You gotta take the good with the bad...if you thought TT was gonna walk in and play in the NHL, you were in my sights, and you deserved to hear it from me.
- wiz1901

No Wiz, not me. No comments on TT from me. Feel free to look back. I'm just commenting on your approach to everyone else here.

I get it. You know what you're talking about. You let people know that you feel like you know a lot about what you're talking about. Nobody disagrees with that. But you unload on the board in general to prove a point or just try and bring people down a peg, and I'm tired of hearing it. Not like it's just today.

It's the snark and "told you so" mentality that I'm tired of hearing. Every goddamn time. There are better ways to go about it, and I think you could step off the soapbox a heckuva lot more than you're willing to.

Just my $0.02 and again, thanks for considering.

Also best song in a western. Agreed best western ever.
- Canardhawk

Meh. Prefer Once Upon A Time in the West. Charles Bronson at his finest.

Meh. Prefer Once Upon A Time in the West. Charles Bronson at his finest.
- faustus1500

Best western ever?

Several from the Duke:

Rio Grande
Red River
The Man who Shot Liberty Valance
Stagecoach

Then there is Clint Eastwood's:

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Outlaw Josey Wales (I'm still pissed to this day that he didn't make
the 2nd Jose Wales tale)

Others include The Magnificent Seven and the movie I feel has the best gun fight ever filmed, Shane.

For me it's 1. Shane 2. Outlaw Josey Wales 3. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?

Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?

Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.
- jhawk59

If Hayes wants to join the organization them great, he can accept his role as one of our prospects and start the season in Rockford. If Hayes doesn't want to be a part of the organization then I wish him the best of luck elsewhere.

Regardless if Hayes is a boom or a bust (for us or another team) I'm not going to lose any sleep over the situation.

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?

Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.
- jhawk59

Stanbo should just come out and call him for what his is, an entitled brat that doesn't want to pay his dues... Or he doesn't want to be exposed by the most talented club in hockey for the mid-level career AHLer he is. That's fine. Some of us have to shoot for mediocrity right?

Im not so sure that is accurate..on the Hawks website theres an interview with him at the prospects camp and he mentions that the coaching staff gave him a lot of tips and pointers that he can take back with him to Yale...unless I heard it wrong..
- Glenman12

You are correct he does say that. There is a written article/interview with him also that says something to the effect him saying Hopefully I can advance enough to come out after my second or third year. I think the article mentioned his parents (both doctors) wanted him to get his degree, and that he was very intelligent and good academically.

Just did a google search, nothing about him leaving Yale, including his twitter page.

Don't think that report about him going to Rockford is true.

I suggest you alll spent time tweeting Kevin hayes directly and telling why he shouldn't be afraid of competing to win a job, with the reward being playing with a fast team.

@KevinPHayes12

...maybe make jersey with his name and number 12 on it?
- wiz1901

You are correct he does say that. There is a written article/interview with him also that says something to the effect him saying Hopefully I can advance enough to come out after my second or third year. I think the article mentioned his parents (both doctors) wanted him to get his degree, and that he was very intelligent and good academically.

Just did a google search, nothing about him leaving Yale, including his twitter page.

Don't think that report about him going to Rockford is true.
- vabeachbear

He needs to go back to Yale. BIG difference between rat hockey at prospect camp and the AHL.

He needs to go back to Yale. BIG difference between rat hockey at prospect camp and the AHL.
- John Jaeckel

Is US college hockey on a par with CHL hockey - only with about 60% of the games (an important difference, I would think)?

- vabeachbear

If someone cares enough to be a salesman, then I would ask for you to consider telling Hayes why Kane and Toews re-signed. It is just not about the money from their contract. And if he wants a spot in the lineup, well Chicago sorely is lacking big players who play big.

It is going too far to explain how Bickel is at a crossroads in his career. Barring injury, Bickel needs to show he is worth the money he receives. And the only other big size players I see on the horizon are McNeill and Hayden so yes Hayes has a spot open but he will have to earn it first in Rockford, then continue to do what the coaches stress in Chicago. As an aside, great scoring feat or talent alone does not guarantee playing time under coach Q. See J Morin as an example.

