Tag Archives: new york islanders

Cooke’s Suspension Not As Long As It’s Perceived.

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Pittsburgh Penguins bad boy Matt Cooke was sent a message by the NHL’s vice-president of discipline, Colin Campbell, on Monday. Cooke was suspended for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs for elbowing New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh in the head.

You’ve probably seen the elbow. The folks at TSN seem to run it in a loop with the rest of Cooke’s Cheapest Hits. The guy is a danger to his fellow NHL players, as well as the game. He almost destroyed Marc Savard’s life while in the process of destroying his career. Cooke’s head-shots have also caused his owner, the great Mario Lemieux to become a laughing stock.

In case you’ve forgotten, back on February 15 we wrote: “So Pittsburgh Penguins owner and president, Mario Lemieux, didn’t like the discipline handed out by the NHL to the New York Islanders this past weekend?

“Not surprising. Mario has a lot on his plate right now. He has a concussed Sidney Crosby who is likely out of the lineup until mid-March at best and he has Evgeni Malkin out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. With his two best players on the sidelines, Mario has noticed his Pens aren’t very good.  Between the injuries and the circus on Long Island last week, ol’ Mario is angry.

“Trouble is, he lives in a glass house … Mario’s problem is that he’s part of the whole mess. His Penguins have a headhunter named Matt Cooke. This is the guy who has, evidently, ended Marc Savard’s career. He’s a 32-year-old enforcer with a reasonable amount of skill who can pass for a legitimate player. However, if the Penguins need someone to end an opponent’s career, Matt Cooke is ready and willing to do whatever it takes. Most recently, Cooke was handed a four-game suspension (on Feb. 9), for hitting Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin from behind. It was a vicious, stupid hit delivered by a vicious, stupid man. However, it’s Mario’s man and as a result, when Lemieux talks about “sideshows,” he forgets that Cooke is one of the biggest clowns of the bunch.”

Cooke is the worst kind of goon. The type of player who isn’t a fighter, just a cheap-shot, head hunter.

Still, based on everything that went on this week, Cooke got off with a pretty light sentence. Sure, the penalty sounded amazing. “The remainder of the season and the first round of the playoffs,” but it’s also a minimum of 14 games. In other words, it’s very likely the penalty will be 14 games. Should have been 40.

There are only nine games left in the season and the first round will be over before the end of April. It wasn’t a serious penalty, it was just perceived to be a serious penalty. No wonder the Penguins weren’t going to appeal it. On sober second thought, it wasn’t a big deal at all.

Matt Cooke is considered one of the NHL’s dirtiest players and at the last NHL GM’s meeting the league claimed it  was going to clean up head shots. That penalty isn’t going to do it.

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Atlanta to Winnipeg? Sounds Like February 2010.

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Bill Daly, the vice-president of the National Hockey League, is an interesting guy. Whip-smart and with a sound handle on the business side of hockey, Daly was always at the forefront of the “Save or Don’t Save the Phoenix Coyotes” argument. And for him, there was never any doubt. If you listened closely, there was never even a waver in his voice. He said from Day 1, the league was going to do everything humanly possible to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix, and it did.

That’s why his comments this week regarding the future of the Atlanta Thrashers were somewhat stunning. He made it clear that he hoped all would go well in the Thrashers’ efforts to find a new investor in order to maintain a franchise in Georgia, but he didn’t say it with quite the same conviction he did when he said the league would do everything possible to save the Coyotes.

This time, Daly essentially alluded to a clear fact of capital, saying that in the United States, the market will determine the future. Whether it’s a business or a hockey franchise, Daly made it known that if the market couldn’t carry the Thrashers, the Thrashers might have to be carried to another market.

We wrote on the 92-CITI-FM website in February of 2010 that a team was on the verge of heading to Winnipeg and that the team would be the Atlanta Thrashers, not the Phoenix Coyotes.

It’s not going to happen for the start of the 2011-12 season, not a chance, but as Daly suggested this week, the Thrashers future in Atlanta isn’t quite as guaranteed as the Coyotes future was in Phoenix/Glendale.

