HaloCory22

I browsed through this article yesterday. Can't remember if it stated anything about a new stadium in the same lot. That would be the ideal situation.

LA Live is amazing.

Texas Live in Arlington is amazing and even better once their new ballpark opens up.

Seattle has a great atmosphere around their park along with the Giants and Padres.

The Angels really need this. They're making strides with Golden Road and some of the new apartment buildings but building up this massive entertainment district would really put the Angels on the map for must travel destinations for opposing fans. In a perfect world I'd love to see a new stadium and a new arena for the Ducks on the same lot together. Both teams really really need the upgrade. Honda Center is close but still a bit of an inconvenience.

Thanks a lot, gents! It's been a long time coming but I definitely found the one. Couldn't be happier right now. Such a surreal feeling.

21 hours ago, Lou said:

did he propose at her prom? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jk. congrats, Cory! wishing both of you a lifetime of happiness and health. 

At her quinceanera actually  

Uhh... It's Bourjesus.

29 minutes ago, nate said:

There is a summer league stadium here in town that they could take over.  Right on Lake Michigan!

Anyway, I wonder what the chances are that they move to LA... maybe in a new NFL stadium being built?

I was also wondering this. A new ballpark next to the Inglewood stadium and Forum would be smart.

The most likely result will be a new stadium going up in the current parking lot. Plenty of space to build a new stadium and support parking until the current stadium is torn down. As you can see by this brilliantly designed microsoft paint diagram I made a few years ago regarding a possible NFL Stadium in the lot, it's very doable. I'm assuming that Chinese development deal on the corner of State and Orange is still happening, correct? Either way, there's a great opportunity here to develop the lot into an entertainment area, build a new stadium and bring in the $$ for all parties involved.

If Montour is the centerpiece of a deal for Nylander you HAVE to do that immediately. Montour isn't anything special. More and more as I watch him the less impressive he looks imo. Whether it's his D partner or simply just not meeting expectations we should absolutely sell him while we can. Now with that said... I don't think Nylander is an 8 Million AAV player right now. Maybe a bridge deal for 2 years around 5-6 Million and then lock him up long term after that. He's clearly talented and someone the Ducks can build a future around.

Angels really drop the ball with their marketing and in game promos. It’s been like this for years now. But hey... we have the world record events!

1 minute ago, Glen said:

I'm gonna sorta miss that douchebag.

He was somewhat growing on me too in a genital wart kinda way. Annoyed you have it but a reminder of at least a few good times.

I’m a fan. Good to see the Angels making a decision on their plan the rest of the season. Time to fully commit to it now. Sell out all players that don’t have a future here next season and stock up a few more prospects. Trade Kole now. Might be able to take advantage of it

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

Only as a reliever, would I bring Richards back, and only on an Eovaldi type incentives deal.

Agreed. With his fastball and slider combo he could be a dominant closer. Probably crank it up to 101-102 as a closer with that 90 MPH slider. Could be back for the stretch run next season if that's the case. It worked for Jordan Walden for a while and Richards has way better stuff than he does. It's complicated with him hitting free agency while recovering TJS though. Very tough for teams to offer him a deal this offseason perhaps?

JMF will probably get a start and then Valbuena since the thread hasn't hit 1000 posts yet.

44 minutes ago, nate said:

Here is Stephens on the Ducks future contracts.  Amazing to think that they are basically a cap starved team, and this is what they have...

  Reveal hidden contents

The prospect of NHL free agency has, from what I see, a bit of a three-pronged feel to it for general managers.

There is what you want to happen – i.e., the unrestricted players who have entered the market that you woo and try to sign to a contract of both parties’ liking. There is what needs to happen – which are the restricted free agents on your club that require new contracts before the middle of September rolls around and training camps open. And then there is what could happen – which are the players you wish to keep because their contracts are set to expire the following summer.

Plans naturally must be made for all three. So let’s look at the Ducks and what GM Bob Murray has done and, more importantly, what he may be faced with doing.

The first is the most clear-cut and has largely been settled. Much of Murray’s summer shopping appears to be done. In signing seven players – defensemen Luke Schenn and Andrej Sustr, goaltender Jared Coreau and forwards Brian Gibbons, Carter Rowney, Anton Rodin and Ben Street – the Ducks spent a total of $8.65 million. Rowney’s three-year, $3.4 million deal is the only one that goes beyond 2019. Unless they were to part with a higher-salaried player, they can’t take on another that comes in at a big number.

Why is that? It leads us to the second scenario.

