Rich

The MBB Pick 'Ems contest is back for 2017. Pick your winners for the games each week. 1 correct pick = 1 point. $50 Bomber Store gift certificate will be given to the person with the most correct picks after the Grey Cup. Picks must be made before the start of the first game each week. The poll will be closed at that time. If you miss the deadline, I will accept picks through PM for games that have not yet started. Picks for Week 1 need to be in by Thursday, June 22 @ 6:30PM. Good Luck!

Mistrial declared.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/report-blue-jackets-reach-deal-vegas-protect-players/

So with the Canadian teams, that's 11 - 14 home games. Throw in another 10 - 15 for hardcore American fans in the stronger hockey markets. What about the other half of the home games? What about in 3 - 4 years when Vegas is no longer a novelty and people decide they aren't making the trip every year. It is great Vegas is a destination city, and vacationers will certainly help attendance, but for the franchise to truly be successful, they need to make an impact and get a following locally. Playoff revenue is huge for teams to make money. Lets say the Jets and Knights face each other in a playoff series a number of years down the road. Are a significant number of people going to pay $200+ a ticket here AND travel to see the team in Vegas. Not likely. They are going to need support from the locals.

I believe Fleury waived because he wants to be a starter on a team more then specifically helping the Penguins

I get fans will generally take the side that most benefits their team, but I can’t criticise a player when they utilise something that was given to them in a negotiated contract that both sides agreed to. Who knows what Toby gave up or agreed to for that no trade clause. Now that he has it, he can use it for what is best for him and his family. Don’t understand this talk that I’ve heard from some of the call in shows about how Toby should be grateful to the organization for the contract he got and he should do what is best for the Jets because they’ve been good to him. That’s not how it works. No one goes around complaining that when a player is underpaid for his performance that a team should re-negotiate his contact to fair value. Yes, Toby’s play has declined. But a contract is a contract.

Getting Sergachev will certainly help Tampa's cap situation. They had Tyler Johnson, Palat, and Drouin all as RFAs. In today's NHL, what is more valuable? A Potential #1 centre or a potential 1-2 D man? Pressure is going to be on Drouin going to his home province. Haven't figured out either team's expansion situation before this and how this affects who they protect and expose. My guess is this helps Tampa, as I don't think Sergachev would need to be protected.

Big trade today

Blimp catches fire

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-tells-gms-not-to-leak-vegas-trades-1.778794

https://www.capfriendly.com/faq#nmc It sounds like the player has a chance to decide to waive or not based on if they acquiring team agrees to add the addendum. It does get very murky with the expansion draft when players are waiving without knowing if they will even be picked. I would imagine when a player waived for expansion they could say "only if Vegas adds the addendum" and Vegas would have the choice to accept that or not.

Ducky decided that he didn't much care for how this place is run.

I think you might be confusing the Myers situation and how his trade here removed his NMC, but that is a different case. Myers had a NMC in his contract with Buffalo, but it did not kick in until the next calendar year when we acquired him (I believe because you can't have a NMC on your RFA years). In that situation, the Jets had the option of not accepting the NMC in his contract because it had not yet started. This is not the case on contracts when the NMC is already active.

Because then you can protect extra forwards as well as Myers. If you protect Trouba, Myers, Buff, and Enstrom ... you get to protect less players overall. 8 skaters and a 1 goaltender If you protect Trouba, Myers, and Buff ... you get to do the 7 Forwards - 3 D-men -1 goaltender

Maybe, maybe not. This just gives them options / flexibility depending what shakes out this week. Either way they are covered now.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592

My guess is the Jets didn't want to give him a big bump in salary and so the short term contract. Also, the 1 year deal means when this contract is up, he has arbitration rights. Dano's camp isn't going to sign long term at that price, so the compromise I think is on the term. If they don't think what is being offered is fair next year, they can go to arbitration. They didn't have much leverage at all on this contract. I don't think this affects expansion draft at all. He is still an RFA at the end of this deal, I don't think the possibility of arbitration would "scare" Vegas from picking him if they were interested.

This is a bit of a long read, but an interesting article on how the most successful / powerful artificial intelligence programs out there are self taught and due to the vast amounts of data that they compile and consume to come to their conclusions, no one really understands how they make the decisions they do. Yet they are very accurate. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604087/the-dark-secret-at-the-heart-of-ai/

Submission at 10 AM and announcement at 8 PM. Wonder how many leaks there will be before the official announcement.

I love how Bettman has embraced the role and the booing. That smile of his and little shrug of the shoulders after the boos is priceless. He would make a great heel manager in wrestling.

You are making a few leaps here. Walters never said what they disagree about, unless you have some other source, everything you have here is conjecture on what MOS is thinking and what they debate. He never said it "takes stuff to repair" either. What I heard is ... they have their discussion / disagreement, a decision is made, and once done, they move on. Seems more like healthy debate to me.