Sadly, we can now close the NHL 2009-10 thread. I was pleasantly surprised to see it do so well and that there are so many hockey fans on here. But I was not happy with the Flyers coming oh, so close to winning the Cup but failing for the 6th straight time.
Anyway, only a few more months and the season begins and the torturously boring regular season will slump along. But then the playoffs begin again.

From ESPN.com:

The NHL will open the 2010-11 season with five games Oct. 7, highlighted by the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks playing the Avalanche in Colorado.

The other three games include three rivalry clashes: Pittsburgh opening its new arena, CONCOL Energy Center, against Philadelphia; Toronto hosting Montreal; and Calgary at Edmonton.

The North American openers coincide with an expanded slate of NHL games being held in Europe.

Carolina and Minnesota play games Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 in Helsinki, Finland.

San Jose and Columbus will play Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Boston and Phoenix will Oct. 9 and Oct. 10 in Prague, Czech Republic.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=5315898

In the first year women were eligible for induction, Angela James and Cammi Granato were named to the 2010 class of the NHL Hall of Fame, along with Dino Ciccarelli in the player category.

They will be joined by Jimmy Devellano and Doc Seaman in the builder group.

Ciccarelli made his NHL debut with the Minnesota North Stars in 1980-81, played nine seasons there and led the team in scoring five times. He played with five teams in 19 NHL seasons and had 608 goals and 592 assists in 1,232 career games.

Joe Nieuwendyk, currently general manager of the Dallas Stars and considered by many to be a lock for the hall this year with 1,126 points in 1,257 games, did not make the final cut in his first year of eligibility.

Ciccarelli was also arrested for taking his trash out in the nude.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that Angela James joins Grant Fuhr as only the second black player ever inducted into the HHOF.

Yes
Iginla might have a shot at being the 3rd.

The Penguins signed Matt Cooke to a three-year deal with an annual cap hit of $1.8M. They also recently signed D Ben Lovejoy to a three-year deal. Cooke signing first is a bit of a surprise because they were thought to be concentrating on Sergei Gonchar first. Word is that Jay McKee and Alexei Ponikarovsky are likely to move on. The Pens are expected to work on their other free agents after Gonchar.

Jordan Staal had another operation on his foot about three weeks ago.

NHL Awards tom'w night, and the draft is Friday and Saturday.

I'm glad Cooke is staying...love him or hate him, he played well here.

I'd let Gonchar go.....getting older, and $$$$ can be better spent on a forward or defensive defenseman.....and hope Letang can quarterback the powerplay.

Poni can go. I liked McKee, but he can get more elsewhere. Hope they can also re-sign Eaton.

Good news for the Flyers?

Possibly-there's also talk of Dan Ellis. I think Leighton is probably gone. Emery might have to retire-if not, he won't sign with anyone until late. That leaves Boucher and Backlund. Supposedly they were interested in Price, but with Montreal ditching Halak, that ain't happening.
I'd be fine with Nabakov.

ESPN is reporting that Chicago has shipped Byfuglien, Eager, Sopel and Aliu to Atlanta for Reasoner, Morin and New Jersey's first and second picks from the Kovalchuk trade.

The dismantling has begun...

NHL Awards

Calder - Myres
Vezina - Miller
Hart - Sedin
Lindsay - Ovechkin
Selke - Datsuk
Adams - Tippett
Norris - Keith
Byng - St. Louis

For my money, Tippett had the award winning line of the night when he said, "I'd like to thank my owners, but I don't know all 29 of them".

I forgot about the awards.

I'm glad Sedin won the Hart....I thought he should win, but supposedly wasn't favord against the big names.....(Sid didn't deserve it this year).

All things considered, Chicago made a pretty good trade...esp. getting 2 draft picks (even if the lower ones from the Devils trade instead of Atlanta's actual). Some analysts are saying that assuming they let Madden go (replaced by Reasoner)(and dump Huet), they should now have enough $$$$$ to re-sign any of their other FA's they want to keep. They'll still be a very good team next year.

The draft is this weekend-how lucky were Boston in the Kessel deal-now they get Seguin too! Man, did Toronto botch that entire thing-no wonder they're a disaster.
Flyers don't pick until the 3rd round unless there's a trade, but they signed 6 college free agents in the spring including the highly sought-after Mike Testwuide (from Colorado College-expected to make the team out of camp), Ben Holmstrom and Erik Gustafsson. All 3 could make the team right away.
Edmonton of course will take Taylor Hall at #1 a pure stud like Seguin.

Not exciting, but probably the best thing for the Flyers.

From ESPN.com:

Goalie Michael Leighton is staying with the Philadelphia Flyers, agreeing to a two-year deal worth $3.1 million, according to a source.

