Today’s Daily Cup of Joe will likely be the last for 5-10 days. It is mostly slow time right now anyway and still a bit early to launch things like training camp previews. What I might try to do is re-ignite the original Coffee Shop posts and just offer a short list of questions each day for those who do not want a short break. I will also re-emerge if any news breaks on Justin Williams or other fronts.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe offers a short checklist for the Hurricanes before the start of training camp.
Sign or do not sign Justin Williams
If the Hurricanes do not re-sign Williams, it will be interesting to see if the team redeploys the money. There are still a few capable free agents available, and the price should be right in terms of salary and also probably being willing to take a one-year deal.
Hire a goalie coach
This is another open item that is still lingering. There is not any huge urgency. Ideally, the coach needs to be here for the start of training camp, but there is not really much he would do prior to then.
Sign (or maybe not sign but still keep?) Don Waddell
Seemingly, NHL rules require the Hurricanes to actually have a general manager under contract which would seem to also imply that the team does need to officially ink Waddell to a one-year contract. Though maybe it is possible that, if put into contract form, employment at will with two weeks notice for either side meets the contract requirement? Who knows for certain…We are in uncharted territory with this one.
Sort out the jerseys
Also lingering and attracting intermittent attention during the dog days of summer is the expectation that the team is going to make a change to its set of jerseys possibly with a new away jersey. This one could definitely wait until the start of training camp when it will get more attention from the masses and therefore provide a bigger initial sales spike.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Is there anything else that should be added to this checklist?
2) How and when do you think each of these items will ultimately be resolved?
Go Canes!
I am confident that Willy will sign for another season or 2. Losing him is not something we can afford. His leadership will be difficult to replace.
There is a UFA still available who might be able to fit into Willy’s shoes. Patrick Maroon.
When he was with the Oilers, McDavid requested to have Maroon on his wing. High praise. He was a plus for the Blues last season. He would fit in very nicely here, I believe.
The Willy thing will be resolved before September.
A goalie coach? Our last guy enjoyed the full trust and faith of our goalies as well as Roddy. His predecessor was terrible.
I am certain that our committee is searching for a good one. We need our new guy to be in place before training camp.
Donny and his contract? Whatever the issue, if there is an issue, Donny and Tommy will have it resolved quickly.
Jerseys? This is a fun thing. I like the idea of the black Jersey replacing the red. No hurry.
Boxing lessons for Svech?
I like your notion, Matt, that if JW doesn’t we might be able to use that money to sign another FA. I really think DW will continue to work to make this team better regardless. RBA indicated he thinks JW will return in an interview just the other day – he is back in town now. Is the delay because he is still having a hard time making the decision??
As for DW, I tried to do a little research on the NHL charter and the GM contract mandate but could nothing but media articles indicating it is. But he will either be signed by the Wild or the Canes no lated than 8/31.
I fully expect that DW will return. In fact his comments and those of TD suggest he really didn’t go to MIN “really wanting” the job there – which has to be a criterion for selection – “how much do you want the job?”. If anything TD might have sabotaged it with his comments, but who is to say.
What are the options for a goalie coach – Bailes was a true “goalie whisperer” and I am not sure who else they would be considering.
I heard they did a photo shoot with the new jerseys (but that was rumor) and that they will be grey (also a rumor). Road jerseys are typically not big sellers but you are probably right – they will be revealed closer to training camp as part of a larger event.
I am going to suggest that the new goalie coach could be CAM WARD!
…and Williams signs as a player – coach, for two years!
Anybody else have a suggestion?
Ward makes more sense as a goalie consultant – the same role CuJo played in years previous.
And I would think JW should start as a player development coach – the same role RBA started with.
1) You hit about all of them Matt. Wish a new goal song was a decision to be made. “Raise Up” is so low register in tone that it is largely benign. That is the good thing. The bad thing is that there are other and overall better songs. But… it won’t change any time soon. The other thing is a national anthem singer, or insist that what’s his name to avoid the added modulations. It is more of an observance, and less than a performance (or should be that way).
2) On your first items, I would like to see Justin Williams play at least another year with the Canes. While it has frequently been said that he is “leaning” towards playing another year (presumably with the Canes), it seems something should have been said, determined, finalized by now. The longer it goes, the more unlikely it seems it is going to happen.
Solved by the end of August, as training camp is soon after.
Similar to deploying the potential available money that was set aside for Justin Williams, not sure why the Patrick Marleau thing wasn’t handled in such a way that either he plays for the Canes, or he retires / negotiates out of the contract. Not sure about the contractual ins and outs on if a player retires, but the Sabres had no problem terminating Patrik Berglund for failure to appear. While it might not be $6.25 mil in actual dollars ($4.25 mil I think it is), it is $6.25 mil in AAV. If he took the signing bonus (which the Canes were on the hook for) and left the rest ($1.25 mil), would that have been only a $3 mil AAV? Then again, I don’t know the delicate intricacies of player contracts and AAVs, etc.
Similar to Justin Williams, a goalie coach should have been hired by now. If there is a stack of resumes that have been sent to them (as it has been said), hiring one in short order should be easy. With the GMxCommittee, those should have been whittled down pretty quickly.
Should have already been solved by now. Still find it a little peculiar that it hasn’t been solved yet.
Similar to the goalie coach situation, the whole Don Waddell situation is puzzling. Glad to see that he is still at it full bore, apparently without a contract. Dundon might not be a “big on contracts” kind of guy, but contracts are a realistic element of professional sports. Might not like to deal with them, they are there. Waddell took a lot of heat or being “the guy” when the Thrashers thing blew, I was one of the ones saying that it wasn’t all him. In fact, it was more the ownership of the Thrashers, but that is a different story. He has done much better (DW and the “committee”) than many, including myself, thought he would. No one being irreplaceable is not the same as saying do what you can to keep the good people there.
Same as above, should have already been solved by now. Still find it a little peculiar that it hasn’t been solved yet.
Similar to the Don Waddell and other necessaries, I don’t understand the disdain for the away jerseys. The design is pretty much the lone holdover from the previous sets, and was arguably the best one when taking into account BOTH design AND accuracy (the black jerseys were great, but the logo was missing the two flags). The red home jerseys, with the sewn-in bolo tie… actually, remove the laces, modify the swirly on the front, and it should be good to go. The red-black-white-silver cinnamon roll on the front might have been okay in a pinch 20 years ago, but that is plenty of time to come up with something different.
THAT SAID (no “similar to” here), the black jerseys are the better ones over all, but if they had a dark silver or charcoal gray triangle around it like the previous one, it would be better. At least the new black ones are “nautically” correct.
Disclaimer: These are just random musings of gsocaniac. Nothing to see here, move along. 🙂
Good musings, with many good points.
My hunch is Williams has committed to playing another year and management is aware of his intentions. I don’t see a scenario where if he wasn’t going to play, he wouldn’t let the team know by now. Of course, he could have decided to retire but in any case, I believe the decision has been made and management knows what it is.
The Canes have 2 yet unsigned RFAs, McKeown and Maenalanen. A complete list for the league follows. There are 46 in all. Notably missing is Aho from the list. Begrudgingly I thank Mark Bergevin for his help there. https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2019/08/remaining-unsigned-restricted-free-agents.html