that he finally cut.
Ian Laperriere: Should find a clever way to break his face during the season even though he will be wearing a shield.
Ville Leino: If he's the 2nd coming of Gagne, then I will stop hating the Gagne trade, and replace it with great disdain.
Darroll Powe: Will hopefully be the new Arron Asham type player, in that he can score 10-12 goals, and hopefully be effective as a role player. Will kill penalties with a Betts-like effectiveness, no jokes here.
Jody Shelley: AHL Bus please, but will probably be a more expensive Cote. Hopefully he scores at the same pace with the Flyers, that he scored against the Flyers last year...then I won't totally hate him.*
Nik Zherdev: Back to Russia! Give me Simon!
James van Riemsdyk: Trade bait please? I'd deal him and Meszaros for Kaberle, too bad JFJ is no longer the Leafs GM.
*- Offer null and void if the guy gives me awesome fights.
Well, today Riley Cote announced his retirement and is now gonna take on an assistant coaching job with the AHL Phantoms, so we here at DGS have decided to look at the Top 5 career moments of Riley Cote. It's a short career, but we can come up with 10 memorable Cote moments, right?
5: Cote's first fight, March 30, 2007 at NJ Devils
4. The two for one special: starring Asham, Rupp and Leblond
3. Cote vs Rechlicz in a marathon bout
2. Cote vs Roy round 2 from March 6, 2008
But what made this moment classic:
and before the number 1 Riley Cote moment, we look at some honorable mentions...
Just like last week, we here at DGS would like to invite you to brunch with us. Last week we got a couple of nice chuckles, and now we're looking to do some more of that.
This one is real simple. Once again, loyal DGS-ers give me your thoughts on a 'what would happen if' scenario'
1. What would happen if...Rick DiPietro, Sami Salo and Marion Gaborik walk into a bar together, where the bartenders are Keith Ballard and Chris Pronger?
Well, in order to complete my series on the Flyers for next year, I'm gonna look at the forwards. In order to not drive myself crazy, we're gonna do this by position. Up first the centers.
Mike Richards
1 high/1 low
High: Scored a career high in goals in 09-10
Low: Scored exactly 0 3 on 5 short handed goals thereby not extending the one NHL record he has.
Prediction for 10-11: Richards will be....RELENTLESS
Jeff Carter
1 high/1low
High: Kept up a great scoring pace that put the entire NHL to shame.
Low: Forgot how to score while ON the ice.
Prediction for 10-11: Carter will have a scoring touch, whether it's in the bedroom or on the ice is still to be determined.
Danny Briere:
High: Proved he's got a bit of toughness by actually dropping the gloves with Marc Vlasic of the Sharks during a game. Oh yeah, he was kinda successful during the playoffs too.
Prediction for 10-11: Will become the new Simon Gagne, and not in the way we want him too. Luckily, this will all be forgiven when we find a way to trade him with Big Mesz to the Flames for Iggy and Kipper.
Blair Betts:
High: Who didn't love his penalty killing?
Low: His shoulders.
Prediction for 10-11: Will be the best PK guy in the NHL, with shoulders that make Randy Orton's look healthy.
Well, it is time once again for everyone to climb aboard the D-Train.
Just as we looked at the Flyers goaltending situation a few weeks ago, DGS is now taking a look at the defense corps. This time, we include best case scenario stat predictions for our Defensemen.
As in the Flyers defense, and this is a somewhat serious post as to what we can expect from our Flyers defensemen this year.
Once again, I have to make this perfectly clear: There is a huge DGS thank you to Don't Trade Vinny for his help with a lot of what you're seeing this week. I honestly could not have come up with all this without him.
Review in a word: Ordinary In a sentence: Bartulis didn't wow anyone, but for the most part, he also avoided major mess ups as well.
Forecast: he's gonna spell the 6 regulars and be the first guy inserted due to injury.
10-11 Numbers: 20GP 0g 5A 5P 10PIMs but plays solid D when we need him to
25 Matt Carle 6' 0" 205 Sep 25, 1984 Anchorage, AK, USA
09-10 regular season stats 80GP 6G 29A 35P 16PIMs
Review in a word: Suprising In a sentence: Carle lived up this 3.437 cap hit and proved that he can be a future #2 NHL d-man.
Forecast: Can he repeat with improvements, Pronger and Timonen are both turning 36 this year, which means Carle and Coburn need to step it up and take on bigger minutes.
