That Boruk article was the nail in the coffin for me; I tried to hold up because I couldn’t be sure how Simon felt and I didn’t get to hear all the press conferences yesterday, so I kept telling myself it might not be that bad for him. But then I read that, and my heart cracked into pieces.

And Bettman is an even bigger idiot for setting up a system that allows Lamoriello to cheat and look like a genius.

Like many prophets, he was not appreciated in his time.

Are you talking #1-draft-pick miserably here, or just lose-the-shootout-in-the-last-game-of-the-year-and-miss-the-playoffs miserably?

Ask Stevie Y how he views fighting and grit, and if it’s necessary to win.

Sbisa couldn’t crack their starting lineup last year, so wherever the Ducks send kids who aren’’t NHL ready. Like Syvret.

Where’d you hear that? If it ain’t on Capgeek, it ain’t true :)
But Anaheim only has 5 NHL defensemen on their roster, so one of (or both) Syvret and Sbisa should get minutes with the big-boy club.

Online I have seen several comments on his “decisions”. Nothing yet in old school media. But many of those guys wait until the team is more “set” before going into detail.

Although I would love to hear Morganti’s thoughts on this.

Most of them are news people as opposed to opinion. It’s a conversation we’ve had many times, especially with Sarah Baicker and Anthony SanFilippo. Now that both have blogs, I wonder if Sarah will start having more opinion on hers. Anthony usually lets a sentence or two of opinion into his blog posts,

Plus, you have to think a) some people (probably half) either disagree that Homer’s doing a bad job or aren’t big enough hockey fans to understand that he is doing a bad job; and b) they don’t want to sound (or actually be) writing from a place of emotional attachment to Gagne.

not that it means anything, obviously things change by training camp, throughout the year, etc, but in the zherdev article on the flyers website it said that “he’ll get to play along side one of the 3 talented centers on the team: richards, briere, carter” which, according to the article, would put giroux on the wing. but its just an offseason article and all, so who knows if that’s what theyre really thinking.

I’m not thinking until I see what they are running in training camp, in which guess I’ll start to think, stop myself, then wait and look at what they throw out there on opening night.

gags is on your fav. team though?!?!

That would be odd to be honest with you. It would be kind of weird to have an appreciation night for an active player…on the opposition. However, I would be up for them waiting a night for the banner dropping though, so Gagne could be there.

Turco. Not a lot of money. Not a lot of years.

Who have they waived to give them enough Cap space to get anything done yet? They still sit with just $1mil of cap space.

Flyers are still my favorite team. To be fair, I don’t have the emotional attachment to Gagne that many here do — I appreciate him as player who always gives his all, and with his talent, that’s a lot. Also, I just love hockey; the Flyers being my favorite team doesn’t mean I automatically hate all other players/teams.

And question the moves, and get angry and be mad, but I will always support the Flyers. I wish Gagne well, but not against the Flyers. It will always be Flyers first for me. Even if I think their GM has had a horrible off season, I will be cheering for whatever team is put on the ice come season opener.

no way… eagles had problems defending the pass with and without dawk. he was the best eagle evah !!! but we will be lovin nate allen in the near future, guaranteed. the vick thing gets blown out of proportion with the media. i dont care as long as he scores some goal line TDers. if kolb works out, all will be right with the eagle universe…

gagne was a great for the Flyers. but his injuries were a drag.and it sux because i think he has come full circle and he will be in top form again. but i dont understand why anyone claims superior thinking buying another jersey makes any real statement. it’s gay (not homosexual gay) – wear what you want, i dont care, GO FLYERS and f*ck everything else.

I do not think completely deserting a team over off-season moves is ever justified. That’s not to suggest that some people won’t get away from the sport and the team over time, that happens, but to go from completely supporting the team to no longer supporting the team over 1 move and/or a string of moves in a single off-season is ridiculous for me. When the Eagles signed Vick, some one I know decided to “boycott” the Eagles over it, did not watch a single Eagles game last year, and will not watch one until Vick is off the team. To me, something like that is completely ridiculous. Not every move a team we support makes is going to be a good move, but when the bad ones or the controversial ones come along, that does not mean one should forget about them completely.

Another thing about boycotting and/or deserting the Flyers is that it takes you away from the other players on the team that you love. Now whether or not the Flyers are a better team now than they were in June can be a point of great contention, but this still is a talented team with Pronger, Timonen, Richards, Giroux, Leino, JVR, Lappy, Betts, Briere, Carbomb, etc. Just because Homer backed himself into a corner and traded Gagne to get himself out of it, does not mean you should give a big “fuck you” to the entire organization, which would extend to the above players who at some point or another last year we grew to really love watching.

That being said, I think there is room for 2nd team fandom. I know that not every sports fan believes in this, but personally I always find room for 2nd teams, especially when Philly teams are out of it. That is not to say it can or has to take anything away from one’s Flyers fandom, but supporting an additional team, especially one like Tampa Bay (though the cities have had pretty interesting relationships in sports this past decade) where there aren’t any harsh feelings, isn’t out of bounds. The Hurricanes were my 2nd team in the Eastern Conference for the past decade or so (Brindy FTW!), and now that team is Tampa Bay. It does not take away from my Flyers support, it does not take away from reveling in the Flyers achievements past and present and future, it does not take away the pain of being so close in 2004, but it gives me another team to be happy for when they succeed. And I truly believe this Tampa team will be a force to be reckoned with this coming season.

Never in a million years.

I will NEVER root against the Flyers, nor will I ever switch allegiances to another team OVER the Flyers.

The closest I came was in 1990 when the Flyers traded Dave Poulin. I became a Bruins fan for the next several years. Even then, I NEVER rooted for them over the Flyers. I never came close.

