August 11, 2010
Dobber Sports
2010-08-11
The Fantasy Guide is updated as of August 10. You can buy it here
The Flames got their fourth-line center – Craig Conroy. He signed a one-year deal, but no longer holds any fantasy value at all.
Chris Pronger, per TSN, will not be ready for training camp. His knee/leg still need to gain strength, though he hopes to be ready by puck drop in Game 1.
The Leafs have signed Jerry D’Amigo to a three-year ELC. They really like this guy. He’s a tweener, meaning he was touted for a checking line, but has made huge strides offensively and thus will get a look as a top sixer. His future is unknown in that regard, so for now you have to treate his upside as a second liner or a complimentary player with a first-line center, regardless of how slim those odds are. I think he’ll get a nine-game NHL look this year and if he impresses, then a full-time look next year.
Chris Kuc is reporting that the Hawks have re-signed Jordan Hendry to a one-year deal.
The Tennessean quotes David Poile on Nashville’s four new Europeans – Roman Josi, Jonas Andersson, Linus Klasen and Sergek Kostitsyn: “One of the areas we want to improve on is our offensive side of the game. I think all of these players have a chance to contribute offensively. They are all very highly skilled.”
They mention six players will be vying for two roster spots. I’ll take a stab at the six: Klasen, Andersson, Spaling, Wilson, O’Reilly, Halischuk. The spots seem to be O’Reilly and Wilson’s to lose. Which they won’t. So I guess Andersson and Klasen will be hoping for an injury or two.
The Jackets have re-signed Michael Blunden to a one-year deal. It’s a two-way agreement.
The media is really taking off with this “contracts under investigation again” thing. Ah, no. The NHL is not going to reopen contracts, don’t be naive. Whatever sells newspapers I guess.
The Luongo contract is under investigation, but that is because apparently the investigation was never closed in the first place. But again – they won’t overturn that one either. But I guarantee you the Vancouver Sun sold a few extra newspapers for that one.
The footnote in Richard Bloch’s ruling on Kovalchuk says that the contracts (Savard, Pronger, Luongo, Hossa) “are being investigated currently”… that’s bull. My BS detector is going off on that one. This is why Bloch says those words:
Bloch: “But, Mr. Bettman, you didn’t have an issue with the Savard, Pronger, Luongo and Hossa contracts, so why now?”
Bettman: “Oh, uh, yeah, um… we’re ah… investigating those contracts. Yeah, that’s it. They’re being investigated.”
They’re not. At least not seriously. It was just a ploy, I’m sure. I will note that the NHL can investigate circumvention even after the contract has been approved and registered, per the CBA. But too many things in the league would be disrupted if they rejected any of those older contracts. Even the ones that haven’t started yet.
This line from Puck Daddy: “the NHL has made it a practice to wipe away the mistakes of its GMs and owners — and this time it’ll only have to void a couple of contracts instead of cancelling a season! Woo!”
The Globe reports that Tim Thomas is recovering nicely from surgery to repair his torn labrum. There’s your reason for the tough year. The Bruins have two elite goalies and I think Thomas will start off with some solid games to get his trade value back up. So Rask may see a light workload in the first month.