Round one draft picks: Vegas traded up for 3 first rounders.

 

I was touched today by love shown by so many hockey greats on the passing of Dave Semenko.

 

Wayne Gretzky releases statement on passing of Dave Semenko
The hockey world is mourning the loss of Edmonton Oilers legend Dave Semenko, who died Thursday at age 59 after a short battle with cancer.

Semenko was best known on the ice for his tough-guy ways, serving as bodyguard for Wayne Gretzky. Off the ice, he was beloved for his big heart and sense of humour.

Several retired Oilers have been paying tribute to Semenko throughout the day via statements and media appearances.

Wayne Gretzky issued the following statement to share his thoughts on his longtime teammate and friend:

“One of the first Oilers I met in 1978, I didn’t know at the time the impact he would have in my life and my career. He was the toughest player I knew and yet the biggest Teddy Bear you would ever know. A beloved Oiler that will be missed dearly because of his kind heart and funny sense of humour. He made us all better people. RIP # 27, thanks for your friendship.”

 

Flyers ink Corban Knight to two-year contract

Philadelphia Flyers announced the signing of forward Corban Knight
on Saturday.

The two-year, two-way deal is worth $1.3 million at the NHL level and carries a $650,000 cap hit.

The Flyers are familiar with Knight, as the centreman spent the 2016-17 season with the club’s AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms upon singing an AHL contract last September. He registered 11 goals and 29 assists for 40 points in 72 games with the Phantoms.

Overall, Knight has tallied 49 goals and 83 assists for 132 points in 233 AHL games.

He has also played 29 NHL games (20 with Florida, nine with Calgary), recording three goals and five assists.

 

The title speaks for itself so no story need be posted lol.

Oilers extend McDavid on massive eight-year, $100M contract

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The deal also includes a "no trade" clause

 

wewee

 

Holy fuck some Brandi bacteria survived the cleansing and morphed into more spammers lol.

Nikita Nesterov is leaving the NHL and jumping ship to the KHL. He last played for the Habs.

I have only one thing to say about that, Don't let the door hit you on your way out LOL.

 

NHL player Carter Rowney brings Stanley Cup home to Alberta town
About 2,000 people turned out in a northwestern Alberta town on the weekend to cheer a Stanley Cup champion.

Pittsburgh Penguins‘ forward Carter Rowney was in Sexsmith Sunday, where he carried the famous cup during a parade in his honour.

“It’s been pretty crazy, it’s pretty surreal,” Rowney said to CJXX.

“That welcoming I got when I got off the bus, that’s cool. And that makes it more special, and I’m just going to cherish it.”

Rowney was also presented with the key to the town, posed for countless pictures with fans and signed autographs by the score.

The 28-year-old player helped Pittsburgh beat the Nashville Predators in last month’s Stanley Cup final. Rowney was signed to a two-year deal with the Penguins last spring.

Sexsmith is about 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, near Grande Prairie.

— With files from Trevor Snell, CJXX

© 2017 The Canadian Press

 

Only 2 months til the hockey season kicks off and a little longer for the regular season.

The regular season will begin on October 4, 2017, and will end on April 7, 2018.

 

hockey just a few cuts and a broken nose

 

What If NHL Players Go to the Olympics?
August 16th, 2017

We’ve all heard the rumours. Despite the National Hockey League’s decision to take a pass on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, there are, apparently, a few rebellious players willing to break with official NHL policy and take their talents to South Korea.



Naturally, there is sure to be pressure for teams to punish rogue players, from fans concerned with potential lost points in the standings, to the NHL demanding retribution for being made to look silly. Regardless of any team-level discipline, the NHL will undoubtedly provide supplemental punishment for rule-breakers. All this in addition to the social strife that a perceived defection, however brief, might cause in the dressing room.

So just how risky would it be?

Olympic Participation and the NHL
The NHL has explicitly stated that no player under NHL contract – including two-way contracts – shall be permitted to participate in the Olympics (players signed to American Hockey League-only deals are permitted to play in Pyeongchang). So, to be clear, if any NHL players do indeed go to South Korea, they will be in violation of league rules.

Should the NHL choose to pursue supplementary discipline for such actions, the punishment will be at the discretion of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (or someone chosen by him). The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (Article 18-A.2) states he has three possible courses of action (and can employ “any or all" of them):

a) by expelling or suspending such Player for a definite or indefinite period;
The most likely option. Though expulsion is extraordinarily unlikely, there is a good chance the league will hand down some length of suspension to dissident players.

Whether this is a wise course of action is another story. The NHL would be faced with the decision to either keep star players off the ice or else publicly lose face. For purposes of marketing and fan service, the latter option is a no-brainer. But this is the NHL we’re talking about, so you know they’re going with exactly the opposite of what the fans, media and common sense dictate.

 

Oilers sign Leon Draisaitl to 8-year, $68M extension
Edmonton centre had 29 goals, 77 points in 2016-17 season

The two biggest cornerstones of the emerging Edmonton Oilers franchise are now locked up for the long haul.

Six weeks after extending Connor McDavid for eight years and $100 million US, the Oilers signed 21-year-old Leon Draisaitl to an eight-year contract of his own with a sizable annual cap hit of $8.5 million. Paired primarily with McDavid, Draisaitl posted a career-best 77 points last season — eighth-best in the NHL.

He added another 16 points during the first Edmonton's playoff run in more than a decade — separated, eventually, from the precocious Oilers captain.

"I'm really excited to be back for eight years," Draisaitl told the Oilers website after the signing was announced. "I never really thought about going anywhere else. We have something really special. We have a great group of guys. It's something I wanted to be a part of as long as possible."

