The Vancouver Canucks

from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

“You could probably make a pretty good team with the talent that’s left available,” said a league executive. “People are still trying to juggle money and find out where they stand.

“Now that the arbitration period has ended, that might spur some signings. Teams know what they’re going to have to spend on certain players. There could be a sense of urgency again.”

Plenty of teams have money to spend, including the New York Islanders, Colorado, Atlanta, St. Louis, Nashville, Dallas, Anaheim, Carolina and even Los Angeles.

After taking a forced break from signing players, one player agent hopes the executive is correct.

“If I’d known there wasn’t going to be any signings between July 15 and Aug. 1, I would have just taken these two weeks off. The last couple of weeks have been a little frustrating.”

Another agent said older players are being squeezed by clubs giving younger prospects a chance.

more with possible destinations of some of the players…

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(Edmonton) –

General Manager Steve Tambellini announced today the Edmonton Oilers have agreed to terms with goaltender Jeff Deslauriers on a one-year deal.

Deslauriers, 26, played in his second National Hockey League season last year appearing in 48 games sporting a 16-28-4 record with a 3.26 GAA and .901 save percentage.

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from Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News,

Ken Holland is in Vernon, British Columbia, sandwiched between Okanagan and Kalamalka lakes. And you can bet his Blackberry is perpetually on. Kirk Maltby’s agent, Anton Thun, is in his office in Markham, Ontario, near Toronto, working the phone.

Thun and Holland are missing each other, and that should be no surprise. Once a grinder, always a grinder and it looks like the process that could lead to Maltby playing a 15th year for the Red Wings is a matter of grinding it out, too.

“We are certainly still talking,” Thun said. “It’s been phone tag. At this point, Kirk’s preference is clearly to play for the Wings.”

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Asked if he has talked to other teams, Thun said, simply, “Kirk wants to play with the Wings, and we think something will work out, eventually.”

read on

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“The NHL really needs to get on board to acknowledge the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada, other cities that claim to be the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada are using various methods to justify their claim.”

=Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Member, Norman Yakeleya.  Darril & George Fosty at Boxscore News have a very lengthy article on hockey being played at the Northwest Passage in 1825.

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from Tim Sassone of the Chicago Daily-Herald,

In order to fit in Niemi’s cap hit, the Hawks might have as many as nine players making less that $900,000.

Those nine players could turn out to be defensemen John Scott, Jordan Hendry and Jassen Cullimore; forwards Bryan Bickell, Jack Skille, Jake Dowell, Jeff Taffe and Viktor Stalberg; and goalie Hannu Toivonen.

On a team that needs to watch every dollar, Toivonen’s cap hit of $500,000 could hand him the backup job over Corey Crawford, whose hit is $800,000.

Combined those nine players would earn about $5.178 million.

Add that to the $53.9 million including bonuses for Toews, Niemi, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Dave Bolland, Tomas Kopecky, Troy Brouwer, Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson, and it’s roughly $59.078 million – leaving approximately $246,000 of wiggle room under the $59.4 million cap.

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MONTREAL— Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier announced today the signing of defenseman Alexandre Picard to a one-year, two-way contract (2010-11). As per club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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from David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune,

I came looking for fan backlash from the double whammy of the Hawks losing eight players since the Cup championship because of the NHL salary cap combined with Friday’s Tribune reporting that the Hawks lost money last year.

I left still looking.

I got the sense you could fit into a penalty box the number of Hawks fans truly worried about the mass player exodus taking the team out of Cup contention next season. Even fewer are worried about Chairman Rocky Wirtz making ends meet.

The majority of fans believe the Hawks, still Chicago’s team closest to a championship, can do no wrong. The Hawks may not be able to afford any more players under the salary cap but they have earned the benefit of the doubt. The glare of the 35-pound silver chalice you have seen all over Chicago has blinded many from seeing reasons to criticize.

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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun at Slam,

• Burke won a Stanley Cup with a dominant defence of Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Francois Beauchemin, Sean O’Donnell, Kent Huskins and Joe DiPenta. Bob Murray’s defence in Anaheim as of Saturday: Lubomir Visnovsky, Toni Lydman and Sheldon Brookbank. Can you say Anaheim needs Kaberle, and badly?

• Even after the dubious signing of Alexei Ponikarovsky, the Los Angeles Kings are almost $13 million under the salary cap. This is a quality team that needs to be bold and has the money to do so. Being patient should no longer be the mantra for the Kings.

more hockey notes tossed in other sports talk…

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from Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News,

An NHL source confirmed today that the third bidder for the Dallas Stars is News Corp./Fox, which surfaced yesterday as a possible bidder on the Rangers.

The three bidders on the Stars right now are: Calgary Oilman Bill Gallacher, Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi and News Corp.

News Corp. owns Fox Sports, and the purchase of the Stars and Rangers would help guarantee contracts for FSN Southwest, as well as ensure future programming if they hope to expand their product.

continued

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via Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune at Chicago Breaking Sports,

According to multiple reports Saturday, an arbitrator has awarded Blackhawks goaltender Antti Niemi $2.75 million for next season.

That figure appears low enough that the Hawks could work under the NHL’s salary cap to retain the netminder or there is still a possibility general manager Stan Bowman could trade him.

The Hawks have 48 hours to decide whether to accept the award or walk away from it, allowing Niemi to become a free agent. They could also accept the award and then trade Niemi and sign a veteran free agent at a lower salary.

It’s believed Niemi asked for more than $3 million for the one-year contract during Thursday’s arbitration hearing in Toronto and that the Hawks were seeking a deal of around $2 million.

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