NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 8, 2024
Sidney Crosby and the Penguins could be close to a contract extension, plus the latest on the Leafs, Red Wings, Lightning and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE ATHLETIC: Rob Rossi cites sources claiming Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are closing in on a contract extension. Both sides are confident a deal will be agreed upon and formalized soon.
Crosby, who turns 37 in August, remains intent on finishing his career with the Penguins, despite missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (NHL Images).
The full details of Crosby’s new contract are unknown. Previous reports suggested it could be a three-year deal with an average annual value of $10 million. It will require a “35-plus” designation, which prevents a team from front-loading a contract that is at least two years in length or delaying a signing bonus to or after the second season.
Crosby’s current average annual value is $8.7 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Confirmation of Crosby’s new contract could come this week, maybe as early as today. Some observers raised eyebrows last week when July 1 came and went with no sign of a deal. Sometimes, reaching an agreement on a new contract takes a little longer than expected.
The “35-plus” designation also means the Penguins won’t garner any cap relief if they were to buy out that new contract.
TORONTO STAR: Bruce Arthur and Dave Feschuk examine what’s gone wrong for the Maple Leafs under team president Brendan Shanahan. “The Shanaplan” invested heavily in the “Core Four” of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander.
The Leafs’ regular season record is exemplary, boasting a .636 win percentage since 2016-17 which is the NHL’s third-highest. No team has scored more goals (2,117) and they have the third-best power play percentage (24.1) over that time.
It’s a different in the playoffs. They ranked last in goals (150) among 16 playoff teams that have played over 40 postseason games during that period. They’re 15th among those clubs in power-play percentage (16.9).
No one doubts the individual skills of the “Core Four”, it’s the combination that has been less than the sum of its parts. Their defenders point to the Leafs’ lack of a true starting goaltender or a proven No. 1 defenseman or depth scoring. The counterpoint is those four could’ve taken a little less money, leaving more to address those issues.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Of all those signings, the Tavares deal is the one that hurt the most. Again, I’m not making Tavares the scapegoat. The Leafs pursued him and offered him $11 million annually for seven years. He didn’t force them to sign him to that contract and I don’t blame him for taking the opportunity to play for his hometown club.
The Leafs were coming off a season (2017-18) with the third-best regular-season offense (3.29 goals per game) in the league when they signed Tavares. There was no reason to pursue a scoring center when their pressing needs at the time were right-side blueline depth and reliable playoff goaltending.
That $11 million could’ve and should’ve been put toward addressing those needs. I said it before and after they signed Tavares. That contract handcuffed their efforts to bolster their depth elsewhere in the lineup.
TORONTO SUN: Steve Simmons wonders what happened to Steve Yzerman’s golden touch that built the Tampa Bay Lightning into a Stanley Cup champion. Since becoming general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, that club has missed the playoffs five straight years.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I’ve been wondering about that as well. Granted, Yzerman took over a mess in Detroit. He faced a similar scenario when he became the Lightning’s GM but he had Hall-of-Famer Martin St. Louis and future Hall-of-Famers Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman to build around.
Nevertheless, Yzerman drafted or acquired most of the players who formed the core of the Lightning’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021. So far, he hasn’t had the same level of success with the Red Wings.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Eduardo A. Encina believes Lightning GM Julien BriseBois’ recent difficult decisions make the Lightning his team and could define his legacy. They include letting franchise player Steven Stamkos depart as a free agent and trading defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.
BriseBois inherited the roster core that went on to win Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 from former GM Steve Yzerman, even though he was Yzerman’s right-hand man. Salary-cap constraints forced him to make tough choices that will shape the direction of this team.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: BriseBois and the Lightning benefited from the lack of a state tax in retaining many of those core players. Nevertheless, a flattened salary cap over the previous four seasons forced him to trade or cut loose some complementary players important to the Bolts’ success.
