The NHL wants to keep those intermission panels full.

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Albert, Olczyk, Levy among pros imparting wisdom in 3rd season of program
NHL logoDan Rosen

I used to say if you were paying a player $1.5 to $2 million, why are you bothering? This is a guy who is just familiar to you, but not meaningfully different to the lowest paid players. That's flat-cap thinking to be sure, and I think the number has risen rather a lot.

Graf is a year younger than the now-departed Nick Robertson, is legitimately making more if you measure by points, but his impacts on offence are so gentle (and similarly on defence, which makes him very much worth more than Robertson). But how close is Graf to that old line I used about Pierre Engvall and generated a lot of arguing because of it.

Is that line now about $3 million? I think maybe it is, and at that level, has it stopped being flat-cap thinking? It's one thing to double a young top-six player's AAV which is a fair description on Leo Carlsson's deal. Is it reasonable to double the bottom end guy too?

Graf's a legitimate third liner, and young, and the Sharks will like this contract for all three years. That's what a third-liner costs and if he gets better, lucky them. I'm thinking more about some of the players who just signed for $3-something million. Some of them by the Leafs. It's not a problem, there is no cap crunch, but well... not to get way ahead or ourselves here, but if the Leafs pull off the trick of making some chemical reaction out of this totally revamped team that can get into the playoffs in a good position... what about the deadline?

That is too far into the future. Today is for starting your prospect complaining! The T25 eligibility list goes up today. I'm holding off for a few days on setting up the community vote but now is the time to offer your name as an official voter:

How to Join the T25 Voting Panel

  • send an email offering your voting services using the email on the contact page
  • do not expect a reply this holiday weekend! (I might though, if I get a minute.)
  • we keep the voting panel a manageable size, about 10 or so people, so we might regretfully say no to new voters
  • returning voters get a little bit of preference because we've obviously hooked them on this sometimes difficult task, and we want to keep them in thrall to the T25

What does it actually involve?

  • all you have to do is pick 25 players out of the prospect list and rank them
  • if you like, you can write up an intro blurb about yourself when we ask for it
  • if you are keen and have something to say, you can write blurbs for each player who is voted onto the list – or some of them

The blurbs are my favourite part, it makes the posts themselves more conversational than instructional. None of us really know the future of these guys, so it's all guessing and starting off with multiple POV makes it a better intro into the multiple views of a given prospect.

That's all there is to it, although you'd need to be available through the first 10 days of August to do the actual voting.

From The Branches