The fifth annual Fantasy Guide is now available for sale in the shop - French and English Buy the Fantasy Prospects Report - HERE The NHL Entry Draft is only one week away! We are going to host a live chat on DobberHockey with all of your favourite writers! I expect a [...]
I was out most of today and missed the Halak trade break. Thanks to Twitter, I was able to read a blow-by-blow account of the deal occurring on my phone after the fact, and I started to jot down a few thoughts that I had on the deal, which I will now share with you. First and foremost, the goalie market in the NHL is officially dead. If the waiving of Ilya Bryzgalov a few years ago was the first sign of the lack of value goalies carry in the NHL (to me, it isn’t the ‘new’ NHL any longer), the Halak trade was the final nail in the goalie market coffin.
The Blues are busy today - they just acquired TJ Hensick from Colorado. Analysis coming... Angus here - just got home - extensive Halak coverage on the way! Dobber here - Angus will have a full trade breakdown coming up. Jaroslav Halak has been dealt to the Blues for Lars Eller and [...]
There are big fish in the NHL free agent pond every summer. In 2008, the Chicago Blackhawks made Brian Campbell a $7 million man. That same year, the Rangers shelled out $39 million for Wade Redden. The Bruins gave the one-dimensional Michael Ryder $4 million per for three years. In 2009, Chicago gave Marian Hossa a career contract worth over $5 million per season. The Rangers took a major risk when they gave Marian Gaborik $7.5 million per season.
“We have a trade to announce...” are the only words any hockey fan ever wishes to hear out of Gary Bettman’s mouth. There may be no more exciting off-ice situation in the NHL than the draft day trade announcement. There is no shortage of star players available at the draft this year – Mike Ribeiro, Tomas Kaberle, and Sheldon Souray to name a few. There are several premier soon-to-be-free agents whose rights may be up for grabs as well – Ilya Kovalchuk, Anton Volchenkov, Dan Hamhuis, Patrick Marleau, Paul Martin... the list goes on.
“We have a trade to announce...” are the only words any hockey fan ever wishes to hear out of Gary Bettman’s mouth. There may be no more exciting off-ice situation in the NHL than the draft day trade announcement.
In 2008, the Coyotes acquired All-Star center Olli Jokinen from Florida for Keith Ballard and spare parts. The Flames added Mike Cammalleri from Los Angeles. Washington dealt Steve Eminger to the Flyers for a pick they would use that same day on John Carlson. In 2009, the Flyers added Chris Pronger minutes before the first round kicked off. It seems like there is anticipation and hype every year as the draft approaches, but from everything we have heard from those with strong connections in the hockey world, this could be the busiest draft ever in terms of wheeling and dealing.
Bobby Ryan for Tomas Kaberle? The OC Register weighs in. I agree with the last sentence. "On the surface, trading Ryan for Kaberle doesn’t seem to make any sense. Now if the Leafs were to include Luke Schenn or Nazem Kadri in the conversations …" Hershey defeated Texas 2-1 in overtime last night to [...]
DobberBaseball has released this month's top 150 hitters list. You can check it out here. From now until June 24th, I’ll be running a 2010 NHL Entry Draft contest. Send me (private message, e-mail, carrier pigeon, whatever you prefer) your first round mock. The entry that closest mirrors the first round on June [...]
(They say a picture is worth a thousand words... but to Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, the above one is worth about 1.3 million)
Congratulations on winning the 2010 Stanley Cup, Chicago. Now, welcome to cap hell! The Blackhawks have almost $58 million committed to 14 players for 2010-11. The current salary cap ($56.8 million) is expected to rise by $2 million this summer, but that still leaves GM Stan Bowman approximately $1 million to sign eight players.
According to TSN, Jonathan Toews earned a $1.3 million bonus with the Conn Smythe win. That bonus will count against Chicago's 2010-11 cap... Alessandro Seren Rosso translated an interview with a former agent of Kabanov's. A great read. Thanks again to PickUp Hockey for running the 2010 DobberHockey Playoff Challenge. I (unofficially) [...]
