ScorchStack Issue #22 - ScorchStack, ScorchStack, And Diamond, Attorneys At Law
Failure to read this issue will result in the full weight of the legal system being used against you
What could be better than an opening week of NHL hockey that saw your beloved Calgary Flames twice best their long time rivals from the west coast? ScorchStack. Always ScorchStack. This is Flavour Country™.
What’s inside?
The ScorchStack sits down with a new contributor boasting 39 years of broadcasting experience to talk the Flames, Brad Treliving, and something called “The Great Reset”.
Pierre-Luc Dubois - will he be a Flame? No. Stop kidding yourself.
Our legal team makes a very clear threat to one Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames.
Michael Stone: here forever, but it really never needed to be that way.
The Flames are shuffling Derek Ryan from the taxi squad to the regular roster on every off day. How much money is this actually saving? We dig in.
Since last week
The Flames began their season! As is tradition, they lost their opener to Winnipeg 4-3 in overtime, but then beat Vancouver twice by scores of 3-0 and 5-2. This issue will not reflect that.
But we did such good jobs on our Flames and Canadian division previews that there’s really no point in watching hockey this year. If you would like to thank us for saving you all that time, please know that we do accept cheques.
There was also ScorchStack #20. We forgot to mention it in the other issues.
Q & A With New ScorchStack Contributor, Roger Billions
Any resemblance to the Western Standard blogger is purely coincidental
With the NHL season underway, and the continued growth and popularity of ScorchStack and The ScorchStack Network (or TSN), we here in the office have committed to reach out to voices of renown across the full gamut of the Flames commentariat, looking to seek out as wide a variety of viewpoints as possible to best provide you, the discerning reader, the most complete picture of the Calgary Flames as possible. With the unparalleled success of our frequent contributions from the legendary Francis Ericsson being front of mind, we felt we would discover similar results reaching out to another respected veteran, the one and only Roger Billions. Below is Part 1 in our chat with the broadcasting behemoth, covering a wide variety of subjects.
The Scorchstack (SS): Roger, give us an update on life post-retirement. What’s kept you busy?
Roger Billions (RB): Many people at this stage in life reflect back on their career achievement, of which I have many, but my skills are still in such high demand, I really haven’t stopped to smell the roses, as they say.
I feel a responsibility to fight for the communities that I’ve covered and represented for years - the churches, police stations, menswear stores, and call centres - to fight for what’s right, and stop the leeches in Ottawa from driving Western Canada into poverty.
SS: Okay. Interesting…maybe we switch gears back to the Flames. What are some of the key changes from last season?
RB: Make no mistake, this group is still getting over the loss of Head Coach Bill Peters. I know it's not being talked about, but it should be, and frankly I think the remaining media in Calgary may just be too timid and inexperienced to ask the tough questions. Back to Peters - so, he's a wildly successful coach, who directed the team to the second-best regular season in franchise history, and he's tossed aside as if he's a disposable part? Too bad - in the court of public opinion - he happened to lose a game of ‘he said, she said’ with a noted malcontent in Akim Aliu. Today's left-wing ONTARIO CENTRIC media wasn’t going to side with a hardworking Alberta boy from a town named “Three Hills”, when they could play the race card for a ruffian from out EAST who cried victim. It was lazy, and frankly, left me very disappointed.
SS: Hmmm...What about additions? Any areas the club looks to be improved?
RB: I think Brad Treliving has done a masterful job of adding depth to this roster. It was well overdue but better late than never, and I couldn't be more thrilled that Michael Stone and all that big-game experience is back in the fold this season. I know he was here last season, but he was criminally under-utilized, and I expect big things this season with all the blood clot issues in the past. It's no surprise the biggest and strongest teams always seem to lift the Stanley Cup. Don't be surprised if Stone even gets some looks on the power play - little known secret among us veterans who cover the teams is that he's got a cannon of a shot - and if you've seen his brother play, there's no shortage of skill in the family. Here's another tidbit for you: if a particularly slight and skilled forward gets his pout on again, don't discount the team moving him for some grit and depth at the deadline to boost a long playoff run.
