Around Hockey XVII (All Non-Jackets Hockey talk in here)

[CBJx614]

I believe Kimmo Timonen.

Oh right. That would make sense.

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

Turun Palloseura signed another former Columbus Blue Jackets great as Tomi Kallio returned to his home club to play alongside Petteri Nummelin. Fredrik Norrena is the goalie coach currently taking over the legendary Upi Ylönen - the man behind Mi. Kiprusoff's success and the reason behind why there was long line of NHL goalies coming from Turku.

2000's CBJ legends still going strong.

A hundred thousand dollars
Wouldn't touch the price I paid
Of the hundred thousand moments
Of the times I wish I'd stayed

But even if I had all the time and money
It's still the same old news
Nothin' does you any good
When you got two thousand blues

 

[Samkow]

‏@MapleLeafs 12m12 minutes ago

The #Leafs have named Lou Lamoriello the 16th General Manager in Club history #TMLtalk

ahahaahahahahahah

 

[Viqsi]

ahahaahahahahahah

SERIOUSLY WHAT THE ACTUAL ****

Totally befuddled by this one. Are Lou and the Leafs trolling us or something?

 

[ndd17]

Parise, Kovalchuk, Vanderbeek, Brodeur, Stevens, Conte, now Lou...
Apparently, the end of the era.

 

[Kev22]

Maybe Jarmo can get Lou to take Clarkson back.

 

[ReggieRed]

Expansion notes:
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/13295115/nhl-only-expansion-bids-came-las-vegas-quebec-city

I'm surprised Seattle isn't there.

They were talking about expansion on NHL Network radio this morning, and the comment from Mike Ross was that if it does happen, Quebec City would likely go into the Western Conf for a couple of years, and then they would look at moving someone else from the EC to the WC and switch Quebec to the east. That got me thinking about who that would be, and the only options would seem to be the CBJ or Red Wings. In some ways, moving back to the Central Div has some appeal if they went to a balanced schedule out of division so you only play the teams in all other divisions (irregardless of conference) twice. This would prevent additional road trips to the west coast...we already have to go out there to play each team once even in the EC. Ideally, Arizona would relocate to KC and then you could move Colorado to the Pacific with the new Las Vegas team and have a Central Division consisting of CBJ, Chi, Nashville, Winnipeg, Dallas, KC, St. Louis and Minny...a very "midwest" feel, and no division games further west than the Central Time Zone. My question is would such an alignment appeal to fans, and what concessions could Columbus hope to extract from the NHL in order to move back to the WC?

 

[Jive Pawnbroker]

SERIOUSLY WHAT THE ACTUAL ****

Totally befuddled by this one. Are Lou and the Leafs trolling us or something?

Somewhere, pigs are flying.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

So much for those advanced stats. (regarding Lou and Toronto)

 

[Sdrawkcab321]

Maybe Jarmo can get Lou to take Clarkson back.

That was actually the first thing I thought of maybe Lou can bring kovys rights to Toronto with him and trade them to us

 

[EspenK]

They were talking about expansion on NHL Network radio this morning, and the comment from Mike Ross was that if it does happen, Quebec City would likely go into the Western Conf for a couple of years, and then they would look at moving someone else from the EC to the WC and switch Quebec to the east. That got me thinking about who that would be, and the only options would seem to be the CBJ or Red Wings. In some ways, moving back to the Central Div has some appeal if they went to a balanced schedule out of division so you only play the teams in all other divisions (irregardless of conference) twice. This would prevent additional road trips to the west coast...we already have to go out there to play each team once even in the EC. Ideally, Arizona would relocate to KC and then you could move Colorado to the Pacific with the new Las Vegas team and have a Central Division consisting of CBJ, Chi, Nashville, Winnipeg, Dallas, KC, St. Louis and Minny...a very "midwest" feel, and no division games further west than the Central Time Zone. My question is would such an alignment appeal to fans, and what concessions could Columbus hope to extract from the NHL in order to move back to the WC?

I'd prefer staying in the East but your idea makes sense to me although the never relocate a crappy franchise even though they don't draw squat for fans crowd may object to moving Arizona to KC. For them I'd say fine leave AZ to rot in the desert and leave Colorado in our division. One trip to Mountain time wouldn't be a killer. Could be tacked onto a trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota or on the way back from the coast. Although on second thought I'd take AZ in our division and move Colorado out west as you suggest.

 

[MAHJ71]

Rangers reportedly resign Stepan - 6 years, $6.5 milllllion AAV

 

[Fro]

i'm sorry, Stepan is just NOT a 6.5m player IMO

 

[WannabeFinn]

Joey has more and more reason to ask for $8m now

 

[EspenK]

Joey has more and more reason to ask for $8m now

If you think he is going to ask for 8 I've got some land in Florida if you are interested.

I'm betting he starts at 10 and hopefully settles at 9.

 

[DarkandStormy]

Rangers have ~$1 million in cap space, and that's if they carry 13/7 only.

 

[major major]

That's an appropriate deal for Stepan and the Rangers, IMO.

 

[EspenK]

Rangers have ~$1 million in cap space, and that's if they carry 13/7 only.

I think you will see a lot of 13/7's including us to save cap space.

 

[Dr. Fire]

That's an appropriate deal for Stepan and the Rangers, IMO.

Especially after ROR's deal. That deal made 6.5 about right for Stepan.

 

[EspenK]

Especially after ROR's deal. That deal made 6.5 about right for Stepan.

ROR's deal and the precedent it set is going to set back 100 years your mother's warning of "if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?"

 

[Jovavic]

In a world where Brassard is a 5 million dollar player, Stepan is clearly worth more

 

[CBJWerenski8]

In a world where Brassard is a 5 million dollar player, Stepan is clearly worth more

Derick Brassard is worth every penny of that contract right now.

 

[major major]

Derick Brassard is worth every penny of that contract right now.

I agree. Brassard has 40 pts in 54 playoff games since joining the Rangers, which I believe is most on the Rangers over that span (and probably one of the higher totals in the league for the last 3 years).

But Stepan is still the better overall player.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Pens trade Sutter to Canucks for Bonino/Clendening, then sign Eric Fehr. Minor-ish deals but I think Pens get better.

 

[stevo61]

Pens trade Sutter to Canucks for Bonino/Clendening, then sign Eric Fehr. Minor-ish deals but I think Pens get better.

Gives them a little depth when they had next to none before. Gonna be a tough division this year