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Devils, Parise settle on 1-year, $6 million deal, avoid arbitrationBourne Blog: Why playing soft defense can prove more effectiveLooking ahead to 2011-12: Ranking the NHLâ??s top goaltendersPuck Headlines: Kovalev to the KHL; Winnipeg: The Hockey SongTrending Topics: How â??bout a hand for Glen Sather?In radio interview, Mike Modano sounds like retirement is comingBourne Blog: Inside Easton Hockeyâ??s helmet-making technologyLooking ahead to 2011-12: Ranking the NHLâ??s top defensemenDevils, Islanders help each other in Rolston for Hunter swapPuck Headlines: Craig MacTavish to AHL; Vokoun changes agents
Devils, Parise settle on 1-year, $6 million deal, avoid arbitrationBourne Blog: Why playing soft defense can prove more effectiveLooking ahead to 2011-12: Ranking the NHLâ??s top goaltendersPuck Headlines: Kovalev to the KHL; Winnipeg: The Hockey SongTrending Topics: How â??bout a hand for Glen Sather?In radio interview, Mike Modano sounds like retirement is comingBourne Blog: Inside Easton Hockeyâ??s helmet-making technologyLooking ahead to 2011-12: Ranking the NHLâ??s top defensemenDevils, Islanders help each other in Rolston for Hunter swapPuck Headlines: Craig MacTavish to AHL; Vokoun changes agents
The odd thing about Zach Parise (notes) and the New Jersey Devils agreeing to a 1-year deal worth $6 million late Friday afternoon is that the two sides could've continued talking through the weekend and on Monday leading up to the scheduled arbitration hearing on Tuesday.
But strange things happens when you're dealing with Lou Lamoriello and sipping from his Kool-Aid.
According to Tom Gulitti of The Record , both Lamoriello and the Parise camp will continue to discuss a longer-term deal, but per CBA rules, he cannot sign a new deal beginning in the 2012-13 season until Jan. 1, 2012.
Lamoriello talked to Gulitti about settling on a deal today as opposed to taking it to arbitration.
Taking the deal now means there was some work towards a long-term contract, but the two sides weren't close enough to come to a compromise by Tuesday. Parise will become an unrestricted free agent if not signed by July 1, 2012.
Swapping Brian Rolston (notes) with Trent Hunter (notes) on Thursday and freeing up an extra $3 million in cap room was a big hint that something was likely brewing here.Â The 1-year deal also helps the Devils' cap situation in the short-term. After the Rolston deal and now Parise's $6 million contract for next season, New Jersey has just over $25 million in cap space for the 2012-13 season according toÂ CapGeek .
With Martin Brodeur's (notes) contract ending next summer and future plans up in the air, Lamoriello's taking a gamble here with the possibility of Parise hitting the UFA market next July 1, but given the fact that this 1-year deal was worked out early, there looks like hope both sides are willing to make something long-term work out in the end.
For defensemen in the NHL, times have changed. Gone are the days of aggressively running at forwards with the puck in the corner and going for the "hit-and-pin."
Hit-and-pin was just about the most widely taught (and accurately named) defensive strategy when I was a young buck coming up through minor hockey and junior. When you think back to what the move actually was, it's almost comical we ever allowed it in our sport.
"Yeah, that's it, just drive your knee into the boards between the forwards legs, wrap him up with your free hand and basically hold him there until his shift's over. Awesome. That's terrific defense."
I remember being a smaller 12-year old and getting dry-humped against the boards by some 13-year old with a mustache, flailing to get free, and eventually just giving up and waiting until he decided to set me free from the trap.
Since they've been stripped of that "tool," smart defensemen have started playing more soft in the d-zone â?? and rightfully so.
Smaller, more talented forwards like Zach Parise and Mike Cammalleri want nothing more than to play a defenseman who somehow still thinks it's a good idea to run at them in the corner. What options does that defender think he's going to have after he's attempted his hit? Other than trying to slap at the puck (a not-so solid strategy against NHL all-stars), he's just stuck in no-man's land.
