and the winner of the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes is....

[jeffc]

scroll down




















the Pittsburgh Penguins

[The Shtick]

Didn't have to scroll down but Pittsburgh's franchise can quite possibly be saved if (well when) they pick Crosby. The kid can fill an arena that's for sure and the Penguins are starving for fans (no pun intended).

I'm happy that the Sens ended up with #9.......

["Richard"]

My friend and I were playing "what if" and he says to me, what if you were the GM for ottawa and PIT comes to you and says "We will give you the number one pick overall for spezza and hossa and havlat"

I told him i would tell PIT to screw off. He thought i was nuts. Please tell me I'm not the only one with enough sense to see that its a rip off. He told me that any GM would make that trade in a second. I would trade forsberg in a second for crosby... but not 3 young guys like hossa, havlat and spezza. 3 young good exceiting players are surely worth more than one superstar even if he is the next mario... no? yes?

[The Shtick]

Please tell me I'm not the only one with enough sense to see that its a rip off.

You are not the only one with enough sense to see that it's a rip off.

[broken27]

My friend and I were playing "what if" and he says to me, what if you were the GM for ottawa and PIT comes to you and says "We will give you the number one pick overall for spezza and hossa and havlat"

I told him i would tell PIT to screw off. He thought i was nuts. Please tell me I'm not the only one with enough sense to see that its a rip off. He told me that any GM would make that trade in a second. I would trade forsberg in a second for crosby... but not 3 young guys like hossa, havlat and spezza. 3 young good exceiting players are surely worth more than one superstar even if he is the next mario... no? yes?

The Ottawa scenario is absurd, and nobody in their right minds would even contemplate such a deal in reality unless they were basically bankrupt and had to trim 3 payrolls for 1. The Forsberg for Crosby scenario is tough, because if Forsberg is healthy he is one of the best players in the world. Crosby is the best player in JUNIOR, and it's not really possible to fairly evaluate his potential until we see how he plays at the NHL level.

But these silly "what if" trades are a waste of time anyways... They almost always have some ridiculously lob-sided offer and/or include free agents and injured players...

At least hockey is back!

Dan

[covanant]

Pit. is in financial trouble,dont be suprised if they dont move him for cash.
What does everyone think?is it posable?

[Big Johnny69]

With Mario out the door soon, the thought of trading Crosby to help the franchise now crossed my mind yesterday. They could probably get some very good players and some cash for him. But you have to weigh the pros and cons of trading him. If they keep him they have another marquee draw to bring in some more revenue. But they will still be a really bad team. It is going to be a few years before he has the kind of impact everyone thinks he'll have. If they trade him they get immediate help to make the team more competitive to draw more fans, but probably not as much as Crosby would bring in.
But I think the novelty of Crosby will wear off when the fans see the team is really not any more competitive than they were last year and then stop coming to games. I'm sure Penguin brass have looked at both sides. Interesting scenario they are in.

[Colby]

If Pittsburgh trades Crosby's draft pick, they could be the new Nordiques after the Lindros trade. They did pretty well with some smart trades.

[Big Johnny69]

My thoughts exactly Colby. But the question is do you trade the future for the present? In the long run does Crosby pay off for you? Do you want him only for 5-7 years? With the new CBA I believe Crosby could become a free agent by the time he is 25. And I think they are only allowed to sign rookies to 3 yr contracts. By that time will Crosby already be too expensive to re-sign? Alot of what ifs but could all be viable questions in a few years. Interested to see how it plays out.

[broken27]

You can sign entry level deals to 4 seasons. Pittsburgh is not in as bad financial shape as you think, since they already went out and signed Mark Recchi and have vowed to be active in free agency...

You don't trade Crosby, simply because that market is in need of a boost, and Mario the Elder simply isn't doing it anymore with his 5 games per season he plays.

Still don't think this team is a threat to even challenge for the post season though.

Dan

[Big Johnny69]

That's what I was getting it. Keep Crosby, and he does turn out, are you good enough to make the playoffs in 4 seasons, or does he become too expensive to keep and no post season to speak of?. Trade him and possibly make the playoffs sometime within that 4 year span? What do you do? With Pitts. history of winning cups I think the fans would rather see results than re-building.

