if you really think that ticket prices won't continue to rise, then I have some nice swampland to sell you

Yes, but it's all a zero-sum game in the end. Who wants to foot the bill? (and how the heck does giving some teams a giant money advantage show well managed teams kicking the crap out of poorly managed ones- it just shows their ability to take advantage of an uneven playing field)

First you have the old system. It drains the teams that aren't successful to the point where they have a very limited chance of ever competing and pulling themselves out of their spiral. This leads to a couple of teams going out of business immediately (in the next couple of years) and a gradual choking out of quite a few more. In the end, you're left with a league with less teams, which is marginalized in the national eye and seen as dying.

If you go to extreme revenue sharing then the game will not grow because where's the incentive to tap that extra revenue if you just have to give 31/32nds of it up? In this scenario, the New Yorks and Torontos of the world, just sit back and don't even bother to tap their potential markets because they don't get to keep it at all. There's no attempt to grow the sport in key markets and the league, in general, goes nowhere.

In the current system, you're taking it from those larger teams in an attempt to get the smaller teams to use the cash to help stimulate their markets. Basically, you use the excess cash from the Rangers to help Pittsburgh grow their market. You're taking away some incentive from the larger markets in that no longer can you just raise more cash to get better players to win. But the incentive is still there for the owners to raise more cash because they get to put it in their pockets, if it's above a certain percentage. It's quite analogous to what has happened at KU the past few years with the football program. KUAC (Athletic Corp) used to get a majority of its income from basketball- something to the effect of over $10M from basketball, $2M from football, and maybe $1M from a hodgepodge of other sports. So, the new Athletic Director comes in and says that if they can spend a few more bucks to get football more competitive, they could get double or triple the return on it- spend $1M to make $2M, $3M, or even $5M. You're not taking away much from basketball to fund the new program and it could help grow everything else.

Sure, I'd love to see the owners and players agree to a system where ticket prices are tied to revenues, costs, and profits. Owners get to make a 10% profit after operating expenses so they have a reason to run their teams. The players get a set % of income, say 60%, and the rest of the money gets sent back to the ticket holders. That'd be a great system. It also has a snowball's chance in hell of ever happening.

Considering the alternatives, I'm just going to go with my rudimentary understanding of Rawls and not vote based on my team (hell, my team has cash but they're idiots- what does that count as). If I had no idea what team I would be rooting fair, I'd want a system that's fair to all, not one that favors one team or another. And I'd try not to go around acting bitter just because my team got the short end of the stick with no considerations for the rest of the league.

SI

Well, I'm relatively happy with the 7% rollback the Oilers did this year as well as hearing yesterday that they offered ticketpacks that included tickets as cheap as $15.

Oiler ticket prices have not risen drastically in the last 5 years, and that included the time when we nearly lost our team. If they weren't willing to put a big hike on (instead they listened to the public when we told them those prices wouldn't get paid) at that point, I don't forsee any sort of big increase coming anytime soon.

Yes, season by season increases are bound to happen. Just as we get a raise at work for cost of living, everything else goes up just a little bit more than that. But for the Oilers to compete in a world where the average is a $45 million dollar budget would require them to likely increase their ticket price by 1/3, THAT is what I was talking about.

This swampland though........is there a croc hunter thrown in with it?

Here's an interesting payroll tracking application. It only works on IE unfortunately. Move your mouse over the colours to see player/contract information. The 'faded' colours are RFAs, the darker ones, UFAs. In the upper left hand corner is the date, with two little squares. It starts at August 1st. Click on one of the boxes to scroll through the month and watch the transactions.

http://metafora.ca/payroll%20tracker...let/index.html

works fine in firefox for me.
which is to say, it's rather ugly in either browser, but interesting.

How did this reach the second page! Good heavens...you Canadian FOFCers are slacking! :)

"Too busy waiting" for rookie camp. ;)

Ok. After last night's "Slaughter on Monday Night Football", I can no longer pay any attention to the Detroit Football Lions, so I am returning my full sports focus on the Red Wings. Unfortunately, nothing is happening...

Datsyuk has turned down every offer the Wings have made. I would not be surprised to see him stay in Russia. If he does, the Wings are in trouble.

Zetterberg hasn't signed yet either. I am more optimistic that we will sign him. He can't make as much money in Sweden and his demands are less.

There have been numerous articles in the Detroit sports rags about goalie Jimmy Howard of Maine. The Wings drafted him in the 2nd round a few years back and people are ridiculously high on the kid. You college hockey gurus have any thoughts? His numbers are impressive.