SS: We don't see you on social media anymore Rog. Why the step away?
RB: My new focus in life is to Unite the West, and to awaken the less informed layperson to our prosperity being stolen from us by the Laurentian Elite. I found Twitter was full of lazy, dope-addled left-wing radicals who didn't seem to have any interest in learning from those of us who HAVE achieved in life. People with nose rings trying to tell me a stat NAMED AFTER A GOALIE COACH matters more than blocking shots and fights. I compare it to leaving an urban ghetto for an affluent gated community, I just grew tired of spats with the unwashed masses and have been enjoying sharing my tales of triumph with other winners, instead of dealing with losers. So instead, I volunteer for one of the many entrepreneurial efforts of an up-and-coming political big brain so that I’m in when our ship really takes off. Take a look, children, this is how The Big Rog always stays one step ahead.
Stay tuned part 2 of our sit down with Roger Billions runs next week
Pouring Cold Water All Over Those Pierre-Luc Dubois Rumours
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
by Christian (@decayinwtheboys)
In case you haven’t been mainlining hockey for the past week, here’s the big news you might have missed: Pierre-Luc Dubois is on the market. He doesn’t want to stay in Columbus, and there should be 31 teams (yes, including Seattle) trying to work on a deal for the 22-year-old centre.
Naturally, the Flames are interested, just like they have been interested in almost every available big name over the past two years. They’re always trying to improve the roster for the short and long term (questionable on the latter), and Dubois checks both of those boxes. If he isn’t already a bonafide #1 C, he’s close to that and can only look to get better.
This has set the Flames blogosphere alight with speculation. Almost every single Flames blog you can think of has gotten a piece of the action, regardless of how legitimate they are. Even some guy who bears a merely coincidental resemblance to our newest writer weighed in. If that’s any indication, it’s literally a no-brainer.
The common thread in these pieces is that any potential deal will involve Sean Monahan. That seems fair: our 1C for your 1C. The cap hits work, the value works, bada boom, bada bing.
Go read those pieces if you’d like to learn all you’ve ever wanted to know about Dubois, or if you like doing the work for yourself, you can go to your favourite stat site and draw your own conclusions. That’s not what this piece is.
This isn’t about trading for Pierre-Luc Dubois; I think that is a good idea and I would like it to happen. It also isn’t against trading Sean Monahan; that can also be a good idea. It’s also not explicitly against trading Dubois for Monahan; that would be a great move for the Flames.
This piece is about why this is probably not going to happen (I say “probably not” because even I am holding out hope), and it’s not just because of quarantine restrictions in a condensed season. On some deeper level, I suppose it’s also about the hockey fan tendency to constantly overrate what we have, underrate what other teams think of our players, and the constant drive to invent trade scenarios in our heads while getting mad at GMs for not doing them. It is also not about those things because navel-gazing about online hockey discourse is the world’s least important thing to do. It is about why this trade is not going to happen.
Anyways, let’s break this down by the moving parts, minus Dubois because you can read about him above:
I. The Calgary Flames
I am already on record as saying that it would kick ass if the Flames acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois. It would give them a better and younger #1 C at the cost of their older and worse one, breathing fresh life into the franchise while they’re in their contention window. That’s all you really need to think about acquiring Dubois.
Any player trade that sounds this good and comes at minimal cost to your favourite team is absolutely not going to happen, but let’s go through a more detailed look at things.
II. Sean Monahan
The honest truth about Monahan is that he’s a very one-dimensional player who owes a lot of his success to having Johnny Gaudreau on his wing. He doesn’t play defence, isn’t particularly good at any of the microskills of hockey (zone entries, dangerous passes, shot suppression, etc), and can only play one side of special teams. On the aesthetic side, he’s not particularly physical or gritty, nor is he a flashy deker or a speedster. (ed. note: As we mentioned last week though, he is hot) He is extremely effective at goalscoring, and that’s about it.
