Commandant

Remember that Drew Dougthy took til October to sign last year. Now no one is suggesting there are any issues between him and the Kings.

With the Olympics in full swing our Russian-American writer talks about the importance of a Stanley Cup vs Olympic Gold http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/08/03/stanely-cup-or-a-gold-medal/

Today I look at the Oilers http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/08/03/top-shelf-prospects-edmonton-oilers/

Here, you can't force a player to be hindered to only be able to work in one city. There is no way a company in one city can claim that they have exclusive rights with that employee for both an indefinite geographical area, and an indefinite time period. Its an unfair restraint.

Sure, and the first time this happens with a Canadian or a US citizen, they'll have the ability to take it to court. The Russians won't get a green card to work here unless they are sponsored by an NHL team... the only NHL team that can sponsor them is the one who has their rights.... the team won't sponsor them before they sign a contract. They don't have the green card status to push this in court and say their opportunities for employment are unfairly hindered. And so it doesn't get challenged. Try it with Justin Schultz and you are screwed. Heck even Tim Erixon was born in New York, even if he grew up in Sweden and plays for Sweden internationally.

Greg Stewart was the most overrated prospect I've ever seen. The guy was a plug in the AHL. HE came up for one game in 2008 against the Leafs, the game referenced above.... had a couple scoring chances, nearly scored on a breakaway, beat up bryan mccabe, and generally played the game of HIS LIFE in his first NHL game. I was on HF at the time and I remember they spent the whole offseason talking about how good he was. I was like man, it was one game.... stop it... he played the game of his life, but he won't repeat that, you won't get that every night. But so many people thought he was a star based on one night he'd never replicate.q

The 09 team clearly stopped following Carbo's coaching, completely tuned him out, and he lost the room in a way and to such a degree that I've rarely ever seen. For the 08 team, everything went right from about late november 07 to the end of the season. The team started playing well and it snowballed. Its easy to coach in those conditions For the 09 team, things started well and then they hit a rough patch, Carbo had no ability to deal with the rough patch, he had no ability to right the ship. The players figured out that when the going got tough he didn't know what he was doing, and they quit on him. That was Carbo's issue, and its not a good issue to have because a season like 2007-2008 is rare. No injury problems, everything he touched turned to gold, etc.... Far more teams will have a rough patch like we experienced in 2008-09 but at some point the coach recovers from that and turns the team around. Carbo couldn't turn us around, and we wouldn't have made the playoffs if Gainey didn't come in and find the recipe for success which was Tanguay - Koivu - Kovalev down the stretch. Unfortunately Tanguay and Markov got hurt before the playoffs and we were up shit creek cause we had nothing else going for us. Oh and P.S. Claude Julien and John Stevens both badly outcoached Carbo in those playoffs, and we only beat the Bruins inspite of this.

The biggest difference between the 08 and 09 team was puck support. The 08 team relied on a number of short, quck passes to move the puck quickly and create transition offence. The 09 team stopped doing the short passes and looked for way more home run passes. The 08 team won with speed, but it was speed of moving the puck quickly... the puck is always quicker than what the opponents can catch up to it. The 09 team wanted to beat teams by skating faster than them and going for long bomb passes. This got worse as the season went on. This can work and can create offence, but its way lower percentage of plays than the 08 team was using.

Its not compulsory to sign with a team that drafted you. Just because they drafted you, you owe that team nothing. And if you can't make it compulsory that the team that drafts someone has their rights indefinitely. There has to be a reasonable number of years where if they don't sign a contract, they can move on. Any attempt to bypass this would have the NHL in court for violating Anti-Trust laws and unfair employment laws,

The number of times carbo had the fourth line on the ice for an offensive zone faceoff, following a TV timeout drove me INSANE.

He's a decent big body for the bottom 6, but we have a lot of those already. He doesn't really fill the spot we need.

