Winning Cures All - Canes 3 Caps 1

Not worth it’s own post … but Vrbata and Gratton BOTH out on waivers by Tampa Bay.

theyll get picked up somewhere right?

No way does Radim get picked up. Too much money. Maybe if they put him back in on re entry, someone might take a sniff. JUST SAY NO JR, once was enough on that guy. Hell once was enough on Tanabe but that did not stop him from bringing the guy back in 3 times……

What kind of money is in Gratton? Anyone know?

Gratton maybe … Vrbata? No way.

Gratton earns $1.25M this year (final year of the deal) and is one of the league’s top faceoff guys.

Vrabata is due $3M a year for this year AND two more.

think we were typing at the same time, Wylde … lol

I doubt it. Vrbata’s contract is for 3 million a year over 3 years. I don’t think anyone but the management in Tampa felt he was worth that kind of money. Gratton is cheaper at 1.2 million, but still overpriced, IMO.

Update- (I guess I’m the slowest typist of the bunch…)

Yeah at 1.2 he is pricey for his skill set (limited O production, not exactly what you would call a defensive specialist either) but on re entry with a hit of 600k, he may look good for a team lacking depth at C.

Well I think it just goes to show you how ridiculous Vrby’s contract is, 3 groin men were tripping over each other to post that there was no way in **** anyone would pick it up.

LOL

er umm grown men sorry guys

Great game to be at. It’s a shame that the game ended up being all about Staal in the end. Staal should have been the 3rd star with either Leighton or Whitney as 1st & 2nd stars. The hat trick didn’t pull him out of his “rut”, lets hope this does. If not, I hope that Mo has the balls to decrease his ice time or healthy scratch him, that’s of course that JR will let Mo scratch his own balls.

Sorry we’re crashing your game thread, Bubba.

More on Vrbata — he’s returning to the Czech Republic, so once he clears waivers his salary will come off the cap, but he’ll still need be paid by Tampa. He’s not ruling out returning next season:

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=258958&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_nhl

Did we actually have our full compliment of starting forwards playing last night? With Walker back, I believe that was everyone. Now, if only we can get our defense healthy.

It also seems that when we have a large influx of “kids” from Albany playing, the team plays better and wins more. Hmmm.

Response to Cory-

Why can’t Melichar move back to Europe so the Canes can get relief from his salary?

Frank, agree, plus the kids from Albany usually do well for themselves when they get here.

It will be interesting to see the lines when Walker is ready to move up. He played fourth line minutes last night.

it sucks sutter and larose are losing minutes.

oh well

They’d have to pay him anyway, Bubba. Vrbata will get paid, he just won’t be against the cap. And we know the Canes don’t have cap issues — they have “budget” issues.

According to TSN, they say “The Lightning will apparently not be responsible for paying him for the balance of this season but the contract will remain in force for the second and third years should he choose to return to the NHL.”

It is a very weird situation. I’m not sure how they can get away with not paying him a guaranteed contract unless he agreed to it. They must have gotten lawyers involved.

I was going to say, if they were still paying him, why not make him play in the AHL? He would be a help there.

According to the Canes website Babchuk will be out at least 2 weeks with an apparent injury to his “right arm or elbow”.
But Seids will possibly be back for Thursday in addition to Ward. Gleason, maybe saturday? So Frank, they’re starting to get there…
Yay!!

Wouldn’t it be something if they had a full lineup available to them? It just might happen someday. knock on wood

Yea, when pigs fly. Full line up…..

Hell, I’ll miss some of the call ups, these are doing well.

Sucks waiting until Thursday, kinda kills any momentum we had brewing.

A

It’d be nice if they could get someone to pay for Melichar … seems doubtful, though.

Cory, Yeah I agree, I don’t see who would take him. The Melichar signing is another one of those moves that makes me question JR. Just about everyone said WTF on that one when it went down, except for EJ Hradek, who thought it was a good, albeit unspectactular move.

At a million it is not one that has me screaming from the soapbox, but it is a puzzler.

The Penguins gave up on Melichar a couple of years ago when they cut him. Not sure why JR felt that he suddenly got better unless a scout convinced him of it. As you say Wylde, at least it’s only a one year deal and “only” for a million.

Reminds me of the Tanabe re-signing when no one else in the NHL wanted the kid. and then there’s Oleg Tverdovsky…ouch. JR is hoping to get lucky and have one of these projects work out for him. Better to stick with the prospects like Carson and Borer and give them a chance.

He makes more good deals than bad, but some of these bad ones are head scratchers.