Neither you nor I am the first to realize that Monahan has some glaring flaws in his game that are papered over by the quality of the people around him. The NHL has absolutely noticed this. They are aware of Monahan’s flaws, they all have scout teams and access to the same tools that we do. The Flames also know this, seeing as they’ve moved Elias Lindholm to 1C, and are apparently interested in Dubois. You could also read drafting Connor Zary as a move to replace Monahan. They know what he is and what his place is in the future is: not here.
A lot of this has to do with Monahan heading into his UFA years coming off a $6.375M AAV contract. Who knows what the salary cap will be in 2023 in the post-COVID world, but it was clear in 2016 when he signed his extension that the Flames weren’t entirely convinced that he would be around for much longer than that. The optimistic view at the time would be that he would blow up into a superstar and respectfully leave to get paid what he’s worth. The pessimistic one was that he would flop and not be re-signed. The middle of the road take would be that he was good, but not good enough to warrant re-signing into his 30s.
And, as old as this will make you feel, Monahan is now 26 going on 27. That may not register as old, but that is around the age where players start trending downhill. Not by leaps and bounds, but slowly declining until they hit their 30s and then start dropping off the map completely.
All of these have some major impacts on his trade value. Who wants a flawed player who is leaving his prime, that is also owed a lot of money on his current contract and will be owed more on the next one?
III. The Columbus Blue Jackets
Not this team, I’ll tell you that much.
Monahan doesn’t move the needle for the Blue Jackets. If he’s at least currently on equal footing with regards to quality as Dubois, then it doesn’t really change anything for the short term. I don’t know what the Blue Jackets think they are, but recent history tells us that their ceiling as a team is one that can play spoiler in the first round and be brought back down to Earth against a real contender. Monahan isn’t pushing them further than that.
Looking at their long-term outlook, it’s not great. They have two players signed for the 2022-23 season, a rapidly aging Cam Atkinson and the talented but not that talented Oliver Bjorkstrand. They have only picked eight players in the past two drafts, and only two of them were top 100 picks. They are also missing their second-round pick in the next draft. Bad time to be a Blue Jackets fan, in my opinion.
Now add in Monahan, who is getting older, isn’t around for long on his current contract, won’t move the team in a positive direction, and is absolutely not staying in Columbus. What’s the value there?
That final piece to this is probably the most important one: everyone is leaving Columbus. This article wouldn’t exist unless someone didn’t want to leave Ohio. Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matt Duchene, and Ryan Dzingel are all examples of recent high-cost players who got the hell out of dodge the first second they were able to. With a gloomy future ahead of them, what’s stopping Max Domi, Boone Jenner, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, or any other important player from jumping ship too? If a 22-year-old, fresh off signing his first big-money contract says he wants out, the situation must be pretty bad.
Columbus certainly realizes this with regards to Monahan. He’s not going to stay around, and he’s not going to contribute while he’s here, so what’s the point?
IV. Other pieces and other things
Of course, as those pieces I linked mention, this isn’t a straight one-for-one. There are other parts and the reason that it’s what the deal is actually about.
But since I am being the anti guy here, we should ask how much of this is actually good trading, and how much of this is the EA NHL series tactic of adding enough random pieces to a trade until the value bars are about at even.
What needs to be remembered is that Dubois was supposed to be the future of the franchise for the Jackets. If they are trading that away, it’s not for more magic beans. The Flames are presumably going to be a playoff team picking anywhere from the late teens to the mid-20s for the next few years; good but not enticing picks. You can go back through previous drafts and find that most players drafted there tend to be pretty alright. There’s a handful of elite players, but equally as often, duds. The most likely outcome is a middle-six player.
That’s fine on its own, but what does it do for Columbus? Swapping a young and budding elite talent for some potentially middle six talents doesn’t sound great when you put it in those terms (remember that the Jarome Iginla and Jay Bouwmeester trades sounded fine until those picks became Emile Poirier and Morgan Klimchuk).
