The Cup won’t be decided the first week of July, but tell me which team in the East has made greater strides than the Devils to win the Cup in 11 months.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald and the New Jersey brass left the team after a strange gap year with a strategic vengeance that, while it didn’t fix all of its shortcomings, seems to have come pretty close. That vengeance began with the hiring of Sheldon Keefe as head coach behind the bench.
Jacob Markstrom will fill the goaltending hole, Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon will solidify a defense that was too shaky and young last season, the additions of Stefan Noesen and Paul Cotter will strengthen and physicalize the bottom six, and Tomas Tatar will add depth to the middle of the lineup.
The Devils have gotten a little too cool in recent years, too surfer-ish, Fitzgerald said, euphemistically, and that he’s built a “more mature team.”
Looking back, you know what helped?
It was a huge help to the Penguins when they signed 2019 first-overall pick Jack Hughes to an eight-year contract worth $8 million per year on his second contract despite him only playing 119 games in his NHL career. Just as they had no concerns when Sidney Crosby got his $8.7 million salary and Evgeni Malkin got his $9.5 million salary.
(At the time, Hughes had 20 goals and 55 points in 119 NHL games. The following year, No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere had 26 goals and 44 points in his first 119 NHL games. Read on.)
If a franchise player didn’t feel the need to dig up every nickel that fell through the cracks of the living room furniture, a GM could sign a player like Pesce or trade for Timo Meier and give him an extension for $8.8 million a piece without having to wrestle with Jack Hughes’ artificial cap.
It looks like the Devils are serious this time. The gap year is over.
It’s been said for years that Carolina’s new GM Eric Tulski is one of the best analytical minds in hockey, so forgive me if I’m a little confused as to why Carolina signed Jack Roslovic to a one-year free agent contract — hold on, let me double-check that’s not a typo — $2.8 million?
Who had a Rangers reunion in Detroit with Patrick Kane, Vlado Tarasenko, Erik Gustafsson, Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte and Cam Talbot all wearing Winged Wheels on their bingo cards?
Over the past five years, the Maple Leafs have signed or acquired defensemen Jake Muzzin, TJ Brodie, Mark Giordano, Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci, John Klingberg, Gustafsson, Zach Bogosian, Luke Schoen and now Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev, but the question remains as to when they will get around to acquiring Igor Ulanov and Dave Culpa.
Denial seems to be the name of the river that runs through UBS these days, with the Islanders somehow still clinging to the idea that the core of the last decade needs to dress up a bit to return to contention in the COVID era.
Sure, they don’t have much room to maneuver under the salary cap, but that’s what happens when they’re not willing to try and get the most they can on the trade market for Brock Nelson, who turns 33 in the second week of the season and is in the final season of his contract. That means we’ll just have to wait for a six-year extension to be announced.
This is what happens when Jean-Gabriel Paget is still blocking the middle, and this is what happens when Anders Lee, the greatest player of all time and captain, is 34 and not up to speed.
By the way, is Ilya Sorokin the Islanders’ number one goaltender?
Speaking from behind the Islanders bench, it’s safe to say Patrick Roy has a pretty big task ahead of him.
Had I even considered recording the call, it would have been presented as Exhibit A in the argument against addressing the market advantage of no-state-tax teams. But the first words uttered by an agent who had just signed a client contract with one of those clubs were, no joke, “No state taxes!”
It’s been laughed at for state-tax-free Nashville handing Brady Scay, Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault a combined $108.5 million in signing bonuses within the first hour or two of free agency, while state-tax-free Tampa Bay outmaneuvered Carolina to acquire Jake Guenzel, never mind stingy Tom Dundon losing players.
Six teams — the Panthers, Lightning, Golden Knights, Stars, Predators and Kraken — have advantages the other 26 clubs don’t have. And they’re using them to their advantage. Four of the last five Cup winners (Florida, Vegas and Tampa Bay twice) are from no-tax states. Eleven of the last 20 conference finalists are from no-tax states.
When will these 26 owners stand up and demand that the league equalize the cap, or will they sit back and allow the same inequality to continue in the industry that made their fortunes?
Finally, and this is a pretty serious issue, could any members of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee who have a grudge against Alexander Mogilny please identify themselves so we don’t have to blanket accuse all of them of ignorance and disrespect?