In securing his long-term rights, the Oilers are betting on Draisaitl, a restricted free agent and one of only seven German NHLers last season, to thrive with or without McDavid, the reigning winner of the Art Ross and Hart trophies and Ted Lindsay Award. The third-overall pick of the 2014 draft, Draisaitl stands to own the 10th highest cap hit in hockey next year — equal to Lightning captain and two-time Rocket Richard trophy winner Steven Stamkos.

Improved depth
Draisaitl's second NHL deal slightly exceeds recent eight-year pacts handed out to 25-year-old Predators centre Ryan Johansen ($8 million cap hit) and 25-year-old Capitals pivot Evgeny Kuznetsov ($7.8 million cap hit).

Both were signing their third NHL deals, however, and are slightly older than Draisaitl, who won't turn 22 until October 27.

Draisaitl, a natural centre, slid to right wing alongside McDavid at the start of December and went on to notch 60 points in 58 games — good for sixth in the NHL over that span.

In question now and moving forward is whether the Oilers keep the two franchise studs together and have them wreak havoc as a duo, or split them apart for increased depth.


McLellan went in the latter direction midway through a second-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks, and it worked effectively. Draisaitl, centring a second unit, scored once in a Game 5 overtime loss and then exploded for a hat trick and five points in a 7-1 Game 6 thrashing.

He ultimately finished as the Oilers leading playoff scorer, besting McDavid (nine points), who was mostly thwarted in a matchup with feisty American pivot Ryan Kesler.

"It's interesting, there will be a lot of talk about separating those two now," McLellan said after Draisaitl's loud Game 6 before the Oilers fell to the Ducks in Game 7. "But production-wise Connor and Leon were the two best players together from the time we put them together 'til the end of the year. It's hard to argue with that."

Expecting a star
Underlying numbers suggest Draisaitl got a not-so-surprising bump from McDavid.

Draisaitl posted a sizzling 54 per cent puck possession mark in 674 five-on-five minutes alongside the 20-year-old and a cooler 48 per cent clip in 500 minutes without him; McDavid's numbers, by contrast, dropped off only slightly without Draisaitl.

Still, Draisaitl piled up 19 goals and 51 points in 72 games as a 20-year-old during his sophomore season and next to none of that came with a then-rookie McDavid. He also captured the Stafford Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Memorial Cup in 2015. The more recent playoff showing, which saw him matched against Ducks captain and all-star Ryan Getzlaf, offered a potential preview of his NHL readiness for the second-line centre role moving forward.

The Oilers, in that case, stand to benefit from two high-end centres and subsequent matchup headaches for the opposition. Most, if not all, would opt to employ their best defensive weapons against McDavid, leaving Draisaitl free to roast weaker options.

Vying for their first Stanley Cup since 1990, Edmonton is expecting a star regardless.

"Any time you can lock up one of your top players for a lengthy period of time, it's a good day," said Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli on the team Twitter account.


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Rest In Peace my friend ...

Bryan Murray to be remembered at CTC ceremony
Public celebration of former Senators GM's life to take place Aug. 24

Former Ottawa Senators coach and general manager Bryan Murray will be remembered next week at a public ceremony at Canadian Tire Centre, the hockey arena where he earned the admiration of players, colleagues and fans.

Murray died Saturday at the age of 74 after a three-year long fight with colon cancer.

He went public with the diagnosis in 2014, but continued working with the Senators organization.

The celebration of life will take place Aug. 24 starting at 1 p.m. Attendees are asked to enter through Gates 1 or 2.

Instead of flowers, people are asked to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Shawville Recreation Association, DEBRA Canada (in honour of Jonathan Pitre), the Jardins Educatif du Pontiac or another charity.

Hockey career spanned decades
Murray grew up in Shawville, Que., where he began playing hockey.

Murray worked in the NHL for 35 years, winning the Jack Adams award as the best NHL coach in 1984 while with the Washington Capitals.

As head coach of the Senators, he led the team to the Stanley Cup finals in 2007, becoming the team's GM at the end of that season.

During his 35 years in the NHL, he coached 1,239 games over his NHL career, including 620 wins.

Even after his cancer diagnosis, he stayed on as general manager for nearly two years before stepping down in 2016, when he became the organization's senior hockey adviser.

 

Less than 2 weeks til puck drop and the Canucks open the pre-season against the Kings on the 16th.

Vancouver plays the newly added Las Vegas Knights on the 17th so we get our first look into their squad ...

The Flyers take on the Islanders that night as they ramp it up with 9 games the next night.

Fuckin' eh, hockey.

 

Funny enough we are having a remote control battery shortage starting that day. Must be a coincidence.

 

YAY, hockey starts Saturday ...

It will be a slow start with one game on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 9 on Monday and there is something interesting about the Monday games including the Flames playing the Oilers in Calgary while at the same time the Oilers take on the Flames in Edmonton ...

Sat:


Sun:


Mon:

 

Foligno signs 4-year deal with Wild
Strike one more of the few restricted remaining free agents off the list. Forward Marcus Foligno has signed with the Minnesota Wild on a four-year deal worth $11.5 million according to The Athletic Minnesota's Michael Russo.

Leafs comfortable continuing without a captain
Head coach Mike Babcock and general manager Lou Lamoriello made quick work of a long-simmering discussion about the team’s captaincy for this season, Kristen Shilton writes.

 

Ovechkin grudgingly accepts Olympic absence

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With 644 words and two exclamation points, Alex Ovechkin put a final period on his and other NHL players' dreams of playing in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The Russian superstar acknowledged in a lengthy statement released by the Capitals Thursday night that, although he'd love to represent his country, he knows it's not in the cards.

 

I smell a third consecutive Stanley Cup, go pens !

 

It definitely isn't out of the question and as much as I like Sydney Crosby I would like to see a team of up and coming nobody's that aren't overpaid (yet) take it from them ...