GDT R3G2 Capitals @ Lightning 2018-05-13 8:00pm EST NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS

[alta]

In regards to the expansion, I agree with the league in theory, that they wanted a team that was competitive from the onset instead of taking 5-8 years to build a up team. It helps build a fan base which helps with getting good players to actually want to play there. But the league screwed the rest of the league by only allowing teams to protect 10 players. A lot of us recognized this from the outset. Seattle will still be able to build a decent team if everyone else can protect 12 players. I think that would be the fairest for everyone, which includes the fans...


It's taken a long time to make DC a hockey town, not because this is only the third time Caps have made it to the 3rd round, but primarily because until 2001 we only got about half the games televised. That was the only good thing to come out of the Jágr trade. Until the mid '90s we only got about a third of the games. We had to get all of our hockey info from George Michaels Sports Machine, once a week at 11:30 on a Sunday night. It's exceedingly difficult to build a fan base if the fans can't watch the team play. Cable tv has been avalible in this area since 1970. We've only had 16 seasons where the entire season has been televised!


   it's moments like this I realize I'm getting old

[KitFisto]

In regards to the expansion, I agree with the league in theory, that they wanted a team that was competitive from the onset instead of taking 5-8 years to build a up team. It helps build a fan base which helps with getting good players to actually want to play there. But the league screwed the rest of the league by only allowing teams to protect 10 players. A lot of us recognized this from the outset. Seattle will still be able to build a decent team if everyone else can protect 12 players. I think that would be the fairest for everyone, which includes the fans...


It's taken a long time to make DC a hockey town, not because this is only the third time Caps have made it to the 3rd round, but primarily because until 2001 we only got about half the games televised. That was the only good thing to come out of the Jágr trade. Until the mid '90s we only got about a third of the games. We had to get all of our hockey info from George Michaels Sports Machine, once a week at 11:30 on a Sunday night. It's exceedingly difficult to build a fan base if the fans can't watch the team play. Cable tv has been avalible in this area since 1970. We've only had 16 seasons where the entire season has been televised!


   it's moments like this I realize I'm getting old

Tell me about it. I remember the 98 run to the finals like it was yesterday. I was 25 years old at the time. All of these seasons of suffering since doesnt seem like 20 years. I'm 45 now and can't believe how much time has passed.

[OnlyCaps2]

Max fine for Kempny, nothing more.

[BlackIce]

The point isn't how long GM's knew there was going to be an expansion draft.  The point was, how long did they know what the exact rules of the draft were going to be?  I think it was at least a few months ahead, but after the season starts you can't just trade big salary players willy-nilly, with other teams having their own salary cap issues.  And besides, with teams jockeying for playoff position during the regular season, you don't just trade off some big-name talent, even if you can, because of an upcoming expansion draft.  What would you think as a fan if the Caps had traded, say, Backstrom, at some point this season for a defenseman and a couple of draft picks because, hey, we need to have spots to protect players in the upcoming expansion draft?


And upon doing some quick research, I found I was wrong -- initial reports of the draft rules were made public in March 2016 for the June 2017 draft.  So teams DID have quite a bit of time to evaluate the rules and try to figure out what they wanted to do.  But the question still remains:  What do you do with your big stars, especially those with NMC?  Try to trade them?  If so, for whom/what?  The established players that other teams would want to give you in return would be those that would be potential problems for THEM vis a vis the expansion draft, so they become your problem.  Just trade for prospects and draft picks?  The problem is that the best of those prospects are precisely the players that were EXEMPT FROM the expansion draft, so they were considered gold.  Any way you cut it, GM's were in a bind.  Now did some of them make moves that, in retrospect, turned out to be bad ones?  Absolutely.  But a lot of those moves were ones that wouldn't reasonably have been expected to pan out for Las Vegas as well as they did.

[OldHat]

Still smiling from last night...

Let's go Caps!!!

[DC_1908]

The point isn't how long GM's knew there was going to be an expansion draft.  The point was, how long did they know what the exact rules of the draft were going to be?  I think it was at least a few months ahead, but after the season starts you can't just trade big salary players willy-nilly, with other teams having their own salary cap issues.  And besides, with teams jockeying for playoff position during the regular season, you don't just trade off some big-name talent, even if you can, because of an upcoming expansion draft.  What would you think as a fan if the Caps had traded, say, Backstrom, at some point this season for a defenseman and a couple of draft picks because, hey, we need to have spots to protect players in the upcoming expansion draft?


And upon doing some quick research, I found I was wrong -- initial reports of the draft rules were made public in March 2016 for the June 2017 draft.  So teams DID have quite a bit of time to evaluate the rules and try to figure out what they wanted to do.  But the question still remains:  What do you do with your big stars, especially those with NMC?  Try to trade them?  If so, for whom/what?  The established players that other teams would want to give you in return would be those that would be potential problems for THEM vis a vis the expansion draft, so they become your problem.  Just trade for prospects and draft picks?  The problem is that the best of those prospects are precisely the players that were EXEMPT FROM the expansion draft, so they were considered gold.  Any way you cut it, GM's were in a bind.  Now did some of them make moves that, in retrospect, turned out to be bad ones?  Absolutely.  But a lot of those moves were ones that wouldn't reasonably have been expected to pan out for Las Vegas as well as they did.

Bind sure, but not impossible.  NMC clauses can be waived, or have approved teams to be traded to.  So, they’re we’re options, ie Fluery.  They also had the opportunities to involve “protected slots” into trades to ensure they and the other could get  something and/or free up a protected space.   That would make sense to do to protect yourself and make it harde for an expansion team that was given such an an “easy” start.


Now, they may have done that, or tried to, but it doesn’t seem that way. 


It looked more like the GMs said “We’ll just  or NMCs, and our stars and popular young players, and there just an expansion team”


And GMGM deystroyed it

[KitFisto]

Bind sure, but not impossible.  NMC clauses can be waived, or have approved teams to be traded to.  So, they’re we’re options, ie Fluery.  They also had the opportunities to involve “protected slots” into trades to ensure they and the other could get  something and/or free up a protected space.   That would make sense to do to protect yourself and make it harde for an expansion team that was given such an an “easy” start.


Now, they may have done that, or tried to, but it doesn’t seem that way. 


It looked more like the GMs said “We’ll just  or NMCs, and our stars and popular young players, and there just an expansion team”


And GMGM deystroyed it

He's never been terrible at seeing other GM's talent. Just couldn't find much of his own outside of the first round.

[BlackIce]

He's never been terrible at seeing other GM's talent. Just couldn't find much of his own outside of the first round.

The job of finding DRAFT talent, either in the first round or later, is primarily the job of the scouting staff.  Remember, drafting is essentially projecting development of 17/18 year olds except for the top few selections.  The GM's job in the expansion draft was assessing or extrapolating the capabilities of players for whom there was already some professional body of work.

[KitFisto]

The job of finding DRAFT talent, either in the first round or later, is primarily the job of the scouting staff.  Remember, drafting is essentially projecting development of 17/18 year olds except for the top few selections.  The GM's job in the expansion draft was assessing or extrapolating the capabilities of players for whom there was already some professional body of work.

Then he should have fired his entire scouting staff after 10 years of PATHETIC  drafting. His draft record was abysmal ( even in the 1st round )until the fire sale re-build.

[DC_1908]

Then he should have fired his entire scouting staff after 10 years of PATHETIC  drafting. His draft record was abysmal ( even in the 1st round )until the fire sale re-build.

He probably wanted to, but Dickless wouldn’t fire them.  Probably because “feelings” and/or the PR department