10-11 Numbers: 80GP 10g 35A 45P 20PIMs
5 Braydon Coburn 6' 5" 220 Feb 27, 1985 Shaunavon, SK, CAN
09-10 regular season stats 81GP 5G 14A 19P 54PIMs
Review in a word: Dissappointing In a sentence: Coburn was horribly inconsistent during the regular season and honestly got way more than he should have on his contract.
Forecast: Like Matt Carle, Braydon Coburn needs to step up if the Flyers have a shot at repeating as Eastern Conference Champions.
10-11 Numbers: 80GP 7g 18A 25P 70PIMs
41 Andrej Meszaros 6' 2" 223 Oct 13, 1985 Povazska Bystrica, SVK
Review in a word: Dependable In a sentence: Solid proven winner with great leadership skills, enough said.
Forecast: Just needs to hold down the fort like he did in 2007 when the Ducks won the cup, I am not asking for much, just to be better than Ryan Parent.
10-11 Numbers: 70GP 2g 8A 10P 80PIMs
20 Chris Pronger 6' 6" 220 Oct 10, 1974 Dryden, ON, CAN
09-10 regular season stats 82GP 10G 45A 55P 79PIMs
Review in a word: Divine In a sentence: Chris Pronger is awesome, divine and amazing.
Forecast: He turns 36, can he still keep it going.
10-11 Numbers: 80GP 7g 33A 40P 90PIMs
44 Kimmo Timonen 5' 10" 194 Mar 18, 1975 Kuopio, FIN
09-10 regular season stats 82GP 6G 33A 39P 50PIMs
Review in a word: Dependable In a sentence: I love Kimmo, I do, but, at the same time, I'm reminded that Kimmo carries a 6.33 cap hit, then I don't love him so much anymore.
Forecast: He's old, and on the downside, this could be scary, or amazing.
10-11 Numbers: 80GP 5g 25A 30P 40PIMs
8 Matt Walker 6' 4" 215 Apr 7, 1980 Beaverlodge, AB, CAN
Review in a word: Suck In a sentence: It's Jimmy Vandermeer version 2.
Forecast: Should spend most of his time in the AHL.
10-11 Numbers: 30GP 0g 0A 0P 70PIMs
Other thoughts:
Meszaros's career numbers are like Coburn's so, I'm hoping that if the 2 of them get their stuff together then, good things will happen, if not, well, then I'm hoping we can pass them off to Calgary for something good.
Holmgren does have a habit of trading horrible defensemen for good things:
Case 1: Zhitnik for Coburn Case 2: Downie/Eminger for Carle Case 3: Tollefsen for Leino
So, for those of you following our good friend Don't Trade Vinny, you know that Bolts GM Steve Yzerman was recently arrested for trying to steal PK Subban from the Habs. It turns out, that Stevie's bad luck continued as after leaving Montreal, he had to fly back to Tampa. During this time, a grand jury was convened in Philadelphia.
See it turns out that Stevie's legal issues are not over. Apparently many people associated with the NHL think that Stevie committed robbery of the Philadelphia Flyers. Turns out, a source let me in on the fact that Stevie IS under investigation. Needless to say, we started digging around as well.
Thanks to a joint investigation by the DGS-SuperSpies and our friends at Don't Trade Vinny, we managed to obtain a copy of the warrant for Stevie's arrest. For you're viewing pleasure, we have it here for you to see. By the way, if you're not reading Don't Trade Vinny, you're really missing out, so start reading his site today.
(use view image to maximize the ability to see it)
Hey, it's been a long time since I did one of these, but never fear, we have another coffee break for you.
So sit back, grab a coffee, some donuts, and enjoy some great hockey related fun.
Down Goes Brown delivers a look at other grievances the NHLPA has filed along with the Ilya Kovalchuk grievance. Needless to say, I have one of my own to add, I hereby declare DGB to be the funniest Maple Leafs blogger/writer on the planet. I now have a grievance that he does not post enough.
Intent to Blow goes on an in depth investigation to tell us just how Sami Salo got hurt this last time around. The results are hilarious and involve Sedin jokes.
Stay Classy takes a nice look at Down Goes Brown's writing talent and the fact that DGB finally made it big-time. We hope DGB doesn't take up any of the positions for his writing that Stay Classy has told him to go after.
Don't Trade Vinny gives us the latest in the Stevie Saga with a look at Mr. Yzerman's recent arrest in Montreal. Why do I have an odd feeling this isn't the end of Steve Yzerman's legal trouble? Check back tomorrow to find out why because the DGS-SuperSpies are on the case.
