NHL Off-Season Thread 2010

[Asher]

I'm terribly disappointed about the Flames' off-season this year.

I may, sadly, be watching more Oilers games on Sportsnet this year than Flames (if they start Hall in the lineup). I like young, up and coming teams, even if they are Oilers...

I don't think I'll be buying NHL CI this year now that I'll be living in Calgary.

[notyoueither]

I buy CI. There are usually a couple Oilers games that don't get broadcast on any channel and I can pick them up on CI.

Also, it is nice to be able to sit down once or twice a week and take my pick of games involving good teams.

I don't expect great things for the Oilers this year. I'll not be shocked if they are picking top five again in 2011. Then again, if everyone stays healthy and Khabibulin isn't in prison they could bounce up as high as 10th in the conference and draft around the 10 to 12 spot.

[Asher]

I don't even care if the young teams don't do well. I enjoy watching potential and not people slowly slipping away to their retirement and future car dealerships.

I may buy Hitmen season tickets next year. A couple of my friends did last year and they loved it. And they're surprisingly cheap.

[Flubber]

Sutter apparently told Jokinen he should've never traded him.

We traded Jokinen to offload his expiring contract, take on Kotalik's contract (which is for an additional 2 years), then took Jokinen back anyway. ****ing unreal.

Yup thats what is so weird. If they had kept jokkinen and then re-signed him I would have disagreed but it wouldn't have seemed weird. It would be Sutter stubbornly believing in jokkinen.

But to trade him at the deadline said he (Sutter) thought that these other players could help the team make the playoffs more than him, didn't it? Now they are dumping the other guys and yet Sutter admits no error or problem??


The only upside is I could see Tanguay being good. I didn't follow him in Tampa so I don't know why his numbers were so low. But when he was in Calgary he was often very good offensively but seemed underappreciated by the coach-perhaps because he is not a hitter--

Sutter in "defending" Jokkinen was saying what he and Igggy lacked was a playmaker. He was also saying it allowed players like Bourque, Stajan, Moss, Backlund to be slotted appropriately on the team-- So it sounded a lot like he sees an Iggy-Tangs -Joker type line.

If it actually works he will be considered a genius LOL.

[Asher]

If it works...I doubt it. But I've seen crazier things.

Jokinen was good at one point...but mostly in the pansy-assed Easter Conference.

I've more faith in Tanguay. But they have been missing a playmaker. Maybe it is the missing ingredient...I'm still doubtful but would love to be wrong.

Also, they let Higgins go to free agency.
So we got rid of Prust (who I liked) and Jokinen's expiring contract to take on Higgins (gone) and Kotalik (buried in the minors/Russia). And we got Jokinen back.

This should be grounds for dismissal.

[notyoueither]

Oh man, Yang is at it again.

Dreger has rumour of 10yr, 100 MM offer to Kovalchuck.

Could the Isles become the first club lost to insolvency since the '30s?

[Asher]

Didn't Kovalchuk turn down a 10 year, 100m offer from Atlanta?

[Asher]

Ah, he turned down $70M over 7 and $101M over 12

[notyoueither]

Damn. Wang, not Yang.

Asher, yeah he did turn Atlanta down. He is finding that nobody anywhere values him anywhere close to what he expected though.

Neither NJ nor LA are going to offer even half that. They have sane GMs and good owners.

[Asher]

The Jokinen thing gets impossibly worse.

He got a no movement clause.

[notyoueither]

That's special. Just two years at $3 MM per though.

[notyoueither]

Simon Gagne has been asked to waive his NTC by the Flyers. He's agreed.

[notyoueither]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/elliottefriedman/2010/07/islanders-making-serious-push-for-kovalchuk.html

Islanders making serious push for Kovalchuk
July 3, 2010 1:46 PM

By Elliotte Friedman

The general reaction to the news that the New York Islanders have offered Ilya Kovalchuk $100 million US over 10 years? "You can't be serious," as one NHL GM put it.