[broken27]

That's what I was getting it. Keep Crosby, and he does turn out, are you good enough to make the playoffs in 4 seasons, or does he become too expensive to keep and no post season to speak of?. Trade him and possibly make the playoffs sometime within that 4 year span? What do you do? With Pitts. history of winning cups I think the fans would rather see results than re-building.

Let's not get too carried away with Pittsburgh's history of winning Cups... They won a pair in their entire history, so that's nothing special...

I just don't think they can fully turn the page on these lean years until Mario Lemieux finally retires (again, and well past the right time). He's lingering around and collecting a salary for playing 5-20 games per season. Sure he still gets good points in those games, but he's a shadow of his former self.

As for Crosby, if Mario hangs around for more than a season, I can see publicity nightmares, because they simply won't let go of Lemieux. Just like Jagr, who left because fans forgot that he WAS the team in Mario's absence, is a perfect example. Lemieux's legacy is too great for anyone else to truly be in the spotlight while he's around. Crosby needs to be given the franchise marketing tag (which should piss off Evgeni Malkin and make him leave) for this pick to be truly worthwhile.

But there is more to a team than one player, or at least there should be. Pitt still have very little to back up Crosby. Once Mario gets hurt again and decides to sit out for a season (it is an Olympic year after all), who will help Crosby? Malkin? Colby Armstrong? LMFAO!!! A pretty pathetic franchise from top to bottom...

Dan

[Big Johnny69]

By no means am I saying that Pitts. fans expect a cup. But they have seen championship teams and have only seen their team get worse and worse the last couple of years. I agree as long as Mario is around the spotlight will be on him. So I am just putting out the notion of possibly trading Crosby and how some of those actions could possibly play out. Will Crosby be a solid NHL player, sure, will he be a great NHL player, maybe, will he be a superstar NHL player, who knows. I'm just suggesting why not take advantage of all the hype and get as much as you can now for him on the chance he might not become the player everyone thinks he will.

[Andy4Par]

Pittsburg got him and probably will sign him. Look for the team to finally get a new building to showcase their "Next One".

["Richard"]

I think mario playing is good for crosby. It will take some of the presure off him and he gets to play with someone who his his peak was the best hockey player EVER (YEAH I SAID IT). I don't see how crosby loses by playing if mario is still around. Sure if mario sticks around for 3 years thats not good but two years would be fine. Mario doesn't play himself much anyway and really, by playing... he makes more as an owner by having himself in the lineup. I think he pays him sell the league average. What % owner is he anyway?

["Richard"]

Just found this while surfing...
The interesting thing that could happen for the Caps revolves around Jaromir Jagr's contract. The Caps are reportedly still on the hook for half of Jagr's contract after trading him to the Rangers. That money will likely count toward their cap number, something they no-doubt don't want to have to worry about.
Can the Caps buy out their portion of his contract? Does it depend on what the Rangers do? Stay tuned to this one.

-fox sports

I remember when Jagr got traded to NYR everyone was "how can they justify paying this guy 11m a year... well washington was paying 1/2 his salary for the rest of the contract... meaning after the roll back, NYR are only paying him 4.2M. What do you think? Should the caps be allowed to buy out there half? So if only 4.2m of the 8.4m counts towards the rangers cap they are in pretty good shape after a few buyouts of some other players. If the rangers are stupid enough to buy him out when they only pay him 4.2m and it only counts at 4.2 against their cap then obviously WASH would jump at buying out there half as well... since they are paying him anyway. To me, this seems to be the wierdest situation that has come up so far with the cap

[broken27]

There are a lot of situations like that. Often a guy like Jagr can't be traded otherwise. Hell, Mike Keenan is collecting paycheques from St. Louis, Florida, and at least two other teams I can't recall at the moment.

How will Jagr's contract affect the cap? Well, the way I see it is:

Jagr plays for NY Rangers, thusly is their $11-million headache ($7.8 as per league new maximum 20% rule). Washington might have to PAY Jagr some cash, but as he is not under contract to the Capitals, he does not have any impact on their cap situation.

Dan

[powerlefty]

There are a lot of situations like that. Often a guy like Jagr can't be traded otherwise. Hell, Mike Keenan is collecting paycheques from St. Louis, Florida, and at least two other teams I can't recall at the moment.

