Strangelove wrote:Yeah no, I've been following this pretty good for an old guy thanks Dave.
Hey that's the same standard we'll need to use to deem Alex to be worth his cap hit soon!
In seriousness what I should have clarified with (and trust me, it seems obvious when you are the one who wrote it and already knows what you're saying) is that buying Burrows out and then trying to get a player like Burrows for the same cost makes no sense; doing so because you're trying to change the personality of the team is at least a cogent idea,
even if I don't find it a particularly convincing one.
dbr wrote:
As for mentioning Burrows and Booth in the same sentence, you will notice I was comparing their contracts.
Well you were saying they're both bad contracts Dave.
My "same sentence" quip was meant to differentiate between those two contracts.
Burrows' contract could be up to 30% high if he ends up dropping to the 3rd line (not likely).
Booth's contract is just outright horrible no matter how you slice it.
Honestly Doc, and I know you've thrown down the gauntlet here and are taking on any and all comers who don't agree with you about Alex Burrows place on this team, what I was saying is that they are both $4m-ish contracts for players who are outside of the three guys our forward group is built around.
In other words perhaps this team would be better off building around four forwards than it has been building kinda/sorta around five (but really only around three).. cap-wise, that is.
But I mean if you think Alex Burrows is every bit the player that Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler are, and Daniel is supposed to be
, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.
dbr wrote:
If Burrows is here and bounces back I'll be happy - but I still don't see much reason to believe he'll be like the exceptional players you listed earlier moreso than the vast majority of NHLers who see their effectiveness dwindle through their 30s to the point where they can no longer get a contract and retire.
Burrows is 32 years old.
He's not "dwindling"... his season was derailed by 2 major injuries.
Dave, it's okay to admit you and your fellow pitchforkers were wrong in prematurely pitchforking young Burrows.
No one will think any less of you (hey, this crazy season drove alotta folk a little nutty!).
It takes a big man to admit he was wrong Dave.
Do it buddy.
Admit it was madness to suggest buying out Alexandre Burrows.
And hey, what better place than the Alexandre Burrows Appreciation Thread amirite?
This is the team's one chance to get out from under a bad contract, scot free, and if they are committed to spending money over and above the cap ceiling to improve the on ice product I'll be happy with that. If they want to maximize the impact they will consider using it on a contract with more remaining term than David Booth's. Burrows has had an awful year and might be a candidate to some.
Dredge up this thread in about ten months, and I might be ready to admit that buying out Burrows might have been a mistake if it doesn't happen and he is the Burr of old out there.
Of course - if his game does fall off at some point over the next three years and he does use his NTC to remain a Canuck - or is simply untradeable for some other reason
- over that entire stretch and if it does hurt the team I should think that would validate the concerns expressed by many of us.
Before I leave off from this subject, which is a bit disrespectful to the ostensible reason for this thread, I wanted to point out a couple of things.
You pointed out that a few guys ten years Alex's senior are doing well in the league, that is well and truly heartwarming and nice to know that a guy can still play hockey in his 40s. How does everyone at Burrows' age fare? This upcoming season Alex will be 33, this year there were 15 forwards in meaningful roles (10 minutes a game or more) who were 33 on 10/1/2013. There were 12 who were 34, and just 5 who were 35 (the age Alex will be entering his last contract year). That list of 5 players is not pretty either, with guys like Shawn Horcoff and Daniel Briere who've been disappointing to say the list compared to the contracts they've had. It's a small sample but I wouldn't guess it would be out of line with the general trend.
Another little thought experiment.. let's take a look at guys playing their 32 year old season (like Alex did this year) awhile back and find out where they were in their 35 year old season. I want to eliminate wacky shortened seasons and artificially low cap ceilings so I'm going to pick 32 year olds as of 10/1/2008 and see how they were contributing in 2011/12.
Now I swear I picked these arbitrarily, here they are (guys who played in 2011-12 in bold):
Eric Perrin, Richard Zednik, Radek Bonk, Mathieu Dandeneault,
Milan Hejduk,
Ryan Smyth, Chris Clark,
Patrik Elias,
Jeff Halpern, Steve Reinprecht,
Richard Park, Wayne Primeau, Ryan Johnson, Chris Drury,
Daymond Langkow
It's a hell of an attrition rate. Maybe Burrows will be an exception like Patrik Elias or Milan Hejduk or Langkow, because he sure as hell won't be dirt cheap like Halpern and Park were. Then again, perhaps he will just be our Ryan Smyth.