As it turns out, the Islanders are.

According to multiple sources, Garth Snow is among the most aggressive general managers in this free-agent season. He enlisted Doug Weight to help recruit players. He outbid everyone for defencemen Dan Hamhuis, Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek, though all of them decided to play elsewhere.

Ben Hankinson, Martin's agent, said his client was extremely impressed by Snow's approach. This will not come as a huge surprise to Islanders fans, but among Martin's biggest concerns was the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - the dreary Long Island arena where the Islanders play their home games.

That prompted Snow to deliver a classic line: "You're not sitting in the (bleeping) crowd, you're sitting on the bench."

The GM also promised that if Martin came to Long Island and didn't like it, Snow would agree to trade him. The Islanders are stuck in the Coliseum until 2015, which means that even with a five-year deal, Martin was never guaranteed to play in a new building - if one is ever built.

Snow declined to comment Saturday morning.

In the middle of all of this is "The Lighthouse Project." That's the name of Islanders owner Charles Wang's $4-billion attempt to rejuvenate the Coliseum and the 77 acres surrounding it. He wanted approval by the start of the 2009-10 season, but didn't get it. He is still waiting for the city government to come up with a proposal of its own, but it will be nothing like his vision.

There were rumblings this year that Wang was so fed up with the entire situation, he wanted to walk away from the franchise.

Now, it appears as if he's trying something else. Just like Eric Lindros built the Wachovia (now Wells-Fargo) Center in Philadelphia and Sidney Crosby built the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Wang hopes Kovalchuk can fulfill the owner's fantasy.

And there is no doubt the owner is calling the shots. Wang can be impulsive - he was the driving force behind Alexei Yashin's groundbreaking 10-year, $90-million deal (which the Islanders will pay off until 2015) and Ricky DiPietro's 15-year, $67.5-million contract (which could be similarly disastrous). Undoubtedly, Wang has Gary Bettman reaching for the defibrillator a third time.

Before July 1, one person who knows Kovalchuk said, "There will be a surprise bidder here, I guarantee it." Never thought it would be the Islanders (tip of the hat to The Denver Post's Adrian Dater, who did).

There is a lot of scepticism across the league, a lot of accusations of this being nothing more than a P.R. stunt or an attempt to appease fans who think Wang is cheap.

Snow's confirming his interest in Kovalchuk to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun also raised eyebrows. The GM is generally very secretive of his plans (and I say that with respect). He pulled off the Ryan Smyth trade a few years ago in silence, and kept his decision to select John Tavares first overall in the 2009 draft quiet from most of his staff. Snow actually had three different Islanders jerseys - one each with Tavares, Hedman,and Duchene stitched onto the back - to keep people off-guard. Hearing him admit he's involved in the Kovalchuk sweepstakes only adds to the conspiracy theories.

Right now, the Islanders are about $9 million below the salary floor, which is why this offer makes some sense. It's also why there was, at last season's trade deadline, a belief that they might be willing to acquire goalie Cristobal Huet from Chicago.

Russian players do like it in the New York area, so Snow's got that going for him. But Kovalchuk is trying hard to prove he's more than a money-hungry mercenary and badly wants to win. The fact he hasn't already accepted an offer is an indication of that. The Kings and the Devils remain ahead of the Islanders as favourites because they are in a better position for future success.

Snow has an answer for that, too. According to Hankinson, when it was mentioned during the Martin talks that Pittsburgh looked to be a better team, the Islanders GM replied, "We're going to win, too."

He's certainly trying.

[Asher]

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/nhlblog/kovalchuk_expected_to_sign_with_6bXr165ziolHuq8eWQQKLO

NJD supposedly signed him for $60M over 7 years

Not 100% confirmed yet

[Ben Kenobi]

Hard to do with players like Iginla, Bouw, and Kipper.

He'd have a harder time winning. If that's your core, I'd hate to see your bench...