Ryan O'Reilly for the Masterton? How Ridiculous!

Note: The following is an assessment of Ryan O'Reilly's recent nomination for an NHL Award. We realize he has no control over being nominated for this award, and it really isn't his fault, so we are just stating why he should not be considered, using past bitterness and disappointment that he isn't on the team anymore for inspiration.

The Masterton Trophy is a prestigious award given to the player in the NHL who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.

This award has been won by several deserving candidates, both historically and recently: Bobby Clarke (diabetes), Charlie Simmer (knee injuries), Tim Kerr (injuries), Jose Theodore (death of son + successful season), Ian Laperriere (forced to retire due to concussions, but still served the team), Josh Harding (Plays through MS), Dominic Moore (wife died from cancer), and last but not least, Devan Dubnyk (sucking for a long time before finally having a good season).

These players are heroes who persevered and showed dedication to the game they love, and suffered tragedy only to show why they still belong in the NHL; which is why it is so confusing that the Sabres have nominated Ryan O’Reilly. (* quick note, the writers who cover the Sabres in the PHWA chose ROR, not technically the team itself). Every team nominated a player every year, so there are the usual players that you think have no chance. Some teams are just lucky enough to have a roster full of players that never have to persevere, so they nominate the 5^th year guy who finally finds a full time spot with the big club.

To keep this short, out of all the Buffalo Sabres players, what has O’Reilly possibly done to deserve this prestigious award? We won’t go into the time he crashed his car into Tim Hortons after getting drunk, that speaks for itself.

But really, what has O’Reilly persevered through? Not being named captain of the Avalanche? Yea that must have been rough. Maybe next time a child doesn’t get a toy in a toy store, we can all pitch in and make sure he gets reparations.

Or maybe it is because of that terrible, awful, contract holdout he went through, trying to get an absurd amount of money. Poor guy, choosing not to play the game he is potentially getting rewarded for being dedicated to, because he feels he is worth a few more million dollars.

His amount of dedication is something to be admired though. How hard he works, how he creates drills for his teammates after practice, how he is the last one off the ice all the time. But it’s not an award given to people who are dedicated after being paid the amount of money they think they are worth, after going through a hellish ordeal.

When it’s all said and done, this is a terrible nomination and O’Reilly is not the most deserving Sabre by far. Seriously. The guy was so desperate to get his money he almost started playing hockey with the Calgary Flames! Actually, if he wanted to play hockey that bad, maybe they should give him the award.

Other Reading: *Disclaimer - This is strictly for the readers. We don't get ad click revenue or any kind of revenue, so we're not trying to shamelessly plug our articles!

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The Absolute Wreck We Call The Minnesota Wild Organization

The Minnesota Wild may very well beat out the Avs for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. If you don’t think it is at least a possibility, then you are nuts. But let’s forget all the probables and possibles, and look at how much of a mess the Wild organization is at the moment, in terms of players, drafting, and salary cap.

Let’s start with the obvious: The absolutely terrible cap management by GM Chuck Fletcher. The worst contract on the team isn’t actually found in newest NHL Coach Killer Zach Parise, or the bust-ish defenseman Ryan Suter (more on them later), but with the $5.6M dollar man…..

Jason Pomminville. Pomminville, of former Sabres success, has 11 goals and 33 points in 67 games. That isn’t a very good dollars for goals ratio, and a lot of money for a guy who is on the downswing. Good thing the Wild only have to pay him until 2019. At least Chuck Fletcher hasn’t given out any terrible contracts to other former Sabres forwards.

Thomas Vanek. Former Buffalo Sabre, Thomas Vanek. Vanek has been a healthy scratch for the past 4 games and with good reason. He had 1 goal in 12 his last 12 games, and oh yeah, he is worth $6.5M. And he is on the books for one more year after this one. Well Mr. Fletcher, that is a lot of money sitting in the press box. Looks like signing somebody for huge money because they had ties to the “State of Hockey” was a bad idea. Hopefully that is a mistake you’ll only make once.

Zach Parise, signed partially because of his ties to the great state of Minnesota, is actually (and this is hard to say) a decent hockey player. But the $98M contract he signed, coupled by terrible leadership and a bad attitude is unfortunate situations, leads to a hockey player that is undesirable on any hockey team that craves a team first attitude and wants to be competitive. It is a good thing GM Chuck Fletcher will never give out another contract quite that bad in his remainder of his probably short career.

Ryan Suter! Recipiant of an identical $98M contract is often shaky in his own zone, and only shows powerplay brilliance about half the time. We could write more about how he isn’t a good enough defenseman to play 30 minutes a night, and how he will never be Shea Weber, but we won’t.

Other bad contracts: Mikko Koivu – $6.75M. Stat line: 74 games, 17 goals, 50 points. But he can win faceoffs! Oh wait, so can David Steckel.

David Jones - $4M. 11 goals in 69 games. Why would they trade for this contract? Yea he’s a UFA, but he brings nothing to the team unless “playing terribly on the second line” is a thing. Remember?

Bottom Line: about $38M invested in 5 players. The kicker: They are a fringe playoff team. Teams that spend like this (Dallas, Chicago, Washington, LA, NYR) are top teams looking at playoff success.

Okay, we have covered the roster players, now let’s take a look at the team’s prospect pool and drafting history. We’ll just fire off a few quick stats: Since the 2010 entry draft, the Wild have drafted 2 players that have played more than FIVE (!!!!!!) games in the NHL. That is 35 NHL players, 12 in the first 3 rounds. Another astounding stat: Since the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, the Wild have drafted 2 players that have scored more than 42 goals with the team. That must be a record.

