I see George Armstrong and Conn Smythe. That’s my daughter and I at the present-day HoF about 23 yrs ago.

This popped up on Facebook this aft ... apparently a documentary on Bill Barilko will be aired next year. 

 https://www.facebook.com/steve.paikin/posts/75-years-ago-today-in-one-of-the-worst-sports-tragedies-ever-the-toronto-maple-l/10164704591366140/

The 1955-56 Boston Bruins 

Some of the video looks like maybe it's been sped up a bit, but the guy singlehandedly makes you wanna like the Jays ... Kirk now has two stolen bases, lifetime.  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1393932958780397

Gosh, it's that time again. Jackie apologizes for arriving late.

I watched this kid back in the day tear up the Ontario junior league,, short-stature but built like a fire hydrant. No. 6 in all time NHL points.

Makar's $$$ .... not sure a straight-across comparison is entirely valid, but ..... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1662809232515660

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Originally posted by Owen

Makar's $$$ .... not sure a straight-across comparison is entirely valid, but ..... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1662809232515660

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It is, and it isn't.

The largest point - what a $20mm contract in the NHL looks like compared to the other three major leagues - is entirely valid, IMO. One must also remember that hockey is the second-most physically punishing major sport after football, and that the hockey season is roughly twice as long BY CALENDAR ALONE.

And in that extended time, a regular season in the NHL has 84 games compared to 17 in the NFL. Damn close to five times as many games!

Now here's where it's NOT apples-to-apples. In the NHL, unless you're on a two-way contract, YOU ARE GOING TO GET PAID, unless you do something stupid and get fired for cause. There are also the subtleties of contract buy-outs, but Makar is going to get every penny of his $160+mm contract. (we'll leave aside the fact that across sports the tax implications are roughly the same, and he'll actually bank less than half of that - still a nice chunk of change - but more on this below).

Contrast that to the other major sports: those contracts afford the teams and the leagues a LOT more opportunities to shorten and/or void contracts than the NHL does. That's why huge NFL contracts are often reported with a chunk of change guaranteed, and it's frequently considerably less than the headline number. One can see why players and agents in the other leagues work to nail those guarantees and we DON'T see that in the National. The NHLPA did a really good job in CBA agreements in this regard.

Last point on the vid: completely disagree with the call to scrap the cap. Recent CBAs, including the one about to take effect, set the cap at 50% of league revenues - revenues dependent on ticket sales, broadcast rights, merch and whatnot. The other half goes to the teams, which certainly make money but also carry huge expenses. Of the four majors, hockey is by far the most dependent on actually butts in seats; the NHL has nowhere near as much value in its broadcast schedule as do the other leagues. One of the reasons the league forced the sale of the Arizona Coyotes to Utah was that in effect, the rest of the leagues was subsidizing them - their arena situation was such that a sell-out crowd in Phoenix was roughly a third to a quarter of what other cities could sell. Yet their players were being paid according to the cap.

Scrapping the cap would basically ensure that a handful of teams - those in the biggest, most passionate markets - would collect all the best players, leaving smaller markets sifting through leftovers. Even though its structure provides some wiggle room, the NHL has by far the hardest cap of the four major leagues. This has gone a LONG way to creating parity among teams - much more than you see in other sports, where the cap is squishy and "luxury taxes" are common.

Getting back to that tax thing mentioned above - seeing the structure of these big NHL deals is interesting. In the case of Makar, the vast majority is in signing bonuses and the actual salary is a fraction of that. Here's what that structure looks like. This is because the signing bonuses, among other things, aren't subject to local and state tax withholding on game checks.  Leo Carlsson's forced deal with Anaheim is even more tilted towards the bonuses, Haven't seen the breakdown yet, but you can bet Macklin Celebrini's new deal will be similar.

I dasn’t dare go in the weeds with salary and caps but I commend your command of these issues, Skip. As for the Coyotes, I took in a couple of games when I took winter vacations in AZ,, the Gila River Arena was about 3/4 full,, many being snowbirds from northern States and Canada. There were as many Blackhawks sweaters/jerseys in the stands as Coyotes’.  I've never been too concerned about hockey being 4th on the North American sports popularity list,, to me it's still a "northern" game - ice & snow are woven into the culture of cold-weather folks. 

Ah yes... culture ... bring!  it!  on!!    

Fer cryin’ owt lowd,,, no motorized contraptions, pls,,, think SHOVELS ! They build character….

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I dasn’t dare go in the weeds with salary and caps but I commend your command of these issues, Skip. 

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Kind of you to say so. Truth is that I find the business aspects of hockey nearly as interesting as the game itself.

We used to build character lke that ^^ on our farm dugout ....... once per year!!   The ice was several feet below the surrounding land .... a couple of hours scraping .... much shorter time skating [gotta get back to do chores] ....... invariably a &%$*&%^ storm that night would bring in about 3 %#&^$%( feet .... ah, well, I guess we'll just wait 'til the ice in the town* rink is ready.... (sigh).

