James

It's always fun, though, to imagine what it would've been like if the Pens had picked 1st overall in 2004. Ovechkin and Crosby together... Malkin and Backstrom down the middle in Washington. And actually, if Washington hadn't had Ovechkin in 05-06, they would've picked better than 4th overall, and probably would've ended up with Toews. So how about Malkin and Toews down the middle.

Hmmm... Let's say he lost 50 goals because of the first lockout, and 30 because of the second. That's 80. Three more seasons til he's 35, so at 30 per, that's 90 more goals. 170 total. Plus the 607 he has already, equals 777 goals... over 100 short of Gretzky. Guess I'm a skeptic. In all honesty he'll probably end his career with nearly 800 goals, which is quite amazing this day and age. He's an incredible goal scorer... generational talent. But let's not get carried away with Gretzky comparisons. Ovechkin's like the 3rd or 4th best player of his era, maybe. Like 30th best all-time, maybe. He's also going to fall like 1200 assists short of Gretzky, ha.

Westerners hatin' on the East... Easterners hatin' on the West... same old story. At the end of the day, the road is hard on anyone, and winning the Cup isn't easy no matter who you played. That 2016 team could've beaten anyone out there. I agree that the 2017 team had a pretty easy go, but let's not forget that their top defenseman (who, prior to this season, was a perennial Norris-caliber player when healthy) wasn't playing, and let's also not forget how hard it is to go back to back (with a World Cup thrown in for good measure). Nashville's spring may have been tougher, but Pittsburgh had a tougher 12 months... seems a poor excuse. As for being in the Caps' heads... that's probably true. I don't think that's true for Columbus last year though, and certainly not for Philly this year. In both cases those were just teams who weren't quite ready for prime time. Also, Kuznetsov scares me a lot, and this series is far from over. I bet it's 2-2 coming back for Washington for game 5.

JOMO will show you the light.

So cool. What's kind of interesting is that this guy was a starter in the NCAA at the same time as jimmy Howard, Brian Elliott, al Montoya, Curtis mcelhinney... just took like a decade longer than those guys to get his shot, ha.

Also, the Penguins.

It also seems like you can't get past the first page of players there, right? Weird... somehow that website is getting worse and worse. Don't forget that you can use our spreadsheet to search for players cap hits. I know it's annoying to open the spreadsheet every time, but it's an option. Also CapFriendly.com is usually in line with NHLNumbers, and DOES have a search option.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think that that roster would easily beat a world junior team when you consider that NHL-signed players aren't eligible.

This is interesting though...

If they pull Russia out, I would assume the next highest ranked team in qualification would make it. That would be Belarus, which like you said, seems unlikely. After that it's Latvia, which will also have an issue if the KHL boycotts. After that it's France. Just 2 of France's World Championships players were from the KHL (Da Costa and Damien Fleury). It'll be very interesting to see how the KHL handles this.

It just sucks that Russia has so much leverage with the KHL. IOC ban means KHL boycott means direct negative impact on virtually every other country in the world. Hopefully the non-Russian KHL teams can band themselves together to prevent a KHL boycott. That would be easier to do if Latvia or Belarus are in the tournament, though. 17 of the 25 players on Belarus's World Championship squad play in the KHL, as do 12 of the 24 non-NHLers on Latvia's WC roster. Even Finland had 11 of 22 non-NHLers in the KHL.

Yeah, they're calling it OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia). They haven't explicitly stated how it would work for team sports, but in theory they could form their own team. I doubt they would, though... who would pay travel expenses? who would pay the coach? trainers? etc.

They'd probably have a good shot at this point. Although any player under NHL contract isn't eligible, right? So even those guys still playing junior wouldn't be allowed.

Sounds fun -- I messed around with HockeyArena.net about a decade ago, and really enjoyed it (although I agree with the waiting thing... gets annoying).

Is it a full-on sim? Or real NHL players?

Big news for the Olympic hockey tournament. Looks like Russia-based Russians won't be allowed to participate, but Russian athletes living/training in other countries could (this is how it was in the Rio Games). The KHL has threatened to boycott if a ban came down, which could mean potential American and Canadian players currently playing in the KHL will be barred from participating. Are there enough Russians playing outside of Russia to form a team? Could Belarus get in if Russia's out? Are there enough Belarussians outside of Dinamo Minsk to even field a team? Would Latvia have the same issue, too? How bad is it for Finland if Jokerit is barred (Tolvanen, Lepisto, and others)? If Russia is banned and Belarus gets in, will the groups be re-drawn, or does the US just get a cakewalk with Slovenia, Slovakia, and Belarus in their group? So many questions. Poor Matt Gilroy.

Plus the Lions have been so good.

With a cap hit like his, how many teams can really afford him? I wonder if Columbus would make sense.

OK I PMed a few of you. Capwise Baseball, launching in 2020... ?

Does anyone here play fantasy baseball?

Don't underestimate the value of a "franchise player" from a marketing/fan perspective, and even from a team culture perspective. A contract like this sends a clear message, like Lee mentioned above, to everyone... fans, teammates, coaches, etc. This franchise will be built around Eichel for the next decade, for better or worse. Hopefully he lives up to that role.

Translation: 8 years at 10 million per year for a career high of 57 points... I know that was in 61 games, but still... just saying it seems to me they paid him with the assumption that he'll reach his upside. Sort of risky... if shit starts hitting the fan, that contract won't help him any.

Exactly.

Perfect candidate for the PPS!

This is a good point. Half of the league's goalies are pretty useless when wins/shutouts are your only categories.