Coconuts

Cursed franchise is cursed

Vitek Vanecek putting in work to get himself out of San Jose

Kevin Lankinen, you are now injured

I'd probably take ROR, particularly because of his being a center. Being a very good defensive winger has worked against Stone, certainly. They're similar players, ROR's been a regular 55-60+ point guy since 2011-2012 and has had the odd year where he's put up points well into the 60's (and 70+ once); 69 points last season being his career second best. Stone's point totals are roughly the same, though he has one more 60+ point season to his credit thus far. ROR will be 34 this coming season, Stone will be 33, the key difference between their careers thus far boils down to health. ROR's already played 1073 games and has three years left on his deal, he's typically been pretty durable so it's not farfetched that he could ultimately break 1300 games. Stone's struggled to stay healthy, only breaking 60 games played four times whereas ROR has twelve seasons of 70+ games played; Stone's total is 640 regular season games thus far. Horvat did, but that was also Horvat playing peak Horvat hockey, sometimes players get on a roll come playoff time and Bo certainly was. ROR had one great season, career high of 77 points, but his being able to stay healthy while playing a two-way game has allowed him to piece together more 50+ point seasons; he has eleven of these to Stone's eight. Stone's highest output thus far has been the 64 points he put up back in 2014-2015. There's no denying that Stone is a premier two-way player but their difference in legacy will probably ultimately boil down to health. Give Stone some more healthy seasons and maybe he'd have a Selke or two and maybe two or three more hundred points.

I do agree that it's worth pointing out that there's never really been anything negative to be said about him off the ice, a recent example of this is Bruin's leadership pushing back against management for signing Mitchell Miller. Big ups to Bergeron for that too. He has toned it down, and he really did transform himself in a superb two-way player, he was really quite dominant offensively for a stretch too.

The Pittsburgh and Chicago guys are locks. Marchand will get in, Bergeron too, always liked Bergeron despite his being a Bruin, hard to not respect that playstyle. Hughes is off to a good start with his numbers, a Norris, and a WJC silver, he'll need to keep adding to it though although I suspect he probably will. Even if he never wins another Norris he's likely to pick up some more international hardware, he'll likely make every US team he's eligible for if he wants to play. Will he win a cup? That's anyone's guess, but given the number of teams in the league I suspect we'll see more guys get into the hall without cups as time goes on so long as they've got the individual/international hardware; that'll be skewed against guys from less high end hockey countries but what do ya do. This will probably ring all the more true after the NHL adds another two to four franchises, most guys don't win a cup, it's only going to become more elusive.

I'm not even sure I'd make it that long, but I do like the concept. It'd need to be fleshed out, so as to account for those who utilize the schooling but don't stick with the profession for example, but I like the concept. It's definitely a roadblock, particularly given that a college/university education has gotten more expensive to pursue over time.

I'm not a Marchand fan per say, but I do respect how he really grew his game and toned down his rat business as he got older. I suppose the biggest part is that I've let go of 2011 and don't really hold a hockey grudge against him, I just can't be bothered to hold on to that forever. If one looks at Marchand's career objectively, it's been really impressive.

I'd call O'Reilly a lock personally, at this point all he's gotta do is bump up his point totals a bit more, he's got all the hardware he needs. Lady Byng, cup, Conn Smythe, Selke,two world championship golds, world cup of hockey gold.. there are less decorated guys in the hall. That 2019 year alone gets him over the hump, but that was a helluva season for him. Even if he only finishes with 900-1.1kish points he's probably a lock. 771 points and three years left on his deal, if played with some of that high end talent Nashville acquired he'll get there. Couple cups, Olympic gold, Canada cup gold, world junior gold, world junior silver. 1k+ games played and 600+ points as a D. Pietrangelo is probably pretty close to being a lock. I don't think Stone will get the numbers needed, he's only put up 567 points in 640 games and he's entering his 32-33 season. A cup and a world championship are great accomplishments but his totals need a lot of work. But even if he does find a way to break the 1k mark his hardware would be a bit wanting if he doesn't add to it imo. Fantastic player but he'll probably land in the hall of very good.

