Follow @james_tanner123 Sabres Lose Draft Lottery
What's it like to perform the most blatant tank-job in NHL history and then lose the draft-lottery?
The Sabres spent what probably seemed like a decade preparing for Connor McDavid only to have the Oilers swoop in and grab him. It was like waking up Christmas morning and unwrapping a Go-Bot instead of a Transformer. Seriously Gramma?
I'm sure he's no GoBot, but just how good is Jack Eichel going to be? He's the consensus number-two, but with the hype surrounding him is a mile thick and he played in the NCAA, as opposed to the CHL, so comparisons are difficult.
I mean, he scored only 26 goals - those are Joe Sacco numbers!
But Buffalo is crushed, as much as they can pretend they're happy with Jack Eichel, not getting Connor McDavid has to go down as the biggest blow to the franchise and city in months. Lucky Buffalo is used to it, whereas in any other town this might not be something you could get over so quickly.
Of course, I'm only kidding around here, and if you saw Garth's (excellent) blog this morning you'll know why ......Eichel is going to be great, Buffalo is a great city, and the team is poised to be one of the most exciting in the NHL for years to come........I'm going to stop just short of saying "lol" but any Coyotes attention is good attention and we thank Garth for bringing our team's plight to a wider audience.
Damn right we are ___________(expletive deleted) about picking third.
Jeff Petry Signing
This is a great deal for the Canadiens. Petry came to a team terrible at possession and put up terrible possession numbers after he joined them at the deadline. However, lets credit the guy for maybe needing to make adjustments, because he went on to post a CF rating of 54% in the Playoffs.
By all accounts, he's a talented player - he skates well, he's big, and he can move the puck. As far as signing a UFA, his contract is pretty decent - six years with a cap-hit of $5.5. If you compare it to similarly paid defensemen, you get Niskanen, Orpik, Bouwmeester and Giardi. as far as cap-hits and length left on the deal goes.
Of those players, with the possible exception of Bouwmeester, who's three years older, you'd take Petry over all of them. If you can skate Petry for the same cost as Orpik or Giardi, especially since his deal was signed later (and thus technically cheaper due to inflation) then you are getting a deal.
Great move for the Habs.
Boedker/ Tikhonov
It's been reported that talks are "moving slowly" with Boedker, however I wouldn't read too much into this. Neither side probably wants to set the market and Boedker is a difficult player to pay as he is incredibly talented but hasn't really got the stats to back it up.
Now part of this is on him, and part of it is on the team, so you figure cooler heads will prevail and they'll settle on compromise because clearly if they try to trade him they aren't going to get back the value of the pick they used on him or the time they spent developing - he's more valuable then to the Coyotes than anyone else.
A short-term deal make sense for Boedker so he can get paid when he breaks out, which I am sure he will when the Coyotes start to dress other players of his skill-level, which should begin happening next season. I say, however, that the Coyotes should go a bit higher on the cap hit and extend him for five or six years - this way, you bet on your own player and don't have to pay him market value if and when he does break out. It's a little risky, but it's a good way to keep flexibility in your cap.
A similar gamble was made with OEL and that's paying off handsomely.
As for Tikhonov, he was the Coyotes second first-round pick (28th) in 2008, the year they drafted Boedker. He was two years older than most of his draft-class and surprisingly made the Coyotes out of camp the same year he was drafted.
However, he spent the next two seasons in the AHL and then the next four in the KHL. The Coyotes have a 30 day window where they are the exclusive team that can sign him, and then he becomes a UFA if it doesn't happen. It is not expected to happen.
Too bad, you hate to waste a first-rounder, but what can you do?
Thanks for reading