Mr. Nasty

http://www.expressen.se/sport/ishockey/1.8...finsk-vm-hjalte says (apparently) that Linkoping has offered Niinimaa a contract but Niinimaa's agent wants to first review any NHL offers. Don't hold your breath Niinimaa, I doubt many teams are looking for your services. edit...it was actually Sweden

Article on Souray. Stubbs promised article... a day early... http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/st...f22&k=64399 He complains extensively about how he was not a top priority for the organization...give me a break.

Hamrlik article. Says he can't wait for the season to start and is really looking forward to being a habs yada, yada. He said his role with Calgary was a more defensive role and he has been told he will be relied on more offensively. Lets hope he can convert all those nice Markov passes into goals like Souray could. http://www.canoe.com/sports/nouvelles/arch...817-062000.html Another article, this one with Smolinski. http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&a...rticleid=335978

Just to adda bit to what he said. he also said that Pacioretty was the 3rd best forward in the tournament only behing Kane and Okposo. he also said he feels he will be better than Latendresse. If that is the case, then the Habs have 2 great power forwards in the system. We may sees Pacs sooner rather than later.

LOL, that play sealed his fate in the NHL. How can a first overall pick fall to obscurity?

The Habs certainly don't need anymore d-men but he is an excellent offensive d-man. If true then the Habs would certainly be moving a d-man or 2 out.

I will watch RDS for the remaining 69 games. I need them all Unless of couse Maguire is too irratating and I switch back to RDS.

FYI, another website that breaks down all salaries for the Habs including the AHL and performance bonuses. It is not much different than nhlnumbers.com. The Habs have 48 players under contract according to this site. http://www.nhlscap.com/salarynumbers/montreal.htm

Vasicek also signs with the Islanders http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islan...0,3438088.story

Looks like he will not have any trouble with the border. If his sentence was over a year he would not be able to cross the border.

It is possible the league or team will suspend him the entire season since he is going to jail. I am not an expert at law but this may prevent him from crossing the border. I say this because he is suppose to start his jail time next spring.

LMAO, Ferguson must have known this was coming; but chose not to talk about this... It is believed that Bell will get 6 months of jail time.

Sure, sounds fun. Count me in too. I also have not tried a keeper league before.

Islanders signed Sutton http://islanders.nhl.com/team/app/?service...rticleid=335866

Thought I would share some info I put together on this summer's developments. Biggest pay increases this summer, $500, 000 or greater (UFA only) Timonen +4.02M Philadelphia Drury +3.9M Rangers A. Markov +3.75M Montreal Souray +2.97M Edmonton Nylander +2.96M Washington Smyth +2.7M Colorado Guerin +2.5M Islanders Hartnell +2.45M Philadelphia J. Blake +2.44M Toronto Gomez +2.36M Rangers Backstrom +2.35M Minnesota Schneider +2.32M Anaheim Hannan +2.3M Colorado Preissing +2.15M Los Angeles Giguere +2.01M Anaheim Hamrlik +2M Montreal Handzus +1.87M Los Angeles Viktor Kozlov+1.85M Washington Rafalski +1.8M Detroit Vyach. Kozlov+1.67M Atlanta Zubrus +1.55M New Jersey Kariya +1.5M St. Louis Briere +1.5M Philadelphia Hasek +1.25M Detroit Fedotenko +1.25M Islanders Stuart +1.1M Los Angeles Antropov +1M Toronto Walker +980K Carolina McLean +950K Florida Eriksson +900K Calgary Chelios +850K Detroit White +825K Atlanta Pyatt +800K Vancouver Perreault +800K Chicago Rivet +780K San Jose Nagy +750K Los Angeles Nolan +750K Calgary Ouellet +750K Tampa Bay Arnason +725K Colorado Poti +700K Washington Lukowich +567K Tampa Bay Klee +550K Atlanta Stumpel +500K Florida Biggest pay cuts this summer 250, 000 or greater Brisebois -2.3M Montreal M. York -1.85M Phoenix Shanahan -1.5M Rangers Aebischer -1.3M Phoenix Bertuzzi -1.27M Anaheim Weekes -1.13M New Jersey Bonk -915K Nashville Thibeault -740K Buffalo Miller -728K Vancouver Modry -700K Los Angeles Simon -525K Islanders Zednik -310K Florida Marshall -285K New Jersey Recchi -280K Pittsburgh Sykora -275K Pittsburgh ODonnell -270K Anaheim Coming up...who the NHL said goodbye to.

Mine is normal...in Nova Scotia Maybe it is just your part of NS?

The Habs have ~5.3 Million left under the cap and that is including the full 23 man roster. I have read that this puts the Habs over the 50 maximum signed players but i have also read that Breezer was the 48th signed player. We need confirmation on this. Lahti was signed as a free agent from the finnish league. He was one of the top scorers in that league at a young age and had 8 goals in 9 playoff games this past spring. I don't know how he will adapt to NA hockey but Selanne said in an interview that he was a great signing and he has the skill to be a top line forward on the Habs.

