Hot Ice: NHL Thread

[scratchmonkey]

A friend described the trade scramble post-expansion draft as "every NHL GM determined to show their entire ass".

The Kraken are very much taking a Vegas approach to things, grab a solid young defensive core, then stockpile as many trade chips as possible. Should be a decent roster in the end, they likely won't have a Fleury-level nice surprise though.

[ursus arctos]

And they should make the playoffs because their division is awful

[Hot Pepsi]

I only recently discovered that the Lightning’s GM Julien Brisbois doesn’t really have a hockey background. He was a lawyer in Montreal and then was one of the Habs’ counsel and then got more into the hockey ops part.

How common is that?

Likewise, Theo Epstein didn’t play past high school and despite being a shrewd analyst, he didn’t formally study stats or math. His degrees are in American studies and law, IIRC.

There may be something to that. Maybe it’s best to get a GM that doesn’t even imagine that they’re great talent evaluators or strategists. Instead, get somebody who understands the contracts and the CBA and how to manage all the other experts.

[ursus arctos]

It is especially rare in hockey because the culture is so insular

I think that Cooper is also a lawyer. Good to see them doing done positive.

[Hot Pepsi]

Cooper wasn’t even much of a hockey player, really. He played lacrosse in college. Then got into youth hockey coaching and then junior etc.

Kyle Dubas of the Leafs is one of the only - maybe the only - GM of a major team who majored in Sports Management. That’s only been a thing relatively recently.

Stan Bowman of the Blackhawks was a comp sci major at Notre Dame. Of course, being Scotty Bowman’s son probably opened some doors.



Some of the veteran GMs still don’t seem to understand how the salary cap works. That will change eventually.

The bigger issue, it seems, is that GMs are incentivized to just show short term progress, whatever the long term cost, in order to keep their jobs.

So teams like Vancouver are just trying desperately to be mediocre, even if it will prevent them from ever being legitimately good, and the good-but-not-great teams - like the Oilers and Leafs - behave like they’re just one player away from the Cup when they probably actually need bigger more painful changes.

Minnesota is one of those teams that has been mired in perpetual midtableness. Moving on from the bad Parise and Suter contracts - even though it’s going to be a problem cap-wise in two years - suggests Guerin is willing to go back to eventually go forward.

[ursus arctos]

Dubas is a prodigy.

He was already a scout for the Soo Greyhounds while he was still at uni, and became their GM soon after graduating.

[Hot Pepsi]

I wouldn’t say he’s out of his depth because a lot of people with more experience than him couldn’t get the Leafs past the first round either, but this year could be his last in that job if they flop again.

[Amor de Cosmos]

So teams like Vancouver are just trying desperately to be mediocre, even if it will prevent them from ever being legitimately good,

Ever? The Nux have twice been within a game of winning the Stanley Cup.

[Hot Pepsi]

No, I mean like the last few years.

[Snake Plissken]

I wouldn’t say he’s out of his depth because a lot of people with more experience than him couldn’t get the Leafs past the first round either, but this year could be his last in that job if they flop again.

This years exit was absolutely, totally and thoroughly on the shoulders of the players. The Leafs were handed a clear run to the semi-finals and shat the bed spectacularly.

[Hot Pepsi]

Of course. But he picked those players. And the coaches.

They're very top heavy in terms of contracts, as far as I can tell. More so than the Lightning or Islanders, for example. So there appears to be more of a drop-off from line 2 to line 3 than they might like and they probably need defensive help. That is, apparently, why they protected more D and then pulled off that thing with the Penguins to save Kerfoot or get McCann. They could have had both if they'd have been willing to expose more defense.

If it flops again. It would be hard to not conclude that it simply doesn't make that much sense in the cap era to spend so much on so few and, instead, they'll have to trade a star or two for some depth.
Same goes for the Oilers.

I think.

[Flynnie]

I only recently discovered that the Lightning’s GM Julien Brisbois doesn’t really have a hockey background. He was a lawyer in Montreal and then was one of the Habs’ counsel and then got more into the hockey ops part.

How common is that?

Likewise, Theo Epstein didn’t play past high school and despite being a shrewd analyst, he didn’t formally study stats or math. His degrees are in American studies and law, IIRC.

There may be something to that. Maybe it’s best to get a GM that doesn’t even imagine that they’re great talent evaluators or strategists. Instead, get somebody who understands the contracts and the CBA and how to manage all the other experts.

Being a francophone probably helped, the Habs ice more coaching and possibly GM talent than any team in the league because they’re always on the lookout for competent francophones due to the demands of the Québécois media.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm losing faith in the Habs braintrust in the last three days, to be honest.

I really like Brisebois. When he was hired, at first I mixed him up with Patrice Brisebois, who also worked for the Canadiens for a while. No relation, as far as I can tell, however.

[ursus arctos]

Quite

Vegas have traded Fleury to Chicago, but he claims to have found out via Twitter and very much does not want to go

Some suggestion that he may end up back in Pittsburgh

[Snake Plissken]

Marc-Andre Fleury traded to Chicago for *checks notes* *checks notes again* a 23 year old who has never played an NHL game. I believe that it would have been "nothing" but the rules don't allow that.

[ursus arctos]

Dreger originally reported it as literally nothing coming back

Now that's a salary dump

[Hot Pepsi]

I hope for his sake he can go to Pittsburgh. Better place to be right now than the Blackhawks.
Word is now he may just hang it up.
Vegas needs to work on its people skills.

[ursus arctos]

I think that he either goes to Pittsburgh or retires

[ursus arctos]

Seattle gets its goalie. Expect top six forwards.

https://twitter.com/SeattleKraken/status/1420448522789400585?s=19

[Hot Pepsi]

Watching Canadians talk about NHL personnel moves on YouTube is my new lifestyle.

[ursus arctos]

The Seabrook trade is further evidence of Brisebois' ninja like skills when it comes to the cap.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah. I don't even totally understand how that works. How does paying a player who isn't going to play help?

[ursus arctos]

It's because payments to players on Long Term Injured Reserve don't count against the cap and increase the amount otherwise available.

Basically, Johnson's cap hit disappears, while Seabrook has none as long as he is on LTIR. There may even be some kind of additional benefit, but I don't fully understand all of the mechanics either.

[Hot Pepsi]

I understand that it doesn't count against the cap but it seems like they're just doing Chicago a favor.

[ursus arctos]

I'm too old to be able to fully internalise the rationale of cap driven trades.

My hard wiring for trades was installed w/r/t baseball cards at age four and I just don't have the energy to do a gut renovation of that portion of my brain.