The NHL Is Back

My Fantasy Hockey Team

2005-09-05T10:33:00.000-04:00

I'm in a 20 team (yes that's right 20 teams) fantasy hockey league of only Ranger fans. Last night we had the draft and here's my team. It's not the best but it's not bad either considering the amount of teams and the amount of players per team.

C - S. Fedorov
C - D. Briere
C - B. Holik
LW - O. Kvasha
LW - J. Blake
LW - M. Gelinas
RW - V. Bure
RW - P. Sykora
RW - M. Parrish
D - S. Niedermayer
D - T. Kaberle
D - I. Ulanov
D - K. Rachunek
D - R. Suchy
D - F. Bouillon
BN - J. Madden
BN - M. Lapointe
BN - M. Nilson
G - M. Brodeur
G - J. Markkanen
BN - C. Huet

Obviously I'm happy about Brodeur/Markkanen as my goalies, they should help me out a lot. What I'm missing up front is a true offensive punch. I've got a bunch of good role players who will put up 60 points a year, but no Iginla/Naslund type. Scott Niedermayer is nice on the point as well. I expect this to be a middle of the road team.

And can you believe as a Ranger fan I have three Fishsticks on my team?

Carnival of the NHL #7

2005-09-01T22:54:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Carnival of the NHL #7. In this week’s edition, we look at three teams in the East, Pavel Datsyuk, Doug Harvey and a lot more. But we start with the top news story in America. (The wording of this intro was heavily borrowed from PTI)
John at BoltsMag went off-topic a few days ago to blog about the coming wrath of Katrina, and now we have seen it. Thousands are feared dead and New Orleans is basically gone. If you have a few bucks to spare, send $5 to the Red Cross or some other organization. If we all just chip in a few dollars, we can make a world of difference.

John is not abandoning NHL blogging all together. He wishes the Tampa Bay Lightning would redo their website. I’ve previously written about how the NHL is severely lacking in the online world. If you want to see what a great online strategy is all about, check out MLB.com. The team websites are run by Major League Baseball Advanced Media (which the teams initially invested in but now makes a profit) and subscribers can watch nearly every baseball game live. For me, a Mariners fan living in New York, it is perfect. I’m happy that OLN and the NHL are partnering to stream some games in the coming years, but there is a long way to go.

John is also upset about ridiculous trade rumors that people come up with and he’s not alone. J.J. from Canucks Corner can’t stand that there seems to be no thought by the John Doe that comes up with these things. Personally, I can’t stand trade rumors. Real leaks are one thing, but what a radio host thinks should happen is something I don’t need to waste my time with.

J.J. also has two posts on Matt Cooke and the progress of his negotiations with the Canucks.

Mr. Ben Wright over at The Net Files gets the next slot because he was the first one to send in a submission. He’s taking another side of the signings debate and thinks that revenue across the league will go up. He looks at a number of markets and really believes things are looking up for the NHL. I hope he’s right.

I think one of the biggest stories not being talked about enough is Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and their lack of contracts with the Wings. Matt at On the Wings has a post on the lack of progress with the two players. But wait, today Matt posts that there is some good news on the Datsyuk front.

Next up is the Big Papi of the NHL Carnival, Eric McErlain. He even wrote his own intro and since he put that kind of effort in, I think I need to post it. (Especially since he’s the one who rewarded me with this Carnival): Earlier this week, both EJ Hradek and John Buccigross of ESPN.com jumped ugly with USA Hockey after the coach of the women's squad, Ben Smith, left 1998 Olympic heroine Cammi Granato off the roster for the team's pre-Olympic tour. Eric McErlain wondered what all the fuss was about in What Would Herb Brooks Do?

We have two posts on the Buffalo Sabres from two different bloggers. Tom at Sabre Rattling is impressed by the job Tom Golisano has done with the team and Lindsey examines the state of the team and some of the criticism GM Darcy Regier has endured.

Jes Golbez has a monster post on the Carolina Hurricanes, looking at attendance, standings, coaching, cap space and the depth chart. I don’t know much about the Canes but I liked Peter Laviolette when he on Long Island, despite my being a die-hard Ranger fan. I also never realized how good of a backup Martin Gerber was. He posted a .918 SV% last season, along with a 2.26GAA.

The Puck Stops Here looks at the great career of Doug Harvey, and how it’s hard to prove it through numbers. I love using statistics in baseball but they do not have nearly the relevance in hockey, especially for more defensive players.

Spector examines the activity over the summer and comes away with one conclusion: “Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...” I have to agree. I hope revenues rise so that these deals don’t look foolish, but I’m not so sure. Sometimes I wonder if GM’s learned anything. If you are still confused about the cap and how injuries relates to it, Tom Benjamin has a good post on the matter.

Can you believe Peter Bondra is a hot name in the free agent market? Either can Chris at Hockey Country.

Jon from Sharkspage posts about a four team rookie tournament going on out west. You can buy tickets if you are in San Jose.

And finally we have David from the Ice Block posting about OLN. I like his blog but he is going to get ribbed here (in a very joking way), for sending in this post just twenty five minutes before the deadline.

Whew, was that fun. I would love to do that again sometime down the road. If there are any problems with the post, just drop me a note in the comments.

Great Hull Quote

2005-08-31T13:37:00.000-04:00

From TSN/The Arizona Republic:

Hull, who has played 18 seasons in the NHL, said that while he admired former St. Louis linemate Wayne Gretzky for trying coaching, he was not one of the people who reportedly tried to convince Gretzky not to try coaching.

"I've only told Wayne Gretzky not to do one thing, and he didn't listen to me so I would never tell him not to do anything again," Hull said to the Republic.

"I told him not to come to St. Louis from Los Angeles and that (Blues coach Mike) Keenan was an idiot. He said (Keenan) wouldn't be an idiot once he got there. I said, 'He'll never change.'

"I was right."

Link.

Carnival Reminder

2005-08-31T11:36:00.000-04:00

Submissions for Carnival of the NHL #7 are due by Noon EST Thursday. All submissions go to worldcusa (at) aol (dot) com.

Emrick Going to OLN

2005-08-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

The New York Post reported a few days ago that Mike "Doc" Emrick is going to be doing the play-by-play for OLN games. OLN is also in talks with John Davidson to do the color along side him. Doc is a solid announcer and JD is the best color man in the business. If this ends up being the team, hockey fans will be very happy.

Going on Vacation

2005-08-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow morning and will be back Thursday night. There will be some posting while I'm gone, but it will obviously be light, maybe one post a day. The deadline to submit posts for the Carnival is Thursday at Noon. Please e-mail your entries to worldcusa (at) aol (dot) com.

Carnival #7 Details

2005-08-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder: Carnival of the NHL #7 will be posted Thursday, September 1st (or in the early hours of September 2nd). Please have all your posts in by Noon EST on September 1st so I can work on the Carnival as I fly back from Seattle. (I'm leaving for Seattle on Sunday. Go Mariners!) Please send the links to worldcusa (at) aol (dot) com.

Lemieux's Salary

2005-08-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

A friend and I were talking about a hockey subject this last week and then I saw it on a message board so I thought my readers must be thinking the same thing: If you are Mario Lemieux, what do you pay yourself? Under the old system, it did not matter at all. You could pay yourself $5 million and re-invest some or most of that in the team. But in a cap environment, salary means a lot. The Pens are not going to bust the cap, but what they spend matters for revenue sharing.

The revenue sharing is complicated (I don't completely understand it) but there are two "batches" of revenue sharing. If a club spends more than average on player salaries, they are not eligible for the second batch. So you see why Lemieux's salary can be so important. If the Pens are $500,000 away from the average, and he just pays himself $450,000, then they can get revenue sharing. If they are $2 million away, he can pay himself $1.9 million.

We also have to look at if it's even fair for a player to hold front office positions. Why can't the Flyers just have Forsberg buy 2% of the team at a very discounted price, and then have him accept less money? (which is basically what is going on with Lemieux, except he owns a lot of the team) There has to be a provision in the CBA that stops teams from giving front-office positions or small slices of ownership to players. Lemieux bought the team pre-CBA, so it will not affect his ownership, but it is still something that needs to be addressed.

Someone on a message board mentioned Lemieux should get a special arbitration hearing to determine his salary. I think this is a great idea. Mario Lemieux is one of the best players of all-time and owns his team. If the Pens were at $33 million, only gave Lemieux $450,000, and then brought in a big time player to fill the rest of the cap space, there would be outrage. Lemieux is a several million dollar player, and his ownership should not allow the Pens to lowball him for revenue sharing purposes. Lemieux needs to earn a fair wage, so that the Pens payroll is actually their payroll.

St. Louis and Elias Sign

2005-08-24T15:34:00.000-04:00

I'm on my way out but I wanted to quickly post my thoughts on today's transactions. Martin St. Louis is heading back to Tampa, signing a six year deal worth $5.25 million a season. I really like St. Louis, I think he is an excellent player, and the money is good. But six years? How can you possibly sign a player for six years? In today's economic environment with the new CBA, signing someone who is coming off an MVP season but is 30 years old to a six year deal is cap suicide. This CBA could be over in four years; signing someone to a six year deal is just plain dumb. The only person I would sign to a six year deal is Wayne Gretzky in his prime.

Patrik Elias signed the Devils qualifying offer for a one year deal worth $4.18 million. Elias has Hepatitis and as TSN is reporting, his contract will not count against the cap until he returns to the lineup. But the Devils are still way over the cap. (TSN says $5 million, woah)

Stats for 2003-2004:
St. Louis: 82GP - 38 - 56 - 94 with a +35
Elias: 82GP - 38 - 43 - 81 with a +26 (Can you believe he was not an All-Star last year with those kind of numbers?)

Ducks Making Cap Room

2005-08-24T09:13:00.000-04:00

In an effort to get under the cap before the start of the season, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim sent Steve Rucchin to the Rangers for Trevor Gillies and a pick in the 2007 draft. The Ducks had to get rid of someone, and while I thought it would be Sykora, Rucchin works too. He's going to be a UFA after this season and is making $2.26 million.

The Ducks basically got nothing in return for a second line center because they are in cap trouble, and when you get into trouble, no GM is going to give up much to help you out. It's probably why Rucchin was moved instead of Sykora. Burke would have wanted a nice return for Sykora but no GM would give it. So he parted with Rucchin for a minimal return, which is easier to swallow than for a player like Sykora.

If you go to TSN, it looks like the Ducks are fine under the cap. But they still need to move someone. With a 22 man roster, the Ducks will be about 400-600K over. Look for them to make another move in the near future. And if they do decide to move Sykora, they will be able to get a decent return because they are not in serious cap trouble anymore, just minor trouble.

Also, check out two new hockey blogs: Canucks Hockey and Goon Blog.

Hossa for Heatley?

2005-08-23T17:10:00.000-04:00

I was about to post news of the Sens signing Hossa for $18 million over 3 years when I see the big news on TSN: Danny Heatley heading to Ottawa in return for Marian Hossa. To me, this is bigger news than the Forsberg signing. The Senators are sending a D-Man to Atlanta as well. I'm hearing it's De Vries and that Atlanta is sending back a first round pick. Check out Chris at Hockey Country for continuing updates and a look at this from the perspective of a Sens fan.

Hossa is slightly better right now but I have always been a Heatley fan and I'll stick by him. He's two years younger and has the potential to be a better player. The first round pick is great news for Sens fans because it does not look likely that Atlanta will be a top team.

The biggest question mark here is Ilya Kovalchuk. He remains unsigned and is good friends with Danny. He has said that he does not want to negotiate until the Heatley situation is cleared up. Will this stop him from returning to the Thrashers?

Edit (5:27PM) - Fan 590 out of Toronto is reporting that Heatley and the Sens have reached a deal on a contract. It is going to be so weird to see Danny Heatley in a Sens uniform but I think he will have a great year.

Also, if you are asking yourself why Atlanta did this, there are rumors that Heatley wanted out of the Thrasher orginization so he could have a fresh start. I'm sure the accident has a lot to do with that.

Selanne Going Back to Anaheim

2005-08-22T19:11:00.000-04:00

Teemu Selanne is heading back to the Ducks, having signed a one year deal for $1 million. Good for him and good the Ducks. They have serious cap problems (see this post) but this is a good value for an aging veteran who is going to have a much better year than he did with the Avs. This guarantees that Sykora is going to go as I don't see how else they can realistically get under the cap.

Lindros Cartoon

2005-08-22T18:16:00.000-04:00

John from BoltsMag/RawLightning sent me this funny cartoon.

Carnival of the NHL

2005-08-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

Late last night/early this morning, James Mirtle posted Carnival of the NHL #6 and thanks to Eric at Off Wing for announcing that I will be hosting the next Carnival. I will be going back to the trend of Carnivals being posted on a Thursday and it looks like September 1st will be the date. I'll post details in a few days.

Off-Season Winding Down

2005-08-21T11:32:00.000-04:00

Even though there are still plenty of players that remain without contracts, the off-season is winding down. Most of the blogs (including mine) have been getting more and more quiet and it's beginning to feel like a typical off-season. I know for me, I just want to watch some hockey. My good friend and I talked last night and planned some of the games we want to go to, talked about which sports bars will have the games on (there was some debate whether ESPNZone would still show games, especially those on OLN), etc etc.

For me, some big questions still remain unanswered and they have to do with restricted free agents. Ilya Kovalchuk, Danny Heatley and Martin St. Louis still do not have contracts and September is less than two weeks away. St. Louis is the most interesting because he is coming off an MVP year in which he helped his team win the Stanley Cup. The Lightning are currently just under $32 million in salary with two players left to sign (St. Louis and Dave Andreychuk). But Bolts' management has said they will not go over $37.5 million which means St. Louis is going to have to receive less than $6 million in salary, maybe $5 million. They were put in this situation when Lecavalier took $6.875 million per year for four years. (Home team discount, yeah right.)

