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Hey All

The NHL has somehow managed to reach the halfway mark and now we will see some really tough schedules down the stretch.

The question then is which teams will survive this season, making the playoffs once everything is said and done. The East looks pretty settled and the West looks really chaotic. Though the Central has four pretty solid teams in Colorado, Nashville, St. Louis and Minnesota and any of them could finish first. The Pacific is really wide open which speaks to its parity as well as its mediocrity. The debate over whether or not the wild cards in the West are anywhere near as good as the ones in the East will likely persist.

Watch for further posts on this blog soon and I apologize for not putting out a post sooner. Stay tuned.

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Nearly Done Another Season

Okay, after some stops and starts, the season is ready to wrap up over the next week or two, depending on which division you’re looking at. I don’t know that the NHL expected to finish 56 games for every team, nor that they expected teams to be down as long as they were either. It has been a nightmare for schedule makers, players and coaches alike.

Seattle is all set to get the show started in July. Teams will start making moves with expansion finalizations in mind once the seasons are done. There are some good players who need protecting and some that might be traded rather than losing them for nothing. The flat cap means that Seattle might be able to put together a competitive roster as well as add some high draft picks in return for helping teams out who find themselves backed into a corner cap-wise. I have already seen all of the Loui Eriksson jokes on the Canucks forums. I don’t think Seattle takes him off the Canucks’ hands though.

This year’s draft is going to be fascinating both as we lead up to it as well as when we come out of it. Scouts have not been able to see players in person like they normally do. Players have generally played less than prospects in previous drafts. It will likely be years before we have any idea how strong/weak/unpredictable this draft class is.

This season has featured a lot of teams seeing goaltending depth challenged. If you are the fourth goalie on a team’s depth chart, there is a good chance you have seen some time in the NHL this year. This could lead to a few of the depth goalies getting a chance to play next year. Ron Francis may really enjoy getting to scout so many goalies as well since that’s the most important position to building a strong expansion team.

I will be posting regularly here now that things are set to slow down. Next season won’t feature such a tough schedule, though an Olympic break could provide a challenge to scheduling. Compared to this season, it will be much easier though.

All the best,
THG

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Day One and… Now What?

Well, the NHL is dealing with a flat cap and we are seeing how much the world has changed early in this 2020 off season. The big names were usually gone the first day in. Without an allowance for negotiations before day one of free agency, with half the league paralyzed by cap issues, here we are seeing so many big names still out there.

Taylor Hall is talking to numerous teams. He may take less money and less tern that would normally be expected. The same can be said of other top six forwards who are still without a contract.

Maybe we will see all of the big names signed over the weekend. Maybe we have already seen a low-key signing that will be a difference maker next season. There are still a number of goaltenders available who may help teams out, though there are a couple who may simply not have the upside at this stage of their careers to expect offers during this unusual off season.

I am looking forward to seeing what Tyler Johnson news we will see tomorrow after his placement on the waiver wire today. Tampa is always ahead of the curve when it comes to the cap. Is this the year it finally catches up to them?

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A THG Intro

Hello everyone. I have been meaning to do this for a long time, getting a blog going where I can talk about the hockey world in text as I usually do in speech. I do have a background in writing that dates back decades, so I am not without the ability to write for long stretches and will be publishing content here to compliment my videos and my podcasts. I am aware I need to diversify my content and so here we are.