2009 NHL Free Agency Frenzy & Offseason Deals discussion

Post by **batdad** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:44 pm

Just more evidence from Kessel that he is a selfish doofus. Great chance to do what is supposedly every hockey player's dream. And he wants to play elsewhere? Bah, the KHL is waiting for him.

In other news...I am starting to really love Alex OVenchicken. Dude telling the NHL and anyone else to go stuff themselves so he can play in the 2014 Olympics in Moscow is AWESOME! Stick to your guns on that one Alex. And any Canadian born hockey player should be saying exactly the same thing. But it is even more so for Alex...since he gets to play in his home country that year. Finally, a sign that Russia is getting it back together with their hockey program.

Post by **philou21** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:58 pm

bruins72 wrote:"Hey Kessel... don't let the door hit your in your rear on the way out!"

He wants far more than he's earned and the Bruins wouldn't give it to him so now he's throwing a tantrum. Really, he's a RFA who is going to miss at least the first month of the season. He hasn't played a complete season since coming to the NHL. The Bruins offered him a deal similar to Krejci's and he turned it down. That was a fair deal. I'll be happy to see the Bruins take a package of picks and prospects for him. I know Burke has been very public about trying to land Kessel. I've also heard that Nashville and the Rangers are interested.

I use to really like Kessel....but now he dissapointed me a little bit with the situation with the Bruins....i never thought he would ''act like such a baby.''

Post by **batdad** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:59 pm

He has been doing the baby act since before he was drafted and played 'Superstar' when he was with the USA Junior team. He was almost as big a moron as Jack Johnson.

Post by **philou21** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:01 pm

LOL

I never really follow his junior career....never think he is that kind of player, too bad. Good talent, no brain.

selne · Post by **selne** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:47 pm

I'm curious to know how much money Kessel and his agent were asking for. On some boards there were rumours about 4 millions.. in that scale. But i think the Bruins would have signed him for that money.

Post by **Danny** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:06 am

batdad wrote:
In other news...I am starting to really love Alex OVenchicken. Dude telling the NHL and anyone else to go stuff themselves so he can play in the 2014 Olympics in Moscow is AWESOME! Stick to your guns on that one Alex. And any Canadian born hockey player should be saying exactly the same thing. But it is even more so for Alex...since he gets to play in his home country that year. Finally, a sign that Russia is getting it back together with their hockey program.

Except that if it was Crosby he'd be flamed to no end...

Post by **batdad** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:19 am

No I don't think so. Not in Canada anyway. We want our players to play in the Olympics. We had many many years of only sending a C team to the Olympics. We want our best there. I WISH Sid would come out and say he was playing no matter what as well. But he won't, cause his home country has the games this year right in Vancouver.

Post by **Danny** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:21 am

bruins72 wrote:The Bruins offered him a deal similar to Krejci's and he turned it down. That was a fair deal.

I've yet to see a reliable source for this. Not saying it didn't happen, maybe I've just overlooked it, but I've never seen any confirmation on this. Also, "similar to" is quite vague, if that's what the official word is on this.

Post by **Danny** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:39 am

batdad wrote:No I don't think so. Not in Canada anyway. We want our players to play in the Olympics. We had many many years of only sending a C team to the Olympics. We want our best there. I WISH Sid would come out and say he was playing no matter what as well. But he won't, cause his home country has the games this year right in Vancouver.

My impression is, it seems that anything Ovenchicken does is "a display of passion and love for the game", even if it means going for players knees Ulf-like, or intending to quit on your team you signed a contract with in the middle of the season, while anything Crosby does is deemed whining, and if he was to save five kittens from Chara's lunchbox people would be asking why just five. But I digress... I guess my point on this particular subject is I'm kinda not a huge fan of threatening to quit on your team. He signed an NHL deal without any kind of clause that would specifically allow him to play in the Olympics, so if the NHL changes its policy and says no tough luck for him. Not saying he's not allowed to criticize or protest, but there's no need to go on a rant like that. We don't always get what we want. Not a shot at you, not saying this line of thinking applies to you, just a general observation. I just happen to have a completely different view on this country vs club issue. I guess it's an Euro football fan thing

Post by **philou21** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 2:41 am

ESPN just put a news ( most likely a rumor ) that Heatley will finally be trade to SJ in a trade with 3 teams. The Sharks receive Heatley then Marleau is sent to LA and Stoll and Frolov goes to OTT. Sounds more serious then what we heard a couple of weeks ago, i just want this saga end once and for all.

