Taratukhin News. Sorta - EDITED

Pursuant to MadMac's comment from the previous post, I tried to unearth some stuff on Flames prospect Andrei Taratukhin.

According to this article on Russian Hockey Digest, there are some legal barriers standing between Taratukhin and donning the Flame's colors any time soon:

Yuri Lukin, General Manager of Yaroslavl Lokomotiv spoke about two players who Loko has under contract:
'We already told "see you" to Taratukhin. He came to see the team, shook everyone's hands. It is all great, of course. But from our side we told him see we will see him back in Yaroslavl. We are planning to sue Calgary Flames who signed a contract with our player'.

I haven't heard any news that the Flames have indeed signed a contract with Taratukhin, so Im a little puzzled by Lukin's claim that it's already a done deal. Course, whether it's true or not is secondary to the fact that the Russians are dead-set on pursuing legal action against any NHL club who tries to pry their russian prospects out the super league (prior to a transfer agreement being inked).

Therefore, I wouldn't count on Andrei making it to training camp. In fact, the chances of him playing anywhere outside of Mother Russia this year are starting to fade more and more each day...

Monday, August 28th EDIT - A Taratukhin interview. Seems like he's going to come to Calgary whether there's a tranfer agreement or not. Good news.

Flames Summer Summary

It looks like Calgary is finished for the summer. With that in mind, I figured it was time for a re-cap.

Read about Calgary's summer adventures here.

Wait...We're Still Talking About This?

Another NHL Rumor site, another whisper of "Gomez To Calgary". Probably prompted by the Lombardi re-signing. I'd love for this to come about, hell I even suggested it way back when...but it ain't gonna happen. Sutter would have to do the "salary cap shuffle" in order to fit a contract like Gomez's into the Flames line-up (Current cap figure = $41.603 million).

It's a nice fantasy and all but...the fact that it's been floating around these rumor sites so long (I think even the infamous Eklund has mentioned it) pretty much guarantees that it's bogus.

Makes for nice blog filler though.

Malkin Situation Clarified

If, like me, you've been wondering about certain details about the on-going Malkin saga, check out Karen Price's story in the Pittsburgh Tribune. The interview covers the issues behind the firing of his agents, the signing of another year long contract with Magnitogorsk and his flight from training camp in Helsinki. Interesting stuff.

Hattip to Mirtle for the link.

NHL Team Salaries Website Moved

My Shaw account is expiring soon so I have moved the site:

http://www3.telus.net/public/dreyes/nhl

The URL is a bit longer but it will have to do for now.

I wish I thought of That

Check out Matt's "exclusive report" (featuring a conversation between Evgeni Malkin and his agent) over at the Battle of Alberta...

Great stuff.

Stick a Form In 'em...

...they're done.

It looks like Sutter has finalized his 06/07 roster by tying up his final loose end.

Yup, that's right. Lombardi was (finally) re-signed recently. Of course, the details weren't released by the club...but if you check out the nhlpa, you'll see that he's in line for $800,000 next year.

My thoughts? 'Bout time. Good price too. If Lombo is employed in a top 6 roll in the coming season, this'll be looking like a downright steal half way through the year. Granted, of course, he manages to stay healthy for most of it.

Anyways good news. Bring on October!

Phoenix - The NHL's Island of Misfit Toys

With the news that Owen Nolan is apparently going to sign with Phoenix I went about wondering (not for the first time) what exactly the game plan is down in the ol' desert.

I've Been Reduced to Shilling

Spurred by a shameless and abject need for any sort of hockey news or content, I recently purchased an electronic version of the hockey news. It can be found here.

Included in this THN offering is a rating of the top 50 players in the game, stories on the NHL business in general, the obstruction crackdown, the emergence of Alexander Ovechkin, a Sidney Crosby interview and next season predictions. Further, each team is profiled with overviews including: strengths, weaknesses, offense, defense, "goalie zone", "cap crunch", rookies and market watch sections. Not to mention depth charts, previous season stats, effective shoot-out players and each team's 06/07 schedule. So, yeah, there's a ton of stuff to read for the hockey enthusiast.

The most gratifiying portion of the mag for Flames fans probably comes in the "Top 50" section. THN ranks 5 Calgary players amongst the best 50 in the league: Robyn Regehr (44), Alex Tanguay (43), Dion Phaneuf (32), Jarome Iginla (7) and, of course, Miika Kiprusoff (1!). While these rankings lists are rather subjective and arguable, it's still nice to see the paid punditry recognizing and lauding Flames talent. Especially considering the flacid and inept clubs Calgary faithful were forced to endure during the "7 season drought".

Anyways if you're like me and going mad from hockey withdrawl, I recommend checking this out.

Oilers Land Sykora

Edmonton has apparently added to their relatively impressive stock of top 6 forwards. Beyond the potential for more goals, it's probably encouraging for Edmonton fans to see an UFA coming to town rather than leaving.

The details of the deal are still rather sketchy, though tsn reports it's going to be a one year contract (provided Sykora passes a physical exam). The level of monetary compensation is still up in the air, so your guess is as good as mine - not that it's an issue for the Greasers. They have a bunch of cap space.