I read in a Swedish article that Zetterberg is looking for $2.5 a year and Dats $4.0. Considering Kronwall signed yesterday, I'm guessing there's what.. about 9.5 left in cap-space now.. and in that space they need to fit in Z, Dats, one more goalie, one more d-man and one fourth line forward.. I'm sensing a sign n trade with one of the two unsigned "stars"..

I think $4 million for Datsyuk and $2.5 million for Zetterberg is pretty fair for the most part. That was about what I was expecting. Maybe $3.5 or so for Datsyuk. That will bring the Wings to 20 players. They just need to sign about 2 more guys. I think they are set in goal. Well, as set as they will be. I think they could sign a 4th liner and a 6th/7th defensemen for cheap. It will be tight, but I think the Wings can manage the cap with both Datsyuk and Zetterberg on the team.

The Penguins decided to keep the arbitrators award for defenseman Dick Tarnstrom. He will make $1.6 MM next year which is the 4th highest paid player on the team so far. Lemiuex and Crosby probably will pass that but aren't signed yet.

With the signing of Gonchar and the presence of Ric Jackman, they did strongly consider walking away from the ruling.

Firstly, I am a die hard Wings fan.

That said, Datsyuk does not deserve 4 million a year. I love him and he's an exceptional player, but Rick Nash signed a deal barely over 4 a year and he's at least scored 40 goals in his career already. Datsyuk by no means deserves 4 mil a year when he's never scored 70 points in a season yet. Rumors of Dats to Edmonton for Ryan Smyth and a pick here have dwindled. I am sure Trav can tell us how much he heard of it there? Pending on the pick though, I'd say go for it.

Z needs to sign. He is the better of the two guys. He's bigger, stronger, and can handle a physical North American game better then Datysuk. Zetterbergs potential could be the sky, and for 2 mil or so a year, he's well worth it.

Jimmy Howard is a goalie I think is better then Al Montoya (People not familiar with college: Former Michigan goalie, went top 10 to the Rangers in 04) In fact, Montoya really only became a top 10 pick because Howard was hurt before the World Juniors two years ago and Montoya took over his starting job. Again, I'm a huge Michigan fan, and hell, I even partied with Montoya before (I work with another Michigan players dad, Matt Hunwick) and I'm saying Howard is better.

He handles pressure with great moxy (See the UNH/Maine game where he had 66 saves in a Triple OT playoff game) I think he'll be on the Wings roster in 2006-07 as a back up, and starting by 08. A lot could change but I can't see him losing the Grand Rapids starting job to McDonald. He may not get it to start the year but he'll take it over.

Last big Smyth rumor I heard much about was in a possible deal for Thornton before he got locked up. Latest rumor is that the Oilers are looking at Viktor Kozlov out of Jersey because of the financial situation they are in.

Smyth is the only guy not under contract for the Oilers this year and they are talking about trying to get him locked up long term. There is a pretty good size fan movement wanting to move him as part of a package deal to get a true first liner in return. Personally, I hope Smyth finishes his career in Edmonton and that we reward him for everything he has done here. He may not be a true first line winger, but he can do a pretty good impersonation of one for a 1/3 of a season on his own, and if you give him a true #1 center, I think that'd extend to 2/3 of the season.

As far as the Kozlov situation, I haven't looked into it personally to see what other teams are scratching the cap right now, but this is the sort of move I'm expecting the Oiler's to make. Hopefully give up a little less than market value to give another team cap breathing room. I'd like to hope that we'll make a little bigger splash than Kozlov as I don't see him drastically improving us.

Smyth and a pick for Datsyuk though, that is intertesting. Would you guys take Horcoff and a pick instead? Pretty please.

DONE!

Found this on Yahoo Sports this morning

OLN hires noted hockey voice
Compiled by John Ryan, Mercury News
August 31, 2005

OLN has taken a big step to ease the nerves of anyone wondering what the NHL has gotten itself into with a network that far up the dial.

Mike ``Doc'' Emrick, a 25-year play-by-play man who's among the most recognizable voices in hockey, has signed on as the network's lead broadcaster. He has been calling New Jersey Devils games since 1993. John Davidson reportedly will be his partner in the booth.

