Bedard: fine, I’ll do it myself

I don't see the big deal in the Chychrun case. He asked out. Coyotes thought they had a deal done; they didn't. If he gets hurt he likely stays past the deadline. Neither team nor player has that as the preferred option. Chychrun camp seems perfectly content with the situation.

For Gavrikov, it seems like Columbus likewise thought there was a deal in place or nearly done with Boston. For players in his situation who want to play and aren't, the NHLPA should be filing a grievance. I don't think there is a mechanism to directly address the issue because the league doesn't have (and doesn't want) oversight of game lineups, but the if the NHLPA brings up the issue in specific instances, first quietly and then more publicly, the heat behind the scenes is probably enough to get clubs back in line.

I don't think the league wants to get involved in overseeing clubs' lineups and telling them who they can scratch and who they must dress. For good reason; it'd be an even bigger freaking mess. Is the league going to tell Torts he can't bench players because their reputation is too good? It'd be Pandora's box for all lineup decisions. "You can't play your backup tender against that team, because it'd be tank-ish." "Toronto and New York offices took a vote, and you can't bench player X, because we think he's better than player Y."

I’m guessing it’s like Hossa where the league double checked the medical records (and iirc had an independent doctor check him out) to assure the hawks weren’t circumventing.

What they mean by scrutinize is probably constantly check up if the player is LTIR legal

Yeah, I see it as "The league does not want to listen to the PA complaints that you have to leave a guy you picked up at the deadline inactive at the end of the season because you don't have room under the cap. Do not make this our problem or you won't like our solutions."

Entirely agree.

I just worry that into the future, if nothing is done - the strategy of sitting for trade related reasons seems super successful - why wouldn’t it be used more.

Then you can imagine a future where more players are sat for longer.

In this scenario, when bad teams come to play at your arena, the fans buying tickets are not watching the best players compete, there could be less interest in watching games on television due to the lack of competition, and additionally, with the incorporation of gambling into the NHL, there is a legitimate concern that the competitive imbalance will cause betting lines to skew drastically at late hours due to unforeseen trade scratches, potentially causing the betting houses to lose money. (I know, boo - hoo - but this is a revenue stream for the NHL, good or bad - I do not gamble on pro sports personally)

In Chychruns case I totally get that Chychrun wants it, but the other 31 clubs are probably not too pleased. In Gavrikov’s case, he has been scratched since Boston did what they did.

Edit: ultimately, my view is using the term trade related reasons is the dumb part. They should have just healthy scratched and that’s it, end of story. It’s the clubs right to healthy scratch anybody anytime. By specifically calling it trade related I feel they opened the door to getting their butts spanked a little bit.

Edit again: consider the gambling aspect. If you are a competitive pro sports gambler, would you partake near the trade deadline if you didn’t know whether one team would be skating its best players or not? In my mind, it would either bring in speculation, or cause people to stay away since they couldn’t possibly know one way or the other what a teams composition is. Ultimately, If the betting line moves a ton shortly before the competition, that’s money inflowing to one side, wrecking all the previous positions gamblers took (from the houses’ perspective), and the house is trying to correct so it can maintain its neutral stance where it always wins. This results in a bigger spread in a sense, which reduces the winnings for the successful side of the bet in philosophical sense. The house has to claw back a bit.

yeah it's aimed at the teams looking to maximize their cap space to go deep into the playoffs but it's also a giant middle finger to the selling teams. essentially not allowing them to unload players that are done with them so they can have a chance to play during the postseason.

nhlpa will be mad about it but i doubt they'll actually do anything

Guys have been healthy-scratched pre-deadline forever. "So-and-so didn't dress tonight. Trade?"

The only difference is this year the Coyotes started the "healthy scratch for trade-related reasons" trend, and this year two high-profile deals got torpedoed late in the process and well before the deadline.

It's not ideal. Optics aren't great. But it's a tempest in a teapot, imo. People are just addicted to outrage in every facet of their lives including sports, and the sports media knows pushing a new angle for morale outrage generates clicks and revenue.

Even though I feel a little bad for Gavrikov in his situation, it's not that big of a deal. I really don't care. No-one needs to white knight multi-millionaire athletes for e-clout unless they need to feed their addiction (or generate clicks for their blog/employer).

How does the owner allow him to continue having a job? Hextall built one of the better up and coming teams and Fletcher destroyed it within a few years and now they're heading for another rebuild...

He’s going to screw it up

Yesterday, Holland heard someone say on the wireless that Edmonton was adding Kane at the deadline, so he went to take an afternoon nap content.

OMG FINALLY

Anybody speculate what Chychrun to Edmonton looks like as a trade?

4.6 AAV - 2 years left

It would be outstanding for Edmonton if Arizona retained similar to McCabe going to Toronto. 2.3 AAV and all they’d have to do is move Puljujarvi for the cap side.

Perhaps Puljujarvi (NEVERMIND), Broberg, 1st, conditional 1st? With Chychrun and some random winger going back?

Broberg first first then?

It’s one either Tyler with 6 mil. Miller 5.25mil or Brock 6.65(I’m pretty sure)

Carolina is the perfect team for him

Fantastic! Now the Oilers are in a great position to take on Edmundson's entire cap hit :'D

Think that's a win for Edmonton. Pusitola is a legit prospect and they aren't retaining anything for a floater. 3m off the books.

where are you getting that he the piece coming back?

edit: nevermind

I don’t know what you define as a floater , Puljujarvi is one one of the best forecheckers in the league. He just has 0 finishing touch

That’s gonna be McMichael in a couple years

Mcmichael can finish lol