It gives the forwards the opportunity to juke them, step around and get to the net unimpeded. They may get hit seven out of 10 times (which doesn't even mean they lose possession), but over the course of the game, they're going to get a few uncontested looks, which is usually all guys like them need to pot one.
The best defensive strategy these days focuses on body position.
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(Rankings are based solely on players' projected performances in 2011-12. Players are listed at their official position when the rankings were created.)
There are only 30 starting goalies in the NHL, so a top-25 ranking is almost as much about who didn't make the list as who did. On that note, the five projected starters who didn't make the cut are [Colorado]e|OOD 's Semyon Varlamov, who still has star potential but is coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons in [Washington]e|OOD ; Florida's Scott Clemmensen, who'll compete with 2002 NHL MVP Jose Theodore for the No. 1 job; the Islanders' Rick DiPietro, the first overall draft pick in 2000 who seems destined to be remembered for his 15-year contract and penchant for injuries; Phoenix's Mike Smith, who couldn't hold on to the top job in [Tampa Bay]e|OOD last season; and, [Toronto]e|OOD 's James Reimer, who rose from the minors to play a starring role for the Leafs in the second half of last season.
Varlamov, Reimer and a healthy DiPietro are the best candidates to crack the 2012-13 edition of this list, with Edmonton's Nikolai Khabibulin (No. 23) and Ottawa's Craig Anderson (No. 25) a couple of keepers in danger of going the other way. Of course, goaltending is a crazy, topsy-turvy profession, and you never really know how things will work out until the mask comes off at the end of the season. Just ask [Boston]e|OOD 's Tim Thomas, who won the Vezina Trophy in 2009, was relegated to backup duty due to injuries and sub-par play in 2010, and then rebounded with a storybook season in 2011.
Best backups :Â Tuukka Rask, [Boston]e|OOD Bruins; Cory Schneider, Vancouver Canucks; Michal Neuvirth, [Washington]e|OOD Capitals; Sergei Bobrovsky, [Philadelphia]e|OOD Flyers; Antero Niittymaki, San Jose Sharks.
25. Craig Anderson, Ottawa Senators: He's had world-beating stretches and is used to seeing a lot of shots, which bodes well for the Sens.
24. Steve Mason, Columbus Blue Jackets: At his best, he's one of the best. His challenge is to consistently play at that high level.
23. Nikolai Khabibulin, Edmonton Oilers: Age and injuries are the big cracks in the Bulin Wall.
22. Ondrej Pavelec, Winnipeg Jets: He's improved every season, and could be much higher on this list next year.
21. Jimmy Howard, [Detroit]e|OOD Red Wings: Steady, reliable stopper with flashes of brilliance.
20. Kari Lehtonen, [Dallas]e|OOD Stars: Finally managed to play a whole season, and enjoyed a career year as a result.
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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
â?¢ The Winnipeg Jets' AHL team in St. John's revealed today that they will be the Ice Caps beginning next season. What do you think of the logo? [ AHL ]
â?¢ A Winnipeg woman decided to get the new Jets logo tattooed on her shin. The former military medic isn't a big hockey fan and says the tattoo is more of a celebration of hockey returning to the city. [ Winnipeg Free Press via Arctic Ice Hockey ]
â?¢ According to Russian publication Sport-Express, Alexei Kovalev will take his talents to Atlant Mytischi of the KHL. How soon until Alexei Yashin announces he's staying over there? [ @SlavaMalamud ]
â?¢ Joining him in the KHL will be defenseman Brent Sopel who signed a two-year deal with Metallurg Novokuznetsk . [ @BrentSopel ]
â?¢ Mike Danton announced on his Twitter page Thursday afternoon that he's signed a deal to play for IFK Ore, a third division team in Sweden next season. [CP via TSN ]
â?¢ Jannik Hansen became yet another player to avoid arbitration by agreeing to a three-year, $4.05 million deal with the Vancouver Canucks. [ The Province ]
â?¢ Jaromir Jagr spoke to Czech media as he's begun his training for the coming season and was asked about the reaction of his signing in the [Pittsburgh]e|OOD area: "Most of the negative critic has come from theÂ Penguins fans who couldn't understand my decision to sign with the Flyers.Â I think we're all free to make our own decisions."Â [ Broadstreet Hockey ]
â?¢ Katie Baker on the [New York]e|OOD Islanders' quest for an updated Nassau Coliseum: "We won't know for a handful of years, but if this project fails the Islanders could end up as nearby as Queens or as far-flung as [Kansas City]e|OOD or [Seattle]e|OOD . Or they could blow out of the States altogether and settle in Canada, which would be sadly fitting: Quebec City was named the place most deserving of an NHL franchise in that same All-Star Weekend survey that declared the [New York]e|OOD Islanders the least desirable team of them all."Â [ Grantland ]
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Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?
