Free Agency. That period of your career, where if you are good enough, or find a GM dumb enough, you could score yourself a pretty sweet contract. But this comes with a warning, you may not even get a contract at all. In fact, there are players out there right now, who most people thought would have received day one, and yet, still sit un-signed without a team.
That Damn Hockey Blog: Ryan Miller and the Seattle Metropolitans
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyLBXYqt3nM[/youtube]
Ah, Ryan Miller. Hero of Team USA at the 2010 Olympics. Nowadays though, it’s a completely different story. The Sabres want him gone for some reason because they believe Jhonas Enroth is this king goalie or something I dunno. Anyway, if the Sabres were to trade Ryan Miller this season, where would they possibly trade him? Let’s go through the other 29 other teams and see if anyone would want a 33 year old Goaltender.
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2013-14 Season Schedule Released
With the announcement of NHL players being able to compete in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the NHL released the schedule for the upcoming 2013-13 NHL season. This season will include the Winter Classic, which was cancelled last season due to the lockout, but will include the two teams that were meant to play in the Winter Classic, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Also included are five more outdoor games as well as the Winter Classic. Ottawa and Vancouver will contest the 2014 Tim Horton’s NHL Heritage Classic, and the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series will be four matchups, involving the Anaheim Ducks against the Los Angeles Kings at Dodger Stadium, New York Rangers versus New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers versus New York Islanders, both taking place in Yankee Stadium and Pittsburgh Penguins vs Chicago Blackhawks at Soldier Field.
There will be a break from Feb 9-25, to make way for the Winter Olympics, where the majority of NHL players will be taking part.
DATES OF IMPORTANCE
Training Camp Opens — Wednesday, Sept. 11 2013
Exhibition Games Begin — Friday, Sept. 13
Regular Season Opens — Tuesday, Oct. 1
Hall of Fame Game — Friday, Nov. 8
Christmas Break — Tuesday, Dec. 24 – Thursday, Dec. 26
2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic — Tuesday, Jan. 1 2014
Hockey Day In Canada — Saturday, Jan. 18
NHL Stadium Series — Ducks @ Kings — Saturday, Jan. 25
NHL Stadium Series — Rangers @ Devils — Sunday, Jan. 26
NHL Stadium Series — Rangers @ Islanders — Wednesday, Jan. 29
NHL Stadium Series — Penguins @ Blackhawks — Saturday, March 1
2014 Tim Horton’s NHL Heritage Classic — Senators @ Canucks — Sunday, March 2
Olympic Break — Sunday, Feb. 9 – Tuesday, Feb. 25
Last Day of Regular Season — Sunday, Apr. 13
Stanley Cup Playoffs Begin — Wednesday, Apr. 16
For full schedule details, including team by team schedules, visit NHL.com.
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New Division Names!!
Six divisions have now become four, as the NHL released the names of the new divisions, which will be in place starting from the 2013-14 season.
The Atlantic Division will consist of: Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Metropolitan Division will consist of: Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.
The Central Division will consist of: Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets.
The Pacific Division will consist of: Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks.
The Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions will make up the Eastern Conference, whilst the Central and Pacific will be the Western Conference. Detroit and Columbus are moving to the East, and Winnipeg is moving West. The schedule makes sure that all 30 teams will play in all 30 arenas at least once in the regular season.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs will still be made up of 16 teams, but qualifying for the dance has been modified. The top three from each division will automatically qualify, and the final four spots will be made up of ‘wild card’ teams from both conferences, regardless of division, meaning it is possible for one division to send five teams, and the other only send three to the playoffs.
The playoff seedings will still be based on points earned in the regular season. The winner of the conference, who will be the division winner with the highest points, will face the wild-card team with the fewest points. Second in the conference, and the other division winner, will face the wild-card team with the second fewest points.
The four winners will advance on to play for a berth in the conference championship series, with the winner of the conference advancing to the Stanley Cup.
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Guess Who’s Going To Sochi
The NHL and NHLPA have made an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), to allow NHL players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.
Since Nagano in 1998, NHL’ers have been able to represent their respective countries, and 2014 will be no different with an estimated 120 or more players, weill be representing the 12 countries competing.