Encina points out that BriseBois is banking on Jake Guentzel replacing Stamkos, J.J. Moser filling Sergachev’s skates on the blueline and promising center Conor Geekie meeting expectations. If those gambles pan out, he’ll look like a genius. If not, they could eventually lead to his dismissal.
THE SCORE: Speaking of Mikhail Sergachev, he said he was in shock when he learned the Lightning had traded him to the Utah Hockey Club. However, he’s looking forward to a leadership role with an up-and-coming franchise.
“Talking to my agent, talking to some players, and talking to (Utah forward Clayton) Keller, everybody said great things about Utah and the new franchise,” said Sergachev. “It’s pretty amazing, honestly. “The whole setup, the city. I’m very excited. It’s a big opportunity for me to prove myself, be a leader. I’m looking forward to it.”
THE TENNESSEAN: Nashville Predators captain Roman Josi is focusing more on the mental side of the game as part of his offseason training. He still works out five days a week, but his primary focus is mental exercise and meditation.
“The more you take care of your mental side, the better you are as a person and as a hockey player,” said Josi.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: The Flyers signed defenseman Egor Zamula to a two-year with an AAV of $1.7 million.
Told nothing has changed regarding Joel Quenneville and the #CBJ head coach vacancy. Quenneville is not a candidate in Columbus.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) July 7, 2024
Sidney Crosby and Penguins contract extension soon – Twp Thumbs Up – as all those rumors here including by Captain Obvious with Crosby playing elsewhere next season come to a halt.
And that much less Pittsburgh chatter …. hmmmm, I can live with that.
Lyle, re “Nevertheless, Yzerman drafted or acquired most of the players who formed the core of the Lightning’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021. So far, he hasn’t had the same level of success with the Red Wings.”
Maybe it has had something to do with the scouting personnel …. I doubt Yzerman does any actual detailed scouting himself and, like his 31 counterparts, relies heavily on the scouting recommendations.
And I’m not talking about the no-brainers like McDavid, Matthews. Bedard, and this year’s # 1, or even consensus 3 to 5 picks each year.
Be interesting to compare late 1st and subsequent round picks during his tenure in Tampa with those taken since he became Detroit GM.
You talk about all the Pittsburgh chatter on here…you really dont have to read it.
And you are on here alot like every other post os George O
Not a bad thing but you then cant complain thats what sires like this are for.
Plenty of Toronto stuff as well its all good
If you’re going to put words in my mouth, at least try to use the ones I actually used.
When did I EVER say “ Crosby will play elsewhere “?
Never said that. What I ACTUALLY said was “ Pittsburgh SHOULD have traded him leading up to the deadline. Once the season ended, it put an end to that.
See the difference? Probably not.
I’m really trying to stay away from posting here. This fan base…
Hopefully Crosby signs a 10 year deal in Pittsburgh for 14 per! This is the best case scenario.
Hang in CaptainObvious … I hear ya … it can be frustrating and sometimes virtually impossible NOT to respond to “false – alleged words in mouth” posts (which appears to be an ensconced phenomenon throughout all aspects of the social media – bar none) … but I have found the best approach is simply to ignore them. They do, eventually, just go away.
I’m in the process of doing that now with one in particular.
Just for the record my comment posted above all these rumors about Crosby leaving had nothing to do with you.
Places like you tube all the podcast donny dahl tsn etc.all fooling themselves..
Sid is a Penguin.
After our fiesty exchange days back i and you have chosen cooler heads and to avoid..which is smart.
CaptainObvious … I rest my case – lol – illegitimi non carborendum
Speed..agreed people love to start stuff and if you talk about it enough it might come true.
Well done Penguins..
He has been under paid for years.
A lot of hockey news this morning! I figured no way Crosby was leaving Pittsburgh! I think Tavares is a scapegoat in Toronto. The guy is a good hockey player but Maple Leaf fans are lethal, it seems? The Hurricanes are gobbling up everyone they can. Detroit is getting better. Obviously, they are not TB yet but I think Yzerman is doing a good job building that team and this coming from an Avalanche fan. GO AVS!!!
