Skip to main content

Back in the saddle again

Yes, I've been away from the keyboard* for quite a while, so there's certainly some catching up to do:
  • The Boots Del Biaggio saga is now entering the Long Slog, a period of time in which both a bankruptcy and a criminal investigation will take place. I suspect it will take months before the whole tangled web gets unwound, but as John Glennon points out in his Tennessean blog today, the signing of Ryan Suter shows that the Predators aren't standing still. It does appear that operationally they should be able to proceed as planned.
  • Speaking of Suter, 4 years at $3.5 million per might seem on the high side, but take a look at this list of NHL defensemen making between $3 million and $4 million next year, courtesy of NHLSCAP.com. While Suter certainly still has rough parts of his game that need to be filled out (as in, quit hanging onto the puck for so long in your own end!), he fits quite comfortably in that group. He's a legit Top-4 NHL defenseman, and contributes on the power play as well.
  • Back to the Del Biaggio story; there are many out there jumping on Gary Bettman and the NHL for failing to perform due diligence and getting caught looking foolish, but if you go back to the initial stories in this drama, you'll see that Del Biaggio's brokerage is being sued right alongside him. While we have to wait for all the facts to come out in court, the appearance is that the lenders were trying to independently verify Del Biaggio's collateral claims, and received documents that, while appearing genuine, where in fact falsified by an employee there. The responsibility lies with the guilty parties here, folks, not the victims.
  • When it comes to re-signing free agents in Nashville, the next one in line would appear to be defenseman Shea Weber. I've said before that 4 years, $15-16 million seems about right for Weber, who had a disappointing 2007-8 campaign. Perhaps that figure will rise a bit given the figures that Ryan Suter earned, but I'd certainly choke on anything above $5 million/year.
  • The last major free agent to be dealt with is goaltender Dan Ellis. His play down the stretch lifted the Predators into the playoffs, and his effort against the Red Wings was among the best goaltending performances in the entire postseason, but whether he can carry that forward as a regular NHL goaltender is an open question. Even without being the main guy throughout the season, Ellis had difficulty maintaining his playing weight, an issue that became an even larger concern during the playoffs. How would Ellis survive the entire 82-game regular season, let alone considering the fact that opponents now have a decent amount of game action available to scout him with? Since Chris Mason is just entering a two-year contract extension at $3 million per year (read: untradeable), and Pekka Rinne would have to clear waivers to head back to Milwaukee this year, it would appear that the only realistic situation keeping Ellis in Nashville is to see Rinne traded and Ellis accept a playing time split with Mason, something relatively close to 50/50. My bet is that he'll wait until July to play the free agent market, and sign as a backup with a contending team for a decent sum ($2-3 million).
  • That said, a depth-for-quality trade might be just the solution for a Predators squad that already has 8 NHL-level defensemen with more rising through the ranks, and a 3-way shuffle in goal. With no indication as of yet that Steve Sullivan will return anytime soon from his back troubles, the obvious need on this team is for an offensive threat up front. Is Patric Hornqvist, or any of the other Predators prospects, ready to step into that role this fall? Probably not quite yet, so a trade would be the logical option.
  • Congrats to Glenn Anderson and Igor Larionov for their selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
  • Expect a blogroll cleanup and site redesign over the next couple weeks; I've got quite a bit of pruning to do, and may well remove the blogroll to its own page in order to free up more space for article content.
*We packed up the kids and went on vacation, then dropped them off for family visits and camp, etc. Yes, our heavy-duty driving is the reason why gas has sky-rocketed past $4 a gallon. The one point I'd pass along is that everyone should take the opportunity to visit the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama sometime. It's an inspiring reminder of what our nation can accomplish when our priorities are set on exploration and discovery rather than consumption and speculation.

Popular posts from this blog

My goals for 2011: Make sports blogging pay off

In my never-ending quest to figure out a model for making what is currently my hobby & passion into something bringing in at least a side income, I've decided to set a couple goals for myself to complete during the rest of 2011. Simply put, I plan to publish two products over the next few months, which I hope will provide real value to hockey fans, and that they'll be willing to pay for. Will it succeed? Will it fail? The only way to know is to put my nose to the grindstone and get these two things done (I'll keep the details under my hat for now). The important thing to note is that these efforts are in addition to anything I'm doing over at OTF . Taking away what we're doing over there and asking people to pay for it is a surefire lose-lose all the way around, because if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, it's that people love to read about sports, but only for free. I'm also optimistic about Hockey Gea...

My Letter To Gary

Dear Mr. Bettman, When the announcement was made a few weeks ago that Jim Balsillie had entered into an agreement to purchase the Nashville Predators, speculation immediately began that a relocation to South Ontario would come in short order, and many hockey fans in the Nashville area jumped to the conclusion that we'd see a "Major League" scenario, whereby the new owner would deliberately undermine local support of the team so as to trigger the escape clause in the team's arena lease. As for myself, I decided to give Mr. Balsillie the benefit of the doubt - surely as a lifelong hockey fan and player, he wouldn't do such a thing after acquiring one of the best young teams in the game, with the Stanley Cup potentially within reach. I've waited and watched over recent weeks, and was initially encouraged by Balsillie's promise to field a competitive team, giving GM David Poile an ample budget to put together the best team possible. His legal representative ...

Cheer up, it's the holidays...

Why is it that various media outlets continue trying to put their own spin on the "what's wrong with the NHL" story? Our latest example comes from The Hockey News , in a piece by Jay Greenburg entitled, "Excitement Level On The Decline." Take the opening sentence: Attendance is down and yet still up from before the lockout, leaving it arguable whether buildings in New Jersey and Florida are half-full or half empty. It's no surprise that attendance is down from last season, particularly if you compare the first half of 2005-06 to the first half of this year. Coming out of the lockout, there were legions of fans starved to see the on-ice product, particularly in light of the massive rule changes. This year is more indicative of business as usual, so the fact that the league is above pre-lockout levels is a positive. Toss in the projection that overall revenues are increasing despite a 1% decrease in attendance, and I'd say that paying fans have come back ...