Leighton, who would have been an unrestricted free agent at noon ET Thursday, will earn $1.5 million next season and $1.6 million in 2011-12.

He earned $600,000 this past season while leading the Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals, where they lost in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks.

"LeBron who?"

A little less than 3 hours before the madness begins. I'm going to be listening to NHL Home Ice all day.

Versteeg to Leafs

Gonchar, Hamhuis (we hardly knew ya), and Guerin likely gone.

Gonchar just signed with Ottawa - 3 years, $5.5 mil.

I wouldn't have kept him for that.

Nope - Shero's showing a pretty good knack for knowing when to sign and when to back off and let someone else pay stupid money (Gonchar, Scuderi, Malone). Not that I begrudge these guys their money (especially Scuderi), but Shero's at least showing the discipline not to screw up his team structure for the sake of keeping a guy or two. The Pens don't look to find themselves in the situation the Hawks are in, having to deal guys away to cover stupid-money contracts (Campbell, Hossa, Huet).

Enough of that.

The Pens lost Gonchar to Ottawa and Leopold to Buffalo. In return, they pick up Zbynak Michalek from Phoenix and Paul Martin from NJ, two pretty good signings - a lot of folks are really high on what the Pens did. No word on guys like Guerin, Eaton, Fedotenko and Ponikarovsky.

IP - what's the situation w/the Flyers? I thought they were pretty tight to the cap, which is why they couldn't sign a goalie like Nabokov, but they seemed to pick up a couple big-ish contracts today.

Doesn't look like the Rangers did anything to sweat about. The Biron signing was good for them, but Boogard? There was some sentiment in Pittsburgh to bring back Colby Armstrong, but not at $3M/year.

Kind of surprised at some of the names that didn't sign - Nabokov, Turco, Kovalchuk. It'll be interesting to see where they go.

I'm impressed with Atlanta's moves over the past week or so - they got deeper and a little stronger. I don't think they'll challenge the Caps, but they'll be a tougher team to play next year.

Alan:
The Flyers have some space thanks to the cap going up-they made some decent moves today for sure. By the way, the CFL game I'm watching now on NFL Network is in Regina, Saskatchewan and they've got a lot of NHL players there they're talking to on the sidelines.
Scott Nediermeyer was one of them and Ryan Getzlaf had some GORGEOUS hot blonde with ample bosom sitting on his lap. In HD it was a beautiful sight. Holy crap! Must be his girlfriend or something. Bastard.

Pretty crazy day.

I love what the Pens did.....we now have a really good deep blue line, some of which can play defense again. Michalek/Martin/Letang/Orpik/Goligoski/Lovejoy is impressive. Losing Gonchar may hurt, but but for his age, and being as injury prone as he sometimes is, I wouldn't have given him what Ottawa did. They're still weak on wings, and will likely lose Guerin.....not sure what they'll do with rookies or scrap heap free agents....but I think they're one of the top teams in the east again.

Philly also made out well today....also a very deep/impressive defense. I think they're now 7 deep adding Meszaros and O'Donnell. Still the best team in the Atlantic division.

The Devils did OK, adding yet more defense.....Lemaire stepped down too early....the Devils will go back to trap mode.

Atlanta has to be pretty improved having 1/3 of the Blackhawks roster.

From what I heard, the biggest loser so far is Calgary.....bringing back 2 players for good money (Jokinen, Tanguay) who didn't play well for them the 1st time. The Rangers (thankfully) look bad so far only giving a big contract to a fighter.

The biggest losers might be Turco and Nabokov, who saw teams that needed goalies (San Jose, Philly, Atlanta, Tampa) sign (or re-sign) cheaper options. They're either going to get desparate and take drastic paycuts, or in Nabokov's case, maybe go to the KHL. .

3 new posts while I typed the above.

I'll have to catch some of the CFL stuff - I used to really enjoy watching that on CBC way back when.

Very quiet today - Pens sign Ryan Craig from Tampa, and Mark Eaton goes to the Isles. I'm kind of sorry to see Eaton go - I think he was a bit underappreciated here. Still nothing on Kovalchuk or the bigger name goalies - I have to think that's not great news for the size of their paychecks.

Alan

The Islanders (may) have offered Kovalchuk 10 mil/10 years.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=5337 ... L|NHL|home

Wow - I know Kovalchuk is considered the gem in this free agent class, but that's an awfully big deal that I'm not sure he's earned.

Why does the name "Alexei Yashin" pop into my head?

I don't think Kovy's destined to follow Yahsin's path, but I don't think I'd throw that kind of deal at him just yet.

Alan