Bosc wrote:
Not really sure what you mean. They never actually lost the pick since they didn't give it up.
Yes they did, because they picked 30th in the 2014 draft, that's not the pick they would have received had they been allowed to keep the pick, a season where they finished 20th in the league, which should have had them around 11th overall. And more to the point, they also had the 11th picks in each subsequent round as well.
So yeah, they gave up the pick, which would've been much higher, but were given a compensatory pick at the very end of the draft. We could argue the pick was only "reduced" and not actually taken away but I still think, technically, the pick was forfeited and they were given 30th overall. I don't think there's even any mechanism that would force a team to actually move down.
In case you or anyone else is curious, the Preds got to pick 11th overall and selected Kevin Fiala. The rest of this draft I like to block out of my mind because it is without the doubt the very worst one the Avs ever conducted.
Bosc wrote:
I could buy that if they at least had given up the 29th pick because Lou is gonna Lou. Or paid all of the fine. But they fact that they didn't do both just makes it terribly obvious in my eyes that there was an agreement behind the scenes that years down the road it'd be lightened.
I agree it's bullshit that the Devils had THREE YEARS to hand it over and should have in 2012, but didn't. But also, if the league didn't want cap circumvention then they should've nipped that shit in the bud the moment Chicago signed guys like Hossa and Keith to those insane contracts (the former of which they wriggled out of by claiming some idiotic equipment allergy) way back when. Those contracts were okay and the Kovalchuk one wasn't? Eh...whatever.
Again, in hindsight, the fact that the Devils got dinged harder for a contract than the Blackhawks did for covering up a sexual predator's assault on one of their own fucking players for over a decade just makes me sick.