Anaheim has roughly $9.5 million of salary cap space heading into 2018-19, according to CapFriendly. It sounds like a good amount until you factor in the three primary RFAs that must be signed. Brandon Montour, Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie are, as of this date, part of the Ducks’ plans for now and into the future. The three are coming off their entry-level contracts and are due raises of varying degrees given their status as regulars and the contributions that they’ve made.

What is it going to cost Murray to sign all three? The club and the agents for the trio naturally won’t discuss the numbers they’re batting back and forth. But we can hazard some educated guesses.

How to make deals with Ritchie, Kase, Montour 

Given that Ritchie hasn’t set the league on fire in his two seasons and doesn’t own salary arbitration rights, it stands to reason that an affordable deal for the Ducks can be reached unless there are demands that seem out of whack to them. And unless Murray is a big believer in the power forward still having some upside, it stands to reason a shorter-term bridge deal is the way to go.

One comparable example that could be entertained is the two-year contract Kings left wing Tanner Pearson signed in 2015. Pearson was 22 and in the final year of his entry level with only 67 NHL regular-season games under his belt. But he had proven to be a contributor to the Kings’ 2014 Stanley Cup title run and a young forward worth betting on in terms of an extended future.

The Kings and Pearson agreed on a two-year, $2.8 million deal with the accompanying $1.4 million cap hit. At 22, Ritchie has 186 NHL games to his name. His numbers didn’t increase from 2016-17 to 2017-18, but there is at least some track record. Could a two-year deal with a total cost of $3.4 million to $3.6 million be reached?

It would also take Ritchie to where he can have arb rights and give him an opportunity to show that he can be more than a big-bodied grinder with occasional finishing ability and earn a much larger payday. It seems logical, although there’s always the dance between what an agent seeks for his client and what a GM views as the real value of a player and what he is willing to pay.

Kase, 22, continues to be a nice surprise. The right wing delivered more than flashes in 2017-18, scoring 20 goals that were only second to Rickard Rakell in terms of players who posted all of his numbers with the Ducks (Adam Henrique had four of his 20 goals with New Jersey). He has skill, elusiveness and creativity in the offensive zone, something that is desperately needed. The key here is whether he’s a player worth locking up for longer than two or three years.

One could take a look at the recent contracts Detroit has reached with forwards Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou. Different players, for sure. Kase isn’t as big and may not have the capacity to dominate opposing defenders with his size (like Mantha) or speed (like Athanasiou). Mantha and Athanasiou also have about a year of experience on him.

Kase isn’t going to get the $3.3 million average annual value that Mantha, 23, just received in a two-year deal with the Red Wings. After all, Mantha led them with 24 goals in his second full season and is a top-line right wing for the team. He could be their top goal scorer for years. But there is a comparison between Kase and Athanasiou.

Athanasiou, who’ll be 24 on August 6, has played in 172 games to Kase’s 119. And he plays on the left side, unlike Kase, who’s almost strictly been on the right wing. But Kase’s .445 points per game is actually a tick up from Athanasiou’s .442. And Athanasiou just got a two-year deal with a $3 million AAV. Could Murray go the route he did with Rickard Rakell – who’s arguably now the biggest bargain in the NHL – and offer more years of security to bring the annual salary down?

Would a $2.5 million to 2.8 million AAV over say four seasons get it done? On Kase’s end, that would take him to unrestricted status rather than a two-year deal to gaining arb rights as an RFA. If you’re Murray, you would have to bet on Kase keeping his game at a 20-goal level or possibly taking it higher while gaining some much-needed cost certainty for a longer period.

Kase’s agent, J.P. Barry, told The Athletic on Wednesday that he’s had regular communication with Murray and David McNab, Anaheim’s senior vice president of hockey operations. “We will keep at it,” Barry said in a text.

Montour is the wild card. The 24-year-old has only one full NHL season under him. Just 107 regular-season games have been played. But he can go to arbitration. And he is a right-shot defenseman with terrific skating ability and legitimate offensive capability, all of which are highly coveted by GMs across the league. You’d be a fool to think he and his agent, Matt Keator, don’t know that.

Before we get to what he could cost, the Ducks must be set on whether Montour is a top-four defenseman whom they’re willing to trust with big minutes. His best work last season came when he skated alongside Cam Fowler, and his high-risk style had a negative impact against San Jose in their first-round playoff series defeat, which an injured Fowler did not play. There were rumblings at last month’s draft about whether Montour could be available. It was more about teams calling Murray than the GM putting him on the market, but Montour would be a piece that could help land a proven top-four defender or a scoring forward.

Keator did confirm active discussions about his client to The Athletic and said after the draft, “It is very early in the process, so we’ll see.” How much progress or ground has been closed between the two sides isn’t known. Some of this is going to depend on how much of a commitment to Montour that the Ducks will want to make. You would have to imagine that Murray will want his salary number to come in under the $4.1 million AAV that he gave right-shot defender Josh Manson for four years. Perhaps well under.