Those with their hands on the pulse of the NHL still believe that the Atlanta Thrashers will end up in Winnipeg for the 2013-14 season — or sooner and it will be the Thrashers for a handful of reasons:

1) The Thrashers are 28th on the NHL’s list of announced attendance (don’t believe a word of announced attendances), behind the Islanders and Coyotes. The league knows they play in a college football town and the league also knows the attendance isn’t going to get any better.

2) The team’s owner has worked very hard for more than two years to find a business partner and he has not enticed one person who was interested in buying a chunk of the franchise and keeping it in Atlanta.

3) The Thrashers play in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has two problems with his East-West split — the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both teams are located in the Eastern time zone and yet they play in the West. Detroit, being an Original 6 team, has first dibs on a spot in the Eastern Conference, and Bettman would be happy moving an existing, yet struggling Eastern team to the West so he can move the Wings to the East. Atlanta to Winnipeg (just like the Islanders or maybe Florida to Kansas City) works.

4) An NHL franchise in Atlanta has failed before. The Flames crashed in the late 70s and were eventually moved to Calgary. Moving a second failed franchise in the same market is not as horrible an optic as moving Winnipeg to Phoenix and then Phoenix back to Winnipeg.

5) Bettman wants to appease the new, suddenly militant NHLPA which now has former MLBPA boss Donald Fehr as its executive director. Fehr hates salary caps and will quite happily take his players out on strike if there is one tiny, little thing he doesn’t like. Fehr loves labour strife and he’ll create strife were it doesn’t really exist. So in order to try and save his “cap-based-on-revenue” concept, Bettman needs to keep revenues high and the cap moving up every year. That means he must get out of struggling markets soon and while he did everything he could to save Phoenix because of his legacy, his ego, the optics of the situation and the promises he made to the community, he won’t be quite as enthused about saving a franchise that has none of those concerns.

We will know this year if (first) and when Winnipeg will get a new NHL franchise.

I wrote in February of 2010 that it would be the Atlanta Thrashers. I still believe that today.

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Preds in Trouble. That Makes Five Admissions. Time to Give an NHL Franchise to Winnipeg.

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

TAMPA — It’s one thing to be in trouble. It’s another thing to admit it.

In the National Hockey League, there are more admissions every day.

The New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and the Phoenix Coyotes have all admitted that they are having financial problems in their markets. The Tampa Bay Lightning have admitted ownership troubles and the Dallas Stars will likely have to be sold because of the recession’s effects on owner Tom Hicks’ fortune. Hockey is in trouble in many U.S. markets and. of course, Winnipeg sits patiently and waits for the NHL to decide its own future.

This week, members of Nashville’s Metro Sports Authority admitted they were worried about the future of the Preds at Nashville’s Sommet Centre.

“We are sort of hostage to somebody that comes along and makes a better deal in terms of another city,” Sports Authority member Steve North told Nate Rau of the Tennessean.

The source of the worry began when it was revealed that Preds majority owner David Freeman has a personal $3.5 million tax lien against him.

According to Rau, the lien against Freeman was the latest development in a series of financial bombshells. Last month the team filed suit against the Sommet Group to terminate the naming rights agreement at the downtown arena. Six weeks ago, CIT Group, which lent the local ownership group $85 million, filed for bankruptcy protection. And, of course, there is William (Bootsie) Del Biaggio , a minority owner, who filed for bankruptcy after he was jailed for fraud. His 27 percent stake in the franchise is now tied up in bankruptcy court.

Meanwhile, if the Predators show a $20 million cumulative loss (beginning in 2007) and if attendance falls below an average of 14,000 paid per game, the owners can exercise an opt-out clause from their lease beginning on May 1, 2010. That would allow the team to leave Nashville.

So now, with Phoenix, Columbus, Nashville and Atlanta officially in trouble, there is a good chance Winnipeg will be in line for an existing team soon.

In fact, the sooner it happens, the better off the NHL will be.

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Sitting In the Middle of a Full House in St. Paul is A Lot Different than Sitting in Florida, Tampa or Phoenix — Or Even Denver.