Next up on Top Shelf Prospects is the Detroit Red Wings, who will look to Brendan Smith to make a big impact for them next season. http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/08/02/top-shelf-prospects-detroit-red-wings/

Don Meehan (PK's agent) denies the report and says the numbers that RDS is putting out there are completely fabricated and false.

Patrice Bergeron. But at the same time, There haven't been many players get drafted as high as Galchenyuk with only one year of Junior either. Its a total misnomer cause the only guy who is comparable to this situation... ie being this talented and missing almost a full year of junior due to injury is Brett Connolly. Thats it. Sure he didn't make it... but its a small sample size of top 10 picks with only one season of junior, so I don't think there is much to base this on in terms of history.

3rd line is closer to 15 minutes per game than it is 10. Also 15 in the NHL is more valuable than 20 in junior... see Tyler Seguin

Im a Cards fan so i'd personally pick them... but best game will be Angels - Tigers... followed by Angels - As. Padres suck.

Stastny's point totals 79, 57, 53, in the last three years Plekanec's totals 70, 57, 52 A difference of 10 points over 3 years. And Stastny is no where near as valuable as Plekanec defensively. Colorado has also been a higher scoring team than Montreal in that time period. And we want to give Plekanec + Emelin + picks for a guy with a bigger contract? Why? Don't get me wrong, I like Stastny, but I probably wouldn't trade Pleks for Stastny 1 for 1.

I'm saying that faceoff percentage is OVERRATED. Give me a guy who loses 5% more of his faceoffs but is a better hockey player and I'll take him every day of the week. A 5% difference in faceoff percentage is the difference of about 1 faceoff per game for a guy like Plekanec. The difference between being 49% in the circle and 54% in the circle is not worth the teeth gnashing that analysts give us. If it was a guy at 25% vs a guy at 75% sure, the extra faceoff wins add up. But in this case, they don't.

2012 Playoffs.... Team faceoff percentage. Los Angeles 49.7% New Jersey 47.2% New York Rangers 48.4% Phoenix Coyotes 51.4% Montreal's 2012 regular season percentage.... 48.3% Pleks and DD were both above 49%

Why is it different for Erixon who was 20 years old at the time? Why does he get different treatment than other adults?

Paulina Gretzky got a tattoo of the number 99 right above her crotch. WHAT THE HECK? warning borderline NSFW link. (no nudity, but close) http://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/paulina-gretzky-has-the-number-99-tattooed-on-her-pussy/

Its just business. Its not a positive or a negative... its business. Just like Shea Weber signing an offer sheet... its within the rules of the CBA... its just business. This isn't a character flaw, like going out past curfew and getting drunk before a playoff game. What about Erixon being traded by the Rangers after he signed in New York? Is this a bad thing for the Rangers to do to him? Or are they just conducting business? But when a player plays by the rules in the CBA, he's got character flaws... when a team trades a player they are just moving assets to help the team.

It makes no sense to put Plekanec on the third line merely because he's "our best shutdown guy" I mean why doesn't Boston play Patrice Bergeron on the third line, Vancouver with Kesler, Detroit with Datsyuk, Minnesota with Mikko Koivu? Do you think Carolina will play Jordan Staal on the third line? Will St. Louis put David Backes there? How about San Jose and Joe Thornton? Nashville and Mike Fisher? etc... etc... Its all over the NHL. There are far more teams in the league currently using a top 6 centre as their matchup centre than those with a dedicated third line. The idea that our best defensive centre plays on the third line in an antiquated one.

I always find it funny how refusing to sign with a team is a sign of a bad attitude and a character flaw.... its as if these players should be indentured servants, forced to sign with whoever drafts them, with no power to control their career at all. Also do you think Zherdev would be in Russia if someone offered him big money after he left philly? Wasn't he an RFA who Philly didn't even bother giving a qualifying offer and was a healthy scratch down the stretch? The Rangers also walked away from his arbitration award. If he was as valuable as he should have been... these teams wouldn't have let him go so easily.

Today's Top Shelf Prospects features the Dallas Stars http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/07/31/top-shelf-prospects-dallas-stars/