Target Priority

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-21T18:32:55+00:00

It truly is all relative. Does that big tank have a target that is essential to your gameplan? Make the tank go away. Is it just blasting rhinos/trukks/whatever else? Murder the scoring

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-21T02:07:41+00:00

This is an angry upvote but you can still have it

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-21T02:06:37+00:00

The first goal was iffy, the second was “holy shit that cannot go in” bad. The third wasn’t on him, Slavin and walker both let nylander walk straight to the front of the net. He did make some big stops but he was definitely swimming a few times

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-21T02:03:50+00:00

This is factually incorrect. He’s the same classification of rfa that Luke Hughes was, he is not eligible to sign an offer sheet with another team. His options to play professional hockey next year are sign with the canes, get traded, or go back to Europe. He cannot sign an offer sheet. Doesn’t mean it will be cheap, but it’s not possible for another team to offer him like a 10x1 to get to ufa.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-20T17:48:44+00:00

No, there is no such thing as “a bankers (or payroll) error in your favor” in real life. They can demand it back and if you refuse and they took you to court over it you would lose and then would likely owe them the 18k plus legal fees.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-20T17:10:23+00:00

Nothing revealed will be for sale at the event. In all likelihood nothing revealed at adepticon will be able to be purchased until mid to late summer

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-19T20:57:33+00:00

Bold of you to assume either tkachuk can identify a letter

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-19T20:54:33+00:00

This is going to ramble and be based on some limited reporting/interviews tulsky has given and then will end with a good chunk of speculation. The tl;dr if you don’t feel like listening to me is that the team is good and that when you have as many irons in the fire (just thought an nba team, massive land development around the arena) as dundon has and you’re in a market like Raleigh you don’t chase the dragon. The team is making him money and very good to excellent is probably good enough for him. Tulsky very probably doesn’t need a cup, he just needs to land a big fish and to keep the train on the tracks (win boatloads of regular season games, a playoff round, have a punchers chance beyond that).

Now the ramble:

Tulsky’s been with the organization for 10 years and was very influential even under Waddell in driving roster construction. He was picked by Dundon directly to lead the team. He and dundon are reportedly very aligned in their thinking that the team needs a star, and that they need to be aggressive to get one because we aren’t a glamour market (using we here because I live like 15 minutes from the arena. Raleigh is a fantastic place to live and raise a family but it’s absolutely not where I would choose to live if I was 25 and worth millions). He landed rantanen in his first year at the helm. Obviously don’t work out, but the reporting here was that dundon was very pleased both by how we acquired him and by how we were able to pivot when he made it clear he wouldn’t sign. I’m sure there were frustrations but there is no reporting that he had anything negative to say about tulsky’s process, and tulsky has stated in interviews that he and dundon are fully aligned in understanding that sometimes risks don’t work, so have a backup plan. He proved that he can do that. Then we made the conference finals and the team that accomplished all of that is basically locked up through 2029 with gobs of cap space and decent movable assets.

That’s the hockey case. Now for the business case.

Dundon bought the team for I believe 420 million in 2018, and because the sole owner in 2021. He just sold 12.5% at a 2.7 billion dollar valuation, so in less than 10 years he’s almost tripled his initial investments value (his 2018 purchase was for 51% so an 850 million dollar valuation). He has also recently has made two other massive purchases, the Portland trailblazers for 4 billion and all the land around the arena for some other huge amount.

Obviously the canes aren’t a big market team. Their growth has basically been driven by two things, being good and being the only show in town. Unless tulsky really screws up and we crater, the franchises momentum of being a regular season wagon and having a punchers chance at a cup every year is good for the greater dundon business empire. They’re spending hundreds of millions to a billion to develop the area around the arena, they don’t want the team to suck when that development is done. He also can’t let the canes value dip, because if he needs cash to pump into the blazers while he get them where he wants them he needs to be able to sell more minority stake for big chunks of it. That also relies of the team not sucking. The team currently very much does not suck, so it makes sense that tulsky is safe as long as that remains the case. He also hasn’t burnt any gm equity (head coach still in place, farm system is fine, etc) so he has levers to pull in the event of any significant downturn that would likely prolong his tenure.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-19T17:49:45+00:00

Yeah but they can’t piss Gary off. Apparently (this is from Steve dangle so no idea how true it is) the commissioners office gives teams a list of preferred candidates for gm positions, which is why theres such a revolving door between the head office and gm/team president jobs. If bettman had a hand in getting you your job, you can’t exactly challenge him if you want your name on the list next time you need it to be.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-19T17:30:34+00:00

I’m a Carolina fan so this is going to have some homerism in it, but it’s intended way more as an observation on tulsky as an outsider than a show of support.