The Bolts also have to worry about Brad Richards, who becomes an RFA next season. He is barely 25 years old, coming off two 70+ point season and should have no trouble fetching a big salary next year. The Bolts have to lose either Richards or St. Louis to restricted free agency; I don't see how they keep both. I'm wondering when other teams are going to step up and make an offer on St. Louis. He might want to play in Tampa, and four first round picks are a lot to give up, but he's a talented player. Or, a team can trade some prospects for St. Louis' rights and then sign him. Either way, someone should do something. It puts pressure on Tampa and they could get last year's MVP.

Then comes the Atlanta situation. They are pursuing Bondra, when they still have two talents in Kovalchuk and Heatley unsigned. They have plenty of cap space, but they need to pull the trigger. Heatley just switched agents and some Russian papers are reporting Kovalchuk is reluctant to return to Atlanta unless Heatley re-signs.

The Red Wings also have not signed their two big RFA's: Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. They have $7 million left to sign 4 players (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kronwall and a depth player). The big challenge for the Wings will be to sign Datsyuk and Zetterberg for less than $6 million combined. If I'm a GM with cap space, I'm offering Datsyuk $4 million per season. The Wings can't match it, and if they do, then that allowes me to go after Zetterberg.

Before I end this post, I'm going to link to a random set of hockey musings by Jes Golbez, who is turning out to be my favorite hockey blogger as of late. He responds to a comment I made about Kevin Weekes, looks at splits of two Slovak NHLers, defends his pick of the Bruins winning the East, and thinks Derian Hatcher won't be as bad as people think in the new NHL.

New Team Canada Jerseys

2005-08-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

Take a look. What's up with those socks? They've got to go.

There's also a press release to go with the pictures. These jerseys, which will be worn at the Olympics this year, are "Nike Swift" uniforms and are supposed to be lighter. According to Nike, players can move faster compared to standard jerseys/socks. You can check out the press release for all the benefits. Despite those ugly socks, I actually would like to play with this uniform and really see if it's as good as Nike says it is.

Edit: Tom Benjamin is reporting that players like the jerseys but they have a serious problem: when you fall, you slide. Kirk Maltby compares them to ski pants. So why can't Nike just use the old material of socks with the new material of the jerseys. I've been playing hockey my whole life and I think current hockey socks are perfectly fine.

Individual Tickets On Sale Sep 17

2005-08-19T11:07:00.000-04:00

The NHL is making all teams begin selling individual tickets on Saturday, September 17. No word yet on what time the flood gates will open. Is this new? I don't remember all teams having to start selling individual tickets on the same day in the past, but it's been a couple years.

From the same source, the Penguins have already sold more tickets (500,000) than they did all of the 2003-2004 season. Now the question for the City Council from Pens ownership is going to be, "When are we getting a new stadium?" If they don't receive a favorable answer, the Pens could be on the move in the next few years.

Comcast: I Love You

2005-08-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

Burried in today's AP piece on the Comcast deal is this:

The deal with Comcast goes beyond just television rights. Comcast will bring the NHL Network to cable systems in the United States, and provide on-demand game broadcasts and computer streaming of live games.

Live streaming games? Yes!

The Final Word On The NHL-IIHF Agreement

2005-08-17T10:01:00.000-04:00

The whole process of the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement is finally over. The Czechs are in but the Russians are not. I reported a little while ago that I thought the Russians would do it because if they did not, they would be without compensation at all. Russian labor law allows a worker to quit any job as long as they give two weeks notice.

Pittsburgh is already working on bringing Malkin here using this "loophole." It is the same way the Blue Jackets got Zherdev. (see note below) Now, the Pens are not required to give any money to Malkin's Russian club, which is great news for their franchise. I see no reason why Malkin won't be in a Penguin uniform this year, unless him and the Pens have contract issues.

As plenty of people have said, it's quite sad that Russia thinks they are better than everyone else, that this deal isn't fair even though every other IIHF country believes it is fair. I wonder if they can still opt into the deal later

Edit: It seems the Jackets did pay a fee for Zherdev. I had heard differently.

LeClair to Pittsburgh

2005-08-15T20:28:00.000-04:00

The Penguins sure are a different team after a flurry of signings this off-season. Today, Pittsburgh added John LeClair with a two year deal. Don't expect LeClair to be a first line player on the new look Pens. Too many people are still saying John has a lot left in the tank. I've always liked the guy but he has had serious back trouble and had another surgery during the lockout. He's only played 208 games over the last 4 seasons and notched 146 points in that time. I would consider him playing above expectations if he hits 50 points this season (assuming he does not play with Lemieux).

I've looked around and the terms of this deal have not come out yet. If the Pens paid more than $2 million for an injury prone 36 year old, then they are only hurting themselves while there are better players on the market. But as a pure low budget depth signing, this is not a bad move. He adds character, grit, and can help this team.

James Mirtle has last year's and this year's Pens depth chart for comparison.

Top Goals of 2003-2004

2005-08-15T14:59:00.000-04:00

NHL.com has a 23 minute clip of the top goals of 2003-2004. It is so good to see hockey again and watching these sick moves makes me think of two things. The first is, hockey players are such talented athletes. I love watching them perform. And the second is, I cannot wait to see hockey again.

Streaming video (WMV): Broadband, 56K.

Cap Misunderstanding (Edit: I could be wrong)

2005-08-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

I hear a lot of people make the same mistake when talking about the cap. They say that the value of the contract is averaged out for salary cap purposes. If Sundin has a contract for 3 then 4 then 5 million dollars a year, it counts as $4 million per year for cap purposes. This is only true for existing contracts. New contracts can be structured with different amounts against the cap for different years.

Here is where things get confusing though. If I decide to pay a player a million dollars a season, then 2 then 3, against the cap it will count as 1 million, then 2, then 3. It is only when the dollar amount per season goes down, not up, that there is an averaging for cap purposed. Mike Modano signed a five year $17.25 million dollar contract. He will be paid $4.25 for the first three season and $2.25 for the last two. For cap purposes, it counts as $3.45 million per season because he is getting more money in the beginning seasons than the ending seasons. If the deal was reversed, there would be no averaging.

I hope this does not confuse you even more. I just hear a lot of people saying that all new contracts get averaged for the cap. This is un true. It is only when the value goes down per year and those contracts are not that common.

Edit: Now Larry Brooks is saying that it is the average that counts against the cap. I'm waiting to hear from the NHL on this. There are people who think it's the average and then there are reports that it's not the average. Also, Larry Brooks has reported different things over the last month that seems to contradict other articles he's written. I might be wrong, but Lacroix's statement (see comments) and the fact that the NHL specifically went out of their to say existing contracts would be averaged, while not saying anything about new ones, leads me to want to wait it out. So we'll see.

OLN, IIHF and Alexander Frolov

2005-08-13T09:57:00.000-04:00

ESPN is seriously considering matching Comcast's offer for the NHL. It's not so much that ESPN wants hockey back as they want to keep a potential competitor from getting off the ground. The figure was supposed to be $100 million over two years, but the Buffalo News is reporting it has been raised to $135 million. This is the only place I've seen this figure so take it with a grain of salt.

NHL players will be at the Turin games this year, even if the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement falls through. Russian and Czech clubs have by early Monday morning on the east coast (10AM GMT) to agree to the deal, or the NHL has open season on their players.

Novosti (a Russian site, but in English) has a good article up with details the American media would never pick up on.

However, senior Russian hockey officials themselves admit that contradictions in Russian domestic legislation allow the North Americans simply to ignore this demand. The Russian Labor Code, for example, grants any person the right to give up one's job within two weeks, and this alone, should the agreement be not signed, will give a trump card to NHL clubs in securing Russian club players for free.

I think this deal will get done. These European teams have too much to lose by standing their ground. Even if the NHL has to throw a little bit more money their way, the two sides should come to an agreement.

The Kings have re-signed gifted young Russian forward Alexander Frolov. He will be paid $14.5 million over five years. This is a deal more about potential than anything else. He is a good player and those 48 points last year were nice, but the Kings are locking him up for so long because he just turned 23. Here is the player page for Frolov.

This was originally a longer post but Blogger ate the first version of it. Oh well.

Thornton Takes Shorter Deal

2005-08-11T16:16:00.000-04:00

Joe Thornton did not take the five year $32 million dollars the Bruins were offering, but Sportsnet is reporting that the Bruins have re-signed him for three years at $20 million dollars.

They are also reporting the Lindros deal is finalized. For that amount of money, this is a great gamble by the Leafs.

RFA's Are Fair Game

2005-08-11T12:11:00.000-04:00

I belong to a Ranger message board and I hear people saying that Glen Sather should not go after a RFA like Heatley or Kovalchuk, not because it's bad for the rebuilding, but because other teams will get mad. They reference the 1997 incident when the Rangers offered Joe Sakic $21 million over three years (with $17 million in the first year) and the rest of the league got outraged. I have two things to say to that: a) It's a different environment now and b) So what?

Under the previous CBA, teams like the Rangers could overspend, and it hurt the league in the long run. But it was completely fair under the CBA for the Rangers to offer Sakic that contract. If the Avs did not match that offer, they would have been heavily compensated. Teams and fans were mad at the Rangers, but when you have the opportunity to land a player who is going to the Hall of Fame, you do it. There was no reason for other teams to get mad; the Rangers played by the rules. I never liked all the spending the Rangers did, but you can't disagree with trying to get a Joe Sakic on their team.

Now, we are in a completely different environment with this new CBA. Teams cannot offer huge RFA deals because there is a salary cap. If they spend too much on a player, it will decrease their chances of winning. It levels out the playing field. RFA's are fair game. Everyone has the same salary cap now and no team is going to overspend by that much.

Danny Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk are special players, impact players as I like to call them. Kovalchuk is 22 years old and had 87 points last year. I would do everything in my power to get him on my team. And the CBA has RFA compensation to protect against outright taking of every RFA in the league.

If a team offered either one of these players less than $5 million a season (so they would not have to give up four first round draft picks) the Thrashers would surely match it. If a team gave them (probably not Heatley, but Kovalchuk) $6+ million a season, and Atlanta could not match that figure, the team would give up FOUR first round picks. That is a lot of first rounders. What makes RFA signings fair is that teams cannot make more than one major RFA signing every half-decade. If a team went out and offered Kovalchuk $6 million and they lost four first rounders, they would be basically done from making any significant RFA signings until 2008.

Restricted free agents are fair game. There is a compensation schedule in place to make sure teams don't offer huge salaries to players that don't deserve them. And if they overspend, they are hurt significantly in the draft. They are also going to be out of the RFA market for the next few seasons. And RFA's are even more fair in a salary cap environment because everyone is on (basically) a level playing field. Even if a team tried to overspend on Kovalchuk, they could not offer him the world and still be in fine cap position.

So people need to stop saying that RFA signings are unfair and that other teams will get mad. It lacks a basic understanding of the CBA, business and what "fair" truly is.

Dinner Time NHL Roundup

2005-08-10T18:59:00.000-04:00

I'm hungry for dinner (making burgers and fries) but before I get to that, I thought I would post the major NHL news of the day.

Daniel and Henrik Sedin have resigned with Vancouver for the 2005-2006 season. Though officially undisclosed, each is rumored to receive $1.2 million this season. That is a very good price for these guys and the Canucks better take advantage of it. After this season, I expect them to try and cash in on their play.

Jocelyn Thibault was traded by the Blackhawks to the Penguins today for a fourth round pick. The Pens defense is still shaky, but Thibault is a veteran who can backstop this team while Marc-Andre Fleury develops. I like the Pens making the playoffs if they can go get a stay at home D-man, but they have spent enough money as it is.

The Bruins are now offering Joe Thornton $6.5 million a season for the next five. He is crazy if he does not take this deal and if he doesn't, you know he wants to get the hell out of there. The Bruins are going to be cutting it very close on the cap space. With Axelson and Samsonov being resigned today, and Raycroft still needing a deal, they should just make it under the $39 million mark.

Speaking of big contracts, Marian Hossa of the Ottawa Senators wants to be paid $7 million a year. That's right: Hossa thinks he's worth as much to his team as Jarome Iginla. Now Hossa is a great player, don't get me wrong. I would be thrilled to have him on my team. But $7 million a season is unbelievable. The Sun is reporting he turned down $11.5 million over three years and as you can see by my post below, that is why he filed for arbitration.

Continuing with Senators news, Martin Havlat resigned with his club today. Though TSN takes their standard "terms of the deal was not disclosed" line (With McKenzie on vacation, is there any reporting going on there?) the contract comes out to $2.6 million for this year.

The Blue Jackets gave a one year contract to Jan Hrdina.

Jes Golbez seems to know a lot about the St. Louis Blues and has another post breaking down the team for this season. And Lindsey at In The Crease defends Osgood going back to the Wings.

Exactly eight weeks from now, we will all be watching the first NHL game of the season. That is so exciting and yet it seems so far away.

Arbitration

2005-08-10T18:29:00.000-04:00

Ah, the lovely process of arbitration. Where players try to suck as much money out of their teams as possible, and teams bash their own stars in the hopes of saving a million dollars. It's a fun time in the sports world. And this year, the eleven contestants are:

Dallas - Brendan Morrow
Edmonton - Shawn Horcoff
NY Islanders - Trent Hunter
NY Islanders - Justin Papineau
NY Islanders - Brent Sopel
NY Islanders - Mike York
Ottawa - Marian Hossa
Pittsburgh - Dick Tarnstrom
Pittsburgh - Josef Melichar
Phoenix - Paul Mara
Vancouver - Mattias Ohlund

The NHL Coming Back to ESPN?