You can also play that game with whatever prospect you throw in. Is Connor Zary going to tempt Columbus, given that they passed on him in the most recent draft for a 19-year-old Russian kid? Will Jakob Pelletier get it done even though almost everyone agrees that he tops out at the second line? I can guarantee you that whatever AHL prospect you name that is around the same age as Dubois, but not putting up his production in a lesser league, does not interest Columbus.
I should remind you that Dubois is an RFA on a bridge deal. Columbus does not have to trade him and still has a ton of leverage in this situation. They do not risk losing him for nothing. That is going to drive the price up, higher than most teams are comfortable paying, and certainly higher than the offers of Monahan plus a pick and a prospect.
Conclusion:
This trade is not going to happen, because the value of Dubois doesn’t match what the Flames could offer. The best hope is that Jarmo Kekalainen is as stupid as most people think he is.
Also, no, Noah Hanifin is not getting this deal done.
ADVERTISEMENT
We began a new, lucrative partnership with Marlboro Cigarettes this week, but we need to address this before the campaign for that full-bodied, rich flavour that just can’t be duplicated begins, we need to pay homage to this first. I was watching the first Flames-Canucks tilt on Sportsnet Pacific, and saw this ad for a Vancouver Audi dealership featuring none other than current Flame Jacob Markstrom. Not satisfied with him shutting the Canucks out, I am also taking this ad from Vancouver. You get nothing.
Thank you to Audi and gametime sponsor Marlboro Cigarettes for their continued quasi-legal support of the ScorchStack.
NOTICE TO JACOB MARKSTROM TO CEASE AND DESIST
We read your contract, pal. We know the laws here.
By Nathan, who is the ScorchStack legal team (@hanoten)
From
The Legal Offices of ScorchStack, ScorchStack, and Diamond
Basement Suite, 555 Saddledome Rise SE, Calgary, AB T2G 2W1
Attorneys At Law
Date
January 20th, 2021
Re: Breach of Contract
Dear Jacob Markstrom,
This letter is served upon due to your breach of the Standard Player Contract (henceforth known as “The Agreement”) that was signed on the 9th day of October, 2020.
You freely agreed and signed into a valid contract at the rate of $6 million per year which was breached or violated when you aggressively and repeatedly left your net throughout the first three hockey games of the year.
While the Calgary Flames did not expect you to eat, breathe, and sleep in the crease, there were expectations that you were to stay in your net while in the employment of the Calgary Flames, notably at designed “game times.”
If you do not cease the aforementioned breach or violation a lawsuit will be commenced against you.
Below is evidence of your aggressions, which will be filed into evidence as “Example A”.
While the tweet from user JayGold85 may seem complimentary, it is nothing of the sort. While you, the goaltender, did make the save, it was ridiculous that you were so far removed from the net that you had to egregiously compensate in the hopes that we, Attorneys At Law, would not notice. We have lots of experience with this bullshit:
We know what we’re talking about.
With the previous employee in your position, who will go unnamed because he doesn’t deserve the respect, unfortunately, had free will to roam the ice like an intoxicated tumbleweed, your contact specifically prevents this.
Please see under CLAUSE: you signed in agreement to a no-move. While you will likely find benefits from this, you must understand that this is a two-way street, and frankly it is against the law for you to leave your goddamned net like that.
We will immediately seek a temporary restraining order in Scorchstack Court against you and any accomplices in this matter. We will also bring a cause of action for breach of contract and tortious interference with the contract against you seeking monetary damages to be proved at trial. Hopefully, this recourse is not necessary, we have our own interests to protect and will vigorously do so.
You will not receive another warning letter unless folks think this is a good bit at which point it will be re-evaluated internally. If you do not confirm in writing by the 27th day of January 2021 that you will cease violating our Agreement a lawsuit will be commenced immediately.
Sincerely,
The Legal Offices of ScorchStack, ScorchStack, and Diamond
Attorneys At Law
What's The Actual Plan Here, Brad?
