Roussel to VAN 4yrs at $3.2MM per year.....

Wow. Kunitz??

Im good with Manning. He will be solid. We may have 107 D guys under contract, but only about three can play NHL level hockey.

I look at the Chris Kunitz trade like this, it gives them veteran forward, while carrying a few young unknowns in Dylan Sikura and Edjsel.

For all the junk written and decided here, it looks like Manning was a physical defender pick up for Q.
I bet that Manning is a 2-way deal.

I got home and put on the NHL channel, and they are in on tape delay or are completely out of the freaking loop...sat down waiting to hear anything about Hawk trades, even on the crawler...an ll we heard is everything we knew at daybreak and then the wet seats after the leafs sign Tavares...

I think you are right. I think the Murphy trade rumors might be true and I think they are going to find a way to lose Oesterle, even if it is waivers (just my guess).
- breadbag

Eugene Melnyk is probably salivating - he knows he can get 6 cheap Dmen from the Hawks and dump Bobby Ryan's contract in return.

They have cap space to bring in another guy. For the short term they are fine. They are doing what the Penguins did...load up with so much talent at forward where if you're serviceable at defense you got a chance.
- kwolf68

Agree but I see the Pens as ok with dumping and crashing when it is the only option given. Q worships at the possession alter and won't allow dumping. ...... Get the damn thing out and to the other end and away from your goalie any way possible and hair on fire to get the thing back. Get the thing to the neutral zone any way possible and win a 50/50 with support. You can do that with a speed game and less than stellar Dmen. Indeed the Pens did that and won a cup with Daley in their top 4.

Q is repulsed at the thought.

Roussel to VAN 4yrs at $3.2MM per year....
- Return of the Roar

Crazy money for him...
just cant believe those are the figures...

Why would the leafs heavily load JT's contract with signing bonuses all 7 years? his AAV still is 11.0???

Agree but I see the Pens as ok with dumping and crashing when it is the only option given. Q worships at the possession alter and won't allow dumping. ...... Get the damn thing out and to the other end and away from your goalie any way possible and hair on fire to get the thing back. Get the thing to the neutral zone any way possible and win a 50/50 with support. You can do that with a speed game and less than stellar Dmen. Indeed the Pens did that and won a cup with Daley in their top 4.

Q is repulsed at the thought.
- Mr Ricochet

Pens have good forechecking forwards, the Hawks do not. Hawks are one of the worst fore checking teams in existence. There should be a combination of puck possession and giving up the puck (chip/dump)....Q is a stubborn ole' mule.

LOL no. With how much better some of these teams are than the Hawks, the Hawks just need to blow this up. The Hawks are NOWHERE close to about 12 or 13 teams in the NHL.
- kwolf68

Aren't they though. Last year Bowman kept bringing in young talent, gave more ice time to the youngsters at NHL level, i had to wait 15 years for the Hawks to be relative in the NHL, i really admire how aggressive they are being in bringing young talent in, traded up twice in the draft, even though they aren't saying it they in a way blowing it up and keeping the fan favorites to ease the pain for more casual fans.

Ahh yes, lets get a backup goalie, because Bowman blew it by obtaining his backup LAST YEAR. If Bowman knew what he was doing we wouldn't have to spend the 3 million on Ward. What happened to Forsberg? He stinks now? Did Bowman send the same scouts to check in on Forsberg that he sent to look at Kimo Timmonen before he sent two #2 picks to Philly? Now we hear rumblings Bowman is shopping Murphy, the prize of the Hammer deal. Of course Bowman sent Dauphin back to Arizona, the other part of the Hammer deal.

OK, they Manning, another third pairing guy. Super, we need more of those.

Dude couldn't even move Hossa's salary, but every other stinking team with such contracts seemingly have no trouble moving their dead contracts. Lets compare how Detroit got rid of Dats salary with what Bowman finally agrees to in moving Hoss's salary (assuming he is even capable of moving it). This is an episode of GM run amock, with zero clue.
- kwolf68

Did Forsberg look ready to take the reigns last year when Crawford was hurt? If Crawford is lost to injury again, do you think they are comfortable with Forsberg and whomever they can scrape together? I don't think they are done with Forsberg at this point as potential is still there.

I'd love to sit here and criticize Stan, but I'm not or have never been an NHL GM myself. Moving Hossa isn't a simple as Datsyuk because of the term and how much teams have been waiting for other parts to move, like Tavares. I'd wait until the dust settles.

Does any team even come close to the Leafs centre poistion .
- HamiltonHawk

Lightning have Stamkos, point, Johnson, miller.

But leafs are number one now

Did Forsberg look ready to take the reigns last year when Crawford was hurt? If Crawford is lost to injury again, do you think they are comfortable with Forsberg and whomever they can scrape together? I don't think they are done with Forsberg at this point as potential is still there.

I'd love to sit here and criticize Stan, but I'm not or have never been an NHL GM myself. Moving Hossa isn't a simple as Datsyuk because of the term and how much teams have been waiting for other parts to move, like Tavares. I'd wait until the dust settles.
- breadbag

Yea I see you don't love to sit there and criticize Bowman claiming you don't do so because "you never have been GM". So is that your argument that NO ONE should have any criticism of that guy? Because "we have not been GMs?" I noticed it doesn't work both ways, as you freely spin justifications for him, even though...you have never been GM.

And 2 of the 3 are 1 yr deals. Hawks better at backup goalie, better on defense (not hard to do) and tougher to play against with Kunitz and Manning.
- Mr Ricochet

Yeah, we should go from 76 points to 81 next year.

