The big news in the hockey world this week has most certainly been the changes made to the NHL All-Star game. They have done away with the old East vs. West format, or the failed North America vs. The World experiment, and instead gone to a much different idea.
Today, I’m going to look at this propsed change, but also a few other ideas that could work to make the mid-season shinny game a bit more exciting.
Well it’s that time of the year again for the bold and daring hockey predictions for things to come! I continue today by looking at the Right Coast. This conference tends to be a bit more conservative and easier to predict that the West. However, last season they ended up with a 7-8 matchup in the Conference Finals. Also some teams like the Lightning and Leafs had some pretty big roster overhauls. So there are certain to be some surprises coming out this year. But I think that it’ll shake out like this…
This just doesn’t end, does it? It looks like all of the drama surrounding Ilya Kovalchuck’s massive $102 million contract is back for another season, making this one of the more tumultuous off-seasons ever.
In case you haven’t heard, heard an independent arbitrator has ruled in the NHL’s favour and has voided Kovalchuck’s insane contract for cap circumvention. As a I said a few weeks ago, it’s about time that the NHL stepped in on these contracts. I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised or stunned by the news, but what shocks me is the fact that the league has said that they will be looking into other, already registered contracts, namely those of Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Marian Hossa, and Chris Pronger. This my friends, has the potential to get ugly, very, very, ugly.
It looks like everyone spoke to soon about Ilya Kovalchuk’s mammoth contract with the New Jersey Devils. The NHL has rejected his 17 year, $102 million contract because of cap circumvention. All I can say here is, what took them so long?
Precedent was set for this kind of front-loaded, stupidly long term contracts last year with Chris Pronger, Marian Hossa and Roberto Luongo’s long term contracts. In all three cases the contracts start out huge but taper off very rapidly, and takes them all past their obvious playing days.
While this may not seem like a big deal, it is something that really shouldn’t be allowed. In all cases the Devils, Flyers, Blackhawks, and Canucks all are creatively getting around the cap. They are signing these player for longer than they will play, knowing full well that they will retire before the contract runs out. Once the players retire, they still get paid but their salary does not count against the cap.
One of the more interesting things to circulate both TSN and The Globe and Mail last week was the six-part, multi-platform story where they investigated the possibility of Canada adding a seventh NHL team, title Why Not Canada?. They looked at four potential locations for franchises including Winnipeg, Hamilton, Quebec City, and a second team in the Greater Toronto Area.
If you did not get a chance to either watch it on Sports Centre, or read it, I highly suggest that you do it now. It was a very interesting and intelligent look at the different locations and went beyond the “We Want a Team Here” and looked at the building, corporate support, legal issues, and regional demographics.
After it was all said and done, they seemed to be high on the possibility of a team in either Winnipeg or Quebec, and not so much on adding a third team to Ontario. As much as I would love a team in Southwestern Ontario, or in Toronto, I think that I understand the situation now.
That Other Blog of Mine