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s a gorgeous night in the Twin Towns and the “Team of 18,000″ is getting ready to sing State of Hockey here at the Xcel Energy Centre. It’s the Minnesota Wild, a day before Shane Hnidy’s 34th birthday, against the Dallas Stars, with Minnesota’s beloved Mike Modano, not only in the lineup but starting the game and playing on the No. 1 line, at age 39.

It’s been a shaky start to the 2009-2010 season for the Wild. Minnesota’s team heads into tonight’s game at 5-10-0 (1-7-0 on the road) and while the record hasn’t negatively affected the team’s attendance this season, it has been a grind on the staff.

“It’s tough,” said the Wild’s VP of communications Bill Robertson earlier tonight. “It’s a tough economy, it’s tough to sell tickets. We still sell every seat, but we’re not overflowing with standing room like we usually are and it’s tougher to sell corporate suites than it used to be.

“On the upside, merchandise sales are way up because of fans have really taken to our third jersey.”

It’s hard to listen to a guy — even a great guy like Billy Rob — worry about the fans in Minnesota after you’ve already seen games in Florida, Tampa and Nashville this season and have interviewed Doug Moss, the president of the Phoenix Coyotes (check out www.hotdoghockey.com for that interview). Those are markets with big trouble. There is no trouble at all in St. Paul.

However, no one ever would have believed that there could be trouble in Denver, the home of the Colorado Avalanche, and it appears now that there is.

Wednesday night, for a game against Phoenix, the Avalanche drew a franchise-low 11,012 (remember, that’s the announced crowd) ticket buyers. This season, the Avs have averaged just 14,759 through its first five home games and that once again means, “Who cares if MTS Centre has only 15,001 seats?” Not even the red-hot Colorado Avalanche average 15,000 per game these days.

(Oops, Cal Clutterbuck just scored a shorthanded goal from our pal Shane Hnidy.)

With an average of 14,759 per game, the Avalanche stand 25th in the NHL in per-game attendance ahead of only Florida, Tampa Bay, Nashville, the New York Islanders and Phoenix.

Meanwhile, after watching the Atlanta Thrashers play on TV this week,  in front of a crowd that appeared to include the players’ parents and no one else, it’s hard to imagine the Thrashers have the nerve to say they average more per game than the Avs or even the Winnipeg South Blues.

Meanwhile, there will soon be an ownership change in South Florida. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Alan Cohen’s days as majority owner of the Panthers are coming to an end, as two partners in his ownership group are expected to take control of the team.

Two Boca Raton businessmen, Panthers Vice-Chairman Cliff Viner and Managing Director Stu Siegel, will buy most of Cohen’s 43 per cent of the team and become co-managing partners.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, “Panthers fans are desperate for change. The team has not made the playoffs since 2000, the longest playoff drought in the NHL, and has undergone numerous coaching and general manager changes and traded away some of its best players, including Roberto Luongo, Olli Jokinen and Jay Bouwmeester.”

But here’s the kicker, the paper added: “The ownership change is not expected to resolve the team’s financial struggles. The team’s parent company, Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, is seeking Broward County’s help to restructure its debt on the county-owned BankAtlantic Center.”

It’s a mess on Long Island, Phoenix is a disaster (only 5,585 this past Monday at jobing.com Arena), Tampa Bay and Nashville are hurting, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce has conceded that the Blue Jackets don’t have much life left and now Florida needs government help from a government that isn’t flush.

We all know Gary Bettman doesn’t want to admit it, but the NHL is in big, big trouble.

* * *

KELLY SAYS “BULL-CACA.” THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T RESPOND IN ANGER. WONDER WHY?

Friday morning, during an interview with Tom McGouran, Kathy Kennedy and The Coach, on 92-CITI-FM, Blue Bombers coach Mike Kelly poked the local mainstream media with a stick. Again.

Kelly, laughing all the way, said, “You guys have the only media outlet that isn’t bull-caca.”

He then added, “I don’t think I can be fined $2,000 by the league for saying ‘bull-caca.” Can I? ”

He was assured by McGouran that it was unlikely he’d be fined. In fact, McGouran agreed with him.

“Can’t be fined for telling the truth,” McGouran laughed.

That’s true to an extent. Kelly could still be fined because he told the truth the first time and was fined.