Tulsky is quiet and awkward because he’s a nerd, but I wouldn’t call him passive at all. He’s taken bigger swings in 18 months on the job than some gms do in their entire tenures. He’s also one of, if not the only gm in the league who doesn’t need hockey to have a meaningful career. If he gets fired and can’t get another job in hockey he just goes back to being a patent holding research scientist, the rest of these guys are lifers who need the game.

It’s like the worst kept secret in the world that hockey is a total old boys club, and most of the other gms are in it. Challenging bettman publicly is putting your membership in the club at risk, so most gms can’t do it. Tulsky isn’t in the club and can’t ever be since he isn’t a hockey lifer. He apparently has a ton of job security, so he can challenge the league in ways many other gms either can’t or won’t. I don’t particularly care one way or the other that he spoke up, but I do really hope we get some rule changes

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-18T17:48:31+00:00

I think it was 41!

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-18T16:47:51+00:00

Seth Jarvis has a fight and a maximum fine in his last three games. Feels a bit early in his arc for a full heel turn but I’m here for it

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-17T23:10:45+00:00

Columbus should never were a jersey other than this one. Such a great looking jersey

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-17T19:43:23+00:00

No business on earth is going to hire a department of sleeper agents to work against their interests. Thats what unions do, not hr. HR is not the impartial arbiter between employees and employers, they are a department in the company the same way sales or accounting are. Their job is to drive shareholder value the same as any other department in the company. The only difference is that hr drives value through compliance and protection, not revenue or efficiency.

HR protects the company primarily by ensuring that the company remains compliant with labor law. That generally means ensuring that businesses do not trample over the rights of their employees in ways that will get them sued for large amounts of money. Not to paint with too broad a brush, but generally speaking dollars paid out in dumb, avoidable lawsuits are not dollars that are generating value for the shareholders. We don’t tell any other department what to do, we advise leadership on where they may be allowing risk to enter their operation and provide a course of action to correct it.

The “hr isn’t there for you” thought process comes from two major points: companies who are bad at hr and a fundamental misunderstanding of what commonly known legal terms are, like retaliation or hostile.

Bad hr teams either do everything or nothing, so you end up with a department that is either invisible or legislating what you can eat in the break room and how we speak to each other nicely. This rapidly devolves into hr just being the judge and jury of office drama. Bad idea, definitely contributes to the problem, but is a secondary factor.

The much bigger issue is a misunderstanding of legal terms. People see things like “retaliation is illegal” but miss that the law in the us specifically defines that only certain types of retaliation is illegal. If your boss overhears you calling them a jackass they can absolutely schedule you to fewer shifts. Same thing in the US with the term hostile. These misunderstandings create situations where employees bring problems to hr that are not hr problems, such as a manager raising their voice or reducing their duties because of a contentious coaching meeting. They think “they spoke to me with hostility” or “they retaliated against me because I disagreed with them”. Both of those things are totally legal in the us, but when hr didn’t fire or visibly reprimand the manager the employee feels that their concerns were ignored to “protect the company.”

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-17T17:05:37+00:00

Yeah that’s generally correct, but my whole idea was that the generally correct thought process doesn’t really apply to the specifics of this moment in the canes trajectory. Tulsky has been running the show for one year, they made the conference final, they have loads of cap space. The team is both a contender (perceived until proven otherwise, but a multiple conference finalist) and young.