The NHL schedule will take a break from February 9, 2014 to February 26, 2014, to allow the NHl’ers to participate without the NHL franchises they play for being affected by their loss. This also means that Team USA and Team Canada will be favourites once again,along with Team Russia, who would still have been affected if this deal didn’t go through, but not as much due to the strength of the KHL.
The preliminary rounds will be made up of three groups, consisting of four teams each. Group A will have Russia, Slovenia, Sl0vakia and the United States. Group B sees Austria take on Canada, Finland and Norway, whereas Group C will see the Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland and Sweden do battle.
Full schedule details can be found by clicking this LINK, which will take you to the IIHF website.
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NHL 14 EA Sports Hockey I.Q. Gameplay Improvements Trailer
The developers of NHL have released more details on their upcoming NHL 14, scheduled to release September 10 in North America.
Details about the new Gameplay Improvements – Hockey I.Q. can be found by watching the following trailer:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ1IUtI96B4[/youtube]
Full details on the new EA Sports Hockey I.Q. can be found at the link below:
http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-gameplay-improvements-hockey-iq
Don’t forget to pre-order NHL 14 for exclusive pre-order content at your favourite game retailers! Details on NHL 14 pre-order bonuses can be found at the following link:
http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-pre-order
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That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.2
Alexei Yashin was a stud for the Ottawa Senators on the ice. Off the ice, he would complain about contracts until the cows came home. He refused to play in the 95-96 season until he was made the highest paid player on the team. In 1998, he was to donate a million dollars to the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, however the NAC learned that a condition of the donation would be to pay Yashin’s parents $425,000, they balked at the idea, and Yashin cancelled the donation.
There would be more contract disputes to come, with Yashin refusing to honor the last year of his contract before the 1999-00 season due to demanding a raise and the Senators declining, he then demanded a trade. Ottawa responded by suspending him for the 99-00 season instead. Yashin, who was meant to be a free agent after the season, was refused free agent status by an NHL Arbitrator, and instead had to play out the final year of his contract in the 2000-01 season. Which lead the Ottawa Senators to trade Yashin at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, to the New York Islanders. Which brought about one of hockey’s great debates. Which was worse? The contract the Islanders gave Yashin, or the players they traded in order to get Yashin.
New York traded forward Bill Muckalt, defenseman Zdeno Chara, and the second overall pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, which just happened to be Jason Spezza. The Islanders hoped that Yashin would provide the spark they needed, after picking up 94 and 88 points respectively, in the last two years he played.
Muckalt only spent one season in Ottawa, and didnt really come to much. Chara has become one of the most feared defensemen, not just for the Boston Bruins, but in the National Hockey League, and Spezza has become the forward centerpiece in Ottawa and looks to be a future captain.
But what about Yashin? He is the focal point of this blog after all. Well, the Islanders had so much faith in the Russian, that they signed him to a 10 year, 87.5 million dollar contract. Most found that an untradeable contract, but it was clear that in their eyes, Yashin was an Islander for the rest of his career. In his first year, Yashin helped the Islanders make the playoffs, but they never got past the first round during his tenure there, and after the first year, his production declined.
Even after they retooled the roster around Yashin for the 2005-06 season, it didnt help, as the Islanders bought out his contract at the end of the 2006-07 season, leaving them with a cap hit of just over $2.2mil until 2015. Yashin is currently the eighth highest cap hit for forwards on the Islanders roster, even though he reitred from hockey in 2012. Yashin is a prime example of gambling gone horribly, horribly wrong. If the Islanders hadn’t of made the deal, then chances are they would still have Zdeno Chara and Jason Spezza in their lineup, and who knows where they’d be now. Maybe where they expected to be with Yashin.
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2013 Hockey Hall Of Fame Inductees
Four men and one woman will be inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame on November 11, 2013, in Toronto. Scott Niedermayer, Chris Chelios, Brendan Shanahan, Geraldine Heaney and Ray Shero were voted in by the Hall’s 18-member selection committee on Tuesday July 9.
