Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

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Tuesday, October 07, 2008

McLaren Waived

Just a quick note that TSN has Kyle McLaren on their list of players hitting the waiver wire today. He claims to be healthy, which could mean that some team needing an experienced #4 defenseman could pick him up. His cap hit is $2.5 million, though, and that's enough to make most teams hesitate.


Still, McLaren could help out some of the wackiness going on in Tampa right now.

Update: I did some number crunching over at NHLNumbers. They have the Sharks currently at $225k over the cap. However, that's with only 21 guys and Tomas Plihal and Alexei Semenov's (assumed to be two-way) contracts aren't on there. In addition, if Jeff Friesen makes the roster, you can bet he'll get about 600-700k. 

In other words, putting McLaren through re-entry waivers won't do much because that'll still hold the Sharks accountable for $1.25 million.

12 comments:

Earl Sleek said...

What are there, a dozen players or so that hit waivers today?

For all of the Burke-Bashers who got all crazy about Burke's decision to put Mathieu Schneider on waivers two weeks ago ("Burke can't manage the cap, blah blah"), SUCK IT.

Turn's out Burke's just ahead of the curve.

Mike said...

The reason Burke was an idiot for signing Schneider to the deal he did was because it counted against the cap even if Schneider was waived. Not the case for the list of players waived today.

I have no earthly idea why ATL was willing to give up so much for Schneider, but I suppose that could be positive marks on the Burke-meter.

Sarah said...

In the scheme of things, Atlanta didn't really give up anything. They were able to shed some salary of players who didn't fit anymore which essentially made Mathieu cheaper than if they had gotten him on the waiver wire.

That was a good move on Atlanta's part, and a forced hand for Burke who didn't want (nor could really afford) to take salary back.

As for McLaren, it's too bad he wasn't moved during the summer, or waived earlier. (I actually give Burke credit for waiving Schneider earlier rather than later) But salary caps are "old player" killers. If it happens to someone of Schneider's caliber, it is going to happpen to all of the McLaren's of the league from here on out.

Earl Sleek said...

I have no earthly idea why ATL was willing to give up so much for Schneider...

Really? When they have Niclas Havelid as possibly their best offensive threat from the blueline?

Besides, as Sarah noted, it wasn't very much. Klee isn't any prize, nor is an injured Brad Larsen, and the third guy is so meaningless that I haven't even bothered learning his name yet. I think ATL did pretty good in that trade; imagine how much they'd have to pay an unrestricted version of Schneider to play in that city?

Oh, and I guess Scotty Niedermayer got his captaincy back today. At least it wasn't Giguere.

RudyKelly said...

*Cough cough

I'm sorry, did you say 4th defenseman? I'm not falling for that one, I've read what you guys have said about McLaren.

Mike Chen said...

I'm sorry, did you say 4th defenseman? I'm not falling for that one, I've read what you guys have said about McLaren.

Notice I prefaced that by saying he claims to be healthy. From all reports, much of his suckitude comes from his wonky knee (or so he says) that bugged him for most of last season.

PJ Swenson said...

I saw McLaren pull up going into the corner against Toronto, I was on the ice taking photos. He had to glide back to the bench on one skate.

He tried to come back the last 2 games of the regular season, but did not look good. The Sharks needed a defenseman to clear out bodies in front of the crease against Calgary and Dallas. It didn't happen, opponents regularly backed into the crease and took whacks at rebounds on top of Nabokov.

If McLaren could play 60+ games for St Louis or Tampa, it would be a steal for them. Now that they can get him for half off, I would be shocked if one of them didn't make a move. Didn't Melrose say you can't air drop veteran defenseman into Prague to play for his team? Maybe not, but you can air drop them into Tampa.

Krajicek is a solid dman, but adding McLaren would give them a veteran pair behind Meszaros-Carle.

Dave said...

I understand how McLaren getting waived will at least go a long way to getting the Sharks under the cap, but what's throwing me now is their roster situation.

In the same article from the Sharks site where the McLaren move is announced, Doug Wilson makes reference to their being 4 guys competing for 2 spots.

If 3 of the guys are Tomas Plihal, Lukas Kaspar and Jeff Friesen... who the heck is the 4th?

Also, not to list out the roster here, but to get to 23, wouldn't it be 4 guys competing for 3 spots now?

Earl Sleek said...

If 3 of the guys are Tomas Plihal, Lukas Kaspar and Jeff Friesen... who the heck is the 4th?

I hope it's Todd Elik.

Also, not to list out the roster here, but to get to 23, wouldn't it be 4 guys competing for 3 spots now?

Feel free to list 'em. Blogger doesn't set any limits on us.

But hey, at least it's a Pacific Division trend. First the Ducks, then the Sharks, and now also the Stars have made some cap-related demotions:

Neal and Fistric demoted

Mr. Plank said...

If 3 of the guys are Tomas Plihal, Lukas Kaspar and Jeff Friesen... who the heck is the 4th?

I think number four is Marcel Goc- he's had some back problems this preseason.

Sarah said...

I hope it's Todd Elik.

Don't tease a girl like that! =)

Dave said...

I think I've figured it out...

Could of course be wrong, but I wrote on my blog today that I think Friesen is actually on the team.

Whether he'll dress for a given game is a different question entirely, but an authority no less brilliant than Dan Rusanowsky has the #s (which include Jeffy) the same as I do.

Well, that said... we'll see what actually happens and I sure do love the fact that I care about this stuff so much... given that the only thing that really counts for the Sharks this year is how they play in a (hopeful) second round and beyond (hope hope).