sutters of the world unite !!!

so darryl finally realized that young brett needed to go further away from calgary than abbotsford cause he did a dumb thing i like to call "drinking" at the team rookie dinner (which, btw, is my take on what an inebriated sutter once referred to as his "rookie game"), and i guess carolina is about as far away as you can go in the NHL.

oh, and brett's cousin brandon plays there. and brett's cousin brandon has had some success there. and i'm sure that's where brandon's dad, brent, will buy a house once he's let go from his current post. and maybe darryl will want to go there when he gets canned since the canes are one of the youngest teams in the league and they might be wanting to bring in more over-the-hill type players.

what a total reactionary move by a GM fighting to save face, his family name, and his job.

hilarious.

what's NOT funny is we just cleared a roster spot that forces steve staios to play every night. AND brendan mikkelson... and even though he started the season with the big club, i would highly doubt that tj brodie will be called up to skate with the team cause he's under the age of 28 and therefore not (according to what appears to be the sutter mantra) NHL ready. i can only presume this means pardy is close to a return. **sorry. babchuk's a defenseman. scratch this. (til he gets hurt).

ian white is having a rough season, but no more terrible than jaybouw (at half the price). yeah, maybe he wasn't "working" with regehr, but you know who won't work there even more ? steve fucking staios. mark my words, this team is now set for a repeat of last year's 9-game losing streak, and (if he isn't relieved of his duties by then) darryl is set to trade the proverbial farm with a bunch of shitty deals that will leave us with less value players and more ridiculous contracts than he did last year. dark days are a-comin'.

like i said before the ian white slap in the face (aka: contract signed for five bucks less than three mil), if darryl can't get the defenseman inked then we got nothing for phaneuf. i still believe that (unless hagman starts playing to ability). stajan's okay but i'd peg him as a natural 3rd line centre. just brutal work.

admittedly i know very little about babchuk or kostopoulous. but the fact that i don't know much about'em means they're probably not huge difference makers. which means we're gonna lose alot more games.

and finally: trading ian white during movember is a disgrace.
just sayin'.
;)

csi: white

according to the herald, the flames have signed ian white to a one-year deal for $2,999,995.00. i'd like to call that five bucks the ol' darryl sutter slap in the face: "son, to be perfectly honest, you're simply not worth three million."

the eleventh hour settlement before a scheduled arbitration hearing means the dudes over at the NHLPA get to go for an extra-long lunch today, and that the flames are WELL over the cap. well done, darryl. the dud kotalik and staios contracts you picked up for absolutely no effing reason last year are currently having their way with your backside.... how does it feel ?

i wrote the following in the comments section over at domebeers, in response to a post querying the lack of offersheets for the diminutive defenseman, but i thought it was worth re-posting here:

- other GMs know that sutter can ill-afford to sign white to anything above 2 and would scoff at anything above 3. [editor's note: when i read the terms of white's deal, i actually thought of this exact sentence]

- a 3.5 million dollar offersheet would not be matched by the flames, and white's new home club would give up a first, second, and third round pick (what i figure sutter was HOPING for). [editor's note: the last-minute, pre-arbitration deal makes me doubly sure that sutter was expecting an offersheet, and when one didn't come he was forced to re-sign the asset. i would not be remotely surprised to see white+ dealt for parts before training camp opens: see the asterisk section below, which fully applies here.]

- if an arbitrator gives white anything above 3, odds of sutter walking away are probably 50/50. this would make ian white a free agent.

- if i was a GM, i'd probably wait it out. then you can get ian white for 3.5 and lose nothing.

**alternately, if sutter signs him at 3.5, other GMs can trade their expensive, useless, old players for him.... WAY better than dropping high draft picks.

much to olli jokinen's chagrin, the flames keep the best moustache on the team for a dollar amount that, in my opinion, is a good deal for both sides. sutter gets to maintain that the phaneuf deal was sound, and white gets to enter free agency with a couple extra mil in his pocket... i will be thoroughly surprised if either he or gio make it through next summer with a flaming C on their chests but that will be a tale for another day, to be sure....