Tverdovsky wasn’t all bad… wasn’t all great either… his name is on the cup w/ the rest of the team…

Although… I’m stull puzzled as to why Danny Markov didn’t stick… I guess it was probably more of a team issue and not so much a player issue that season… Bob Boogner didn’t stick around very long either….

The only way I see the roster changing any is if they bring/put people down to/from Albany, or from a trade. The Canes cannot afford to sign anyone and they do not have anymore room on the team. It’s almost a logjam with all of the people going in and out of the lineup.

Yea but…..

If they can keep up the tempo and effort……

You have your Crosby’e and Ovechkin’s and we have Staal. Brindy, I’m not sure about, I hope he shapes up.

We just may have some pretty good names in the making. Look at Samsinov. He was pretty good and then was shit on. His play has been the best in along time. Wallin, well, hell, alot of us wrote him off and he’s having a banner year. Ruutu, what can you say? I love that guy. Cullen looks like he’s shook the bee’s out of his head. Eaves flat out is a scouts wet dream, if he can pull it off, he’s gonna be great. Gleason has awsome potential. Joni, LaRose, blah, blah, blah.

They ain’t the Wings, Pens or Bruins, but if the starts align, this team could be a breeding ground for very good players. God help us all if they actually meld as a team and fullfill (that has to be spelled wrong) the potential.

the whole deal isn’t MO or even Ron or Rowe. It’s these guys. I also am not dismissing the AHL call ups. We have been accused as being very weak on our call ups. I say go pound sand, our call ups are great. many will be NHL’ers.

That’s the niche. have enough ammo to carry the day. I think I don’t alway get JR, I do believe he’s stocked his ammo chest. We got upper middle class talent through 4 lines. San Jose and the Wings are solid with 4 lines, but we are better than most teams on paper. If JR, Mo, Ron or friggin’ Santa Clause can get paper output out of this team, they will make the PO’s. Can’t say how deep, but we should own the SE.

We are beat up and have ALOT of call ups and we just took the division leader in what was a 4 point game.

You can be pissed at JR and hate Mo, Eaves or whatever.

We all want them to succeed and have diff. ideas of how. Right now, I gotta say I was content with the last two games. I want better and have shitpiles of ides. I haven’t stood up and yelled in my family room in a long time. I was hollering my ass off during the craps game.

That’s a key point. If we believe and then they believe, then maybe we got something going after all.

A

yea i was screaming too.
its been a while.

and it felt good.

-c

BTW, the next time a certain zebra lookin’ dude get’s the call here, who wants to have a good ol’ fashion asskickin’ party as soon as he arrives?

I’m tired of that asshole, he isn’t fair and anyone with even a partial open mind can see this guy calls poor games.

It’s actually a scar on the league. Look at the NBA and the ref. problems. This guy has to go. Times are tough, I’ll teach him to flip burgers, but get him out of the NHL.

A-I hate him worse than almost all opposing players.

Two quick random thoughts:
• I also noticed the dramatic reduction of LaRose’s playing time. I would like to see him get more. At least he will get more minutes because of my next point #2 below…
• Training staff absolutely has to get some more muscle mass on Eaves (and Sutter… but we know he is young and lanky) ASAP!!! Eaves plays and pounds like he is twice the size. I like that, but more injuries will come (esp shoulder problems)… shame because he is working hard and playing well (when in the lineup). This was all the scouting report on him last Spring, though. Precisely as advertised. Hopefully the staff can get him out of this viscous cycle.

Although it’s good to see that — for now — the Canes seem to be pulling out of the depths of gloom, it’s disturbing for the future that Sutter isn’t playing much. This team has such a poorly rated prospect system that we need the ones who stick with the big club to develop as fast and play as much as they can. Now, I’ll hold my tongue if we go on a nice win streak, but Sutter — and hopefully next year Boychuck, et al — are the future and need important minutes when they get the chance.

Mateo,

I think Danny Markov worked out well for us, but it is another scenario of, if you want something worthwhile, you gotta give up something worthwhile. I can’t seem to remember who we got in return for trading Danny, but I do vaguely remember a game 7 SCF empty netter to seal the deal……..LOL

Bob Boughner trade was a salary dump as best I can tell. We recieved a prospect playing in the DEL, that I am not sure ever turned in to anything. Having said that, The boogie man was done the following the lockout anyway, so it was not a huge loss. He was a tremendous locker room guy, and was very involved in local charity.

Markov for Williams is one of JR’s best deals. Yes, Markov was a solid blueliner, but Williams was younger and better.

Cory, I totally agree and have to give the devil his due. At the time the deal was made, I think that deal was ALL potential. Williams had shown glimpses at that time, but was still something of a gamble.