Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Grantland: A half-dozen perplexing off-season decisions

The NHL offseason features a steady stream of news and transactions, most of which are fairly straightforward. Even the big moves that grab headlines tend to make sense on some level. As a fan, you spend most of the summer hearing about the latest news and thinking Yeah, that sounds about right.

But every now and then, you get the other end of the spectrum — the moves that make you stop and think Wait, what? Most fans can come up with plenty of colorful words to describe these decisions, and will be more than happy to loudly share those words with you while angrily waving an empty bottle of scotch, but we’ll be polite and just go with "perplexing."

(Note that "perplexing" isn’t necessarily a synonym for “bad," since it’s quite possible for these moves to work out just fine. Similarly, you can make a pretty strong argument that, for example, Toronto giving David Clarkson a seven-year deal was a mistake, but there was nothing perplexing about it — the Leafs love physical players and don’t seem to care very much about cap management.)

Here are a half-dozen of the offseason’s most perplexing moments so far.

>> Read the full post on Grantland




8 comments:

  1. How about we get an educated writer to do articles on the Leafs. "Don't seem to care very much about cap amnagement" What ????

    Read article below for the reality.

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1695599-david-clarkson-contract-just-cost-of-doing-business-for-maple-leafs

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    1. For those who don't want to give Bleacher Report the clicks they so desire, let me break down the article:

      The crux is that the Leafs signing Clarkson is just the "cost of doing business" for teams with limited options and deep pockets -- the latter point being somewhat irrelevant in a cap era for big market teams. Also, the deal is not really that bad because a Clarkson buyout would be cancelled out (in a sense) by the expected annual cap increase...until 2024. Yay?

      The very notion that the term 'buyout' is an argument used in favour of the signing should point the reader's opinion of the deal into a very different direction. Unless, of course, you are a terrible sportswriter, an uneducated sports fan or live on the moon.

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  2. ^ this guy is SMART. SMRT smart

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  3. Sounds like "Anger Management" and spelling management should take place with both commentators above:)
    Reimer earned a lot of respect from the fans last season!
    Leafs management should of tried that approach too.

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    1. How about grammar management for the dude who just used "of" as a verb?

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    2. And missing the joke management for not getting the reference to Homer Simpson.

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  4. C'mon dude, Simpsons reference.

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  5. Anything from Bleacher Report is nonsense. Their hockey writers know LESS than an average fan, and THAT'S saying something!

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