The Official NHL 2011-2012 Thread

The buyout period starts tomorrow and the draft is next Friday. Anyone interested in the draft? This will be the first time I actually pay attention to/know the player Devils pick thanks to winning the lottery.

Also, news today that Chris Drury has a knee injury preventing the Rags from buying out his contract, he will turn 35 in august so they are stuck with his contract for a year. There goes their Richards dream lol. I love Sather.

I always find the draft very interesting, as well as the lead up, but this year is probably my most anticipated (cos of Sens brilliant season). And this years draft is very hard to predict, no obvious top player or top 2/3 etc (like Taylor vs Tyler). So for that reason I cant wait to see the order in which they go in, plus see who falls to the sens, or if we trade. Then we have another 5 picks in the top 65.

Also, FUUUUUUU Devils for pushing us back in the draft.

Only excitement I have for the draft is the possibility of trades. I'm pretty sure the Flyers don't have a pick until round 7.

frickin bruins are picking 9th thanks to retarded leafs. it's just not fair.

Flyers trade Jeff Carter for Ottawas 6th round pick.

And yes, fuck the bruins. Stanley Cup Final loss > pick 2nd overall. Win SC > pick 9th overall

wtf, carter for 6th? holy shit that's big news. source?

Lol i was just joking. But the speculation is they'll have to trade Carter for cap room, giving room to sign Bryzgalov. I think their in cap trouble anyway.

Also, fuck Burke for giving Bruins those picks

currently they are talking carter to bluejackets. we'll see.

The Sens and Avalanche have behind the scenes specials on the lead up to draft on their site. Pretty interesting. The Avs is one long ep that shows a pretty open discussion of some of the top prospects by their scouts from earlier in the year I think. Sens 1st ep is from their 'pre draft meetings' and pretty cryptic, but a good watch nonetheless. 2nd ep from combine interviews, ep3/4 not out yet, but I think is going to be on their on ice evaluation of 5 of the prospects they brought in, and finally the draft day.

Jackets makes a lot of sense, wouldn't mind him on Sens but the contract is until 2022 I think so maybe best to stay away.

Carter for 6th overall would be an incredible steal. It would never happen.

If someone like Carter becomes a cap casualty I'll be fucking pissed, and I'm not even a huge Carter fan. If it's just a matter of freeing up cap space, there are a lot of players I'd move before him.

I know I'm tardy to the party here, but that Jokinen waffle gif is probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

This draft is going to suck for the Kings, we have no first rounders. Thanks Penner, you giant turd.

looks like parise and devils agreed on going to 'arbitration' to buy time and finalize the contract by the end of next week. we are all waiting for an arbitration announcement. sneaky lou.

You and the other two Devils fans.

ha! that's a great one!

I'm very curious what the Oilers will do with their 1st, 19th and 31st picks. Lots of local speculation but historically most teams are reluctant to make any moves with 1st rounders. I'd think receiving a proven, skilled NHL player over a speculative pick would be a no-brainer but the possibility of looking bad down the road scares teams.

In retrospect, Vancouver's draft day maneuverings in order to secure both Sedins is most impressive. Overall it's suppose to be a weak draft year but I'll be watching Friday..

Cant see them trading RNH for anything, unless its a proven #1 centre, which would be an overpayment (though probably fair in the future).

Haha yeah how good is the Olli gif. There's heaps of good ones on hfboards.

oh my god I can't stop laughing at these gifs... link to HF thread(s)?

Thread 1: http://hfboards.ca/showthread.php?t=901405

Google 2011 Playoff Photoshop II and III for the next ones

Yes its worth going through 100s of pages ahhaa

The Hipster Chara meme has some gems.

Hipster Chara is a meme? This makes no sense to me. Not even in a "memes don't make sense!" way.

Macro, whatever. Don't know what to call them.

Oh, not that you labelled it wrong, bro. I don't understand why.

The Flyers lost last year's cup final, not the bruins.

I thought he was saying if they had lost this year's final they'd pick 2nd.

Oh yeah sorry, I keep thinking they were in the final for some reason . I just remember the massive choke.

