Is Michael Nylander at the Root of the Dale Tallon Firing?
by J.P. on Jul 19, 2009 11:14 AM EDT
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Early last week, the Chicago Blackhawks touched off a heck of a mid-summer drama when they fired General Manager Dale Tallon and ignited a few rounds of "he-said/he-said/he-said" that probably isn't over yet.
Now comes word from Larry Brooks (standard "consider the source" caveat applies) that Capitals deadweight scapegoat extraordinaire pivot Michael Nylander may have been at the center of what eventually cost Tallon his job:
The story circulating through NHL front offices, and relayed to Slap Shots by four general managers, is that Dale Tallon essentially had been operating as the Blackhawks' lame-duck GM since late November or early December, when he agreed to trade netminder Nikolai Khabibulin to Washington for center Michael Nylander. [Ed note: seems it wasn't Dustin Byfuglien and Brent Sopel after all.]
That ill-advised deal was vetoed by club president John McDonough, who then bided his time until he could come up with a reason/excuse to dismiss Tallon. The opening came when the Blackhawks were tardy delivering qualifying offers to a handful of Group II free agents, a costly blunder.
Khabibulin, of course, took the Blackhawks to the Western finals before signing a free-agent deal with Edmonton this month. Nylander, who still has two years at $4.875 million per season remaining on his contract, was a marginal player for the Caps, often a healthy scratch in the playoffs.
No wonder Washington GM George McPhee was livid when Chicago backed out of the deal. No wonder McDonough began to have second thoughts about keeping Tallon in power.
Michael Nylander's reach, apparently, has extended to screwing up teams of which he's not even a part. Amazing.
Oh, and lest you think McDonough's player valuation skills are razor sharp as evidenced by the potentially season-saving veto noted above, it's McDonough who gets the blame "for the signings of goalie Cristobal Huet and defenseman Bryan Campbell to large U.F.A. contracts" last summer.
So thanks, Dale Tallon, for trying your best to take Michael Nylander off the Caps' hands - it's truly a shame you weren't allowed to just do your job.
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There’s got to be more than just what was stated, because there’s no way the Caps could have taken Bulin’s salary in a straight up deal. Interesting.
I was just about to say that, too. Last I remember, Khabi was making what, 6 million? That’s just a shade more than 4.875 according my math. :-) Unless there was a plan to dump Theo, but where, exactly, would that have been? Can’t see that so early in the season, even with the rocky start.
Nylander cap hit + Johnny would have been about the same as Khabi. Doubtful we would have been able to unload theo at that point
Because now I can justify browsing and commenting during the work day with the argument that I am promoting my business.
by Sombrero Guy on Jul 19, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions
I can think of 3 or 4 ways the Caps could have cleared enough cap space to make this happen. The difference between Khabibulin’s cap hit and Nylander’s cap hit just wasn’t that great — especially since (as others have mentioned) there would be no need for another backup goalie with Theo and Khabibulin on the team.
by Gould Old Days on Jul 19, 2009 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Unless there was a plan to dump Theo, but where, exactly, would that have been?
I was thinking the same exact thing. This pretty much doesn’t make any sense.
Agreed. When I saw the Twitter feed, I just had to look because I was all ‘huh what?’ There’s no way that’s a straight-up deal, and I doubt it ever happened, especially since IIRC, Nylander told Tarik he was never approached when all the trade rumors were flying around. You’d think if something was that close to happening, Nylander would have been asked about it given his NMC.
Of course, consider the source.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Delores Ibarruri
I wouldn’t dismiss the report entirely. The exact details might not be right, and it may also have been a case of GMGM putting a deal in place contingent on Nyls waiving his NMC and then going to the player (further, what Nylander may or may not have told Tarik isn’t necessarily any more reliable than what Larry Brooks writes on a weekly basis).
As for Theo, one option the team had is that he could have been waived and then put on re-entry waivers hoping some team would snag him at half price.
Bottom line here is just more smoke to the Thanksgiving-ish Nyls-to-Chicago rumors, and there’s an awful lot of smoke there.
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I don’t know, I’d consider first-hand comments a bit more reliable than speculation.
Maybe Nylander was discussed in a trade with Chicago. Maybe not. It doesn’t matter now, really – what’s done is done (or not as the case may be), regardless of the reasons. I don’t think it’s any more or less of a comment on Dale Tallon than what we already saw in the off-season both this year and last year. I’m not entirely convinced that Stan Bowman is much more than Scotty Bowman’s puppet, but I guess we’ll find out.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Delores Ibarruri
Brooks cites four NHL GMs. That’s not really speculation. And, as mentioned, Nylander wouldn’t necessarily have had to have been asked to waive his NMC for this story to be largely true.
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As for Theo, one option the team had is that he could have been waived and then put on re-entry waivers hoping some team would snag him at half price.
I considered that in my thinking, but it didn’t seem to make sense to potentially have a $4.5 million goalie in Hershey, or shelling out $2.25 million for one not on a Caps roster.
That’s not dead cap space, that’s dead dollars. I know Ted’s willing to spend where necessary, but after paying for Jagr to be on someone else’s payroll for a few years, I would think they’d try to avoid something similar. Don’t know anything, just surmising. Then again, 2.25 wasted is potentially better than 4.875 in a body taking up a roster slot.
Don’t hire me for cap management, that is obvious.
I’m definitely going to miss Brashear on the Caps, but I really hope that Rangers don’t boo him every time he walks onto the ice like they’re claiming they will. He doesn’t deserve that.
I don’t really care too much about the Rangers team one way or the other, but I have no respect for their fans.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Delores Ibarruri
They talked about this trade last winter on HNIC. And it wouldn't have been impossible to fit him under the cap. They could have just waived Morrisonn in order to fit him in.
by vegas caps fan on Jul 19, 2009 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions
We only had 6 D at that point, waiving Mo likely wasn’t an option because Feds would have then become our only #2 C.
I think about Thanksgiving-time we had two healthy D, and ShaMo wasn’t one of them.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Delores Ibarruri
Morrisonn played in every Caps game from November 20 through January 13 (he had missed the previous six games prior to November 20).
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if tallon wasn’t the triggerman on the huet and campbell deals, he was already a lame-duck GM in my mind.
i think puck daddy’s take on this was correct, though. it’s all about the results. if the hawks can pull a magic trick or two and manage to keep their young stars, the new GM will be praised universally. regardless of the actual circumstances, the campbell and huet contracts will be during the “tallon era.”
oh, and the rest of the league is hip to the plague of nylander? to the point where GMs are getting fired for trying to acquire him? bummer.
that can't be Nylander
total spin (no pun intended) I know…. but look at that picture – he’s shooting!
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