Dave's a mess wrote:Any tiny glimmer of hope is officially snuffed out. From Chris Johnston:

John Tavares and his reps no longer plan to bring any additional teams into their free-agent process after meeting with Dallas and Tampa today.

The field is down to six: Leafs, Islanders, Sharks, Bruins, Stars and Lightning. #TavaresWatch

Everybody keep your fingers crossed that the Dallas meeting goes poorly today.

I still don't understand Dallas. Every other team I totally get, but Dallas? Is it just about the state income tax or lack there of? Is it Seguin, Benn, Klingberg, and Radulov? Interesting to say the least.

If this report is true, sucks for the Blues, I hope they can pull off a good trade and have it not cost an enormous price.

Dave's a mess wrote:Any tiny glimmer of hope is officially snuffed out. From Chris Johnston:

John Tavares and his reps no longer plan to bring any additional teams into their free-agent process after meeting with Dallas and Tampa today.

The field is down to six: Leafs, Islanders, Sharks, Bruins, Stars and Lightning. #TavaresWatch

Everybody keep your fingers crossed that the Dallas meeting goes poorly today.

Dallas is going to have to resign Seguin as well. That would potentially be (2) 12M players on the payroll, and ZERO Stanley Cups. Seguin is better than Tavares so he would get a boatload of cash.

Interesting that he's cancelling extra meetings with 2 more on the table still. Makes you think the leader in the clubhouse has presented already. He wouldn't call off the dogs if he hadn't found at least one situation he likes already. My money is on San Jose or heading back to the Islanders.

BillP wrote:

Dave's a mess wrote:Any tiny glimmer of hope is officially snuffed out. From Chris Johnston:

John Tavares and his reps no longer plan to bring any additional teams into their free-agent process after meeting with Dallas and Tampa today.

The field is down to six: Leafs, Islanders, Sharks, Bruins, Stars and Lightning. #TavaresWatch

Everybody keep your fingers crossed that the Dallas meeting goes poorly today.

Dallas is going to have to resign Seguin as well. That would potentially be (2) 12M players on the payroll, and ZERO Stanley Cups. Seguin is better than Tavares so he would get a boatload of cash.

Regardless of where Tavares ends up his deal will certainly be used in a Seguin deal. I don't necessarily agree that Seguin is the better player, but they're close enough to definitely be great contract comps for each other.

Seguin is faster...I don't think he's a better player than Tavares though.

More goals, more points per game for career (excluding his rookie year with Boston). Dude can flat out rifle it home at any time from anywhere. I would take Seguin.

Dave's a mess wrote:Interesting that he's cancelling extra meetings with 2 more on the table still. Makes you think the leader in the clubhouse has presented already. He wouldn't call off the dogs if he hadn't found at least one situation he likes already. My money is on San Jose or heading back to the Islanders.

I think he's going back to the Island but just doing the let's double check around just in case thing.

BillP wrote:More goals, more points per game for career (excluding his rookie year with Boston). Dude can flat out rifle it home at any time from anywhere. I would take Seguin.

Why are you excluding his rookie year? Both him and JT were 19 their rookie years. JT is a better all around player and done so with less quality team/line mates.

Both are great though.

BillP wrote:More goals, more points per game for career (excluding his rookie year with Boston). Dude can flat out rifle it home at any time from anywhere. I would take Seguin.

Different players for sure in their style...one of them however gets to play with Jamie Benn

Both great players...one is juts pure speed and skill, the other is skill and hockey sense and slows the game down a bit. If you told me I could choose between the two today to play center for the Blues in 2018-19....even though I think Tavares is the better player, I might take Seguin. I would have to seriously think about that one though.

Tavares just made Josh Bailey an All-Star and nearly point per game player, that's good enough for me! I think Seguin is a better fit for certain teams perhaps, but I'll take JT by a hair. No wrong answer on this I think.

If the Islanders don't hear anything from Tavares on Friday, then it's bye bye Islanders. Just sayin..........