No seriously, what is it
By Mike (@mikepfeil_)
One of the most befuddling enamorments in the NHL is Michael Stone. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Brad Treliving continues to go back to a well that is now all but dry. Keep in mind that is a player that Treliving had intimate knowledge of, acquired for a post-season push in the 2016-17 season, signed to a dreaded Deryk Engelland deal ($3.5M x three years: $10.5M total), bought out two years into the aforementioned contract, re-signed to a one-year deal, invited to training camp, and then subsequently signed again. On Monday.
So if you’re still following along, let me spell this out one more time to make sure everyone is aware of the chain of events:
Signed to a $10.5M contract on June 30th, 2017
Bought out August 1st, 2019 (the Flames incur a cap hit of $1.16M for 2019-20 and 2020-21)
Re-signed, while being on the books for a buyout still, for $700k
Brought back to training camp this year and signed again — while being on the books for the 2019 buyout, still — for another $700k
Okay, so have I made myself very clear? I feel like I need to really drive this home, so one more time: since 2017, the Flames have invested $11.9M at the NHL level across three contracts, including a buyout, to a defenseman whose on-ice impacts are a net-negative on collecting standing points.
Now, you might be thinking: “Mike, it doesn’t matter. He’s a depth guy, there for insurance! This is pointless outrage!” You’re right, you’re absolutely right. The logic of that exact statement is 100% sound and it’s indisputable. It’s also an opportunity for apologists to move goalposts where they see fit. You can bury the contract after all, meaning it’s a great way to ignore the problem and bury some money.
His $700K two-way contract is currently buried, but the $1.16M on the cap for his buyout still hurts even if it’s $1M and change. The league has quickly become a place where cap space, regardless of the amount, is a commodity, so when you continue to re-sign a guy you bought out to additional contracts you’re just wasting money.
None of this is exclusively about his on-ice impacts or the deficiencies in his game that are abundantly clear at this point. The process - the literal decision-making process which we aren’t completely privy to - is the subject of ire and contention.
At no point in NHL history has a team waived a player that they gave a contract to, bought out, and subsequently re-signed more than once. No GM, employed or otherwise, has done that before. Stone is, for all intents and purposes, the Wayne Gretzky of this category.
Michael Stone and the Calgary Flames is the perfect monument of shortcomings and missteps of this Treliving led front office. Be it Troy Brouwer, or previous goaltending regimes, or James Neal, or the necessity of trading Neal for Milan Lucic, all these mistakes have added up to a point where proactive flexibility appears as an afterthought. This is endemic to this league.
When you have to move your fourth-line center to and from the taxi squad before games to stay cap compliant, there is a sign of a problem deeper than just mistakes piling up.
The team may have had a slightly above-average offseason, but even within that, there are concerns. Chris Tanev’s contract is highly suspect, despite a promising start to the season. Joakim Nordstrom’s brief debut on the fourth line highlighted the deficiencies of that line and its ability to keep their heads above water. Fans aren’t wrong that teams need depth, especially this season in the midst of a pandemic where players regularly disappear due to positive COVID tests. The problem for the Flames is they’ve utilized money inefficiently to a point where they’ve handcuffed themselves.
At the end of the day though, it’s pretty evident that when the wheels fall off this team, resembling the latter part of the Jarome Iginla era where playoff hopes were dim, Treliving won’t be the architect of what comes next. Someone else will be forced to clean up the mess and will try to make things different for a change. Just like it was when Treliving took over.
How Much Are The Flames Really Saving With Derek Ryan On The Taxi Squad?
The penny pinching: worth it?
By Konnie (@konnie49)
WARNING: This article contains math. If you are a Toronto Sun reporter, please refrain from reading this article.
You may have realized that since the start of the season, the Calgary Flames have been yo-yoing select players up and down between the main roster, the taxi squad, and back (no, they don’t actually drive taxis, I was disappointed to learn this too). The player that seems to get called up and sent down the most is Derek Ryan, who cleared waivers at the beginning of the season despite the absolute panic the move caused. It became clear that the team wanted to save as much cap space as they could by sending Ryan down to the taxi squad on days in which the team does not play, and recalling him on game day. Is this worth all of the trouble? How much money are they even saving? What is the point of it all?
