2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Zeoni]

20 years old, Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Ted Lindsey Trophy. Would have won the Calder had he not gotten injured last year. He's already the 2nd best player in the league and he has only played 1 and a half seasons. He will only get better. Signing an 8 year contract for 13.25m AAV right now is much smarter than say signing a 9.7m/5 year contract for the team at least. The cap will probably go up and that contract in 5 years is going to make 13.25m look like a bargain I would imagine. I don't think they really have a choice either, what are they going to do, just not sign him?

Get ready for the Matthews contract now! Hopefully he doesn't win the Hart trophy next year or you'll be in the same boat my friend.

[Greeney]

Yeah I'm not sure what else to expect. A team like Montreal or Washington manages to pull an offer sheet for a player like McDavid and Edmonton goes back to how they were a couple years ago (and those picks become very late 1st rounders). If McDavid will get more you may as well do it, but Edmonton's taking a risk cap will go up.

I'm more curious to see what Eichel and Nylander get going into RFA because IMO that's going to be more of an indicator (and obviously a bit higher unless Eichel has an amazing year). It's not really fair to compare any current forward besides Crosby to McDavid.

[Puupi]

13.5 million deal for McDavid and what 9 million deal for Draisaitl means Edmonton won't be winning the Cup anytime soon.

It's a team sport after all. I'd understand salaries like that if there wasn't a salary cap for teams...

[Zeoni]

Giving Lucic 6m and Russell 4m is going to hurt them more than Mcdavid or Draisaitls contracts

[Greeney]

13.5 million deal for McDavid and what 9 million deal for Draisaitl means Edmonton won't be winning the Cup anytime soon.

It's a team sport after all. I'd understand salaries like that if there wasn't a salary cap for teams...

If it wasn't a salary cap sport the only teams who could afford McDavid (assuming he'd demand as much value as the market would allow) would be Toronto, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Boston, Vancouver, Philadelphia and maybe SKA St. Petersburg. I don't agree with Drai for 9, Russel for 4, etc... but you need to lock down McDavid if you have him.

[Rennadrel]

The issue is more of tying up the cap on one player. Those 11 million a year contracts for Towes and Kane are hurting Chicago cap wise. Sure, give him 10 million a year, that's fine and more than fair.

[Greeney]

If McDavid keeps going at the rate he played last year he'll be considered a top 5 forward of all time. Draisaitl is a hockey player, McDavid is practically a hockey God. If McDavid holds out on signing a contract a team like Philly let's a few UFA's go and makes a 14mil/7year offer and Edmonton gets a 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 pick where (unless McDavid gets injured for the majority of a season) they go in the 22-31 range annually. Even if Edmonton doesn't win a cup they get they make a profit by having people come to watch McDavid.

As for Toews and Kane's contract they still finished as the best team in their conference, they just couldn't pull it together and score against Nashville. It was similar to the Penguins when they played Boston in the lockout-playoffs. If a team has a bunch of superstars and can't score more than a couple goals then having 7 million of extra cap space to sign a guy like Ladd or Oshie isn't going to be the difference maker.

[Zeoni]

Jack Eichel is talking to the Sabres about his new extension now apparently. That will probably be the benchmark for Matthews' next deal assuming he improves upon last years great debut season. I think it was pretty common knowledge that if Auston was in that 15' draft the decision between him and Eichel would be a good argument for the Sabres. If I was a GM I'd take Matthews over Eichel but I say they are very similar skill levels. I totally forgot about him tbh but whatever he gets, I'm sure will be what Matthews goes into as a comparable for negotiations sake.

Flames are tied to the Smith/Lack train in net for the next season. Boy do I love the unending optimism / impending doom of my sports teams (Vikings, Jays, Raptors, Flames).

[Greeney]

Hopefully Matthews will buy an argument that Eichel also needs to be paid to be the coach and GM.

I think Matthews was rated a tiny bit higher than Eichel in the McDavid draft. In hindsight no doubt any team would take Matthews first IMO. Man did we get lucky by his mom not giving birth a few days earlier.

[Zeoni]

Consider at the time Matthews had not played in Zurich yet and Eichel was a Hobey Baker finalist in his draft eligible year as well. They both had similar production in the us development team also. I think Eichel playing in college and the season he had would push him over the top.