Salary cap at 64M ceiling, 48M bottom. Rewards the cap challenged teams.

lidstrom returning for next season, good for the wings.

Thank god.

Ryan Smyth wants to return to Edmonton to finish out his career, per LeBrun and McKenzie.

I would absolutely love to see this happen as a Kings fan. Although Smyth has been very effective for us, he's too old, slow, expensive, and on the decline to warrant a 6.5 cap hit (although only about 4 mil in cash owed for next year).

Unfortunately, while scanning the Oilers' roster, I can't see much that they would be willing to give up for Smyth, that can actually improve the Kings. Although I guess dumping that salary to fit Doughty and Simmonds is indirectly helping us.

Smyth and Penner

for

conditional 7th round pick*

*if Oilers win Cup

woohoo

Can't say I'm disappointed since my team spends to the ceiling every year. Also a rising cap means the league is taking in more revenue, which is good for the NHL in general.

This is going to be a bitch for cap floor teams to find ways to afford the minimum though if it keeps escalating like this. Right now the floor is 6M higher than the ceiling was in 2005-2006. I imagine the cap will continue to increase next season as well with the new TV deal and Winnipeg's relocation fee added to the mix.

On the other hand, I really think teams that are signing long-term, big money contracts are going to get burned in the future. If the Canadian dollar goes down, which it will have to eventually, we could see a big shift down. By like $10-15 million.

there is a lockout after next season, so the cap should go down then.

Just posting in here to get it in my subscribed threads.

I had forgotten about this DGB post up until now, but it really encapsulates my frustration about how "classless" seems to be the insult of choice in hockey for fans/players/etc.:

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2009/06/word-about-those-classless-red-wing.html

Good post. Hockey fans are perpetually being labeled classless for one indiscretion or another.

CBA expiration =/= lockout. At least, it hasn't the last two times it's happened and I'm pretty sure the NHLPA learned it's lesson the hard way.

Also, Canada accounts for what? 35% of the NHL's revenue? A drop of 10-15M in the cap, if caused exclusively by a decrease in the Canadian dollar, would require like a 40% decrease. Not likely to happen.

The Winnipeg NHL Team relocation is official. Staying in the Southeast (lol) for the next season.

OK folks, I'm going to call it here... Winnipeg vs. Vancouver in the final. Vancouver in seven (lol)

rumor is bryzgalov deal is done and he's a flyer for 7M a year.

Knowing Holmgren, he probably got a no-trade clause too.

The Flyers are fucking retarded.

Regular Season
Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher last year: 46-23-12, 2.52 GAA, 0.915 sv %
Ilya Bryzgalov: 36-20-10, 2.48 GAA, 0.921 sv%
Total goals saved if Bryzgalov was a Flyer: 14 (and that's if he played every game)

Playoffs
Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky: 4-6, 3.16 GAA, 0.897 sv %
Ilya Bryzgalov: 0-4, 4.36 GAA, 0.879 sv %
Total goals saved if Bryzgalov was a Flyer: -6

Totally worth adding $5 million to your payroll and probably ditching Carter for.

Seriously, this is so fucking retarded. You've got Tomas Vokoun as a UFA, has said he's probably not going to re-sign with the Panthers and wants to win a Cup. He's been the best goalie of the past couple years (although Thomas has made a good case of being up there with him), he's getting older so he's not blocking Bobrovsky's development, and he would probably be available in the $3.5-4 million range for two or three seasons. It's a perfect fit.

But no, they're going to pay twice as much and twice as long for a worse goalie.

Exactly. Signing Bryzgalov long-term is essentially giving up on Bob. Of course, all these numbers are just rumors at this point, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Pronger, Carle, Timonen, Meszaros, Coburn VS Yandle and whoever they have. Not to mention a very deep forward group vs an average one

Wasn't Bob inconsistent and faltered towards the end of the season? Yes, $7mil (and 7 years) is ridiculous, but its just a rumour. I will lol if true though.

Lidstrom just won his 7th Norris trophy.

Kesler wins Selke and Sedin wins the Lindsay... alright cool.

if Luongo wins the Vezina I will shoot myself

Datsyuk missed too many games to be able to claim the Selke this year.