Rich

So you want to trade a Grade A prospect with top line potential, who is making under a million dollars next year, to free up cap space to sign Okposo in free agency? Got it.

If Yzerman had any intention to go hard after Stamkos, he would have made a top line offer while he has exclusive negotiating rights. Either Yzerman isn’t coming up to what Stamkos wants or Stamkos wants to leave. Is it possible that Stamkos over values what he can get with where the cap is in the NHL today? Possible. But he won’t find that out until Free Agency. At which point it will likely be too late to make this kind of deal with another team because their cap space will be going to free agents. So Yzerman would have to gamble away Drouin now to free up cap space so he has a chance of signing Stamkos in free agency, and if his gamble fails and he doesn’t get Stamkos, then he got under market value on Drouin for no good reason. He has $19M in cap space right now. Decide which RFAs you want long term, bridge the others to work around Carle’s salary for 2 years, and trade whoever is left and get full market value in picks and prospects on your return to compliment your roster over the upcoming years instead of having to take a discount to dump salary. That would seem a much more reasonable line of thinking when you aren’t painted in a corner and have to dump salary. Put up a poll on HFBoards and get the hockey community's opinion at large. Better yet, put it up in Tampa Bay section.

The situation is not at all the same. Tampa Bay isn't in the same contract hell as Chicago. Chicago HAS to dump salary to even have a remote chance of getting the minimum roster requirements under the cap. And they probably still very well have to dump more. Tampa Bay doesn't HAVE to dump any salary. They could choose to if they wanted to sign Stamkos to a ridiculously huge salary. But that would mean not only do they have to move Drouin today (in your proposal), but likely some of their younger players about to move into larger salaries. It is all about leverage. Chicago has none because everyone knows the situation they are in and they absolutely have to do something. Tampa Bay still has lots of options and flexibility in how they structure their upcoming contract renewals to work around Carle's contract for two years. They can pick and choose who they want to move and get better market value for whoever they have to trade.

I usually stay out of this thread, because for the most part it is pie in the sky whatever discussion, but this is honestly one of the most out there proposals I’ve seen. Your premise is that Tampa would do this so they can re-sign Stamkos with the cap space they would realize after the trade. That isn’t true. I’m willing to bet he is asking for $10M per to be in line with the most recent super star contracts out there. That price is either too high for them, regardless of what cap space is cleared, or Stamkos really just want to go to Toronto. Also, trading a $5M defenseman doesn’t clear $5M in cap space. They still need to replace that roster spot. We didn’t give them a D back to do that in your trade, so at best you only net a couple of million overall to get Stamkos signed. The bottom line is, if they want to get rid of Carle to free up cap space to sign Stamkos, you trade Carle for draft picks. Or you bury him in the minors and eat the salary if there are no takers. You do not trade a 3rd overall draft pick, who is an RFA you control for the next 6 years and very cheap right now for what he can contribute, to do it. That makes the least sense for a team with cap problems. And to boot, Carle has a NTC, so would he even want to go to Winnipeg?

Yes.

That doesn't at all make it worthwhile to them. The trade makes absolutely no sense for the Bolts. Yzerman is fired, never to work again as a GM, if he makes that deal.

Then why is that the trade you proposed? They aren't going to trade their top prospect who is just maturing into a player now as a throw in to dump cap, regardless of the disputes they've had over the last year.

Or look at it this way since all of these guys are relatively early in their careers, so who knows where they are going. Would you trade the 3rd overall pick (think our pick this year with Laine) for two 2nd round picks? Because that is what you are proposing.

You wouldn't even get Drouin by himself for Lemieux and Petan. You can't make up quality with volume. Drouin is a top 6, likely top 3 forward. Lemieux is a bottom 6. Petan is likely a 2nd / 3rd line type guy or he is bust in the NHL. Low likelihood of him becoming a top line player.

That's what half a billion dollars buys you...

I think Morrissey makes the Jets this year.

