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.
September 30, 2008
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.
JAGR DEFICIENCY
ONE YEAR AFTER committing $85 million to sign free agents Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, the Rangers have committed to making their blue-chip centers the center of the Blueshirts’ universe. This time it only cost Jaromir Jagr. Because the choice was between finding a first-line center to play with the notoriously idiosyncratic Jagr, who could not or would not adapt his game to fit with either of the incoming pivots after the departure of the simpatico Michael Nylander, or to pivot in a different direction and build around Gomez and Drury. GM Glen Sather made the decision to chart a new course. Jagr, the Rangers’ post-lockout signature player whose presence dominated the franchise, left to sign an enormous free agent deal with Omsk of the KHL. In an instant, the baton…
BEST FRIENDS, BENCH ENEMIES
“ONE MAN PRACTISING sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it,” said legendary football coach Knute Rockne – and for evidence ‘The Gipper’ wasn’t some overblown wisecracker, look no further than the example set by Bruce Boudreau and John Anderson, two of the newest, nicest members of the NHL coaching fraternity. They also happen to be best friends, with eerily similar life paths that will cross at least six times this season when Boudreau’s 2007-08 Southeast Division-champion Washington Capitals take on Anderson’s Atlanta Thrashers, a division rival that regressed terribly last season and finished second-last in the East. Both of them were hometown teammates with the Ontario Hockey Association’s Toronto Marlboros in the early 1970s, and both amassed more than 100 points in their final season of junior. After that, both were drafted…
AGITATOR ON BOARD
IN A WHIRLWIND two-day tour of Dallas this summer, free agent winger Sean Avery talked up his love life on the radio, sent zingers at the Rangers and Isles at his press conference and assessed the fashion sense of key Stars on TV. Can you imagine a full season of this guy? Avery has proven he is anything but subtle and his assimilation into the Stars is expected to be an interesting chemistry experiment. Will the 28-year-old give Dallas the sandpaper it needs to get back to the top of a tough Pacific Division? Can he be the difference in a playoff series against Detroit? Is he the missing piece for pretty much any team that’s smart enough to sign him? To this, Avery would say…hell, yes. “Watching the playoffs last year and watching…
2009 UFA MARKET: LOOKING FORWARD
NEXT SUMMER’S “SILLY SEASON” is shaping up to be very similar to the one we just had. When July 1, 2009, rolls around, there’ll be many more upper-echelon forwards available compared to the number of blueliners and goalies on the market. This past summer’s most prominent unrestricted free agent, Marian Hossa, signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings in July and figures to once again be a hot commodity next summer. Depending on whether any contract extensions get handed out during the season, Hossa could be joined by an intriguing cast of UFA forwards, including super-skilled Marian Gaborik of Minnesota, Vancouver’s Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Calgary’s Mike Cammalleri, as well as Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu of Montreal. Conn Smythe winner Henrik Zetterberg is eligible to become a UFA following this…
Made possible with the support of