Learn your craft and play more physical brand than the mercurial Bickel. Earn it, then keep it [a job].

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?

Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.
- jhawk59

Hawk, a large part of the way I develop an opinion an any player is to ask myself if that player makes the other players on the ice with him more effective players. In the case of this Hayes kid it seems by most accounts that Gadreau was the key for him, and not the other way around. I'm not blaming a guy for wanting to make the show, but if Hayes is pursuing it selfishly and not considering any team perspective then it's probably best to let him go. If he does eventually make the show my guess is the boos in the UC for him will drown out Cornhole doing the anthem.

Hawk, a large part of the way I develop an opinion an any player is to ask myself if that player makes the other players on the ice with him more effective players. In the case of this Hayes kid it seems by most accounts that Gadreau was the key for him, and not the other way around. I'm not blaming a guy for wanting to make the show, but if Hayes is pursuing it selfishly and not considering any team perspective then it's probably best to let him go. If he does eventually make the show my guess is the boos in the UC for him will drown out Cornhole doing the anthem.
- 6628

I was hoping he would develop in Rockford, then see if he is worth much. There often is interest in big size players. Harry Howell once answered a question I had when comparing the NHL dreams of two Blues farmhands in Salt Lake City (affiliate): "Crawford maybe scores.25 goals if he was with a top NHL center, but Joey Mullen could score 50."

Hayes will score 30 AHL one year if his brother did (or he was close to that total). I am not holding but a thread of hope seeing him become a Blackhawk. But I wonder how physical and how often he creates havoc with his skill and size. He did so as a collegiate. Let him show this much in the AHL. But like I alluded.....not likely happening with Chicago. Just now happened to realize that he could join his brother in Florida, a team still under the cap.

More Wiz snark:

STLTODAY.COM: Jeremy Rutherford believes Sobotka’s hearing today could determine if he ever wears a Blues uniform again, as he could decide not to return to the NHL unless the Blues trade him. Sobotka’s agent claims his client recently asked to be traded when an agreement couldn’t be reached on a new contract before he signed with the KHL. In a recent interview with a Czech sports website, Sobotka said his plan is to play a season in the KHL and return to the NHL with a different team. He claimed he had no choice but to sign with Avangard Omsk because the Blues refused to trade him. The Blues best offer was a one-year, $2.7 million contract. Sobotka sought a one-year deal worth $3 million, after which he’d become an unrestricted free agent. The club also made a two-year, $6 million offer but it wasn’t accepted. Sobotka’s three-year KHL contract pays him slightly more than $4 million per season, and continues an “out clause” at the end of each season.

Think long on this one, why would they not succumb to this one yr then UFA deal with Sobotka and have him for THIS playoff run.

All they had to do was
not sign OTT at 2.6 mil or Jori Lehtera at 2.75.

I realize they still have RFA Jaden Schwartz to sign, but they thought their bottom end was better served bt adding Euro vet Joakin Lindstrom at 700,000 and could easily launch the young Karl Magnus Svensson-Paajarvi whose making 1.2 million and others...

Sure overpay Paul Statsny 7 mil, I have no problem with that, but why let your best guy in the dot and your most instense competitor after Backes just leave????

It is so funny here on a Chicago site there are so many whinning that Bickell was never worth an in house reward for serving the organization, and the Blues whine about 3 mil for THIS specific player?

It seems like this even if the player wins his arbitration (that helps him LATER when he returns from Russia), why would NOT play based on what he has shown performance -wise?
Even if the player didn't two years at 3 millioj (because he is sure he can do better) why not make sure he's there next year in the first post Statsny era playoff run?

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?



Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.
- jhawk59

Start tweeting this to him in bits and pieces....

@KevinPHayes12

Anyone else waiting for Bickell to be moved this week?