Ok, so I am trying to star another possible recurring series here, I have my Tuesday morning coffee breaks as we know, but here's another one that's a little more reader interactive, every so often, on a random Sunday, I'm gonna toss out a discussion question related to a scenario that will probably never happen in the NHL, then I'm gonna ask you, the DGS loyal readers, to come up with a witty clever answer to whatever comes out of my mind. Now there's a good chance I'll run out of ideas and this will never get past the top 3 ideas that the DGS staff already has, but hey, once the season starts, I'm fairly certain that this will pick up again.
So here we go.
It's game 7 of the finals, triple overtime, after trade deadline savior Miikka Kiprusoff goes down to injury, Vesa Toskala is forced between the pipes for the Flyers. On the Sharks end, Joe Thornton is awarded a penalty shot. What happens next?
Like many offseasons, this summer has seen a lot of movement in the NHL, and I don't just mean trades and free agency, which have been oddly quiet. Some of it may be confusing for a casual fan who didn't follow the news as it happened. Luckily we here at DGS have compiled the following guide to help you understand what's been moved around.
The Chicago Blackhawks moved the team to Atlanta in the weeks following their Stanley Cup win, this was done in order to hide the Stanley Cup from the Daley Political Machine who would probably try to steal it. In the words of Rod Blagojevich "I got this cup, and it's fucking silver."
The Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens recently started a joint business venture to do the unthinkable: bring the NHL to Tampa, Florida. This new project, tentatively called "the Tampa Bay Lightning" is made up of Habs and Flyers castoffs like Dominic Moore and Simon Gagne, they'll be coached by the Habs AHL Hamilton Bulldogs coaching staff and are slated to play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, Habs owner Mike Leighton has yet to comment on the deal. I wish them the best of luck.
A certain GM named Sutter opened up a "Blast from the Past" Museum in Calgary by picking up former Flames like Olli Jokinen. In order to avoid being a one trick pony, Sutter also showcases a list of "Former Maple Leafs" exhibit.
Vesa Toskala has been forced to relocate to Finland, but only because the Finns apparently can't kick Finnish citizens out of Finland. However, with the way things are going in Philadelphia, it's safe to assume he's gonna be their starting goalie by December. (GOD HELP US ALL!)
In a case of things NOT being moved, the Edmonton Oilers still in fact, play in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Sami Salo recently attempted to move a muscle landing him in the ER again, however, this actually led to him being placed in a padded room to prevent him from hurting himself while performing basic day-to-day tasks. He promptly broke his jaw while attempting to chew his liquid breakfast shake.
In order to maximize the summer vacations he has every year, Brian Burke will continue to look to relocate all his draft picks so as to avoid having to take time off from his vacations in order to draft players.
Denis Grebeshkov relocated himself to the KHL allowing him to play in his native Russia. Honestly, after spending 2.5 years in Edmonton and then trying to play hockey in Nashville, I'd probably try to do the same thing.
Paul Holmgren gave Andrej Meszaros another shot at playing in the NHL after he disappeared for the last 2 years. This is because Holmgren saw what bringing in a bad contract did with the Habs after they took on Scott Gomez's salary, and how the Hawks won a cup with Brian Campbell and CristoLOL Huet on their team. He still has the last laugh as we all know the Rangers are still stuck with Wade Redden.
Mike Modano is attempting to relocate himself somewhere, anywhere, he's sure he wants to go, but sadly no one's letting him in when he knocks.
Tomas Kaberle has yet to be relocated, but only because of the hypocrisy of Brian Burke, he demands a top-6 forward for him, which means he should have dealt Kaberle to the Flyers for Andrej Meszaros by now, as after checking the Leafs depth chart, I'm pretty sure Mesz could fit in there.
Johan Hedberg relocated himself to the easiest NHL job on the planet, backing up Martin Brodeur of the NJ Devils, this job entails only one responsibility, making sure that Lou can't get his hands on any jars of jelly.
The Phoenix Coyotes are actively attempting to move the entire team and every trace of it to Winnipeg. As if hockey ever existed there...
Mike Green was allegedly relocated to the Capitals defense corps, however, after scouring hours of video, there is no known evidence of Mike Green actually playing defense.