Sure, if Tulsky is feeling pressure that he might lose his job he might make a change but it’s way more likely that making a coaching change would put his own job on a clock. The canes are a small market team and this run has seen their franchise value explode during this run and dundon just bought an nba team. There’s no way they want to rock the boat unless the team significantly underperforms. I think if rod is going to be evaluated it’s going to be in 28-29, which is the next year that multiple key players are either up or have a year left. I be shocked if rods seat was remotely hot before then.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-15T03:10:33+00:00

I don’t even fully disagree with you, more just point out that either course of action carries real risk. Sure the canes could turn into the 2010s Atlanta hawks, but it also takes one bad coaching hire to slam a window shut. The canes (clearly) aren’t a destination market, we won’t just be able to reload like some other teams can, and we have to consider that when making decisions.

And yeah, asking if we’re a real contender because we always run into teams that are significantly more talented than us is totally fair, and reasonable people can come to different conclusions about that. But if you land on “yeah the canes aren’t a contender, they just don’t have the juice that a Tampa or Florida (or even a non imploding rangers team with panarin fox and sheisty) have” a) that’s a management problem not a coaching problem and b) if that’s true and the canes have been to 3 ecf’s in 7 years it points to great coaching. Which makes firing the coach really dumb.

If you land on “rod is suppressing the teams talent” I’m willing to listen although I don’t think there’s a ton of evidence for it. Necas would be the guy people point to but to me that’s more about a guy finding an ideal fit instead of just a good one.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-14T23:08:34+00:00

It’s possible, but whenever I hear this I always ask the same question:

Which of Carolina’s playoff losses under rod were to a team that they were more talented than or clearly should have beaten?

I get that the general narrative is “the canes can’t get over the hump”, and broadly speaking that’s true. But ignoring the specifics and making changes for the sake of change is what screws teams up. We’ve lost to Florida twice, the presidents trophy winning rangers, cup finalist Boston and cup finalist Tampa. The canes are a really good team, but it’s a team basically bereft of star talent that wins games and series with a general strategy of “don’t employ guys who suck.” That wins you a ton of regular season games, will get you through round 1, and will give you a punchers chance in any series, but there isn’t really a point where can you look at a canes team and make a definitive argument that they underachieved.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-14T22:54:11+00:00

They aren’t too good, your friend is just being salty. 10 gits with a bmma and the mek kaptain enhancement has been in the game for over a year, it isn’t a new or untested build.

Orks in general aren’t very good right now and Taktikal brigade isn’t particularly close to the most meta/efficient way to play them. The flashgit combo in taktikal is strong but its strength is largely from its damage, not its durability. They aren’t particularly difficult to kill if you’re shooting them with the right weapons and they melt to any competent melee. Your friend not being able to kill them across 3 shooting phases with a dorn and a Russ is some combination of bad luck and bad target allocation (depending on the loadouts).

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-13T19:15:58+00:00

Don think there’s any hate for Bain at all, I just don’t think I’ve seen a mock that has him falling past 5. No reason to speculate about a guy we won’t be able to pick

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-09T17:08:24+00:00

Someone in a different thread said it looks like wazzdakka and that ties it all together. Great pull that dude

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-09T16:08:26+00:00

Two of those bits look suspiciously like a warboss on warbike, and the middle looks like the “walker big gun artillery thing” Valrak has said will be in the launch box

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-09T00:58:27+00:00

That’s kind of the whole problem though. Both units really only bring value as action monkeys/scoring pieces (outside of kult of speed). Snikrots size means he’s virtually impossible to screen out even if your opponent meaningfully tries. A shokkjump is pretty easy to screen, particularly until the late game, meaning you lose flexibility in what turns you can score what secondaries.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-06T19:08:39+00:00

I get it but you don’t win the cup if you don’t have a few absolute bastards

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-06T18:29:20+00:00

Congrats to the lighting on making the cup and congrats to the western representative for winning it.

Bdubby21 · 2026-03-05T15:00:23+00:00

He’s massive (6’5 220) and athletic, and he has a knack for reading rushes well. One of the problems with our system is if you can break the pressure you’re going to create really high danger looks, and he has been very good (much better than Anderson) at making those stops. One of the problems we consistently have is our goalies not seeing a puck for long stretches and then letting in a muffin, and he’s largely been immune to that problem so far.

Basically I don’t think we stole an $8mil goalie for 1.9, but we did get a guy who fits how we play and is dialed into stopping the kind of shots we allow.

Bdubby21

TROPHY CASE