To me this is a 3 horse race between Toronto, SJ, and NY. The other teams just don't make sense as far as the salary cap goes.
Knowing the Blues luck, it'll be SJ, so the Sharks can torment the Blues every year in the playoffs

MattyIce wrote:To me this is a 3 horse race between Toronto, SJ, and NY. The other teams just don't make sense as far as the salary cap goes.
Knowing the Blues luck, it'll be SJ, so the Sharks can torment the Blues every year in the playoffs

There is a rumor out there that SJ already has an offer ready for Couture to sign on July 1 for $8M-$9M a year. If they spend $10M a year or more on Tavares, that pretty much leaves Pavelski without a chair when the music stops. He'll be 11 days from being 35 when he needs a new deal, but he plays the kind of game that should age fairly well. I'd be happy to take him off their hands if you could get him on a 3 year deal next summer.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:I wonder how much the city as a whole is impacting free agents coming here? The Cardinals can't lure free agents either. This city doesn't have a good reputation on great places to live in America.

Have you gone up north to Chicago lately?? It's an out of control ZOO! The population & traffic is unbelievable! New York is even worse.

We recently dropped to the 21st largest metro area in America which is just fine as long as we stay in the top 50. If you've spent any time in a huge city you'll know it's a NIGHTMARE of stress & tension to deal with the traffic & congestion on a daily basis. Visiting is fine but not living.

Let the big cities get the best sports deals while we have some peace, tranquility, & breathing room in St.Louis!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183 ... -the-us/#0

FederkoSutterHunter wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:I wonder how much the city as a whole is impacting free agents coming here? The Cardinals can't lure free agents either. This city doesn't have a good reputation on great places to live in America.

Have you gone up north to Chicago lately?? It's an out of control ZOO! The population & traffic is unbelievable! New York is even worse.

We recently dropped to the 21st largest metro area in America which is just fine as long as we stay in the top 50. If you've spent any time in a huge city you'll know it's a NIGHTMARE of stress & tension to deal with the traffic & congestion on a daily basis. Visiting is fine but not living.

Let the big cities get the best sports deals while we have some peace, tranquility, & breathing room in St.Louis!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183 ... -the-us/#0

I know what you mean. I've lived in Chicago and L.A., and London, England. I hated living in those big cities, with their traffic jams, smokey air, noise, and too many people always around.

I recently (11 years ago) moved from Den Haag (500,000 Metro), where I lived for 40 years (on the 2nd to last street-next to a forest preserve), to a village of 300 people, with NO shops, and the only building that's not a private house is an elementary school.It's fine for me. I'm only a 5 minute bicycle ride from a grocery store, and if I want a town, I'm a 10-minute bike ride from a 50,000 pop. city, with all the shopping I need. I'm a 25 minute (reasonable cost)train ride from a major city with government offices and major transportation links, and a 45 minute train ride from an international airport. I can hear the ducks in the canal wake me up at 5:00 AM in summer, instead of the hum of cars and trucks whizzing by. I can hear the cows moooing, and sheep baaa-ing out my window, as I work at home. We're so dull, that our local pub shut down due to not enough customers.

But, I have to say that life in the furthest away suburbs in Chicagoland, isn't all that different from the St. Louis suburbs, especially if you almost never need to go into the central city. I lived way south in Homewood (near Park Forest) during the mid 1960s. Back then, driving into the city wasn't all that bed. But, usually we rode in on The Illinois Central (especially to go to Cubs or Sox games). Train costs were not all that bad back then. Parking in The Loop was expensive. But, parking on The South Side wasn't a problem (unless your car was too new, or looked too nice).

Robb_K wrote:... I can hear the ducks in the canal wake me up at 5:00 AM in summer, instead of the hum of cars and trucks whizzing by. I can hear the cows moooing, and sheep baaa-ing out my window ...

Well, now, that's just downright un-American.

Robb_K wrote:... But, I have to say that life in the furthest away suburbs in Chicagoland, isn't all that different from the St. Louis suburbs, especially if you almost never need to go into the central city. I lived way south in Homewood (near Park Forest) during the mid 1960s. Back then, driving into the city wasn't all that bed. But, usually we rode in on The Illinois Central (especially to go to Cubs or Sox games). Train costs were not all that bad back then. Parking in The Loop was expensive. But, parking on The South Side wasn't a problem (unless your car was too new, or looked too nice).