Yeah, we should go from 76 points to 81 next year.
- onehundredlevel

Almost playoffs here we come

If CC is healthy i bet we'll be right around 90 points minimum

Why would the leafs heavily load JT's contract with signing bonuses all 7 years? his AAV still is 11.0???
- riozzo

Lockout protected money. Signing bonuses are paid July 1st, no matter if there is any hockey in October or not. Salary, on the other hand…

Hossa + one of the magnificent 10D to Ott
for Ryan w/Ott retaining 50%

Cap space for us, Ott saves $$$$

Ryan with Kane might work

Its win now or else with the Leafs. And sign Mathews to huge money asap before somebody offer sheets him and forces the Leafs to match.
- RickJ

Matthews is the kind of guy that will make franchises break precedent. That God da%@ Wilson lost out on Tavares and would not think twice about offer sheeting Matthews!! Hawk fans know that first hand.

Why would the leafs heavily load JT's contract with signing bonuses all 7 years? his AAV still is 11.0???
- riozzo

Yeah, doesn't make the linkage money-wise that was supposed to be happening when the Matthews, Mitch Marner snd Nylander resign.

Matthews will get the most money and the other two with get less, even the supposed equal money for Marner and Nylander goes out the door, and even though the leafs emphatically said in the past they would sign all three, this will impact the the entire rest of the line ups salary.

and they have for this last season they have incurred a bonus overage of $5,370,000...besides the salaries for this upcoming season.
Matthews got $ 2,850,000 and Nylander and Marner got 850,000 each.

I imagine they will be in the Stan Bowman shoes really soon, with no Cups yet won...

Not really they didn't jeopardize future cap monies which Bowman now understands is so valuable
- BetweenTheDots

I don't understand this point of view. Yes, we have money to sign Schmaltz and Sikura and The Cat. Meanwhile, Toews, Kane, Keith, Crawford and Seabrook are two years older and all past their prime. How does any of this help us now? Or in 2-3 years down the road. And if we are playing for 2-3 years down the road...then why not start trading the core? Now of these moves (today) make any sense to me.

Yea I see you don't love to sit there and criticize Bowman claiming you don't do so because "you never have been GM". So is that your argument that NO ONE should have any criticism of that guy? Because "we have not been GMs?" I noticed it doesn't work both ways, as you freely spin justifications for him, even though...you have never been GM.
- kwolf68

I'm just saying it is easy to complain about everything he has done from way back here when you've never been in his shoes. It is bit much to expect that he should have easily done a bunch of things that are obvious and make it sound like he is incompetent. Nothing personally towards you, but Stan did some good today in avoiding some of these bad contracts in a knee jerk reaction to try to "save the team" They weren't going to dramatically improve the team in Free Agency. They got some goaltending insurance, they got a decent Dman who can play NHL minutes and a guy who has a scoring knack that can fill in. In two years, they have that money free again for signing the young guys who actually can change the course of the franchise.

I just have to laugh.

3 million and a full ntc to an old has been goalie.

Signing a guy who is way past his prime in Kunitz for his supposedly veteran leadership.

And then signing a depth d guy because we need more 5-7 d men. We only have 6 already.

Just an awful start to the season for bowman and Hockey opps. Nothing to think they will improve on a god awful last season baring a major smart Hockey trade.

Carry on.....

I don't understand this point of view. Yes, we have money to sign Schmaltz and Sikura and The Cat. Meanwhile, Toews, Kane, Keith, Crawford and Seabrook are two years older and all past their prime. How does any of this help us now? Or in 2-3 years down the road. And if we are playing for 2-3 years down the road...then why not start trading the core? Now of these moves (today) make any sense to me.
- onehundredlevel

Sikura edjisell should be in rockford all season no matter what stop rushing players when they should be developing. Finally got a coach in rockford whom cab develop players

I don't understand this point of view. Yes, we have money to sign Schmaltz and Sikura and The Cat. Meanwhile, Toews, Kane, Keith, Crawford and Seabrook are two years older and all past their prime. How does any of this help us now? Or in 2-3 years down the road. And if we are playing for 2-3 years down the road...then why not start trading the core? Now of these moves (today) make any sense to me.
- onehundredlevel

Because Rocky rewarded the core players for their past success. The deal is they stick around since they are fan favorites which equals ticket sales, while Bowman and Co. restock the machine before those contracts expire, that's really what i believe.

Btw it doesn't help us now in any way but fyi no one, not one organization has been able to figure out how to win a championship every year, the closest thing was back in the day when the NHL had geographical proximity rules

I look at the Chris Kunitz trade like this, it gives them veteran forward, while carrying a few young unknowns in Dylan Sikura and Edjsel.

For all the junk written and decided here, it looks like Manning was a physical defender pick up for Q.
I bet that Manning is a 2-way deal.

I got home and put on the NHL channel, and they are in on tape delay or are completely out of the freaking loop...sat down waiting to hear anything about Hawk trades, even on the crawler...an ll we heard is everything we knew at daybreak and then the wet seats after the leafs sign Tavares...
- wiz1901

NHLN blows, as does most all of their on air "talent". Never learned a thing from Weeksey. ........ Gotta have a SN feed to get any up to date news/analysis or XM Radio.

Yeah, we should go from 76 points to 81 next year.
- onehundredlevel

lol. So true. People acting like manning is some jewel. A late bloomer. JC. What a joke.

The ufa interest was so high on Kunitz he signed for 1 million so his wife could come home.

I’m guessing ward had other offers but the patented bowman full ntc sealed the deal.

Kunitz will hopefully be dealt at the deadline for a pick.