You're not gonna hear people say this too often, one suspects. But man, Glen Sather did one hell of a job in the last month.
And getting Brad Richards might be the worst deal he made.
Yup, he overpaid big-time both in years and cash for a concussed 31-year-old center who plays absolutely no defense but when you make decisions that good for an entire month, you're entitled to a misstep or two.
While you and I will probably disagree over the general goodness of the deal, it's not a bad thing for right now. Getting the league's annual Top Free Agent is never going to be a bad thing and, whether he lives up to the title or not four years from now, he probably helps considerably this season.
Sather takes one hell of a lot of crap from just about everybody because of his penchant for giving players way more money than they ever actually earned on the ice, and rightly so. But he deserves a metric ton of credit for engineering a plan to keep prettty much his entire team together, given that a healthy portion of it was up for free agency.
He got Brian Boyle and Artem Anisimov to re-up for alarmingly reasonable deals given their production last season. He did the right and obvious thing in cutting Chris Drury loose (and he'll soon do the same for the disappointing Wojtek Wolski). He got a very dependable player in Ruslan Fedotenko back for a relative song. He had an outstanding former first round pick in Tim Erixon jump right into his boat and didn't even have to hit him particularly hard with the oar.
Sather also replaced Derek Boogaard with a far more productive player who can play a similar role (i.e. beating up people too big for Brandon Prust to take down) in Mike Rupp, and actually saved $100,000 doing it, somehow.
But the real trump card in Sather's favor, obviously, was avoiding arbitration with Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. Some estimates had them getting as much as $6 million per year each from arbitrators, but given the sticky and generally unpleasant nature of the whole process, the pair opted to stay on Broadway for shorter money than they probably could have pulled, in exchange for more years. And both gave up two years of unrestricted free agency to do so. That's just great work.
But for all the Sather praise, let's not ignore two somewhat large elephants in the room.
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Three weeks ago, Mike Modano (notes) told a reporter before a celebrity baseball charity event that he expected to make a decision on his future in "two to three weeks" time.
Friday hits the three-week mark and appearing Thursday on the Bob and Dan radio show on 1310 The Ticket in [Dallas]e|OOD , the future Hockey Hall of Famer sounded an awful lot like a guy who's made up his mind to retire.
When asked if he will play again, Modano told the hosts, "I don't know. I think that was the swan song."
Later, when asked if he wanted to make his retirement announcement right then and there on the show, Modano's reply was, "Not yet."
We were sort of down this road with Modano a year ago, except the only major change this time around is the number of interested teams. Last summer, the [Dallas]e|OOD Stars decided they would not bring back the face of their franchise in late June opening the door for a hometown return to the [Detroit]e|OOD Red Wings , which the 41-year-old said it was Motown or retirement and he would have regretted passing up the opportunity to play there.
In early August that signing became reality, but after a year in which Modano played 40 games for the Red Wings in the regular season, two in the playoffs and missed time with a severed tendon in his wrist, the retirement question was going to be inevitable this summer.
