This new “discuss with pending FA’s five days before July 1” thing has really impacted player movement in July. Usually you would see a busy July 1, a fairly busy July 2, and some activity every day until mid-July. Now, what we saw was absolute chaos on July 1 from noon until five. Then two deals of any significance July 2…and that’s it.

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Pierre-Marc Bouchard has gone to where the money is. He saw that the NHL was no longer a viable option, so he signed to play in the Swiss League. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – that’s exactly would I would do if I was a fringe NHL player. Switzerland. I hear so many great things about the hockey there, the fans, the people and the treatment in general.

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Greg Zanon was stuck in the AHL last year, but the Panthers signed him to a contract yesterday. That continues their recent trend of shoring up different roles with veterans. Zanon will be the ninth defenseman. Here is my order of D for the Panthers in terms of ice time (assuming full health):

Campbell, Kulikov, Ekblad and Gudbranson are the first four.

Mitchell, Olsen, Petrovic are the next three.

Robak is the first guy called up. Zanon will be second.

That starting seven is actually not too bad.

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From the pages of “Here We Go Again” weekly – Sidney Crosby will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his wrist. On the plus side, it’s minor surgery and he’ll be fine for camp. Also on the plus side – it explains why he was merely human during the postseason.

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USA Today is suggesting that Colton Sissons would make a solid replacement in the Nashville lineup for Mike Fisher since he not only played 17 games for the Preds last season, but he was “likened to Fisher since drafting him in the second round two years ago”. I agree that Sissons probably makes the team because of this injury, but it will be Järnkrok who benefits from added ice time and PP time. I still wouldn’t set too high of an expectation this year on Järnkrok, but instead of 37 or 38 points, maybe he gets 47 or 48.

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On the Forecheck makes a case for Nashville signing Mike Ribeiro. I don’t think he would help – his numbers were beyond brutal in the final half of last season… and his decent numbers of the season and a half prior to that were inflated. That being said, if the Preds can sign him for dirt cheap – as in a million bucks – then it can’t hurt. And if he cleans up whatever issues he had personally, then maybe he could focus on feeding James Neal some pucks.

One point OTF didn’t make was the fact that Ribeiro and Neal were teammates in Dallas. Although Ribeiro played mostly with Benn and Morrow in 2009-10, he did see time on a line with Neal in about 6% of his shifts. So they’re not strangers.

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As great as Rick’s ramblings were again yesterday, I’m gonna disagree with him on Rynnas. Roos seemed pretty certain that Lindback was the NHL backup. I’m not so sure. Rynnas signed a two-year deal and it’s a one-way contract at close to the NHL minimum – $562,500. Lindback is signed for one year at $925,000. I don’t think the Stars really care who their backup will be – they’ll keep whoever is better. I have no faith in Lindback being better. Plus he’s injury-prone. Rynnas was developing well in Toronto’s system, but fled the organization for more playing time and knowing that a year later he would be a free agent. In Finland for Karpat, all he did was go 28-5-7, 1.51, 0.939. I think he wins the job and I don’t think Dallas really cares if they’re paying Lindback to play in the AHL – since it would really just be costing them an extra $362,500 on top of what they would have paid Rynnas to play there.

That being said – Rynnas would only be worth backup goalie spot starts. Because if Lehtonen is injured, I’m guessing that Jack Campbell would get the call. But this could be a Frederick Andersen/Viktor Fasth situation if Rynnas impresses.

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If you remember a couple of weeks ago, I had mentioned here that a forum member had offered his graphics design services for several lucky winners to create logos/jersey designs for their fantasy team. Anyway, it was a huge hit and his creations of these designs were amazing. Take a look here and here and my favorite – here. Wow…

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I couldn’t get the video clip to embed here (thanks to FIFA hogging their highlights), but this is hilarious. Someone dubbed some of “J.R” Jim Ross’ wrestling calls over the Brazil- Germany highlights. Far be it for me to mention soccer here…but this is just too funny.

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And now I’ve gone completely off hockey, but in a way – aren’t I just making fun of other sports? So that’s okay, right? Here is a guy who was caught on camera at a baseball game sleeping and he’s suing MLB and ESPN and Dan Schulman/John Kruk for $10 million. Is it possible to sleep at a hockey game? I doubt it.