Max Talbot relocated himself to be the temporary hot topic of the NHL by calling Alex Ovechkin a "douche". While it is refreshing to see Sidney Crosby on the back burner for 20 seconds, it's hard to understand what the big deal over Talbot stating a well known fact is. Also, inb4 Andy Sutton asks "are you an expert?" Max Talbot better know a douche when he sees one, he plays on a team with Matt Cooke and Sidney Crosby in a league where Gary Bettman is the commissioner.
Speaking of people calling people names and getting in the news for it, where the hell did Sean Avery run off to? I haven't heard of him saying anything in over 2 months.
Antti Niemi will soon relocate to the KHL after no NHL team pays the 6,250,000 the arbitrator gives him because of Niemi's argument that he DID play better than CristoLOL Huet.
Speaking of KHL relocations, Evgeni Nabokov relocated to the KHL because after years of watching Joe Thornton choke at the thought of running into a Chris Pronger elbow during the postseason, Nabby couldn't bear to play a whole season with Chris Pronger's elbows that close to his skull. Honestly, did Holmgren forget to tell him that Keith Ballard is NOT a Flyer?
In another story involving non-relocation, the NHL will still be on Versus next year, meaning you probably will never have to worry about seeing its existence.
I think the title is self-explanatory. Honestly, this post isn't going to be about what should have been or what I wished had happened (Nabokov starting, Leighton backup, Boucher in AHL, keep Gagne and no Mesz)
But, alas, I am not going to complain about things I have no control over, rather, I am going to look at the cards dealt to the Flyers, and attempt to discuss what will happen with these guys next year. Hopefully the 2010-2011 campaign is not DiPietro-esque. Here we go...
Name: Johan Backlund Jersey: #30 Height: 6'2" Weight: 198lbs Catches: Left
Forecast: Insert first callup title here when Boucher sucks again, also, he should be the 2011-2012 backup
Name: Sergei Bobrovsky Jersey: #35 Height: 6'2" Weight: 190lbs
Forecast: The Bob plays up the AHL, and realizes that, in Soviet Russia hockey money comes tax free!!!! This leads to him bolting back to the KHL's version of the Edmonton Oilers and never being heard from again.
Name: Brian Boucher Jersey: #33 Height: 6'2" Weight: 200lbs
Forecast: Brian goes to the Phantoms, then is promptly traded to Chicago when Niemi wins a $4 millon arbitration case prompting the 'Hawks need to have a goalie who's cap friendly. Boucher then goes out and makes Vesa Toskala look like a reincarnated Georges Vezina
Forecast: Eriksson makes the jump like Backlund, eventually gets a call up because Leighton's late to the puck and Backlund's pulling pucks out of the back of the net too often. Flyers fans promptly cry for Marty Turco to save us.
Forecast: His continued inability to win a starting job in the KHL causes him to replace Andrew Raycroft as biggest bust in the goaltending market. By using words like "hype" and "improved version of Toskala" the Flyers are able to send Kovar, Shelley and Meszaros to the Calgary Flames for Miika Kipprusoff at the trade deadline.
Name: Michael Leighton Jersey: #49 Height: 6'3" Weight: 186
Forecast: Holds down the starter's role until relief in the form of a real NHL starter shows up, becomes solid backup. Cries when Flyers hoist 2011 Stanley Cup. Becomes responsible for big IN YOUR F-ING FACE MOMENT when he calmly stops a Gagne wrist shot, Vinny rebound and Stamkos wrap-around during game 7 of the EC finals against the Bolts, hilarity ensues with Andrej Meszaros then fires a 197 foot foot clear that Toskala's Dan Ellis at the other end, Flyers go onto the Finals.
Forecast: He's gonna be the 2010-11 version of Jeremy Duchesne, thrust into a spotlight for no real reason other than to entertain me...
Nic Riopel Jersey: #35 (yes 2 35s on the Flyers so far...but he should switch to his #29 in camp) Height: 6' 0" Weight: 172
Forecast: Will be the #3 guy in the AHL behind Backlund and Bobrovsky, could be traded for other prospects, like depth Defenseman that do NOT cost $4 million....
Name:Brian Stewart Jersey: #67 Height:6' 4" Weight: 195
Forecast: Will probably not get a look out of training camp, for this guy to see NHL time, the other goalies would need to have no limbs, heads or heartbeats.
I've reread this post now quite a few times, and I find myself very, uncomfortable with the Flyers 2010-11 goalie situation. And we don't have ToskaLOL or Raycroft
I've waited to post this, mainly because I wanted to avoid an unoriginal and pathetic rant about how much I miss Simon. Quite honestly, for that, my Twitter feed to the right should have supplied plenty of that. (Ain't I right DTV?)
