If you follow junior hockey, then you probably already know the latest must-know news in CHL circles – former head coach of the Windsor Spitfires, Bob Boughner, has signed on as the newest assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets (and if you love junior hockey, but don’t know what I’m talking about, then get familiar with Neate Sager’s Buzzing the Net blog at Yahoo! Sports Canada).
Last season I wrote a few columns breaking down each of the Western Conference team’s top-six and bottom-six, so I’ll go back to the well once again and give you better insight into this season.
Are you wondering what your plan of attack should be this summer? Preparing for a draft? Upset about some trades you made in the past? I’ll weigh in with my thoughts on the interesting and important issues.
I will be running these audits on a weekly basis throughout the summer. Fire me an e-mail if you want to get in line!
Today I’ll be taking a look at the team submitted to me by DobberHockey reader Kody (known as tradejunkie on the forums), who just won his league, but will have to pay a price for it because of an interesting rule change this summer.
If there was one subject I loved more than any other in high school and college, it was world and state history. Whether it was the fight for the Alamo or the Civil War, not a day went by where I didn't ponder a country or society’s fight for independence. It was not just a lesson in history’s wild timeline, but a lesson in life and in human nature.
July 1st has come and gone, and for the most part there were no major surprises. The high-end defensemen were all signed very quickly, and all for reasonable cap hits considering that overpayment is usually a necessary aspect of dipping into the free agent market.
There are several players who will likely end up on different teams for the 2010-11 season still out there – Ilya Kovalchuk, Tomas Kaberle, Kevin Bieksa, Simon Gagne, Marc Savard, and potentially even Bobby Ryan. There are also a few interesting young players that I want to talk a bit about in more detail.
I’ll go into a bit of depth on a fantasy issue or two pertaining to each of the 30 NHL clubs.
Fantasy Impact – The Phoenix Coyotes have signed center Andrew Ebbett to a one-year contract worth $500,000 (and $105,000 at the AHL level).
Fantasy Impact – The Florida Panthers have signed Chris Higgins to a one-year contract worth $1.6 million.
Fantasy Impact – Nashville has dipped into the free agent pool, locking up speedy pivot Matthew Lombardi to a three-year contract worth a total of $10.5 million.
Fantasy Impact – The Lightning have signed big defenseman Pavel Kubina to a two-year contract worth $3.85 mllion per year.
Fantasy Impact – The Lightning have signed big defenseman Pavel Kubina to a two-year contract worth $3.85 mllion per year.
