NHL

NHL and other hockey related posts.

The first domino(es) falls in Chicago

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Chicago has taken the first step in alleviating their salary cap nightmare.

Dustin Byfuglien will bring his net-front presence to the Atlanta Thrashers next season.

This afternoon, the team sent playoff hero Dustin Byfuglien to Atlanta along with Brent Sopel, Ben Eager and Akim Aliu in exchange for the Marty Reasoner, Jeremy Morin, the 24th and 54th overall selections in the 2010 draft.

The trade sheds about $4-5 million from the Blackhawks cap. That is assuming Morin plays in the AHL next season.

While the trade hasn’t officially gone through, this will end up better for the Blackhawks than for the Thrashers. Even though Atlanta gets the top player in the deal, they also inherit two sub-par players in Sopel and Eager. Meanwhile, Chicago now owns five picks in the first 60 of the draft, that gives them the ability to restock their prospect cupboard for the next 3-5 years.

In addition, Atlanta loses a quality role player in Reasoner and the first round selection they acquired from trading Ilya Kovalchuk.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year

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Not Christmas. The lead up to the NHL Draft and the beginning of free agency. It started, in earnest, today. Now the following nine days leading up to July 1st will be full of trade fodder and moves to improve teams for the 2010-11 season.

Today saw, perhaps, the most deals since the end of the Cup finals. But, the wheeling and dealing really took off on June 17th when the Canadiens made a major splash by sending playoff hero Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues. I wish that I had put my thinking into words on this space because, the move cleared cap room for the team to sign Tomas Plekanec to an extension. In addition, the trade that saw Nathan Horton sent to Boston for Denis Wideman and a pick this afternoon.

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Nathan Horton shipped to Boston

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The Boston Bruins, this afternoon, acquired Gregory Campbell and Nathan Horton from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Denis Wideman and the 15th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft (per Bob McKenzie’s Twitter).

Nathan Horton is on his way to Boston with Gregory Campbell.

This is quite possibly one of the most even trades I have ever seen. The immediate benefits will be seen by Boston more so than Florida. But, the Panthers can do quite a bit with the pick they received in the deal. Plus, Wideman covers up for the trade that sent Dennis Sidenberg at the deadline.

Wideman is coming off a poor year with the Bruins and will have a chance to bounce back with more minutes in Florida. Currently, monster defenseman Dylan McIlrath is rated 15th. Although, there is a good chance that the Panthers go with a forward in this spot, a guy like Nick Bjugstad or Emerson Etem could be a good fit for Florida.

Boston receives a solid power forward in Horton, plus a serviceable center in Gregory Campbell. Horton has been rumored to want out of Florida for some time, he will be put in a great situation in Boston. He, combined with Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin (depending who Edmonton goes with at #1) will more than make up for the loss of Phil Kessel last season. Boston has definitely set themselves up for a very strong run next season. Continue reading →

Blackhawks up against the cap

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A few quick hits regarding the Blackhawks salary cap situation:

  • Chicago has 10 upcoming free agents, four UFAs and six RFAs.
  • They have $1.234 million available to sign these players.
  • There is at least $3.5 million invested in each of the following players: Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell, Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp and Cristobal Huet. Plus, Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien and Dave Bolland are each on for $3 million.

The Hawks are in a very precarious situation moving into Friday’s draft. Of their upcoming free agents, Nick Boynton and Kim Johnsson aren’t likely to be brought back. As UFAs and veteran defensemen the pair don’t have a big impact in the future of the organization.

Andrew Ladd (rear) and Jordan Hendry (#42) are likely to be playing in a different city next year.

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Blowing up the Predators

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The Nashville Predators made some very interesting moves this afternoon.

First, they shipped UFA to-be Dan Hamhuis to the Philadelphia Flyers for a conditional pick in 2011 and Ryan Parent. Secondly, they sent captain Jason Arnott to the New Jeresey Devils in exchange for winger Matt Halischuk and a second-round pick in 2011. Lastly, they resigned defenseman Francois Bouillon to a two-year $2.7 million contract.

So, in one afternoon, the Predators traded away two major players and reupped one 4th/5th defenseman.

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Jaroslav Halak dealt out of Montreal

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The Montreal Canadiens have decided who their number one goaltender will be. However, it isn’t who many would have guessed. Montreal shipped Jaroslav Halak to St. Louis for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz.

Jaroslav Halak is now a member of the St. Louis Blues. Weeks after leading the Canadiens past the Capitals and Penguins in the playoffs.

So, the Habs picked up a pair of prospects in exchange for the goaltender that carried them to the conference finals. Eller spent the 2009-10 season in the minors, while Schultz has been inked to his first NHL deal but stayed in juniors last season.