Signing Tavares was the right move. The failure was not immediately trading nylander or Marner for the help they needed.
imo another problem was that the Leafs signed Matthews and Marner immediately after they completed their ELC’s to those $10mil. + contracts. No bridge deals! That and the flat cap hampered them to sign a good goalie and d-men.
And Matthews didn’t even sign for max. term. You could say (more) money is more important for them than winning.
Covid flattening the cap was not foreseen by the leafs as well. How could it have been?
I’ve said this many moons ago that the cap won’t go down because it’s based on revenue not profits and inflation alone will drag it north. Not even lockouts or lockdowns could bring the cap down and it’s understandable that when the Leafs signed Tavares they projected a rising cap to allow them to fill other needs.
It will take a lot to drop the cap. Like a team folding scenario with no relocation prospects.
Agree Jeff, the flat cap hurt the Leafs as much as any other team, probably more, due to when those large contracts were signed. Almost every team does what TOR did with their young high end players.
Agree with Lyle that the Tavares signing was a mistake, and it was compounded by the unforeseen pandemic and ensuing flat cap.
Chrisms, why would the Leafs choose to move a guy like Nylander, who was on an very good contract, and just entering his prime for a 28 yr old Tavares who probably had 3-4 years of his prime years left? Or Marner, who wasn’t on a very good contract but not a terrible one, but still just entering his prime for a 28 yr old Tavares with 3-4 prime years left? The LEafs didn’t want to keep the “big 3” for just one contract, they wanted them for all their prime years.
All of this when you already have a proven 2C on an excellent contract? Who they did end up trading and he won a cup, playing a big role.
Not sure what I’m missing, but I don’t understand the “why do it” part instead of just pursuing options elsewhere in your lineup with that $11M? I have never heard a good answer for that over the many years of debating it on here.
IMO opinion they veered off the original “Shanaplan”, when they signed Tavares.
You got a very good center in Tavares who was still playing at prime level for nothing but cash. Just because you woulda had 11 million more that summer doesn’t mean there were players worth spending that money on in fa or available in trades. That very good winger could have returned a very good d man that otherwise wouldn’t have been available. When one of the best centers to enter fa in years becomes available at a hometown discount you snag it and use your current capital to fill your other needs. Leafs screwed up. But I just disagree where
Guys, over the past couple of years there have been countless posts on the situation with the Leafs cap, some correctly pointing out that the Tavares signing was not his fault, the unforeseen Covid pandemic, the refusal to play a little hardball with Nylander and Marner, and the difficulty in trading away one of those top 4 deals.
But right now, headed for a new season and regardless of how they got themselves into the situation, the bottom line is, they have a full 61.5% of the $88,000,000 cap limit tied up in their top 5 highest paid players
Matthews – $13,250,000
Nylander – $11.500,000
Tavares – $11,000,000
Marner – $10,903,000
Rielly – $7,500,000
That’s $54,153,000 on 5 players, leaving $33,847,000 with which to sign 18 – or an average of $1,880,388 per player.
Now, factor in the next 7 highest paid, taking it to 12 players, roughly half the 23-man roster:
Tanev – $4,500,000
Domi – $3,750,000
Ekman-Larsson – $3,500,000
Liljegren – $3,000,000
Stolarz $2,500,000
Kampf – $2,400,000
Jarnkrok – $2,100,000
Those, added to the top 5, has them with $75,903,000 tied up in 12 – or 86% of the cap and $12,097,000 with which to sign 11 to get to a 23-man roster – or an average of $1,099,727 per player.
And they still have 2 RFAs to re-up – Robertson, coming off an ELC of $796,667 and in 56gp he had 14g 13a 27 pts and was a +4, and Dewar, coming off an ELC of $800,000 with 75gp in Minn/Tor and 11g 8a 19 pts. Plus they no longer have Muzzin’s LTIR with which to diddle the system.
