Peter Puck

If this is true then I think it must be to create cap space to make a trade. Maybe SK is going somewhere.

I remember this past summer hearing someone in the Habs organization (Gainey? Savard maybe?) say they were trying to decide between Marc Staal and Price. They thought either or both could be franchise players and there was an argument about which of the two we should pick. They picked Price because a franchise goalie is worth more.

Here's a player we had who was just about as good in his prime as Recchi: John LeClair. Of course we missed out on most of his prime. This is why people are unhappy with the Recchi trade.

Jackp, maybe you can explain to me the following comments of yours: A. B. We should have kept Ryder at $4 million per year even though he had an abysmal season. Maybe it was his 3 goals and 5 assists in 21 playoff games? Price on the other hand had a pretty bad half season. But he's only 22 so its time to move on?

Well we didn't win but that game made me very happy. We can really see the changes Jacques Martin is introducing. One thing that really made an impression on me: I don't think we got called for icing even once in the game. Last year it seemed like we iced the puck at least 10 or 12 times every game.

Thanks xCKx. It's fixed now. P.P.

No I guess I wasn't clear on this point. The judge has not expressed any opinion on whether Balsillie would make a good partner. (Although some of his remarks suggest that he thinks Balsillie would be a fine owner). The league has said that they don't want him as a partner by means of a the 26-0 vote of the Board of Governors against Balsillie. (The Leafs and Sabres abstained, the Coyotes don't get a vote and I forgot which other team abstained). Legally the NHL is not required to justify why they don't want someone as a business partner. But, the league has volunteered their reaso

Okay suppose I loaned you $1 million dollars and I took your hockey team as collateral for the loan. You declare bankruptcy and so your assets (the team) are sold. Then I am a creditor and am entitled to a share of the selling price (up untilo I get my $1 million back). If the buyer only gives you say $350 thousand dollars then I get to share that $350 thousand dollars with your other creditors. I don't get all my money back, but I also am not out my entire $1 million. No one is being forced to do anything. Balsillie's bid indicates that he will not honour the lease agreement.

I'll predict a regular season record of: W - L - OTL 43-29-10 for 96 points.

4th annual HabsWorld points prediction contest. Hall of Fame: 2006-2007 Jean won with a prediction of 92 points when the Habs finished the year with 90 pts. If only we could have won that last game. 2007-2008 Adirondack Bud exactly predicted our final total of 104 pts. 2008-2009 Zowpeb won by predicting a strong start followed by a slower 2nd half ending with 99 points. The Habs finished the season in 8th place with 93 points. On September 22, 2008 Zowpeb predicted "I think we'll see a rough patch just past the mid-year point... " Wow. ------------------

The Coyotes signed an agreement with the arena owners (the City of Glendale) agreeing to pay what amounts to $550 million if they leave before the current season starts. This is a legal contract. Why do you think the Coyotes can just walk away from their commitment? You seem to think that since it only cost the city $180 million to build (a few years ago) they can never expect to get more than this in return. Okay so you feel that every contract ever signed is unenforceable. I don't agree with this position. Can you give some evidence to support your claim that they

I am not yet convinced that hockey cannot survive in Phoenix but you may be right and the team will move in a year or two. In spite of this possibility, the league has convinced the current creditors (except Moyes) that they are better off with the NHL prevailing instead of Balsillie. This just shows me how the NHL (and Bettman) have completely out played Balsillie and his legal team.

No, I am not "repeating their wild claim". I have read a lot of the legal documents. Their claim is not wild. The City of Glendale has a contract with the Coyotes. This contract was designed to make it very expensive for the Coyotes to leave. The Coyotes (actually two companies associated with the Coyotes) signed this contract and it includes their agreement to pay a large amount of money (as much as $550 million) if they want to break the lease and leave early. The fact that the arena cost $180 million is not really all that relevant to the claim that they are owed $550 million.