Fast forward to the 21st Century, Robb. Homewood is now wedged between 2 major interstates chock-a-block with traffic 20 hours per day. "way south" for Chicago now refers to Kankakee, and the "the furthest away suburbs" labels are applied to Rockford & Joliet (and sometimes Milwaukee, with derision). Parking in The Loop is non-existent, and your car may never come to a complete stop on the South Side before it is stripped out from under you. St. Louis Metro by comparison is a sleepy little one-horse town. And I'll stay here, thank you.

JMC-STL wrote:

Robb_K wrote:... But, I have to say that life in the furthest away suburbs in Chicagoland, isn't all that different from the St. Louis suburbs, especially if you almost never need to go into the central city. I lived way south in Homewood (near Park Forest) during the mid 1960s. Back then, driving into the city wasn't all that bed. But, usually we rode in on The Illinois Central (especially to go to Cubs or Sox games). Train costs were not all that bad back then. Parking in The Loop was expensive. But, parking on The South Side wasn't a problem (unless your car was too new, or looked too nice).

Fast forward to the 21st Century, Robb. Homewood is now wedged between 2 major interstates chock-a-block with traffic 20 hours per day. "way south" for Chicago now refers to Kankakee, and the "the furthest away suburbs" labels are applied to Rockford & Joliet (and sometimes Milwaukee, with derision). Parking in The Loop is non-existent, and your car may never come to a complete stop on the South Side before it is stripped out from under you. St. Louis Metro by comparison is a sleepy little one-horse town. And I'll stay here, thank you.

Except for large swaths of downtown Saint Louis City proper, as well as sections of North County that most people just won't go to. And some other local regions. The area as a whole still has far too much crime, drug use, poverty, high school incompletion, and unemployment for a region this size, and the prevailing attitude of neighborhood isolationism and 'NIMBY'-ism tends to blind many of us to it ("That's in Ferguson, it's not like that here in Hazelwood" or "That's just the downtown area, not us here in West County" or even "That's the North Side, we don't have those problems here in the Shaw area.") It's a very fractured area.

There are reasons for optimism, that's for sure, but lets not fool ourselves.

RAFritchey wrote:

JMC-STL wrote:

Robb_K wrote:... But, I have to say that life in the furthest away suburbs in Chicagoland, isn't all that different from the St. Louis suburbs, especially if you almost never need to go into the central city. I lived way south in Homewood (near Park Forest) during the mid 1960s. Back then, driving into the city wasn't all that bed. But, usually we rode in on The Illinois Central (especially to go to Cubs or Sox games). Train costs were not all that bad back then. Parking in The Loop was expensive. But, parking on The South Side wasn't a problem (unless your car was too new, or looked too nice).

Fast forward to the 21st Century, Robb. Homewood is now wedged between 2 major interstates chock-a-block with traffic 20 hours per day. "way south" for Chicago now refers to Kankakee, and the "the furthest away suburbs" labels are applied to Rockford & Joliet (and sometimes Milwaukee, with derision). Parking in The Loop is non-existent, and your car may never come to a complete stop on the South Side before it is stripped out from under you. St. Louis Metro by comparison is a sleepy little one-horse town. And I'll stay here, thank you.

Except for large swaths of downtown Saint Louis City proper, as well as sections of North County that most people just won't go to. And some other local regions. The area as a whole still has far too much crime, drug use, poverty, high school incompletion, and unemployment for a region this size, and the prevailing attitude of neighborhood isolationism and 'NIMBY'-ism tends to blind many of us to it ("That's in Ferguson, it's not like that here in Hazelwood" or "That's just the downtown area, not us here in West County" or even "That's the North Side, we don't have those problems here in the Shaw area.") It's a very fractured area.

There are reasons for optimism, that's for sure, but lets not fool ourselves.

Very well said. This isolation with all these mini political kingdoms, is what keeps the St.louis metro a minor league city.

Robb_K wrote:

FederkoSutterHunter wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:I wonder how much the city as a whole is impacting free agents coming here? The Cardinals can't lure free agents either. This city doesn't have a good reputation on great places to live in America.