Then again, he had no bone to pick with CITI, a spot on the dial where the interviewers ask good, solid questions without being rude and obnoxious.

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Five Men Who Should Be In The Hockey Hall of Fame.

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Because my friend old Ed Sweeney, can’t really do it anymore, I have taken up the gauntlet.

Every year, as the new inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame are feted, I like to write an open letter on Mr. Sweeney’s behalf in an effort to alert Bill Hay or Jim Gregory or Harry Sinden or somebody on the Hall of Fame selection committee, to the fact that to the hockey historians in this part of Canada, the Toronto-based Hall is still a sad Eastern/American joke.

For more than a decade, Sweeney kept a list of five men, coaches, builders and players who should be in the Hall, but for reasons he could just never understand, had been consistently ignored by the people who made the Hall’s final selections.

Sweeney is an old baseball player and bowling champion (he used to set pins at Billy Mosienko Lanes in Winnipeg’s North End) who has always had that deep, abiding love for hockey that only a Canadian can have. He’s the former curator of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and was, for a long time, an active member of the Canadian Association for Hockey Research.

This year, I have taken it upon myself to offer up Mr. Sweeney’s annual letter to the Hall, a letter that includes the names of five people who should be in the Hall, but have been left out for reasons I simply don’t want to consider.

Here, once again, is “Sweeney’s List”…

Robert “Butch Goring: He played 16 years with L.A., Boston and the New York Islanders. Was a Masterton, Lady Byng and Conn Smythe Trophy winner and helped the Islanders win four Stanley Cups in the early 1980s. “If Clark Gillies is in the Hall, then Butch Goring should be in the Hall,” said Sweeney. There is an outstanding profile of Goring at

http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=12752

Murray Murdoch: The NHL’s original Ironman, Murdoch played 11 years with the New York Rangers from 1926-27 to 1936-37, won two Stanley Cups and never missed a game. There is a tremendous profile of Murdoch at http://www.newyorkrangers.com/tradition/bio.asp?Player=Murdoch

Billy Reay: “Most people don’t believe me when I tell them Billy Reay is NOT in the Hall of Fame,” Sweeney always said. Reay retired as one of only two players to win a Memorial Cup, an Allan Cup and a Stanley Cup (with the Canadiens) and after retiring as a player he went on to coach the Chicago Blackhawks. He left coaching in 1976 with 598 wins — at the time, the second most in NHL history.

Lorne Chabot: Port Arthur’s “Old Bulwarks” won a Stanley Cup with the Rangers and had 73 shutouts in his career back when the NHL was in its infancy. There is a fine profile of Chabot at

http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=18462

John Ferguson: “Even if you don’t count the fact, he was the best fighter in the NHL and a pretty good player during his time, John has to be in the Hall as a builder,” said Sweeney. “He was assistant GM with Team Canada ’72 and then GM of the Rangers. He built the Winnipeg Jets and had a lot to do with building the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks of today.”

I hope someone out there in the big Eastern city will remember Goring, Murdoch, Chabot, Reay and Ferguson. One of the Hall’s 18 selection committee members can nominate a candidate and perhaps this is the year they’ll remember true greatness.

On behalf of Ed Sweeney, I hope that this is year the Hall’s gatekeepers will give their heads a shake.

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The Phoney Coyotes Have Lost $389 Million Since 2004

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I love to say I told you so. It’s fun.

People used to look at me funny when I suggested that the Phoenix Coyotes had lost far more than $500 million since the Winnipeg Jets were moved to the desert in 1996.

They won’t look at me funny anymore.

Yesterday, when Phoenix bankruptcy Judge Redfield T. Baum rejected both bids to purchase the Coyotes — although the NHL will be allowed to amend its bid and try again — he also opened up the books to the public. Here are the numbers:

The Phoenix Coyotes Hockey Club lost the following amounts of money:

2004 — $75 million

2005 — $50 million

2006 — $75 million

2007 — $117 million

2008 — $72 million

That’s $389 million in five seasons. $389 million!!!!!!!

Baum said: “Financial statements raise substantial doubt as to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

Well, no shit Sherlock.

The Phoenix Coyotes are a disaster. And it’s very likely the Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders are closing in on disaster territory, as well.