Without any hot stove league activity.
- StLBravesFan

We have the MLB NWT deadline in just over 10 days, that's something to look forward to, right? Who will the Cubs off load next?

No Wiz, not me. No comments on TT from me. Feel free to look back. I'm just commenting on your approach to everyone else here.

I get it. You know what you're talking about. You let people know that you feel like you know a lot about what you're talking about. Nobody disagrees with that. But you unload on the board in general to prove a point or just try and bring people down a peg, and I'm tired of hearing it. Not like it's just today.

It's the snark and "told you so" mentality that I'm tired of hearing. Every goddamn time. There are better ways to go about it, and I think you could step off the soapbox a heckuva lot more than you're willing to.

Just my $0.02 and again, thanks for considering.
- stp1978

It's what happens when someone is verbose instead of terse in these situations. Having dealt with that for 30+ years now in industry, I'm sort of used to it, but I completely understand your PoV. Many of us older guys get more verbose and cranky as we age. And I would imagine Wiz is at least a few years older than me and many other middle-aged+ guys on this board.

Anyone else waiting for Bickell to be moved this week?
- ChicagoDave

If the team goal is a deep playoff run, I prefer to keep the big size player Bickel and hope he can approach his playoff success from two seasons ago. Regular season improvement is a bonus - possible but I believe it when he shows it. So yeah I want Bickel over Leddy and (tough choice) but over Oduya too. I would rather gamble that Dahlbeck and one other could play well enough on the back end. I have little confidence that Bowman could replace WHAT BICKEL CAN PROVIDE.

I realize others may disagree. But that is my opinion even if most everyone might disagree.

Message

To: Kevin Hayes

You do not have many choices where your contract will fit under the cap. You are not going to automatically be in a top six, even making a roster is not a certainty. If you are not ready for an NHL job, then you will be sitting in the press box or barely used on a bottom line. What does that do for your NHL dream? Oh, so you would play for Calgary? Enjoy yourself, you American boy, in Calgary. Town may be ok but you are in the middle of no where.

Instead, earn your playing time by accepting a minor league assignment. When your game is better many teams could use you. May or may not have a top role. If you want a top role, you will never get it without earning it. Understand?

Or are you just holding out for top dollar. You might wind up being penny wise and dollar foolish when your rookie NHL season ends. Keep dreaming, pal; that is your comfort zone place.
- jhawk59

That whole entitlement thing about this kid tells me he'd fit in an NBA situation better than the NHL. If this is truly the case, the 'Hawks shouldn't touch him with a 10' pole.

We have the MLB NWT deadline in just over 10 days, that's something to look forward to, right? Who will the Cubs off load next?
- blackhawk24

They would like to unload on the rooftop owners. Beyond that, who knows how much farther Epstein will de- value the major league roster. I would give E Jackson away. But Epstein did announce after the trade with the Athletics, that he hopes to be done with this prospect trading.
I just bet Steve Rain loathes Epstein's strategy for producing a good team down the road.

If the team goal is a deep playoff run, I prefer to keep the big size player Bickel and hope he can approach his playoff success from two seasons ago. Regular season improvement is a bonus - possible but I believe it when he shows it. So yeah I want Bickel over Leddy and (tough choice) but over Oduya too. I would rather gamble that Dahlbeck and one other could play well enough on the back end. I have little confidence that Bowman could replace WHAT BICKEL CAN PROVIDE.

I realize others may disagree. But that is my opinion even if most everyone might disagree.
- jhawk59

Given the role of each player on this team, and the term of their contract, I'd favor Bickell and Oduya over Leddy.

I totally agree on Bickell. His lackluster season overall has folks wanting to jettison that $4M cap hit. I get it. But the 'Hawks are thin at power forwards. As much love comes out for Shaw, he simply cannot mash someone like Bicks. Keeping Bicks and another years' maturation of Saad gives the 'Hawks a pretty solid 1-2 punch at LW.