Post by **Jypfan92** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:17 am

Mike Comrie make one-year-contract with Edmonton Oilers.

That's good, cause he played his best seasons in Edmonton.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:43 pm

philou21 wrote:LOL

I never really follow his junior career....never think he is that kind of player, too bad. Good talent, no brain.

There had been talk about his maturity and attitude since before he was drafted. The Bruins thought they could mold him into a better character with the right structure around him but I guess some people just can't change.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:43 pm

selne wrote:I'm curious to know how much money Kessel and his agent were asking for. On some boards there were rumours about 4 millions.. in that scale. But i think the Bruins would have signed him for that money.

Everything I've been hearing is that he's looking for $4.5M or more.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:45 pm

philou21 wrote:ESPN just put a news ( most likely a rumor ) that Heatley will finally be trade to SJ in a trade with 3 teams. The Sharks receive Heatley then Marleau is sent to LA and Stoll and Frolov goes to OTT. Sounds more serious then what we heard a couple of weeks ago, i just want this saga end once and for all.

I heard this rumor yesterday. Maybe it's just me but it seems like LA is getting the shaft on this deal.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:48 pm

Danny wrote:
bruins72 wrote:The Bruins offered him a deal similar to Krejci's and he turned it down. That was a fair deal.
I've yet to see a reliable source for this. Not saying it didn't happen, maybe I've just overlooked it, but I've never seen any confirmation on this. Also, "similar to" is quite vague, if that's what the official word is on this.

Well management never really gives numbers. The current management tends to not even discuss contract negotiations at all (which is a nice change from the Sinden days when he'd belittle the players in the media during contract negotiations to make them seem worth less money). Most reports from the Boston sports media has said that they were trying to sign Kessel and Krejci to pretty much the same deal.

deathknot · Post by **deathknot** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:08 pm

Kessel just proves my point. North American players are all about the MONEY and it seems most have to loyal ways about them. As Europeans seem to have more loyal ways toward there teams. To think Boston let PJ Axelsson go back to Sweden to play so they could try and sign this money stealing fool. Being a fan of the Leafs, I would mind Kessel on the team but if he thinks he is worth 4m+ for scoring 36 goals once he has another thing coming. I think he would like it here in Toronto. After all we have the best training and practice arena and we are on the way up and Kessel would be nothing more than a peice in that puzzle. Plus maybe a couple practices againist that's Leafs new defence and he get's tossed around a bit might make shake this kid's head around.

I remember that Leafs rookie camp I took in where Kadri was goofin' around and they started a mini game at the game of the practice that day. Well Kadri is flying down the wing when a Swedish train ran him over and Ekians yells out GOOD HIT GUNNARSSON. Kadri get's up and tries to start something with him but Gunnarsson was not having none of what he was selling and just knocked Kadri on his ass again. After that Kadri has has been good since.

so maybe is the Leafs end up with Kessel on their dish and he seems to need a retooling in the noodle, Old man Wilson can get that mini going and send out a wave defence pairs of Komi/beauchy, Finger/van ryn and Frogren with finger, just to retool his noodle.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:23 pm

deathknot wrote:Kessel just proves my point. North American players are all about the MONEY and it seems most have to loyal ways about them. As Europeans seem to have more loyal ways toward there teams. To think Boston let PJ Axelsson go back to Sweden to play so they could try and sign this money stealing fool. Being a fan of the Leafs, I would mind Kessel on the team but if he thinks he is worth 4m+ for scoring 36 goals once he has another thing coming. I think he would like it here in Toronto. After all we have the best training and practice arena and we are on the way up and Kessel would be nothing more than a peice in that puzzle. Plus maybe a couple practices againist that's Leafs new defence and he get's tossed around a bit might make shake this kid's head around.

