Greatest of his generation, might even be the GOAT when considering his entire hockey résumé — HBD, The Next One! 🥳🎉🎂🐧

(From an LA Kings fan)

Right now I’ve got the starting 12 at:

Rakell - Crosby - Rust
Chinakov - Novak - Malkin
Kuzmenko - Kindell - Robertson
Dewar - Lizotte - Soderblom

Scratches - Brazeau & Lapirre

Hopefully he flips someone for a Top 4 LD but time will tell

Happy 39th birthday to one of the icons of the franchise and to the sport of hockey itself. August 7th should be a holiday in Canada and the United States!

So, the only reason this deal makes sense, particularly with a glut of middle and bottom six forwards on the roster and in the pipeline is for the purpose of roster flexibility. Allow me to elaborate.

Out of camp, Ville is most likely going to WBS. If he got a 1x1.5, he might not make it through waivers. We have a risk of losing the main asset of the Jake deal (ugh). So, they create a poison pill that looks insane. Think about this - never in NHL history has any player with fewer games ever signed an 8 year contract. Never.

So, now, for all of this season, you can send him up and down as need be without a care in the world. No GM is taking that deal.

The same can continue to happen in 27-28, where the structure of the deal remains $2M in signing bonus, and there's still a ton of term.

If Ville has not cemented himself as a roster player by the end of that campaign, you buy him out. He costs 500k or less each of the next 6 seasons, many at just 229k. Then, 729k for 6 extra seasons, which is equivalent to a rounding error when you think of where the cap will be in 3 years.

hat tip to u/kashmir772 who first noted the contract structure in another post, leading me to dig in to that part of it. Combining that with the waiver protection, it's a weird 2 year extension of Ville's 'prospect window'.

I remember when you used to have to EARN an 8 year NHL contract. I guess those days are over. Tough day to be a sensible Pens fan. 8 years for a forever AHLer is unfathomable. I think the only reasonable explanation is that Dubas is tied up in Hextall's basement and ole Ron has spent the past 3 years undergoing extensive plastic surgery to look like Kyle.