So, the basic question becomes, can a team be cup-competitive – and I stress CUP-competitive – with a formula like that? And to be clear, Toronto isn’t the only team facing – or soon to be facing – a numbers game like that. I sure as Hell don’t have any definitive answers – other than to hang in until next season when two big ones come off the list. But hashing and re-hashing WHY they got where they are isn’t resolving anything.
Absolutely well said George. I am beyond weary of hearing that the covid induced flat cap is responsible for the Leafs cap issues, while the rest of the league somehow didn’t have the same impact.
LJ look around the league. Yes the pandemic has affected the Leafs team rebuilding. Do you not read about other teams in cap trouble? Teams like Tampa and Vegas and others trading players or letting them walk because they can’t resign them. Or teams that can’t make the playoffs because they are too close to the cap to make the moves they need to? To think the cap didn’t affect the league isn’t right. And yes the flat cap did hurt the Leafs efforts to build a better team just as much as it stopped good teams like Tampa stay together.
chrisms, I’m not talking about just that summer, I’m looking at for the next 5-10 years. They did trade a good young player after they signed Tavares, Kadri, because now they had 3 C’s for 2 spots. And Kadri was on an excellent contract and too good a player to have on your 3rd line. Lost that trade.
It’s easy to say sign a UFA D man, just like it’s easy to say trade Marner or Nylander. Nylander would have been valuable to multiple teams, but why trade a really good young player on a good contract? The reason you don’t is because he will keep getting better, just like he is better than Tavares now. It sure as heck would have been hard to trade Marner and a $10M cap hit, how many of those have you seen in the last decade? I can’t think of any.
Leafs weren’t ready for prime time yet when they signed Tavares, best guys too young. A mentor is great, but you have to go through it IMO.
They spent $11M on a player, making the turn onto the back 9 of his career, to solve a problem they did not have. Center ice.
And took away all kinds of options with that $11M, team in cap trouble?? UFA whatever. Again, to solve a problem they did not have, center ice.
I generally disagree with the young guys arnt ready yet approach. You need a good contribution from those on elcs and second contracts in general in the cap era to build a well rounded team. I look at Chicago and think… now’s the time.
Hey chrisms, I remembered your thoughts on the young guys and the Chicago example when I posted it. Hence it would be a good discussion.
Other than that Chicago team, with 2 of their best core guys being that young (Toews and Kane 21), I can’t think of anybody else. Chicago also had Hossa, Sharp, Keith, Big Buff, Campbell, Seabrook etc.
They sucked bad enough, for long enough, to accrue lots of good talent.
Any other examples? Not saying there isn’t, just saying I can’t think of one. 83/84 oilers come to mind, but they had 5 years of experience with Gretz and Mess as 23 yr old’s including 5 years in playoffs.
Any team who signs a premiere #1 center as a UFA and has multiple young players on your newly rebuilt team is far from unnecessary even after the fact of coming off a season of being a top team. Young teams always show promise before they take a step back and the Leafs signing Tavares when they did helped the young team continue being a successful team* – I don’t think many of us would think a team with a young core that has many of their core players still on their ELC, to carry a team deep into playoffs but we do for the Leafs.
The Leafs needed a vet player to help shoulder the weight since we would agree it would be foolish to expect a very young and inexperienced team do much without experience that vets bring. Now you can argue was Tavares the right choice or not or have someone else better in mind.
Throw that in with a cap that didn’t rise at all for a couple of seasons after nice and big contracts where signed and you have a scenario where a young rebuilding team gets handicapped by not being able to complete the rebuild as in the case with the Leafs or you slowly dismantle your championship team solid piece by piece until you’re no longer a contender.