Assuming the deal goes through, the Oilers will have up to 15 players available to fill out their forward ranks come training camp (that number includes rookie hopefuls MA Pouliot, Brad Winchester, JF Jacques, Rob Schremp and Alexei Mikhnov). While their d-ranks are rather barren, Edmonton is literally bursting at the seams with forwards. One can reasonably expect, therefore, a Raffi Torres+prospect for NHL-ready defenseman type trade before the start of training camp. I would expect the Dallas Stars, who have 2 defensemen too many, would be a natural trading partner.

Top Seven of The Summer

Pronger wasn't the only one Cookin' up news this summer. Check out who else made into Metrognome's Top 7 stories of the NHL off-season.

Good God(ard)!

There's some rumors swirling on the boards that the Flames have signed tough guy Eric Godard. I was loathe to grant them any sort of legitimacy until I saw that the nhlpa is listing Godard as Flames property.

So, let's see. He's huge. Probably slow. He's scored 2 goals in 107 NHL games! Gee-whiz. Super.

I have to assume, for my own peace of mind, that Godard was signed to a 2-way, league minimum kind of contract and is therefore Omaha bound. The thought of him taking a roster spot away from, well...any current Flame I can think of currently makes me ill. As you can probably tell, I am part of a growing concensus that thinks that the role of the "talentless pugilist" has become something of an anachronism in today's NHL.

Anyways, I suppose we'll see what the truth of the matter is shortly. Either this is a baseless rumor and a nhlpa typo, or Sutter has suddenly developed a penchant for signing large, PIM gathering players (see: Brad Ference signing).

Bloggers to the Left of me. Bloggers to the Right.

With hockey news slowing to a trickle it's been tough keeping the ol' blog fat with fresh content over the last little while. Let's see...Buffalo signed Briere and his $5 million arbitration award. Senators picked up ex-flame Dean McAmmond. Hasek will be injuring his groin in Detroit next season. Sutter apparently acquired Tanguay for some damaged goods. And Carter still hasn't been signed.

That's about it.

In response to the dearth of interesting actual news, I figured I'd put together a "blogroll" (read: post filler). Some of the following blogs are pasted on the sideboard to the right, some aren't. All are worth a read.

1.) Battle of Alberta. It just so happens that one of the best blogs out there deals with a conflict so close to my heart. However, irregardless of team affiliation, almost everyone should add this one to their "daily read" list. Posts can range from incredibly insightful and informative to downright juvenile. When the season swings into full gear, reading the flame wars and pissing matches between Calgary and Edmonton fans in every other "comment" section is typically worth the price of admission.

2.) mc79hockey.com. Few can match Tyler's sheer volume or depth of analysis. "Mud Crutch" provides lawyerly insight on matters of the CBA, hockey as an industry and throws in the odd 10,000 word/5 graph relatively-obscure-but-ultimately-useful-stat post. Truly a blogger-extraordinaire.

3.) Covered In Oil. Another Edmonton fan, another great blog - their team may suck, but their blogs sure don't. Mike, Chris and Pleasure Motors manage to cover everything Oilers...typically in jovial and comedic fashion. From comparing Ed Belfour to a "sun-ravaged mummy husk" to documenting the deconstruction of a play-off beard (check-out their June archive's "A farewell to Not Shaving". You'll never hire a clown named "Mr. Tickles" for your kid's birthday again), these guys keep you informed and clutching your sides.

4.) James Mirtle. An actual, bona-fide professional, Mirtle offers great commentary about stuff going on around the league.

5.) Vancouver Canucks Op Ed. Lots of posts, lots of content, lots of laughs. Alanah over there recently completed 49 posts in 24 hours as part of a charity powered "blog-a-thon" . Kudos!

6.) Abel to Yzerman. I got hooked on this one during the first round struggle between the Oil and the Red Wings. All flavors of insight and coverage in regards to Detroit Red Wings matters are tackled here.

7.) Raking Leafs. Ninja is one of those incredibly rare things - an intelligent and balanced Toronto Maple Leafs Fan.

Honorable Mentions: Lowetide, Irreverant Oiler Fans, Acid Queen and Battle of California.

The lack of Flames blogs is curious, I know. Hopefully this coming season will see the growth of a couple more quality Calgary-slanted blog-based commentaries.

He's Created a Monster

By now almost everyone has seen the superb Salary Site (soon to be permanently ensconced on the sideboard to the right) that our own Cantaloupehalves created one slow Saturday afternoon. And I do mean Everyone.

"The Site" has proliferated like a weed in the fertile soil that is the NHL blogsphere / messageboards communities. In a little over a week, it's collected more than 13,000 unique hits, some of which have come from outside the continent. How this all grew from a bored Saturday afternoon to a single post on Calgarypuck.com to...well...this is beyond me. Clearly, though, the need was out there and was being poorly serviced by the typical sources.

So a resounding HUZZAH! to you, my friend. Even if you are an Oilers fan.