The conversation went forward into Modano's future after hockey and he said he wanted to stay in the game in some capacity, but not in a coaching, management or personnel role. So " Ambassador of Fun " like Brett Hull was? "No," said Modano.
The topic of getting into ownership was brought up and Modano did say he's had some talks with a group that's looking at the Stars and even gave his personal critique of the franchise at the moment.
"It's a mess here. The lenders ... You've got a team that's way overvalued and they don't know anything about hockey and they don't know how it's going to unfold.
"There's a lot of stuff to fix once you kind of pull back the layers on it."
The sale of the Stars is still ongoing and numerous parties have been kicking the tires recently, but once a new group is in charge there needs to be a [Chicago]e|OOD Blackhawks -like renaissance as Modano brought up.
"There's a lot of wounds that probably need to be healed with a lot of corporations, a lot of sponsors, a lot of season-ticket holder people, and that will take time."
The interview ended with Modano telling the hosts, "See you in a couple weeks for the big announcement."
Given Modano's tone throughout, it's hard to pick up any ounce of sarcasm in his goodbye and it appears the NHL will lose another great veteran before summer's end.
Stick-tap Defending Big D for the audio
Photo credit: Getty Images
Yesterday I had the privilege of checking out Easton's major helmet-making facility in Santa Cruz, aptly named "The Dome."
I assumed there was some real technology that went into my helmet. I assumed that people spent huge amounts of time studying the results of their frequent tweaks, others who picked apart the helmets of other companies, and more still who perfected the look of their own latest model.
I was right.
That said, I wasn't even close to understanding just how many people work on them year-round (or how important a select few people are to the process), and how much time and effort actually goes into this stuff.
Here's the process of making your helmet, in a tightly-encased, padding-packed nutshell.
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(Rankings are based solely on players' projected performances in 2011-12. Players are listed at their official position when the rankings were created.)
A big, talented, top-line center is a beautiful thing. An elite power forward on the wing is a must-have for a championship contender. And a franchise goalie can make or break a team.
But there's nothing quite like a bona fide No. 1 defenseman, a Chris-Pronger-in-his-prime type who can do it all in any zone at any time of game under any circumstances. There probably isn't a blue liner in the NHL today that matches up with Pronger at his best, circa 1999-2000, but Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber certainly come close. Nicklas Lidstrom, of course, could play on the all-time all-world team, but he's never had Pronger's fear factor. And Duncan Keith also rates a mention; he's Pronger-esque in spirit, if not in body.
Meanwhile, the next generation of great defenders has already arrived, in the form of Drew Doughty and Keith Yandle and Tyler Myers. [St. Louis]e|OOD youngster Alex Pietrangelo, drafted two spots behind Doughty at fourth overall in 2008, also merits a mention. And then there's Brent Burns in his new San Jose surroundings, and Erik Johnson, still unpacking in [Colorado]e|OOD , who might fully realize their vast potential after a change of scenery.
As for Pronger himself, the old guard hasn't gone away. Age, various injuries and a lot of tough playoff miles have taken their toll, but he's still one of the most respected players in the game â?? on the blue line and beyond.
Honorable mentions : Niklas Kronwall, [Detroit]e|OOD Red Wings; Tobias Enstrom, Winnipeg Jets; Ryan Whitney, Edmonton Oilers; Zbynek Michalek, [Pittsburgh]e|OOD Penguins; Lubomir Visnovsky, Anaheim Ducks; Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames; Kevin Bieksa, Vancouver Canucks; Robyn Regehr, [Buffalo]e|OOD Sabres; Jay Bouwmeester, Calgary Flames; P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens.
25. Victor Hedman, [Tampa Bay]e|OOD Lightning: [Boston]e|OOD has Chara, [Buffalo]e|OOD has Myers…and the Bolts, they hope, have Hedman.
24. Anton Volchenkov, New Jersey Devils: Throwback defenseman might never score a goal, but he has few equals in clearing the crease, banging bodies and blocking shots.
