Sunday Rumor Roundup

UPDATE 8:45 PM: 

- On an interesting side note, I stumbled upon a very intriguing piece in the Buffalo News, where writer Dan Zakroczemski lays out his "GM for a day" plan. Firstly, he suggests that the Sabres should upgrade their front office through the hiring of a good scout as assistant-GM to Darcy Regier. He then continues by indicating that the Sabres should rid themselves of most of their veterans, including D Toni Lydman and F Jochen Hecht, and put their youth in charge. Finally, he believes strongly that the Sabres should sign D Jay Bouwmeester.

- Cross the Edmonton Oilers off Jay Bouwmeester's list of possible suitors. 

- Things are looking grim for the Nashville Predators as they do not believe that they will be able to meet their UFAs' demands by July 1st. Nashville's most notable UFA is F Steve Sullivan, who had a great year with 32 points in 41 games after his return from severe back injuries. 

- Many things, including the hiring of Francois Allaire as goalie coach, are starting to indicate that G Jonas Gustavsson will end up a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Sundin to remain a Leaf

According to TSN's Darren Dreger, Mats Sundin has informed Toronto Maple Leafs management that he will not waive his "no-movement" clause to accept a trade.

If Mats Sundin has done such a thing, it would put an end to a never-ending saga of trade rumors and of debate over why Sundin should and shouldn't waive his "no-movement" clause.

More importantly, it now means that Marian Hossa is the top fish in the Trade Pond.

Islanders re-sign Hunter, Leafs Steen

According to TSN, the New York Islanders have re-signed forward Trent Hunter to a 5-year, US$10 M contract and the Toronto Maple Leafs have done the same with forward Alex Steen, for a 2-year contract worth US$3.4 M.

Hunter was set to become a UFA on July 1st and therefore could have been dealt by the Islanders at the Trade Deadline, if no agreement had been reached and if the Islanders had chosen to go in that direction. He currently has 8 goals and 24 assists in 62 games, as well as a -10 plus-minus rating and 33 penalty minutes.

Steen's name has been mentioned in some trade rumors due to the Leafs' eventual fire sale, but this signing seems to also take him off the market. He has 26 points, 22 penalty minutes and a -2 plus-minus rating in 56 games.

What the sellers have to offer

With a big number of teams, currently, out of the Playoff Picture, a slew of players could be available by the Trade Deadline.

Amongst these teams are the Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks.

All these teams have interesting unrestricted free-agents come July 1st, except the Edmonton Oilers, but do not rule them out as sellers, as they have an important number of young defencemen and forwards that could be on the way out (except Gagner, Cogliano, Pitkanen...).

The teams with the most valuable assets to ship off is the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their UFAs include Dan Boyle, Vaclav Prospal and Chris Gratton. Boyle and Prospal would be welcome on any team, as for Gratton, his 55% faceoff success rate makes him somewhat of an intriguing option as a 3rd line center.

The Blackhawks along with the Oilers are the out-of-the-race teams that have the least to offer.
The Blackhawks seem to be willing to keep their young core of players together, and therefore only have UFAs Martin Lapointe and Andrei Zyuzin. Edmonton is in the same situation and their only ''notable'' UFA is Geoff Sanderson.

The Maple Leafs and Kings, respectively 29th and 30th in league standings, have some valuable UFAs to offer. Mats Sundin is most notably the top UFA forward in the market this year as the Trade Deadline approaches, and Toronto's only asset, if they decide to not trade Tomas Kaberle.
The Kings' notable UFAs include Rob Blake and Ladislav Nagy.

Finally, the Blues and Islanders also have some valuable assets to offer. St. Louis, unable to re-sign Barret Jackman up until this point in time, might be forced to trade him, and the Islanders surely want to get something in return for UFAs Miroslav Satan, Trent Hunter and Bryan Berard.

The Market this year seems quite bleek from a 100% sellers point of view, but wait until Trade Deadline day to see where Atlanta (UFAs: F Marian Hossa, F Bobby Holik, F Mark Recchi, D Steve McCarthy, G Johan Hedberg), Columbus (UFAs: F David Vyborny, F Sergei Fedorov, F Mike Peca, D Adam Foote) and Vancouver (UFAs: F Markus Naslund, F Brendan Morrison) stand, as their position could force them to add some valuable assets to the Trade Pool.

Good Luck Blake!

Today, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake announced that he had been diagnosed with a rare kind of leukemia, blood cancer.

Even though Blake has this dangerous disease, he also said that he will continue playing for the Leafs this season.

Jason, I sincerely wish you luck in your fight against this devastating disease.

Hope you get well soon!

Canadiens lose to Leafs in OT

Toronto-- A combination of bad penalties, horrible giveaways and leaving Cristobal Huet by himself to face the Maple Leafs resulted in the Habs' first loss of the season.

Eventhough they started the game strong by scoring 2:43 minutes in, the Canadiens coughed up their early lead when Leafs defenceman Ian White ripped a shot past Cristobal Huet, after multiple unsuccessful clearing attempts by both Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Kostitsyn (Kastsitsyn).

Later in the opening frame, Andrei Markov played aggressively on the penalty kill and shot a puck past Vesa Toskala.

Andrei Kostitsyn (Kastsitsyn) added to the Tricolore's lead with his 1st goal of the new campaign.

Over the next 2 periods, one player would step up for the Leafs, scoring twice and leading his team to overtime, that one player being Alexei Ponikarovski.

A couple of moments into overtime, Mats Sundin was penalized, thus giving our dear Canadiens a 4-3 powerplay.

