NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Sam Mills 51 · Jul 14, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

ESPN's Scott Burnside offers Bettman a couple of alternatives to save face, and give Hamilton a franchise:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=2935189

hockeybeat · Jul 14, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

NY Times piece on how the cap has been an unexpected boon for the players.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/sports/hockey/15hockey.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

typewriterhill · Jul 14, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Isn't it something, players are still getting paid and the NHLPA's lackeys like Al Strachan and Larry Brooks still don't get it.

JR · Jul 14, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

alanTdot said:

Bettmans stance has everything to do with the fact that he is the head of a for profit enterprise with 80% of members situated in the USA. Yeah the six Canadian teams are bringing in hella profit right now, but that is completely about the soaring loonie and nothing else. It's a gate driven league in The States. Edmonton and Calgary and Ottawa just don't draw. Neither would Hamilton.
Sure the Atlanta Nashville matchup doesn't draw either, but those two markets help you to get that elusive national Television deal.

Why aren't the 6 Canadian teams up in arms about the Hamilton chicanery?

Because they want that US TV Deal also.

Stop scape goating Bettman. He is doing their bidding.
Click to expand...

Are you on crack?

First of all, the soaring Canadian dollar is a recent phenomena.

I'd match Calgary, Edmonton & Ottawa's attendance against almost every American team.

A "US TV deal" has been the league's holy grail for over 40 years. It hasn't happened and unless Crosby joins the Rangers and they win five Cups in a row it ain't gonna happen in any substantial way.

Willie Sutton was once asked, "Why do you rob banks?"

His answer was simple. "Because that's where the money is".

Bettman, who would have been tossed out of a first year business course for his NHL model has never understood that.

Fact of the matter is, the Canadian teams prop up most of the brain-dead teams like Atlanta, Nashville and Florida.

South Western Ontario (for the geographically challenged, that's a few cities like Hamilton, Toronto, Kitchener, London, Burlington, Oakville and Cambridge) is the largest hockey market in the world. No one who knows anything about hockey can argue that.

You could move any one of those moribund southern teams to Hamilton and make exponentially more money.

There's only one reason that the Hamilton deal isn't going through: The Leafs.

Despite not having won a Cup in 40 years they are arguably the most powerful franchise in the league

Brunt has a good take on this:

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070714.wspt-brunt-col-13/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home

Simply put, no other team is coming into Southern Ontario, because the Leafs don't want it to happen. The Toronto owners are guaranteed enormous profits no matter how their team performs on the ice. They are in many ways the chief beneficiaries of Bettman's new economic order, forced to pocket tens of millions of dollars that they would have spent on player salaries in the old, cap-less world, while watching their revenues go up and up and up (not to mention the windfall of the 90-cent-plus Canadian dollar).

alanTdot · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

JR said:

alanTdot said:

Bettmans stance has everything to do with the fact that he is the head of a for profit enterprise with 80% of members situated in the USA. Yeah the six Canadian teams are bringing in hella profit right now, but that is completely about the soaring loonie and nothing else. It's a gate driven league in The States. Edmonton and Calgary and Ottawa just don't draw. Neither would Hamilton.
Sure the Atlanta Nashville matchup doesn't draw either, but those two markets help you to get that elusive national Television deal.

Why aren't the 6 Canadian teams up in arms about the Hamilton chicanery?

Because they want that US TV Deal also.

Stop scape goating Bettman. He is doing their bidding.
Click to expand...

Are you on crack?

First of all, the soaring Canadian dollar is a recent phenomena.

I'd match Calgary, Edmonton & Ottawa's attendance against almost every American team.

A "US TV deal" has been the league's holy grail for over 40 years. It hasn't happened and unless Crosby joins the Rangers and they win five Cups in a row it ain't gonna happen in any substantial way.

Willie Sutton was once asked, "Why do you rob banks?"

His answer was simple. "Because that's where the money is".

Bettman, who would have been tossed out of a first year business course for his NHL model has never understood that.

Fact of the matter is, the Canadian teams prop up most of the brain-dead teams like Atlanta, Nashville and Florida.

