Rich

I really have no problem with what Wade said, I don’t think it is bush league at all. The truth is what Wade said wasn’t a pissing match back at Gary Bettman, I’m sure Gary doesn’t care what Wade said if he was even told of the quote at all. What Wade did was because of the Winnipeg sports fan backlash at the Bombers. The Bombers were coming off looking like the bad guys in this, and as CEO he needed to move to change that perception. Let’s look at the two quotes from the Winnipeg Free Press article . Bettman: Miller: Sure Wade could have left the first part out taking a shot at Bettman, but if what Wade is saying is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn’t since February was what the rumors have been saying for a long time), then there was an agreement, but the NHL changed its mind. Maybe Bettman himself didn’t rubber stamp it, but someone in the NHL did, and they were going by those dates. If the November date was being bandied about a year ago when these talks first started, then Miller could have said no, lets delay a year back then. News of this wouldn’t have leaked out, and the Winnipeg sports fan wouldn’t have been up in arms at losing something they never had or knew about. Wade has a right to be mad at the fact that the date was changed on him two weeks ago, and he is the one who is being blamed by the Winnipeg sports fan anger. Your proposed statement wouldn't have addressed that at all. And that is really what Wade's words are about ... not about pulling out a ruler.

I think in November the NHL and NHLPA agree to treat Voynov's salary the same as a long term injury. He is being paid, but it doesn't count against the cap.

Yeah, I found more details on his contract after I posted that (miss capgeek). 2018/2019 is 3M. But there are still 2 years after this season where you are pretty much paying him at par to his cap hit. If I am team who is at the cap floor, I can’t afford to be playing a player with his production levels that kind of money. The only way he is moved is if the Kings eat some salary, and you would have to think if teams could have come up with a deal where they do that, a trade would have been made already. I believe the Kings do eat a portion of his salary (half maybe?) if he is claimed on his way back up. So maybe they want to send him down, then call him up and see if there are any takers.

Total value might be less then the cap hit but he still has some high priced years in there. 14/15 - 7 M (would have to eat just under half of it) 15/16 - 6 M 16/17 - 5.5 M 17/18 - 4.5M 18/19 - 3M You only really see savings in the last 3 years and even then, it isn't a lot of savings as compared to the cap hit of 5.75M You can make that argument in the last 2 years, but there is this season and 2 more before you get there.

That is a lot of money to tie up over the next 5 years. IMO the only way the Jets pick him up would have been a trade where the Kings retain part of his salary.

Pardy has an interesting history. In 2011/12 he signed a 2 year $4M contract with Dallas but didn’t live up to expectations (partly because of injury problems). And they traded him to Buffalo, where he did end up spending some time in the AHL. The Jets signed him as a free agent after that deal at $600,000 (one year). They did send him down to the minors after training camp in 2013, where he did clear waivers, but a lot of players clear waivers at that time of the year due to roster restrictions, and he was coming off a couple of troubled seasons prior to that. Pardy re-signed with the Jets last summer for another 1 year deal at $700,000 (they signed him right before free agency hit). So, Pardy was once thought of highly enough to get a $4 Million dollar contract (2M per season). Ran into injury problems and has really kind of revitalized his career with the Jets. He has a very reasonable 1 year contract as playoff depth for a team and is a really good fit as a 7th defenseman who can play on your third pairing if needed. I think there is a good chance that a team does take a flyer on him if he is waived. No long term contract, and gives you some playoff insurance.

Had to really think about this ... does this mean you think he will clear?

Agreed on Frolik. No way you can trade him. A lot of people (media) say that you can't lose Frolik for nothing, but then go on to talk about how the Jets are likely to be in a playoff hunt this year and may be buyers at the deadline. If you could get a Frolik for a 3rd or 4th round pick at the deadline, would you do it? Of course you would. Well then why would you trade him when you could keep him without giving anything up. Yes you are losing out on potential assets coming back, but this playoff push is more important then that. You look at the assets the Jets do have coming up in the pipeline, and Frolik is more valuable for the rest of this year then adding to that list. Even if you do lose him in free agency.