Why not both? Why can’t he be a Flyers fan with a Gagne Tampa jersey?

The problem is that he was a) forced out despite not wanting to go; b) before his contract was up; c) with zero trading leverage; d) for no return; and e) to make up for Homer’s eff up.

Completely avoidable salary dump of a beloved member who didn’t want to go, didn’t have to go, and wasn’t the best option to go. If he wasn’t re-signed at the end of the year, or if he was traded for something of return, or if he was traded at the deadline for something…

It’s not that Gagne left, it’s the way he left. People would be sad if he left in any of those ways above, but instead they’re sad and mad.

I used to joke with my buddy as he’d rail against how slow footed CT was what an absolute liability he was to anyone not named Jagr – “one day you’ll be buying your truck from ‘Chris Therien’s Fordapalooza’ cause he’ll be here forever”

Meh, I never play head to head as the Flyers. I’ll do GM mode as the Flyers though, and my first move usually involves a Gagne + for Filatov deal in NHL 10, so this has no real effect on me. I will be trading Shelley immediately for whoever, as well as Leghton and Walker in 2011. I think I’ll try out Backland for the first year.

To be fair, I remember reading this yesterday before the Walker trade. Not that I think Pronger would change his tune a few hours later, but this is more mainstream media looking for legs out of the story then a spin job. Though I still think the legs of the story should be how upset a great number of fans are. Or what Stevie Y has to say. (I haven’t found any transcripts of his press conference yet.)

There, took me a while to find the picture to put with the quote. These two belong together.

Thanks, man.

here.

Wow…it’s kind of funny but not.

I think it’s just an issue of coming right up close to the line on some contracts, leaning over the line and seeing how far you can go without getting in trouble on others, and then the Kovy contract is just disregarding the line altogether.

I’ll break those down so they can be compared… By age, I mean the age they’ll be by the CBA’s rules during the final year of the contract. (ie, age as of June 30th before the final season starts)

Richards: Signed through age 34, lowest salary at the end of the deal is 3M per year. Maybe it’s starting to toe the line, but it makes sense and wouldn’t really be an infraction.
Pronger: Signed through age 41, final two years are at 525k. Definitely testing the waters of crossing the line, but recent history had some age 40ish defensemen signing one year deals in the 550k range so it wasn’t completely egregious even if it really was over the line.
Hossa: Signed through age 41, final 4 years are at 1M per. Similar explanation to Pronger, definitely pushing the limits, but he could still conceivably play at that age so it would be hard to say for certain that it was legitimately over the line.
DiPietro: Signed through age 38, 4.5M flat every year with no salary decrease. Stupid, but not circumventing the CBA.
Ovechkin: Signed through age 34, salary actually increases over time and he’s getting 10M in the last year of the deal.
Kovy: Signed through age 43, first 2 years @ 6M, then 5 years @11.5M, then one each at 10.5M, 8.5M, 6.5M, 3.5M, 750k, and then 5 years at 550k. I think it’s definitely a big step farther over the line than the Pronger or Hossa contracts, far enough to not be in the gray area anymore.

• Richards’ takes him to age 35 with salary ranges of $3 mil to $8.4 mil (12 years)
• Pronger’s takes him to age 42 with salary ranges of $525k to $7.6 mil (7 years)
• Hossa’s takes him to age 42 with salary ranges of $1 mil to $7.9 mil (12 years)
• Ovechkin’s takes him to age 36 with salary ranges of $9 mil to $10 mil (13 years)
• Kovalchuk’s takes him to age 44 with salary ranges of $550k to $11.50 mil (17 years)
• DiPietro’s takes him to age 40 with a $4.5 mil salary every year for 15 years

Just by looking at that, you can see that DiPietro’s is perfectly fine (if stupid) and so is Ovechkin’s. The salary doesn’t drop dramatically at any point.

Richards’ also isn’t bad since it started at $5.4 mil, raising slowly for 5 years, and peaking at $8.4 mil. It then declines slowly for the next seven years, where he still has a $5.5 mil salary in the 9th year of the 12 year contract. It’s a bell curve that doesn’t bottom out.

That leaves Hossa, Pronger, and Kovalchuk. First, Pronger’s is a 35+ contract, so even if he retires, the Flyers are on the hook for the cap hit. (Barring a trade, mind you)

Second, Hossa’s is a little more suspect since he gets $7.9 mil for the first 7 years (to age 37), then drops to $4 mil. Per the CBA, his salary isn’t allowed to drop more than $3.95 mil from year to year, and his drops by $3.9. That’s a red flag. When it drops to $1 mil the year after (age 38) and stays that way for 4 more years, that’s a huge red flag. This contract is completely suspect.

But it doesn’t match Kovalchuk’s. First, Lou is brilliant. He knew the deal would be closely questioned, so he started the contract out with two years of $6 mil salary. This means that he can’t drop his salary by more than $3 million in any given year. Surely, it will be gradual. Nope. He gets $11.5 mil in each of the next 5 years (to age 34). Then it goes:

• $10.5 mil
• $8.5 mil
• $6.5 mil
• $3.5 mil

Again, this makes it look perfectly fine. Making $3.5 million per year at age 38? That’s a lot, but make your own bed. At age 39, he’s making $750k. A flag pops up. The problem is that he’s still getting paid from age 40 through age 44, only making $550k per year. No way a guy who gets paid $3.5 million per year at age 38 will play 6 more years for a total of the same amount he made in just the last year.

It’s the obvious extension of the deal just to lower the cap hit that set this one down in flames. But… how the NHL justifies it will be interesting in light of Hossa’s, which is bad but not as egregious.