2023 NHL Off-Season Thread

[Troy McClure]

His lasting claim to fame will be healthy scratching Modano to prevent him from hitting that career milestone.

Babcock also scratched Spezza on the night of a Leafs home opener when Spezza had tons of friends and family in the stands. He was fired 22 games later.

[Knives Out]

His lasting claim to fame will be healthy scratching Modano to prevent him from hitting that career milestone.

That and breaking up with Mike Commodore.

[ToddM]

See? The guy's got a lot going for him. Inspired hire.

[The Frugal Gourmet]

I'm really starting to like the guy.

[Math]

At least he gave the opportunity to better know Mike Commodore, which is very helpful to fill up Puckdokus.

[Troy McClure]

And it gets even awesomer.

[SaintAngerBH]

I wonder who the older career minor leaguer was in Anaheim. What a *poo poo* thing to say to someone. Now I understand what he did to Modano much better. Babcock is just a garbage human. Hope he never works again.

[Math]

He also asked Marner in his rookie season to rank all the current Leafs veterans from the best to the worst and then set up meetings with the ones listed at the bottom and asked them why, according to them, Marner ranked them so bad.

Surprinsingly, all Jackets players are very thrilled and delighted to have a new start under Pascal Vincent, especially Laine.

[ToddM]

[B Kat]

Speaking of Boston, they named Marchand Captain. Captain Licker!

[slaps]

I wonder who the older career minor leaguer was in Anaheim. What a *poo poo* thing to say to someone. Now I understand what he did to Modano much better. Babcock is just a garbage human. Hope he never works again.

I believe that was Commodore.

[slaps]

Sounds like Tampa is preparing to fire Stamkos into the sun.

[ScubaSteve]

Overpaid washed up vet with an NTC is on the market? Nill’s spidey sense must be tingling HARD.

[Knives Out]

Stamkos is still better than every single player on our team except maybe Robo LOL.

[SaintAngerBH]

It's hard to believe Stamoks, Crosby, and Ovechkin are elderly hockey players. They still feel like the new kids to me when I think of them.

[Jason]

And Babcock is out. He’s resigning.

Whoever hired him should be canned as well.

Columbus Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations John Davidson expresses his disappointment in the hiring of head coach Mike Babcock and owns up to the mistake of hiring Babcock as the right candidate for the Blue Jackets head coaching position.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32 ... e-jackets/

[slaps]

I am honestly not sure what it would take for Kekäläinen to get fired. None of his teams have been good, and most have been actively bad.

[SaintAngerBH]

So it sounds like they were thinking high risk, high reward on Babcock and ended up losing that gamble. I'm guessing if the Blue Jackets don't go really deep into the playoffs this year, they gut the management and coaching entirely.

[Math]

Maybe Vincent would be the only one going through. He signed a 2-year deal, did pretty well in the AHL with Winnipeg and all Jackets players seem to like him a lot.

[slaps]

What reward with Babcock? Once he lost his Hall of Famers, he was a very mediocre (at best) coach.

[SaintAngerBH]

What reward with Babcock? Once he lost his Hall of Famers, he was a very mediocre (at best) coach.

I meant they were desperate to save their jobs so they took a shot that Babcock would re-find what he had in Detroit. The problem is what we already discussed. Babcock was never that great. The team was just so stacked with talent that they really couldn't lose. Babcock's lack of success after that is the evidence.

[slaps]

L-O-*fargin'*-L:

[SaintAngerBH]

Great interview with Ryan Whitney.

Kudos to him for calling out the "coaching carousel" of "hired and fired and hired and fired..." too.

The retread thing needs to end, especially when it's obvious the coach is garbage.

[Knives Out]

L-O-*fargin'*-L:

They have the most cap space too LOL.

[Troy McClure]

I agree with the gripe Zegras's game to game play isn't as good as his highlight reel, but Verbeek trying to play this contract negotiations like it is 2005 isn't going to work. It's especially not going to fly when the marketing arm of the team makes him the face of the whole franchise.

[slaps]

Also he scored 23 goals in each of the previous two seasons (and 61 and 65 points, respectively), on absolute dogshit teams. He's not a $10MM a year guy but that's in line with Troy Terry who got 7 x $7MM and is not the face of the franchise.

[Troy McClure]

It's going to be strange seeing an actual top end player on the Coyotes.

[ScubaSteve]

What the *f-bomb* is wrong with the lighting in that arena?

[Troy McClure]

What the *f-bomb* is wrong with the lighting in that arena?

They're playing in Australia, so I assume this is normally a kangaroo boxing gym.

[Troy McClure]