The imagination runs wild thinking of how much money that Phoenix franchise will lose this year. And ol’ Judge Redfield T. Baum, on the eve of the 2009-2010 NHL season, thinks it will be a good idea if that dreadful hockey club stays right there  in Glendale, Ariz., for the next seven months.

The people who run the NHL, who had their “membership selection right and control over home team location rights” protected by a bankruptcy judge who has decided to drive a joke of a franchise deeper into the financial abyss, should be counting their lucky stars tonight. Anybody else who looked at those numbers would have yelled “Shut that thing down, right now!”

No wonder the U.S. in a recession/depression. This is a wonderful example of how money is frittered away in the United States. There wasn’t one person in this entire exercise who demonstrated any fiduciary ability whatsover. I wonder how many people have been stiffed by this “business?”

Sadly, throughout this entire procedure, there has not been one single person who has provided even the slightest hint that he could run a one-car funeral. I fear for the future of capitalism.

This week’s question: How much money WILL the Phoenix Coyotes lose this year? The over-under line is at $200 million.

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A Definition of Insanity

Posted on August 8, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Here is, without fear of argument, a pure, unadulterated definition of insanity:

On Saturday, the National Hockey League asked Phonix bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum to throw out a bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes by RIM CEO and multi-billionaire Jim Balsillie because the league says he’s “untrustworthy” and doesn’t have the “integrity” to be an owner.

The motion was accompanied by declarations from Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold, which says the owners have all rejected Balsillie and that he “would be untrustworthy” and that the court has no right to overturn their July 29 vote. The owners say their opinion is based on Balsillie’s behaviour in earlier attempts to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators.

Let us forget, shall we, that the NHL thought he was just fine when he approached the league about buying into the failing (at the time) Penguins and the failing (still) Predators. Let us forget, shall wee, that the NHL is a club for people who refuse to tell the truth, even when they’ve been caught in lies.

But it’s impossible to think for one minute that when the league says Balsillie is “untrustworthy” or doesn’t have the requisite “integrity” to be an owner, the league has fallen into group delusion. Or, at best, forgets the mere existence of these notorious NHL owners:

1) When he took over as commissioner, one of commissioner Gary Bettman’s closest friends and supporters inside the league was Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall. McNall went to jail for fraud.

2) After Steven Gluckstern nearly went broke owning the New York Islanders, Bettman brought in Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar. Kumar is now serving a 12-year sentence for fraud.

3) Bettman also needed help after Buffalo Sabres owner Seymour Knox died in 1996, so he found cable TV magnate John Rigas. In 2002, while he was the Sabres owner, Rigas was convicted of, you guessed it, fraud. He’s still in prison.

4) On Jan. 28, 2000, former New York Islanders owner John Spano, who took over an NHL team with very little money, simply because the NHL forgot to do a background check, was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison for a bank and wire fraud conviction.

5) Later this month, former Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli will be sentenced by a California court for lying to federal investigators for his role in Broadcom’s $2.2 billion stock options award scandal. He could get five years.

6) Then there was “Bootsie.” With the Nashville Predators in bankruptcy protection, Bettman refused to sell the team to Balsillie because Balsillie wanted to move it to Canada. So Bettman went out and found a wealthy venture capitalist named William (Bootsie) Del Biaggio III. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess, but it wasn’t long before Bootsie was facing fraud charges brought on by everybody from the SEC to Luc Robitaille to Joe Montana. Bootsie hasn’t gone to jail yet, but there are a lot of people who would like to see him in the crow bar hotel.

Gary Bettman does not want Jim Balsillie to own a team, but he’s happy having felons own teams.

Therefore, simply to suggest that Balsillie isn’t trustworthy is to demonstrate a level of delusional insanity that is usually reserved for people who see the baby Jesus in their morning coffee.

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Crosby, Brodeur lead the way: Camp Invitees Named for 2010 Canadian Men’s Olympic Hockey Team

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I love this list. I would add a couple of names here and there, especially an indigenous Canadian such as Jonathan Cheechoo or Wade Redden, but for the most part, the players named to the tryout camp should give the coaching staff a chance to pick a 2010 Team Canada that has a chance to win.

