OffThePost.org

Brent Burns is the last active player remaining from the pre-cap era of 2003-04.

He also played against Mark Messier his first season, meaning he’s also the last active player to play against someone from the WHA.

I still don’t get what they’re doing here. Dumped Bjorkstrand and Gourde at the deadline but haven’t gone through with a full rebuild. This is still a pretty old team and they can’t bring themselves to buyout Grubbauer, who has been a massive liability in Seattle from day one.

On the plus side they ...

Utah went into the offseason wanting a star, but they’ll likely come out of it simply a very solid team. Nice core already in place with JJ Peterka added to the mix and a couple of big prospects from Russia.

If goaltending holds up I think they can make the postseason.

Utah rightfully caves and gives McBain a 5 x 4.25M AAV. He’s a luxury item: 12 goals but he’ll take hard D-zone faceoffs and be among the league leaders in hits. A Bennett-lite.

Was my absolute go-to target this offseason, and Utah ain’t dumb.

Free agency mostly done, but the Sabres and Mammos are taking Byram and McBain respectively to Arby’s, which is significant because it’s pretty clear both want to hit unrestricted free agency as soon as possible or cash in now and a massively inflated value. Arby’s assures they walk in two years.

More problems in Anaheim: young defencemen Zellweger and Mintyukov went to management about crappy playing time (I’m sure management did not care) and now they’re unwilling to give McTavish and Dostal long term extensions for reasons unknown.

Gonna keep bad mouthing the Ducks because I love it.

I think that Reinbonker makes the team outta camp and Streusel goes somewhere far away.


They have so far pushed their top prospects on the big club without minor league time: Slaf, Lane, Guhle, Demidov. Reinbacher might get treated differently because of the knee, but they won't let him rot in ...

Jim Nill figured it out after leaving Detroit…

And even he’s been making some crazy decisions of late.


I get it. He’s done everything right and they’re so close to winning, but just can’t get over the hump. What do you do? Have faith they’ll figure it out? Or just tinker to death?

Oilers ...

Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky
Bolduc-Dach-Demidov
Laine-Newhook-Kapanen
Anderson-Evans-Gallagher
Blais

Guhle-Dobson
Matheson-Hutson
Xhekaj-Carrier
Struble

Montbesonen

Reinbacher first call up.

How I see it. Might add another depth centre in case of camp injury.

They were the runner-up on Dobson and I think went crawling back to Provorov as a result. That’s what happens when you’re a middle range team, though: you gotta overpay for UFAs and guys don’t want to come.

I think Waddell is wise to hold on to his young forwards like Sillinger and Voronkov. Could ...

Avalanche sign Alex Barre-Boulet. Got a one-way deal from the Habs and spent the whole year in Laval. I always thought he’d be a good upside play but honestly he looked like a minor leaguer. If he’s more than a call up you’re in trouble.

The days of the dominant Bruins are over, I think, although I shouldn’t count out a team with Pastrnak, McAvoy and Swayman.

Got hit with the post-Cup cap blahs and haven’t been able to get back.

Nelson fixes a pretty big hole at 2C, but the rest of the team looks pretty shallow now, especially with Rantanen gone and Necas not really feeling it.

Mac and Makar on an island.

Pokecheque wrote: Thu Jul 03, 2025 7:20 pm I’ve been wondering for a while now if Holland just always sucked and Devellano was way more responsible for that stellar Wings run than we all realized. He, like Lamoriello, just seems clueless in the cap era.

Jim Nill figured it out after leaving Detroit…

I don’t think GMs are allowed to bypass agents when negotiating contracts with players. I’d imagine that would raise a big stink. Romanov may not have expected that contract, but his agent sure did. Based on what other defencemen got I thought it was a slight overpay but not by much.

Sportsnet and Athletic have the Habs as winners this offseason. They resisted the urge to fill the gaps with expensive 30-year-olds and added a 25-year-old Top 4 defenceman and a 22-year-old middle six winger.

Management isn’t delusional about where the team is in their rebuild, even though they ...

Kings not only have Edmundson on a long term deal, they’ve now added Dumoulin and Ceci as well.

And that’s after losing Gavrikov and trading Spence.

Welcome to the Holland era. I don’t like these moves for them at all.

They might still get Ehlers, but for now, they invested big time in K’Andre Miller and Logan Stankoven. Interesting to see how it goes.

Bobby Mac calls it a career officially after being in semi-retirement for a while. Bobby Margarita full-time.

That was the biggest news to come out of free agency day.