I get you... the Sens can hope for Chabot, Brannstrom, Tkachuk to be stars in the league and help them become relevant again. It'll take a while but the hope is alive.

Who can the Wild turn to for hope? Their best players are over 30 and aren't performing.... their only bright spot might be Dumba and he has his own shortcomings defensively.....

There's nothing to look forward to except that obviously very good pick that's coming in 2020.
- Scabeh

& 2021 & 2022....

& 2021 & 2022....
- bixll

Most likely yes.

Easiest shutout of Price's career yesterday.

Most likely yes.

Easiest shutout of Price's career yesterday.
- Scabeh

16 shots. I would say..

Yup, read a good article from The Athletic on this.

The Leafs actually planned on playing Ceci all along. What's not helping is Rielly's play: a struggling Rielly paired with a work-in-progress Ceci just doesn't jive right now.

Again, it's still super early, we're not even at the 10 game mark yet, but I think when Dermott gets back (well, not right away; he'll probably start with Holl on the 3rd pairing) we'll see a shuffling of the deck.

What's kind of annoying is that we now have Holl playing well, so we have a "crowded" right side in the bottom pairing.

Having said that, if they're prepared to take some risks and mix it up: Rielly-Holl or Rielly-Barrie could work out well.
- gravyface

Which brings us full circle in that the Leafs saw him as the solution all along, which is unfortunate.

I disagree about Reilly. He is trying to do too much because he has a garbage partner and it's sad. Sportsnet can be the Leafs apologists all they want and say Doughty played with crap d men, but I would take Martinez or Muzzin in a heart beat over Ceci if I'm Reilly. And Doughty ain't looked so hot lately. Who's he playing with now?

I don't know why you let him get you so worked up.

1. Ceci didn't accept his QO. His QO was $4.3m. He had also not declined it yet. The QO is valid until the first day of arbitration hearings.

- I don't know this, but a QO, reasonably, would logically be straight salary with no signing bonus (btw, there is no provision in the QO form to allow for the structure of a bonus payment).

2. Ceci did have arbitration rights, and it was rumoured that he was likely to elect for it, and it was further speculated that he would be awarded $5m by the arbitration process.

3. The Leafs agreed to pay Ceci $4.5m, and they could have structured that contract however they wanted to.

My guess here was that Ceci didn't want the contract front-loaded because his agent knows that he has diminishing value. Playing 1 year on a better team might increase his value - or at the very least stop it from free falling to $1m in his next contract - but playing with a contract that is very movable to a poorer team might see Ceci end up playing for another team in as poor of a state as Ottawa (or Ottaw again) that isn't going to help boost his value.

Edit: QO's are valid until July 15; arbitration begins July 20.
- Monkeypunk

Somebody on the interdwweebs (not me, but I can't remember who) had an interesting idea:

Let Ceci go to arbitration.

Then the Leafs file their proposed number: make it redonkulously high. Like $8 million.

Arbitrator will obviously not go below what the team is offering. Arbitrator awards $8 million.

An award this high - compared to his last salary - would allow the Leafs to walk away.

Zaitsev is gone.

Ceci is gone.

Not a single franking dollar on the salary cap in 2019-20.

Next time Freddy asks for time off, I would trade him away. I have never heard of a top level tender that didn't want his ass in the net.

Im not quite as optimistic on the Sens as you....and as for the wild personality, ill leave this here

https://www.tsn.ca/minnes...team-after-loss-1.1382994
- Archaic

He's right, but nobody will care.

But if Sparks said it...

Next time Freddy asks for time off, I would trade him away. I have never heard of a top level tender that didn't want his ass in the net.
- bixll

Yes but he's tired Bixll.

LET THE MAN REST!

Next time Freddy asks for time off, I would trade him away. I have never heard of a top level tender that didn't want his ass in the net.
- bixll

Link?

Thanks

He's right, but nobody will care.

But if Sparks said it...
- Atomic Wedgie

He is definitely right. No doubt about that. They honestly should complete a fire sale this year including Staal/Koivu/Dumba/Zucker/Suter( if they can manage to get rid of that awful contract.)

Yes but he's tired Bixll.

LET THE MAN REST!
- Scabeh

The man has got to be tired, he has already started 75% of Leafs games this season..

Somebody on the interdwweebs (not me, but I can't remember who) had an interesting idea:

Let Ceci go to arbitration.

Then the Leafs file their proposed number: make it redonkulously high. Like $8 million.

Arbitrator will obviously not go below what the team is offering. Arbitrator awards $8 million.

An award this high - compared to his last salary - would allow the Leafs to walk away.

Zaitsev is gone.

Ceci is gone.


Not a single franking dollar on the salary cap in 2019-20.
- Atomic Wedgie

What would stop Ceci from accepting the offer, which would be binding?

He is definitely right. No doubt about that. They honestly should complete a fire sale this year including Staal/Koivu/Dumba/Zucker/Suter( if they can manage to get rid of that awful contract.)
- Archaic

I'm kind of hoping for a quick turnaround for Dubnyk.. I need him to do better for my fantasy team

What would stop Ceci from accepting the offer, which would be binding?
- winsix

Checkmate Wedgie.

Somebody on the interdwweebs (not me, but I can't remember who) had an interesting idea:

Let Ceci go to arbitration.

