NHL Hockey thread

[Jacob]

I wonder how the low Canadian dollar is going to affect Canadian NHL teams. I don't think it's going to be a positive.

[derspiess]

On Wednesday I was sick at home & in the afternoon Sportnet showed game #2 of the Stanley Cup final between the Minnesota North Stars & the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991.

Wow. I was not ready for how the game has changed since then. I was screaming at my tv for a good defensive coverage?! No wonder Lemieux would score so many goals, no one is challenging him at the blueline.  Goalies can't play the puck nor skate. Defense do nothing but collapse to defend their own net.

Damn thing was atrocious to watch.

But Jagr's goal against Chicago the next year was a thing of beauty.

[Barrister]

I wonder how the low Canadian dollar is going to affect Canadian NHL teams. I don't think it's going to be a positive.

It shouldn't actually be too bad.

It's all thanks to the salary cap.  Teams pay a fixed percentage of league revenues in salaries (50%?).  League revenues are calculated in US$.  As the CDN$ decreases, league revenue falls, and with it, the salary cap.

And if things get really bad, there's always revenue sharing.

[Grey Fox]

I wonder how the low Canadian dollar is going to affect Canadian NHL teams. I don't think it's going to be a positive.

What's great about the NHL 3.0 is that a bad canadian dollar affects all 30 teams almost equally. The cap won't grow too much, that's not very good for the on-ice product. (or maybe it is, as it will squeeze out out-layer veterans).

[Jacob]

I've heard rumours of at least one ownership group of a Canadian team looking to sell their team, and the reason given is the low exchange rate.

Just a rumour of course.

[Barrister]

I've heard rumours of at least one ownership group of a Canadian team looking to sell their team, and the reason given is the low exchange rate.

Just a rumour of course.

I find that hard to believe, and have not read any such rumour on the hockey-cites I check out about every day.

The only team that has been in any level of trouble is the Senators, and that's apparently due to Melnyk having trouble in his non-hockey businesses.

Pretty much everyone else though has the NHL team as part of a bigger media or land development strategy.

[Jacob]

This rumour is a little more inside than hockey websites.

[Barrister]

This rumour is a little more inside than hockey websites.

Well their usual stock-in-trade is rumour and wild-ass guesses!

Share the rumour here if you wish, and why you put credence in it.  I enjoy the off-the-ice side of hockey almost as much as the on-ice action.

[Jacob]

Basically I know someone who does business with a Canadian NHL team and when I asked him how it was going, he said not too well because the ownership were not spending money on the kind of stuff my friend was proposing right now due to uncertainty. When I inquired what he meant by uncertainty, he said they were looking at selling the team, and that the change in CDN$ vs US$ was a significant contribution to that.

Plenty of room for misunderstood implications along the chain, as he usually deals with a few people in their office rather than the owners directly. And I didn't get the impression that it was imminent either, but rather a "let's give the business a good look and decide if it still makes sense for us" rather than a "alright, we're selling."

... but yeah, just a rumour, and not one I'd expect to see on rumour websites quite yet.

[Grey Fox]

Katz, eh.

[Barrister]

Katz, eh.

Why sell right before getting your brand new arena you fought so hard to get

[Grey Fox]

Oh it makes no sense, that's why it's Katz.

Or it's Melnyk but he didn't need a new reason to sell the team.

[Barrister]

Big trade today by the Jets.  In fact it's the first "player for player" trade the Jets have ever made since their return!

To Winnipeg: Stafford, Myers, couple of prospects, and a 1st round pick (Buffalo has 3, it won't be their own)
To Buffalo: Kane, Bogosian, a minor goalie prospect

Interesting.

[Grey Fox]

Good trade. Kane was already gone & Bogosian vs Myers is a trade up.

+the picks and prospects. Stafford is a salary dump.

[Barrister]

Good trade. Kane was already gone & Bogosian vs Myers is a trade up.

+the picks and prospects. Stafford is a salary dump.

Buffalo retains half of Stafford's salary.   

Plus, being short a F made the Jets put Buff back to the wing.  With Stafford they already announced Buff is back again to D.  Which means he has gonf from Forward, to defence, to forward, to defence, all just in this season.