With that, I recently posted an analysis on Blades of Funny of some of Holmgren's trades, here's what I came up...reposted here for my loyal DGS-ers
Let’s take a quick look on some of Paul Holmgren’s odd moves
Case 1: Trading Alex Zhitnik to ATL for Braydon Coburn
Well, this was basically a steal for the Flyers
Case 2: Trading Peter Forsberg to Nashville for Upshall, Parent and 2 draft picks Then trading the picks back to NSH for Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen
ok, so Parent’s back in NSH, Upshall got kicked to Phoenix for Carcillo, Kimmo and Harts are gonna end up killing our cap barring some more moves, but these guys did produce in Philly (except Parent in the Finals)
Case 3: Upshall to PHX for Dan Carcillo
I dislike Carcillo, no denials, but the fact is, Upshall wasn’t gonna see top line time as an RW with Joffrey Lupul and Mike Knuble ahead of him. Well, what if he stayed for 09-10 you say, and I say fine, where would Briere, Carter, Giroux, Lappy be moved to in order to find a slot for Upshall. I love Upshall, yes, but he wasn’t gonna fit in and so getting something for him was a good deal.
Case 4: Parent to NSH for a 7th rounder and Rights to Dam Hamhuis, NSH 7th Rounder to SJS for Rights to Nabby Rights to Dan Hamhuis to Pittsburgh for a 3rd Rounder
Wait, Ryan Parent, Ryan F-ing Parent for a third rounder from the Penguins, uhh, steal…duh
Case 5: Ole Tollefsen and 2nd rounder for Ville Leino
Tollefsen’s in the SEL, and Leino lit up everyone he saw in the playoffs, epic win enough said.
So, Holmgren has a knack for getting stuff done…trading Gagne and 2nd round pick for a 4th, Meszaros and Walker might just work out…if not, then my final example…
Case 6: Steve Eminger and Steve Downie to Tampa for Matt Carle…yes Homer has a way of moving Bad D-men out for good ones…
my pick for the 2010 edition
Andrej Meszaros and Dan Carcillo somewhere for a D-man who doesn't suck...guess that excludes Wade Redden, Tomas Kaberle, and Mike Green*
*-(Editor's Note: Why Mike Green made a list of DEFENSEMEN is beyond me)
I wish Gagne the best of luck but if he comes up gimpy in a game with the groin, or takes a Matt Cooke elbow…I won’t be surprised
Dear Paul Holmgren and the rest of the Flyers organization,
I am writing this letter to you on behalf of the Philadelphia Flyers fanbase with only one purpose. That you do not trade Simon Gagne. Simon is the heart and soul of this team right now and trading him would be a slap in the face to the loyal fans who love and support him. Trade Jeff Carter instead, the salaries are almost the same and we are stacked at center. Think of it this way, if you trade Carter and Boucher, you could bring in a solid goaltender AND a decent 2nd line forward. Carter is going to command far more next year, whereas Gagne will resign cheap. It's a simple cost/benefit analysis, yes Carter will put up more numbers than Gagne, but Gagne will put up more bang for the dollar. Fact is, this franchise needs a true number one goalie, had we had a goalie with the talent of Nabokov, then Ryan Parent as a #6 Defenseman would have not cost us a Stanley Cup win.
Sincerely,
Down Goes Spezza
PS: If you want to support this petition, please leave a comment in the comment box below, come on DGS-ers you know you want to help me lead the don't trade Simon charge.
Just a couple days ago, the blogging idol of DGS, Mr. Down Goes Brown, posted a comparison between NHL and NBA Free Agency and DGS was sad, because we had the same idea for a post in mind. DGB suggested that we pre-date the post and then accuse him of plagiarism but we decided against it. Instead, we decided to share our thoughts on the idea of tampering in NHL.
Thanks to @NonAmericanHero on Twitter for telling us that the CBA has no rules of tampering, so because of that DGS sent the DGS SuperSpies into the world to find out, what is tampering in the NHL. The results, they were odd, but enlightening to say the least.
Some NHL Examples of Tampering.
Brian Burke of the Toronto Maple Leafs takes a trip to Sweden for a "vacation" only to end up accidentally recruiting the Sedins.
Marian Hossa tampers with the Red Wings chances of repeating as Stanley Cup champions by signing with them after the 2008 season
Flyers GMs since 1997 have tampered with the teams chances of winning a Stanley Cup by never signing a competent goaltender, (Remind me again why were paying Big Mesz $4 million and Nabby walked to the KHL?)
