***The Official NHL Offseason Moves Thread***

This philadelphia fan is pretty pissed about the Pronger trade. We traded Lupul (25 goal scorer), Sbisa (promising prospect and upcoming defenseman) our first rounder in 2009 and 2010 and a conditional pick in 2010 and 2011 for Pronger (proven aging defenseman) and some dumb **** named Ryan Dingle (who is a center, who we have plenty of -- instead of keeping Sbisa, a defender who before the addition of Pronger we had none of except Timonen).

We got completely raped on that trade.

 

My Isles have been quiet as expected with the team in full rebuilding mode. Solid signing of Dwayne Roloson since Dipietro being healthy for the start of year is still up in the air. This team still needs some size; I really wanted to see them get a Mike Knuble or a Erik Cole but what can you do when your owner is losing 30M a year because the arena is a barn?

The farm system is pretty loaded and the competition for roster spots should be pretty fierce. I like what Snow is doing even though it makes the process longer and patience isnt a strong point for me. 2 years ago the cupboard was empty and we were stuck as a 8-11 seed in the east. Now there is development and a light at the end of the tunnel instead of being stuck in "slightly below mediocrity mode". Tavares, Bailey, Corey Trevino, Jesse Joennsu, etc should be arriving/maturing soon.

 

I'm just glad to be back into hockey. B's haven't done much aside from re-signing Krejci, but they didn't need to do much. FWIW, I think you'll see Kessel sign a 1 year, $4M deal and try free agency again next year. I'm surprised that one of the offense-starved teams out there hasn't made a run at him. Minnesota, for example, makes all kinds of sense.

 

All my Panthers did was trade their best player in Jay Boumeeister. At least we re-signed David Booth.

 

Thinking back to the Pronger trade we did give up a lot but between Pronger and Timonen our first line D should be pretty damn good.

Timonen is one of the better respected D players across the league (though under-rated by fans) and Pronger has a long history of success and hopefully has more than a few good years ahead of him.

We also signed Emery and Boucher. I don't know much about Emery but I hear he sucks. To me as long as we don't have a goalie like Bernie Parent, Pelle Lindburgh or Ron Hextall our goalie situation will always be up in the air.

According to our FO we're supposed to be trying to make a run at the cup this year (the reasoning behind the lots of picks and Sbisa for Pronger/Dingle trade). I mean every team tries to do that every year but they want a "win now" trade philosophy which involves making stupid moves like the jets made in the off-season last year and this year

We'll see. If we don't win I'm going to be pissed at this trade.

 

Leafs have toughen up over this offseason and strengthen the blueline.
We should get some decent forwards if/when we trade Kaberle.
Plus, they have signed a monster goaltender from Sweden.
I don't know where the goals are going to come from , but at least we are not going to take any ****!

http://espn.go.com/nhl/freeagents/_/newteam/tor

 

Ah yes, the Leafs (Leaves). Or as I like to call them, "Canada's Cubs".

 

The team with 1 more Stanley Cup then your Rags despite existing for 50 less years

 

I still wouldn't totally rule out the B's and Leafs finding their way back to a Kessel-Kaberle trade of some sort. The last one fell through because of a weird-*** miscommunication (seriously, how are you not on the same page with regards to who's getting the 7th overall pick in the damn draft?!?), but it makes too much sense for either team to ignore.

 

You're about to be MORE pissed at the Pronger deal, I'm afraid.

Here's the link. Long story short, the Flyers may have screwed up their cap for several more years with that deal. The usual practice of a team front-loading an insanely long contract works because the cap hit is eliminated once the player retires. (This is a loophole the NHL needs to look at closing, incidentally, because it's allowing teams like the Red Wings to circumvent the cap.) That's not the case with a player who's 35 or older at the time he signs his deal. In those cases, the cap hit plays out over the remainder of the deal, irrespective of when he retires. So, if Pronger retires in 2014, after playing 4 years of his deal, which seems about right, the Flyers will get stuck with that $5M dead cap hit for three more years.

 

OK it's on. If they win the cup I don't give a ****. If they lose I'm going to tell Snider he needs to hand the reigns over.

 

Id rather have 4-5 years of true greatness then 90 years of crap and 3 that ended well. It's not about having more trophies, its about one of the top 3 dynasties in hockey history and being one of the most successful expansion franchises in any sport. Youre right other then that our history is pretty empty but we're still ahead of the Rags.

 

I've always had a soft spot for the Islanders; I wish I knew why. That 87 playoff game that ended on Easter Sunday remains one of the most amazing hockey games ever. I remember watching LaFontaine score the winner in the 4th OT and poor Bob Mason just dropping to the ground from exhaustion as if to say "I stopped 54 shots and held these guys scoreless for over an hour, what more do you want?"

Edit: the Flyers are actually my second favorite team, and I've got nothing against the Rangers, either. I guess I just miss the old Patrick Division. And while I'm reminiscing, I miss The Whale. Yeah, I hated the Whalers, like any Bruins fan, but still, I miss them. There shouldn't be a hockey team in North Carolina. The Hurricanes could be playing game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but if UNC played Duke that weekend, no one would give a damn.

 

Truth. If I could thank this post 10 times, I would.

Do you know anything about this Joe Colborne kid the B's drafted? Where's Uni??

 

Tell you what, thank my next 9 posts and we'll call it good.

Colborne is insanely skilled but needs to put on weight. At 6'5, he's got the frame to support a good 215 pounds, at least, without losing speed and agility. I believe he's up to 202 or something like that. I think he'll play one more year at Denver U. and then come to Providence in 2010-11. He absolutely has all-star potential.

Couldn't tell you where UT is; he's going to be more knowledgeable than I am on the subject. I'm getting back into hockey after a couple years hiatus borne of frustration with the lockout and the B's longtime practice of trading good, pricey players for 50 cents on the dollar. Joe Thornton was the last straw. I initially felt weird getting back into the B's after sitting out the last couple years, but my stepdad said "you cheered for that team for almost 20 years...I'm pretty sure they saved your seat on the bandwagon."

 

I don't think there's a single Bruins fan in existance that hasn't been pissed off at management (yes, I'm looking at the Jacobs family) at one time or another. Jeremy is a terrible, terrible owner.

Good to have you back on board though. I hope you were able to witness the thrashing of Montreal throughout last year. Boy, it still feels good to think about sweeping them last April.

 

Thanks, I'm glad to be back. The upside of the NHL's strict salary cap is that it's hard for even a cheapskate like Jacobs to be at a competitive disadvantage. That's part of the reason I came back to hockey. And yes, I saw the sweep of Montreal. Can't believe the Leafs gave Komarisek that much money after the B's abused him like a rented mule.