Different story some springs .... a cold snap might produce clear, smooth ice on the ditches/sloughs.     

* btw, the birthplace of Ted Hampson, in case yer wondering.

We often went out to 15 Mile Creek , more like a wide river where it neared Lake Am…err, Ontario. There would be up to 12 rinks cleared off by 9am Saturday and “let the games begin!”

Ahem…

Ouch!!

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Originally posted by chuckv97

Ahem…

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Remember the days when butter at a restaurant was served in "pats" on tiny little cardboard squares?

Rumour has it that, at a banquet, Bobby Hull asked the kid serving to get him another pat of butter. The kid said that everyone got just one pat. Hull said, "Kid, do you know who I am?" "Who?" "I'm Bobby Hull!"

The kid said, "Do you know who I am?" "No." "I'm the one who gives out the pats of butter, and you only get one!"

Back in the Seventies, I dated a female bank teller in Cincinnati who knew nothing about professional sports.  One day, a fellow came into her bank and requested that she cash his personal check.  When she requested some identification, he became irritated and demanded that he see the bank manager.  When she said, “Can I give him your name?”, his response was “Yes, tell him Mr. Rose wants to speak to him.”  I suspect he didn’t want to pay off his bookie with a personal check.

Happy 26-Days-Until-The-Season-Opens Day to all who celebrate.

Won a Memorial Cup with the Flint Flon Bombers in 1957

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Originally posted by eagleisland

Happy 26-Days-Until-The-Season-Opens Day to all who celebrate.

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And what .... ??? ..... 33-35 days until the experts start impressing us w.r.t. the "playoff implications"?!?!??  

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Re. Kurtenbach .... [going out on a limb here... I think I know the answer] ... a playoff pick-up from _______________ ??   Did they usta do that in Ontario/Kweebek?

quote:

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Originally posted by Owen

quote:

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Originally posted by eagleisland

Happy 26-Days-Until-The-Season-Opens Day to all who celebrate.

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And what .... ??? ..... 33-35 days until the experts start impressing us w.r.t. the "playoff implications"?!?!??  

=============================================================================================================

Re. Kurtenbach .... [going out on a limb here... I think I know the answer] ... a playoff pick-up from _______________ ??   Did they usta do that in Ontario/Kweebek?

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He played junior in Saskatchewan,,,PA and Saskatoon,, might've snuck over to FF.  Don't remember as a "pick-up for playoffs" but the St Cath BHwks traded with the Petes - Dick Redmond for Dale Power - near the end of the season... (no relation to Jackie, but a bro of Mickey).  You might remember Power as a Davis Cup tennis champ,, he quit hockey for tennis,, then came back to play for the Fort Wayne Comets in the IHL. 

Well, well, well.... apparently I did know the answer [even though I don't recall hearing about Davis and Gauthier  ]. https://www.google.com/search?q=players+picked+up+by+Flin+Flon+for+memorial+cup+run%3F&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA1116CA1116&oq=players+picked+up+by+Flin+Flon+for+memorial+cup+run%3F&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAjIHCAUQIRiPAtIBCjE4NDU5ajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBd0Cm18bUBXw&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.rb&ie=UTF-8

Google AI Overview has this to add: "The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA)—which dissolved and merged into Hockey Canada in 1994—did not have a single national ban on playoff pick-ups; instead, specific regional branches (such as Manitoba in 1962) instituted localized rules to restrict or alter player replacements during high-stakes playoffs."

I'd have put money [not much, mind you] that SK had it quite a bit after '62 .... but [as occasionally happens]  I'm too lazy to check. 

Homers in the high Arctic

youtu.be/fKpW-flZhm4?si=vqGhvWn5F4Ln8OqT

From Hockey Beast >> Facebook >> BHO:

Zdeno Chara never once called a young player a "rookie" – and the reason why is awesome. 

Chara played 24 seasons and appeared in 1,680 NHL games, but he was just as beloved for how he treated people off the ice. As a young player himself, he was bullied and forced through the usual rookie rituals – so when he became a veteran leader in Boston, he made sure the Bruins never had one. "I've been through some stuff and had to do certain things as a young player, and I didn't like it," Chara told The Athletic. "Right then I made up my mind if I was ever in control of that kind of environment and could make a change, I would do it."

He also refused to even use the word "rookie," always calling them "first-year players" instead. "I don't use the word 'rookie' because it just doesn't sound right," he said. "Little things go a long way and make a big difference for these young men who are trying to stay and establish themselves in the league."

For Chara, it came down to one simple belief: "How can you expect something out of a young player on the ice when you treat him differently off the ice?"

I can't fault his logic .... the summation is pretty good too.