Alexei Yashin tampered with the Islanders books by penciling his name on them until 2020
Someone tampered with Rick DiPietro's health sending him for MRI's every year, (this just in...Rick has a minimum 5 MRIs per week clause in his contract)
Chicago Blackhawks ownership tampered with the whole NHL by secretly moving the team to Atlanta after winning the 2010 Stanley Cup
Kyle Wellwood tampered with the last scale he was on, making it say 181lbs as his weight.
An unknown person or persons tampered with Ilya Kovalchuk's calendar causing him to not realize that in fact, he legally can sign an NHL contract.
Rick Tocchet tampered with the Lightning's chances to win by hating on a guy named Vinny. (Thanks DTV)
Someone tampers with Joe Thornton's mind every time the playoffs role around
Keith Ballard likes to tamper with the skull of his team's goaltender
Pierre McGuire will tamper with your belt and pants every time he interviews you.
Every NHL player attempts to tamper with the Edmonton Oilers by demanding a trade out of Edmonton.
Rangers GM Glen Sather tampered with Habs by convincing them to take on the Scott Gomez contract.
Chris Pronger uses his elbows to tamper with opponent's skulls.
[Note: Eklund claims these ideas are all 100% DGS Originals (e4)]
I think the title's pretty simple. Today I'm gonna make the case that the Flyers should trade C Jeff Carter over LW Simon Gagne.
Cap Hit Gagne: 5.25 Carter: 5.0
Essentially even
Carter's younger, yes, and an RFA next year who's gonna cost 5.5-6.5 to keep. Gagne's a UFA but his cap hit should drop to the 3.3-3.7 range, this leaves the Flyers with $2-3 million to make a move.
Carter will bring back more than Gagne in a trade, Carter can bring in a true #1 goalie. You know, the thing that the Flyers haven't had since Ron Hextall.
The Flyers are stacked at center, losing Carter isn't all bad. We would still have Richards, Briere, Giroux, Powe, Betts...and there's talk of moving JvR to center as well.
Trades the Flyers should make, you know, if I were the GM:
Calgary's Sutter seems like a moron, so let's try this out
Meszaros and Zherdev $6 million against the cap to Calgary for Curtis Glencross and Cory Sarich (4.8 combined cap hits)
then again, if Iginla wants out of town... Big Mesz and Zherdev for Iggy (Sutter WOULD do that deal)
Ok, now, into the almost real world.
Jeff Carter and Brian Boucher to Los Angeles for Jon Bernier, Jarret Stoll
It could be a stretch, but Carter long term would produce far more than Stoll and Bernier is stuck behind Jon Quick, Boucher could fill the AHL starter post, and fill in for short bursts in the NHL should Quick or Erik Ersberg get hurt. Now the Flyers would only save 1.4 in regards to the cap here, but that should be fine. I wouldn't mind losing Carcillo and his stupid penalties, but keep Powe.
Remember Carter's good at scoring, with his teammates wives...(don't tell other GMs that last part.)
If Hartnell didn't have that damn NTC, we could trade him to Edmonton, yes, I hate him THAT MUCH.
But alas, in words of Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want" and that means I'll be soon mourning the loss of Simon Gagne
Yes, I know, I tweeted that today's new post would be about the DGS Staff but it turns out, we decided that an in depth investigation into a Flyers prospect would be in order, see, with the Flyers prospect camp this week, we are getting to see guys who will be the Flyers of the future, and like any "respectable and responsible journalists". We thought it best to, shed some light on Eric Wellwood, specifically, translating an interview he did recently from Wellwoodese into English.
Eric says: "My game is all speed and shooting, dumping it in the corners and going to get it myself. He is more finesse, more laid-back. I think maybe people are starting to realize that our game doesn't have as much in common as one might think."
Eric means: "I'm not an overweight fat bastard who avoids contact with anything other than a buffet table, oh yeah, and I actually try to put the puck in the net"
What Was Said: Wellwood is relying on his brother for conditioning tips. He has a leg up on his competition as he already knows what challenges lie ahead
What Was Meant: Eric is not making the mistakes that Kyle did, for example Eric does NOT stop at every Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts to compare tastes of frosting. Also, Eric realizes that "deep fried" anything is a bad thing for meals. Eric also knows to stick to a conditioning plan, to avoid ending up fat.
