Despite recent speculation that he is “all about the money,” Zach Bogosian has signed a two-year deal with the Winnipeg Jets worth a reasonable $5 million over the life of the deal. That works out to a cap hit of $2.5 million per season.
It looks like Bogosian was inspired by the Brad Marchand deal signed earlier today as he’ll make $2 million this year and $3 million next year.
John Tavares is about to join Jeff Carter, Steven Stamkos, Brad Richards and numerous others on the list of people who, for one reason or another, still aren’t Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite all of the rumours and the message board threads and the radio call in shows and the Twitter rumblings, it looks like Tavares will sign a contract extension with the New York Islanders.
What? Doesn’t he want to play in the center of the hockey universe? Didn’t he grow up with dreams of wearing the blue and white and finally bringing another Stanley Cup back to the City of Not-Really-Champions-At-All? What’s wrong with him?
Didn’t he grow up with the Leafs? Didn’t he say that he “was always a Leafs fan?” And yet here he is, on the verge of signing a contract extension with another team!? This kid sure has some nerve!
Saying that the Philadelphia Flyers underwent some changes this offseason is definitely an understatement. Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and others are out. Jaromir Jagr, Iyla Bryzgalov and many others are in. However, one huge constant remains in Philadelphia and that constant patrols the blue line with an angry snarl and a tendency to steal pucks.
That man is Chris Pronger and he will be expected to once again be a leader on this Philadelphia Flyers team. That is, if he’s ready to play.
Drew Doughty has still not signed a new contract with the Los Angeles Kings. We mentioned last week that he apparently rejected a nine-year, $61.2 million offer from the Kings a while ago. Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi tried to sound optimistic when discussing the Doughty situation this weekend, but it didn’t seem all that positive.
“I still have hope he’ll be here Friday. I don’t know if I expect it but I have hope,” said Lombardi.
“It’s better than no hope.”
That doesn’t sound all that great. Yes, it means that Doughty coming back to the Kings is still a possibility, but it doesn’t seem like this is a situation that is going to resolve itself quickly… or cheaply. So what’s the problem?
“You can figure out the problem. It’s how much and length,” continued Lombardi. “That’s the two issues.”
Those are two pretty big issues. If there’s an issue with the term, it’s likely that Doughty wants a shorter term deal. There’s no way he could actually want something longer than nine years, is there? Doughty is not even 22 years old yet and he’s already an excellent talent. He probably doesn’t want to give away too many years of unrestricted free agency on this contract, which is likely exactly what the Kings want him to do. That will be a sticking point between the player and the team.
But Doughty isn’t the only RFA defensemen still looking for a deal.
We mentioned earlier today that the New Jersey Devils may be in financial difficulty. According to the New York Post, “the attendance-challenged, heavily indebted team missed its Sept. 1 loan payment, giving its lenders a breakaway chance to push the team into bankruptcy.”
Maybe that Ilya Kovalchuk contract was a bad idea after all.
All jokes aside, this is bad news for the NHL. The New Jersey Devils have won three Stanley Cups in their history and, outside of last season and a few other exceptions, they’ve been one of the most consistently successful hockey teams in the league. They are almost always a threat on the ice and you can rarely ever count them out as a contender for the Stanley Cup.
They also play in the Atlantic Division, one of the toughest divisions in the NHL. It’s also one of the divisions with several “big name” teams, as the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadephia Flyers play in the Atlantic. These teams are fixtures of the NHL on NBC and thus the division as a whole an its success is important to the league.
It’s September 12 and Bryan McCabe still finds himself without an NHL team. The 36-year-old defenseman was traded to the New York Rangers just before the trade deadline last season. He didn’t deliver the Rangers the postseason success they were hoping for, picking up just two assists in the team’s five game series against the Washington Capitals.
Since then, it’s been relatively quiet on the McCabe front.
It was with great fanfare and anticipation that the Winnipeg Jets officially unveiled their jerseys earlier this week. For the record, they’re nice jerseys that will look great on the ice. They look like traditional hockey jerseys and they suit the franchise well.
However, they’re not the most original uniforms out there.
Jo Innes, Ryan Lambert, Daniel Wagner, Cam Charron, Ellen Etchingham, Jake Goldsbie, Darren Kritzer