[Greeney]

Yeah, looks like you're right. I thought I remembered someone I trust say they felt scouts would have Matthews ahead of Eichel but in retrospect I'm guessing I revised the below reddit thread & tweet in my head based on the thread discussion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comm..._matthews_are/
https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/s...01872073342978
https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/s...02209786097665

Only really matters who Buffalo would have taken in that circumstance though.

[Rennadrel]

Jack Eichel is talking to the Sabres about his new extension now apparently. That will probably be the benchmark for Matthews' next deal assuming he improves upon last years great debut season. I think it was pretty common knowledge that if Auston was in that 15' draft the decision between him and Eichel would be a good argument for the Sabres. If I was a GM I'd take Matthews over Eichel but I say they are very similar skill levels. I totally forgot about him tbh but whatever he gets, I'm sure will be what Matthews goes into as a comparable for negotiations sake.

Flames are tied to the Smith/Lack train in net for the next season. Boy do I love the unending optimism / impending doom of my sports teams (Vikings, Jays, Raptors, Flames).

Eichel, like McDavid, has barely played a full season healthy and that was his first season in the league. He has yet to produce at near the clip that McDavid has, Matthews had more points in his rookie year playing on a line with other rookies most of the time. Eichel won't get near the pay day that McDavid will I don't think unless he pulls a rabbit out of his ass this year and can be more than a 56 point player. In his first season, McDavid was a hair over a point per game, he had 48 points in 45 games, Matthews had 69 points in 82 games, Eichel had 56 points in 82 games. That's a big stretch if you compare rookies, and McDavid had 100 points this year in a full season playing almost double the games. Eichel will be lucky if he gets 10 million, he isn't worth that unless he can break the 75 point mark, and Matthews will probably be in the 11 million range unless he surpasses last seasons numbers. If he gets past the much elated "sophomore slump" and has an even better year (this is a guy who scored 40 goals as a rookie as well), Matthews will make 12+ million.

- - - Updated - - -

Hainsey signs with Toronto for 2 years, 3 million per. Not a bad deal, more than I'd like for a 36 year old D-man, but the Sharks just gave the Pickle 8 years at 7 million AAV and he is 30.

[Reg]

Shattenkirk left so much money and several years on the table to be a Ranger. I like the contract.

[draynay]

Kings bringing back Cammalleri, I like it... and didn't sign Joe Thornton, which I also like.

[Rennadrel]

Habs commit salary cap suicide by signing Carey Price to an 8 year contract worth 84 million dollars with a 10.5 million AAV cap hit

[Nazrark]

Habs commit salary cap suicide by signing Carey Price to an 8 year contract worth 84 million dollars with a 10.5 million AAV cap hit

Habs have one year before they are in cap hell and back to being a bubble team like the 2000s. I am not looking forward to it at all.

[Armourboy]

I'm pretty happy with our moves so far.

Bonino was a much needed add and is actually making less than Fisher was. ( Poile pretty much thinks he will retire)

Hartnell on a cheap 1/1 deal gives us some grit and a net front presence on the PP we haven't had since we traded Horny.

Emelin brings depth and some toughness and should work much better with Weber than Irwin did.

Wilson traded as a cap dump and we some how managed to get a pick out of it. He basically had one good season with a couple of sort of ok sprinkled in. Injury prone so frankly I'm ok with with moving him.

[Rennadrel]

Habs have one year before they are in cap hell and back to being a bubble team like the 2000s. I am not looking forward to it at all.

They are going to be a bubble team this year methinks. The Leafs are ultimately a lot better because they have experience as well as some improved depth. Buffalo should be a lot better this year if they can get some god damn goaltending. The Rangers and Caps will still be good, Ottawa is either going to be worse than ball sweat or will once again over achieve because otherwise they are also a bubble team. Pittsburgh will be who they are. I expect the Flyers to be shit or a bubble team, and likely Florida will be a bubble team as well. Detroit is going to be a bottom feeder again methinks, and Tampa will likely be in the mix for a playoff spot this year as well. Dunno where I see the Islanders, likely a mediocre team that will either miss the playoffs or be an 8 seed. A lot of teams in the East are likely going to be bubble teams this year.

[Greeney]

Nice seeing an actual FA superstar who still has talent want to sign here even if it's at the tail end of his career. Might be someone Babs wants with Matthews over Hyman too.

Marleau - Matthews - Nylander
JvR - Bozak - Marner
Komarov - Kadri - Brown / Kapanen

Pretty nice top 9. Imagine someone is getting traded for defense soon though.

[Rennadrel]

Yeah but why in the actual fuck are we paying him 6.25 million per year?