The New York Post quoted an OLN vice president as saying that although the rest of the cast will include some Disney crossovers, ``You don't want to hire the entire ESPN staff to come broadcast games for you.'' The irony there is that hockey is the one sport where Disney had helpful analysts instead of arm-flailing, smack-talking caricatures.

That's not bad. I can live with those guys.

I have no idea what OLN's approach will be to the game. I haven't seen any marketing matierals, ads, or what not (probably because it's a bit early and probably because I never watch the OLN and never will unless hockey is one), but it will interesting to see what they do with the game. My hope is that the producers and folks in charge of things sit down and watch about 100 hours of CBC HNiC coverage of the game and try as best they can to replicate it.

one can only pray.
I'm not that familiar with Emrick, but I'm a big fan of Davidson. He doesn't seem to have a great "rhythm", meaning he doesn't always provide the analysis at the right times, and tends to talk over the play too much. But I find his stuff is generally very insightful and well-researched, much more so than the other "helpful analysts" at ESPN that the original article writer talked about.

Davidson does have a love affair with the Rangers that is just a wee bit irritating when he does their games, but since I don't plan on watch many (any?) Ranger games, I'm not too bothered by that.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but OLN Canada will NOT be airing the NHL.

This is from an article on tsn.ca/nhl on Brett Hull.

"I've only told Wayne Gretzky not to do one thing, and he didn't listen to me so I would never tell him not to do anything again," Hull said to the Republic.

"I told him not to come to St. Louis from Los Angeles and that (Blues coach Mike) Keenan was an idiot. He said (Keenan) wouldn't be an idiot once he got there. I said, 'He'll never change.'

"I was right."

While sometimes Hull is an idiot, other times he says very amusing things. :)

The schedule for the nationally televised games have been announced.

http://www.nhl.com/schedules/all_sked.html

OLN begins by showing Rangers/Flyers on Opening Night. Then they start there 2 games a week schedule which will be on Monday and Tuesday. Oct 10 will see Penguins/Sabres and the 11th will be Coyotes/Stars. So their first three games will feature the biggest spenders of the offseason (Flyers), Sidney Crosby and Mario, and Wayne Gretzky coaching.
NBC will have a game on Sundays. They have 3 Sundays in January, 1 in February, and 2 in April.

Not bad. I like that they show the games on the same night each week. I don't think that Monday and Tuesday were the best days, but, oh well...

The Wings appear to be on 12 times.

Hawks-Wings, Hawks-Stars, Hawks-Yotes, Haws-Avs, Hawks-Blues. Not too bad but only one of them is before February.

SI

Woo-hoo! One single game for the Canes on OLN!

(Actually, I would not have been terribly surprised to see them get no appearances at all...anyone know if OLN was required to show all 30 teams at least once? That might explain it. :) )

The Leafs, Sens, and Oilers make no appearances, while the Canucks, Habs, and Flames each make 1, so i dont think showing every team is a priority......Thank god for CBC, TSN, and CTVSN

Ack... only 2 games for the Devs :(.

But at least I'll get to listen to Doc Emrick, so it'll feel like a Devs game ;).

thank god for DirecTV and Center Ice!

I don't get why they'd only show 1 for the 'nucks, flames, and habs. The former are a couple of good, young teams and the former are, well, Montreal.

SI

Okay, I'm blank here -- what is the "RDS" network listing?

I think RDS is the Quebec (French speaking) CBC network.

RDS is the french TSN, Radio-Canada is the french CBC.

Well since we can't see any games on OLN in Canada, CBC, TSN, and RSN are our only choices.

Yes. I too thank god for these things.

from AJC.com
Needing a veteran goaltender to fill the void left by the injured Pasi Nurminen and play alongside rookie Kari Lehtonen, the Thrashers signed Mike Dunham on Friday.

Terms of the contract were unknown.

Not sure where this move came from, all I'd seen/heard as late as last night was either Arturs Irbe or Felix Potvin.

The Penguins signed Lyle Odelein today.

Also, they resigned Ryan Malone who was a restricted free agent.

No terms available for either.

Dunham > Irbe > Potvin

Mike "Why Am I Still Employed" Milbury offered DiPietro a 15 YEAR, $4.5 Million contract...

http://thefourthperiod.com/news/nyi050904.html

Well, it is a shrewd move IF he knew there was no way it would go through (to get on DiPi's good side), but if not that is a silly deal. DiPietro would be almost 40 at the end of that deal.

Datsyuk signs in Russia. He has a clause enabling him to return halfway through the season but if he's not under a NHL contract by December 1st, he can't play this season.


http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135484

As a Wings fan all I can say is have fun in Russia, Dats.

