Rangerland Forum Information

[Rocha]

Nash could go for another problematic star like a Heatley type, these kind of trades happen a lot, but I feel very confident in thinking they are not getting any team's young star/cornerstone for him. They will be getting decent but not great roster players and/or draft picks and/or prospects. Just like the Rangers offered. Or they get a good young player who's a UFA after next season and plays in Columbus one season.

[leedsy99]

Who cares what Mason makes?

The NHL operates under a salary cap. Every penny counts. For example ...

Bryzgalov proved that he wanted the big contract, not a winner. If ownership was willing to spend $60M-plus on a roster then they had the money.

Mason makes $2.9 million dollars this season. Bryzgalov makes $5.6 million. If Bryz signed with Columbus, their goalie position would cost them $8.5 million. In contrast, the Rangers goalie position costs $7.8 ... and they have Henrik Lundqvist. Boston costs $6.2 ... and they have Tim Thomas. New Jersey costs $6.4 ... and they have Martin Brodeur. In fact, without crunching every single team, I would imagine that your proposed goaltending tandem in Columbus would be the most expensive in the entire NHL, for two goalies that right now have save percentages of .866 and .899. And they would still be under contract for the year after. That's a ton of money committed to two players that are actively hurting the team, money which cannot be spent on other players. That's the kind of decision that gets a general manager fired.

And just to stay consistant, I've argued that decisions should be considered in context. Even assuming that Bryzgalov is worth the price of his contract (and right now he has the worst contract in the NHL), he's never been good enough to the point of making a tandem with him the highest paid in the league. Because at some point in the analysis you have to consider the analysis above, the worst case scenario, prior to signing.

Guguere's numbers were worse than Mason's in 2010-2011? He had a .500 record, posted a 2.87GAA, and a SV% of .900. Mason was three games over .500, a 3.03GAA, and a .901 SV%. Wow...the difference is staggering. Incredibly enough it was almost the exact performance of the season prior. I think that should indicate that he is not a starting goalie.

Baffling. Anyway, you miss the point. You're suggesting that, in order to correct what you see to be a problem, they should have paid money and committed a portion of their salary cap to a player whose stats were worse than or identical to the current problem. "Listen, my car has four flat tires and I need to get to work. The solution to my problem, therefore, is to get another car with four flat tires."

Plus, a solid veteran goalie could have helped him and Giguere would have been a fine fit.

Getting Mason a puppy might have helped his problems too, and it wouldn't have cost them $1 million dollars. There is no way to prove this.

I don't know what you said about Theodore, but i cannot see any reason to use him to defend your case as his numbers in Minnesota were very good and his contract demands are now a bargain.

My answer to Theodore was that you never know what you're getting with him. But even if he was a good fit, he's one player. What do you do when he tells you that he's allergic to Ohio? What is the next plan?

EITHER WAY!!!! ............. Howson planned his goaltending tandem using Mason and signing a two year AHL goaltender in Curtis Sanford. I don't care what you say leedsy, but that is pathetic. And Sanford has actually done a pretty decent job if you look at his numbers, but he allows the soft ones and cannot finish a game with a solid performance. From the get-go this was already an issue.

It is just inexcusable to try and build a team by spending $15M on new players and completely neglecting goaltending, which was a problem for two straight seasons. I think spending $2.2M on Radek Martinek just goes to show how inept this GM really is.

I don't know what else to say, and obviously no one else is going to help me defend the guy that just cock-blocked us on Rick Nash. Being the general manager of a small-market team in a non-traditional market is hard work, because you compete not only with 29 other teams but also against pressures like marketing the sport and establishing a fanbase, tenuous ownership, regional limitations and just general bias. One only needs to look at the attitudes of the two best players on the Blue Jackets to start the season to see the problems -- one overpaid star didn't want to be there in the first place, the other decided to ask out after a few months. Any dummy can land someone like Alex Ovechkin and build an empire around him, but it's hard work to build around one struggling star and an endless parade of underachievers.

