NHL 2013: Off-Season Running Thread

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

It is certainly a bold move, but Fletcher has made a few bold moves. Trading Burns and Havlat, ending up with Heatley and Setoguchi, admitting he made a mistake hiring Richards and gassing him.

This is really the first time they've had the cap room, etc., to make this kind of move.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Here's a great retelling of what happened.

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2012/07/04/teammates-gave-maclean-cpr

Forslund set up the defibrillator and gave MacLean a shock.

“It really had an impact because (his face) went from a real ugly colour to looking like some blood was moving,” said Forslund.

They continued CPR until the city paramedics arrived and MacLean was given another shock before he was taken to the Owen Sound hospital.

It took just three minutes from the 911 call to the first shock from the defibrillator. And just nine minutes from the paramedics arrival at the rec centre to get MacLean to the hospital.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Let's put it this way, it's in stark contrast to letting Gaborik walk after 2009. They have never been big spenders. Havlat was their previous big FA acquisition and he didn't exactly pan out. They are rarely ever fingered out as a landing spot for the top UFAs and they almost never sign there. That's why this is a shock for the Wild to open up the vault and sign the top two available players to mega deals -- committing almost $200 million in one day.
It's a great market and a great building, but it is completely out of character for the history of the franchise.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

The Wild also understand their fan base. The U and high school hockey have extremely deep roots in MN, and to get a local guy who played at Shattuck-St. Mary's (one of the top HS programs in the country) in Parise, and a guy from Wisconsin, both of whom were stars in the WCHA, that's bringing back people the fans know, who they have a connection with, et al. If the Wild build around a core of U.S. college guys, they'll be pretty marketable to their base, and Don Cherry will be pleased because the Leafs will have someone to take half their roster off their hands .

Indiana is very similar with basketball -- IU and Purdue (and, to a lesser degree, Butler) get top billing. The fan base is very passionate about, and knowledgeable of, high school hoops. Even with the Pacers having a renaissance season, the two biggest talking points in the last year have been: local boy George Hill (went to HS & college in Indy) coming back and will local boy Eric Gordon (North Central HS/IU) come back? There was a time, when the Pacers were gawd-awful in the early 1980s and were broke on top of that, they went out of their way to get IU and Purdue guys -- Sichting, Buckner, McGinnis, Jim Thomas, et al -- to at least fill the seats. Much of the rest of the roster was Big Ten players: Herb Williams, Clark Kellogg, Granville Waiters from Ohio State. Slightly different situation, but there are a lot of similarities between the fan bases.

Having Parise & Suter back in Minnesota will energize their fan base and make them better. I don't think they make those deals for two Canadian or European guys, or even U.S. college guys from the East. It also allows them to pick up some fans in Wisconsin, which is pretty college hockey-mad (and the home base of the Suter clan), where you've got a dividing line between Blackhawks/Wings/Wild fans.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Seen some nonsense on Twitter today (redundant, I know) from some people who should know better hammering Steve Nash for not following Parise's lead and returning "home" to play. Parise is a Minnesota guy whose dad was a star back in the day for the North Stars, while Nash was born in South Africa and grew up in Victoria, BC, two places that aren't close to Toronto.

Just like Parise could have signed anywhere he wanted to, Nash was under no obligation - patriotic or otherwise - to play for the shittastic Raptors.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

It's a solid business plan, just surprised they managed to pull it off with these two, considering the competition for their services being the Top 2 UFAs this off-season. If they wanted to build around local boys at a discounted rate to bring the fans into the building, they're not doing that. While Parise is rumoured to have left money on the table, there is nothing about $98 million x 2 that says discounted rate.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Matt Carle to Tampa Bay, six years, $5.5 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012-07-04/matt-carle-signs-with-lightning/56023474/1

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Yup. I've never understood the reasoning why people consider Toronto as his home city because he is Canadian. Personally I would have loved for him to sign with the Raptors so I could watch him more often -- also I would be interested to see what he could do with DeRozan, Bargnani and Valancius, see if he could drag them kicking and screaming into the post-season -- but Phoenix is as much if not more home to him than TO will ever be. Besides, the one thing missing from his resume is a championship and LA provides his best shot at that.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Good signing for the Bolts. He also has a history there. Should have an interesting team next year, still so much of it falls on Lindback in net and his ability to live up to gigantic expectations.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

I don't expect the Wild to be a discount team. They sell out the arena, unlike the early-1980s Pacers, who got outdrawn at the gate by the local minor-league hockey team one year. But I'm not surrprised they go after American FAs from the upper Midwest. I don't think they'd do the same if these guys were from Medicine Hat. They can energize the fan base, sponsor base and claim to be the "State of Hockey" by signing local guys. Lou Nanne did the same with the North Stars.

Now, for 3rd/4th liners, who are pretty much interchangeable and cheap, there's where you go for discount Minnesota and Wisconsin guys.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Dave Bidini is right off the rails about this.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

That's who I was referencing in my original post. Big fan of Dave's, but I don't know if he is just doing this to be a contrarian and a pain in the ass or if he really believes Nash would be a force for cultural change in Canada by playing basketball in Toronto rather than in LA. That is a preposterous argument if you ask me.