Maybe once Datsyuk puts up 70 points in a season, or scores a playoff goal he can consider money near them, but come on. What a joke.

I've always felt Z was more important to our franchise, so lets hope we get him in camp.

As far as Dats, ugh, what a joke.

I read that article. Grr, how can he feel like he is worth 6 million? This is a joke. I hope he has fun in Russia. Martin St. Louis is barely getting 6 million, and he's won the Art Ross.

Datsyuks career high in points is what? 65-70? This is the stupidest thing ever.

Venting done.

It's good to see that the lockout and new CBA has not deflated the players overblown and overpriced opinion of themselves.

Hrmmm...

I thought this wouldn't end well and it's not.

I agree with Big John, he Datsyuk is not worth anywhere near $6 million. That's pure insanity. I would be willing go up to around $3.5-4 million tops, but nothing higher. Anything more is ridiculous.

I have no idea what Zetterberg is demanding, but I hope it's more reasonable than that.

Regardless of what Datsyuk thinks he's worth, he is a good player. A very good player. He's got mad, crazy skills and moves. The Wings are not a better team without him. Even if they get Zetterberg signed, they will still have a big hole to fill and they will be sitting there a chunk of salary reserved for Datsyuk that will go unused. Not a good situation...

Oh well... Brave new world and all.

If he turned down $5M, then either a.) he'd really just rather play in Russia and the rest is a smokescreen, or b.) he's getting some very bad advice.

c) delusions of grandeur

I think it's a combination of "a" and "c". I think he really wants to stay in Russia. He never really picked up English. I think he's happy there and if the pay is equal in Russia (or even a little less), I think he'll stay.

Saw something on Kuklas, that Zetterberg is asking for Rick Nash money.

This is not what I meant by "being reasonable".

Swedish media is reporting that Zetterberg is asking for between 2 and 2.5 million

Well, similar to the Datsyuk quote above (demanding $6 million) you always have to take these foreign reports with a grain of salt. There's translation and reliability issues. Still, the fact that neither have been signed, plus some reports in the Freep Press indicate all sides are far off. Not good times...

Are shootout goals going to be tracked seperately, or will they be thrown in with the other totals?

I think the common practice has usually been to exclude shootout goals from league totals. Though a few european leagues have taken up giving a regular goal for the player who scores the winner in the shootout. Go figure :)

Groan...this from Sportsnet.ca:



http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/hearsay.jsp

Scott Stevens retires.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135528


Also saw on Kuklas that HDNet will announce their NHL schedule within the next 10 days. I get HDNet, so yay, hockey in HD!

scott stevens will be tremendously missed here in NJ. i really thought he was coming back. huge blow, and im very very sad to see him go. between him and niedermeyer, its a whole new defensive era.

what a great player he was :(

CRAP! That sucks :(. He will be missed.

Yeah, he was a great player. Just an absolute rock along the blue line. He had a number of fantastic open ice hits (usually checking guys with their head down), especially against Slava Kozlov (though to the little fella's credit he did get back up) and, of course, Lindros.

I think people also forget what an offensive threat he was in his career, cracking 50 pts 8 times (including one gaudy season of 18g 60a and +53). Also ironic that the lockout gave him a chance to see that he could be away from the game, as, in some way, he was a big catalyst for the salary boom in the 90s.

but what's impressive to me is his +/-: never had a regular season in the red, and was a plus 393 for his career. too bad he never managed to land a Norris.

weird seeing the Devils without Niedermeyer and Stevens.

Ueah, that is wierd. The guy will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, but almost seemed to do it quietly (well, except when he took out opposing players).

This year Brodeur will show tlhe world just how good he really is.

Zetterberg signed. $2.5 million, multiyear deal.

http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=432150

"After lengthy negotiations yesterday, Zetterberg is said to have received the contract he wanted. According to Sundsvalls Tidning, the deal is a multiyear deal worth $2.5 million per year, i.e. just above 18 million SEK per year. Everything was signed late last night Swedish time."

Damphousse retires.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135574

Interesting Article:

http://www.thebrushback.com/nhldonate_full.htm

I certainly hope this turns out to be accurate. This would be good news. $2.5 million is about exactly where I thought Zetterberg should sign.

According to this, http://www.detnews.com/2005/wings/05...D01-306435.htm

Datsyuk's contract has no out clause.