2005-08-10T13:29:00.000-04:00

The Los Angeles Times (via Bloomberg News) is reporting that ESPN is now interested in broadcasting the NHL.

ESPN, which in April declined its $60-million option to telecast the NHL this season, is now interested in matching any deal the league makes for broadcast rights, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.

ESPN released a statement that said: "We have a matching right and remain interested in continuing our relationship with the NHL, as long as the deal is commensurate with the value of the rights being offered."

I'm not happy about this. ESPN doesn't want the NHL, but they might actually match the offer because they don't want a Comcast sports network getting off the ground. So if ESPN does match and the NHL eventually goes back to ESPN, the question is, will they do a better job of broadcasting the games? Probably not.

Cap Management

2005-08-09T13:10:00.000-04:00

Jes Golbez discuses a letter from Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and breaks down exactly how cap management should work. I read this post and knew I had to link to it. Check it out.

Our belief is that the new collective bargaining agreement will reward teams that draft well and have prospects stockpiled within their system. This summer, most of the unrestricted free agents are aged 31 and older, just as they were under the old CBA. Many 31-year-old players have already had their best years for another club. In signing such players teams are too frequently paying them for what they have already done for another club rather than what they will be doing for your club.

(snip)

It's just quite refreshing and interesting to hear an NHL team lay out their plan in such plain view with a dose of common sense. I can see why the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn't want to do anything like this (imagine the media and the fans ripping everything to shreds), but it pays for a small market/revenue team like the Caps to be more open and honest with their fanbase.

Where Is Datsyuk?

2005-08-09T10:56:00.000-04:00

Pavel Datsyuk may be considered the future of the Red Wings, but right now it's hard to tell if he will even be back in Detroit. Today, Datsyuk practiced with Dynamo, a Russian team. GM Ken Holland is in a tight spot. Datsyuk wants a lot of money (at least $4 million, some reports state close to $5 million) and the Wings also need to resign Henrik Zetterberg. Both are quality players and the Wings are not the same team without them. But if Holland throws money at these guys, the Wings are going to be in a tough cap position for the next couple of years.

Right now, the Wings have a little under $10 million dollars left to spend on 6-7 guys (they have 15 players signed). The Wings can get under the cap by signing Datsyuk, Zetterberg and then filling the rest of the roster out with close to minimum salary. But Holland won't give in and throw lavish amounts of money at these guys.

Sources: Detroit Free Press, Soviet Sport (no link). The Free Press article says the Wings are negotiating with Chris Osgood but he has actually signed with the club. One year deal for $900,000.

Player Pages: Datsyuk, Zetterberg

Details on Cable Deal

2005-08-09T09:55:00.000-04:00

Though this was on the blog over a week ago, more details are emerging on the cable deal with Comcast. This looks like a very nice deal for the league.

Comcast has formally submitted a two-year bid in excess of $100 million US to televise NHL games beginning this fall, sources directly involved in the discussions told the Inquirer in Tuesday's edition.

The deal calls for Comcast to televise two games a week nationally. The cable giant plans to put the games on its on its Outdoor Life Network, which is also available in Canada.

Two games a week isn't bad. According to the article, ESPN has the right to match this offer. But with Comcast putting up $100 million, I don't think there is any chance they will. I've said all along that Comcast was not my first choice because of how many less households get it. However, it looks like they are committed to taking on ESPN and putting hockey on their channel is a major component of that. That's great news for hockey fans.

The Ducks Are in Trouble

2005-08-08T13:31:00.000-04:00

Scott Niedermayer was a great signing for the Mighty Ducks because he is the kind of player that can transform a team, but the Ducks are in serious trouble. Anaheim already has over $32 million in salary tied up for the 2005-2006 season, and that is only for 12 players. They need to sign 9 or 10 more players and only have $6.9 million to do it with. That means most of those players will be making the league minimum.

It looks like the only option for the Ducks if they want to compete (two lines of league minimum players does not make a competitive team in the NHL) is they will have to trade someone. Sykora, at 28 (almost 29) years old and making $3.1 million is the most likely candidate to get moved. The last two years on the left coast, he has put up 59 and then 52 points. He actually notched 34 goals in that 59 point campaign of 2002-2003. He has very good speed and would be a welcome addition to most teams. It's not that the Ducks don't need him (because they certain do need his offensive ability), but Burke can get back some nice talent/prospects in return. And like I mentioned above, the Ducks are in serious cap trouble and they have to do something.

Gretzky Will Coach Coyotes

2005-08-07T17:49:00.000-04:00

This had been rumored along time ago, but now the AP is reporting that Wayne Gretzky will coach the Phoenix Coyotes. No one knows if he will be any good, but this is great public relations for the NHL and for the Coyotes. Even SportsCenter won't be able to resist.

No Olympics for NHL Players?

2005-08-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

Players from the National Hockey League might not go to the Olympics, as the Russians are staying stubborn and not changing their stance on the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has met with the leadership of Russias Professional Hockey League and clubs of the upper league but he was unable to convince them to ratify the agreement.

If the Russian GM's (and the Czechs) really don't ratify the agreement, that means NHL teams can take anyone under contract over there and sign them, without any compensation to their Russian club. It works both ways, but players are a lot less likely to bolt from the NHL than they are from the Russian leagues. This is a grave mistake on the part of the Russians.

Now why does this affect the Olympics? The compensation of players is only one part of the deal. Another part is allowing NHL players to play in IIHF sanctioned tournaments, such as the Olympics.

There is an article in the Dallas Morning News (stupid subscription required, but you might be able to get one read without it) in which Billy Daly says there could still be an agreement sometime this week. He also said that he "doesn't think" there will be a problem with the Olympics in the long term.

Eventually, this should get straightened out. The Russians want more money and don't want to back down just because Bettman came over there. But in the end, it is in their interest to get this deal done. I wonder what the NHL would do if they could not work something out; there is an awfully big gap in the middle of the schedule for the games in Italy.

Friday Night Rundown

2005-08-05T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Puck Stops Here has a nice listing (with links) to today's free agent signings. The biggest shocker for me is Kariya to the Predators. $4.5 million is a slight overpayment, but as I said in this post, small market teams can overpay now.

John at Boltsmag/RawLightning is happy that Khabibulin signed with Chicago.

Tom Benjamin goes off on Kevin Lowe.

Chris from Hockey Country pens an essay on the current free agent market. I thought I would spend a few minutes responding to it. I agree with almost everything he says, especially this.

Eventually, when/if all the big spending slows down, there will be a little less than 100 players looking for new homes. By then, with most teams having signed their restricted free agents, cap room will be at a minimum across the league. The choices available to players won't be what it was for those who signed this week. As a result, they'll have to take less money with teams they maybe wouldn't have looked at previously. Their market value will be irrelevant because it will be about finding a place to play.

But I don't agree with this next part.

One point that hasn't been given the emphasis I feel it should've is the fact that the salary cap is not set in stone. It will fluctuate based on league revenues. It's $39 million this year, but next summer, pending a miracle that allows the NHL to not take a hit financially this year, it will be lower. Giving out four and five year contracts, which seem to be the norm this off season, might not be intelligent considering we dont know where we're going to be. It's very possible a five year deal will be a financial albatross to a team in a few years, limiting what they can do when there are 26-year-old free agents available to them.

I don't like some of these crazy long term deals GM's are doing. Well, actually I do, because it will put the Rangers in a much better situation. But what needs to be remembered is that a percentage of each player's salary is being held in an escrow. So if the cap goes down, that money goes back to the owners instead of to the players. A player making $4 million a season could have that brought down to $3.4 million (though more realistically, in the $3.7 range).

Getting into a bidding war in this kind of market is crazy. The teams that wait will be in a better long term position. But the new CBA helps GM's because if the cap goes down, then the salaries on the teams automatically go down. The biggest thing is that everyone is trying to figure out how this system will play out and there are two camps. The first camp believes it is best to go out and sign big name free agents for too much money and if the cap goes down, then let their salaries go down as well. The second camp thinks that this market is out of whack and that things will come back to normal and then they will be in better position. I am (mostly) in the second camp, but there are a lot of smart minds out there signing big players to big deals. So we'll see what happens.

Khabibulin Going to Chicago

2005-08-05T13:14:00.000-04:00

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed free agent goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to a four year contract worth $6.75 million a year. Whoa. That's a lot of money but management has really given the team life this offseason. Their other additions have been Spacek, Lapointe and Aucoin. Now, I think the Hawks have been overpaying, but so have a lot of teams. And Khabibulin is an excellent goaltender who put up a 2.33GAA and .910 SV% in 2003-2004. This looks like the end of the line for Jocelyn Thibault in Chicago.

Jes Golbez thinks this is an awful signing for Chicago.

And this is a crushing blow to Tampa. John at Boltsmag/RawLightning said that Tampa was going to have to lose St. Louis, Vinny or Khabibulin. But in the new offense-first NHL, you need a great goalie to keep you in games. John Grahame is not bad, but he is no Khabibulin. To be fair to the Lightning, they would have been in awful cap position if they matched this offer. They just couldn't give him that kind of money. They had no choice but to let him go and even though they had no choice, it still hurts.

Update on the NHL-IIHF Transfer Deal

2005-08-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

Russian newspapers are reporting tonight that Gary Bettman has gone to Russia to discuss the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement. He is heading to the Czech Republic tomorrow. Both countries have voted against the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement. Read this post to learn more on the back-story.

Anyway, what is impressive is that Gary Bettman is not going over there to hold hands. He is basically telling these GM's that they can take the agreement or leave it, and if they leave it, the NHL will give these teams nothing, not honor Russian contracts and take the players into the NHL. Hopefully we will have an update soon on how this will play out.

Niedermayer to the Ducks

2005-08-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

The news of the day is Scott Niedermayer taking less money to join his brother in Anaheim. Niedermayer signed a four year deal worth $7 million a year, even though the Devils offered him a five year deal at $7.8 million per season. Niedermayer is worth that big contract he will be receiving from the Ducks, and this signing transforms their team.

In other news, check out Jes Golbez's post on why the Edmonton Oilers are "insane" for swapping York for Peca. And while we're linking to other blogs, Tom Benjamin is not happy with his Canucks.

I know I have a lot of visitors coming to my blog for the first time because of the link on AOL Sports. I just wanted to say welcome and please leave a comment if you have something to say. I love to hear what my readers think.

Five Questions To Ponder

2005-08-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

There was a lot of activity around the NHL today, and it left me pondering five questions.

Will the Flyers Win The Cup? The Flyers certainly have the raw talent to go all the way, if Carter and Richards live up to the hype. Forsberg is an amazing talent and should continue to excel. The problem is the Flyers overpaid for Hatcher, who I don't think will be very good this year. If the team doesn't click and a key player or two goes down, the Flyers will be going nowhere fast. On the other hand, if anyone can bring a team together, it's Ken Hitchcock. I'm trying to say people should not annoint the Flyers champions before they have a chance to play a game. I wouldn't put my money on them.
Is Jeremy Roenick the coolest player in the NHL? Roenick took a lot of flak for his comments as the lockout was winding down, but I've always liked him. He isn't afraid to say what's on his mind and in today's politically correct world, I respect that. I remember a few years ago seeing a video of him jokingly ribbing on a couple that was making out during warmups. I like that. Anway, the reason I bring this up is because he said this on his near certain departure because of the Forsberg signing. ''The Flyers have a better chance of winning the Stanley Cup with Peter Forsberg than with Jeremy Roenick." A lot of guys wouldn't have been able to say that. Good luck JR.
What happened with Mike Modano? TSN is reporting that Modano will finish his career in Dallas, as him and the Stars have reached an agreement. First, there were reports he was going to Boston. Then, he was staying in Dallas. But then all got quiet and it seemed Boston raised their offer. Modano's agent said he expected his client to play for less to stay in Dallas, but not $9 million less, and that is why he reconsidered Boston. But I guess Dallas raised their offer, but the final totals don't seem like they raised it that much. Confused? You're not the only one. I would love to hear the inside story of this some day; it sounds like an interesting tale.
What are the Canadiens doing? I thought Bob Gainey was a good GM. Montreal signed Alexei Kovalev to a contract worth $4.5 million over four years. Peter Forsberg got $5.7 million a year. That might be a slight discount to play for Philly. So say Gainey has to offer Forsberg $6.25-$6.4 million a year to lure him to Montreal. What team in their right mind would not pay an extra $1.5-$1.8 million to upgrade ffrom a Kovalev to a Forsberg. None. Or at least, none should.
Will Glen Sather ever learn? I think not. I know the Rangers are supposed to be in rebuilding mode, but they are going to have a payroll of less than $31 million if they keep this up. They have the money, why not spend it? Spending money doesn't have to mean benching young players. Good teams know how to have good veterans and a young core. That is how other teams win. But no, the Rangers can't do anything right. First, they overspend on veterans getting them nowhere. Now, they don't spend enough, especially given the fact that this year Jagr is only costing them $4.4 million. Straka for $3 million? Give me a break. He is as injury plagued as they come. Their only hope is to sign Paul Kariya because they need another impact player, but I doubt that will happen.

Early Morning Signings

2005-08-03T11:44:00.000-04:00

Three big names have signed deals this morning. Jarome Iginla is going to be a Flame for the next three years, at a price of $7 million a season. Gonchar signed on the dotted line in Pittsburgh, agreeing to a five year deal worth $25 million. And Markis Naslund will be earning $6 million a season for the next three, as a Canuck.

