2007-08 NHL Thread...

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

... except that Savard left the Canadien much before then, and most of the blame has to be put on Houle.

By the way, did anyone know that out of the 15 Canadien GMs, 8 of which were French, 3 have had Savard as their last name? Not bad.

Dammit I knew that looked odd. My mistake

[Muppetus Galacticus]

Moose is a lock for the Hall of Fame this year but who else would you go for alongside him?

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=211943&hubname=nhl

Messier heads a formidable group of players who are eligible for the first time, including Ron Francis, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis, Adam Oates, Igor Larionov and Claude Lemieux.

[Muppetus Galacticus]

Remember I said that in a few years the salary cap will reach the level it was before the CBA? This is from another board

On a segment on The Score with Greg Sansone, Globe Sports writer Eric Duhatschek reported that he has heard that there are NHL teams prepared to offer up to 8 to 8.5 million dollars per season for the top free agents (Briere, Drury, Gomez) on the market. Significantly more than the 6 to 6.5 million dollars which had been hypothesized.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Muppetus Galacticus

Moose is a lock for the Hall of Fame this year but who else would you go for alongside him?

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=211943&hubname=nhl

Out of Ron Francis, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis, Adam Oates, Igor Larionov and Claude Lemieux, the only one I'm keeping out is Claude Lemieux. Scott Stevens is, to me, borderline, and MacInnis is a bit over. As for the other three... Larionov, if not for his NHL career (although 644 career points after 30 years of age isn't too shabby), deserves to be in as a "builder", Oates is one of the best passers ever to play the game, and Ron Francis is... well, he's Ron Francis. I think Francis is more deserving than Messier, actually, although they should definitely both be in.

[canadiancreed]

To me other than Moose a lot of these guys jsut dont' "grab" me. A case coudl be made for Oates and Francais as players but unless youv'e been following the game for mroe then ten years or are a Hurricanes fan, would anyone realyl know them that well?

[Operation Shutdown]

Originally Posted by canadiancreed

To me other than Moose a lot of these guys jsut dont' "grab" me. A case coudl be made for Oates and Francais as players but unless youv'e been following the game for mroe then ten years or are a Hurricanes fan, would anyone realyl know them that well?

Or a Penguins fan in the early 90's. I agree with LLN that Francis is in ahead of Messier, but they both easily deserve to be hall of famers. Francis is 4th all time in points, only 89 points behind 2nd place Messier and Messier played two more years than Francis (though Francis did play in 22 seasons). Plus I'd argue that Francis was a better two way player than Messier. The only reason Messier is an easier name to recognize is because he played in New York, plain and simple.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Operation Shutdown

Or a Penguins fan in the early 90's. I agree with LLN that Francis is in ahead of Messier, but they both easily deserve to be hall of famers. Francis is 4th all time in points, only 89 points behind 2nd place Messier and Messier played two more years than Francis (though Francis did play in 22 seasons). Plus I'd argue that Francis was a better two way player than Messier. The only reason Messier is an easier name to recognize is because he played in New York, plain and simple.

And he's charismatic, and he played with Gretzky on the 80's Oilers. He's certainly a great player, a deserving hall of famer, but Ron Francis was probably better, I think, even though he had some good company on the 90's Penguins with probably the two best players of the 1990's, Lemieux and Jagr.

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by Operation Shutdown

Or a Penguins fan in the early 90's. I agree with LLN that Francis is in ahead of Messier, but they both easily deserve to be hall of famers. Francis is 4th all time in points, only 89 points behind 2nd place Messier and Messier played two more years than Francis (though Francis did play in 22 seasons). Plus I'd argue that Francis was a better two way player than Messier. The only reason Messier is an easier name to recognize is because he played in New York, plain and simple.

Oh yes I had forgotten he had played for the 90's Penquins. Nice call.

As for the only reason that Messier is well konwn is because he played for the Rangers I'd have to disagree. For me at least it was because of his time with the Oilers dynasty. Winning the Rangers first cup in fifty years just added to an already impressive resume.

