[carsalesman]Or a low-mileage American (see, all the numbers in his stats columns are low!) who is great in the room and occasionally says something intelligible to the media! Low cost - below his cap value, too! All the [del]costs[/del]luxuries of a sports car top-line centreman, and none of the [del]benefits[/del] costs![/carsalesman]
Look at the season Montreal has had. Seriously, look at it - look at the injury list. Look at the blown leads. Look at the number of fucking posts the Habs have hit. Take pity on us and TAKE SCOTT GOMEZ. Please? ::whimper::
Ok, this is rather funny:
:furtive glance around the room:
When do we get Markov back?
:d&r:
Thinking of Gomez’s bad contract, can anyone think of a better contract than Alexander Burrows?
He is 3rd in even strength goals over the past 4 years:
Ovi - 112 goals with 9 million cap hit
Stamkos - 104 with 7.5 million cap hit
Burrows - 103 with 2 million cap hit
Marleau - 102 with 6.9 million cap hit
Also, he is totally a clutch player - often scoring the most important goals like the game 7 overtime winner in last years Chicago series. Or last night he was the only scorer in the shoot out in Detroit.
If there is a better player/cap hit value out there I’d like to hear about it.
Also don’t forget his 11 SHG over that time frame.
Burrows is definitely one of the best bang-for-the-buck contracts out there, but it’s worth noting that his extension was (smartly) given before he really got going in 09. At the time $2m for four years to a late bloomer who topped out at 31 points and appeared to be getting better was a good deal for both sides.
Had he wanted to he could have held off signing the extension and probably gotten more, especially after the 08-09 season he had. It was a smart signing by the Vancouver GM.
The best part is that it runs until he’s 32 and while he’ll probably still be productive, he’ll most likely be on the decline and any GM would have the age card to play in negotiations so he’s not likely to get a huge raise or a long-term deal.
But, it’s also worth noting that Burrows (along with the Sedins) gets a mind-boggling amount of offensive zone starts. Seriously, no one else in the League is even close to those three. His adjusted Corsi rates are still really good, but the raw numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt and some context.
Also, there is no such thing as being “clutch.” Clutch is an illusion created by confirmation bias and small sample sizes.
As far as other deals out there that may be argued (not necessarily by me, just for argument’s sake) to be comparable as far as player:cap hit I’d throw out: Claude Giroux ($3.75m cap hit), Matt Moulson ($3.13m) and possibly Frans Nielsen (for his current $550k).
Oh, come on now. Surely he’s worth the beard and maybe some toenail clippings! I mean, he’s good in the room and he has a HUGE Corsi (or something).
Hahahaha yes it does, but I wasn’t aware of his previous injury history. So much for that theory!
And just because I saw it in his wiki, Leclaire used to backup Marc Denis. I just wanted to say that I really like Marc Denis - I think he’s a good colour commentator for RDS, he’s well-spoken, rather witty, gives very good analysis of the way plays went down, particularly goals/saves and is rather balanced in his comments between teams, despite the obvious pro-Habs bias of RDS (which I don’t mind, but I think it speaks well of Denis). Also, he pretty much always wears really nice suits and ties, which is something I notice and appreciate.
So good for him for landing in a solid career post-hockey. I know a lot of former players end up in broadcasting, but I think he’s one of the best in the bunch. Now, if we can only remove PJ Stock from the eyes and ears of the world, I think the world would be a much better place to live.
Dunno, Lundqvist is my pick for the Hart. The Rangers wouldn’t even be in playoff contention if he weren’t boasting some seriously sick numbers that everyone keeps waiting to fall off but never seem to, kind of like Tim Thomas last year. Seriously, their offense is terrible–they’re fifth worst of all current playoff seeded teams–and he’s the only reason they’re not fighting for their playoff lives right now.
The same argument might be made for Elliott in St. Louis as their offense is even worse, but he’s split his games with Halak pretty evenly whereas Lundqvist is a workhorse, and even still he’s got better numbers.
The Penguins would most likely still be in a playoff spot even without Malkin in beast mode, they’re too good in possession not to be.
Defensemen are a tough sell when it comes to the Hart. Outside of Pronger in 99-00 the last defenseman to win it was Bobby Orr in 71-72.