I would liked to have seen Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa invited as a defenceman, but I’ll have no problem with the final lineup.

Up front, I can’t believe Dany Heatley is on the list after the stunt he’s pulled with Ottawa and Edmonton this week. There is a real integrity and character problem there. If Hockey Canada was going to take an Ottawa Senator, I really can’t believe they took Heatley ahead of Jason Spezza. At least Spezza’s a decent human being who doesn’t hurt others around him. Steven Stamkos should probably be on the list and if you’re going to take Dan Cleary, how about Darren Helm? Of course, the list has to stop at some point.

Chris Osgood should also be on the list. Fleury? Mason? Osgood? I’ll take Osgood every time. However, I still believe Brodeur and Luongo should be the Top 2 goaltenders anyway.

Here’s the list of invitees to the 2010 Men’s Olympic Hockey Team. Team Canada’s camp goes Aug. 24-27 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary:

Only five of the 16 defencemen invited have Olympic experience: Jay Bouwmeester (Calgary Flames), Dan Boyle (San Jose Sharks), Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim Ducks),  Chris Pronger (Philadelphia Flyers), and Robyn Regehr (Calgary Flames). Rounding out the list of D-men are: Dion Phaneuf (Calgary Flames), Marc Staal (New York Rangers), Shea Weber (Nashville Predators), François Beauchemin (Anaheim Ducks), Brent Burns (Minnesota Wild), Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings), Stéphane Robidas (Dallas Stars), Mike Green (Washington Capitals), Dan Hamhuis (Nashville Predators), and the Chicago Blackhawks pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby heads up the list of forwards. The list of 25 has 11 from the 2006 Olympic team roster, including Shane Doan (Phoenix Coyotes), Simon Gagné (Philadelphia Flyers), Dany Heatley (Ottawa Senators), Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames), Rick Nash (Columbusn Blue Jackets), Joe Sakic (Colorado Avalanche), Martin St-Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning), Eric Staal (Carolina Hurricanes), Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Ryan Smyth (Colorado Avalanche). The rest of the list includes Jeff Carter (Philadelphia Flyers), Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks), Milan Lucic (Boston Bruins), Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Andy McDonald (St. Louis Blues), Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars), Corey Perry (Anaheim Ducks) Michael Richards (Philadelphia Flyers), Derek Roy (Buffalo Sabres), Patrick Sharp (Chicago Blackhawks), Jordan Staal (Thunder Bay, Ont./Pittsburgh, NHL) Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Man./Chicago, NHL) and Dan Cleary (Detroit Red Wings).

The list of five goalies includes three-time Olympian Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), 2006 Olympian Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks), Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-André Fleury, Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Cam Ward (Carolina Hurricanes).

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If Heatley says “No”, it’s Bad for Hockey and the NHL Needs to Intervene.

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Free Agent Frenzy, Day 1…

Granted, there is a chance Dany Heatley could still end up as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, but let’s get something straight here: When you ask for a trade and then decide not to waive your no-trade clause (Who’s the idiot GM who puts that crap in a contract anyway?), you have a problem.

Sure, Heatley told his agent J.P. Barry, the “he wanted to sleep on it,” and that’s fine, but only a tremendously selfish prick with no consideration for three other hockey players, two franchises, the league and the game would pull a stunt like that.

Here’s the deal: Heatley was going to get what he wanted. He asked for a trade out of Ottawa and even though he went public with his demands and put the Senators in a bind, forcing them to go begging to teams to take the alleged superstar off their hands, Bryan Murray did the best he could to get the trade arranged.

For the Senators, the best deal was with Edmonton. The Oilers were going to send 22-year-old forward Andrew Cogliano, 26-year-old forward Dustin Penner and 23-year-old defenceman Ladislav Smid to Ottawa in exchange for the disgruntled 28-year-old Heatley. It was a good deal all around. The Oilers would get the sniper they need while the Sens would get three young players with plenty of upside.

But then Heatley decided NOT to waive his no-trade clause. He could still change his mind and some believe he will, right after the Senators (not the Oilers) pay him his $4 million bonus. But that’s even more selfish, more greedy and more childish.

