Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
August 1, 2007
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
CBA becoming a mess for owners
When the players were in the process of ratifying the collective bargaining agreement two summers ago, Jeff O’Neill mused about a portion of the document that allowed veterans the option of having a single room on the road. “Boy, we sure took them to the cleaners, didn’t we?” O’Neill joked. The perception at the time, and for a long time afterward, was the new CBA was a slam-dunk victory for the owners. The league had forced its cost certainty requirement down the throats of the players who vowed they would never, ever accept a salary cap. The small markets would finally be able to compete for and keep the best players and that would guarantee the 30 healthy franchises commissioner Gary Bettman promised throughout the lockout. Because of lower player costs, ticket prices…
START SPREADING THE NEWS
It’s a little premature for the NHL to begin engraving the names of the New York Rangers onto the Stanley Cup. It was the Rangers who made the biggest splash in what is easily the most insane time of the year in hockey – unrestricted free agent season – when they signed veteran centers Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, but that doesn’t mean they are automatics when it comes to winning the Cup. Just ask someone who knows. “I THINK THAT ALL YOU CAN ASK FROM YOUR MANAGEMENT IS THAT THEY PUT YOU IN A POSITION THAT WHEN YOU START YOUR SEASON, YOU ARE ONE OF THE SEVEN OR EIGHT TEAMS THAT CAN LEGITIMATELY COMPETE FOR THE STANLEY CUP,” says veteran winger Brendan Shanahan who has three Cup rings, all earned with Detroit,…
Getting their work done early
WHEN VANCOUVER CANUCKS defenseman Kevin Bieksa and GM Dave Nonis looked at the situation, they both came to the conclusion they could live with a 614 per-cent raise. So while Bieksa somehow manages to get by on a paltry $525,000 this coming season, he can dream of the days when he becomes worth $3.75 million annually starting in 2008-09. And Nonis, meanwhile, will be able to sleep a little better at night knowing he has a player locked up for three more seasons who may very well emerge as his team’s best all-round defenseman, if he hasn’t done so already. And as NHL teams and players continue to wade their way through a two-year-old collective bargaining agreement, they’re doing what Bieksa and the Canucks did with increasing regularity. That is, players are…
On a groin and a prayer
Doug Risebrough’s biggest move this summer was not making one at all. Boy, the Minnesota Wild better hope Marian Gaborik’s groin shows better elasticity this season than a rain-drenched newspaper. That’s at least what the Wild is banking on after taking a mostly peripheral view to free agency one summer after diving in head-first. As other Western Conference teams were willing to join the free-agent frenzy, the Wild mostly voiced shock at the dollars and terms tossed at players such as Daniel Briere, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. So the Wild added only two-way center Eric Belanger and veteran defenseman Sean Hill, who won’t even be allowed to slip on a sweater until Nov. 18 after serving the rest of his 20-game suspension for testing positive for steroids. But the way GM Doug Risebrough figures,…
Made possible with the support of