His hardware is more impressive, certainly. Ultimately it's probably the amount of international gold he's got on top of his cup win that'll get him in. I understand why some hockey fans, and Canucks fans in particular, don't like him but he's had a very impressive career. Cup, two world junior golds, u18 gold, world championship gold, world cup of hockey gold. All he's really missing is an Olympic gold but even then, if the league had been letting NHL players participate he'd probably have one of those too. 23 points in 25 games representing Canada at the junior level, 15 in 16 at the senior level, 138 points in 157 NHL playoff games, he's typically always been a guy who's shown up and produced when it matters.

It's affecting all sectors, it's often spoken about in regards to trades as well. Mixed feelings on it because portrayal matters, more sensationalistic takes have it pegged as being a "grey tsunami", but there's some truth to it. It's fascinating, if not a tad depressing, to dig into. Folks tend to utilize healthcare systems more as they age, it's just how things go. The youngest boomers are what.. 60 now? The oldest are almost 80? The demands on current healthcare systems aren't going to diminish. It goes further than that though, and I've spoken about it before, it's going to be really interesting to see how both Canada and the US address healthcare facets such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities, each of which can be quite expensive on a month to month basis. Covid put a bit of a spotlight on it, but there are staffing issues and quality of care issues associated with these things as well. How provincial and federal government spend in regards to it's older generations going forward is going to be interesting. Some of it's a numbers game too, as you've said, but another problem is the retention of the young to middle aged staff who are in place, particularly in less populated regions. Attracting staff is it's own bit too. How many Canadian educated doctors head down to the US to earn more money? How do rural and less populated regions attract and retain staff? One of my good friends works as a psyche nurse down in the lower mainland, she recently told me Northern Health is offering 30k incentives for nurses to move up this way and that she's considering it. Will we see more funding allocated to attract and retain talent in underserved regions? Not just for doctors and nurses, but for other professions like pharmacists as well? Part of the nuance is also how professionals engage with the concepts of aging and ageism, for example one bit I can across while digging through academic literature for papers earlier this year read "social workers are one of the major professionals serving for older adults. However, social work students often rank gerontology at the bottom of their future professional practice. Studies show that students have negative attitudes about, and perceptions of older adults and aging. Such stereotypes result in social work students considering practice areas other than gerontological social work.", the source was from 2022. This ain't unique to social work, other healthcare students and professions wrestle with these things as well, ongoing education will be necessary to help temper negative views of aging and older adults, and to temper some of the resentment held by younger generations towards older generations. Now, interventions and education are pieces of how such things are addressed, hence the aging class as part of my bachelors, but the rabbit holes of age, aging, ageism, and how society perceives and treats it's elderly are things society is going to have to wrestle with going forward as well, and not just in regards to professionals and the services they provide. Generally the connotations associated with aging aren't positive. Making education more accessible would help, these programs aren't typically just competitive, they're very expensive too. One thing I'd like to see is a further expansion of loan forgiveness for professionals working in more remote regions. There are programs in place, there should be more of them though. https://studentaidbc.ca/repay/repayment-help/bc-loan-forgiveness-program There's some encouraging movement on this, social workers will be eligible for student loan forgiveness as well, at rates likely comparable to nurses. That's long overdue. https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/update-canada-student-loan-forgiveness-programme What does that look like? https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid/grants-loans/repay/assistance/doctors-nurses/amount.html But it should go beyond loan forgiveness, we should be seeing more in the way of scholarships, grants, and whatnot.

Well, the Coyotes were sold for what.. 1.2 billion dollars? Any expansion team is probably paying at least that. So that's a pretty good incentive for current NHL owners, and there doesn't seem to be any shortage of interest in regards to expansion. NHLPA won't vote against it either, more franchises means more jobs. It means more coaches, more scouts, more staff, more hockey news, more clients for agents. The only ones who'd probably really be against it are some hockey fans.

So.. any word as to whether Kevin Lankinen is interested in us?

