Mailbag: Do NHL teams impact CHL trades? How do coaching staff contracts work?
Mailbag: Do NHL teams impact CHL trades? How do coaching staff contracts work?
Plus much more in the return of the mailbag.
It’s been a little while since we’ve done a mailbag.
So let’s get into it.
I’d love to know more about NHL team’s involvement in CHL trades. For example, did Detroit have any input in the Nate Danielson trade? If so, how did that work? — From Dan
Technically, NHL teams don’t have much of an official hand in CHL trades.
In reality, NHL teams do have an impact and can try to force the hand of a CHL GM.
Often this is more of trying to bend a CHL GM’s ear or pushing for a better outcome. In the extreme example, a team can do what the Seattle Kraken did with Shane Wright, where they effectively held him in the NHL until he was traded to a better team.
The news of Rod Brind'Amour and his staff being extended got me thinking…how does it work with whole coaching staffs? Once Brind'Amour is extended does he then work with GM to extend the rest of the staff? Is each individual negotiated separately? — From Nick
So it’s a bunch of individual contracts.
Basically the Hurricanes negotiated extensions with each, just like a GM negotiating player contracts everything is separate. Now, the Hurricanes probably went in with a standard time frame so they all aligned to the same length as Brind'Amour’s and they likely didn’t open official negotiations with the assistants until the head coach was locked in — a new head coach probably would have wanted his own staff.
I’ll actually have more on coaching contracts and turn over later this week. We had a really good guest on Expected By Whom? who is an expert in that space and I’ll post the episode in here when it goes up on Friday.
I am wondering how the play off schedule works. In particular, are the Stanley Cup final dates already determined or does the start float based on when the conference finals finish? Is there any focus on trying to avoid the NBA final dates? Obviously the Mavs and Stars both making it would be a beautiful chaotic mess. Has that ever happened before? What determines if a concert gets bumped or is large enough to force the leagues to adjust? — From Michael
The NBA finals schedule is already set, we already know these are the dates with games on ABC.
Game 1: Thursday, June 6 (8:30 ET)
Game 2: Sunday, June 9 (8 ET)
Game 3: Wednesday, June 12 (8:30 ET)
Game 4: Friday, June 14 (8:30 ET)
Game 5: Monday, June 17 (8:30 ET)*
Game 6: Thursday, June 20 (8:30 ET)*
Game 7: Sunday, June 23 (8 ET)*
The Stanley Cup Final schedule floats a bit more, because it’s not tied to games on ABC like the NBA is. So there is more flexibility to work with building availability and network TV contracts (this year ESPN, next year TNT).
Most concerts are also bump-able (if that’s a word). If a venue hosts NBA and/or NHL teams, there is often a clause in the deal to make it work if the main tenant needs the building at the time.
So this year we know the NHL conference finals can go to June 4 if the Western Conference Final goes seven games. Know that and looking at the NBA Final schedule, we can probably assume the Stanley Cup will start on Friday June 7 or Wednesday June 5 on ESPN.
As far as having both teams from the same city and the same building in their respective final, this is only the fourth time it’s happened even at the conference final level.
Otter is playing better than he was during the heart of the season. I still see some "nervous" behavior and sometimes overly large movements causing him to be out of position. Are you seeing some of these signs too? Or is it just me being my usual post-season paranoid self? — From Paul M on the Blue Line
There have been some faulty moments, Game 5 against the Avalanche, both Game 1s… but aside from that I’m not too worried about Jake Oettinger’s play right now.
In fact, he’s probably the favorite for the Conn Smythe at this point.
What will be the return on Nils when he gets traded this off-season? Obviously won't stay if PDB is still the coach. (Wouldn't be fair and would only be right for Jim Nill to send him somewhere he'll actually get a chance to play). — From Chad
We had lots of Nils Lundkivst questions, and honestly I think breaking down his entire season is a great offseason story or if he actually dresses again in the playoffs.
I will talk about the trade angle, which many people have asked about.
He’s a restricted free agent this summer, and I think he’ll still be part of the Stars next season. While Pete DeBoer doesn’t trust Lundkvist, Jim Nill does and believes he can be part of the long-term build.
