Rich

Pretty good article on it here. http://www.silversevensens.com/2015/6/10/8737195/nhl-buyout-rules-refresher-guide

It can be done but there is a cap penalty if you do, so it isn't done often. Where in the last CBA they let you buy out 2 contracts that wouldn't count against the cap.

Interesting article from Willie Mitchell of the Florida Panthers. He is out with the 7th concussion of his career at the age of 38 (39 later this month). http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/panthers-mitchell-talks-concussions-future-hockey/ He claims no one will speak publicly, but in the locker room, the players want the NHL to crack down and dish out more severe penalties to head shots. I'm all for harsher suspensions, but you have to wonder where the NHLPA stands on this. It seems that almost any suspension that is more then 5 - 10 games is appealed. They chose (or Raffi chose) not to appeal the Torres suspension earlier this year for 41 games for a head shot. Yet they appealed the Wideman hit on referee Don Henderson who is still out with a concussion. Players want harsher discipline for this dirty stuff in the game, stop appealing suspensions.

An article on the intersection of the WWE and CFL from a football blog. http://3downnation.com/2016/04/04/two-strange-peas-in-one-pod-the-intersection-of-cfl-and-wwe-fandom/

Whats the point of having a draft of American players when they will all want to exhaust their NFL chances before even considering coming up North? The exact reason you give for Canadians is the exact reason it won't work for Americans. How many rounds of drafting do you want and how do you want to handle the players that don't get drafted?

Rumours were that Red was going to retire. Possibility that Kyle goes back for one more to win the championship. I still expect him to sign but with Red coming back, it may make him think twice.

The problem with this is that there are so many fringe NFLers, how many rounds are there going to be? What happens to the players who inevitably don't get drafted. Neg list system is there for a reason. Impractical for CFL teams to draft Americans IMO.

Because they are agreed to in the negotiated CBA. And the players agree to it in every contract they sign. There is no constitutional issue here. While it is true you can't force just anyone off the street to a drug test, athletes in sports that have mandatory drug testing have a choice. They can either not play the sport if they don't want to undergo mandatory testing or they can play the sport and abide by the rules that are agreed to in the CBA and the contract they willingly signed. No one is forcing anyone to do anything.

It is a hard cap. And the rich don't get rich by spending their money on things that lose money.

lob·by a group of people seeking to influence politicians or public officials on a particular issue. bribe persuade (someone) to act in one's favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement. One is legal, one is not. Thats the difference

This article from earlier this month implies he is still Bomber property. http://3downnation.com/2016/03/11/andy-mulumba-becomes-nfl-and-cfl-free-agent/

Is there an age that decides this? He has never signed a CFL contract so I thought his rights would be retained by Winnipeg.

I know when they wasted a first round draft pick on Sergei Bautin, all the media experts were scrambling because on one had really heard of the guy before.

I agree this was the reason we hired Joe Mack. I agree the BOD has made some horrible choices from GM and even CEO (hello Mr Buchko). I just don't believe it is because they were being purposefully cheap. ie. that they could afford someone, they wanted to come here but we chose someone else because they were the cheaper option. In hindsight I would have loved Barker over Mack. But I don't believe we chose Mack because he was cheaper. We chose him because, as you say, there were people on the BOD who pushed to get him. I don't believe we didn't bid on someone because we could afford to but decided to go with a cheaper option just because. Makes no sense for an entity who doesn't need to turn a profit. If we could afford someone AND wanted them AND they wanted to come here, it makes zero sense to undercut and go with someone cheaper.

If the BOD could spend the money but won't, what would the rationale for that be? If an owner doesn't do it, it is usually because he wants to save the money to either pocket or not go further into a deficit. It is his own personal money, it comes out of his pocket. For the BOD, if the club cheaps out to keep more money for the bottom line, they certainly don't benefit. So why would they purposefully spend less money if they could spend more?

Not the first time he has been in trouble. They were saying on the Morning Show this morning that he doesn't qualify as a repeat offender because of the amount of time that has passed since these suspensions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Keith On March 23, 2012, Keith was suspended five games for delivering an elbow to the head of Canuck forward Daniel Sedin. Head of the Department of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan observed that the hit was "dangerous, reckless, and caused injury" in his video release.[11] On June 4, 2013, Keith received a one-game suspension for high sticking the Los Angeles Kings' Jeff Carter during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

Haven't seen anyone post this yet. Keith should be suspended for at least the first round of the playoffs.

It is very interesting he signed here. Assuming Connor is here next year there is a big log jam in our bottom 6 next year. Can't see Chevy promising NHL with who we have in the queue.

Merged a couple of different posts talking about this into this thread.

Saw this on the Twitter feed, and had to really think about this one. I think I would take the 9 p/o appearances and 1 cup. It means you have a much better consistent team.