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• The Next Captain

  In today’s Toronto Sun, there was a headline suggesting Pavel Kubina might be the next captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Personally I think this is just an attempt on the tabloid’s part to sell more print. Yes Cliff Fletcher was quoted as saying the following in regards to Kubina, “He could be [...]

• Take (Avery) out to the Ball Game

  Sean Avery has been making his debut tour around DFW this week, and was heard this morning on KTCK 1310 The Ticket. They asked him if he was the most hated player in the league, and this was his approximate response: “100%, I do nasty things, nasty things with my stick, I try to hurt guys. [...]

• DOH 7

  New episode here.  We did have some business to attend to in the Clowe signing and the Vlasic extension report, but the rest of the show was taken up with the trivial (trivia questions) and non-trivial (listener emails).

• Who The Heck Does Minnesota Think They Are?

  Apparently Minnesota went and decided it has the most “sophisticated” hockey fans on the planet. Recently I linked to this Minnesota Wild blog whilst reading another posting by Mike over at the Sharks site here at hockeyanalysis.com. I think the first salvo has been fired in a “we know more about hockey than [...]

• Blogger GM?

  I just discovered this blog, and not to put too fine a point on it, it’s fantastic.  The good news is it gives amazing insight to the inner workings of an NHL team’s hockey management philosophy and strategy, including posts by the actual GM, assistant GM, and director of hockey ops.  The bad news is [...]

• Is Vesa Toskala As Great As We Think He Is?

  The Toronto Maple Leafs have a history of playing in front of strong netminders. Johnny Bower, Turk Broda, the brief stay of Jacques Plante, Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph, and Ed Belfour. Over the past 2 seasons we’ve seen various levels of play from Andrew Raycroft and Vesa Toskala. In the future, Leafs [...]

• Does It Matter Where Jerome Flaake Plays This Season?

  Jerome Flaake was taken in the 5th round, 130th overall by the Leafs at the 2008 NHL entry draft. At the CHL import draft, he was taken 9th overall by the Prince George Cougars. That was based on his very solid (and MVP garnering) production in the German Junior league for Cologne, [...]

• Hejduk Talks Retirement

  Jes Golbez reports that Avalanche forward Milan Hejduk has made it known in his native Czech Republic that he plans to retire after his current contract expires. The forward, a long-time linemate of Joe Sakic’s, will be only 34 when his contract ends, still a very reasonable age to continue playing, but Hejduk cites his [...]

• Canucks dealt blow [to head]

  In an interview that is highlighted on www.canucks.nhl.com at an address below, GM Mike Gillis states that he is ‘comfortable’ with the team the Canucks have now and a number of other troubling things. Namely, the loss of Assistant GM Steve Tambellini to the Edmonton Oilers to a four-year contract. http://canucks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=PodcastPlayer&pid=114&iid=6772 Personally, I applaude Gillis for [...]

• Gaborik Draws Interest, Parrish Staying in Northwest?

  Eklund at www.hockeybuzz.com reports that Minnesota forward Marian Gaborik is drawing strong interest from teams, especially the Pens, Sabres, and Sens. I don’t know what Doug Risebrough is thinking, but unless he wants to completely write off the season, he would not do this trade. Of course, that also depends on what he gets in [...]

• Norton Analysis.

  After years working as a process control statistician, I’ve learned that opportunity is the greatest predictor of an event. If it is impossible for an event to occur, it will not occur, and therefore not be recorded. If it is highly likely for an event to occur, it will occur, and be frequently [...]

• Clowe Inks Deal

  It hasn’t been made official yet, but Ryane Clowe has inked a deal which would pay him $1.6m next season, according to NHLPA.com. The 6′2″, 225 lb winger’s season was cut short last year after tearing a ligament in his knee, but returned just in time for the playoffs and recorded a very respectable 9 [...]

• Jason Blake's True Colours - Really?

  “Jason Blake showed his true colours last season… he’s a 15 goal scorer… he probably won’t be happy I penciled him in on the 4th line.”-Doug Faraway, Hockeycentral on Friday Really? You think a guy that registered 4 consecutive 20+ goal seasons prior to this past one, where he was diagnosed with a rare form of [...]

• Clowe resolution on the horizon??

  As the lone holdout from last years roster waiting for a new contract, it appears Ryane Clowe’s deal could be announced in the next few days, as David Pollak’s blog hinted today. This is very good news, very good news indeed but it might be hard to speculate what the dollar amount and term will [...]

• Sens Avoid Hearing, Tambellini Hired

  Antoine Vermette has avoided a potential nasty arbitration with the Sens, agreeing on a two-year deal worth $5.525m, a cap hit of roughly $2.76m/year. Vermette conceded a lot in this one, because 1) he signed a multi-year contract, 2) he got less than what he would’ve gotten at the hearing, and 3) he’s still not [...]