Before getting into the math, I wanted to go over a few things in setup. First, all cap information provided in this article is all courtesy of CapFriendly. Second, since demotion to the taxi squad is roughly the equivalent of being sent down to the AHL (but unlike AHL demotion, players still have to pay into escrow), the team isn’t saving on his entire cap hit, but rather the league minimum of $700,000 plus an additional $375,000. This means that the Flames are saving up to $1.075 million on Ryan’s deal when he is on the taxi squad.
An interesting wrinkle with the current CBA is that cap hit is accumulated daily, and all those daily cap hits add up to the final figures we see at the end of the year. As such, after submitting the final roster before the start of the season, each player costs their Average Annual Value (AAV), divided by the number of days in a season, and that cost adds up to the total AAV once the regular season is complete. This means that in the 115 day season that the NHL is currently in — and Derek Ryan counting an AAV $3.125 million against the cap — having him on the roster costs the Flames $27,174 against the cap each day. However, when Ryan is on the taxi squad, his contract is $1.075 million less the normal hit, becoming $2.05 million, or $17,826 a day. (This is assuming that cap hits are only calculated for the regular season and that there are no other factors affecting cap hits)
Let’s see these numbers in the context of the beginning of the season, since a player that clears waivers has 10 games or 30 days before they must be put back on waivers before being placed on the taxi squad, whichever comes first. Since the 10 games threshold happens in 23 days, that is our current range. We’ll assume Ryan will play all 10 games, which he might not if the Flames really want to maximize this penny-pinching.
As such, Ryan will be on the Flames official roster for 10 days (each gameday) and will be on the taxi squad for the remaining 13 days. Those 10 game days will cost $271,740 ($27,174 x 10) and the 13 off days will cost $231,739 ($17,826 x 13) for a total cap hit of $503,479. Compare this to what he would set the Flames back had he been on the main squad the entire 23 days, which would be $625,002 (23 x $27,174), the team saves $121,523 by keeping Ryan on the taxi squad until his waiver status expires.
There is no reason to believe the Flames won’t be doing this for the balance of the season, so let’s run the numbers over that time. As mentioned, there are 115 days in this season, 56 of those being a game day, and therefore 59 with Ryan on the taxi squad. The 56 games days are going to cost $1,521,744 ($27,174 x 56), with the Flames owing Ryan $1,051,734 ($17,826 x 59) in taxi squad dollars, a total cap hit of $2,573,478. Compare that to the number if he had been on the roster the entire time, $3.125 million, and the Flames are saving $551,522 this season.
Setting aside the consequence of having to see the same damn tweet about the Flames roster moves every game (or losing Derek Ryan to waivers), the team is able to save more than half a million dollars against the cap while still retain an everyday NHLer and having them practice with the team full time. It may seem like a lot of work for not much of a reward, but when the cap is flat for the next few years, being able to save as much cap as you can adds up over time. Plus it gives the team slightly more cap space to use at the trade deadline.
Frankly, this isn’t the only player that the Flames can (and probably should) be doing this. Milan Lucic is a player I can’t see any team taking a waiver bet on, so why not also send him down on the taxi squad on off days and potentially save another half-million on the cap? This is assuming he’d waive his NMC, which Lucic might be hesitant to if he plans to enforce it come expansion draft.
Then again, this is a team that just signed Michael Stone so maybe the team’s quota on smart ideas has already been used up.
Up Next Week
The Flames only have two games next week, both against the hated Maple Leafs, on Sunday and Tuesday. That is ample time to ditch your lingering T.J Brodie feelings and start insisting that the T.J. stands for “total junk.”
Part two of our chat with Roger Billions: getting to the bottom of whoever this Q person he talks about is.
Depending on Dillon Dube’s injury status, we are preparing to hold a “Blood, Bone, and Organs” drive for the precious boy.