Another 4.5M jump it is

Hard to say how much it'll jump at this point, but it'll almost certainly go up. I'd be surprised if Boeser isn't back though.

Bob just won a cup making 10M, Shesterkin will probably want at least that. Sorokin signed his 8.25M deal last year, Hellebuyck got his 8.5M deal last year. Saros's 7.74M came in tax friendly Nashville. Cap's going up, wouldn't be surprised to see Swayman hit 8.5-9.5M, he'll be 26 this autumn so a max deal would take him through all his best years.

Bingo, that was my experience during a lot of my 20's while living in Nanaimo. My experience of having grown up there is that Nanaimo is very much a retail/customer/food service city, there's no shortage of these jobs, but they don't typically pay very well. That was a pain prior to Covid and house prices skyrocketing, which is tethered to rent having risen as well, it's harder nowadays. This is the experience of a lot of folks around Canada, and not just the younger folk. Folks will bitch about folks not wanting to work nowadays, when a more accurate statement is that folks don't want to work for poverty wages that haven't kept up with the rising costs of living. I've done the part-time jobs, the retail jobs, the big box corporate jobs, the seasonal jobs, the evening and graveyard jobs. I'm thirty-four years old, I've done all of these things over the past ten years; and throughout all of these jobs I've had coworkers in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's working as my coworkers trying to survive the same economic rat race on roughly the same wages. I had a coworker at a bottle depot who was a former accountant, dude was in his 70's and was making a tad over minimum wage to subsidize his and his wife's retirement. Great guy, deserved better. The lowest point was me being laid off a seasonal job and having to live off a combination of EI and a plant watering job at Lowe's that gave me 4-5 hour shifts that began at 5AM, it was the first thing I could find and I just barely got by. There were no shortage of part time jobs in Nanaimo at the time and all I could do was hang on til I managed to find full time somewhere, and that can be tough to find. It's easy to talk about how many total jobs are out there, another thing entirely to speak about the number of jobs out there providing livable wages and benefits, let alone benefits that aren't absolutely bare bones. Thing is, I've since gone to school so as to get myself to a place where jobs have no choice but to offer me more, and they will, but I think all the folks who haven't had the luxury of being able to take spend the necessary time off and take on the necessary dept to do what I'm doing should be able to do more than just scrape by. Folks like to shit on gigs like retail, food service, customer service, and other "non-skilled" labour jobs, but they'll probably still spend money in malls, engage with servers at restaurant's, and utilize services that these folks help provide, it's ridiculous but folks will shit on "non-skilled" jobs while simultaneously utilizing services provided by those working said jobs and demanding that they be available. Couples shouldn't have to work multiple jobs each to pay rent and raise children. Folks who've suffered and went through tough times in life, economically or otherwise, and believe that others should suffer too because they turned out alright probably didn't turn out alright. We should want things to be better for folks, not go down the "I got mine" route, if things can be changed so that others don't have to live some of the tougher realities we've lived, economically or otherwise, that's fantastic news. Hell, I've never worked a job that's provided much in the way of dental coverage and will have gotten myself far enough ahead that I won't benefit from Canada's incoming dental program, but I'm still ecstatic that folks out there may not have to always pay dental costs out of pocket the way I always have. The argument that immigrants are somehow stealing jobs is a shit one, because in my experience it's often immigrants and people of colour who are ones actually willing to take on the jobs that others turn their noses up at. They're often the ones working these shit paying part-time gigs, working multiple jobs, but working just not quite enough hours that they don't qualify for benefits of any kind; this happens a lot in food service and retail, you'll get a few key people who work full-time and the rest of the roster will be made up of part-timers. It's bogus.

They won't though, there's too much money in it and there's too much interest from potential landing spots. Read number 19, it may not be imminent but it will almost certainly happen. As far as Canadian markets go, another team in Toronto would probably be the most profitable option. Would be neat to see a team in Quebec, but it may never happen. https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-a-collection-of-late-off-season-notes/

Ahh yes, fuck the Leafs

Food for thought tbh, being bounced against the Oil was a downer but it may end up being for the best that we didn't get deep enough to try and force Demko back in