17to85

That depends how you define upper tier. Picard is a top 3 centre in the league, Kohlert had the third most yards in the league for any Canadian receiver, and Bucknor was probably the best Canadian corner in the league last season. If you defining tiers by position, we certainly do have a few of those guys. Nope none of those players qualifies in my mind. We don't have anyone who is a canadian but also among the best in the league. Years ago we had Brown and Labatte who were top players regardless of nationality, there's no one on the roster that qualifies for that now. Picard is too old and not the same player he once was to qualify anymore either. Watson would be close if he could stay healthy but he sadly can't. There's a lot of solid canadians and some interesting depth but lacking those couple real high end guys holds the team back.

Our opportunity to ditch Kuale for something of value? Let's get to MD while he's still high on the ether... Send Wade Miller and Desjardins is likely to mistake him for Poppin' Fresh. He owes his robust physique to his tubes of triple bleached goo.

What a case of mismanagement here. Billions of dollars lost because they didn't understand the market they were coming into and didn't put enough planning in place to ensure their launch was a success. It's just amazing that this can happen. How can the people in charge be so dumb?

We don't have anyone that can be considered in the upper teir of Canadian players, that alone makes it below average.

except this past season casts some doubt on how much tread is left on those tires.

Lot of entitlement and impatience in this thread that's for sure. I hope they don't make an official announcement until training camp just to watch some of you continue to *****.

Name me a defense that works without being able to get pressure on the qb. The simple fact is that in the CFL every single D out there relies on pressuring the qb. There's too much room on this field to be successful without that pressure. Walters biggest priority this offseason in my mind is getting some DL upgrades in here.

You don't sign a new extension to your contract without some kind of buyout happening when that contract gets tossed out. He likely wouldn't get the full value of it but there was probably a buyout amount in there before X date or something.

I would agree if resigned and re-signed didn't mean totally opposite things. Its like commas: :"Lets eat, Grandma" and "Let's eat Grandma." BIG difference. but everyone knew what he meant

Uh huh. Don't travel much to the US do you? Fly from WPG to NYC and you're looking at basically a full day and over a thousand bucks, due to the connections in TO or MPLS or MON or CHI. Whereas you can fly from Calgary (much further west) to NYC direct most of the year in 6 hours and 400 bucks. Fly from LA to WPG takes at least half a day. At least one connection. LA to Calgary is 3 hours, nonstop, and way cheaper. Not saying WPG is a travel backwater but its certainly not an easy or affordable place to leave. Not true. I just took a flight to LA in June, connected in Denver. Left at 8 AM local, arrived at 12 PM local (6 hours total) Exactly -- connection. I just did LA - Calgary last week. 3 hours. And because no connection, my luggage arrived with me. WPG airport is as cute as a bugs ear but it aint an international hub (though neither really is Calgary). You really can't appreciate how lousy that is until you live in the Northeast USA, and can literally hop a last minute flight to London for $399 and get there in half a day. Calgary has designs on becoming a much bigger airport though. They're on their way. It always boggled my mind that Winnipeg given it's position right in the middle of the bloody continent couldn't find a way to make itself a hub.

In Alberta we have a deficit of $6-7 BILLION dollars.... Just this year. You guys have it good. And the Flames want a new arena? Good luck with that. This has been brewing for the past two years and its gonna get worse in Alberta. There are problems with a one-source economy, and the forecasts are for at least two more years of low oil and gas problems. Just wait until the tar sands start shutting down- they take years to get back up to full production. The fact that they take years to get going is a reason why they won't just shut down. Too much investment in them already to just drop it. What you'll see is less new investment but that might not be a bad thing over all. Things were getting overheated in the economy. No it's not oil that gives Alberta it's problems, it's the unwillingness to adopt a progressive taxation system. Could generate a lot of revenue by altering the way the province taxes everything but the ideology won't allow it.

dickish but there's been questions about Kessel in that regard before. He was afterall traded from Boston because they felt he wasn't fitting in, this is now the 2nd coach he's seen fired in Toronto. I think given that teams recent history and the lightning rod of being the teams star player you gotta expect questions to be asked like that.

The GST cut was a direct "**** you" to the Liberals who promised to abolish the GST when they were elected but then never did. It was the Conservatives way of saying to the country "See we actually keep the promises we make" Just ignore the times they didn't, that's a big visible one that people notice.

ehh the only player that might have been ruined by the Oilers is Yakupov and that was all Eakins not understanding the player. Hall and RNH were the only other ones to go directly into the NHL and they both worked out fine. Some people expect more from RNH but the job he's asked to do is a thankless one and since he's got the shoulder fixed he's fine. The biggest failing of the Oilers is their pro scouting because the veterans they've added have for the most part been lacking.