My quick take: Iginla deserves the money and this is a good deal for the Flames, on and off the ice. Iginla coming back + Amonte + McCarty, you've got to like their chances for another Cup appearance. Gonchar is probably overpaid at $5 million but the Pens are going to have a sick PP next year. Now they just need to keep the puck out of the net. And Naslund is worth every penny he got.

The big name players continue to earn, earn, earn. Soon, the money is going to run out and it's those marginal free agents that will be lucky to earn over a million dollars. If I was a free agent I would sign very soon.

The Pronger Trade

2005-08-03T08:41:00.000-04:00

The big news of the morning is obviously Chris Pronger being shipped to the Oilers for Eric Brewer, Doug Lynch and Jeff Woywitka. Pronger and the Oilers have agreed on a five year contract at $6.25 million per season.

This is a deal that works out well for both sides. The Oilers get an amazing defenseman who is truly an "impact player." They gave up some depth, but none of the three were ever going to come close to being a Chris Pronger. The Blues on the other hand get rid of a player they could never afford in the first place and pick up three defenseman. Lynch and Woywitka could be solid everyday blueliners and Brewer has already been to an All-Star game.

I'm sure there are Blues fans upset about the trade, but this is how a salary cap environment works. It will not always be this way where teams will give up a Pronger for this little, but the Blues were in awful cap position when this offseason started. It will hurt this year, but this is a great deal for the Blues.

The key to this deal is the contract extension the Oilers got from Pronger. If they only got him for one year, this deal would be useless. But Pronger is 30 and signing him to a five year deal is perfect for a player of his calibur. $6.25 million a season might be high for Edmonton but it's not a ridiculous price for Pronger. This is going to be an exciting NHL season.

Edit: (1:01PM) - Removed the Edmonton Sun link, as it stated the deal was for $6 million per, when it is really $6.25.

Are GM's Really Overspending?

2005-08-02T22:07:00.000-04:00

Today was a busy day in the NHL, with 25 players inking contracts. Sportsnet and TSN both have daily transaction lists. With almost every signing, someone (sometimes including myself) says the team overpaid. So I was wondering, what exactly is overpaying, which teams can overpay, and who has overpaid so far?

Overpaying is giving someone more money than they are worth. Seems simple, right? But it's not. The Blackhawks paid Adrian Aucoin $4 million a year and Columbus gave Adam Foote $4.6 million a season. Most people believe that these players got more than their market value, which is probably true. But the Panthers and the Blue Jackets did not overpay. Why? Because they were not going to spend the cap anyway.

These two teams are going to add some money to their payrolls this season, but will not approach the $39 million mark. So if Columbus got Foote to sign for $3.8 million (which most people would consider a fair price for a good D-man) then they would have saved $800,000. But that would not mean much. If they planned the team exactly the same, all that would happen is the money would line the owners pockets. If they spend that $800,000, they could pick up a fringe player, or upgrade a 4th liner to a 3rd liner. The difference is negligible. But by paying a little more than market value, they secure the player they want. They don't have to worry about good free agents passing them by because they went out of their way to lure a good player to a club that has never made the playoffs. The overpaying is much more beneficial than if they played it cheap and Foote said no.

The teams that need to worry about overspending are the Rangers, Flyers, Red Wings, Avalanche, etc. These teams will spend up to $39 million and while an extra $500,000 to secure the player you want is not much, by giving away a million here and a million there where it's not needed, it could be deadly for the team.

Jes Does a FA Rundown

2005-08-02T12:33:00.000-04:00

I don't have time this afternoon to post all my thoughts on the free agent signings of the past 24 hours, but Jes Golbez has a good rundown of the signings and what he thinks about them. I like Jes' blog and suggest you check out this post. I'll have my own thoughts up tonight.

Modano and Hatcher Signed?

2005-08-02T09:22:00.000-04:00

Two rumors that seem to be confirmed this morning are coming out of the Canadian press (as usual, the American press coverage of hockey is so awful). Sportsnet is reporting that the Flyers have signed Derian Hatcher, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien. Then RDS is reporting (but I'm linking to TSN because I cannot read French) that Mike Modano will probably sign with the Boston Bruins this afternoon. I'll post more details if/when the teams announce these signings and when financial terms are released.

Update: 10:38PM - It seemed the Modano to Boston deal was dead and that everyone in the Dallas front office was celebrating Mike's return. But now I am hearing that everything has gone quiet in Dallas, and it could be because Boston has raised their offer. This is all rumor still. Stay tuned.

Foote to Columbus

2005-08-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

Well this is a big signing that is out of left field. Defenseman Adam Foote signed with Columbus late last night/early this morning, receiving a three year contract worth $4.5 million a year. The Blue Jackets have had problems on the blue line and Foote is a great defensive defenseman.

This is about the right price for a defenseman of Foote's caliber. If you think the Blue Jackets paid too much, (which I really think they didn't) there are two things to consider. One) Great players will continue to get very nice paychecks in the new NHL. Two) The spending is now spread out around the league.

Does this make Columbus contenders? Not yet. They have a great young core and Rich Nash is someone I'd pay to see, but they still have some other pieces to add. We'll have to see how the rest of the offseason goes for them. But overall, excellent signing for the Blue Jackets. This is exactly what they needed.

Why MLB.com Is Great and NHL.com Is Not

2005-08-01T23:11:00.000-04:00

If you have never been to MLB.com then you really need to check it out. It is not just the best site run by a sports league, it is one of the best sports webpages on the internet, period. The fact that I can get live TV/radio of nearly every game is something I long for with hockey. But there is a lot of stuff under the surface too. I can access video of every triple Ichiro has hit this year on the road. Or every double play he has hit into. Now of course this is because the sport of baseball naturally lends itself to these kinds of features, but it is also because Major League Baseball tries hard to make its online presence work. MLB.com is actually run by MLB Advanced Media, a separate company devoted solely to the website and establishing baseball on the internet.

The reason I bring this up tonight is because Barry Bonds has said that he will not be returning to the field this season. Did he tell it to ESPN? Fox Sports? The Giants? No. Only to MLB.com. That is where he went to tell the news. MLB.com tries to draw fans in, and is not just one big commercial for the league. When I want to get news on hockey do I go to NHL.com? Of course not. I go to TSN. If I want news on baseball, I go straight to MLB.com. The NHL would be wise to learn some lessons from Major League Baseball.

Carlyle Named Ducks New Coach

2005-08-01T18:41:00.000-04:00

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks named Randy Carlyle their new coach. The wire piece leads with the fact that Carlyle won a Norris, but his 222-159-52-7 record over the past five seasons as a minor league coach is more important.

``As a team, we will be marked by aggressive play and an uptempo, offensive-minded system,'' Carlyle said in the team statement.

This is nothing but good news for Ducks fans.

Is the NHL-IIHF Transfer Deal Dead?

2005-08-01T09:08:00.000-04:00

There are reports coming out of Russia this morning that all the GM's of the Russian Superleague voted against the NHL-IIHF Transfer Agreement. This deal was reported done by TSN and many other sources over a week ago. Now, there could be a problem with players that belong to NHL clubs but also are under contract for next season with a club in Europe. I'm not sure exactly how all this will play out or what the actual impact will be, but I will update this post throughout the day.

Update (4:44PM) - The deal is not completely dead. The Russian GM's did vote against the agreement but the IIHF is still trying to figure out how to smooth this all out. Hopefully it will be worked out soon, but this is a major snag for teams wanting their European players for the upcoming season.

Update (6:03PM) - We finally have a wire piece on the story. Just for the record, I used the word "snag" in my update above before I read the article.

Zubov Heading Back to Dallas

2005-07-31T23:24:00.000-04:00

Sergei Zubov resigned with Dallas for $12 million over three years, a day before he was to become an unrestricted free agent. Zubov will always have a special place in my heart for how well he played during the Rangers Cup run of 1994, and he has been a very solid blueliner ever since. I was thinking he would go for around $3.5 million, so the Stars did not overpay much by bringing him back for $4 mil.

Even though we will probably not be in store for too much action tomorrow, once the free agent signings really get rolling I will not be putting them in a player per post like this. If I did, the blog would just be overflowing.

Player Page for Zubov.

Thornton and Samsonov Qualified

2005-07-31T15:45:00.000-04:00

The Bruins extended qualifying offers to Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov and eleven other players just a few hours before the deadline. Why did the Bruins give Thornton a qualifying offer when they just offered him a five year contract a few days ago?

Here's how it works. Joe Thornton did not accept the five-year deal, but the Bruins want him back. So they give him a qualifying offer. Thornton does not have to accept this, but if he tries to sign with another team, the Bruins have the right to match the offer. If they do not, they get compensation, in the form of draft picks.

What does this all mean in practical terms? It looks like Joe Thornton will be heading back to the Bruins for another year. They will not let him get away unless some team offers him $7+ million, which they won't. He will have one last year in Boston and then will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Looks Like It's OLN/Comcast

2005-07-31T14:00:00.000-04:00

The Boston Globe is reporting that the NHL and Comcast have agreed to terms on a cable package. The OLN will be revamped into a sports network to take on ESPN.

The first piece of the puzzle to achieve all-sports legitimacy would be to acquire the NHL's national rights. Indications are that such a deal is in place and waiting to be announced this week, once the NHL finishes anointing Sidney Crosby as its savior during this weekend's draft festivities in Ottawa.

I have been against OLN from the beginning, because I don't even know what channel it is on my TV. In addition, it is in a lot less households than ESPN, TNT and Spike. But, if OLN revamps itself from just the Tour de France to a true competitor to ESPN, that will be great. I don't think ESPN is as bad as some other writers do, but it has become a competition network instead of a sports network. Eating is not a sport. Period. End of discussion.

If OLN gives the NHL top billing and shows a lot of games, that would be great. I'm not excited about this deal but I feel I might have been too quick to judge OLN. (In my defense, I did not realize Comcast would be revamping OLN into an ESPN competitor.) If Comcast does this right, it could be great for the NHL. I just hope people remember what number channel the games are on.

Thanks to HockeyCountry for the heads up. And I have to link to BoltsMag, as John originally said that Comcast was the dark horse when I was writing them off.

Five Favorite (Live) Games of All-Time

2005-07-31T10:12:00.000-04:00

It is the day before free agency starts and also my birthday, so I thought it would be a nice time to post about the five greatest games I've attended.

5. USA v. Canada - Bell Centre - Montreal, CA - August 31, 2004: Last year I drove up from New York City to Montreal to see two World Cup games. The World Cup is such an exciting event because it is the best players in the world and it is solely devoted to our favorite sport. The game was a low scoring affair, but it was so fast. I sat on the end where Canada shot twice, resulting in lots of action because Esche was getting pounded (but looking brilliant), and finished the game with 30 saves. I wore my blue USA jersey (which I absolutely love) to the game which meant plenty of ribbing from the Canadian faithful, but that made the game even more fun. I also got to stand and watch Pierre McGuire and Bob McKenzie do the pre-game show outside, which was pretty cool.

4. Wild v. Rangers - Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - February 4, 2004: Why is #4 a meaningless regular season game between the Wild and the Rangers? On February 4, Mike Richter became the third Ranger to have his number retired. The game was boring except for a sweet goal by Gaborik but the festivities were something to remember. Richter is such a classy guy and the Rangers brought back old favorites such as Adam Graves for the event. When they showed highlights of Richter and his penalty shot save against Bure in the finals, the crowd went nuts. I still have the giveaways from that night, including a mini-Richter banner.

3. Penguins v. Rangers - Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - April 18, 1999: Gretzky's last game ever played. I don't remember much about this one, even though the two games below this were five years earlier. I do remember there being a buzz in the Garden, as everyone knew they were seeing history. As Gretzky notched his last assist ever as the greatest player to ever live, it was exciting yet sad. My biggest regret as a baseball fan is that I did not get to see Sandy Koufax pitch and it's sad that when I have kids, I am going to need to describe them what Gretzky was like and how he dominated the sport. They will never get to see him live and that was the saddest part about that game. It was a fitting end when Jagr, another amazing hockey player (and my favorite at the time) scored to end the game. Every player (on both teams) shook Gretzky's hand after Jagr's goal. You just don't see that in other sports. No one wanted to leave the arena. Gretzky just kept skating around waving, but no one could stop cheering and go home. No one wanted to make that game a memory.

2. Devils v. Rangers - Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - May 27, 1994: Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals was heart breaking and then crazy. The Rangers took the lead on a first period goal by none other than Conn Smythe winner Brian Leetch. And that was it. That was the scoring. The crowd was going crazy. We all thought we were heading to the finals. And then with 7.7 seconds left, the Devils tied it. I had never heard someplace so loud get so quiet in my life. Everyone was stunned. It was a 1-0 game until 7.7 seconds left and then the Devils had to score. We hated the Devils. I remember Richter being so mad (because the puck was sort of under his pad and the Devils jammed it in from under the pad, and Richter wanted a whistle) that he skated right up to the ref and pinned him against the boards, arguing in his face. He looked like Lou Pinella he was so going nuts. Twenty minutes of overtime passed. I had never been to a double OT game before. What is incredible is that game was actually the third double OT game of the series. Not just third OT, third double OT in a seven game series. When Matteau came behind the net to slip the puck by the miniscule amount of room between Brodeur's pad and the post, the Garden went crazy. 54 years of no Stanley Cup and the Rangers were back in the Finals. I'm getting chills just writing this post. Oh, and you have to check out this small audio clip of Howie Rose announcing the last ten seconds of the game, it's the most famous radio call in Ranger history.

