2024-25 NHL Thread: Winnipeg is 14-1-0, but what about the playoffs?

Congrats to the Florida Panthers, who become the 22nd active team to win the Cup and did so in attempt #3, thus avoiding the ignominy of joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs as losers of the Finals after being up 3-0 and the Vancouver Canucks as 3-time Finals losers without a Cup.

Things to know:

  • There’s a new team in Utah. Which, it’s really the team that was in Arizona … which was the team that was in Winnipeg … which was the team that was in the WHA before it came into the NHL. It’s not really a new team, it’s an old team but just new to another group of fans.
  • The cap finally goes up this season, which means teams have lots more money to spend … which means lots more bad contracts, and probably overspending that starts to put the players back in Escrow Hell. But, that’s really a story for the following season.
  • The Winter Classic will be between the Blues and Blackhawks. In Chicago. Because, those two teams have never played each other in a Winter Classic. And Chicago has never hosted an outdoor game. Especially not at Wrigley Field.
  • There’s going to be at least 5 new head coaches.
  • No All-Star Game this season; there’s a “Four Nations Faceoff” instead.
  • The regular season starts October 4 in Europe. It hopefully ends earlier than June 24, 2025.
  • Probably a whole bunch of other stuff, which we’ll uncover along the way.

As probably the only poster here that watched the last four Leafs Stanley Cup wins on tv, I applaud the establishment of this thread!

I think the Leafs have the players so will blame next year’s failure as the new coach’s fault. Toughest coaching job in hockey is the Leafs one. Hard to describe the scrutiny he is under to folks in other markets (except maybe Montreal).

Thread titles are always subject to change, but in the offseason that might be the most pressing question. Who to blame if this doesn’t work again, … well, you’ve canned the GM, you’ve canned the head coach, there’s only a couple constants still left over.

I think either way Shanahan is out at the end of '24-25, but really there’s no point in him being there at the moment.

If Petersson learns how to play well in the playoffs I would watch out for the Canucks next year. They have a strong young team.

Free agency in 100 minutes. Should be a lot going on

Wow Nashville! Throwing around that money

habs just signed slafkovsky for 8 years, 160m. huge risk, no?

Especially since with where the cap is, you can’t sign a guy for $20M per year.

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Leafs number one draft pick, Ben Danford, is the grandson of one of my best high school buddies.

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60m, but I think risk worth taking. Maybe hes the next Jack Hughes or Tim Stutzle.

If not, then you probably werent gonna be good anyway so oh well

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July 1, so there were a ton of future bad contracts handed out today. How much potentially wasted money?

Nashville makes the huge splash, getting Stamkos (4/32), Skjei (7/49) and Marchessault (5/27.5) after extending Saros (8/61.92).

The other big news: Joel Quenneville and Stan Bowman (and Jason MacIsaac) get reinstated by the league and can sign contracts starting July 10. I’ll be vaguely surprised if Quenneville isn’t a NHL head coach somewhere when the season starts, I’ll be shocked if by midseason he’s not running an NHL team again.

so what do you think of spending 24M on suzuki,caufield,slaf ?

playing well in your second year isnt the greatest predictor, so this contract is very bold imo. especially given how bad les canadiens have been at developing young talent.

i like nashville a lot for next season.

Not as good as Hughes/Hischier/Bratt or Stutzle/Tkachuk/Sanderson or Cozens/Dahlin/Power but none of them made the playoffs either this season so what do I know

Yeah and it’s Montreal. THey have a bad record with developing young talent, I think mostly due to the pressure playing in Montreal and the difficult media/fans.

Hedman (TB): 4 years, $32 million. And, he’s looking forward to retiring with Tampa. That has to be a knife right in the liver of Stamkos.

Buchnevich (STL): 6 years, $48 million, to start in 2025. That, after the Blues get Mathieu Joseph (and a 3rd in '25) from Ottawa and Radek Faksa from Dallas for future considerations and bring Kapanen back for a year at $1 million. The Blues are setting up to be a 7-12 team in the West again, more likely in that 9-11 range.

On Edmonton yesterday: I’m not sure where Jeff Skinner fits on that team. Sure, if he can click with McDavid - who can’t? - then he could be a 40-goal scorer in a heartbeat. But that means Hyman has to click with RNH, which seems like a longshot. I don’t see RNH elevating Skinner to 30 goals, and I think a Kane-RNH-Skinner line would be good at times offensively, spectacularly bad at others.

skinner had a horrible last season.

NHL free agency shows teams in states with no income tax have an advantage | TSN

If this is such a huge advantage, why doesn’t this show up in other pro sports leagues? Maybe “sucking ass for years on end” eventually leads to “being able to draft better players” which, combined with trades that bring in young talent for older guys who can help other teams win now, builds a team that becomes a winner that eventually attracts other guys who want to be a part of a winning team and not a losing team, and maybe that’s far more important than whether a team is in a “no state income tax” state or not.

Nah, that’s far too logical. Better to hate on the Sun Belt teams and/or a team like Vegas that started winning instantly, all of which don’t deserve to win because they’re not in a “real hockey market,” and assert the only reason they win is because of the lack of state income taxes.

That is why no one wants to sign a big contract with the Dodgers, Lakers, or Yankees knowing that they will pay all that tax!