• Scotty Joins the Hawks

  Legendary Scotty Bowman has officially been named Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations for the club today! A press conference with the announcement was held today making the hiring official. Scotty leaves the arch rival Red Wings organization to come on board and work with his son Stan who is in his 8th year with the [...]

• Goal scorer, Co-GM, Restaurateur?

  Dallasbasketball.com’s Mike Fisher reports that Brett Hull and Mike Modano are going into the food biz together. D Magazine reported the working name is “Brett and Mo’s.” Mo had this to say to Fish: “Yeah, we’re going to try to have it ready in time for football season, for September,’’ Modano tells DallasBasketball.com. “It’ll be kind of [...]

• Where The Leafs Want To Be

  On Wednesday, Valtteri Filppula was signed to a $15 million, 5 year contract by the Detroit Red Wings. He’s 24 years old; he plays Left Wing and Centre; he has oodles of talent and upside; and he’s only going to become more well rounded as he grows into his future role with the Stanley [...]

• DOH 6

  Newest episode here.  As last week, most of the ideas for the show came from you, the listeners.  I know it’s not a real hip-hop-happening time in hockey right now, but it’s a good opportunity to discuss those issues that aren’t particularly affected by whether Mark Parrish has been bought out or not.

• A Show About Nothing

  Ok, so in the vein of Seinfeld, I’m going to post on here about… well… nothing. Nothing; as in what has happened to the Leafs since I last wrote something about the most recent captain of the Leafs NOT signing with any NHL franchise. Sundin still hasn’t decided as of my writing this, and by [...]

• The Sundin Factor

  I was shocked today when I opened up TSN’s front page that there wasn’t something about Mats Sundin… so here’s your daily dose. Sundin still is the biggest fish on the market. After it was clear that Sundin would not be re-signing with Toronto before July 1st, and that Toronto had no plans to bring the [...]

• Bouwmeester Stays For Now

  To the surprise of no one really, Jay Bouwmeester has signed a one-year extension with the Panthers. However, I find it rather odd that Bouwmeester is only going to earn $4.8m next year. $4.8m is not much, and I’m sure he could’ve gotten more from the arbitrator, but for some reason he took less to [...]

• Jay signs…Now what?

  Jay Boumeester has been signed to a one year contract at the “eleventh hour” by the Florida Panthers. The deal is reported to be for $4.8 million dollars, and thus probably saves the Panthers about 1 million in salary for this coming season, as Jay was expected to get somewhere around 5.5 million in [...]

• urged towards August 1st

  With Sundin’s press conference appartently set for the first day of August, 2008 (as reported by the Vancouver newspaper “The Province” from the direct source of Mats’ agent J.P. Barry), the fact that I am personally on vacation on the lovely Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and the larthargic pace of hockey news in these [...]

• Bouwmeester Rejects

  The Panthers haven’t tasted success since 1996 when they reached the finals, and drafting Jay Bouwmeester in 2002 was supposed to change all of that. The Panthers have been fortunate enough to have very talented players play for them, but they’ve never been able to quite keep them together. And the biggest reason why? They [...]

• Why Glen Murray could be a Shark

  In a bizarre turn of events, including the first case of its kind under the current CBA, the Bruins are about to buy out winger Glen Murray after the regular buyout period had expired. Let me try to explain. The Bruins resigned defensemen Dennis Widemen, who filed for salary arbitration. If a player files for [...]

• Sundin and a signing six-pack

  The Vancouver Canucks have announced the extensions of contracts with six players, including three forwards and three defencemen. As for Sundin, well, he seems to be setting us up for an announcement on August 1, 2008. We shall see. Canuckland is going to be absolutely on edge. These are players Mike [...]

• Yotes in Winnipeg

  Well, yes. Alas, only for an exhibition game. Wednesday, September 24th/08 in the MTS Center against Jarome Iginla and the Flames. Winnipeg will love this edition of the Coyotes with all the young high-end talent, Shane Doan (drafted by the Jets) and Wayne Gretzky coming to town. The NHL got this right. [...]

• A viewpoint on Habs upcoming season

  No matter whether Mats Sundin signs or does not sign on with the Canadiens, there will be several key factors which will ultimately determine the level of success the team achieves in the upcoming 2008-09 season. The continued progression of the Habs youth core, the work ethic, the ability of the team to deal with [...]

• Your Call

  The free agent month is drawing to a slow close, and all that remains of real intrigue is August 1, when Mats Sundin will address the media about his future. Most teams have their roster more or less set already, while some teams still have some work to do. I haven’t been at HockeyAnalysis for long, [...]