The quick winner here is definitely the Blues. Chris Mason is an Unrestricted Free Agent and will obviously not be signed. They dealt two players who haven’t shown a real push to crack the lineup for a proven goaltender who is entering his prime. The Canadiens still have a year or two to see if these two prospects will pan out. But they have given Carey Price a vote of confidence and hopefully that will light the necessary fire under him.

So, now the Habs really need a good season out of Carey Price, something that has yet to be seen since his fabulous rookie campaign.

Dear Mr. Pronger. Shut up

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So, Chris Pronger plays a very edgy style. Some might say dirty, I say he toes the line. Either way, he creates a lot of enemies on and off the ice. You might say Adam Burish, of the Chicago Blackhawks, is among his enemies.

Now, Burish’s comments weren’t necessary especially given the situation. He just won the Cup and could have easily avoided the question, but he chose not to. In my opinion it was the wrong choice. Not to mention, if he were to fight Pronger in a game he would likely lose the fight, badly. Oh – and he didn’t see the ice in game six, or a few others.

That brings us to Pronger. Who always has carried himself with a certain arrogance that I can’t stand. He had a few particularly bad games at the end of the series and probably should have taken the high road in terms of responding to Burish’s comments.

Listen Chris, you just lost the Cup, you played really poorly in the final two games (game five in particular) leave it be. If you’re so much better than this guy why bother saying something? If anything, Pronger comes off as the bigger ass because he is the one still chirping after the loss.

A little professionalism goes a long way, seems like Burish and Pronger could use a lesson in that.

I almost forgot, Jeremy Roenick cried!

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I should preface this post, and explain that headline, by saying I have loads of respect for Jeremy Roenick. I was lucky enough to spend time with Jeremy in Vancouver at the Olympics and he is truly a great guy. The morning production meetings were always a blast with him there.

So, I digress. The fact that Jeremy Roenick was so emotional over the Blackhawks winning the Cup shows the die-hard attitude the players have in the NHL. Roenick was so close, so many times and missed his opportunity. And to see him in that state shows his dedication to the game of hockey. I know a lot of people are going to have a lot of fun with what happened in studio after the game, but I respect him for it. I know if the Sabres ever win the Cup………….I will probably experience a wave of emotion. Plus, if I were to have the hockey career similar to his, and see a former team of mine hoist the Cup, I would be happy but heartbroken too. So, my hat’s off to you Mr. Roenick. But, for everyone else, here is the video.

Is the NHL back?

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In the mid-1990s a strong argument could be made that the NHL had surpassed the NBA in popularity. But, goaltender equipment grew, the trap gained popularity and hockey entered the dead puck era. All the while, the NBA had a surge of young talent and rapidly attracted casual fans.

Entering the early 2000s the NHL, armed with commissioner Gary Bettman, who was sent from the NBA, attempted to invade non-traditional, warm weather markets. Ten years later the Nashville Predators have been in a constant state of limbo, the Phoenix Coyotes are being run by the league and teams like Florida, Tampa and Atlanta have trouble filling seats. All of this is occurring while the Stanley Cup Finals draws new audience highs since the 90s with numbers comparable to the Lakers/Celtics NBA Finals. In fact, last night’s 7-4 Blackhawks win trounced the NBA Finals in the Chicago market. Of course, that is to be expected.

The trend nationwide surely would favor the NBA, and I would not argue that the NHL has again surpassed the NBA in popularity. However, hockey is a much more team-oriented sport that has seen less drama off the playing field than the NBA recently.  When it all boils down the NHL is still a few years away, but, the youth movement has spurred ticket sales and unique events like the Winter Classic. Plus, the high-scoring Finals that is developing not only will help draw casual fans hungry for goals, but it will have Gary Bettman doing backflips about high-scoring games.

If ESPN’s coverage was less biased towards the NBA and the NHL continues to grow, the league should see nothing but positive growth in the next few years.

Your call:

Pronger Fail

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The Hawks overwhelmed the Flyers, plain and simple. The three-goal first period all but nailed the coffin shut for Philly, although they fought back valiantly all game.

Give credit to the Chicago coaching staff, they used the last change to their advantage and kept their big guns away from Chris Pronger. Apparently, second line players are Pronger’s kryptonite. The towering d-man was a minus-5 tonight after going plus-7 in the first four games of the series. In fact, Pronger was on the ice for six Chicago goals, but Brent Seabrook’s first-period tally came with the man advantage.

Again, the goaltending was less than impressive on both sides. Antti Niemi played well enough for his team not to lose, which appears to be the trend for this Cup Final. I’m sure game six will mirror that trend. After all, every game, save for one, has been a shootout.

I don’t know who will take game six, I truly don’t. Neither team has shown up and played their true style of hockey for back-to-back games this series. If Chicago can come out like gangbusters on the road Tuesday, the Blackhawks will win the Cup. But, you just can’t count out home ice in this series, it has proven to be too valuable of a commodity.