After numerous failed scoring attempts by Mark Streit and Alex Kovalev and after the Habs botched the aforementioned powerplay, Canadiens' defenceman Francis Bouillon was sent to the Sin Bin.

On the ensuing powerplay, Leafs' Montreal Canadiens Killer Tomas Kaberle one-timered a Mats Sundin pass past Huey.

The game was all over.

2007-08 New Jerseys -- Northeast

Boston Bruins:


Buffalo Sabres:


Montreal Canadiens:



Ottawa Senators:





Toronto Maple Leafs (Ugh!):

7/6/07 UFA SIGNINGS

ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ?
Please e-mail me at: afi.ville.49@gmail.com

6:45 PM- Stars sign LW Brad Winchester:
1 year at US$475,000


4:40 PM- Leafs sign G Scott Clemmensen:
1 year, two-way contract


3:40 PM- Wild sign D Sean Hill:
1 year


12:50 PM- Vanek Update:

In a 12:30 PM Press conference, Sabres' GM Darcy Regier announced that the Sabres will match the Oilers' contract offer of US$50 million over 7 years.

12:30 PM- Oilers send Vanek an offer sheet:

According to various sources, the Edmonton Oilers have sent forward Tomas Vanek an offer sheet. The offer is worth US$50 million over a period of 7 years. If the Sabres can not match the Oilers' offer, Edmonton will obtain Vanek in exchange for a compensation, more precisely of 4 1st round drat picks.

12:25 PM- Senators promote John Paddock to head coach.



8:00 AM- Top 5 Free Agents:

5) D Brent Sopel
4) C Alexei Yashin
3) LW Brendan Shanahan
2) C Peter Forsberg
1) D Sheldon Souray

7:50 AM- Rumor Central (Teams Interested):

LW Martin Gelinas (DAL)
D Sean Hill (MIN)
D Sheldon Souray (NJ, NYR, SJ)
C Alexei Yashin (DAL)

7/4/07 UFA SIGNINGS

ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ?
E-mail me at: afi.ville.49@gmail.com

5:30 PM- Sabres re-sign D Teppo Numminen:
1 year at US$2.6 million


1:45 PM- Islanders sign LW Ruslan Fedotenko:
1 year at US$2.9 million


1:35 PM- Thrashers re-sign LW Slava Kozlov:
3 years at US$11 million (US$3.66 annually)


11:35 AM- Canadiens sign W Tom Kostopoulos:
2 years at US$1.8 million (US$900,000 annually)


10:05 AM- Flames re-sign RW Jarome Iginla:
5 years


10:00 AM- Maple Leafs re-sign G Vesa Toskala:
2 years at US$8 million (US$4 annually)


8:55 AM- Rumor Central (Teams Interested):

RW Bill Guerin (VAN, CBJ)
D Sean Hill (MIN)
LW Slava Kozlov (DAL, ATL)
D Sheldon Souray (NJ, SJ, DAL, NYR)

8:50 AM- Top 5 Free Agents:

5) D Brent Sopel
4) LW Slava Kozlov
3) LW Brendan Shanahan
2) C Peter Forsberg
1) D Sheldon Souray

Goaltending's a Priority!

Florida acquires Tomas Vokoun:

Acquiring Tomas Vokoun was a key move for the Panthers and a big step towards turning them into a respectable hockey team.

The Cats got what they wanted in Vokoun, a legitimate no. 1 goalie that is.

Even though the Czech netminder sustained a severe injury to his thumb last season, which caused the emergence of Chris Mason as the Predators’ new starting ‘keeper, the Panthers have nothing to worry about, due to the fact that, since coming back from this aforementioned injury, Tomas Vokoun, proved that he was still the goalie he was during the 2005-06 season, when he lead Nashville to their 1st playoff birth.

The 30-year old netminder maintained a solid 27-12-4 record with the Preds, while giving up an average of 2.40 goals a game, and stopping 92% of the shots he faced.

With the acquisition of Vokoun, the status of Ed Belfour seems unclear, and seems to indicate that the veteran is unlikely to be re-signed.

So long, "hovering" eagle.

Toronto acquires Toskala and Bell:

Late June 2006--The Toronto Maple Leafs acquire goaltender Andrew Raycroft from the Boston Bruins for goaltending prospect Tuukka Rask. “Finally a great goalie in T.O., he is our savior” chanted Maple Leafs fans.

Late June 2007--After an unsuccessful season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Andrew Raycroft was practically “booed” out of town by the crowds at the ACC.

The 2003-04 Calder Trophy winner had a second disappointing season in a row, even though setting a new record for wins in a season by a Maple Leaf netminder, with 37.

Raycroft was mostly hurt by the ending frame of his 2006-07 season, especially in a game against Montreal where he allowed 4 goals in the first 28 minutes of Toronto’s most crucial game of the 2006-07 season. Even though Toronto won the game, they did not make the postseason for a 2nd straight year.

Toskala, used to being a “tandem” goalie at best, excelled at his role during the 2006-07 season, compiling a record of 26-10-1 with a 2.35 GAA and .908 SV%.

He will resume his role in Toronto, as Maple Leafs’ GM John Ferguson Jr. announced, despite Andrew Raycroft’s disappointing season, that the 2 goalies will be “platooning”, at least for the 1st part of the 2007-08 season.

While Toskala adds certainty and confidence to the goalie’s role, Mark Bell adds size and grit to the winger’s role in T.O..

He too, coming off a horrid season (21 Pts in 71 G), was a mere “throw-in” in this trade, but it doesn’t mean that he will be useless to Toronto for next season’s run to the playoffs.

Expect a very talented defensive line for the Maple Leafs if they retain Michael Peca, and assign Mark Bell to his line.