2022-2023 NHL Regular Season Thread

[ToddM]

Raising the cap just steals food from owner's kids' mouths.

[Troy McClure]

Lots of teams who actually make money have to be getting pissed about still essentially operating under covid cap restrictions. These teams are having these artificial cap numbers hurting their rosters.

This cap situation is going to force the Leafs to trade one of their awesome forwards when they easily have the money to keep them all and still throw more money at goalie and defense.

I wonder where Gaglardi fits here. The Stars desperately need the cap to go up to alleviate the Benn/Seguin deals.

The cap is tied to a hard percentage of "hockey related revenue" and isn't increasing because of all the escrow the players owe the league. So some teams are making money but the players "owe" the league, plus stuff like Arizona and their 5,000 seat arena drags down HRR.

The Arizona thing isn't why I call it artificial. This is multiple seasons of Bettman depressing HRR all because he has made this Arizona thing his white whale. Arizona brings in the smallest amount of revenue of any team, with things being even worse now than ever. The Coyotes being a bad business extended how long the escrow payback took and keeps the cap lower going forward.

[ScubaSteve]

The USD/Canadian exchange rate has fluctuated a lot over the years too. For a good while the Canadian dollar was very strong against the USD which artificially inflated the value of the Canadian franchises, which means artifically inflating the value and revenues of 20% of the league. I haven’t looked in a while but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore.

[Troy McClure]

The USD/Canadian exchange rate has fluctuated a lot over the years too. For a good while the Canadian dollar was very strong against the USD which artificially inflated the value of the Canadian franchises, which means artifically inflating the value and revenues of 20% of the league. I haven’t looked in a while but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore.

This is part of the reason why Quebec City is a destination of last resort for relocation or expansion. The NHL was quick to move Atlanta to Winnipeg, and Winnipeg has turned into one of the lowest money generators in the league. Quebec City wouldn't be much better.

[Math]

The USD/Canadian exchange rate has fluctuated a lot over the years too. For a good while the Canadian dollar was very strong against the USD which artificially inflated the value of the Canadian franchises, which means artifically inflating the value and revenues of 20% of the league. I haven’t looked in a while but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore.

This is part of the reason why Quebec City is a destination of last resort for relocation or expansion. The NHL was quick to move Atlanta to Winnipeg, and Winnipeg has turned into one of the lowest money generators in the league. Quebec City wouldn't be much better.

This, and many other reasons such as politics (the current owner of the arena and an eventual team is a die-hard french separatist), taxation rate (the highest of north America), french market (can't expand the market outside the city limits), low corporate support and market size: the metro area is 1M people but it can't expand outside its limits. If you go west you are in Habs territory, south in Bruins territory, and there's nothing north and east. The potential is almost non existant. The new arena is also poorly located and won't drive any additional revenues from nearby commercial areas like shops or restaurants that are all significantly far from the no man's land on which it has been built. And going for a walk to do something else by -30 degrees is not really tempting.

[The Frugal Gourmet]

I remember a few people saying every bit of the above before they went there and getting shouted down.

[Knives Out]

The Preds fired Hines and hired Brunette. *poo poo*.

[B Kat]

Too bad, I like Brunette, especially when he's not in our division.

[ScubaSteve]

He’ll probably still score 4 goals per game against the stars from behind the bench

[The Frugal Gourmet]

Gentlemen prefer Andrew Blondes.

[slaps]

Treliving is an interesting choice for the Leafs in that he is really bad at being a GM. Didn't he sign then buy out like 50% of the on-the-books buyouts in the league at one point?

[Troy McClure]

It’s a tough job to take on considering Pittsburgh's best players are really really old and expensive. Is he coming on board to be part of the post-Crosby phase?

[ToddM]

I mean, I wouldn't turn it down.

[slaps]

[ToddM]

[Math]

In fact, it's "Du hasst" (you hate).

[SaintAngerBH]

In fact, it's "Du hasst" (you hate).

I'm so used to the original version that the English version sounds weird to me.

[Troy McClure]

Bettman is eager to brag about record revenues in one sentence but then makes clear the players don't get *poo poo* in the second sentence.

[ScubaSteve]

LOL when even multi-millionaire athletes lose purchasing power to 10% inflation

[Archangel972]

Delusion is not a strategy.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman remains bullish on finding a solution to keep the Coyotes in Arizona, saying the league is "hopeful" it won't lose the "terrific market."
...
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the league has talked with Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, who hopes to bring an NHL team to Salt Lake City. Bettman said that expansion is currently not a top priority for the NHL, and he's hopeful to avoid relocation.

"We're in a better position to resist leaving than maybe we were 20 or 30 years ago," Bettman said, adding that he hasn't "prejudged any markets if we were going to add or relocate teams."

Bettman says he remains committed to keeping a team in Arizona because of how large and growing the market is, and believes the team has been put in "unfortunate" situations, having also been "victim to circumstance."

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/377 ... es-arizona

[ScubaSteve]

Are mormons even allowed to make ice?

[The Frugal Gourmet]

I think the market is probably fine and he's absolutely right.

[ScubaSteve]

Off the top of my head I'd guess SLC is a comparable market to Vegas in terms of population and if the Jazz's arena is NHL ready, then it'll have half the up front sunk cost that Vegas and Seattle had. Go for it, whatever.

[ToddM]

Phoenix would work as a market if they had a famous player as a coach or something. Like, an Ambassador for the Game or some sutch. Someone who scored, say, 2000 goals in the 80s.

[Troy McClure]

Off the top of my head I'd guess SLC is a comparable market to Vegas in terms of population and if the Jazz's arena is NHL ready, then it'll have half the up front sunk cost that Vegas and Seattle had. Go for it, whatever.

The Jazz’s arena is old and shitty.

[slaps]

This came up on Puck Soup but yes, it is THAT Shawn Thornton.

https://www.nhl.com/panthers/info/shawn-thornton

That's like, a real job. Not Ambassador of Fun or whatever.