I know Leddys' upside is greater than Oduya but he may be able to fetch more in a trade plus it gives the 'Hawks a chance to prepare the young D men another year. It also keeps that 2nd D pairing together another year. It's a risk, we get it, but unless SB has a carrot dangling out there who, in a trade will come in and replace JO seamlessly with Hammer, I just don't see moving Oduya in a salary cap dump.

Just sayin'...

Everyone here looks at the Kevin Hayes situation from a Hawks fan perspective...because we're all die hard hawks fans. But for a minute, let's take off the rose colored hawks goggles and look at Kevin Hayes situation from the perspective of Kevin Hayes, or Kevin Hayes' dad and mom. Simply looking out for the best career potential for Kevin Hayes.

Certainly, there are a lot of good points to joining the hawks organization. Winning club, storied tradition, strong player development history for a bunch of guys.

But there is also growing evidence of a log jam to get to the nhl team, and proof that players who can't get an NHL job on the hawks can get one on another team. Stanton, Olson, Pirri, etc.

Maybe you look for a team building for the future, willing to have their youngsters learn on the job on an nhl roster. Sort of like the Hawks did several years ago w Toews and Kane (not comparing KHayes to Toews and kane). Right now, the hawks are playing for Cups, and their coach is NOT interested in on-the-job training.

If Kevin Hayes were your son, you'd tell him about the positives of the Hawks organization. But you'd also recommend he take this "free agent" opportunity to look around at other teams to see if there is a better fit for his skill set, a more immediate need. You'd look for a team that might provide the best opportunity for him to build a successful NHL career. And in today's situation, for Kevin Hayes, that team might not be the Chicago Blackhawks.

To call him an immature baby for thinking that way, for doing his due diligence, is a result of wearing Blackhawks goggles to analyze the situation.

They would like to unload on the rooftop owners. Beyond that, who knows how much farther Epstein will de- value the major league roster. I would give E Jackson away. But Epstein did announce after the trade with the Athletics, that he hopes to be done with this prospect trading.
I just bet Steve Rain loathes Epstein's strategy for producing a good team down the road.
- jhawk59

The leeches, as I like to call them, are holding on for a buy-out. To me it's all posturing. As much as I love the old dump, I'd rather see the Cubs move (outside of Crook County) and run their biz-ops like a MLB team. No night game limits, no signage limits, no BS. MLB avg for night games is 54. Cubs? Way less. Build a new joint with Ivy, the marquee, iconic scoreboard, etc. Just amp-up the amenities and size it just right, ~45k.

I see smaller pieces being moved by the Cubs. A tell tale sign on the IF kids getting close (other than Bryant) is if Barney is moved for a bucket of BP balls. Sweeney and Schierholtz being moved perhaps? Olt is a Bryant place-holder. Jackson is worthless.

I'm 100% on board with Epsteins' plan. Most folks just don't know how bad the minors were. Every level. All the way down to Boise in the shortened-A season league. Coaching sucked. That's fixed and it's getting players to function in all aspects of the game.

I agree that Theo/Jed/Jason are near the end of flipping mid-level 1 year signings for prospects. In fact I think Jason is the lynchpin to this whole operation. Hearing he pulled his name out of the running for the SD job made me feel better.

Is US college hockey on a par with CHL hockey - only with about 60% of the games (an important difference, I would think)?
- StLBravesFan

Just my opinion, but based on some evidence:

US college hockey has improved as it seems more junior eligible players are going that route, as has the USHL as an option for younger players (17-18 year sold).

But . . . BIG difference, CHL is marginally more physical (no full cages). Former Hawk Jim Cummins said it best when talking about the jump from NCAA to pro. In the NCAA "guys run around like they're ten feet tall because they wear full cages."

Also IMO, CHL is reffed more loosely as far as the rough stuff.

I have also heard from guys who've played (and made it or not made it) the difference form CHL/NCAA to pro is speed AND physicality.

So, IMO, I think CHL prepares guys a bit better for the jump to pro (AHL or NHL) because it is more physical.