That said, the voters tend to shy away from giving it to a goalie, too, as they feel they’re covered with the Vezina. They’re easily impressed by lots of goals so I wouldn’t be surprised if Malkin won it.
Mike Gillis and Alain Vigneault beat up Keith Ballard, gave him a capcussion and now he is on LTIR. Whoo - Canucks now have 4.2 million cap space to get another player or two by the deadline. I’m sure Ballard is projected to recover for the start of the playoffs too!
Proof that lots of early draft picks don’t mean much in the long run for most teams!
It’s so irritating, because I don’t actually think that this team is that bad! If you catch the highlights, look at Diaz’ breakaway chance coming out of the penalty box…long pass, bouncing puck, difficult to corral, Diaz does everything right, gets a moving goalie and an open net and…
…hits the post.
This fucking season in a nutshell.
I hope Geoff Molson offers this team free beer to forget this nightmare!
I’m not anticipating much before tomorrow’s trade deadline.
Semi-serious question - this is ONE bad year for the Habs. How on earth do Leaf fans live with this year after year?
Nah, that’s probably just proof that the teams aren’t very well run and/or coached.
It’s easy to name at least the same number of examples that show the exact opposite: how a few high draft picks can help reverse the fortune of a team in a relatively short time–Pittsburgh drafting Fleury (1st), Malkin (2nd), Crosby (1st) and Staal (2nd) in consecutive years, building the foundation of their team for a decade or two; and the Capitals picked up Ovechkin (1st in 04) and Backstrom (4th in 06) to form the cornerstones of one of the most explosive offenses in recent history and help quickly turn the team around.
It’s still early on the Oilers, too. Their last few drafts have produced some seriously gifted individuals but they’re all still very young yet. Not really fair to write them off as an example of how high draft picks don’t help a team when their high draft picks haven’t had much time to prove themselves.
The Leafs from 1993 through to the 2004-05 lockout were pretty decent to watch, making the playoffs 10/12 seasons and making it to the conference finals 4 of those years.
Since blowing up the team post-lockout it’s been very hard. On Saturday night I put the game on, went out to start the BBQ, came back in and they were down 2-0.
They have been improving, but it’s been a slow process. I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel either.
2007-2008: 83 points
2008-2009: 81 points
2009-2010: 74 points
2010-2011: 85 points
2011-2012, at their current pace: 86 points
The truth is they’re really not getting better. 86 points this year after 85 last year is effectively nothing. The 2009-2010 disaster provides the illusion of improvement but aside from that season they’ve been mediocre to a remarkably consistent degree.
Yeah, I’ve seen the counter argument (which is why I qualified it with “most”) and I don’t actually disagree. But keep in mind that this is Montréal where the parade route is already known, people have their places staked out (in their minds at least) and nothing short of an 82-0 season and a Stanley Cup is acceptable.
One high draft pick won’t win us the cup… otherwise we’d have one by now, thanks to Carey Price (and we even brought in Benny Pouliot!).
I was really just trying to make myself feel better about the whole thing.
[stereotypicalMontrealer]but why haven’t you set fire to anything yet?[/sterotypicalMontrealer]
I think if the Habs were to miss the playoff seven years in a row some dumbfuck would end up setting fire to the Molson brewery. Part of what “Montreal” doesn’t understand about “Toronto” is the seeming acceptance of mediocrity. Not that the Habs have been overwhelmingly awesome lately (the ECF run was nice) but failure is clearly unacceptable and the team, management and owners know it. It kind of seems like in Toronto, no one really cares all that much that the team is really crappy and isn’t going anywhere. Where’s the passion? (or are we just way too into it? :D)
Too bad the trade deadline’s passed…want Craperle back? We don’t really want him either.. We’ll throw in Campoli for free.
I’m not overly impressed by the Kostitsyn trade, but I think he dug his own grave and second rounders are better than letting him walk as a UFA. So much potential, so few brains.
Hope for the future that I just learned about: Brendan Gallagher has surpassed the record for number of points by a Vancouver Giants in a career with the team. Also, Patrick Holland, a throw-in on the Cammalleri trade has 26 points in the last 10 games.
Habs also have (IIRC from earlier today) 4 picks in the first 2 rounds of the 2013 draft. It better be deep