1. Canucks v. Rangers - Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - June 14, 1994: I was at the game when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, so it has to go here at #1. There was an excitement in the Garden during that playoff run and that game. Something I have not seen replicated since then: When John Amarante was doing the national anthem (like he did every game), you could not hear a word. From the very beginning to the very end, fans were yelling at the top of their lungs so you could not hear a word. When I see the game on Rangers Classics, even on TV you cannot hear a word of the national anthem. It was that loud. "We Want the Cup!" was a popular chant that year. And when they finally won, people started screaming "Nineteen-Forty!" because that is what Islanders fans used to always taunt us with. It was incredible. Leetch won the Conn Smythe, which he deserved. It was, the most memorable game I have ever been too. I remember walking with my father outside after (he was with me at Game #2 on this list as well) and fans were in the streets going crazy, but in a good way. The nice part about that celebration is the NYPD reported the next day that not one single crime happened that night related to the Rangers. (The same could not be said about Vancouver.) What a night.

Anyway, I hope you had as much fun reading my top 5 as I did writing it. I'd like to dedicate this post to my father who is not with us anymore. Thank you for being a good dad and having season tickets to the Rangers and taking me to every single home playoff game in 1994 (and two road ones as well). I love the time we spent together enjoying this great sport.

Also, if any bloggers want to do a list of their own, post it on your site and I'll put a link to it. And readers, please post in the comments your favorite games of all-time that you have attended.

Price to Montreal

2005-07-30T12:42:00.000-04:00

Habs fans are furious over this pick. Even the guys on TSN, who are trying to be nice, are calling this a bad pick. Here are Carey Price's numbers.

Columbus took who Montreal should have: Gilbert Brule. They must be excited that he fell into their laps.

Draft Info

2005-07-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

James Mirtle has put together a great compilation of draft previews and information over at his blog. I highly suggest you check it out.

What is Rebuilding?

2005-07-30T08:45:00.000-04:00

With the NHL draft just a few hours away, I thought I would fire off a quick post on rebuilding. As we all know, teams rebuild when they do not have the talent to make a serious run at the playoffs. They just know it's not going to happen and they build a core of inexpensive youth so that when the time comes, they can add a key player and be a competitive team. During the rebuilding process, the team's record is not supposed to matter.

But is there room for serious rebuilding in the NHL anymore? And should there be? And if a team rebuilds, what definition of rebuilding should they use?

I think the philosophy that a team should not spend a lot of money, just stock tons of youth and hope they don't embarrass themselves is something no team needs to do under this CBA. Why? Because a rookie is now making $450,000 and Sandis Ozolinsh, a quality player, just signed for a little over $2 million. Because when this is all said and done, when this crazy offseason is over, quality players will be had for an inexpensive price tag. And for a team that has the financial resources to spend $30 million, is it really too much to say, "We want to build a young core of inexpensive youth so that when we can make a serious run for the Cup we are in great position, but let's have a solid four, five or six players, veterans that can win and put the puck in the net." If you have a young core that is not much on their own, but surround them with a few veterans making a couple million bucks a piece (and maybe one guy making $4 million) then you are putting yourself in a position to win, while still giving half the team a chance to learn and grow at the NHL level.

I am a New York Ranger fan and the talk around town is throwing away this season, and I believe that is completely unacceptable. The Rangers can spend money and with so many FA's on the market, why not get a couple very good players to complement Jagr, add a veteran D-man for not too much money and let the youth grow. At the worst, the young guys learn something and get better. At the best, everything clicks and they make a serious run at a playoff spot.

Today, the New York Daily News is reporting that Naslund and Forsberg both want to come to Broadway. Now, you can talk about rebuilding all you want, bus assuming these guys don't ask for a ridiculous amount of money, can you really say no to that kind of talent? Of course not.

Some say that next year's free agent class is so good that teams need to be in a good cap position then, and that means not signing big players. I agree, there are going to be some excellent free agents out there. But there are some great FA's this year too, and there is a ton of depth on the free agent market. Also, teams can front load a contract. If they want to sign a player for $3 million a year over two years, they can pay him $5 million this year and $1 million next year. If the team isn't going to spend the cap this year, it leaves them an extra $2 million in cap room for next season.

This is relevant for a lot of teams. Rebuilding is good. Young core is good. Throwing away the season should not be an option in this new NHL.

Nolan, Holik and Ozolinsh

2005-07-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Things continue to heat up between Owen Nolan and the Maple Leafs. The Leafs have actually decided not to buy him out. They believe his injury is not hockey related and therefore owe him nothing.

As far as the Leafs are concerned, the knee injury that led to Nolan's surgery earlier this week was not a hockey-related one and so the option Nolan had for another season on his contract is void. They believe, and they reportedly have the backing of the NHL, that Nolan has no right to exercise the option for $5.6 million (all figures U.S.) in 2005-06. According to several sources, the Leafs believe they are off the hook for the contract and are prepared to allow Nolan to become an unrestricted free agent Monday without buying him out for the two-thirds of this season's salary.

I'm sure Nolan and the NHLPA will have something to say about that.

In other news, Bobby Holik was bought out by the Rangers today, as everyone predicted.

Sandis Ozolinsh is heading back to the Ducks, with GM Brian Burke giving the defenseman a two year deal. It's reported he signed for a little over $2 million a season. That is a good deal for both parties involved. If he stays healthy, the Ducks paid a reasonable amount for a perennial all-star. On the other hand, Ozolinsh got some decent change considering he is coming off an injury plagued season.

Eastern Conference Notes

2005-07-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

I planned on getting a story from every team in the NHL tonight and putting it up in a giant post, but it's getting late here on the east and I'm tired. So here is a recap of what's going on in the Eastern Conference, and I will try to get to the Western Conference tomorrow afternoon.

Atlanta Thrashers: The Thrashers declined the option on Shawn McEachern.

Boston Bruins: The big question is, “What is going to happen with Joe Thornton?” The Bruins offered him a five year, $25 million contract and he has stated that he is unhappy with this. The conventional wisdom seems to be Joe will sign a one year qualifying offer with the Bruins and swing for the fences next year. I still don’t believe he will be able to get over $6 million on the open market next year. That is a ton of money in the new salary cap environment.

Buffalo Sabres: Miroslav Satan, a restricted free agent, will not be signed by the team for next season.

Carolina Hurricanes: Nothing is going on. Seriously.

Florida Panthers: It looks like the Panthers are going to go after some major free agents, as they plan spending $30 million this season. Big D-man Mathieu Biron was placed on waivers and will be bought out.

Montreal Canadiens: Jose Theodore was given a $4.6 million qualifying offer to stay in Montreal. He will not command that kind of money on the open market. The Habs were required to offer him that much and while it is a bit overpaying for Theodore’s skills, he has been very solid in net.

New Jersey Devils: Patrick Elias, Jeff Friesen and Scott Gomez were given qualifying offers. Devils fans think Friesen will excel without the red line. Elias is injured and will not ready in November, at the absolute earliest. He had this to say, “With my health issue, Lou [Lamoriello, Devils GM] could've waited," Elias told the Star-Ledger. "Lou didn't have to do that at all. I appreciate it.”

New York Islanders: The Isles have said they want to spend in the mid $30 million range, but their team looks to be very similar to the 2003-2004 team, and that is not a good thing. The Isles need to bring in a couple quick FA’s up front to be more competitive.

New York Rangers: The Rangers signed Michigan goaltender Al Montoya and he will probably split time in the AHL with Ranger prospect Henrik Lundqvist.

Ottawa Senators: It was originally reported that Dominik Hasek’s option was picked up for $2.28 million, but it is actually $1.52 million. That is a great deal for the Sens. Also, Hasek is due some major bonuses if the Senators win the Cup, but those bonuses will not count against the cap. These kind of bonuses (and not counting against the Cap) will not be possible in the future, but things have to be grandfathered in with the new CBA.

Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Modano has said he would be open to going to Philadelphia, since he loved playing under Ken Hitchcock. The Flyers have depth down the middle but no one is going to turn down Modano for the right price. He is a competitor, a solid center with one bad year last season, and did very well under Hitchcock.

Pittsburgh Penguins: The Pens have sold over 3,500 season ticket plans in the past week. I wonder who caused that?

Tampa Bay Lightning: Goalie prospect Gerald Coleman was signed to a three year deal.

Toronto Maple Leafs: It seemed Brian Leetch wanted to stay in Toronto, but now it looks like he will be heading out and possibly back to New York.

Washington Capitals: Time was running out for the Caps to sign 2003 first rounder Eric Fehr. So they signed him today to a three year deal.

Who is Jack Johnson?

2005-07-28T15:32:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite players of all-time is long time Ranger and great American defenseman Brian Leetch. While a different type of player, Jack Johnson hopes to replicate Leetch's success in the NHL. There has not been much talk about Johnson, which is why I'm glad to see Scott Burnside's piece on ESPN today on the young D-man.

But within the great shadow cast by the Canadian phenom, there are players whose NHL futures are every bit as rosy as Crosby's. One of them is American defenseman Jack Johnson, who has been a close friend of Crosby's since the two were young high schoolers in Minnesota and who has been visiting Crosby in his hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, leading up to the draft.

Do the two of them get recognized when they're at the local Tim Hortons coffee shop?

Johnson laughs.

"Everywhere we go, stopping in at Tim's to get a coffee, someone's always stopping him to ask for his autograph," he said. "I'm just the guy next to him."

Check it out if you want to learn more about the young man who should go #2 overall on Saturday.

26 Hours of Buyouts To Go

2005-07-28T15:05:00.000-04:00

Buyouts will end at 5PM EST tomorrow and we have barely seen any players given a big check and sent on their way. There are two reasons for this. As I previously mentioned, there is no need for teams to give other teams an advantage by knowing what other unrestricted free agents will be on the market. Buying out someone at the last possible second does no harm to the team getting rid of the player. Also, there just will not be many buyouts. Most GM's and owners feel that buying out a player is a waste of money.

But as a sign to everyone that there will be more buyouts, the Rangers have not even bought out Bobby Holik yet, a transaction that is a near certainty. So I do think we will see at least a little activity tomorrow.

I'm excited for Monday, when we will start to see teams fill out their rosters by signing restricted and unrestricted free agents. Where will Naslund, Forsberg, Kariya, Demitra, Kovy, Niedermayer go?

Until then, there just isn't as much news as I had hoped for. There are a few signings here, a few contract offers there, but nothing major or sustained. And no, I don't consider Goodenow stepping down as big of a deal as everyone else. The leadership of the NHLPA will matter in four years. Until then, I just want to see hockey.

NHL Going Back to Four Divisions?

2005-07-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the NHL is considering a return to four divisions, and teams would have to play teams within the division for the first two rounds of the playoffs.

"When I first brought it up to [Commissioner Gary Bettman] he assured me it would be addressed after the collective bargaining agreement was done," the Hawks' senior vice president said at a Monday news conference announcing broad league and team changes.

A league spokesman declined comment on any potential changes to the playoff format, but word around the league is the change could happen as early as next season.

I just don't know enough about this yet to have an opinion on the matter. My biggest question is this: Would it leave any room in the schedule to play teams from the other conference? Also, this schedule would be unbalanced because two divisions would have eight teams and two divisions seven teams. How will that affect scheduling?

Thanks to Kukla's Korner (with a K) for the link.

Also, make sure to check out Off Wing's excellent Rink Notes post from yesterday. And Bob McKenzie points out how the Flyers took a hard-line stance with Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, saving some serious money, setting a precedent and putting themselves in great cap position.

And did anyone else notice in the schedule that the Wings-Hawks play each other three games in a row? That's just weird.

Blues Qualify Pronger

2005-07-27T19:13:00.000-04:00

TSN is reporting that the St. Louis Blues have given a qualifying offer to Chris Pronger. Now, Pronger is an excellent player that every team should want. But the Blues simply do not have any room for this. There is no way they can be competitive with Pronger, Tkachuk and Weight. They have also publicly stated that they will only spend around $30 million.

Now, this does not mean Pronger is going to the Blues. But it does mean that they have the right to match any offer he is given.

Here is an excellent post by Jes Golbez on the future of the Blues.

Jagr Must Play in NHL. Bruins Make Offers

2005-07-27T09:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I posted that Ranger winger Jaromir Jagr told the papers he was torn between staying in Russia and returning to the NHL. It looks like he will not have any choice in the matter.

However, under the terms of the transfer agreement between the NHL and International Ice Hockey Federation that governs the movement of players, Jagr simply cannot play for any pro team other than the Rangers for the duration of his contract, which runs through the 2007-08 season.

Now us Ranger fans need to hope that Jagr does not get cranky because he has to return to New York.

In other news, the Bruins made offers today to Thornton, Gonchar, Samsonov, Axelsson and Lapointe. Thornton was offered a five year deal. Now, I believe Joe is a first line center on any team in the league and the Bruins need him back. But despite his just turning 26, I think a team locking themselves into a five year deal right off the bat with this new CBA is foolish. Having said that, Thornton through his prime will help the club tremendously.

Furthur Reading: Player Pages for Thornton, Gonchar, Samsonov, Axelsson, Lapointe, and Jagr

Update (10:52PM) - TSN is reporting that the offer for Joe Thornton is "around" $25 million for five years. Thornton is not happy with the offer, though I don't think it's that bad. $5 million is a lot of money, it allows the Bruins to get other good players, and very few players can and should command $6+ million. If Joe went to the Rangers next year, they would probably pay him that kind of money.

Bill Wirtz and The Chicago Blackhawks

2005-07-27T08:35:00.000-04:00

Now that the NHL has resolved the lockout and changed the rules, Gary Bettman and the owners in the league must deal with the biggest problem left in hockey: Bill Wirtz. Wirtz is the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, an original 6 franchise that should be in danger of being relocated. Wirtz will never let them leave Chicago, but he does not care about the fans and is killing the sport of hockey in one of the biggest markets in the United States.