South Western Ontario (for the geographically challenged, that's a few cities like Hamilton, Toronto, Kitchener, London, Burlington, Oakville and Cambridge) is the largest hockey market in the world. No one who knows anything about hockey can argue that.

You could move any one of those moribund southern teams to Hamilton and make exponentially more money.

There's only one reason that the Hamilton deal isn't going through: The Leafs.

Despite not having won a Cup in 40 years they are arguably the most powerful franchise in the league

Brunt has a good take on this:

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070714.wspt-brunt-col-13/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home

Simply put, no other team is coming into Southern Ontario, because the Leafs don't want it to happen. The Toronto owners are guaranteed enormous profits no matter how their team performs on the ice. They are in many ways the chief beneficiaries of Bettman's new economic order, forced to pocket tens of millions of dollars that they would have spent on player salaries in the old, cap-less world, while watching their revenues go up and up and up (not to mention the windfall of the 90-cent-plus Canadian dollar).
Click to expand...

I think you miss my point.

The reason the Six Canadian Teams are contributing so much to the NHL coffers is because of the recently soaring loonie. Up until the 95 cent Loonie Canadian Teams were getting killed taking in Canadian Dollars and paying out Yankee greenbacks.

My point about being a draw is that the small market Canadian Teams don't Draw IN the United States.
On the road.
I was not talking about their home arenas.

alanTdot · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

I wonder if the Wings would be opposed to a Southern Ontario team also...

hockeybeat · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The league needs franchises in Quebec City and Winnipeg.

Huggy · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

alanTdot said:

I wonder if the Wings would be opposed to a Southern Ontario team also...
Click to expand...

Doubt it, unless it was in southwestern Ontario, say between London and Windsor. The Wings, Lions and Tigers all have huge support in that area.

Elliotte Friedman · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Alan,

The Red Wings want to move to the East -- as does Columbus. Balsillie sent overtures to them, letting them know he would be willing to stay in the West to gain their support. When expansion comes -- Vegas and Kansas City -- the conference move will happen.

Another team in the golden horseshoe does not scare them.

You are correct that Canadian teams don't draw well in the U.S. But, by moving Nashville to Hamilton, Colorado can leave the Northwest Division. That is what the Avalanche want. Since Balsillie will stay in West, his team would join Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary and Minnesota -- which doesn't have any trouble drawing against Canadian teams, because it has great fans.

There are two reasons Bettman is against the possible move: 1) He believes it doesn't help the four decades-old battle for a major U.S. TV deal, and 2) because it's not something he approved, and he's a major control freak.

Overall, trading Hamilton for Nashville makes this a much stronger league. But that's not what he cares about.

hockeybeat · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

The Devils shitcanned Claude Julien because the players didn't think he was tough enough, reports The New York Post's Larry Brooks:

July 15, 2007 -- THIS was at practice during the latter stages of last season, after the championship core of Devils had become skeptical that Claude Julien possessed either the inner core of toughness or independence from Mayor-Judge-Town Sheriff-Inn Keeper Lou Lamoriello to lead the team to a Stanley Cup.

With Lamoriello attending to administrative duties and therefore absent from his usual perch at the rink, one of the veterans intentionally shot a puck at Julien during a drill to test how the coach would respond. The story goes that when Julien refused to confront the athlete or even acknowledge the overt act of disrespect, the players concluded that the head coach would have to go, and essentially fired him.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07152007/sports/devils/sutter_gives_devils_a_shot_devils_larry_brooks.htm?page=0
Click to expand...

hockeybeat · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

John Ferguson passed away yesterday.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/rangers/2007/07/15/2007-07-15_exranger_coachgm_ferguson_dies.html

RedCanuck · Jul 15, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

alanTdot said:

I wonder if the Wings would be opposed to a Southern Ontario team also...
Click to expand...

I think you'd probably have to be pretty far south in Ontario to cut into Detroit's territory. I don't think they'd be hurt too much by London, and no city that's closer could even have an argument.

Even moreso than the Leafs however, Buffalo would have big problems if another team came into Ontario, particularly in Hamilton. A chunk of Buffalo's season ticket base and a good portion of their corporate support is on the Canadian side of the border.

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