More Hab-related news: Former Canadien Georges Laraque has a new gig as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
If he ever gets elected, Question Period might become a lot more interesting.
I originally saw that as circumcision, which would probably make hockey VERY interesting!!! :eek:
I’m wondering who’s going to be Alt now that Gonch is leaving. Our “alternate Alts” are Jordan Staal and Brooks Orpik, so I’m guessing it’ll be one of them.
Those skates are awfully sharp…:eek:
The Black Hawks have indeed walked away from the arbitrator’s award of 2.75 million to Antti Niemi, and have elected instead to go with Marty Turco at 1.5 million
Interesting move. It’s certainly good from a cap perspective as Turco is, if nothing else, a solid goaltender. He occasionally manages to pass the puck directly to an opposing player, but he’s great for the cost. I’m curious to see if a new team will help him get over his shoddy record versus Detroit.
Now where does Niemi go? He had a great run and won the cup, but was that a measure of his play or of the team in front of him. Can he repeat his performance with another team, or will the pressure get to him?
Supposedly it won’t be Philadelphia if this story is true.
San Jose perhaps? The story mentions Montreal but are they not going to be able to sign Price?
Modano confirms he’s signed with Detroit.
Ah, he’s the last of the original North Stars, isn’t he?
Last North Star still active, I believe. He was definitely the last North Star still with the franchise, since Derian Hatcher left in '03, and Richard Matvichuk a year later.
Yeah, that’s what I meant.
And now that that’s finally over with, the Wings can finish signing everyone else. Today they signed Darren Helm to a two year deal. Not really a huge deal, but certainly an important one for Detroit as they (imho) still have defensive issues to deal with and Helm is one of their better defensive forwards and penalty killers. Kid’s got wheels and isn’t afraid to throw himself around. His scoring touch is a little better than Draper’s as well.
As for Modano, it’s certainly an exciting signing for Detroit. He’ll add some great scoring depth and turn a third line into a genuine threat with Hudler and Cleary.
That is a great third line; on some weaker teams, that’s even a decent second line. Hudler and Cleary in particular strike me as “seventh forwards,” guys that can play up on the top two lines and not look out of place, or guys who can play checking/defensive roles with equal aplomb. Metropolit was like that for us, and about a decade or so ago guys like Kip Miller for Pittsburgh and Igor Korolev for Toronto were like that too.
Some interesting news items I noticed today.
The Phoenix Coyotes have only sold 1800 season tickets. Relocate this franchise, please.
I’m not sure why Montreal keeps popping up in the Niemi discussion. Didn’t they trade Halak so they could make room for Price? They’ve already got Auld as a backup.
I’m looking forward to the Heritage Classic more than the Winter Classic. I agree that Calgary’s sweater is horrible.
Interesting that Kovalchuk isn’t getting 24 hour coverage on ESPN. I’d like for something to get Brett Favre off the screen for at least 5 minutes.
I also find it interesting to follow the DUI case of Nikolai Khabibulin. I live in Maricopa county, AZ and I’ve known plenty of people who have had DUIs. The judge doesn’t really have any flexibility in the sentence and Joe Arapaio will probably try to make Khabibulin’s stay miserable if he gets the 30 days in Tent City. Is there any chance Khabibulin will just bolt to the KHL and skip out on the trial? Edmonton might make sense for Niemi then.
Looks like the NHL has prevailed with the arbitrator in the Ilya Kovalchuk saga. The 17-year deal is void, and Kovalchuk is still a UFA.
Are the Kings back in play for Kovalchuk then? The Kings with Kovalchuk are a Stanley Cup contender, but they need a contract that won’t choke the the franchise for years to come.
The Kings look to be back in the running; they have close to 14 million in cap space, but they’ll need to keep a chunk of it to re-sign Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, both RFA’s next summer.
The KHL is also a possibility.
Reports are that he’s staying with the Devils. They just have to work out a new contract that doesn’t insist that Kovalchuk will be playing until he’s 736 years old. Apparently the big problem was that the NHL doesn’t recognize reincarnation since he might wind up being reincarnated as a squirrel, a flatworm, or an umpire.
It’s kind of hard luck for LA, but at least they’re being more prudent with their money than most NHL gms.
Even more interesting is that now the NHL is looking into Luongo’s contract in Vancouver for roughly the same reasons. Vancouver may not fight it in the hopes of getting out from under it and trying to sign him for a smaller figure. So far that seems to be it for contract investigation which is interesting since Detroit has been exploiting that loophole since they found it. IIRC, I think the longest Detroit contract has a player wrapped up until age 38, a not unheard of age for an NHL player and more than common for the Red Wings. I think it’s actually their minimum age requirement. 
And in less interesting news, Detroit signed D Ruslan Salei yesterday to replace Andreas Lilja who wanted either a larger contract than Ruslan or a longer term deal than Detroit was willing to pay a guy who missed a season with a concussion.
There’s a couple other contracts that are being investigated too. Besides Luongo’s, I think Pronger, Marc Savard and Marian Hossa IIRC. There may be a few others, too.
The Habs and Bolts have swapped minor league goalies. Montreal acquires Karri Ramo in exchange for Cedric Desjardins.
Ramo’s 24, spent last season with Omsk of the KHL. In parts of 3 seasons with Tampa, he was 11-21-10 with a 3.35 GAA and .895 SVPCT.
Desjardins is 25 and has yet to appear in an NHL game, although he had a pretty good year with Hamilton this past season.
Local sports news are reporting the Sharks [del]signed[/del] will sign Antti Niemi. I’m happy.