Well, that's all we got for now, here's to hoping Kyle doesn't eat Eric on Christmas....
First off, to any and all Canadian readers, DGS wishes you a Happy Canada Day again.
DGS felt a lot of pain
Amy: Considered dying her hair black again, she had it done orange on June 29.
Luc: Played out Free Agency on NHL 10, made reasonable moves, got a reasonable team, simulated 2010-2011 season, watched Flyers win come in 4th in Eastern Conference, 2nd in Atlantic Division (NY Islanders won it). Watched them beat San Jose in the Stanley Cup Finals in 7 games (Thorton played in 22 playoff games, had 11 pts...talk about realism).
Luc got into this, again, everything was simmed except roster moves.
Matt: Waterboarded himself in the shower, Waffleboarded himself after, Pinched himself in the hopes that he would wake up, begged for a Big Mesz trade to Calgary for Jarome Iginla, cried repeatedly for his bottle, rationalized that being single is a good thing, wished #DGSDateWatch would end, tried to "fire" the rest of the team, plotted the demise of Homer, came up with a clever post for next week that involves teaming with Don't Trade Vinny.
Basically, today sucked for the Flyers, prove us wrong, please.
12:10AM: DGS should be asleep, but he wants to start with the major transactions that were announced
RFA Signings: Mike Leighton takes 2 years 1.55 cap hit to stay in Philly and compete for the starting job. No real surprise here, more on Leighton later today, when I can combine it with any other splashes the Flyers make.
Retirements: Rod Brind'Amour: a class act, a great guy, and for me, a Hall of Famer
Trades: Toronto and Chicago:
Toronto gets: Kris Versteeg and Bill Sweatt Chicago gets: Viktor Stalberg, Philippe Paradis and Christopher DiDomenico
Conclusion: Are the 'Hawks under the cap yet? Is Toronto truculent enough yet? Is Burkie happy yet? (I can answer the last one: Not until Kaberle goes). Leaf's and Hawks fans who read this blog, tell me what you think of the deal...I'll add in some of the comments to this post.
12:22am Ok then, all I want is Boucher to be traded for a #6/7 D-man, though he can be AHL'd, the Flyers to keep Coburn, Powe, Carcillo and Asham and please please please find a wing to swing Hamhuis. (DGS predicts the new Flyers D-man will be Toni Lydman, solid puck mover, has NHL experience, fits with the Flyers love of going Finnish)
12:27am DGS wishes that won't come true tonight
1. Getting laid #DGSDateWatch restarts...
2. Anton Volchenkov, Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Kovalchuk all sign contracts that put the Flyers even with the cap.
3. Flyers lose Scott Hartnell and somehow gain Dustin Byfuglien
4. Pierre McGuire becomes normal
12:30am DGS begins to think about getting drunk after realizing what his life is like...Amy talks him out of it via G-chat...by the way, chat with DGS tomorrow from 2:30-4:30pm on Google Chat, DGS's email is DownGoesSpezza@gmail.com, Amy will make sure to tweet updates as well as she gets a hold of them.
9:16AM DGS sees report linking Dan Ellis to the Flyers, for the record, goalies linked to the Flyers this offseason:
Nabby, Turco, Biron, Price, Ellis, Halak, Niitty, Chris Mason, Steve Mason (seriously, I got an email about it- Amy), Thomas, Hedberg, Theodore, Budaj....
Long story short, Flyers have more goalie options that Harry Potter had Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers...
As for Eclipse: Spoiler Alert: Silver Arrows hit the werewolves, Buffy stakes the vampires, The End
9:22AM DGS realizes we forgot the following goalies on this list of goalies linked to the Flyers: Quick, Bernier, Lalime, Roloson, Weekes, Legace, Caron, Toskala (Yes, seriously, though don't worry, he'd be shot here)....if anyone knows of any other rumors, add them...or make some up too...cleverest scenario wins a prize* from DGS
*- DGS promises to name this person in a post and give them free advertising to any blog/website provided the content is rated PG13 or lower.
1:13PM Flyers trade for Meszaros...what a Meszy move...dammit Homer, pull something big out.
2:18PM Still a goaltending mess. Coburn's back for 2yrs/3.55 cap hit and now Jody Shelley and Sean O'Donnell are in as well. This probably spells the end of Riley Cote in Philly. In unrelated news, Holmgren is trying to sell the truculent Cote to the Leafs
Alex Auld to the Habs, guess that means Dan Ellis hit the open market. Or as multiple twitter accounts have said, Habs get Vesa Toskala lite.