This post has been edited by leedsy99: Mar 1 2012, 09:34 AM

[Hockey101]

Nash could go for another problematic star like a Heatley type, these kind of trades happen a lot, but I feel very confident in thinking they are not getting any team's young star/cornerstone for him. They will be getting decent but not great roster players and/or draft picks and/or prospects. Just like the Rangers offered. Or they get a good young player who's a UFA after next season and plays in Columbus one season.

He could, but i cannot think of a team that has that kind of player.

[Hockey101]

leedsy,

The NHL operates under a salary cap. Every penny counts. For example ...

Exactly, every penny counts. So why even spend over $2M on Martinek when your biggest necessity is goaltending improvement?

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Fair point on Bryzgalov
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Baffling. Anyway, you miss the point. You're suggesting that, in order to correct what you see to be a problem, they should have paid money and committed a portion of their salary cap to a player whose stats were worse than or identical to the current problem. "Listen, my car has four flat tires and I need to get to work. The solution to my problem, therefore, is to get another car with four flat tires."

Don't say worse because they were not unless you are anal about a thousandth percentage point. And J-S Giguere has an excellent resume, a Stanley Cup, a trophy, and knowing his talents and abilities Howson probably should have put a better bet on Giguere-Mason than Sanford-Mason. The Panthers replaced Vokoun with Theodore. On paper that is a downgrade. On knowledge it's knowing Theodore's career, his strengths and flaws, but a better bet than signing a two-year AHL goalie as your back-up to a "starting" goalie that has played two poor seasons.

You are basically justifying every move Howson made in signing depth free agents in Prospal and Martinek, with a cap hit of around $5M, rather than addressing his goaltending, which was the biggest concern two years running, and include this year makes it three years running.

I don't know what else to say, and obviously no one else is going to help me defend the guy that just cock-blocked us on Rick Nash. Being the general manager of a small-market team in a non-traditional market is hard work, because you compete not only with 29 other teams but also against pressures like marketing the sport and establishing a fanbase, tenuous ownership, regional limitations and just general bias. One only needs to look at the attitudes of the two best players on the Blue Jackets to start the season to see the problems -- one overpaid star didn't want to be there in the first place, the other decided to ask out after a few months. Any dummy can land someone like Alex Ovechkin and build an empire around him, but it's hard work to build around one struggling star and an endless parade of underachievers.

I don't care about the Nash ordeal since 1) I said he was not getting traded in the first place, and 2) he was not worth the price. I am pissed that Craig Patrick got involved because i think he made Nash un-tradable. But nothing in regards to the Rangers not acquiring him.

This is my problem with Columbus. If ownership was ready to dish out $60M+ in player salaries for this season then the money was there to utilize for management to build a strong team. Let's recap. Howson went out to get Prospal, Wisnewski, Martinet, Sanford, a bunch of mediocre depth players, and made a big trade in getting Jeff Carter.

A good GM would have looked at his team's performance over the past two seasons and seen that goaltending was a glaring weakness. He had the money, the resources, the cap space, players to trade if he had to, to acquire a bonafide starting goaltender. He did not address that weakness. A small market team put the money forth to challenge the big market teams spending just as much, and that means that expectations go up, big time. You want to play with the big teams, you better have a solid team.

Howson gambled that a Mason-Sanford tandem was good enough. He lost that gamble, which was obvious. I am not sure i heard of any team spending so much and going into the season with a mediocre goalie and a veteran two years in a row AHL goalie.

Sorry leedsy, but there is just no way you can defend Howson's decision on neglecting his goaltending while using his resources to add other pieces. Any smart GM would take at least a gamble on a proven goalie. The Avalanche did that despite trading for a young goalie in Varlamov, but to back him up they got Giguere and that is why they are still in the playoff hunt, not ridiculously last in the league.