Have you gone up north to Chicago lately?? It's an out of control ZOO! The population & traffic is unbelievable! New York is even worse.

We recently dropped to the 21st largest metro area in America which is just fine as long as we stay in the top 50. If you've spent any time in a huge city you'll know it's a NIGHTMARE of stress & tension to deal with the traffic & congestion on a daily basis. Visiting is fine but not living.

Let the big cities get the best sports deals while we have some peace, tranquility, & breathing room in St.Louis!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183 ... -the-us/#0

I know what you mean. I've lived in Chicago and L.A., and London, England. I hated living in those big cities, with their traffic jams, smokey air, noise, and too many people always around.

I recently (11 years ago) moved from Den Haag (500,000 Metro), where I lived for 40 years (on the 2nd to last street-next to a forest preserve), to a village of 300 people, with NO shops, and the only building that's not a private house is an elementary school.It's fine for me. I'm only a 5 minute bicycle ride from a grocery store, and if I want a town, I'm a 10-minute bike ride from a 50,000 pop. city, with all the shopping I need. I'm a 25 minute (reasonable cost)train ride from a major city with government offices and major transportation links, and a 45 minute train ride from an international airport. I can hear the ducks in the canal wake me up at 5:00 AM in summer, instead of the hum of cars and trucks whizzing by. I can hear the cows moooing, and sheep baaa-ing out my window, as I work at home. We're so dull, that our local pub shut down due to not enough customers.

But, I have to say that life in the furthest away suburbs in Chicagoland, isn't all that different from the St. Louis suburbs, especially if you almost never need to go into the central city. I lived way south in Homewood (near Park Forest) during the mid 1960s. Back then, driving into the city wasn't all that bed. But, usually we rode in on The Illinois Central (especially to go to Cubs or Sox games). Train costs were not all that bad back then. Parking in The Loop was expensive. But, parking on The South Side wasn't a problem (unless your car was too new, or looked too nice).

Sounds good to me Rob. I always liked Mayberry as a kid.

Mayberry was an actual town, with a main street, police station, fire station, shops, people and noise. Too big and crowded for me.

We have a little less than 100 houses, and an elementary school. Not one traffic light. We have one cow farm and one sheep farm, and some cabbage fields, several canals, bridges, and view of an 1800s windmill not too far away. A few farmers, but mostly retired people, or people who drive to cities from 15 minutes to 1 hour away to go to work. Nothing much happens here. And I like it that way.

Robb_K wrote:Mayberry was an actual town, with a main street, police station, fire station, shops, people and noise. Too big and crowded for me.

We have a little less than 100 houses, and an elementary school. Not one traffic light. We have one cow farm and one sheep farm, and some cabbage fields, several canals, bridges, and view of an 1800s windmill not too far away. A few farmers, but mostly retired people, or people who drive to cities from 15 minutes to 1 hour away to go to work. Nothing much happens here. And I like it that way.

So... how long have you been in this witness protection program, and who did you roll over on?

Turk Sanderson wrote:

Robb_K wrote:Mayberry was an actual town, with a main street, police station, fire station, shops, people and noise. Too big and crowded for me.

We have a little less than 100 houses, and an elementary school. Not one traffic light. We have one cow farm and one sheep farm, and some cabbage fields, several canals, bridges, and view of an 1800s windmill not too far away. A few farmers, but mostly retired people, or people who drive to cities from 15 minutes to 1 hour away to go to work. Nothing much happens here. And I like it that way.

So... how long have you been in this witness protection program, and who did you roll over on?

Robb_K wrote:Mayberry was an actual town, with a main street, police station, fire station, shops, people and noise. Too big and crowded for me.

We have a little less than 100 houses, and an elementary school. Not one traffic light. We have one cow farm and one sheep farm, and some cabbage fields, several canals, bridges, and view of an 1800s windmill not too far away. A few farmers, but mostly retired people, or people who drive to cities from 15 minutes to 1 hour away to go to work. Nothing much happens here. And I like it that way.

If I can't get to Panda Express or Chic Fil A within 5 minutes, I have no desire to live there....I guess we are different like that!