I'm watching it.... they have a monkey running the camera. He must have worked for Fox Sports South. I mean Poile is sitting still and he still is having trouble.
Summary of Poile: Injuries hurt us, we lost our swagger, lost our ability to offensively intimidate, we had a great regular season. Need to figure out what to do to take the next step. Winning a game against Detroit at the end would have given us 1st place. We had bad luck in the series other than game 3. Penalties in the playoffs were much worse. Goaltending was great, D was good (singled out Kimmo, Weber, Suter, Zanon). Additions were great- Arnott and Dumont. Rads didn't deserve his suspension and had a great playoffs.
Trotz: Series was closer than 4-1 but showed immaturity in discipline. Forsberg trade showed we thought we could win it all. Forsberg helped our young guys just to be around him. Young guys are great: Rads, Erat, Legwand (great growth), Suter (big improvement), Weber, Zanon. "A great year with a bitter ending".
Poile singled out the following prospects: Klien (ready to play in the nhl) brookbank, koistenen (i think) cal o'reilly (substantially improved), franson (live's on Shea Weber's street), Laakso (intend to work hard to sign him and bring him over), and hornquist (outscored forsberg as a rookie in the swedish league and they think a real find in the 7th round).
They then interview a variety of players who all say: 1. injuries were a big part of the problem, 2. someone(s) likely won't be back, 3. everyone got along and had fun, 4. it wasn't the fault of trotz.
Kimmo and Harts both say they want to come back. Harts in particular seemed to want to come back. He said you could blame the refs (and smiled) for the series and said it was VERY frustrating. [Editorial from me: Re-sign him, name him captain and let Kimmo go]. He almost implied that he thought Kimmo was leaving but maybe I read too much into it.
I heard Poile on the Zone this morning and Crispy was on sometime recently. Poile said if Forsberg wants to play in Nashville next year that he (Poile) will make it happen. Having said that he also said he was not sure that Peter would play anywhere next year.
Crispy was talking about injuries and the item that surprised me the most was how badly Kimmo was injured, yet kept it quiet and played through it. He indicated that maybe it was more than just his wrist.
I personally think Kimmo should stay, especially as captain, unless the make Sully captain. Hartnell still does not show enough maturity and has not been a great role model.
It's a shame Mase couldn't be captain, I understood from one of the many interviews that he is the man in the locker room.
Also, there was an interview with Kariya by Kuharsky (sp) from the Tenn. and he used playing in Nashville in past tense, Plaster asked Poile about that Poile said he'd have to see the article, but he was planning on talking to PK later.
Poile said that in the team meeting, either today or yesterday that he publicly apologized to Vishnevsky and said that he was brought here to hopefully help the team and his career and certainly not to hurt his career chances in any way.
heard it from a friend that talked to timonen last night.. that he was expecting the flyers to make an offer for around 6 million to come quarterback their pp.. sounds way too high for me, i thought 5 mil would have been overpaying and thats what hartnell and legwand told handtrick and i that timonen was probably going to ask for from us..
from all i have seen and heard, the flyers are seriously interested in signing him though, so this figure might actually be right or close to what they offer...
heard it from a friend that talked to timonen last night.. that he was expecting the flyers to make an offer for around 6 million to come quarterback their pp.. sounds way too high for me, i thought 5 mil would have been overpaying and thats what hartnell and legwand told handtrick and i that timonen was probably going to ask for from us..
from all i have seen and heard, the flyers are seriously interested in signing him though, so this figure might actually be right or close to what they offer...
That's certainly interesting, and it makes you wonder if the 5 million we were speculating he was after\would be offered elsewhere is actually the "hometown discount" number we were imagining. At any rate, I think it's way too rich for our tastes..
I guess they want him to come play with his brother and to replace what Kim Johnson did for them for so long.
His brother is not an NHL player, so that angle is greatly overplayed. I certainly think the Flyers will be interested, especially if Andrei Markov and Rafalski are not available come July, 1.
Wow, Timonen for 6 mil a year? Ouch! I do think if the Flyers used him a little smarter than Trotz did and kept him from getting too many minutes on the PK and against top lines, that he would be more effective as the season progressed and possibly on into the playoffs. But for $6 million, you are expecting the guy to be a #1 Dman and he just isn't anywhere near that.
6 million?!?! Thats darn near max contract which can buy you Crosby in a few years.
Timonen is a great 3-4 guy, maybe a #2. But you dont pay 6 mil for that.
If he can get 6 million, he hit the jackpot. We can do better, and cheaper.
I hope, for his sake, that he can land 6 million. He's a great guy who speaks to the quality of the scouting this organization has done. I just hope it doesn't come from the Preds. I would agree that he's a great 3-4 guy, especially when paired with a big, physical, defensively-oriented defenseman. I don't think he's a number 2 though unless that number one is a player like Pronger or Chara, someone who can really protect him.
I like Kimmo, but I really hope no team pays him $6.0 million. That would set a horrible precedent/comparable for other free agent defensemen, and I would hate to see salaries start spiraling out of control again, especially if it meant we'd have to pay more to sign a #1.
I like Kimmo, but I really hope no team pays him $6.0 million. That would set a horrible precedent/comparable for other free agent defensemen, and I would hate to see salaries start spiraling out of control again, especially if it meant we'd have to pay more to sign a #1.
The salary cap is supposed to go up next season. Get ready to see some huge contracts.