Sergei Gonchar to the Sens...I guess Gonchar is gonna go the Kaberle route...and hate winning
Zybnek Michalek to the Pens...Phoenix to Pissburgh...(typo intentional) Z, I had hope for you, but now you're gonna be Crosby's bitch...and that's just bad.
Alex Tanguay back to Calgary....I love Sutter....and Sather...these guys make JFJ begin to look intelligent (Amy reminded me of the Rask/Raycroft deal, I take this back)
All Time Worst GMs Ever: Sutter, Sather, John Ferguson Jr.
Marty St. Louis contract extension announced, anonymous sources tell me Marty had a hard time signing the contract because he could not see the table where the contract was located.
For those who don't know, I'm open on my facebook page and I'm taking email at the address on the right. I'll post some of the more interesting emails and their answers here as well as answering all of the email personally*.
(*-DGS staff will answer emails, Amy included, there are 5 of us)
2:53PM First Email Answer:
DGS,
Leighton, Boucher, Backlund are already in the mix, but none of these scream long term number 1 goalie. What hopes do the Flyers have?
Jeff
Jeff,
Thanks for being the first to check in. Long term options pretty much involve trades. JvR to LA for Bernier or Quick is a possibility. If the Flyers want to dump salary, I could see Hartnell AND JvR for Bernier or Quick and an LA forward or draft picks. Give it time though, with Turco and Nabby still in play, things can happen.
-DGS
DGS,
Martin Biron to the Rangers, what do you think?
Bill C.
Bill,
Soft goals, inconsistency and flamboyant personality...it screams SATHER GUY!
-DGS
Amy,
Are you cute? Can I have your number?
Steve F.
Steve,
No way in hell, I'm not interested.
-Amy
Down Goes Spezza,
Are you going to miss Riley Cote? It sure looks like he's the odd man out right now.
Kevin L.
Kevin,
I'll miss Cote for his off ice charity work more than being a fight only guy. The guy who I really think I am going to miss at the end of this is Arron Asham, great guy all around and a solid depth player. Who ever picks up Asham is gonna get an underrated player. As for Cote, he might get tossed in as a spare part in a trade, but most likely will be making to trek to the AHL Phantoms for 2010-2011
-Amy
3:03pm Just realized the Shelley deal is a 3 year deal. I realize Shelley burned us for 2 goals in the last 2 games of the season, but for the love of divine entities, THIS GUY IS A MORE EXPENSIVE RILEY COTE!!! WTF WERE WE THINKING?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?! Send him to the AHL NOW please and thanks....
3:08pm Rick Tocchet coached Meszaros last season in Tampa.
“He had the willingness to play hurt, I have to give him credit,” said Tocchet. “I give him a lot of credit. A lot of guys wouldn’t have done that. But there is another level in him and he’s got to find that with the Flyers.”
I just threw up a little...I'm beginning to plot my demise...still taking Emails and Facebook questions though!
3:11PM Toni Lydman to the Ducks, I wanted that Finn, like the Flyers I tend to enjoy Finns
Little known fact about DGS: Amy and Matt both love Finnish metal band Nightwish
3:30PM
Random Coworker of Amy's asked her:
Does Shelley spell the end of Lappy or Carcillo?
Amy: I think it makes the possible loss of Carcillo manageable, but expect to see Cote waived.
Matt: No, it means Cote's on the AHL train, which makes no sense because Cote comes at about half the cap hit.
Luc: Nope, just means Cote's gone.
Jon: Cote's headed to Glens Falls to play for the Phantoms, unless he gets traded
3:47PM
Amy just reminded the rest of the staff that we all hated the Leino trade, Carcillo trade, keeping Carter over Umberger and Asham signing when they all happened. The boys just realized they had no counters to these moves of moves we loved, but then regretted. Results have happened, and while the boys don't like it, they love having a woman as the voice of reason. (Matt, Jon, Luc all disagree)
4:21pm Volchenkov to the Devils. This could be bad...
or not
4:25pm Hamhuis to the Canucks, hometown player signs...that's ok, btw, thx for the 3rd rounder Penguins
4:32PM Matt's getting more depressed by the minute....Flyers July 1 = Twitter Fail Whale
4:44PM Just saw the Blackhawks moved to the Eastern Conference and now play in Atlanta...FML AGAIN!
5:35PM Dinner time with the DGS crew...will check back in around 7pm...Later world!
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