Then the Leafs file their proposed number: make it redonkulously high. Like $8 million.

Arbitrator will obviously not go below what the team is offering. Arbitrator awards $8 million.

An award this high - compared to his last salary - would allow the Leafs to walk away.

Zaitsev is gone.

Ceci is gone.

Not a single franking dollar on the salary cap in 2019-20.
- Atomic Wedgie

This bit I'm not too sure about - I don't think hockey arbitration works like baseball arbitration. Regardless, had the arbitration process awarded Ceci even $5m, the Leafs could have walked away. As long as the awarded amount was over something like $4.8m or so, the Leafs had the ability to walk away.

Regardless of what it is, Ceci is an RHD and Babcock wanted an RHD. There were literally no better options on the right-side at that time that $4m in cap space would have offered.

Again, it's one year. It's also only a handful of games into learning and adapting to the new system and new team. He has been a decent defensemen in about 50% of the games so far, and he's been bad the other games. Is this who we have, or as he learns and adapts to the system and team will he better in more games than he's not? If so, then he's pretty much above average for our D, and he'll be an improvement on last year's Zaitsev.

Remember that Cody has a very vested interest in turning in a good year. He has fire extinguishers to buy and houses to rebuild.

What would stop Ceci from accepting the offer, which would be binding?
- winsix

If it's player elected arbitration, as long as the arbitration award is over a specific amount - and I do forget what it was, but it was a bit under $4.8 million - the team has the right to walk away.

If it's team elected, they can't walk away.

Checkmate Wedgie.
- Scabeh

What if they begged Ceci not to sign the contract?

This bit I'm not too sure about - I don't think hockey arbitration works like baseball arbitration. Regardless, had the arbitration process awarded Ceci even $5m, the Leafs could have walked away. As long as the awarded amount was over something like $4.8m or so, the Leafs had the ability to walk away.

Regardless of what it is, Ceci is an RHD and Babcock wanted an RHD. There were literally no better options on the right-side at that time that $4m in cap space would have offered.

Again, it's one year. It's also only a handful of games into learning and adapting to the new system and new team. He has been a decent defensemen in about 50% of the games so far, and he's been bad the other games. Is this who we have, or as he learns and adapts to the system and team will he better in more games than he's not? If so, then he's pretty much above average for our D, and he'll be an improvement on last year's Zaitsev.

Remember that Cody has a very vested interest in turning in a good year. He has fire extinguishers to buy and houses to rebuild.
- Monkeypunk

Quite sure Babcock didn't want Ceci - basically since Ceci cannot defend.

Link?

Thanks
- Atomic Wedgie

Link for what ?

Link for what ?
- bixll

Andersen saying that he wants to play less games

This bit I'm not too sure about - I don't think hockey arbitration works like baseball arbitration. Regardless, had the arbitration process awarded Ceci even $5m, the Leafs could have walked away. As long as the awarded amount was over something like $4.8m or so, the Leafs had the ability to walk away.

Regardless of what it is, Ceci is an RHD and Babcock wanted an RHD. There were literally no better options on the right-side at that time that $4m in cap space would have offered.

Again, it's one year. It's also only a handful of games into learning and adapting to the new system and new team. He has been a decent defensemen in about 50% of the games so far, and he's been bad the other games. Is this who we have, or as he learns and adapts to the system and team will he better in more games than he's not? If so, then he's pretty much above average for our D, and he'll be an improvement on last year's Zaitsev.

Remember that Cody has a very vested interest in turning in a good year. He has fire extinguishers to buy and houses to rebuild.
- Monkeypunk

Yeah, this.

Just offer above the threshold, and then you have the right to walk away when it is awarded.

Quite sure Babcock didn't want Ceci - basically since Ceci cannot defend.
- MaximusAurelius

From everything I've read, the Leafs had super-advanced metrics that led them to believe that in fact, Ceci could hockey.

Next time Freddy asks for time off, I would trade him away. I have never heard of a top level tender that didn't want his ass in the net.
- bixll

Giving him time off might mean he's not a sieve in the playoffs.

Play Freddy less, and every Matthews far more.

Somebody on the interdwweebs (not me, but I can't remember who) had an interesting idea:

Let Ceci go to arbitration.

Then the Leafs file their proposed number: make it redonkulously high. Like $8 million.

Arbitrator will obviously not go below what the team is offering. Arbitrator awards $8 million.

An award this high - compared to his last salary - would allow the Leafs to walk away.

Zaitsev is gone.

Ceci is gone.

Not a single franking dollar on the salary cap in 2019-20.
- Atomic Wedgie

How do you think that would play in the hockey world? Dubas could not have done that.

I get you... the Sens can hope for Chabot, Brannstrom, Tkachuk to be stars in the league and help them become relevant again. It'll take a while but the hope is alive.

Who can the Wild turn to for hope? Their best players are over 30 and aren't performing.... their only bright spot might be Dumba and he has his own shortcomings defensively.....

There's nothing to look forward to except that obviously very good pick that's coming in 2020.
- Scabeh

The Wild need to be this bad though. Their main issue is since joining the NHl they've never been good enough to be a contender, or bad enough to get a top pick. Being this bad can finally make them turn a corner. They've been in the middle ground more than any organization.