I thought they were one of the faves last season. Already they are much better this season and they still have bernier to deal if they want.

Chicago wolves are now the ahl affiliate for the Canucks. Can't imagine Chicagoans lining up to watch them.

Kopecky to Florida for a conditional 7th round pick?

Its official.... kopecky = gone.

Jaekkel reporting that the hawks are looking to make depth acquisitions in fa. Not trying to land another big time contract. Says eager and Madden may be back.

Dowell will not be back. Hawks only sent qualifying offers to stalberg, frolik, campoli.

Canucks farm team moves to Chicago. You guys finally get a real team to cheer for. Lol. Just kidding guys. It's kinda bizarre though.

It will be odd for sure.

I'm looking forward to the future.  We are out of cap hell and our farm system is loaded with kids who are in various stages of development.  StanBow really has a handle on how to bring kids up and have $$$ to pay the keepers.

Cross laich off the list. Re-signed w/ Washington

Posted by moy23 on 6/28/2011 12:21:00 PM (view original):
Cross laich off the list. Re-signed w/ Washington

6 years, 27 million...they can have him...that's nearly Ryan Kesler money...wow

any news on the hawks... they have been in total silence of late. not a peep on who they will target.


This Stamkos rumor is looking very real for the flyers. They can speak to him about an offer in about 2 hours from now. One can dream, right?

Something has to happen with him, because from what I heard Tampa can't afford him.

If you guys honestly believe Yzerman will let him go, I think you're dreaming in technicolor. They simply can't afford to do that. I believe that even if he goes to July 1 with no deal in place, no one offers him anything. Keep in mind that he has to ACCEPT and SIGN an offer sheet in order to complete the deal. I don't think he even wants to leave.

Posted by andru2797 on 6/28/2011 5:33:00 PM (view original):
If you guys honestly believe Yzerman will let him go, I think you're dreaming in technicolor. They simply can't afford to do that. I believe that even if he goes to July 1 with no deal in place, no one offers him anything. Keep in mind that he has to ACCEPT and SIGN an offer sheet in order to complete the deal. I don't think he even wants to leave.

Other teams can structure a deal like so ..... 12/12/10/9/8/7/6/6/6 for about an $8 mil cap hit..... the problem is in real $. Tb has lost over $20 mil the last 2 seasons as a franchise. Losing $32 mil the next couple seasons will be a tough one to swallow if you are an investor in the team. We'll see. I think its a long shot but I also think the situation is very real that he could be leaving tb

Sounds like TB is trying to shed big contracts as a contingency plan for an offer sheet. Malone, Lecavalier, etc.

I don't know if I buy the "over 20 mil in losses" argument. Steve Yzerman would not have taken the job if he thought he would have those types of restrictions on building a winning team. The Brewer signing tells me that Tampa will spend to keep it's core players.

I know that financially it makes sense, but it makes zero hockey sense. There's no way they can let that market take that kind of hit. The ripple effect of losing Stamkos would only lead to bigger losses imo. Come to think of it, even from a financial point of view, if they get 3 first rounders for him, telling the fans in that market that they would have to wait at least 4-5 seasons before they reap the rewards for that trade-off would be an impossible sell, especially with many of the team's current stars long gone by then. This franchise wouldn't survive that.

I know teams will send him offer sheets, but I just don't think he'll sign any of them unless he has absolutely zero respect for Steve Yzerman, the Lightning ownership group or fan base, and I don't think that's the case.