.... It will take time for the pattern to fully emerge and establish itself but as of today I think it is fair to say that one is slowly developing where in teams that draft well and then add one or two key ufa's have a couple of years to win the cup before they have to begin a sort of rebuilding process.
Maybe retooling is a better term and sure, all teams have always retooled somewhat every year but look at the Pens, they won the cup and since then have lost allot of the players that got them there and they haven't been back yet (too soon to tell if they will or won't need more work before they get back again if at all)..
Great post. Great analysis. You've definitely hit on the pattern.
Someone remarked that one of the league's goals with a cap is not just a salary structure that saves team's money. They also wanted a system that forces teams to rebuild as players get more expensive. The league wanted to spread the wealth of star players around to different cities and keep the fan base excited. As a result, we will see fewer Oilers or Islanders team rosters with multiple all stars and league leaders. Instead there will be more teams like the Ducks or Blackhawks. They build for two or three years then peak and get a shot at the Cup. If the goalie gets hot anythings possible. But those teams will tend to dominate for that year.
There are franchises, such as NJ, Detroit and the Flyers that have playing systems in place and that concentrate on development work for young players. This allows them to compete year in and year out - without necessarily getting into conference or Cup finals every year. That will be the Kings model.
How about DD, JJ, Simmonds etc.? They all have losing records as well. Should we not sign them for long term or perhaps, not sign them at all?
Exactly. These "he hasn't won anything in the playoffs" arguments have no backing. Like I said before, if Doughty and Kopitar were drafted by Atlanta, no one would want them on our team as a free agent right now? Yea right..
How about DD, JJ, Simmonds etc.? They all have losing records as well. Should we not sign them for long term or perhaps, not sign them at all?
They arnt getting paid 8 million dollars a season and they are young... granted drew is worth it. You arnt worried about his defence? The system we play? There are just too many question marks for me.
Exactly. These "he hasn't won anything in the playoffs" arguments have no backing. Like I said before, if Doughty and Kopitar were drafted by Atlanta, no one would want them on our team as a free agent right now? Yea right..
Especially when the captain of the Kings has the same impressive playoff resume as Olli Jokinen.
They arnt getting paid 8 million dollars a season and they are young... granted drew is worth it. You arnt worried about his defence? The system we play? There are just too many question marks for me.
A part of me wants to rip you and your post apart but I'm jut gonna chill and let it go.
We could only do Kaberle if we were sending significant salary back the other way.
If Dean can sign Kovy, I'd glady do Smyth for Kaberle straight up.
FORWARDS
* Ilya Kovalchuk ($7.500m) / Anze Kopitar ($6.800m) / Justin Williams ($3.500m)
* Brad Richardson ($0.800m) / Jarret Stoll ($3.600m) / Dustin Brown ($3.175m)
* Fredrik Modin ($1.750m) / Michal Handzus ($4.000m) / Wayne Simmonds ($0.822m)
Kyle Clifford ($0.870m) / Brayden Schenn ($3.140m) / Scott Parse ($0.900m)
Kevin Westgarth ($0.525m)
DEFENSEMEN
Drew Doughty ($3.475m) / * Thomas Kaberle ($4.250m)
Rob Scuderi ($3.400m) / Jack Johnson ($1.425m)
* Mark Eaton ($2.250m) / Matt Greene ($2.950m)
Davis Drewiske ($0.617m)
GOALTENDERS
Jonathan Quick ($1.800m) / Jonathan Bernier ($0.843m)
Uhh... did some of you guys even watch the playoffs this year? Kovy totally transformed his game leading up to the playoffs to be a team player, and then during them he was CLEARLY the best player wearing a Devils sweater for the entire series. You know, the same Devils that were a 2 seed and have 3 Stanley Cups?
Great post. Great analysis. You've definitely hit on the pattern.
Someone remarked that one of the league's goals with a cap is not just a salary structure that saves team's money. They also wanted a system that forces teams to rebuild as players get more expensive. The league wanted to spread the wealth of star players around to different cities and keep the fan base excited. As a result, we will see fewer Oilers or Islanders team rosters with multiple all stars and league leaders. Instead there will be more teams like the Ducks or Blackhawks. They build for two or three years then peak and get a shot at the Cup. If the goalie gets hot anythings possible. But those teams will tend to dominate for that year.
There are franchises, such as NJ, Detroit and the Flyers that have playing systems in place and that concentrate on development work for young players. This allows them to compete year in and year out - without necessarily getting into conference or Cup finals every year. That will be the Kings model.
Hey Duc,
I think we've kind of discussed this before but I agree that the current system not only allows for teams to keep rebuilding thus spreading the wealth of talent around the league but I think that it flat out mandates it though of course in a sort of backdoor manner that allows them a sort of plausible deniability.
Look at the deal today between the Hawks and Atl. The Hawks deal away a player who was a key to their winning a cup but not entirely irreplaceable in Buf and a few other players but what they got in return was a couple of pics, a mid level prospect and a minor salary dump.
Buf will be a wonder in Atl and a nice gate draw along with Eaves and Sopel (the rest of the salary dump) Atl gets a little more depth and betters themselves while the Hawks shed salary and weakens themselves a little.
To me that deal is a perfect microcosm of what the new NHL is and will be.
Not a difficult pattern to spot so far but I feel it will take a full ten years of post lock out play for the pattern to become an irrefutable fact.
I don't know how i feel about it. On one hand it is nice that there will no longer be any teams that end up with all of the talent and go on to become unbeatable dynasties but on the other it sort of takes away the concept of fair play and to the victor belongs the spoils.
It smacks of collusion to me but then it doesn't do it so boldly that you want to walk away from the game. I look at the rest of the sports world for that sort of thing.
H
Look at the deal today between the Hawks and Atl. The Hawks deal away a player who was a key to their winning a cup but not entirely irreplaceable in Buf and a few other players but what they got in return was a couple of pics, a mid level prospect and a minor salary dump.
Atlanta got their ***** handed to them in that deal. Just like with Milbury, the town idiot only keeps their job for so long.
TIM THOMAS is the man, perfect for what LA has going on. Experienced Vezina Trophy winner to help the kids be fully ready in a few years.
It always takes goaltenders longer.
Too expensive for too long, especially with age taken into consideration.
__________________
"It has not been a good day. I lost my glasses early this morning and I had to go buy a pair of 79 dollar reading glasses today. 79 bucks. You can literally get them at Costco, three-for-20." - Darryl Sutter's response to going up 2-0 in the series.
TIM THOMAS is the man, perfect for what LA has going on. Experienced Vezina Trophy winner to help the kids be fully ready in a few years.
It always takes goaltenders longer.
No. He's far from perfect for LA, he's 35 with 3 years left of a 5 mil cap hit. We're perfectly content with a Quick-Bernier tandem next season considering that Quick had 39 wins last season and Bernier has absolutely nothing left to prove in the AHL. If we trade for Thomas then next season we're just like Chicago wondering why the hell they signed Huet.
Forget about Brown, he is not even close to the same player as Kovi. Look at Kopitar, he has a cap hit of $6.8 million and what did he do in the playoffs? 5 points in 6 games. So tell me, do you want to get rid of him because he's only made the playoffs once in 4 years and only had 5 points?