FYI, No free agent this summer has taken a bigger pay cut than Brisebois. Shanahan and Bertuzzi are the only ones remotely close. I will cheer for Brisebois no matter what. I will likely get frustrated at times and want to see him benched...but I always cheer for all the players on my team.

LaPresse is reporting this morning that Brisebois is pretty much guaranteed to be a habs either today or the next couple days. They are just working out some small details. http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/gagnon/?p=70312258

Anaheim didn't match. Penner is off to Edmonton. http://www.tsn.ca/

Here is an excellent (and long) article about Eklund. Very detailed and sums up his history, his anonymity and his sources etc. It both calls him out and defends him...so it should please both the supporters and haters http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/08/01/...stions-about-a/ A few snippets. Note there are accusations of him using other usernames on other blog sites but he flat out denies it. "This passionate show of partisan advocacy isn't something you'd expect to see from a professional hockey writer, and that's because Eklund isn't one. But he wants to be, according to Kevin Allen, USA TODAY hockey writer and president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, who said Eklund has "made it clear he would like to be included" in the organization. The question is whether the PHWA is willing to overlook serious questions about his ethics, tactics and candor in accepting him; and whether Eklund is ready, for the first time in his blogging career, for a little transparency." "Eklund worked for the NHL under both John Ziegler and Gary Bettman. Eklund interned with the Quebec Nordiques. Eklund wrote for the Hockey News. Eklund did all of these things, even though Eklund also had nothing to do with hockey after graduating from college. This is because Eklund -- at least in the pre-HockeyBuzz, rocket-to-lockout-stardom days -- wasn't a person. "He" was a committee. Eklund was the byline, but the information about high-level ownership meetings and inside scoops from the NHLPA came from a consortium of plugged-in individuals that wanted to break through the spin machine and speak directly to the fans. The biography on the site was crafted together from different members of this League of Extraordinary Eklunds." "There's no denying that Eklund now has legitimate sources; if not with NHL franchises themselves, then with player agents and even within the top brass of the NHL, including a relationship with commissioner Gary Bettman. Yet he continues to mix the occasional breaking news with dozens of false leads, bad information and outlandish proposals. Allen said when it comes to the PHWA, there are plenty of different kinds of writers under the tent -- from columnists and rumor-mongers to feature writers -- so Eklund's chosen form of hockey writing isn't an issue. In the end, and even before questions about his ethics would even be addressed, there's only one primary reason why Eklund will not be admitted into the PHWA. It's the very thing that's brought Eklund both fame and infamy: his anonymity."

A roster spot doesn't mean they will play every game. The team can carry 3 extra players. Also there are the injuries. We will see a lot of young players playing a lot of NHL games...we just won't see 4 new guys playing 82 games each. Out: Bonk, Samsonov, Johnson, Perezhogin, Rivet, Souray...we may even see Murray get the boot. In: Hamrlik, Smolinski, Kostopoulous, Gorges and maybe Lahti (Gorges and Lahti may not get a regular roster spot either). If my math is correct then that is 3-4 new spots available already. I would argue that that is too many. You lose a few guys with injuries and suddenly dipping into your 7th "new guy". It is safe to assume that Lapierre and Kostitsyn have already made the team. Then you add Latendresse, Higgins, Komisarek, Plekanec, even Ryder and you have an extremely young team.

FYI, Just to confirm...Ryder's date with the arbitrator is July 30. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=7545

Don't expect to see Emelin next year either. New legislation is being passed to not allow players to "quit" their team with 2 weeks notice anymore. See below...Since he signed a 2 year contract I doubt that Emelin would pay back 2/3 his salary to head to the Habs. Not good :puke: Teams would also need to pay fines. The only hope I see is if Emelin quits before January. From Kukla, via CBC "24 hours after having refused to sign the player transfer agreement between the International Hockey Federation and the NHL, Russia strikes again. This time, it’s tabling the first draft of a bill that would prevent athletes from using a labor law that allows employees to quit a job with a simple 14 day notice. The new legislation should be in place by January 1 2008. From now on, players will have to pay a compensation if they leave their team before the end of their contract. This compensation will be valued at two thirds of the total value of the contract. In return, Russian teams will also pay some penalties when releasing a player, something they didn’t have to do before. The former law enabled the NHL to bring over stars such as Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, who were under contract in Russia. Their old clubs were not compensated financially despite losing their top players. Through a press release, the President of the Russian Hockey Federation, Vladislav Tretiak, said he hoped the NHL will respect this new legislation."

It is 2.8 million for 1 year http://www.dallasstars.com/