Igor Makarov to Remain in KHL, August 31, 2009
Dobber Sports
2009-08-31
Fantasy Guide available here.
The ‘Canes have cut their losses regarding prospect Bobby Hughes, ranked 181 on my prospects list. The shipped the 21-year-old to the Islanders for undrafted 26-year-old Rob Hennigar. Hennigar will shore up Albany, while Hughes is young enough to get new life in Bridgeport.
TSN is reporting that Patrick Flatley has resigned from the NHLPA on the heels of the firing. Dreger also reports that Glen Healey is being escorted into the boardroom by Shawn Horcoff. Could he be next? What a dysfunctional group.
Bye-bye spam. Our registration process is now fixed and requires words in an image to be typed in. The spam accounts that have already been created may still annoy…but they’ll be weeded out over time. Security on the two Dobber sites is reclaiming its hold, I am happy to announce.
Goaltender Jeff Glass has signed to play in the KHL next season.
Any hope of the NHLPA extending the CBA through the 2011-12 season has been shot. Expect a possible work stoppage to loom as the 2010-11 season crawls by, as the CBA expires at the conclusion of that season.
The NHLPA has elected to fire their executive director. Paul Kelly was shown the door this morning. THN’s Ken Campbell gives some great reasons why this is so wrong in his artice. The thrust of the article is here: “If a vote is called to review Kelly's leadership and at least 25 members of the union's executive committee cast a vote and 20 of them vote to fire Kelly, he'll lose his job. And if the players think the payout they had to make to Saskin was a lot of money, they'll be staggered by the amount they'll have to give Kelly to go away. And that's because Kelly might have one of the all-time cases for wrongful dismissal. The uprising against Kelly is being led by former ombudsman Eric Lindros, advisory board head Ron Pink and interim ombudsman Buzz Hargrove, along with some others within the current ranks of the NHLPA. So think about it. The ringleaders in Kelly's attempted lynching are a former player who has run up against the establishment at every turn and resigned from the PA because he couldn't workwith Kelly (Lindros); the man who didn't get the job when the PA decided Kelly would be a better choice (Pink); and one of the most confrontational labor leaders of our generation (Hargrove).” How great is our forum? The news broke at 4:02 am on TSN and our forum had a thread by 4:06 am ET. Hockey news can break at any minute of the day and our members are discussing it seconds later.
Finally, some Igor Makarov news to share. The Blackhawks podcast, found here, interviews Stan Bowman. Found about 17 minutes in, Makarov WILL stay in the KHL for one more year. Bowman feels that he will not just be in North America in 2010-11, but will be with the Blackhawks. The Hawks are happy with his progress there (and salary cap issues would make it difficult to take him on anyway). Bowmans says that Makarov received an invite to play on the National team, which indicates that he is one of the 20 best players in Russia. Makarov owners were hoping for a trade, but short of that – I think they would prefer this news. It beats having him come over here, play very well but still get cut due to the numbers game, and then go back to Russia angry. One more year folks.