2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[eschatological]

So then let me amend: hockey may have the worst draft that is televised and made a big deal out of. Baseball at least seems to know what it has in its draft.

[Nazrark]

The first 3 rounds have people who may make the NHL. The later rounds are where good scouting teams come in. We had this discussion before where Forwards typically can make the jump into the NHL at 18, but you have an idea of what player you got by the time they are 21/22. D-men take longer to develop and they are typically ready at 24. Goalies are complete voodoo and can come out of nowhere.

[Puupi]

They should raise the age limit to 20. The draft would make more sense and it'd be more fair to the teams and the draftees.

[eschatological]

I mean, it's like basketball, there are 1-2 players every year who can jump straight into the league.....but I feel like so many prospects just languish trying to make that jump so early, especially considering the disparity between college/minors schedules, vs. the pro schedule.

Dahlin, though, played 80 games for us this year, at the age of 18, so there's that.


Also, I don't know if anyone here was a VGK fan, but I really liked the Sabres trade that got Colin Miller from them for essentially nothing (a 2nd in 2021, and a 5th in 2022, lol).

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Looks like Babrovsky to the Panthers, Duchene to Nashville, and Panarin to NYI, though I hear CBJ is desperate to keep him and is offering 13m AAV, which would make him the highest paid player in the league.


We're definitely heading to a lockout, boys!

[Texan Penguin]

Hey, since there apparently is an NHL thread, I have a question. Is the Dallas/STL game on Monday not televised? I know it's preseason but I still wouldn't mind seeing it.

[eschatological]

Preseason games are almost never aired nationally.

If you're in one of those two markets, I'm sure you can find it. I get local Sabres games on a basic cable channel called MSG (Madison Square Garden channel, they air Sabres/Islanders/Rangers games).

[Texan Penguin]

Preseason games are almost never aired nationally.

If you're in one of those two markets, I'm sure you can find it. I get local Sabres games on a basic cable channel called MSG (Madison Square Garden channel, they air Sabres/Islanders/Rangers games).

We're not in any local market. Texas, but out East where our closest city is Houston. They're showing the game @ Minnesota on Tuesday, though, so I feel like it's just not going to be televised at all and they're only showing a few preseason games. There's nothing for it on the TV schedule.

[eschatological]

Yeah, I live right in Buffalo and we never get all the pre-season games.

[Rennadrel]

Marner done, 6 years at 10.8 million AAV. RIP salary cap.

[eschatological]

lol 10.8m. He's probably worth it, but so much for that hope for the hometown discount to keep the Leafs salary cap under control.

Good luck with the rest of the cap, though.

[Armourboy]

40 million tied up in 4 players. I'm not sure how you field a squad around them like that. Our highest paid player is 8 million and we have Josi and Ekholm on sweetheart deals this season and will still be pushing the cap.

[Rennadrel]

40 million tied up in 4 players. I'm not sure how you field a squad around them like that. Our highest paid player is 8 million and we have Josi and Ekholm on sweetheart deals this season and will still be pushing the cap.

It must be nice not having to deal with state taxation the same way we have to in Canada, on top of it being expensive as fuck to live in Toronto and the weather being crap in the winter, it certainly is a more attractive option to play in Nashville and other cities in the southern USA. I feel like those are reasons why we had to overpay like crazy. Also, SJS had offered JT 13 million AAV and he turned it down, so at least it isn't that bad. Sure, we are in cap hell for this season, hopefully a deep run could help the league bolster the cap more significantly than it did this year.

[Armourboy]

It must be nice not having to deal with state taxation the same way we have to in Canada, on top of it being expensive as fuck to live in Toronto and the weather being crap in the winter, it certainly is a more attractive option to play in Nashville and other cities in the southern USA. I feel like those are reasons why we had to overpay like crazy. Also, SJS had offered JT 13 million AAV and he turned it down, so at least it isn't that bad. Sure, we are in cap hell for this season, hopefully a deep run could help the league bolster the cap more significantly than it did this year.

Yeah but you get the benefit of higher revenue which let's you front load contracts, something most southern teams can only do in a limited manner.

The fact is you aren't in cap hell because of a tax difference, you are in hell because you brought in JT and paid him the big bucks and the rest of the guys told Dumbas to jump off a cliff if he thought they were taking a discount.

He has signed 4 big names, and the only one you could argue that took a discount was JT, and even that is only the case because the Sharks offered him stupid level money.

The players in Toronto also have the benefit of endorsements, something you will find little of in Nashville.

[eschatological]

Or you could be a NY-based Northern team with high taxes, but without the pull of Canadian teams.

[Rennadrel]

Or you could be a NY-based Northern team with high taxes, but without the pull of Canadian teams.

The Rangers are a great organization and well respected in the league, they just suffer from too much management incompetence and a lack of direction when it comes to building a team. No one cares about Buffalo because it's a crap city to live in

[eschatological]

The Rangers haven't been good since Messier was captain.

And Buffalo is great, fuck you!

[Armourboy]

Neither of those teams problems are due to salary cap issues.

[eschatological]

Neither of those teams problems are due to salary cap issues.

Oh, I didn't say the *Sabres* were great. I just said Buffalo is great.

[Rennadrel]

Oh, I didn't say the *Sabres* were great. I just said Buffalo is great.

I've been to Buffalo, I wouldn't want to live there

[eschatological]

I've been to Buffalo, I wouldn't want to live there

Well, that's just like, your opinion, man.