Voldemort is a pretty big bad ass, and I must admit I am afraid of him, but it's pretty silly that people won't even say his name like seven years after Harry Potter defeated him.
That's right guy who tried to ruin Stranger Things for me, Harry Potter wins. I hope you were on book six and didn't bother to consider that with his name in the title, he was always going to.
There, we're even.
I wish there was something going on in hockey today. Even a minor free-agent signing would be cool........on an unrelated note, I paid $56 on e-bay for a case of Pepsi Clear. Also, the Ducks signed Vermette and the Coyotes are said to be signing Radim Vrbata.
Let me get this straight: the Coyotes are letting go the 34 year old, 17 goal scoring Vermette and signing the 35 year old, 16 goal scoring Vrbata? While apparently, with Bonuses, Vrbata's cap-hit willbe around $3 million vs the very cheap cap hit of Vermette?
It's honestly not as bad it sounds.
Let's dig into their numbers:
No, let's not. They both have terrible numbers, and they're both pretty similar.
Both have poor relative possession stats, allow around the same number of shots/60 and have recently seem a massive drop in their production - which makes sense, they're two of the oldest players in a sport that massively punishes the abilities of it's players as they age.
There is no doubt that Vrbata is slightly better - a third to a fourth liner (so not that much). But when you account for his playing with the Sedins, I don't know, it seems like that'd give you a bit of a bump, even if it does come with increased competition. I am definitely not interested in debating how much that does or does not matter, but it's something to think about anyway. Personally, I think that any bump the Sedins give you is canceled by facing better defenseman, so probably that won't matter.
The only problem I have with it is if Vbrata is going to come in and take power-play time away from one of the kids. If he's here to play on the fourth line and sit in the press box on occasion, then it's probably a good move.
The problem with Vermette was constantly using him like a second line centre. If I thought for one second they'd have played Vermette on the fourth line, then I'd have been fine keeping him.
The Ducks are going to use him as a faceoff specialist and on the PK and will continue to think he's some kind of defensive forward , so good luck with that.
As for Vrbata, he's a good signing. The cap hit is irrelevant because it's the Coyotes and he will add some scoring punch from the bottom of the lineup, as well as allow for some much needed flexibility. (Rookie in a slump? Vbrata can give you 20 mins up on the first line once in a while, if winning isn't exactly your first priority, which it won't be this season).
And who could forget his world famous leadership? He's going to join Doan and Smith and Michalek as guys who just totally leadership the crap out of everything. When it's all said and done, Domi and Strome are practically going to be Messiers themselves.
(And speaking of Messier, he seems like such a loser in those Rogers commercials. If he truly was such a great leader, he'd know better than to sell himself out like that).
I don't honestly think leadership is a factor here. Could you imagine hiring a guy at a normal job because you thought he was cool? That's what leadership signings boil down to, at least in this guy's opinion.
Vrbata isn't that. He's a depth option on a team with only 11 non-rookies signed for next season. And, as I've been wont to point out, of those eleven guys, only maybe half of them are serviceable.
He can still play and he gives Tippett some options and skill.
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