sibiriak

With the Las Vegas expansion draft coming, the value of the prospects who are not NHL ready in 1, max 2 years has probably fallen through the floor. This may be one of the reasons they were waiv ed and not traded

With the Las Vegas expansion draft coming, the value of the prospects who are not NHL ready in 1, max 2 years has probably fallen through the floor. This may be one of the reasons they were waiv ed and not traded

That's a bit strong, IMO. I still think Pavel was an outstanding player even compared to past Wings greats, and should be recognized as such. I just dislike his (or more likely his advisors) attempt to sugarcoat his decision to quit the NHL while still more or less on top. Just say it like it is: I can't play at a level I am used to, so I am moving to an easier league. Don't feed us bullcrap about "family" when it was clearly not the deciding factor at all.

Let's see, the Canadian dollar is worth less then a US dollar, which makes Phil Kessel better than Crosby.
A Euro is worth more than the US dollar so H Sedin is better than Kessel
A Kuweiti dinar is worth over 3 US dollars so there must be a Kuweiti hockey player that is the best in the world.
In a word, laughable.
P.S. I don't want Radulov on the Wings, and wouldn't even if a dollar was worth 5 kopeek (0.05 of a Russian ruble)

Yeah unfortunately Larkin fell off the radar after the All-star game due to his big slump.
And of course McDavid is a finalist even though he missed a ton of games and didn't even finish top 3 in points and missed like 3 months..
Won't be surprised if they picked McDavid over Panarin (who is the obvious winner according to their own standards).

He will never dangle around Kovalchuk or Radulov.
They can never be found in their defensive zone

I don't know if there was any conflict in the locker room or with the coaching staff. It could be just reaction to uninspired play, a signal to the rwest of the team, like I said.

Meh, I've actually done this before and have had other things go awry with alarms. I understand there's no excuse, especially for a captain, but these things do happen. He might get fired for this in the non-sports world if he was at a replaceable position, like something blue-collar, entry-level, or minimum wage. But when you're important enough/high enough in your company that is certainly not the case. And Ovie has a lot of importance within his organization.
Replace "Best Player On Team" with "Top Broker In Firm". Neither is going to fired for being late. They are the face of their business.

Well, hopefully in a couple of years, the Wings can package him with someone that reminds you of Keith Primeau to obtain a guy that reminds you of Brendan Shanahan.

Even the densest Russian hockey officials understand by now that if a Russian kid got drafted in top 5, or even top 40, he WILL be going to the NHL. Whatever they do. See Malkin, Eugeny, as an example.They can choose to burn bridges with him, or give their blessing and have him play for there national team and perhaps return to the KHL in the future. This idea that top players can be kept in Russia has been dead for at least a decade now. The current concern is that a lot of young prospects go to NA before they are ready, play in juniors and AHL, but very few make it to the NHL. So an ideal state of affairs from Russian standpoint would have been for the players to go to NHL after they mature, and incidentally, after they played a few years for the club that paid for their development costs and the club had a chance to make back that investment. That age would be somewhere between 25 and 28. How to get to this ideal is ... unclear, to put it mildly.

Whichever side of the border he ended up at (and if he was arrested by the mounties, he must have been in Canada) he will not be able to travel to and from United States. Which is a significant hardship for an NHL player. So that would probably be the basis for Kings' terminating his contract, since he can't travel normally with the team. Convinient for them, but probably justified, so the NHLPA may not be able to reverse the contract termination.

No, he didn't say that. He said that all players, foreign or domestic should be subject to RFA rules before they are 27, so, and I quote, "Rich clubs can't buy up all the best players." He refers here to so called "oligarkh" clubs: SKA St Petersburg, Avangard Omsk, Ak Bars Kazan and some others. The letters NHL never crossed his lips in this interview.

Guys, please save your indignation. I just listened to Fetisov interview where he allegedly said what you are all railing about. Well, he didn't. He said that KHL needs Russian Labor laws amended, so they can introduce RFA status for younger players (up tp 27 years old), like the NHL does. As law stands now, any Russian player (or any other employee) can break his contract and effectively become a UFA on their own initiative and with 2 weeks notice,
I am not Fetisov's greatest fan, he said and did a few things I disadree with since he left for Russia, but this time. he is not guilty of what he is accused of..

Actually I am saying that we don't have enough information to say which style of play was superior in the 70s and 80s.
There were too few "best vs best" or even "average vs average" matchups between Canadian/NHL and Soviet teams. So I can't draw any evidence-based conclusions. Therefore we are left with personal taste, I enjoyed the CSKA and Soviet National team brand of hockey more than the NA version, but that is just an aesthetic preference and not a basis for awarding superiority. Just like some men preferring blonds and some preferring brunettes doesn't make one superior to the other.

Except for maybe 3-4 top lines (20 top players in USSR) on few top Soviet teams, other Soviet players couldn't produce the same artistry on ice, due to lack of overwhelming skill. Yes, the overall style was a bit more E-W in Russia and N-S in NA, but neither proved obviously superior or even more entertaining, IMO.
Igor is simply being nostalgic. I share his fond memories of what top Russian players could do (somewhat helped by the fact that apart from 87 Canada Cup finals, they usually met inferior opponents). I just don't think it is possible to recreate this now without assembling top players on one team and have them play many games together and practice even more. In other words, by recreating the same Red Army system that Larionov, Fetisov and Co. hate so much.

WC is still lightyears ahead of the All Star Game but it should only be one outdoor game a year.

I am Russian, so I'm sorry to see this happen to one of my countrymen. But I think the NHL handled this fairly. They are putting on an entertainment product, and Voynov's presence would be detrimental to selling their product to the public. So they removed him. It's a no-brainer business decision. He is being paid, so they are fullfilling their contractual obligations to him. If he is proven innocent, he goes back on the ice. If not, his contract gets voided.
Its fair.

Found this on Youtube, best way to sing the national anthems!

I saw both play, and regardless of the stats, I can always expect to be wowed by something Pavel will do on the ice. Be it a deke, a pass, a hit avoided, a steal, something. Not so much for Fedorov. He might score 4 points, but they will be somewhat boring, just a guy who is stronger, shoots harder, and skates faster overcoming the inferior competition. Kind of like watching a adult play with kids, almost.

If the NHLPA wanted a work stoppage, they could strike. Lockout is, by definition, owners locking the players out.
Disclaimer: I do not wish to start any discussion of whose fault it was/is/will be. Just a word usage note.

If the NHLPA wanted a work stoppage, they could strike. Lockout is, by definition, owners locking the players out.
Disclaimer: I do not wish to start any discussion of whose fault it was/is/will be. Just a word usage note.

Here's Subban with his NBA attitude, putting himself above his teammates, putting himself above the league, and generally making it all about himself.


(I was being sarcastic)
In interviews and what I saw on CH24 he comes across as one of the more well spoken and humble players in the league.

It's sounding like the most important goal was cap space before the free agent market opened. So Yzerman trades Purcell (who was a buyout target for Tampa) rather than buying him out because he's older and would be a 2/3 buyout. Now he has Gagner, who I guess they weren't terribly interested in. Then instead of buying out Gagner (which would only be 1/3 buyout because of his young age), Yzerman trades him while retaining salary equivalent to a buyout, but gets a 6th rounder for his troubles.
I'm not super familiar with Tampa but aren't they neck deep in good young forwards? So they don't have much of a need for Gagner and Yzerman is trying to clear space immediately.

It's getting kind of ridiculous how many options at center there might be this year. Kesler, Spezza, B Richards, O'Rielly, Stastny, Legwand, J Thornton, Bolland, Grabovski, Ott, Roy, O Jokinen

His only highlight.