How would you like it if you could not see half of your team's games on television? If every time your team was at home, you had to listen on the radio, go to a bar, or get NHL Center Ice and hope that the other team's broadcast was on that night? That is a reality for fans in Chicago. Bill Wirtz does not care about the fans and believes (or says he believes) that by putting the team on TV, fans will have less incentive to come down to the arena. Well, it looks like Bill's line of reasoning is incorrect. The Hawks were 27th in home attendance last season, averaging only 13,253 fans a game.

This great franchise that has retired the numbers of Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito is dying because of Bill Wirtz. It's hard to watch them on television, no one is coming down to the stadium, and with the Bulls being good again, the Hawks are just not part of the Chicago mind set anymore during the winter months. I read hockey forums and on them, the Blackhawks section is probably the most quiet out of any section. The Hawks fans that love the team are loyal, but Wirtz has just alienated too many people.

Hawks fans hate Wirtz with a passion, and they have every reason too. Gary Bettman and the other owners need to do something to force the Blackhawks onto television for every game this season. The NHL is back, and if they want to make money again and bring back fans, they need to revive the great sports market of Chicago.

Lunch Time Roundup

2005-07-26T13:25:00.000-04:00

The St. Louis Blues will not be buying out any players this off season. Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk were buyout candidates because they will be making $13.5 million between the two of them. They now have 13 players signed for $24.1 million, which does not include Pronger. With the Blues saying they will only be spending around $30 million, Pronger will have to go. I don't see how the Blues can repeat their success from last year.

The Washington Capitals will not spend more than $25 million this year. They are going to have a rough year, though in fairness to the Caps, they still have a little money to get a good free agent or two. But is that enough to solve their problems? I don't think so. If the Caps spent $30-$32 million, they could ice a very good team. But with less than $25 million and a lot of money tied up in Kolzig, it's not going to happen for them this year.

It looks like Scott Niedermayer will test the free agent market and expects to receive close to the max salary of $7.8 million. He has expressed a willingness to play in Vancouver. I don't think the Canucks have the cap room to afford him, but he is an excellent player. If a team has the room they should go after Niedermayer, they should. He is the best D-man in the league; but in the new financial environment, I think $7.8 million is too much on one player.

Jagr Might Stay in Russia

2005-07-26T09:35:00.000-04:00

The New York Times is reporting that Jagr is unhappy and considering staying in Russia.

`It's complicated. I want to hear the opinions of both clubs. It should be solved within three weeks,'' Jagr told the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes adding money was not the main factor in making a decision.
``My heart is pulling me toward Omsk but reason is making me lean toward (New York) ... I really liked it in both places.''

With Jagr, the Rangers need more offensive talent and someone else who can put the puck in the net. Without Jagr, the team is barren of playmakers. If he stays in Russia, expect Sather to heavily pursue a couple of big name players such as Naslund or Forsberg.

Tom Benjamin's Negativity

2005-07-25T18:29:00.000-04:00

Tom Benjamin over at Canucks Corner is a great blogger who is very popular. This post is not to say that I don't enjoy reading his blog. But he has two negative posts today that I feel the need to respond to. The first is on the shootout.

You are Oilers coach Craig Mactavish, tied playing in Philadelphia with 15 minutes left in the 3rd period. A win in regulation is worth 2 points, a loss zero. A tie at the end of regulation is worth 1.5 points, because half the time you'll get 1 point, and half the time you'll get 2.

Under the previous system, you could assign a value to Tie At End Of Regulation as about 1.2 - 40% or so of OT games ended with a goal, and you could expect that to be your team's goal about half the time.

The new system makes "surviving regulation time" that much more lucrative - instead of winning the 2nd point about one in five times, now you'll win it about one in two times.

Note: This is actually quoting Matt Fenwick's blog but Tom responds to this quote and this is the most interesting part of the post.

I find two problems with this line of thinking. First, it will not be a 50-50 chance for every team to win the shootout. Some teams will be better at shootouts and their opponents will try to avoid overtime. Second, we don't know what the NHL will look like with the new rules. I think more scoring will lead to less ties and we don't know how well teams will be able to play defensively to get into OT.

Without the two line pass and (hopefully) a lot less obstruction, the trap will be harder to implement. If teams drop back too much to cover the long pass, the opposing teams will be able to gain a lot more steam through the neutral zone and can break in for a scoring chance. This is different than in the old NHL because teams will not be able to slow down fast moving players through the zone as easily. Also (and this is a very big deal) teams will not be able to make a line change after they ice the puck. So if a team is just playing for the tie and are trying to escape an attack in their zone, they can't fire the puck down and get fresh legs on the ice.

I think with the new rules teams will need to have a good offense to hold a lead. According to JD, the NHL is actually serious this time about cracking down obstruction and without the clutch and grab, big pads and being able to change after an icing, the only way to keep a team out of your zone will be to put pressure on them.

I would like to add that Matt writes this after talking about the increased incentive to get into OT:

As I noted, I don't like to be a complainer, so I have a proposed solution.

The NHL has decided that they don't care if every game is worth the same number of points (e.g. 2). So instead of making OT/SO games 3-point games, make them 1-point games.

This is a new and interesting twist on things, and it's not one that I agree with, but thinking outside of the box is always good. I am still in the camp that if you play 60 minutes of hockey and are tied, you deserve a point. I think a 3 points for a regulation victory, 2 points for an OT/shootout victory, 1 point for an OT/shootout loss is a good system and one the NHL will consider in the future. The NHL has made a ton of changes: we should give it a year to see how it all plays out. I might be wrong and Tom/Matt might be right, but with so many changes, we can give it a little time.

I said Tom made two negative posts and I spent all this time on shootouts and overtime. The second post is about restricted free agents and compensation. Here is what Tom writes:

I never thought draft picks were worth anywhere near what conventional wisdom says they were worth under the old CBA, and I don't think they are worth squat in Gary Bettman's hockey league. I am certainly willing to spend all my draft picks on restricted free agents.

Would someone explain the draft hype around Sidney Crosby? In three years, he can be had for a whack of money and four first round picks. The Penguins got Sidney Crosby for three years. Then they get the right to match the salary any other team is prepared to pay him for four years. Then he is an unrestricted free agent. Pittsburgh won the lottery. Big fricking deal.

It's a good thing most fans claim they cheer for the laundry because that's about all we can expect to see staying constant from year to year. Why don't they just let the general managers draft a roster every year? Call it the Gary Bettman Rotissiere Hockey league.

Well it is a big deal. Draft picks might not be the holy grail but they are still important. If a team does not develop young players that can contribute, they will end up like my New York Rangers. (Note: The Rangers actually have a pretty good system, but in recent years they used too many bought players and not enough of a home-grown core. That is going to change now.)

First, regarding the Penguins, they will match anything a team offers Crosby, even if it drives their payroll up a million dollars more than they would like. Second, players can sign deals with clubs and not let other teams bid on their services. (Some players do want to stay where they are)

Third, in a salary cap environment, teams cannot just offer huge contracts to RFA's for the fun of it. If the team matches that offer, then great, you hamstrung your opponent just a little bit. But if they don't, you get stuck footing the bill and making your team worse. You overpaid for a star meaning you have less to spend on the rest of the team AND you lose several draft picks. Draft picks build a farm system and a young core of players. Teams can go after some RFA's but they might end up where they barely have any picks left and/or they inflated the market value for players, making their team worse in the long haul. In a salary cap environment, not overspending on a RFA is even more important, not less important.

I wasn't even going to respond to the shootout post, but when Tom said that drafting Crosby is no big deal, I had to write something. Note: I want to remind my readers that Tom and Matt have good blogs that I enjoy reading, but Tom seems very negative about the new NHL. Hockey is back after a whole year off and people are complaining already, before they even get a chance to see how it will all play out. I truly believe things are looking better than ever for the NHL.

And please, leave a comment if you agree/disagree. I love to hear the other side of an argument.

Schedule Wednesday at Noon

2005-07-25T17:47:00.000-04:00

From the NHL's website:

The 2005-2006 NHL Schedule will be released exclusively on NHL.com at Noon ET, Wednesday July 27. Check back then!

Guess what I previously reported (from the Hockey News) was incorrect.

Coyotes Round Up: Savage Gone, Pang In

2005-07-25T12:15:00.000-04:00

Brian Savage has been bought out by the Coyotes. Last year he had 32 points in 74 games and a -8.

Darren Pang is leaving ESPN to do color commentary for the Coyotes.

The Coyotes will not be hosting the All-Star game this year because of the Olympics, but they are looking to secure the '09 game.

Burke: Expect Few Buyouts

2005-07-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

Most people including myself have been looking at buyouts in terms of the salary cap. But there is something we have not looked at close enough: cash. That is why Ducks GM Brian Burke says:

"That is not a prudent use of our season-ticket holders' money," Ducks general manager Brian Burke said. "From talking to other managers, I think you will only see a handful of buyouts (league-wide)."

That came one paragraph after this:

Even with the across- the-board, 24 percent reduction in existing contracts mandated by the new CBA, the Mighty Ducks are on the hook to pay center Sergei Fedorov $6.08 million, goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere $3.99 million, right wing Petr Sykora $3.116 million, and center Steve Rucchin and defenseman Keith Carney more than $2 million apiece in 2005-06. None should expect to be bought out.

That would be a lot of money for the Ducks to spend to free up cap space. I continue to think there will be a number of buyouts, but probably less than I originally predicted. The free agency period will still be very exciting.

Source: San Jose Mercury News (Registration Required, which is annoying. There isn't anything else good in that article anyway.)

Bringing Crosby Expectations Back to Earth

2005-07-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

James Mirtle has a good post over at his blog about keeping our expectations realistic for Sidney Crosby.

At 5-foot-11, Crosby's not going to overpower any of the defensemen in the NHL. Granted, his speed, athleticism and the physical power of his lower body will do wonders as a rookie, but keep in mind that he's not Eric Lindros, a behemoth who can push his way into scoring position.

I'm hyped about this kid too but James is right; if we start expecting 100 point seasons at 18, we are only setting ourselves up to be disappointed.

Silence, Rumors and Scarlett Johansson

2005-07-24T16:40:00.000-04:00

So the buyout period began on Saturday and we've had one measly piece of news: Tony Amonte and John LeClair were bought out by the Flyers. It's almost 5PM here on the east coast and I am assuming there will be no more news today. So teams will have only five days to do all these buyouts. Where is all the activity?

Waiting for Monday morning, at the earliest. A couple of teams have scheduled press conferences for early this week and they will probably make their announcements then. I think teams don't want to jump the gun. Most teams probably already know who they are going to buy out; and the earlier they announce it, the more time it gives their competitors to analyze what they want to do. Waiting until 4:50 on Friday is fine for some of these GM's: it doesn't make a difference to them when everyone finds out about their buyouts, as long as they know what their cap situation is looking like.

Since it has been so quiet this weekend, rumors are floating about. One second, Joe Thornton's agent is looking for him to get out of Boston, the next it looks like Joe will be getting a big paycheck and staying. Then there is the rumor that Belfour is leaving Toronto and signing with the Canucks. I would not put any weight into any of these rumors. In fact, I hate reporting rumors, but I just wanted to point out what silence leads to. I can't wait for actual deals to happen.

I've seen three movies over the past two weekends: Wedding Crashers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Island. All good in their own right. Wedding Crashers was hilarious, Charlie was weird but pretty good, and The Island had a disappointing ending but was a very entertaining movie. And Scarlett Johansson is nice on the eyes.

If you have seen anything interesting in a newspaper, on a blog, etc, please send it my way: worldcusa (at) aol (dot) com. I'm especially looking for team specific articles/posts.

What Will Your Team Do For You?

2005-07-24T08:27:00.000-04:00

The Los Angeles Times has an article in today's paper about what teams are doing for fans to lure them back. A lot of teams will be offering some sort of price cut and/or ticket promotion to get people back to the arena. This is a smart move by the owners. Hockey is a great sport to watch live and with the new rule changes, I think fans will be very impressed with the on ice product. But they need a reason to get to the rink, and cheaper tickets is a big one. Plus, getting fans in the arena still yields a lot of money from overpriced concessions.

Columbus, Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary and the Islanders are among the other teams that have already announced cuts in season-ticket prices, although none of those approach the 24% rollback in player salaries. Phoenix, however, will give each season-ticket holder two tickets for the price of one.

Wow, that is a nice deal the Coyotes got going on.

LeClair and Amonte Gone

2005-07-23T12:57:00.000-04:00

The first buyouts are here, with the Philadelphia Flyers buying out the contracts of John LeClair and Tony Amonte. This clears a whopping $11.1 million from the Flyers payroll for next season.

Amonte will be 35 in August. In 2003-2004, he had 20 goals and 33 assists in 80 games. LeClair put up similar numbers, with 23 goals and 32 assists, for a total of 55 points, in 75 games. LeClair just turned 36.

This seems to be the only move the Flyers could make. With so many free agents out there, it is a waste to spend $11 million on two players who are past their prime and put up less than 60 points apiece last season.

Nolan Won't Count Against Cap

2005-07-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

There had been talk that Toronto was going to be in big trouble because Owen Nolan finally wanted surgery on his knee and therefore could not be bought out, meaning the Leafs would have a major contract eating their cap space. The Toronto Star is reporting that the NHL will not make Nolan's contract count against the cap.

The NHL has assured the Maple Leafs that if they lose a grievance over their attempts to buy Owen Nolan out of his contract, it will not count against the salary cap for this season.

But that doesn't mean the dispute is over, and there are about 8 million reasons in U.S. funds why that is the case.

Nolan, who injured his right knee 15 months ago, will almost certainly be bought out for $3.8 million Â two-thirds of the $5.6 million he was scheduled to make next season Â as early as today. But Nolan says he's owed $11.8 million because he's remained hurt since the original injury.