If Heatley doesn’t come to his senses and go to Edmonton, the league has to take action. This was a trade  made in good faith and the players involved all knew they were moving. We’re dealing with people’s lives here, but then again rich, selfish jock pricks don’t care about other people. The League, in order to save the credibility of its franchises, has to tell Heatley’s people that he’s going to Edmonton and then if he doesn’t like it, he can go ahead and ask for a trade there.

Heatley, who should know better, has just told the world that Edmonton is a dump. “I’m not going to play there.” It’s wrong. It’s wrong because you don’t ask for a trade and then not accept the trade after it’s done.

In order to save its own credibility — that is, if Heatley insists he’s not going — the league must force this trade.

In the meantime:

1) Great news for old friend Colton Orr. Four years, $4 million from the Leafs. Orr’s rise to the NHL is a great story and this is a great opportunity for a hardworking 27-year-old player.

2) Mattias Ohlund, 32, gets seven years in Tampa. Seven? Wow.

3) The Sedin Twins go back to Vancouver and Ohlund heads south. That’s a debatable decision by the Canucks. Wouldn’t you rather have Ohlund and, say, Marian Gaborik, than the Sedins?

4) Three goalie moves: Dwayne Roloson goes from Edmonton to the Islanders, Ty Conklin goes from Detroit to St. Louis and Craig Anderson goes from Florida to Colorado. Zzzzzzzzzz.

5) Marian Hossa, 30, goes to Chicago for 12 years, $62 million. He was awful in the Stanley Cup final. He’ll be just a peach when he’s 42.

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Pronger to Philly, Bouwmeester to Calgary. Somebody had a Good Weekend.

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

For the most part, what we expected to happen, happened, at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft in Montreal.

We expected the New York Islanders to take Swedish defenceman Victor Hedman, if the Isles wanted a guy who could play (well) right now, and John Tavares if they wanted a Canadian junior sniper they could market like Steven Stamkos.

The Isles took Tavares with the No. 1 pick and will now be more sizzle than steak for another year. That’s not to say Tavares won’t eventually lead the Islanders out of the wilderness — a wilderness created by Mike Milbury’s failures — but it won’t happen in 2009-2010 and not like the year after, either.

There were plenty of interesting trades. Chris Pronger, along with forward Ryan Dingle, went from Anaheim to Philadelphia , in exchange for defenceman Luca Sbisa, forward Joffrey Lupul, two first-round picks and a conditional third-round pick in 2010 or 2011. Pronger is 34 and on the downside of a great career.

The Calgary Flames had a great day on Saturday. The Flames acquired the rights to 25-year-old Florida Panthers defenceman Jay Bouwmeester in exchange for defenceman Jordan Leopold and the 67th overall pick that Florida used to select Josh Birkholz. Bouwmeester is still an Olympic-calibre defenceman and he will make Calgary a force in the West.

Later on Saturday, the Flames sent six-year veteran defenceman Jim Vandermeer, 29, who played 45 games in Calgary last year, to Phoenix in exchange for a former Flames draft pick, 25-year-old Brandon Prust. Nice to see the Coyotes getting older and slower.

The made-up trade rumour that had the Boston Bruins sending Phil Kessel and a draft pick to the Leafs for Tomas Kaberle turned out to be aprochryphal. Who makes this crap up?

Sadly, there will be more ridiculous rumours this week with the free agent deadline on Wednesday. Wonder who will be the first to report, ohh I don’t know, Sidney Crosby to Washington for Alex Ovechkin? Please, somebody make that one up.

In the meantime, Teemu Selanne, a 10-time all-star and former Winnipeg Jets rookie of the year, told the Anaheim Ducks that he would be back next season. The 38-year-old Selanne will play his 18th NHL season this coming year. He had 27 goals and 27 assists in 65 games last season. Why is it that the NHL is just better with Teemu Selanne in it?

Finally, congratulations to Winnipeg’s Scott Glennie (eighth overall to Dallas), Winnipeg’s Carter Ashton (No. 29 overall to Tampa), Winnipeg’s Cody Eakin (third round, 85th overall to Washington) and Winkler’s Byron Froese (fourth round, 119th to Chicago), the Manitobans taken in this weekend’s draft.

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