The Archives

06.29.07

The calm before the storm NHL | (3)
It's relatively quiet around the NHL (unless you live in Nashville, Kansas City or Hamilton). That will all change in about 48 hours, when the NHL free agency period officially begins. You can bet your Ron Francis rookie card that GMs around the league have already been involved in informal talks with the hot free agents. Continue Reading...
06.28.07

Qualifying offer for Svatos Avalanche Notebook | (4)
Marek "Eric" Svatos has been tendered a qualifying offer by the Colorado Avalanche. The offer is for $1,050,000 - the minimum required deal. As a restricted free agent Svatos can sign with another team. If he does, the Avs can choose to match the contract or let him go and receive draft pick compensation (a 2nd rounder if his contract is under $2 million). Given his poor season, I don't expect many teams to have Marek's agent on speed dial this summer. Barring a holdout, it looks like Svatos will be back. Here's hoping for a big career rebound.
06.27.07

Tkachuk to the Blues…sort of NHL | (3)
The St Louis Blues have reacquired 97-year old forward Keith Tkachuk from the Atlanta Thrashers. Oops, this just in...looks like Tkachuk is officially listed as 35. Sorry. At first blush, this trade looks similar to the oh-so-close-to-collusion between the Predators and Flyers. The Blues traded Tkachuk to the Thrashers at the deadline, and now the Thrashers were sending him back to St Louis just days before he was to become a free agent. Unlike the Hartnell deal, though, in this case it doesn't look like Tkachuk is going to sign with the Blues. As part of the deadline trade, if the ...
06.26.07

Media or remedial? Avalanche Notebook | (15)
What am I? Am I a journalist, a blogger...or just a guy sitting in his underwear? Jibblescribbits raised that question yesterday. It's not a new issue, nor is it an easy one to solve. Continue Reading...
06.24.07

Thoughts on the draft Avalanche Notebook, NHL | (5)
Yeah, so after dissing the NHL draft the other day, I went ahead an watched it on Friday night anyway. Well, not the whole thing, but at least the first 20 picks or so. Continue Reading...
06.24.07

New Columbus jerseys NHL Jerseys | (0)
The new Blue Jackets jerseys have been unveiled. Tapeleg at Jerseys and Hockey Love got to try one on and has some great photos (I had no idea Manny Malhotra was still around in the NHL). The jerseys look great, especially the civil war shoulder patch. I have to say, I've been pleasantly surprised that the new Reebok EDGE jerseys aren't looking like total ass. The Bruins' unis are gorgeous, and the Blue Jackets' duds are solid. The Capitals? I'm a bit mixed on that one, but they are growing on me a bit. Not quite three home runs, but two ...
06.22.07

Tyler Arnason signs extension Avalanche Notebook | (0)
This one's a shocker. Tyler Arnason has signed a two-year deal with the Avalanche. Salary hasn't been announced yet, but I'm assuming somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. While I don't dislike Arnason, I felt we needed to upgrade our toughness and faceoff percentage...and his spot seemed like a perfect place to go looking for an upgrade. His 2 hits (yes, 2) and 43.8% leave a bit to be desired. Overall, the Avs ranked 22nd in the league in faceoffs last year, and, at this point, seem to be returning all 4 centers from last year. In other words, don't expect ...
06.22.07

Washington Capitals jerseys NHL Jerseys | (0)
The red (home) jerseys were leaked the other day. Today is the official unveiling, and now we can see the white (away) jerseys. Not bad. A bit...I don't know...soccerish, but it could have been worse, I guess. Perhaps it is trying to do too much - it's like retro and futuristic all rolled in one. Not quite the slam dunk that Boston's uniforms are, but still not bad.
06.22.07

Flames get Aucoin, Leafs get robbed NHL | (4)
The draft weekend trades have started. First up: Adrian Aucoin to the Flamesfor Andrei Zyuzin. Aucoin makes $4 million and Zyuzin makes $1.4...Chicago essentially is shedding salary with this one. Calgary seems to be hedging their bets against the loss of Roman Hamrlik and/or Brad Stuart this summer. Aucoin is better than he's shown the last two seasons and it's already been documented that he's played well under Mike Keenan in the past. Still, seems like a lot of money to tie up in a guy, especially for a team with a lot of core guys that will need to be ...
06.22.07

Ducks get Giggy after all NHL | (0)
To the surprise of everyone at ITCS (in other words: me), the Anaheim Ducks have re-signed goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. I speculated that, despite his performance in the playoffs this summer, the Ducks might let him leave via free agency and go with the cheaper Ilya Bryzgalov. Instead, they inked Giguere to a 4 year, $24 million contract - something close to what he would have gotten on the open market. Bryzgalov looks like the odd man out in orange county and, with a low cap number (about $1.2 million), should command a nice return for the quackers.