2009 NHL off-season trades, rumours, draft thread

I think the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers less than a week before Opening Day in 1970.

Seventeen years earlier, Milwaukee had a bit more advance notice it was getting a team - the Braves moved from Boston late in spring training, something like three weeks before the 1953 season started.

The preferred timeline is to have the Coyotes sold and in Balsillie's hands by the end of June, plenty of time to finalize the move to Hamilton if the NHL wants to actually cooperate rather than continue to fuck up the entire process.

 

Depends on the market you are moving to. Hamilton you could go almost overnight and do the renos the following season. Really wouldn't need that long to sell the season tickets in a market like that and marketing is almost not even needed at that point. However, if you were moving into Kansas City you would need the full off-season to really sell the game. In hamilton the most difficult part would be getting uniforms designed, approved and made and then made available to the public in time.

 

You gotta figure the screen-printer is ready to go in Hamilton ...

 

Peter Karmanos didn't give the Hartford Whalers organization a year to move south. Nice try.

 

Legend has it that as he prepared to leave camp at the end of spring training that year, the equipment truck driver was told by the Pilots' GM, "Call me when you get to Las Vegas and I'll tell you where to go from there."

 

Sheesh, I guess the world was quite different back then!! I remember the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis in late March. I also remember reading about the problems the Houston Oilers encountered in their first year in Tennessee.

For the sake of everyone involved, I would suspect that something needs to be resolved by the end of June --- or that a relocation gets put on hold for another year.

I still can't help but wondering if the real issue is (1) the other league owners just don't like Balsille and might accept another owner more readily or (2) some higherups at MLSE have Bettman's ear and want to block the move for their own selfish reasons.

 

I am so fucking sick of hearing about Tavares. Cody should have been MVP at the World Juniors but Tavares is the one they are marketing. In a just world, Matt Duchene will go first in this year's draft. He's a better skater, a better all-round player and a character guy on top of that.

 

And the Stars just hire Joe Nieuwendyk away from the Leafs. He'll be the new GM and Burke thinks it's great

http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/643319

"I told Joe there's only 30 of these jobs on whole planet," said Burke today. "I would have wanted him to stay here long as I'm here. But if you have good people, you lose good people. He's one of the most impressive people I've met in this game. Watch him, and you think, boy, this guy is smooth and smart. I think he'll do well there. I'm glad he's going to the Western Conference."

 

".....where I'll never have to face him in the playoffs. In the unlikely event my team actually ever makes the playoffs, that is."

 

I assume, as a wing-man for Burke, that Nieuwendyk was at the combine this week, right?

Seems like odd timing for the move to be made.

 

More proof that GMs are like quarterbacks. You got two of 'em ... you ain't got any. That's how you get stupid stuff like Sean Avery signings.

Getting Nieuie back is nothing but good for the Stars. Like Hull, he's got the 1999 Cup ties. But he's got some tough roster choices ahead. He's going to have to decide on whether to fish or cut bait with his netminder, for starters.

 

Unless he's got a rabbit in his hat as far as free agency is concerned, I'm not sure he has much of a choice but to stick with Turco.

I'm pretty sure Tobias Stephan isn't going to be the Opening Night starter for the Stars next season.