All in all, the contracts for Ritchie, Kase and Montour could eat up about $8 million of that $9.5 million that’s free under the cap. (In addition, defenseman Andy Welinski and forwards Kalle Kossila and Kevin Roy also need to be re-signed).

That takes care of this season. But there is the future.

The multi-million dollar questions of 2019

The summer of 2019 sees the possibility of John Gibson, Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg gaining free agency. As if Murray didn’t have enough front-burner stuff to handle.

Henrique and Silfverberg can become UFAs, while Gibson will still be a year away from that. Not that it really matters in his case. He’s the undisputed franchise goalie. The Ducks planned for that when they signed him to a very affordable three-year contract before the 2015-16 season and then made it official when they traded Frederik Andersen to Toronto the following summer.

We’re guessing that this deal won’t be as team-friendly. Big bucks, without question, will be needed to lock in Gibson. The battle between Murray and Gibson’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, might be over whether that seven-figure annual salary starts with a six and the next number after that. If a deal does get done before next summer, he’ll become the Ducks’ highest-paid netminder since Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

If there is a waiting period, Murray might be curious to see the numbers Connor Hellebuyck came in at with Winnipeg – six years, $37 million. Hellebuyck, 25, finished his entry-level contract and is coming off a huge 2017-18 where he posted statistics that made him a Vezina Trophy finalist. He was a central figure on a top-five team that reached the Western Conference finals. He’s also only got one great year under him.

Gibson hasn’t had that spectacular season. And he has battled injuries all along the way. But his career numbers (178 games played, 2.29 GAA, .923 SV%) are better than Hellebuyck’s (149 games, 2.55 GAA, .917 SV%). It can be argued that the fellow American netminder was also a worthy Vezina contender. It can be argued that Gibson has been on better teams more often.

When reached by The Athletic, Overhardt wouldn’t discuss specifics of his talks with the Ducks. The agent, however, did strike a tone of continuing a relationship that was born with Gibson’s drafting in 2011.

“I know my client would welcome the opportunity to be with the organization for several years to come,” Overhardt said. “Just be part of building success there.”

When told that Murray considered re-signing Gibson a high priority, Overhardt countered by saying, “It’s a priority for my clients to work with the organizations to that end, that’s for sure.”

According to CapFriendly, the Ducks have $53.4 million committed to 26 players. Add in the potential $8 million or so and that could leave around $19 million depending on how much the cap will go up next summer. There won’t be any big contracts coming off the books unless a salaried trade is made, so that could mean about $13 million left over to address Henrique and Silfverberg.

That’s where things could get tricky – and whether the Ducks might be faced with a choice of retaining one and moving the other.

Henrique, 28, and Silfverberg, 27, could each be seeking their last long-term contract. The two are very important to Anaheim’s means of icing a playoff team. Henrique could be more so as he’ll be the Ducks’ de facto second-line center unless Ryan Kesler is ready to go for the season and somehow resembles anything close to the indomitable two-way force he once was. Silfverberg might be their best defensive forward and still has 20-goal capability.

This season, Henrique finishes off his six-year, $24 million contract signed with the Devils. Silfverberg wraps up a four-year, $15 million extension that was inked in 2015. You can count on both AAVs heading upward. It will be interesting to see how Murray is able to keep the salary structure that he covets intact. It will be real interesting if he has the ability to build a championship-level team with the aging Kesler, Ryan Getzlaf and Perry atop that structure.

What has become paramount – as the New York Islanders learned with John Tavares – is the necessity with which to determine if a team’s key potential free agents can be kept in the fold before they get to their walk year. As soon as July 1 arrived, Murray secured the opportunity to re-sign Gibson, Henrique or Silfverberg.

And he knows how important that is. If you can’t sign them, it is a double blow to lose them without getting anything in return.

“I don’t think I can go into this with those guys being a little bit away from unrestricted,” Murray told The Athletic last month in Dallas. “It’s dangerous to have that situation and then you get to February or whatever the trade deadline is and you’re in the hurt and you’re close, you’re whatever. It’s very difficult to move the people at that point in time. It doesn’t work well.

“So, yeah, I think it’s important I try to get something done.”

Yes, indeed. For the Ducks GM, there is plenty of work ahead.

