Kings and Non-Kings News Clippings

Kovalchuk's contract a double-edged sword for Devils - From The Rink
the Devils should get at least five years of 40-50 goal seasons. After that? A player's skills will naturally decline as he goes deeper into his 30s.

In the entire history of the NHL, six guys have notched "five years of 40-50 goal seasons" after the age of 27: Esposito, Dionne, both Hulls (well, not Dennis), Mullen and Gartner. Four is much more likely. Also, at ages between 27-37, every one of those guys had at least four thirty goal seasons (except Bobby Hull, who went to the WHL first), and a couple of 20 or 10 goal seasons. It would be reasonable to expect a 50, maybe three 40s, four or five 30s and a 20 out of him before he retires. That would put him roughly in Brendan Shanahan territory. Could happen.

Blackhawks GM not trading Sharp, no clue on cap solution - Puck Daddy - NHL  - Yahoo! Sports
Still, the reality of the Blackhawks' salary cap crunch is a dire one, as they're currently over the cap by over a million dollars with the Antti Niemi(notes) re-signing/arbitration decision looming. Bowman on that cap conundrum: "As of right now we don't have a solution."

Good to know. But that's been obvious for about a year now.

The Hockey News: Headlines: Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi talks about missing out on Ilya Kovalchuk

Lombardi: The one thing I will say is that I am most impressed with the progress of Brayden Schenn and Andrei Loktionov. They both have the potential to be second line centers. They may not be ready quite yet, but they will push the vets in camp this year.

JD: With Kovalchuk out of the picture, does that mean Alexander Frolov could be back in the picture?

DL: (laughs) Good question! Let me put it this way. We will look at all of our options. He has a better chance than he did 15 days ago. We just have to see.

Both of these comments made me smile.

Oilers GM Steve Tambellini gets a good mark on his most recent report card - Cult of Hockey
Tambellini and Lowe also get three A+ marks for moving out Steve Staios, Ethan Moreau and Patrick O'Sullivan. Staios was still an adequate NHL player, but age and injuries were rapidly taking away his abilities. Not only did Tambellini and Lowe convince another team to take the final year of Staios' expensive contract, the Oilers got a draft pick.

As for Moreau and O'Sullivan, they were two of the biggest reasons for the atrocious 2009-10 season and to be rid of them without having to resort to a buy-out seems too good to be true, save for the fact that it actually happened.

That's just brutal.

Ducks, Ryan at odds - Ducks blog : The Orange County Register
On a shorter term, the Ducks would offer Ryan less than $5 million a year because it would not buy out a year of his free agency. And the Ducks don’t want all of their young stars’ contracts to expire at the same time, because it would make it difficult — if not impossible — to re-sign all of them and remain under the salary cap. The Getzlaf and Perry contracts run through the 2012-13 NHL season, and a three-year Ryan contract would run out at the same time. So it’s safe to say the eventual Ryan deal will be for anything but three years.

So ends my fantasy of trading for Ryan, as the Kings would have the same problem: 2013 will bring new contracts for Schenn, Loktionov, Kyle Clifford, Viatcheslav Voynov, Brandon Kozun, Colten Teubert, Jonathan Quick, and Rob Scuderi.

NHL lockout NHLPA Donald Fehr Gary Bettman NBC Denver Post | All Things Avs
One prominent person who sides with the NHLPA said this: "If you look at some of the stuff the PA proposed before the lockout – a revenue-sharing, luxury-tax proposal – and you get some forensic accountants and model it out based on NHL revenues since then with the same level of spending by each team currently, every single team would be doing better than they are right now. That’s the dirty little secret that Gary Bettman doesn’t want the media to ever pick up on."

Which is good because it's also very high on the list of things I don't want to think about. Last but least:

ILYA KOVALCHUK Bobblehead Atlanta Thrashers Bobble Head - eBay (item 350258145285 end time Jul-24-10 18:19:40 PDT)