So sure, the Avs can miss the playoffs, and the Wild can make it in, only to get slaughtered in the first round by some real NHL team. And if that happens, Avs fans shouldn’t fret. Why? A few reasons. It isn’t like it was the Wild bouncing us out in some Wild Card tie breaker game. Oh, and the franchise is garbage, has historically been garbage, and it looks like they will be garbage, or at least a playoff bubble team, for many years to come. Meanwhile, the Avs look promising to rise among the ranks of the Western Conference elite. So sleep well Avs fans, regardless of this year’s end result. It could be worse, we could be Wild fans.

Other Reading: *Disclaimer - This is strictly for the readers. We don't get ad click revenue or any kind of revenue, so we're not trying to shamelessy plug our articles!

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News Flash: The Avs Have Been Almost As Bad As The Oilers Since 2008

Bite your tongue the next time you go to bash the Edmonton Oilers. Stop yourself before you say the age old comment such as “4 1^st overall picks and they haven’t done anything in 10 years!” or “how can a team with that much talent suck so bad?”. Why do you have to watch what you say? Because you’re an Avs fan, and in the recent past, the last 8 years, the Avs and the Oilers are all too similar, having very close to the same amount of success, or lack thereof. *How is “thereof” a word but “alot” isn’t?

Other teams get the privilege of making fun of the Oilers. Other teams can laugh and joke and poke fun. Why? Because other teams have accomplished something. (Disclaimer: We are currently not counting the Maple Leafs as an NHL team because their current roster reads like an ECHL starting lineup).

“The Avs have TOO accomplished more than Oilers recently!” you yell at your computer screen as you read these words in disgust. “The Oilers haven’t made the playoffs in almost TEN years, with a team full of first round picks!” Sorry to burst your bubble dear reader, but upon our own realization of what you are about to experience, the only way to cope with the horror is to inflict it on others, and take solace in the fact that many more will feel just as bad as us!

“You sick sons of bitches!” you exclaim, wide eyed and innocent.

We know………we know. But here is proof that in the last 8 years, the Avs and Oilers are on the same level unsucess.

Let’s take a look at the facts. The Oilers: Playoff appearances since 2006: 0. 1^st overall picks since 2006: 4. Top 10 picks since 2006: 8. Seasons in which they have moderately competed at a level similar to that of an NHL team since 2006: 3. It’s bad. So bad.

We are going to keep this quick. The Band-Aid method if you will: In terms of draft picks, the Avs and Oilers have had a relatively similar track record: When the Oilers picked up Eberle (22^nd, 2008), Paajarvi (10^th, 2009), Hall (1^st, 2010), Nugent-Hopkins (1^st, 2011), Yakupov (1^st, 2012), Nurse (7^th, 2013), Draisaitl (3^rd, 2014), and McDavid (1^st, 2015), the Avs were building up as well:

Duchene (3^rd) O’Reilly (33^rd, 2008), Landeskog (2^nd) Seimens (11^th, 2011), MacKinnon (1^st, 2013), Rantanen (10^th, 2015).

It can be argued, with a high chance at winning, that Duchene, Landeskog, and MacKinnon are better than all of RNH, Hall, and Yakupov. O’Reilly is up there in competing with everyone other than McDavid. What does this all mean? It means the Avs have gotten better players at the draft; better pieces for immediate and long term success. On paper and in the standings, the Avs have been a better team the Oilers for a lot of seasons since 2006. But riddle us this: Which two teams in the West (Other than the new Jets) have not made the 2^nd round of the playoffs since the beginning of the 2008 season? Answer: The Stars, the Oilers, and the Avs. And boy are the Stars going to be good for a crazy long time.

The Avs have only won 5 more playoffs games than the Oilers in that time. The Avs have had better teams, better coaches, better management, better players, better draft choices, but when it all boils down to the cold hard facts, the Avs and the Oilers have had the same pathetic amount of actual success in 8 years.

We know what you’re going to say. “The Avs won the Central division title, the toughest division in hockey, just 2 years ago!” True. And that is a fair victory for the Avs in this argument.

“But the Avs have had way better regular seasons since then, regardless of playoff wins or appearances.” Have they? In the 5 years between 2008-13, the last years of the Northwest division, the Avs were ahead of the Oilers in the standings 3 times. Only 4 points ahead in 2011. Since realignments, the AVs won their division then came in 7^th last season, when the Oilers came in 6^th in theirs.

This was all done when the Oilers had terrible defence, a revolving door of goalies, and forward depth that couldn’t make the UHL all-star team. We never said the Avs were AS BAD as the Oilers in this time frame, but looking back, they are very close to the rock bottom pit the Oilers have called home the past 8 years. The worst part: The Oilers are going to be stupid good in the near future. That is certain. The Avs are guaranteed to be mediocre. They may be more than that, but nobody knows for sure.

So next time you want to blast the Oilers for sucking, or any team really, take a long hard look back at the failures and overall unsuccess of the Colorado Avalanche.

Seimens has been a bust for 11^th overall, and Bleakley/Hishon have been terrible mid 1^st round picks, so what does this all mean? 

Other Reading: *Disclaimer - This is strictly for the readers. We don't get ad click revenue or any kind of revenue, so we're not trying to shamelessy plug our articles!

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