23. Kris Letang, [Pittsburgh]e|OOD Penguins: Smooth operator elevated his game last season.
22. Alex Edler, Vancouver Canucks: Strong skater delivers big-time bodychecks and slapshot blasts.
21. Christian Ehrhoff, [Buffalo]e|OOD Sabres: Sharks castoff turned Canucks star turned Sabres savior. At least that's the $40-million belief in [Buffalo]e|OOD .
20. Marc Staal, NY Rangers: Physical rearguard is blending in some offense to his no-nonsense game.
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Brian Rolston (notes) to the [New York]e|OOD Islanders for Trent Hunter (notes) is one of those deals that's incredibly serviceable for both sides who are desperate to fill needs this summer.
New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello finding a taker for Rolston and his $5.062 million cap hit next season, and bringing on Hunter's $2 million cap hit over the next two years frees up $3 million more to throw into a new deal for birthday boy Zach Parise (notes) whose arbitration hearing is scheduled for Aug. 3.
As he's done in the past with other contracts (see: Vladimir Malakhov and Dan McGillis ), Lamoriello tried to make Rolston's contract disappear by waiving him in December. Rolston would later clear re-entry waivers despite an attractive $2.5 million salary that the claiming team would only need to pay him.
But the writing was on the wall for Rolston and as Tom Gullitti reported , he had to waive his no-trade clause in order to complete the move to Long Island. He'll be a veteran boost to a young lineup and be beneficial on a power play that ranked 17th in the NHL last season.
Hunter never matched his Calder Trophy winning finalistÂ year of 2003-04 when he scored 25 goals. He's been slowed by injuries ever since and hasn't played more than 61 games in a season in three years. Hunter played just 17 games last season after suffering a Grade 3 MCL tear in November.
The Islanders are still under the $48.3 million cap floor by about $6 million, but it's only July and GM Garth Snow still needs to sign Josh Bailey (notes) and Blake Comeau (notes) to new deals. Comeau currently has an arbitration hearing scheduled for Aug. 4.
And this should kill any of that Alexei Yashin (notes) -to-the-Islanders buzz now, right?
Photo credit: Getty Images
Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
BREAKING : The [New York]e|OOD Islanders have dealt Trent Hunter to the New Jersey Devils for Brian Rolston. More on this in a bit.
â?¢ It must be the summer of hockey fans climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. We posted a picture of two [Washington]e|OOD Capitals fans Wednesday atop Kilimanjaro and Thursday we present you Eric K. and his wife who spent their honeymoon last month making the 19,000-plus foot climb.
â?¢ According to Darren Dreger, the AHL's [Chicago]e|OOD Wolves will announce the hiring of Craig MacTavish as their new head coach. [ TSN ]
â?¢ Via Dmitry , the president of the Latvian Hockey Federation, says that Mike Keenan is on the top of its list of next possible coaches for the national team. How soon until Keenan is demanding to take on the role of LHF president as well?
â?¢ Will Jannik Hansen and the Vancouver Canucks make it to their scheduled arbitration hearing Friday or will the trend continue of players signing new deals before? [ Vancouver Sun ]
â?¢ On July 2, Tomas Vokoun signs a bargain one-year, $1.5 million deal with the [Washington]e|OOD Capitals. On July 28,Â agent Allan Walsh announces on Twitter that Vokoun has chosen Octagon to represent him. Sorry, Michael C. Deutsch.
â?¢ Neate Sager on the recent NCAA player defections to the Ontario Hockey League. [ Buzzing the Net ]
â?¢ Michael Arace chimes in on the "Dry Island" rumors and Jeff Carter: "If I am a Jackets fan, I do not fret. Carter can have the lifestyle of Charlie Bukowski so long as he keeps cranking out the poetry. He has averaged 36 goals and 61 points and missed just 10 games the past four seasons. To borrow from the old lady in the diner inÂ "When Harry Met Sally ," "I'll have what he's having."Â [ Columbus Dispatch ]
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