Confirmed. http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=135619&hubName=nhl


Islanders also re-sign Rick Dipietro to a 1 yr, $2.5 million deal.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135613

Nice. Very nice. This is the best deal the Wings have made yet. $2.65 is a perfect figure. Zetterberg is only 25, so at that price he could be one hell of a bargain in a few years' time.

Sounds like Datsyuk is a wash. It will be interesting to see if Holland concedes Datsyuk is out of the picture and go for someone (the only one left?) like Bondra or just sit on what he has. The Wings need more offensive punch.

Jeez, what is with all the retirements lately?

Al Macinnis retires. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...85&hubName=nhl

James Patrick retires. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135676

maybe a mix of guys having a year off and seeing how nice it is with guys not getting the contracts they hoped they would be getting.

plus, of course, all these guys are a year older than when they played last

WOOT! Isles are doing $10 tickets for some games in the first half of the year, and amazingly one of the games was the Flyers game.

So I snapped up two tix for November 29th for a whopping total of $25 (half the cost of ONE ticket to the Flyers game in Philly that I'm going to in October).

Anybody else get any deals like this?

~rpi-fan

The Sabres actually have season tickets starting at $10.00 a chair for the upper bowl, which is an absolute steal - $400.00 for the entire year!

I actually purchased a pair of season tickets in the lower bowl at $1200.00 US ($30.00 per game) each. Again, for tickets in the lower bowl, I feel like a thief! I'll end up selling off about half of the tickets to friends and co-workers and maybe give away a few sets of seats to some of my customers.

I didnt know it was possible to give away Sabres tickets..... :D

Once I get some extra $ I'm def getting Sabres season tickets as they are hella cheap I agree

Oops!

TSN is reporting that Derian Hatcher went down in the US camp today with a pulled hamstring and a knee injury. Results of the MRI are still pending.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...59&hubName=nhl

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135762

McKee signs 1 yr deal for $1.6

Now don't trade him for nothing Darcy! Or worse, let him go after the season for nothing :(

Not quite that good, but got better than nothing offer that ended up leading me to buy regular price tickets (which you know they gotta love)

The offers were kids under 15 free in October (only got to use that once, because most of the games were school nights & typically we don't get home from a game until between midnight & 1am).

Also 2-for-1 ticket Wednesdays most of the season, again, school night kills that for us too. And the Family 4-pack (4 tickets+4 cokes+4 hot dogs for $129 lower/$89 uppper) was sold out already, just 48 hours into the pre-sale.

But, given the price & driving hassles, matching up their schedule with other events, school nights, et al, I'm pretty happy with what I just finished buying.

I'm a front-of-the-upper-deck, center-ice kinda guy so I'm pretty happy with the selection, getting the pre-sale made a HUGE difference in the quality of single-game tickets available.

Sat 9/24 7pm vs Hurricanes section 110, row F, seats 3-4
Fifth row behind the goal, 2nd home game of the year
Sat 10/22 7pm vs Devils section 309, row L, seats 4-1
2 free under 15 y/o
Sun 12/11 2pm vs Blackhawks section 310, row D, seats 18-17
last home game before holiday break & we're usually traveling during that
Fri 1/6 7pm vs Penguins section 310, row E, seats 20-19
I went back & got these, figured I'd go ahead & buy into the Crosby hype
Sat 2/4 vs Panthers section 310, row D, seats 4-3
only home game in February due to the circus
Sat 4/15 2pm vs Bruins section 310, row D, seats 18-17
last regular season home game of the year

Total spent: $734 (including junk fees & $12 parking for the Carolina & P'burgh games)

Plus, I figure I can manage to score at least one freebie in somebody's luxury suite due to work (a damned sweet way to watch a game in ATL) and I can supplement with the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators (fabulous building, I can't wait to see hockey there & top ticket price is $19), all-in-all, I think that's a pretty good slate of live action for a 7 y/o + his dad :)

http://www.philadelphiaflyers.com/pr...chive/2116.asp

Hatcher will miss 3 weeks. He is also suspended the first 3 games of the regular season (for what I do not remember).

Forsberg will have surgery on his ankle and will miss 2-3 weeks.

Damn man, I'm telling you: get your hands on a student ID and you & the kiddo can go for $20 TOTAL, front of the upperdeck, center ice.

Oops, I just realized I probably didn't make it clear I was referring to Thrashers tickets at Phillips Arena. I was answering the "anybody else get deals like this" part of the earlier post & went ahead & filled in what I ended up getting after covering why the various specials here didn't work out too useful for me.