I think it's very unfair to classify all North American players as being "all about the money". Some are. Some aren't. That's just as bad as Don Cherry classifying all European players as wimps. There are many North American players that accept less money to stay with a team they enjoy playing for.

As for Axelsson, they didn't let him go back to Sweden because they needed the money for Kessel. They let him go because he was getting old. I'm sure they could have signed him to stay with the Bruins for a lot less than he was making before if they really wanted to keep him. He just wasn't in their plans anymore. If it was just about the money, another NHL team would have signed him before he went back to Sweden.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:08 pm

North American players all about money? Really? Then explain the Trevor Linden's, Steve Yzerman's, Mike Modano's, Rod Brind'Amour's of the world? Euros loyal to their teams? And then how do you explain Jaromir Jagr? Marian Hossa? Marian Gaborik? Pavol Demitra? Sergei Fedorov? Alex Mogilny? Pavel Bure? Jiri Hudler? Such loyalty I tell you.

Alex Burrows took way less to stay in Vancouver than open market gets him. Marion Hossa? Not so sure he did with Detroit/Pittsburgh.

Generalizing by NORTH American? I think not. I mean you cannot even generalize based on All Canadian vs All American...so the whole continent?

Lets see...Other than Niklas Lidstrom, I don't think I can think of a single Euro player who had a career of over 10 years and was a top notch player who stayed with the same team for his whole career. I know this much, I can think of plenty of North Americans who have been loyal to their teams even when the team was not loyal to them. (Trevor Linden right off the bat. Mike Modano. Steve Yzerman. Mario Lemieux. Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton.)..This is not to say I cannot think of some who have not been exactly loyal (Roenick. Messier. Chelios, Heatley.)

For the most part one can say Swedes are fairly loyal to their teams, and tend to try and spend their careers in one spot. But even that is an over generalization. Nylander took the dough and ran, and was not even loyal to the team that had a verbal agreement with him (Edmonton). Jiri Hudler has his agent file for arbitration and then runs away from it. Marian Gaborik whines for 4 years about the coach and system he plays in hampering him, all the while possibly exaggerating the seriousness of an injury. Petr Nedved whines about ice time as a freaking 19 year old in the NHL and demands a trade. And then again repeats in another team. Jagr whines to get out of Washington, Bure in Florida and Vancouver.

Like I said I can site bad examples of Canadian and USA players being jerks too, and have done so. But I tell you right now, there are just as many jerks from Europe...The number of jerks per capita is not defined by the country. The number of jerks in this world are pretty much equally distributed from country to country.

Well...perhaps American tourists...but you know what I mean. I can go on about German tourists or Czech tourists as well....

Post by **Jypfan92** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:44 pm

They're single cases (players who wants lots of money), nobody can say that it depends on players country.

eric1985 · Post by **eric1985** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:06 pm

Jypfan92 wrote:They're single cases (players who wants lots of money), nobody can say that it depends on players country.

I concur.

Post by **philou21** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:31 pm

News details for the Kessel saga. It seems that Poile from Nashville is very interested in Kessel service. He admit he got a discussion with Chiarelli for a trade, not try to ''steal'' him.

In another case i've write a couple's of days ago a rumor of Heatley been involved in a three team trade but i just read on TSN that OTT have trade Heatley at SJ for Michalek, Cheechoo and a second round pick. Finally another thing done, hope you will enjoy your new home Heatley and stop to piddle everybody.

Post by **Jypfan92** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:40 pm

I think that Heatleys trade was tie. Michalek is good 1st/2nd line winger and Cheechoo maybe 2ndPP winger... And Heatley is Heatley

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:18 pm

Ottawa just got more interesting. Nice deal.

Post by **getzlaf15** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:22 pm

I don't like Heatley. End of... If Cheechoo can refind his scoring touch he had a few years back, and if Michalek continues his strong play and improvement, then this is a good deal for Ottawa.

selne · Post by **selne** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:27 pm

Alfredsson, Spezza, Kovalev, Chechoo, Michalek... from an EHM perspective that's an unstoppable team now.