In Alberta we have a deficit of $6-7 BILLION dollars.... Just this year. You guys have it good. And the Flames want a new arena? Good luck with that. source? Well nothing concrete but with the price of oil dropping like it has that seriously impacts the governments revenues. Here's the thing about Alberta, there has been a massive population boom in the last 10-15 years and the Ralph Klein governments deferred a lot of spending in order to get out of debt. The result is that now there is a big need for infrastructure to replace old stuff and to accomodate all the new people so a lot of government spending is required. Couple that with the fact that Alberta has low taxes and no PST their revenue is really tied to the stuff that comes out of the ground. It's a boom or bust cycle that no one seems to care about trying to end.

Yeah we are happy to have him! We are already planning the Memorial Cup parade here. Already one of the top teams in the WHL and then add Morrisey and Draisaitl... yeah that's not a bad team there. Saw Draisaitl had 2 points in his first game there, such a shame he was ruined as a prospect or he might have had 4.

It's foolish and insane because he is one of our best DBs. He's better than Leggett, closer to Randle than you seem to think he is. Yeah He's one of the best players on the team. If we didn't have him you'd notice he was missing.

Phaneuf can be a useful player but if you expect him to be your best defenseman and any kind of leader on the team then you are in for a world of hurt. The guy is a grade A douchebag.

You shut your ***** mouth. As the #1 shameless Wild fanboi he is not easily replaced.

You sir are a liar. Washington is one of the biggest playmakers on this team and re-signing him is a HUGE positive. Or are you still all salty about some of the fumbles on punt returns? Get over it, the guy is a great defensive back. You sir are an obnoxious idiot. (Not sure why we need the name calling, but I like to reply to folks the way they post.) Are you planning to comment negatively on every post I make? You need to ignore Washington's downside to make him a 'Must Have', which you can't do. It's like saying Watson's a 'Must Have' receiver, if you ignore the fact that he's always injured. Washington would get offers from other teams if we didn't sign him, but that's not the same as a 'Must Have' either. Wild's the only one left on our list that I'd put in the 'Must Have' list. I didn't call you names, I called you a liar. His downside... you mean in the position he doesn't play anymore? Cause as a defensive back he's great. One of the best and most impactful players on the team. He was a must have to resign and your foolish notions that because he fumbled a few punts makes him lesser value is insane at best.

You sir are a liar. Washington is one of the biggest playmakers on this team and re-signing him is a HUGE positive. Or are you still all salty about some of the fumbles on punt returns? Get over it, the guy is a great defensive back.

He didn't want to go so I wouldn't worry about that. Did you know that rather than going back to Prince Albert to start the year if he'd been sent down Draisaitl would have gone to play in Germany? That's not best for his development. Neither is going to a **** team in PA that hasn't developed anyone of note other than Draisaitl and Morissey. Guy was sheltered like nobodies business in the NHL, not like they threw him on a top line and demanded he carry the team. The NHL may not be a development league but players can develop in it. Especially guys with size like that who might pick up bad habits in the WHL where they're bigger and stronger then everyone and can just dominate that way. With or without Draisaitl Germany was going to be a team that could likely have been relegated so for a few games where the team gets its ass kicked I dunno why people think it's such a great development tool. The Oilers make a lot of mistakes but not everything they do is terrible. I can recall talk early in the season regarding Draisaitl where it was talked about that the 39 game limit was more important than the 9 game one.

He's said many times that the Argo fan base is a suburban one. Downtown arenas might work for things like the Leafs where the support is all corporate and so many games are on week days. The crowd in Toronto for the leafs is a lot of suits, That's not the Argos demographic. Trying to compare Vancouver and Toronto is just silly. There's no mountains and oceans influencing how sprawled out the GTA can be. Now from what I can tell Toronto has a lot of commuting from the burbs going on, and considering that the downtown is on the lake anyway does that not make downtown the least centralized place? A city like Calgary or Winnipeg has expanded outwards in all directions from downtown, Toronto can't go outward in one direction, it goes outward from the lake, putting a stadium outside downtown would be more centralized.

The Sask hate for Edmonton doesn't go back to the 80s, it goes back to the early 2000s when according to Riderfans, the Esks were dirty rotten cheaters who just spent their way to championships to hell with the cap! The ironing is delicious considering the Riders are currently in a "to hell with the cap!" spree of their own to get championships.