Monday Morning Fly By: Foreign News

No

Yet his QualComp was still higher than players like Carter, Briere, and Hartnell. And all of those players also had easier zone starts than Max did. Granted that was for the entire season, not post Kovie. But still, I think one of the points of that article was that Max was used improperly as their top line guy. He also played against the toughest comp out of any forward on their team, which isn’t a role he should really be put in. He’d be a great 3rd line guy , getting more Ozone starts, and playing lesser comp on a good team. The problem is, he couldn’t find a long term deal for that role.

His level of competition was an issue, but not b/c he played against weak opponents, but rather b/c he played some of the toughest competition on the Thrashers, which really doesn’t suit his game well.

Wake me up when September ends.

Paul Holmgren reveals that he will, in fact, become SAUL Holmgren, and will openly persecute the Flyers from here on out.

You know, instead of ostensibly trying to help them.

That must be the interesting news.

League-minimum cap room plz kthx

The CBA is screwed up. You can bend the rules a little bit, but if you do it too much then watch out

Enjoy Zherdev then

Am I “this guy”?

Is that sarcasm, as Todd so rightly pointed out?

I’m so confused!

I think we might be safe for now on the Pronger deal, since the arbitrator’s decision was based more on the “effect of circumventing the cap”, rather than definitively stating they had the “intent to circumvent”. If they didn’t even manage to prove intent for Kovy and Lou, there’s really no way they can pin intent on Prongs and Homer. And since the 35+ provision prevents Pronger’s contract from actually having the “effect of circumventing”, we should be alright. If it wasn’t 35+ we might have to worry, but we’re stuck with it either way so why bother with punishment if we didn’t get any benefits? The Luongo, Hossa, et all deals can still be hit with the “effect of circumventing” bit, so they might have more to worry about. But the whole decision sounded very much like a slap on the wrist, and if those other contracts are reopened they wouldn’t have much of a case for punishing those deals unless they hand out a legit punishment to Lou and Kovy. It’s clearly, and repeatedly, mentioned that Kovy’s deal is far more extreme than the others, and that the degree to which the loophole was exploited held weight in the final decision.

The only danger we’ll have is if we try to use the LTIR loophole at the end of the contract. There’s no limit on how far into the contract it can be investigated, so if LTIR is used in a situation that’s remotely questionable, they can still re-open the investigation of cap-circumvention at that time.

The main takeaway here, for me, is a higher possibility of a 2012 CBA negotiation stalemate. And since the Phantoms are in Glens Falls now, I’m not sure I can handle another one!