How will Jagr's contract affect the cap? Well, the way I see it is:

Jagr plays for NY Rangers, thusly is their $11-million headache ($7.8 as per league new maximum 20% rule). Washington might have to PAY Jagr some cash, but as he is not under contract to the Capitals, he does not have any impact on their cap situation.

Dan

Dan,

I thought I read somewhere that Jagr's contract was grandfathered and the $7.8M does not apply to his current contract since 76% of $11M was ~$8.4M. Are you aware of this?

[mberube]

You guys are forgetting something. If and only If the rule change (or enforcing the rules like hooking and interference) is enforced by the refereeing the game should help Mario play longer. He has been waiting for this for a long time. Hell, he could be playing for another 5 years.

I don’t see anything negative with Mario along side Crosby for that long. Personally, I think Crosby and Jagr are apples and oranges. Crosby’s native language is English not Jagr. The Americans will adapt very easily to Crosby.

I’m not sure this kid will be a super star but he has been one everywhere and at every level he has played. To me that is a no trade deal for Pitts especially playing on the first line with Mario and Mark. If this kid shows up with his talent this season, I bet That Mario will be there all the way and not for a game here and there. At least I hope.

This is a win win situation for Pitts. The kid is exited to play for Mario and Mario is exited to play with the kid.

Mario got a call on his cell at 4:01pm on Friday from Brisson (Crosby’s agent.) and then talked to Crosby personally.

[broken27]

Even if they open the game, Lemieux is WELL beyond being a serviceable player, and is only embarassing himself by playing 5-10 games per season.

His injuries are never the result of violent play... In fact, it seems to me that his injuries are just excuses for not playing while he rests up for the Olympics (or whatever tourney is being played at the time).

As for comparing Jagr and Crosby? You're right... They're nothing alike. One has 6 scoring titles at the NHL level and one hasn't even played a pro game yet. Funny how the one that hasn't played yet gets more accolades than the one who dominated the 90s.

Dan

[broken27]

Dan,

I thought I read somewhere that Jagr's contract was grandfathered and the $7.8M does not apply to his current contract since 76% of $11M was ~$8.4M. Are you aware of this?

You're correct. My bad. Forgot about that. Actually, I wonder what the stipulations for grandfathering were... Is it only NEW contracts that cap out at $7.8M?

Dan

[mberube]

You misunderstood me. I was not comparing the talent or the level of play between Jagr and Crosby. I was just saying that Jagr is European and was not very fluent in English at the beginning. In my opinion this could be the cause why Jagr was not close to the fans like Mario.

As for your opinion on Mario, well that’s your opinion. My opinion is that Mario is not was he used to be but still a very good player. I rather have hi on my team then against me. You don’t score that amount of goals if you are not good.

As injuries caused by hooking and interference, I never talked about him getting injured in relation to the rules not being applied. All I am saying is that no hooking and interference gives him more ice to play with the puck.

Mike

[broken27]

Mike, you inferred that Lemieux's career could go another 5 years if they open up the game. That is why I correlated hooking/hitting/slashing to his injuries. Fact of the matter is, he is just broken down... The guy has been through plenty with the Hodgkin's and back problems, so I think he should have retired two seasons ago... At this point, it's clear he'll play at least one more, and even his biggest fans should hope he calls it quits after that... Last thing you want is him to retire like Mike Tyson...

Jagr being European should have had little to do with it, and had little to do with my very first point about Jagr leaving Pittsburgh. The fans LOVED JJ when Mario wasn't there. He was a HUGE star, and was at the peak of his game, winning scoring titles and Hart Trophys. I'm talking about when Lemieux came back, and people just totally shunned Jagr from that point forward.

I might be the only person who believes this, but I think hockey needs MORE hot-dogging... More "Jagr Salutes" and goals like Crosby scored in that 7-0 romp this season (Don Cherry gave him crap for that one)... It's the only way to make the game grow in the States, where they love their WWF crap... I'm not saying make it into a laughing stock spectacle like wrestling, but a little more pizzazz from Kovalchuk and the other premier scorers (who ALL have egos, regardless of how they display them) would not hurt things... Leave the good sportsmanship to golf.

Dan