My first reaction is this: If Nolan was hurt for the past year, why did he wait to have surgery until July?

Schedule Details

2005-07-23T08:50:00.000-04:00

I previously reported that the schedule for the 2005-2006 season will be released on Tuesday, but now new information is emerging. Lindsey over at In The Crease posts details on the new schedule:

Each club will play eight games against each of its four division rivals (32 total).

Each club will play four games against each of the 10 non-division clubs in its conference (40 total).

Each club will play 10 inter-conference games, hosting one game each against all five clubs from a designated division and traveling for one game each against all five clubs from a different division. For the 2005-06 season, Northeast Division clubs will host the Pacific Division and visit the Northwest; Atlantic Division clubs will host the Northwest and visit the Central; and Southeast Division clubs will host the Central and visit the Pacific. Division vs. division assignments will rotate annually.

The format came out a few days ago but this is the first I have heard about which divisions will be playing each other and where. I thought fans would like to know that (hence the bold).

As for the new format, I have mixed feelings. For the Rangers, games against the Islanders and the Devils are always the most exciting, Every team has (or should have) division rivals that fans want to come see play. In this format, teams still play opponents from other divisions in the conference four times, so Colorado and Detroit can still have their rivalry. Even though it has diminished, the Rangers and Bruins could have important games again if the Rangers get good.

The bad part is that fans will not even see their team on TV playing five teams from the other conference. One out of every three years, the Flames, Oilers and Canucks will not play the Sens, Leafs and Habs ... at all. I'm not Canadian so I don't know how people north of the border feel, but I think that probably outweighs the fact that you will get to play the Canadian rivals in your division a couple more times per year.

7 Hours Until Buyouts Begin

2005-07-22T17:27:00.000-04:00

The talk of the day of course is Crosby going to the Pens, but there is a lot of other stuff going on. Tomorrow, July 23, is when buyouts begin. Teams will have until 5PM EST on July 29 to buyout a player on their team. Buying out a player costs two-thirds of his current contract. If a player is bought out, they cannot rejoin that team for a full season, even through a trade. The reason there will be such a rush in the next six days is that if a player is bought out after 5PM next Friday, that payment will count against the team's cap.

Free-agency begins on August 1. That will be a crazy, yet very exciting time for us hockey fans. The composition of a lot of teams is going to change dramatically. Some teams will be looking for a few key pieces, while others have to almost start from scratch.

I'm going to try and keep the blog updated with the latest news, information and analysis during this hectic time around the NHL. I will be linking to plenty of other blogs out there as there are some great hockey bloggers on the net. I also will be looking for the analysis of team specific bloggers. If there is a big signing or buyout with a team, I will try to link to knowledgeable writers/bloggers who cover that team day in and day out.

Though I'm sure most of you can easily find the order of the draft, here is a link for your convenience.

Crosby, Rules, Etc

2005-07-22T16:46:00.000-04:00

As you all know by know, Sidney Crosby is heading to the Penguins. I hope the ownership there brings in talent to make them a contender. They have less than $6 million in payroll right now tied up in seven players. (Not including Marc-Andre Fleury) If they could spend another $28-30 million to round out the roster, that would be great. The Penguins are going to make a lot of money from just picking Crosby and I hope they spend it wisely and put together a solid roster. A couple more stars besides Lemieux, Recchi and Crosby would be nice. Of course, they also have Marc-Andre Fleury. Hopefully he is ready to be the franchise goalie that everyone expected.

The rule changes look really good. Shootout is not my favorite but it eliminates ties and brings a lot of excitement. Tag up offsides is something I always liked. Goalie equipment reduction is a welcome change. And as I mentioned below, JD says the league is very serious this time about obstruction. I hope that is the case.

I am a Ranger fan and am of course disappointed that with 3 balls in the bucket, we could only muster a #16 pick. But tomorrow I will wake up energized that hockey is back; this should be a great season for our favorite sport.

And again, congrats to the Penguins. At least with the new scheduling format, he will be coming to the Garden four times this season.

Live-Blogging Today's Events

2005-07-22T13:12:00.000-04:00

Stop by and post your thoughts on the press conference and draft lottery as I live-blog the press conference and the draft lottery.

1:56PM - Just over an hour to go until the press conference starts. I'm finishing up my work for the day and then getting ready to watch/blog. The thought of Bettman saying "And the #1 overall pick in the NHL goes to the ... New York Rangers popped into my head for a second. And this huge smile came upon me. And then I thought to myself, "Nah, it's not possible." I'm so nervous. Is he really the future of the NHL?

2:19PM - Jack Johnson seems to be the consensus #2 pick, according to TSN.

2:30PM - Someone on TSN (I don't know who, I had the audio on in the background) just said that he does not want Crosby going to Columbus because he is sick of losing Canadian stars to American outposts. Now I know TSN is appealing to a Canadian audience, but that is just a dumb statement. Crosby going to Columbus or Atlanta could be very good. Columbus has a great young core and averages over 17,000 fans a night. But I don't want to get into arguing Columbus over another city. I just thought that was a ridiculous statement, that somehow Americans don't deserve stars.

2:40PM - On TSN they just mentioned Owen Nolan's injury. I glanced at this earlier but forgot to post. Nolan will probably be having surgery on his knee and will declare this a hockey related injury. Therefore, he cannot be bought out by the Leafs. If the Leafs buy him out anyway, the PA will file a grievance and then there could be even more trouble for the Leafs. The Toronto Star has a good rundown on the matter. This looks like it will be a major problem for the Leafs.

3:00PM - It's time.

3:02PM - The NHL logo I posted below is definitely the logo for the league; it is being used as the background at the hotel where Sam Rosen and Stan Fishler were doing analysis.

3:06PM - JD says "trust him on this one": they are actually going to crack down on obstruction this time and that there will be a lot of penalties early on in 2005 if players don't get it through their heads.

3:10PM - Gary is on. I'm very curious about rule changes.

3:12PM - All 30 teams will be playing on opening night, October 5th. There will be a shootout. No word yet if teams will still get a point for getting into OT. I hope so.

3:16PM - I will post my thoughts later on the rule changes. Briefly, I like the elimination of the two-line pass, the reduction of goalie pads and bringing back tag up offsides.

3:23PM - The one point for a overtime loss is staying in. That makes me very happy. It would have been wrong to have a team play through regulation and overtime, lose in a shootout and not get a single point.

3:41PM - Format for the shootout will be three shooters per team and I'm assuming (since it was not clarified) that if there is no winner after three shooters then there will be a sudden death shootout. And of course, there will be no shootouts in the playoffs.

3:48PM - Press conference is over. Now, where will Crosby go?

4:09PM - Everytime I don't see the Ranger logo I go nuts. And he's not going to Florida or New Jersey which is great news.

4:14PM - There you go, it's not rigged. Rangers get #16.

4:26PM - Congrats Pens.

New NHL Logo

2005-07-22T11:58:00.000-04:00

There was talk a while back that the NHL would be changing their logo. This is now on the front page of NHL.com. Is this the new logo for the NHL? Do you like it? (Click for full size)

Two Shanahan Quotes

2005-07-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

Every morning I browse some of the papers from Canada and the U.S., seeing if there is something new and different to post on the blog. (By the way, if you come across an article or a blog post that you think I should put on here, please send it my way. I love feedback.) Well, the Toronto Star has an article this morning that is a pretty standard piece, but there are two Brendan Shanahan quotes that I really like.

"Did we ever go into this thing thinking we were going to like the deal?" said Detroit Red Wings veteran Brendan Shanahan, who took on a prominent role in the talks in the final months. "(After the previous lockout) in 1995, we thought we got killed on the deal, but by 1998, that deal was looking great. So I hope it's the same thing this time around."

That is a very good point that a lot of people have not mentioned. The players all think they lost out huge with this CBA. I disagree. Of course they lost a lot of money; they were vastly overpaid. They used to make 75% of league revenues and that is off the charts. The NFL brings in a ton of money and their players do not get nearly that percentage.

What is important with the new CBA is linkage. Right now, the salary cap is at $39 million. But if hockey revenues get back to $2 billion (which I think they can with a few years of Crosby, rule changes and great hockey), then the cap is going to go up to $43.5 million. That is a very nice figure.

The players are upset because they all got their salaries reduced by 24%. We might think that someone making $2.5 million dollars or $4 million dollars should never be upset with their salary, but anyone losing 24% of their salary is going to take time to come around. But in the long run, I think this new CBA will be great for the league, and not so bad for the players. And check out this second quote below:

"In hockey we've always been a modest group where we don't want to wear microphones, we don't want to let cameras in the dressing rooms, we don't want fans and the media to see us in the highest of our high emotions and the lowest of our low emotions," Shanahan said.

"But that's exactly when they want to see us, not 15 minutes after the game is over and we've already gone into a back room and broken some chairs. They want to see us break the chairs."

For some reason, I just found that last part quite funny. 8:41AM here on the east coast. The countdown begins. Don't forget, I'll be live blogging the press conference and lottery later and would love to have people dropping comments in that thread with your thoughts on the day's happenings.

Schedule on Tuesday

2005-07-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

The Hockey News buries the news that the NHL will be releasing the schedule for the 2005-2006 season on Tuesday, with a "tentative start-up date" of October 5th.

I heard the press conference today was not very interesting, though some are surprised that Bob Goodenow is staying on as head of the PA. Personally, I find the business of sports and the business of hockey to be fascinating, but I really do not care what happens to Bob Goodenow. Even though I think that a lot of what happened is a result of his stubbornness, I still do not care if he goes or stays.

What I'm excited for is tomorrow. Just a reminder, press conference at 3, followed by the lottery results at 4. We will be finding out about rule changes as well, most likely followed by other information. You can catch it on TSN, a local network, or NHL.com. I will be live blogging the press conference, the draft lottery and the MSG roundtable discussion. I haven't been this excited in a long time. I don't even want to put the words Rangers and Crosby together in the same sentence because I feel I will jinx it. There is all this talk of a fix or that it will be good for him to come to NY; meanwhile us Ranger fans are just as nervous as any other team. Everybody wants to keep their expectations realistic.

If he goes to the Devils, I will flip. I would rather he go to Long Island than the Devils, and this is coming from a hardcore Ranger fan.

Oh, and there will be an accounting firm verifying the lottery procedures tomorrow. So can people stop talking about it being fixed.

Edit: I don't think Goodenow staying or going is that important but I'm in the minority, so if you are interested, here is an article on subject from TSN.

More Networks for Lottery

2005-07-21T13:44:00.000-04:00

I already reported that MSG (NY) and Altitude (COL) are showing Friday's press conference and draft lottery. The NHL has now announced that Comcast Sports for Chicago, Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic will also have coverage of tomorrow's events.

Don't forget, if you live in a region of the U.S. that won't have it on TV, you can go to NHL.com and watch the streaming video. ESPNews is not worth it, they are only showing the first two picks live. I want to hear all the picks, find out about rule changes, etc.

TSN.CA Streaming Today's Press Conference

2005-07-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

Tsn.ca will be streaming today's press conference to announce the results of the NHLPA vote. At 4PM, Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow will join together to "discuss the results" of today's vote. I won't be able to watch and am not disappointed. I don't see foresee anything interesting happening today. Get ready for tomorrow folks, that is when all the excitement begins.

Injuries and the Cap

2005-07-21T10:37:00.000-04:00

I previously wrote that teams would not spend up to $39 million because if a player went down with an injury and someone had to be called up, they would be put over the cap. Details have emerged that this is not the case. The Toronto star puts it best.

There's also the sense that players who replace those on injured reserve will not have their salaries count against the cap unless they make more than the player they are replacing. So if Sundin breaks his leg just before the trade deadline, the Maple Leafs will likely be able to trade for an impending unrestricted free agent of equal salary to replace him in the lineup.

This is great news for the players because teams will be able to spend more money. Check out that article in its entirety; it is a good piece on how this deal could turn out to be better than the one they rejected in February.

American Networks Picking Up Lottery

2005-07-20T20:06:00.000-04:00

Some local American networks, channels that show hockey games for their respective markets, will be airing the press conference and lottery on Friday. "Nomorekids" over at the HFBoards was watching the Mets game on MSG tonight and said they announced that MSG would be showing the press conference at 3, the lottery at 4 and a roundtable discussion after with JD, Sam and some other people.

Then comes the news from the Avs that Altitude (their local hockey channel) will be airing the events as well. Let's hope that stations around the country follow suit.

Less than 44 hours until we find out where Crosby is heading. Wow, I am excited for things to get rolling.

Edit: ESPNews will be airing the live announcement of the top two picks. Give me a break. They run the same half hour segment over and over again throughout the day. The least they could do is give the NHL twenty minutes to show all the results. Hopefully your local network will be picking it up, or you can tune into NHL.com for the full results. I like ESPN but this is a joke.

Ovechkin Will Play in NHL

2005-07-20T17:14:00.000-04:00

There had been some rumors that Alexander Ovechkin, the first overall pick and property of the Washington Capitals, would stay in Russia and get more money. Well, that can all be put to rest. TSN is currently fronting the news that Ovechkin has gotten out of his contract to play in Russia next season and intends to play for the Capitals.

The question now is, will Ovechkin be an impact player in his first year? They have only four players currently signed, so they have money to get some help, but they have nearly $5 million tied up in Kolzig. But if they buyout Kolzig, then they are basically starting a team from scratch, with Ovechkin as the centerpiece. Washington could be a team to watch out for if they buyout Kolzig and go out and just sign, sign, sign with all the FA's on the market. If they decide to be cheap, and fall $6 million+ short of the cap, then I don't think Ovechkin will have a Calder type year. He's not that good ... yet.