[Muppetus Galacticus]

Originally Posted by jdettbarn

The Sabres are really blowing it with Drury and Briere. Just saw on the local news that they haven't even presented an offer to either of them yet.

Well, they have finally offered Briere a contract and they may be talking to Drury as well but not sure if they could make that work.

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/buf070628.html

The Buffalo Sabres have made a long-term offer to impending unrestricted free agent center Daniel Briere, a source told TFP late Wednesday.

[Muppetus Galacticus]

Oh now this is funny. An article about Peca not being offered a deal deal in TO ends with this.

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/tor070628.html

The Leafs are supposedly interested in pursuing such free agents as Ryan Smyth, Jason Blake and Paul Kariya once the flood gates open one minute past noon (ET) on Sunday.

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by Muppetus Galacticus

Oh now this is funny. An article about Peca not being offered a deal deal in TO ends with this.

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/tor070628.html

Whether the Leafs could land any of them is the story.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Muppetus Galacticus

Well, they have finally offered Briere a contract and they may be talking to Drury as well but not sure if they could make that work.

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/buf070628.html

That's odd. I thought the Sabres were adamant about signing Drury, and that he was their priority this off-season. Apparently... that didn't go as planned.

[Elendil]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

That's odd. I thought the Sabres were adamant about signing Drury, and that he was their priority this off-season. Apparently... that didn't go as planned.

Drury seems less than enthusiastic about staying in Buffalo. Fan loyalty too seems to have shifted dramatically as a result. Before, everyone here wanted Briere to take a hike; now he's the focus of fan hopes.

Personally, I don't see Briere as an elite UFA. His size is a big downside in the new new NHL (same as the old NHL). He got held, interfered with, and bumped around with impunity in the playoffs.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Elendil

Drury seems less than enthusiastic about staying in Buffalo. Fan loyalty too seems to have shifted dramatically as a result. Before, everyone here wanted Briere to take a hike; now he's the focus of fan hopes.

Personally, I don't see Briere as an elite UFA. His size is a big downside in the new new NHL (same as the old NHL). He got held, interfered with, and bumped around with impunity in the playoffs.

Whether he's 5'6" 150 lbs. or 6'4" 220 lbs., anyonw who scores 95 points in a season is fine with me.

[Elendil]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

Whether he's 5'6" 150 lbs. or 6'4" 220 lbs., anyonw who scores 95 points in a season is fine with me.

Yeah, but only 30 of those are going to be goals, and then he's going to be under a point a game in the playoffs when things tighten up. I'm just saying that his value has probably dropped a little compared to where it would have been in April.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Elendil

Yeah, but only 30 of those are going to be goals, and then he's going to be under a point a game in the playoffs when things tighten up. I'm just saying that his value has probably dropped a little compared to where it would have been in April.

Well, he has 37 career points in the playoffs in 40 games. So it's not fantastic, but a drop in performance in the playoffs is actually quite normal, especially if your team goes far like the Sabres have since Brière's been with the team.

I'll take a 30 goal scorer who gets 65 assists on my team any day. Well of course I'd rather have Crosby or Thornton, but Brière would be the best forward on most teams.

[Muppetus Galacticus]

Mark Messier is headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame along with Ron Francis, Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens. All four players were on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. NHL executive Jim Gregory has been voted in as a builder.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=212137&hubname=nhl

[Muppetus Galacticus]

No deal for Briere

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=212162&hubname=nhl

The Buffalo Sabres are going to have dig a lot deeper if the team intends on holding on to veteran forward Daniel Briere.

The Sabres tabled an offer to briere on Wednesday night. The offer is believed to be very similar to the package Briere tried to get Buffalo to agree to last summer -- which was $25 million over five years.

[piperclap]

Wild finally trade Fernandez to Boston for Petr Kalus and a 4th round draft pick.

[jte87]

And I go from being a Manny Fernandez fan to hoping all the ligaments in both of his knees explode. Not that it's his fault he was traded to Boston, but I just hate that team so much I can't help it.