Nill is overly patient and trading Lundkvist isn’t going to bring back much of anything in return. For Dallas the reality is that there is a better chance of Lundkvist becoming a contributing member of the defensive core than him helping the team as an asset.
When you consider that math, Nill would hold onto the defenseman and see if something takes a turn for the better next season.
Concussion protocol question… good, their penalizing head shots… or at least trying… in the Seguin/Theodore case, Theodore was down for a bit… I’ll assume it was honest and not an effort to draw the call -soccer-like dishonesty. If so why wasn’t he subjected to an in depth personal review to insure he was ok? As the NFL learned, you can’t trust the players, and for awhile at least they were enforcing safety? — From CScotty
This is what the concussion policy is the spotter is supposed to alert for further review when a player does any of the following:
Lying motionless on the ice
Motor incoordination/balance problems
Blank or vacant look
Slow to get up
From a blow to the head or upper torso
After the head makes contact with the ice
After a player is punched in the head
Whether they enforce it properly or not, that’s a completely different debate.
The ESPN broadcast noted that players don’t make a paycheck during the playoffs. I think they were implying they don’t earn additional money for these games, but it has me wondering how players are paid. Do they get paid on a biweekly/semi-monthly schedule that continues through the offseason? Or do they only get paid during the season? — (From Alex)
Player salaries are based on the regular season, that’s true.
But they do also get paid in the postseason. There is a playoff pool where teams earn more money as they advance and that is divvied up amongst the players.
The last update I saw for the playoff pool was this, with the money shared between players on the active roster.
Presidents' Trophy winner: $500,000
First-round losers: $2 million ($250,000 each to eight teams)
Second-round losers: $2 million ($500,000 each to four teams)
Conference final losers: $2.5 million ($1.25 million each to two teams)
Stanley Cup Finalist: $2.25 million
Stanley Cup Champion: $3.75 million
Have you spoken to any players from countries that aren’t participating in the Four Nations Face-Off about being left out of the field? I’m curious how they are viewing that cash grab. — From Dan
The most frustrated player I’ve spoken to about it was Nikita Kucherov, who didn’t think it was much of a tournament without the Russians.
Obviously that comes with some major geo-political questions, which I’m not really the best expert to comment on.
I will say that David Pastrňák has a pretty smart answer, when he acknowledged that it was frustrating that Czechia wasn’t going, he did say this type of tournament was important to get the ball rolling on best-on-best international hockey again.
As most of us Stars fans and fans of other non-traditional hockey market teams have noticed…non-regional broadcasts seem to be openly biased and suckle at the tit of (for example) both Vegas and Colorado (most recently) the entire game. I’m curious if you have noticed this as well, feel this is an accurate observation by fans, or have any objectively have any opinions on that — From Todd
I actually think the broadcasts have been pretty down the middle, one of the key things I noticed was in both rounds both sets of local fans were highly disappointed in the commentary.
I think as fans we notice the mistakes about our own team more often, a mispronounced name for example, isn’t a slight — it’s just bad preparation. And I’ve heard bad pronunciations of names on both teams in both the Vegas and Colorado series.
The other thing we have to keep in mind is that this is entertainment and they are trying to draw in the casual fan. A hockey game is more exciting if the trailing team comes back, and in that Dallas-Colorado series, the Avalanche were trailing a ton and building any excitement had to come from a potential Colorado comeback.
The Wolves went crawling back to Carolina. What's the story there? Did the AHL force their hand? — From Tiffany
The AHL didn’t force their hand. But the Chicago Wolves struggled mightily to field a competitive team and lost money.
Those factors combined with Carolina struggling to find a clean path for prospects, brought the two sides back to the table.
In the end, it was the only real solution. Carolina couldn’t buy an AHL expansion team, even though they asked about it. And the Wolves were within their rights to be independent, but realized it wasn’t the best way to actually make a profit without NHL help.
Today’s mailbag is brought to you by The Late Game, the beer league hockey movie where I play a goalie named Nick.
Here is the trailer:
Thanks!