From an NHL perspective, I can see them not wanting to do this in March because it would cost an extra $500k - $1M (depending what reports you want to believe) to keep IGF open that long. That is an extra $500k - $1M in your pocket if you do it earlier in the year. From a Bomber perspective, I can understand them being worried about ticket sales. Not sure I agree with it entirely myself, but can the Bombers really can't afford the risk of a screw up on the Grey Cup. This whole kerfuffle proves that most of the sports fan in this city has the Jets #1 and everything else after that, so there may be some just cause for their concern. They get this event once a decade, and this has to be a cash cow to sustain them. They can’t mess up this Grey Cup. (Despite the Twitter outrage, I highly doubt the “delaying” of the classic will cause people to boycott the Bombers or Grey Cup, at least not in material numbers) Lawless made a good point last night, that ALL organizations dropped the ball on this. That a marketing strategy where the option to buy both a Grey Cup ticket and Outdoor Classic ticket as a package would have been a great sell. However, this would have had to been negotiated months ago as the Bomber Season ticket renewals (which include buying Grey Cup tickets) went out in the fall after the season was over. The CFL would also have to be involved and approve the co-marketing of the event. This doesn’t seem to work for the NHL because they weren’t in a position to announce the Winter Classics at that time. Who knows if this was delayed due to the Bomber negotiations or other stadium negotiations, or simply the NHL’s time frame on when they make these announcements. The fans seem to be making more of this then there really is. Reports from Lawless (who is very connected to both organizations) has said that there is no animosity between the Bombers, the Jets, and the NHL in this. No one has left the table in a huff. They tried to negotiate this event, and they couldn’t find a solution that worked for all parties involved. This isn’t about Wade trying to flex his muscles with the big boys. This is about 3 different organizations, with different priorities and interests, wanting what is best for them and the only solution that all could agree to was delaying for a year. The NHL loves these classics, and Winnipeg is a prime location to host one due to interest the fan base here would have in selling it out. This will happen, just not this year.

Remember the Bombers were pushing or under the impression to have the event in February. Banjo Bowl is in September, Grey Cup in November. September to November is 3 months. Now extend that out to February. That means having the seats in place for 6 months. Doubling the time the seats would have to be rented. Therefore the cost is split half. I don't know how rental agreements work on those seats, but I can't imagine it is by the event, since those seats could be used elsewhere if they weren't up at IGF. If the outdoor classic was to be in December, sure maybe the cost would be less. But that was a deal breaker for the Bombers, so that wouldn't have been the terms they were negotiating under.

Why should the Bombers pay the entire amount if they were going to be used by the NHL too. Why should the NHL pay half the cost for something the bombers are using twice and using regardless of the NHL game? Why should the NHL profit on an extra 8000 seats that wouldn't otherwise be there? There is a cost to keeping those seats longer, they are rented. The cost share would be a fraction of what those seats would bring in with ticket sales and concession sales. This was negotiated as part of the "deal". The NHL saw a benefit and was fine with this part of the deal. The contentious part was the dates. When you rent a venue, isn't the price often based on its size. This was the cost of renting a 41k seat venue as compared to 33k. Also, the original plan was for the game to be played in February. An extra 2 - 3 months of keeping the seats.

You don't need the extra seats for the classic. If the cost of putting them back up is more then projected revenue the you go without the extra 8k seats

Tom Anselmi (born c. 1956) is a Canadian sports executive who most recently served as the President and COO for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Anselmi is an alumnus of Ryerson University and University of Saskatchewan. Not sure what qualifications an investment banker would have to be commissioner of the CFL.

This is what I thought at first as well, that he wanted that 500k cash grab. Then I read the rest of the article and he it seems he is more concerned about the Heritage Classic cannibalizing Grey Cup ticket sales. They overpriced the heritage classic in Vancouver and struggled to sellout, giving deep discounts before the event. You are going to be asking a lot of the same people to spend $300+ on Grey Cup ticket and another $200 - $1000 on a heritage classic ticket. Based on prior seasons, the Bombers are by no means guaranteed to be in the Grey Cup, so no guarantee you see your team, but you are guaranteed to see the Jets. Then again, when was the last time the Grey Cup didn't sellout. Maybe this is just a cash grab. I do agree that if Wade wants to play chicken with the NHL, he will lose.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/cfl/Outdoor-Heritage-Classic-game-could-be-postponed-289193531.html

Just curious, what contents of an announcement would have made you thought them to be unusual and that would have led you to believe there was "sitting". I really don't know if the Bombers were sitting on the announcement or not. But I'm not sure how the contents of that announcement could lead you to believe they delayed it or not. There really is no link between the two. It isn't like they are going to say we signed him last week but our PR guy was on holidays so we waited until today to announce it. Just not how things work.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=749417

Sure its a hockey play, but it is an illegal one. It is called cross checking. And he did it to Perreault at the end of a play where it wouldn't normally be expected. Unfortunate for Carcillo, but they suspend based on the result and reputation. He has a bad reputation and the result was he took Perreault out for at least that game.

This has now been resolved. Sorry for the downtime and thanks for your patience.

A few interesting tweets after the game.

Been working to get this fixed but getting push back between the people who make the forum software and the hosting provider. Both think the other needs to fix it. Chat room unlikely to be working for tonights game.