If an owner wants to sell his franchise, he needs to find a buyer that is acceptable to the NHL. The NHL board of governors needs to approve all new owners. This was mentioned many times in connection with the Habs sale. Of course Bettman said many times that the BOG has no problem with the Molson brothers as new owners. With the Coyotes, the judge may well (I think probably will) rule that Balsillie's bid is not valid since he has been rejected as an owner by the NHL. If he decides that the NHL bid is also invalid (for example due to a conflict of interest) then there are no valid b

That's not quite it. If Balsillie takes the team to Hamilton he adds another creditor, the City of Glendale which owns the arena. They are claiming they will be owed $550 million if Balsillie moves the team. That extra $550 million sure makes the extra $90 million you mention look pretty small. Since you seem to think that the creditors' opinions are what matters most, you may be interested to know that all the creditors, with the single exception of Moyes, stated in court Friday that they want the judge to rule against Balsillie and in favour of the NHL.

The union doesn't have to do anything about players leaving. Every single one of those guys who left has been replaced by another player who is in the union. The NHL is not in any immediate danger of crumbling.

Balsillie showed he has no respect for the league or its rules. He just wants a team. He is more than willing to use the courts to supercede league rules. This is an attitude that turns off other owners. If he gets a team he may decide that the cap is limiting his ability to win and decide to ignore the cap and then sue if the league tries to enforce the penalties. Or he may decide that he wants to sign another team's RFA without paying any compensation. Or maybe he will sign an underage star before he is drafted. All these rules have legal weaknesses that put them in jeopardy in

Okay, suppose Gainey had locked up his 10 free agents. Lets say Komisarek 5 years at $5M/yr Tanguay 3 years at $4.5M/yr Koivu 2 years at $4M/yr Kovalev 3 years at $4.5M/yr Schneider 2 years at $2.5M/yr. These numbers are of course guesses but I think they are pretty reasonable. Anyhow the exact values are not vital to my point. In fact I probably should add $1M/year to the first 4 and add Robert Lang for 2 years at $4.5M per year since you wanted Gainey to sign them during the season (say in November) when we had just completed a very good season and were

I agree completely. I was thinking of starting a "Bob Gainey is a genius" thread but this thread is better.

I have seen no evidence for either of these claims. Can you provide any? Here are 2 links to articles. In the first the Globe and Mail quotes Beauchemin as saying: "I was waiting for Anaheim. I had four great years there," said Beauchemin, who didn't receive an offer until last Saturday. "If they weren't going to sign me, I wanted to come back East to a hockey market and the Leafs showed the most interest." In the second the National Post quotes Beachemin as saying that the Habs expressed some interest: The Montreal Canadiens also showed some interest in the Sorel, Que

Yeah Toronto really has signed a long list of talented free agents lately. Plus, who have they signed and traded right away? You feel they are only 2 or 3 decent forwards away from being better than us. They signed a couple of players that make their defence look pretty good. But doing that meant that they have no money left for forwards. So in reality they are a long way from reaching our level. More importantly, how can you think there would be teams willing to trade for Koivu, Tanguay or Kovalev. All 3 could be had for free on July 1 and all 3 had trouble finding new teams.

By the same token, he picked up the following in 2 days for nothing: Cammalleri, Gionta, Spacek , and Gill. (Plus you have conveniently forgotten the draft pick we got in the deal for Schneider). As for signing and moving Kovalev, Koivu and Tanguay. This is a ridiculous suggestion. Firstly this is a very good way to discourage future UFAs from signing in Montreal. More significantly, do you see teams lining up to trade for any of these guys? The best of the lot, Tanguay still hasn't been picked up by any team and he is free. Yes we overpaid to get Gomez. But it

This post is right on the money. The only thing I disagree with is the PPPS.

So Bob dumped Carboneau and then 3 months later he replaces the core. From this we are supposed to conclude that the players he let go were a cancer in the dressing room and the reason we haven't won the cup during the last 5 years??? Why doesn't Bob's firing Carboneau first prove he was the worst offender??? To me, Bob fired Carbo because the team was playing terribly. Much worse then their skill level indicated they should. He let the players go because he felt it was time to go in a new direction. That doesn't mean the players had a bad attitude. Just as it doesn't mean Carbo h

I haven't seen it but any film about linear algebra is geeky - although I can see why it would be wildly popular with the college crowd.