MINUS: The culture of the NHL that just completely screws over anyone who is different. What's wrong with Phil Kessel? He never misses a game, he scores at a rate that virtually no one else can match, he puts points on the board.
People make fat jokes, they make say he's out of shape, but it's all B.S: Kessel is one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, he actually is in great physical condition.
The fact is, in a league that still has this widely held old-school mentality about things that are fictional at worst, and impossible to quantify at best. Things like leadership, heart, effort, compete level and astrology.
Brian Burke and Dave Nonis built a flawed team around out-dated ideas and Phil Kessel. They did not bother to get a top pairing defenseman or capable two-way centre. They were coached successively by Ron Wilson and Randy Carlyle. Tyler Bozak was their top centre. And yet, somehow, it was Phil who got thrown to the wolves (cliche alert. You could also say 'under the bus' or'"blamed for no reason because it was an easy narrative and he's an easy target.')
Fact is, Kessel does things his own way, he's not a typical athlete and he looks effortless when he plays. Why any of that matters is beyond me. He's literally the only Leaf player who was good at his job over the last five years, but he wasn't media friendly so I guess that makes him a hot-dog feasting animal.
Novel idea: Judge hockey players based on their hockey skills and performance on the ice.
MINUS: The L.A Kings. I don't care what kind of salary cap trouble you've gotten yourself into, voiding Mike Richards contract appears to be one of the most egregious examples of a corporation unjustly screwing over an employee that I have ever seen.
Now, I say the word "appears" because no one actually is publicly admitting to anything here and instead of facts there is only speculation.
The speculation is that Mike Richards is under investigation for being arrested at the Canada/US border for OxyContin possession. If this speculation is unrelated to the voiding of his contract, that would be surprising coincidence, but there obviously must be more to the story because otherwise wouldn't Richards have to be entered into treatment and the Kings would have to follow the CBA's drug policy?
My point here is that it's pretty convenient for them to void his contract just a couple days after (apparently) being unable to trade him.
My other point is that the NHL culture requires players be tough, to play through pain and that if even 10% of the rumours are based on facts, then people would be shocked at the amount of painkillers athletes in all major sports take.
Furthermore, the way hockey culture glorifies playing injured and being tough - I mean, no one even hides the fact that guys get needles before games so that they can play - means that if painkillers or addiction have anything to do with Richard's contract being voided then the Kings are 100% hypocrites.
Also, I think any kind of drug offense is less serious than beating your wife, and I don't see the Kings voiding the contract of convicted domestic abuser Slava Voynov. But of course, he's actually worth the money on his contract, and they can say "he served his time" so why even talk about it, right?
Assuming the contract voiding was painkiller related, I hope Richards gets his contract re-instated and I think Slava Voynov should be banned from the NHL for life. You don't hit woman and there should be zero tolerance.
But you also shouldn't encourage people to play hurt and be surprised if they end up addicted to painkillers - if that is what happened.
PLUS:The Leafs for daring to be different in the NHL and drafting/trading for skill over size. Oh it's never been done, cry the cynics. Good. You'd think people wouldn't be so quick to dump on someone for trying to find and edge and exploit it - it's not like innovation is important or anything.
Marner-Nylander-Kapanen-Leipsic-Brown etc. They aren't all going to be NHL stars, but if you play the odds that skilled players will succeed, you can always trade them for bigger players at some point if that becomes a problem.
Jeez, you'd think the Leafs had just signed these guys to lifetime contracts or something the way people are going on.
MINUS: Bringing back Vermette and Michalek. I don't like it. It seems to me that the team is stuck in their ways, too comfortable with a group that hasn't really ever done anything.
I feel they're moves to placate casual fans.
And, they make the team that much closer to mediocre. You have to be really bad or really good. You'll never get anywhere being middle of the pack, which is what I feel the Coyotes have done here.
PLUS: The signing of Ryan O'Reilly. Although the structure of the deal just says "Lockout Coming Soon." Still, the term and cap hit are cool for a player like him.
MINUS: Soderberg and Comeau are combining to make roughly what O'Reilly will be paid by the Sabres and what the Avalanche balked at paying him. They got a nice return for him, but player of his style win in the NHL. Bad move by a team becoming known for them.
PLUS: The return on the Phil Kessel deal. People hear "retained salary" and then apparently stop thinking. It's less per year than the cap just went up. Expansion is going to raise the cap significantly. The Leafs are just being smart here and using the fact that they print money to get an advantage. The real dollars don't matter, neither does a tiny cap hit.
Everyone's so concerned about retained salary, but what about the $6.75 they freed up annually?
What about the fact that they got six years of a top player - most of his prime - and then flipped him for what they paid for him - basically two firsts and a second?
Now, clearly they didn't get back a #2 overall pick and a #9, but still, it's a good package.
MINUS: Because he's a Leaf, obviously everyone has to say negative things about Kasperi Kapanen, but he's one year removed away from the draft in which he was one of the youngest players available.
He was called the best 2-way player in the draft. If that's true and he can score 25 goals in the NHL he won't be that much worse than Kessel, and his age fits in with the rebuild. Not a bad trade at all.
MINUS: Everyone who keeps saying the Oilers haven't "proven" anything or that uses some version of this: "people expected them to break out last year and the year before and they never did."
Come on. Their defense consists of Sekara, Schultz, Nurse, Klefbom and Reinhart. I don't care if it takes a year or two for that to come to fruition, that is absolutely fantastic.
They also just added a player who likely steps into the NHL and instantly becomes one of the best players to a team that already had RNH, Hall, Eberle, Draisaitl and Yakupov.
Talbot has proven he can play in the NHL, which is really all 99% of goalies can do.
I see no reason not to consider them among the best teams in the NHL already. Sure, they haven't proven anything. But they will and I don't need to see it first to know it's gonna happen.
PLUS: The Green Lantern movie. Maybe I'm the only one who liked it, but I did.
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