I have questioned a few of Yzerman’s signings (Holl, Chiarot, etc…) but I think it’s easy to forget just how truly bad the Red Wings were five years ago: back-to-back seasons with 39 and 48 points. There is no easy fix for that, and most fans understand that. That said, if they miss the playoffs again this year, at the very least they need to get make a coaching change and take a hard look at where they are failing as an organization.
I think people forget how few quality prospects Detroit had when Yzerman took over as GM. In a few years people will be talking about how deep the team is. He’s been doing an excellent job
Without digging to far into Yzerman drafting success in Detroit:
2019 Moritz Seider
2020 Raymond Lucas
no one will complain about them two 1st round picks.
However in 2019 and 2020 Detroit has 3 second round picks in each draft. As of date not one of the 6 picks have played in a Nhl game.
I don’t know these prospects and if their going to be Nhl players or not. I leave that to folks who know.
caper, both Seider and Raymond were high 1st round picks and consensus choices to be, in fact, taken high. And you can bet Yzerman picked both on the basis of the recommendations of his scouts. I sincerely doubt he, personally, scouted either.
This goes back to my earlier post above.
Ok George..whatever you say your god on here..so b it.
Try being real for a second
Yzerman took over Tampa team with Stamkos and Hedman, missing the playoffs two years with them.
In short order he added Kucherov and Vasilevskiy.
He got his “Brodeur”, funny how an incredible goalie can make a GM a genius.
That would be my point about the Leafs.
IMHO finding and signing a great goalie would have been Toronto’s ticket to playoff success.
It still is.
Tavares was a bright shiny player that Toronto didn’t need. A dman or two and a goalie would have better served the team.
After putting a Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette in the garage, the Leafs should bought a Land Rover or F150 to carry home the groceries. Instead they bought a Lamborghini.
Crosby with a nice $30 million retirement package? Sail off in the sunset in Pittsburgh, golfing by May. Enjoy!
Chrisms is right on point, i think. Tavares a lot of teams would have loved to have him. you can’t blame all your problems on one individual? or action taken by the team? Their core seems to be not able to get it done, that dosen’t mean they won’t. So far, no soap but it sure isn’t Tavares fault. good on the Isle and good in Toronto!!! Some day the leafs will win, when its’s going to be, who nows? Berube is a great coach. The Avalanche got a great coach that know one knows about and the only time they win is when the team buys into his sytem. it’s difficult to win, every team thinks they got the answer but you have to have good fortune on your side, too? : guys who only care about winning, injuries, supportive management and good coaching staff, scouting, etc.
Something many are reluctant to look at is what Tavares has done since signing that unnecessary contract. Since signing, he is a .96ppg average over that contract of 7 years. He has also scored enough goals to be 17th in the whole league over that time span.
He wasn’t a problem nor is one. His signing was a great get for the Leafs or anyone else. A pandemic that has affected the cap for all teams hurt the Leafs the most in filling out the roster and teams like Tampa for keeping them intact.
As George says, this has been debated ad nauseam and quite frankly moot due to what parties believe are the mitigating factors or not.
It’s hard to overlook the elephant in the room and what the pandemic has done to all parts of the game even right down to how it affected this years current draftees. What would this cap look like without a pandemic? Would it have been over $100m now or more? Would you want your future star(s) to carry the load of the team after being drafted or rather have a good pro show help them and team grow in a successful environment?
As far as I am concerned, it was a nice try, one of the best I’ve seen by this organization in my life time but so far it’s falling short and that to me, has more reasons than just the cap, covid, or an “unnecessary” ufa signing.
I think the Tavares signing was at best a couple years early for the group, recognizing that he wouldn’t be available when the time would be right.
At worst, I think it was a signature signing by a rookie GM to announce that both he and the team had arrived.
John’s been an excellent player and worth his salary, but the 3 others didn’t develop as expected, meaning playoff heroes. I think they as a group have run their course and don’t see them as being competitive in a series with any of the final 4 this past season.