I heard that the drummers between plays were one of the suggestions at the fan forum. I thought it was a little too much as well. The same repetitive drum beat over and over. Wonder it if would be better if they had a full band like they do at US college games.

This is why it is nearly impossible to compare players from different eras. How would players from back then do today if they were given the opportunity to train and coached like players are today. Vice versa for today's players playing back then. Best comparison IMO is to look at how much better they were than their peers at the time that they played.

http://cfhof.ca/hof-player-details/?id=25

I think this is comparing apples to oranges (today to 80 years ago) Hanson played in the 1930s and 1940s where the gap between the top end talent of the CFL and NFL wasn't anything near what it is today. You can't extrapolate the difference in talent that exists today to back then. This is even back before when the AFL and NFL merged. In the 50s and 60s the two leagues even used to play exhibition games against each other. I don't believe a Canadian team ever won, but sports in general was a completely different era.

I don't know if they still do, but we tried exiting through Kings Drive in the first year of the stadium and it was blocked off to avoid traffic congestion in the residential neighbourhood.

Using buses is more efficient than allowing more cars in. There is essentially two ways in and out of U of M. Adding more cars by increasing parking would make getting out substantially worse.

I think there are a couple of concerns with Trouba. He hasn't really progressed since his rookie season as much as some would like to see. There has been rumours he doesn't take his off season conditioning as seriously as the Jets would like. His agent is also known as the to be a bit of a hard ass in negotiations (concerns on his contract negotiations) IF the Jets are shopping him, it would be because they want to sell while his value is relatively high and maximize return. Mainly speculation of course, but at this point I would trust Chevy would have his reasons if he decided to move him.

The Bombers have announced the 2016 Transportation Plan. http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/06/06/2016-transportation-plan-announced/

http://www.bombersfanzone.com/ring_of_honour

To be fair he only just signed up today, so anyone could have signed up with the name. But I have reason to believe it is really Kirk. Welcome to the forum!

CFL is probably going to end up implementing standard / maximum rookie contracts for draft picks like the NHL has. Usually not that hard of a bargaining chip to get added in with existing PA members who've already signed their first contract and don't want to see any larger % of cap dollars going to rookies. As more info on this comes out, I can certainly see Saskatchewan's side on this of not wanting to escalate over what was paid in prior years. Don't think their "counter" offer of league minimum was constructive or productive in the bargaining process. Seems a little immature and was likely the catalyst that further soured negotiations.

He isn't holding out. He doesn't have a contract. To me, a holdout is someone under contract but holding out to renegotiate.

I think the only time this will bring people down town is on those special events when people want to celebrate and congregate. Like when The Bombers win the Grey Cup or Jets win the Stanley Cup. I don't know if it will affect businesses all that much, it is still more convenient to walk underground and people will stay inside in the winter. I think the biggest effect will be on traffic, which is really the reason they were closed off in the first place. People turning and having to wait for pedestrians crossing will slow everything down in an area that is already congested in rush hour. Most people turn left or right when going from Portage to Main, and now they will all have to wait for pedestrians. Close down the roads during special events to let people congregate. Is there really any other benefit to opening it up?

My post wasn't meant for you guys to stop the argument, though reading back on it, I suppose I worded it poorly. You guis just aren't really discussing the root cause of your difference of opinion, as illustrated in the last two posts. TUP doesn't think it is right to assume Jackson is guilty. Iso thinks he is guilty: This is where your disagreement is, all your differences of opinion stem from this one point, but this isn't at all what you guys are arguing. It is just a fascinating read in a very frustrating way. I haven't split it off into its own thread because I assumed that you guys would have realized that you have this very basic disagreement and aren't likely to change each others mind on it, because at the end of the day, who the heck in this forum really knows if he did it or not, so the discussion would end. So sure, if you guys want to discuss his innocence / guilt, I will split it off. But I think you need to argue what your difference of opinion actually is, not what the effect of it is. Because your difference of opinion will give very different effects. If you don't have a whole lot to add to change each others mind, I won't.