Additional Info: Ovechkin's Hockey's Future Page

NHL.com To Stream Crosby Announcement

2005-07-20T16:50:00.000-04:00

NHL.com posted today that they will be streaming the draft lottery on Friday at 4PM EST. This indicates to me that one of the ESPN's will not be picking up the press conference. I'm glad NHL.com stepped up on this, but there is a bigger issue here. The NHL needs to revamp their website and take a page from Major League Baseball. MLB.com is easily the best sports website out there and they do a great job with video, audio, gameday, etc. If the NHL wants to succeed, they need to embrace the internet like baseball did.

Just look at the difference. NHL.com, MLB.com

Interesting CBA Details

2005-07-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

A few articles from Canadian papers are providing interesting details on the new CBA.

Players who currently have contracts will have their salaries averaged if they have multiple years left on their contract.
European born players will have two years to sign after they are drafted, which is the same as North American players. It used to be where a team could hold a European player's rights as long as they wanted.
If a restricted free agent (RFA) does not re-sign with his team by December 1st, he cannot play in the NHL this season.
New contracts will not have performance bonuses built in that are paid by the team. Instead, the NHL will be paying bonuses for the Hart Trophy, Vezina, etc.
These bonuses will not count against each team's cap, but they will be factored into the 54 % of all revenues go to players.
No workarounds to the $39 million salary cap. A team cannot say to a player (this is the example the article gave) "Buy a house and we will pay you back for it."

Sources: Toronto Star, Toronto Star (Article 2), The Globe and Mail. And thanks to RangerBoy at the HFBoards for the heads up. There is a lot of good stuff here.

Where Should Crosby Land?

2005-07-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

We will know on Friday where Sidney Crosby will be playing hockey, but there has also been a lot of talk on where he should end up to benefit the NHL. On his blog, Jes Golbez lists the best and worst markets in the U.S. and Canada in terms of bringing the NHL fans, exposure and money.

He lists the three best U.S. markets as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The worst U.S. markets as Florida, Carolina and phoenix. The best Canadian market for Crosby would be Montreal, and the worst, Ottawa.

This is a pretty standard list and nothing to call the press over, but I wanted to comment on something he wrote in his post.

You'll notice I said New York, and not necessarily the Ranger$. Although only an outsider would ever put the Islanders and Rangers together, I believe Crosby's impact as an Islander would still be felt throughout the NHL. If Crosby was leading a new Islanders' dynasty, you can bet the NY media would jump right on that bandwagon. If Crosby were to end up on the Isles, it might just speed up the process of getting out of the death trap that is the Nassau Memorial Coliseum.

Obviously, Crosby would better serve the NHL as a Ranger, rather than an Islander...but having him in the New York market, period, would be a great marketing boon for the NHL.

I am a die hard Ranger fan and I would rather Crosby land anywhere in the league rather than on Long Island. But Jes is right. Hockey doesn't just do well when the Rangers are winning; the Islanders have a big impact too. When the Rangers won in '94, the played Long Island in the first round of the playoffs and it generated huge interest. An Islander dynasty led by Crosby (with hopefully a new stadium for them) would still be good for the league.

TSN To Air Lottery Results

2005-07-19T23:11:00.000-04:00

TSN will air a special half-hour program on Friday at 4PM EST with the lottery results. No word yet if ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNews will pick up any press conference that is held announcing the results, but I imagine ESPNews at the very least will cut in with something.

Here's a little reminder, courtesy of TSN, of the number of balls for each team.

Four teams (Buffalo, Columbus, the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh) have three balls in the lottery. Ten teams (Anaheim, Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, Phoenix) have two balls in the drum. The remaining 16 teams (Boston, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, New Jersy, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington) have one.

ESPN, TNT or Spike?

2005-07-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Mediaweek is reporting that four companies are in talks with the NHL for the right to broadcast games on cable. The companies are ESPN, Time Warner (TNT), Viacom (Spike TV) and Comcast. Comcast is a bad choice. Comcast is not in many homes and the NHL would end up being on OLN (Outdoor Life Network).

There are positives and negatives to each of the three other companies. First, Spike TV may feel like a marginal network, but it's not. It reaches over 86 million U.S. households they would heavily promote the NHL. Spike would push games hard and really give them the gala treatment. Also, bringing in the ESPN hockey guys to do the games would not be a problem; Darren Pang has already stated he is treating this like he is a "free agent" and will go where he can do games. Spike is also in Canada, so that would not be a problem. Some people have noted that Spike does not have HD capability, but I rather a network that actually wants the NHL rather than HD. HD might be the wave of the future, but it is currently not in many living rooms.

ESPN is the status quo. While the NHL might get buried on ESPN, Bristol is still the leading sports broadcaster in the world. Everyone gets ESPN, including people on other continents. And yes, ESPN had HD channels.

Then there is TNT. TNT could use something else to show besides Law & Order. (I don't care if L&O gets better ratings than the NHL, can people still watch the same episode seven times? Eventually TNT is going to run out of episodes to show.) TNT has also done a great job with the NBA. There is one problem though. How would they handle programming when the NHL is in the second and third rounds of the playoffs and the NBA is just starting? This needs to be clarified before they are awarded the rights.

For me, Spike, ESPN and TNT all would be fine choices. ESPN is the safe bet, that will probably end up in mediocre ratings. Spike is riskier but could do great things for the NHL. And TNT is a solid choice, as long as the playoff situation is cleared up. One thing is for sure, it cannot go to Comcast. That would be a disaster.

Thanks to "Invader Zim" at the HFBoards for the heads up.

Edit: I made a mistake and said that Turner as in Ted Turner owns TNT. It's Time Warner, and I was confused by the Turner in TNT. I fixed the problem with my story. Thanks to Boltsmag for linking to my story and for pointing out the mistake.

No Buyout Workaround

2005-07-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

Many teams will be buying out the contracts of their high priced players who are not worth so much money in the new economic environment of the NHL. They have a limited amount of time to do this, and players will not be able to resign with their former teams once they are bought out. This means there will be no restructuring of contracts. You either play for the team you have a contract with at your current salary level (with the 24% rollback of course) or you get bought out and sign somewhere else.

People have suggested on the Hockey's Future forums a possible workaround to this. Why don't teams buyout players, have those players sign with another team, and then just get those players back in a trade? Teams could agree on the deal before anyone is bought out and GM's could work together to get around the CBA. Well, this will not be allowed. Once a player is bought out by a team, they will have to wait a full season before returning to that team, even through a trade or the waiver wire.

Board of Governors' Meeting Moved to Friday

2005-07-18T22:27:00.000-04:00

Below I reported that the meeting was scheduled for Thursday, though their was a rumor it might be pushed to Friday. That rumor has now been confirmed by TSN and the Canadian Press (the AP for Canada).

Board of Governors' Meeting

2005-07-18T18:53:00.000-04:00

NHL owners are set to meet Thursday in New York at the Board of Governors' meeting. On their agenda is voting on the new CBA, considering rule changes and holding the draft lottery. There are a lot of rumors flying around about new rules (shootout, no two-line pass, etc) but I am going to wait to comment on them until their is an official announcement. I will say this though: I hope they do not get rid of the overtime loss. I think that was an excellent addition to the game.

The AP is reporting the possibility that the meeting might be pushed back to Friday.

Edit: The meeting has been moved to Friday. Here is my post with the news. And the link from TSN.

Lalime Heading Back to St. Louis

2005-07-18T09:17:00.000-04:00

Patrick Lalime is heading back to St. Louis, with the Blues exercising their team option. I think his salary is going to be $2.432 million for the 2005-2006 season. Last season his save percentage was down, but Lalime has a career 2.39 GAA (though it was behind a very good Senators team). This is a good move for the Blues.

Source: Yahoo

Wiggle Room

2005-07-18T09:02:00.000-04:00

There is an important feature of the salary cap next season. The $39 million figure represents the maximum a team can spend in a year on player salaries. It does not represent the maximum a team may spend at one time. So, a team could have salaries totaling $36 million for the first 41 games, then add $6 million in salary to bring them up to $42 million. But, since they would only be paying for half of the new $6 million (only playing half the games for the new team) then they would have actually only spent $39 million. It's a great way for teams to add a big name for the playoff hunt.

However, this also ensures that no team will spend up to $39 million. If a team has a payroll at exactly $39 million and someone gets injured, a player will have to be called up from the minor leagues. That player will be making the league minimum $450,000. But the team will still have to pay the injured player. So unless they get rid of salary before the end of the season, this would put them over the $39 million total spent on salaries in a season. I expect smart team who want to max out to spend around $37 million, giving them wiggle room for injuries and an acquisition for the playoffs.

2003-2004 in Review

2005-07-17T19:48:00.000-04:00

We have all been talking so much about the CBA, Crosby and the business of hockey, it's easy to forget that in 2 1/2 months, we will finally see the puck drop. With so much time off and the rosters certain to look vastly different, I thought it would be fun and important to have some posts over the next few days recalling the 2003-2004 season, and thinking about how those numbers will translate with a year off.

Points Leaders

Martin St. Louis (TB) - 94
Ilya Kovalchuk (ATL) - 87
Joe Sakic (COL) - 87
Markus Naslund (VAN) - 84
Marian Hossa (OTT) - 82
Patrik Elias (NJD) - 81
D. Alfredsson (OTT) - 80
Cory Stillman (TB) - 80
Robert Lang (DET) - 79
Brad Richards (TB) - 79
Alex Tanguay (COL) - 79

Kovalchuk, Naslund and Hossa should all be in the top 5 in points again this season. I think Joe Sakic is a great player and he should have a good season, but he is getting older and if Forsberg doesn't come back, opposing teams will really be able to shift their focus to shutting down the 36 year old center. I see 70 points, but not 87. St. Louis is a great player but his 2003-2004 campaign was special, and I also see him settling down with about 75 points.

I also expect big things this season from Jagr. Last season he totaled 74 points in 77 games (29 pts in 31 games in NY). Jagr is only three seasons removed from 2000-20001 in which he netted 52 goals and 69 assists in 81 games. There is no way he is getting back to that level, but he spent this year off playing overseas and led the Czech Republic to a World Championship victory, with a broken pinkie. I see no reason why he can't be in the top five to eight players in points this year.

For the record: Sakic is under contract, Hossa, Kovalchuk and St. Louis are restricted free agents, while Naslund is a UFA. The Canucks only have four players under contract for next season, with about $11.2 million tied up in use. They should bring Naslund back (if they are smart), but the rest of their team will have to be very role player oriented, as they will have $15+ million tied up in Naslund, Bertuzzi and Jovanovski alone. (This assumes Naslund gets $6 million)

And I also urge you to post your thoughts by hitting the Comments link below. You do not need to be a Blogger member to leave a comment.

The NHL and the U.S. Media

2005-07-17T10:32:00.000-04:00

The Ottawa Sun has an article in today's paper about how negative the American media has been toward hockey this week.

The NHL needs to stop groveling for the respect of the American sports media, and it needs to do it now. In this battle of popularity, the media is the lost cause. How soon we forget that NASCAR started as a group that lacked respect from sportswriters (and practically everyone else), but through grassroots ingenuity became a force to contend with.

I was so excited on Wednesday when word began to leak out about a deal that I watched ESPNews and made sure to hear what the guys on Around the Horn and PTI had to say. What I encountered was basically what the Sun writes: negativity, negativity, negativity. "Hockey is no longer one of the four major sports." It was not that long ago when hockey was doing fine and had ratings not far from the NBA. I think the Sun does not understand the importance of ESPN on the American sports fan, but at the same time, it seems there is no hope in bringing the media back anytime soon. Get the games on the ice, have a couple years of great hockey, and things will be fine.

The "Reconstruction" of the NHL

2005-07-17T10:05:00.000-04:00

The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a rather lengthy article yesterday on the reconstruction of the NHL. The thinking seems to go that if the NHL wants to get back on track, they need to make it a fan friendly league and market the personalities of the game. Rule changes to offer non-hardcore fans something faster and more exciting should also help.

"I have a hunch they'll be able to get back in the groove in a couple of years," said James Chung, president of Reach Advisors, a Boston-based sports research and marketing firm. "Like other sports, they'll rebound just fine. If I were the NHL, I'd try to own being the fans' league.

Remember when the Lightning gave out free tickets a couple years ago, to bring people into the building? Some other clubs would be wise to adopt that strategy for a few bad, middle of the week matchups. The NHL is a great sport to watch; it's getting the people to watch that is the trouble.

I have an acquaintance who is a big sports fan, but was not into hockey. You know what he did say though? He loved to watch playoff hockey. Now, the NHL will never be able to fully replicate the excitement of the playoffs in the regular season, but the games are not that much different. People just think they do not want to watch regular season hockey, or they don't have the patience for it. But if the NHL can use TV and some cheap tickets to get people attached to a local team, plus the shootout rule, I truly think the NHL will be back. And Crosby not going to Buffalo would help too.

The Number Two Pick

2005-07-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

Bob McKenzie over at TSN has a piece up that all hockey fans should read because it answers an often overlooked question: Who will be taken after Crosby? Everyone is so caught up in the Crosby hype (myself included) that we have not spent enough time looking at the rest of the draft. According to McKenzie, Jack Johnson of the USNTDP (U.S. Under-18 Development Program) is the "consensus" number two.

Johnson has committed to playing at the University of Michigan next season, but can still be drafted by a NHL team and then develop for a couple of seasons in college. According to the Hockeyscouting.ca article I've linked to below, he went out of his way to contact UMich before they could contact him, because he really wanted to go to college and play at UMich. I like that in a kid.

Further reading on Johnson: Slam Sports, HockeyScouting.ca