And it appears the value of those tickets I was so happy about earlier may be about to drop considerably :(

http://www.ajc.com/thrashers/content...thrashers.html

Contract talks with Ilya Kovalchuk have hit a roadblock, which could cost the Thrashers their best player this season.

Jay Grossman, the agent for the star left wing, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution his client will pursue a contract with a pro team in his native Russia, which could be completed by early next week.

If that happens, the Thrashers have until Oct. 5 to negotiate with Kovalchuk. If no agreement is reached, he likely would be lost for the season. Under the league's collective bargaining agreement, if a player plays outside of North America once the season starts, he must clear waivers to return to his NHL team — a risk the Thrashers could not afford to take, as he surely would be claimed by another team.

"We want him in Atlanta; he wants to be in Atlanta. We're going to do everything we can to make it happen," Thrashers general manager Don Waddell said Friday from Traverse City, Mich., where he was watching a prospect evaluation tournament.

Waddell wouldn't comment on what the Thrashers' offer was to the restricted free agent, other than to say, "I'd say we have a difference right now."

Asked if it was a serious difference, he responded: "A difference."

With training camp set to open Sunday, the 22-year-old Kovalchuk is in Russia playing with Khimik Voskresensk, a Moscow-area team that does not rank among the Super League's higher-paying teams.

No, if you have a student ID at Phillips, you get center ice lower-part-of-upper-deck for $10 Day of Game.

Hmm ... I wonder if I could grow my beard back & resemble my old GaState ID ;)

I know they never gave me a hard time about it... or just send the kiddo up to the window and train him to say "Two, please".

:)

Well, that's what I get for trying to be a hockey fan. That just sucks.

The Leafs have signed Mariusz Czerkawski aka "The Polish Wayne Gretzky" to a one year deal. Not a bad signing.

Also, more updates on the Datsyuk saga. Apparently nothing is final in Russia yet and he'll be making his decision tomorrow (Sunday). The Wings are allegedly offering a two year deal at $3.8 million a year.

For elbowing Matthew Lombardi in the playoffs.

Hard to believe the first preseason games start this Friday!

Wow, that is strange.

Not really, I've been watching live hockey since Labor Day weekend. Guess that's a benefit of being in Minnesota.

I'm not going slumming, I just want NHL quality hockey.

All these lovely ticket sales apparently haven't trickled down to exhibition play :(

In KC, they still wants $30 per ticket or $100 for 6 to watch a Blues/Preds preseason game. One of the local radio stations is running a $15 ticket deal for a certain upper deck section but nothing that really makes me want to go out and watch a team I don't like and a team I'm indifferent to. Regular season would be another story, but this is preseason.

SI

Mark Messier is going to announce his retirement later today.

7 years after he should have

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...thrashers.html

Free agent right wing Peter Bondra is en route to Atlanta where he expects to complete a contract with the Thrashers, if not by the end of the day then by sometime on Tuesday, Bondra's agent Ritch Winter said.

Bondra, 37, has 477 goals in 984 career games and while he has slowed down a bit, he has still managed to score an average of almost 32 goals over the last three NHL seasons, which is probably plenty more than the Thrashers would expect from him.

Winter said the parties were working on a one-year contract.

"We're working on details," Winter said. "But I can confirm we're getting very, very close to finalizing it."

Winter said part of what took so long to finalize a deal was that Bondra needed to make up his mind where he wanted to play, but there was another factor after the Thrashers took on $7.223 million in salary after trading Dany Heatley to Ottawa for Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries.

"Their interest was the same, but they didn't know if they had any money left," Winter said.

With their top six forwards of Hossa, Bondra, Marc Savard, Slava Kozlov, Bobby Holik and Ilya Kovalchuk – assuming he signs – Winter asked rhetorically, "Is there a better top two lines in hockey?"

Rich, I wouldn't count one's top two lines before they are all under contract. Get Kovalchuk under contract and then we'll start talking the best top two lines in hockey.

I am liking what they're doing in Atlanta though. The progress has been all positive thus far.

Actually, my guess is Bondra is signed because Kovalchuk will not be.

NHL signs a 10 year, $100 million deal with XM satellite radio. They plan to broadcast 1000 games a season.

Effective when? They used to have a contract with Sirius.

It starts this upcoming season.

Yes, yes there is

:( Thanks for the cup, Mess.