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An AHL goalie was added to the mix as Detroit signed John Lethemon. The only oddity is having 5 goalies right now between the NHL and AHL. Cossa, Lyon and Lethemon are listed as “non roster…, but unless I’ve misread the situation, Cossa is slated for Grand Rapids. We have Husso and Reimer listed for Detroit. There may be an injury or consideration in place that I don’t know about but unless someone is heading to Toledo somewhere there will be a 3 goalie pile up. Just a wait and see. Let the theories commence!
Most of you who have read this blog for the past several months know that I’ve been tracking both Bally and ESPN. Bally due to bankruptcy and ESPN as they have had several layoffs. When the parent company (Disney) announced a 3 tier corporation with ESPN as its own individual “leg… (parks and streaming/entertainment are the others) it raised another red flag. If you ever watched “Office Space…, when people or departments are isolated and independently reviewed, that is usually a predecessor to changes. I reached out early on to some of the sharpest and best in terms of internal contacts at the parent company and no one seemed to think that anything was happening. That is starting to change.
The hiring of Pat McAfee preceded the layoffs of 20 on air journalists (along with around 375 other layoffs this year). An annual salary of 18 million was reported, and it turned into a little bit of a Twitter “skirmish…. The talk went from “ESPN is a profitable rock solid entity… to “ESPN has been losing money…. New $ have been floated for a full switch to streaming. Instead of 20, it’s now $23-$33 per month being floated. The story changes almost weekly as the latest earning call approaches. (Unrelated, CNN is being said to be “for sale…). Things are changing rapidly in how and what people consume or pay for. The difference now is that credit lines are being limited or cut off. The primary shareholder for Disney lessened their interest in the company and fell to the number 2 spot. They were also a source of credit lines.
You may not realize that the Writer’s Guild strike is at near the 2 month mark. One movie studio is re releasing 8 “classics… with no ability to work on greenlit properties. In the online journalism world, Gizmodo officially released an article written by AI. “So what…, right? This is a toe in the water. If you’re an optimist about it, you talk about the types of non essential write ups that can be covered this way. You still need an editor, because weird stuff can happen (even up to using someone else’s material) but a model of an editor cleaning up hundreds of AI articles per week has been floated. Gaming, music and hobbyist sites continue to layoff and close positions and I haven’t seen any forward movement on the negotiations with the guild go. I don’t see a massive shift to AI written content as a good thing. It’s a money saver and people replacer. I also don’t see how to avoid its integration at this point.
Finally, Debrincat. Yzerman is said to be holding steady as is “team cat…. This is the part of the summer where there isn’t a rush. One write up has said that Larkin’s contract is the ceiling, even indicating that Debrincat would have to be at least somewhat less than that. There was also talk that Seider could end up with a higher AAV than the captain. That one shocked me a bit, but that’s a “wait and see…. Seider will be the toughest post ELC negotiation we’ve seen in Detroit for a long time (possibly ever).
I’ll lay it out, I like Debrincat. I hear the arguments about his size and deficiencies, but he can score. Having a line where the center and one of the wingers are strong 2 way players with one winger that is there to create isn’t a disastrous scenario. In the end, it will come down to cost of acquisition. Rumors of interest from Calgary are out there, but with several players on the way out I’m not sure if that’s where Debrincat will want to be. Ottawa has had its own issues and I don’t think they’ve sat well with the player.
I am absolutely willing to admit I was wrong on that point if that’s the way things go. I get the feeling that the player wants to move on and at some point decisions will have to be made. There’s a lot “in the air… right now, very curios to see what the fall has in store for the Wings and the NHL in general.