So... perhaps conspiracy theory time...
McPhee trades for Fleury, gets a late 1st - Fleury accepts because McPhee has informed his agent he is going to flip Fleury to Philly (for more pick/prospects combo).
Fleury stays close to home, McPhee extracts maximum value & Pitt keeps Murray without trading to a rival
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Good point. Dug up this article which states exactly that: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nhl/report-penguins-will-buy-out-fleury-if-not-traded/ar-AAlQu5a
Hahaha.
Watch this big name be a washed up hack like Gaborik or someone.
G,A,+/-,PPP,SHP,GWG,H,BS,W,SV%,SA,SO
12 Man H2H Salary Keeper League
C - S.Crosby/S.Monahan/G.Landeskog(lw)/W.Karlsson
LW- T.Hall/B.Rust(lw)/N.Hoglander
RW - J.Guentzel(lw)/ T.Tatar(lw)/J.Pulujaarvi/K.Kapanen(lw)
D - B.Burns/E.Karlsson/M.Heiskanen/J.Carlson
G - I.Sorokin/I.Shesterkin/T.Demko/C.Peterson/C.Talbot
Farm - C.Primeau/P.Kochetov/C.Caufield/E.Svechnikov
With the way this is looking we may finally see a challenge to the Glen Sather/Rangers title for the most terrible contracts on one team...
/S
~ I'm not a sociopath, it's just that my magnetic personality keeps throwing off my moral compass.~
Victoria DH
C(3): Athanasiou, Sissons, Zibanejad
LW(3): Lehkonen, Burakovsky, Hymen
RW(3): Bjorkstrand, Smith, Palmieri
F(3): Stepan (C), Bjork (LW), Poehling (C)
D(6): Carlson, Heiskanen, Bogosian, Edler, Hakanpaa, Fleury
G(1): Talbot, Sorokin, Varlamov
Bench: Parise (LW), Motte (C), Richardson (C), Hagg (D)
IR: Wood, Henrique, Johnson, Dvorak
Prospects: (F) Barre-Boulet, Khovanov, Beckman, Greig, N. Robertson, Fagemo, Tuomalaa, (D) Ceulemans, Hughes, Schneider, Zboril
I love a good theory.
OK - here's mine:
1. PIT decides to go with a 4F/4D protect (which includes Crosby/Malkin/Kessel/Hornqvist + Letang/Schultz/Dumoulin/Maatta).
2. They convey this info to Vegas and ask if there's a trade to be constructed that gets Fleury back to PIT.
3. Vegas agrees that if PIT is willing to trade Maataa/Pick, they'll draft Fleury (as ransom towards trade goodwill) and then trade him back to PIT for the promised parts.
PIT gets to keep Fleury and all their forwards.
Vegas gets Maatta & draft pick (of ??? value).
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll
Keeper league 14 teams (H2H, 20 active players keep 16 NHLers, 16 minors)
Scoring Cats: G-A-PTS-PPG-PPA-(+/-)-HITS-BLK-SHP-SOG-FOW-GWG / W-L-SVS-SV%-GAA-SO
C- Crosby, Barzal, Bennett, Schmaltz, Novak
W- Forsberg, Batherson, Nichuskin, Tuch, Konecny, Maccelli, Sharangovich, Bertuzzi, Kaliyev, Neighbours, Reichel
D- Carlson, Rielly, Klingberg
G- Hellebuyck, Demko, Merzlikins, Vejmelka
Minors:
F: Fantilli, Cooley, Bourgault, Perreault, Cowan, Ohgren, N. Foote, Goyette, Iskhakov, Denisenko, Tracey
D: Simashev, Willander, Lambos
G: Schmidt, Rodrigue, DiPietro, Gaudreau, McKay
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pittsburgh makes a trade with Vegas to keep MAF and Murray.
I like the analysis but as I understand it this can be accomplished much simpler.
My understanding is Vegas can take picks to give teams additional protection slots.
McPhee was quoted by hockey news saying:
1. Pittsburgh protects Murray and offers Vegas an xx round pick to protect MAF.- Vegas accepts.“If (other teams) want to give us draft picks to encourage us to take a certain player or leave another player alone, we're open-minded and we're going to listen to everyone," McPhee told the Associated Press. "You usually build your team, historically, through the entry draft, so we'd certainly be interested in acquiring picks.”
2.Pittsburgh goes 7-3-1 and exposes Maata, Maata is selected.
MAF never leaves the Penguins roster. Same result, MAF need not waive NMC, so in that way its a simpler mechanism.
Actually, I don't know if its simpler, both require a "side deal" in that Pittsburgh has to agree to go 7-3-1 instead of 4-4, not sure if that's allowed.
12 team H-2-H 1 year league, daily roster changes, 3 goalie start minimum/week
2xC, 2xRW, 2xLW, 4xD, 3xUtil, 2xG, 5 Bench
G, A, P, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, Hits, W, SV%, GAA, SVs
C: C. Keller, C. Mittelstadt, B. Nelson, R. Strome,
LW: K. Connor, B. Tkachuk, J. Gaudreau, J. Marchessault, E. Rodrigues, A. Lafreniere
RW: K. Fiala, J. Bratt, T. Jeannot V. Arvidsson
D: R. Josi, J. Trouba, E. Gustafsson,
G: L. Thompson, F. Gustavsson, V. Vanecek
NO IR
Yes - in my situational... Fleury would waive his NMC - with the understanding that PIT would trade for him. (or that Vegas simply not select Fleury for same trade return)
Part of this speculation is based on something similar that happened in 2000.
The Minnesota Wild drafted Chris Terreri from NJD... and then days after traded Terreri back to NJD for Brad Bombardir:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_NHL_Expansion_Draft
*Notably: Terreri was a back-up on that June's Stanley Cup winning New Jersey Devils.
[Terreri obviously wasn't the future of NJD - and in fact only stayed with the club that one season after... but he was part of the Devils 90s success group.]
@Lawman, yes - I suppose they could also just do "agreement" with Vegas that Vegas doesn't draft Fleury.
My gut feeling is that PIT hangs onto Fleury - just because he's been a big part of Pittsburgh's hockey identity for the last decade.
And for Vegas - I don't think having a 30-year old goaltender is going to make them any better for the long-term than drafting one of several really good young ones (Grubauer, Forsberg, Brossoit)
You mention "one of several really good young ones" and then list three so-so prospects who may or may not become full-time NHL goalies? OK, Grubauer is an NHL goalie but I'm not so sure he can become a starting goalie. The other two have shown nothing really to make them "really good".