 

This is quite depressing. How in the blue hell is this dumpster fire team pretty much maxed out. Oh yeah... Perry and Kesler. We need to unload Silf and Perry 100% Maybe package them together and hang onto some of Perry's money. Simply dumping him is reward enough for me though. Montour is very meh for me. No way in hell does he deserve 3-4 mill AAV with just 1 season played. He's no where near that good. (yet) 

This has been so Facking underwhelming so far. Unfortunately, when you have guys like Perry and Kesler clogging up the payroll it's hard to make moves. Especially with how much guys are getting right now in Free Agency. All of these moves so far have been non factor moves. Meanwhile, every other team is getting stronger. Hate to say it, gents, but the window is officially closed on the Getzlaf era. GMBM is a huge reason for this.

22 minutes ago, mulwin444 said:

Just looking at some of more dominant/consistent relievers and where they were obtained:

Troy Percival - 6th round draft pick in 1990 as a Catcher - ". He batted .203 in his only season as a catcher with the Boise Hawks and was converted to a pitcher when coaches noticed that his return throws to the mound were actually faster than the pitches he caught."

Ben Weber - signed as a free agent at age 30, his rookie season in 2000, after washing out with the Giants earlier that year.

Scot Shields - 38th round draft pick out of High School in 1997, wavered between starting and relieving in the minors before 2 mediocre starting seasons solidified it's path.

Brendan Donnelly - Signed as a minor league free agent in 2000 and made his rookie debut at age 30 with the Angels in 2002.

Franky Rodriguez - Signed as an amateur free agent at age 16, converted to reliever in 2002 after posting 5-7 5.38 ERA 1.601 WHIP as a starter in 2001.

Jordan Walden - 12th round draft pick and converted starter

 Apart from 2014, which saw us sign Grilli and Smith with success, Free Agent signings or trades are pretty hit and miss (Justin Speier, Scott Downs, Fernando Salas, Huston Street, Ernesto Frieri, Fernando Rodney, Vinnie Pestano, Sean Burnett, Joe Blanton, Brian Fuentes, Ryan Madson, Jose Alvarez, Cory Rasmus, Bud Norris, Yusmeiro Petit)   

Getting the vibe the best bet is to convert some of our non top SP prospects into relievers. Let's them open up the arm for some more velocity.

Constructing a bullpen isn't easy. I do give Eppler some slack for this. Look at most of the FA relievers that were available in the offseason. Most if not all are complete ass right now. Bullpen arms are suffering from Ervin Santana syndrome it seems. Very inconsistent and you never know what you'll get. Is trading a possibly decent prospect worth it? Maybe. Obviously it's a risk like with any trade but damn. These relievers are so hard to judge.

Yup. Time to sell off the team. Totally the fault of this crappy team that the AL West is a juggernaut this season and a .500 team is in 4th place. 

2012 is by far the most disappointing season. Huge offseason signings. A rotation of Weaver, Haren, Wilson, Santana, Greinke (for 2 months) and an offense that had 3 30+ HR guys. That team actually had hype and expectations. No one expected the 2018 Angels to have the start they did and compete. We all figured they'd contend for the 2nd WC spot which is somewhat where they are currently.

Canning also got shelled from what I hear. Doubt he gets the call. It'll be a AAA scrub.

Also, with how they're watching his innings I'd rather not have him start in the majors just yet to only go 3-4 innings and have his shutout get ruined by the pen.

17 hours ago, nate said:

DSP and Maroon both are much better than Richie.  They did their job consistently, which was to clear space.  Richie on the other hand just takes games off.

Dammit, Nate! You had a golden opportunity here. They clear space, Ritchie is just a waste of space.

9 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Kick rocks.  

Sorry I'm thinking logically here. If you wanna tell someone to kick rocks why don't you tell the owner of this place too? He's just as annoyed with this lineup as we are. @Chuckster70

I don't think any of us believe this 1 move will make or break the game or season for that matter but honestly.. A guy goes 3-4 with an overall strong game and gets rewarded with the bench? I feel for Fletcher and many other players that have had this happen to them. It's not an end of the world move but FFS give these kids some confidence and rewards for performing.

Also, since when is saying "F*ck Scioscia" throwing a tantrum? lol

@Blarg, you told me to not bother watching the game if I'm throwing a "tantrum" over the lineup card. Well buddy, if you're going to throw a tantrum about posts here then how bout you don't bother posting? 

15 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Just why are you being an ass about the lineup card? There are two rookies in the field tonight and you've got menstrual cramping because there isn't three? FFS don't bother watching if your so upset about nothing. 

Hmmm I don't know. Might be due to the fact the 1 rookie that's not there is the one that had a 3 hit game and a huge play defensively to keep us ahead at the time. Thinking about it now... You're totally right. My bad, Blarg...

F@ck Mike Scioscia. What's the logic behind this brilliant decision?