Scott Niedermayer played 1263 regular season games in the NHL, for 740 points (172G, 568A), and 202 playoff games for 98 points (25G, 73A). He also won two Olympic Gold Medals for Canada (2002, 2010), the World Junior Championship (1991), World Championship (2004), and the World Cup of Hockey (2004).
Chris Chelios started in the NHL in the 1983-84 season, and played his last season in 2009-10. A career spanning 27 years, Chelios racked up 1,651 NHL Games, 185 Goals and 763 assists in the regular season alone. Three Stanley Cups and Three Norris Trophys to go with the Silver Medal he won as part of Team USA during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Brendan Shanahan is one of only five people (including Scott Niedermayer), that is a member of the Triple Gold Club (Olympic Gold medal (2002), World Championship (1994), and Stanley Cup (1997, 1998, 2002)), that are also in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Shanahan also scored 134 points in the playoffs, to go with the 1354 he scored in the regular season.
Geraldine Heaney won seven Gold Medals, as a member of the Canadian Women’s hockey team at the IIHF World Women’s Championship, becoming the only woman to win Gold in the first seven Championships. She also won a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics, and Gold in 2002 as a member of Team Canada.
Fred Shero made the playoffs in eight of his ten seasons he coached in the NHL, only missing in the first and last years of his NHL coaching career. Shero coached the Philadelphia Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cup in 1974-75 and 1975-76, as well as various minor championships including the Buffalo Bisons of the AHL in 1970 (also won AHL Coach of the Year) and the Omaha Knights of the CHL the following season.
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NHL 14 NHL ’94 Anniversary Mode Gameplay Trailer
The developers of NHL have released more details on their upcoming NHL 14, scheduled to release September 10 in North America.
Details about the new NHL ’94 Anniversary mode have been released!
NHL ’94 ANNIVERSARY MODE TRAILER
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8pLV4-RImk[/youtube]
Full details on the new NHL ’94 Anniversary Mode trailer can be found at the link below:
http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-nhl-94-anniversary-mode-revealed
Don’t forget to pre-order NHL 14 for exclusive pre-order content at your favourite game retailers! Details on NHL 14 pre-order bonuses can be found at the following link:
http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-pre-order
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That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.1
Ah, the Islanders. They currently have the most room in the salary cap, according to CapGeek.com, which is surprising, considering the Islanders have probably the two worst contracts in the history of hockey. One of which ended only recently because of a compliance buyout, and the other is for someone who hasn’t played since 2007. They are, of course, Rick DiPietro and Alexei Yashin.
DiPietro was drafted first overall by the New York Islanders in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, three years after the Islanders drafted Roberto Luongo. Considered to be the real future of the franchise, Luongo was traded to the Florida Panthers the same day DiPietro was drafted, so the pressure was on even before he hit the ice. After just 3 wins out of 20 in his first season, he never played again in the NHL until the 2002-03 season (which was only 11 games, one of which was a playoff shutout), before gaining the starting role the following season.
After four season of not the greatest goaltending, and 2 wins from 9 in playoffs, DiPietro was signed to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract. A week before his 26th birthday, the Islanders actually wanted to make the signing a year earlier, but the NHL discouraged the idea. The NHL knew that giving him a 15 year contract would be absolutely stupid, given the contract they gave Alexei Yashin in 2001 (I’ll get to it, don’t worry), but the Islanders gave him the contract anyway.
After one win from four in the first year of his 15-year deal, his last playoff appearance, 2007 also saw the decline of DiPietro, as injuries began to take their toll, and since 2008, has only played in 50 games for the Islanders, for just 14 wins. The misery finally ended, when his contract was bought out on July 1, 2013. However, even though it doesn’t affect the salary cap, DiPietro will still be paid $1.5 million until 2029. He will be 48.
If you think that the Islanders screwed that one up, the next part will prove that they didn’t learn from their mistakes.
For those who want to follow yours truly on Twitter for some unknown reason, it’s @ThatDamnDoubleC. Also, go visit BoredWrestlingFan.com, as we’re like brothers or something. You like the little icon in the top corner where the title of this blog is? I found that here.