**UPDATE: jay feaster says exactly what i said above (in different words); that the white camp were insistant that there be a 3 in the number, and flames camp were insistant that there not be. so sutter says "we'll give you 3 mil minus five goddamned dollars so that you end up essentially getting 3 mil and we end up looking like a bunch of monkeys in suits."
DEAL !


happy long weekend, everybody...
:)

monday randoms: shall we talk about next season ?

- i came to this horrifying thought today: does darryl sutter have any interest in actually SIGNING ian white, or does he plan to use the inevitable offersheet to restock the draft pick closet ??? realistically (and devastatingly), we all know that darryl gave all the ian white money to steve staios, and with pardy signed though another year we don't actually NEED a seventh warm body on the blueline (since we're obviously not considering age, skill, or ability)... we also know that darryl (presuming he's still in charge) isn't likely to begin the draft without a selection in the first two rounds.... so, according to what i understand about offersheets, and what i've read about ian white, we're probably looking at a second rounder at minimum, or a first and third return.... is the gamble worth it ? i'd say nope. but i'd also say that ian white would sure be worth the 2.7 million bucks we're gonna give to the 36-year-old who's been on the ice for every single even-strength goal-against (save for one) since his arrival in cowtown.

- i've given him a chance, but after almost six weeks i've decided that ales kotalik is pretty much useless.... i'm not saying he's jokinen or bertuzzi painful, and he's certainly not a total liability on the ice or anything ---he just doesn't really CONTRIBUTE anything.... he's like the nhl equivalent to a crystal deodorant rock; using it is probably not gonna make you smell WORSE, but it sure as hell ain't gonna make you smell BETTER....

- if you take that above paragraph and sub in the name "david" for "ales," and "moss" for "kotalik," then you also understand my current thoughts on #25... with the past couple of years invested in the original dreamcrusher award winner, it makes me sad to say it but he's been largely invisible on the ice for me since returning from injury.... i'm not even being sarcastic when i say jamal mayers has impressed me far more than ol'mosser this year... two words to remedy this situation: hellooooo pocketdawes.

- while i wish he would've cleaned the glass at GM with ryan kesler's face instead (hat tip to sarich for giving this a go), i love gio for windexing the #2 most hated guy on the 'nucks, in alex burrows, with a nice clean hit.

- huge props to toskala for the shutout last night, and big ups to kippy for keeping the flames in the game.... it's a bummer we can't put pucks in nets cause we're really doing a pretty bang up job of keeping 'em out (all things considered)....

- it's probably a bad idea to let a GM hire his brother as head coach. not to say darryl's ever fired a coach in-season (even though it was well warrented at least once), or that brent deserves a good canning, but this is going to become problematic at some point, one would think....

- john armstrong is a prospect that rated pretty high on a few peoples' lists a couple of years back, and who's career was pretty much decimated by a string of injuries.... meh, he's handsome (and cocky as hell for a guy who's played all of 14 games this year for abby).... in fairness, the clip was probably filmed back when he was healthy in september LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE YOU SEE ON TV. ;)



- flames announced that the vintage retro throwback jersey is going to be the "official third" next season. hm. interesting.... since i published that tidbit of information back in november, after being led to believe as much in a series of cryptic effin' emails by the flames' retail manager. anyhow, if there is no ladies cut third come october, i'm gonna be protesting in the front office.

- i spent some time over at PPP trying to figure out if they know how awful dion can be.... the post entitled "what's up with dion phaneuf" seemed to lend credence that at least SOME people are on the right track... i threw my two cents worth in, but managed to stay off the gamethread so as to not be accused of trolling... which i would have been guilty of, since phaneuf managed to be a -2 in a game where his team scored six times... :P

- no need to dwell on what a totally and thoroughly shitty performance the flames put in against the dirty 'nucks.... suffice it to say that i like the practice of summarizing such blowouts with haiku; a tradition started over at M&G at some point in january (if i remember correctly)... anyhow, my submission for last night:

first was a bloodbath.
kippy got the mercy pull.
gio smashed burrows.

- i'm lookin' to hit the game tonight (maybe) but don't have any tickets... if anyone's got a line on some for a good price (read: cheap), hook a sister up... ;)

have an awesome week !!!!!!!

[sutter(s) dismissal countdown: day 12]