The Oilers are doing their best to help them out too. 5-3 loss to Nashville tonight. I think they have 1 win in their last 14 games now...

I don't think they'd draft Hall anyways - I would imagine the Canes would go for Tyler Segin, since he players for the OHL team they own (and therefore can control his development...)

I'm sure the Oilers would jump all over the opportunity to draft Hall or Seguin but I'm guessing we won't have to worry about that because the way things have gone this season we'll likely end up with the 3rd pick overall.

This is my last post in this thread until the title is changed to "The OFFICIAL 2009-10 NHL Off-Season Thread".

Looking forward to the Sabres start a 7-game, 14 day road trip tomorrow (coast-to-coast). Atlanta, NY Islanders, Phoenix, Anaheim, LA, San Jose, and Vancouver.

This is good evidence of how I haven't been following hockey enough this year: Dellapina used to be a Rangers beat writer and I had no idea he left the Daily News.

Went to the Ducks-Bruins game tonight. Very exciting and fun game to watch. Hiller made some amazing shots (and one of the goals he allowed was pretty much impossible to stop; late and close inadvertent pass deflection type).

The Ducks keep winning. Hopefully they keep it up. Huge game Thursday night on the "road" at Staple Center against the Kings--currently in the 8th playoff spot.

Well, sonofab...

I knew Teemu went down to a shot to the face, and was worried, but I figured his face just got messed up, get him to a dentist, make sure he doesn't have a concussion and get him back going again.

Unfortunately, he actually broke his jaw and will be out 4-6 weeks. :(

We just got him back, too, last Saturday. Now I am wondering if he will be able to play in the Olympics. Man, he has been waiting so long for that...

Get better, Teemu.

The crowd (or lack of one) in Atlanta are just brutal to see and hear on TV.

And how many uniforms does Atlanta have?

I knew from the way he was writhing around that something in his face was broken. I just hoped it wasn't anything near his eyes. Hockey players are too tough to roll around like that if it's just a couple of teeth.

Instigating KHL Hockey Brawl Costs Russian Team -- NHL FanHouse

From a few days ago, a massive KHL bench clearer that ended the game in a forfeit and cost the instigating team 4 million rubles.

Only in the NHL do you get this kind of stuff-

Penguins Sign Pechurski to One-Game Try Out - Pittsburgh Penguins - News


Fleury broke a finger against Edmonton the other night. Brent Johnson out with an undisclosed injury. John Curry up from Wilkes-Barre...and promptly gives up 5 goals in about 1/2 a game vs the Canucks.

So, in comes Pechurski...er, should be Pechersky, as it was mentioned during the broadcast that he said in pre-game interviews (thru RW turned translator Ruslan Fedotenko, since the kid speaks zero English) that it should be spelled with a Y. Also, he wore #40 last night, which would be the number of Curry's AHL backup Brad Thiessen (Pens declined to bring Thiessen across the country for 1 game, also the Baby Pens played Friday night). Pechurski/y typically wears #70. Pens equipment guys ordered 2 #70 jerseys for overnight delivery (I am guessing something like NHLshop.com ?) but those got held up in customs. Also, he had to use MAF's pads, the one's he uses in the WHL are considered illegal for NHL play.

He gave up 1 goal in about 30 mins of work...and gets named #3 star of the game. Good shit.

That's a great story. I was looking at the Pens box score last night and wondering who the hell either of those 2 goalies were.

Those are some pretty good numbers in juniors and obviously he did well last night. Sounds like they might want to keep him up over Curry and he might have just turned himself into a decent prospect for the future.

Blackhawks and Red Wings were fun to watch today. Go Blackhawks.

I loved Johnny Curry @ BU, but never thought his game would translate to success in the NHL. Unfortunate, he's an awesome guy.

Interesting story today how the Pistons and Red Wings may build a new downtown stadium to share:

Wait, so he signed a "one game amateur tryout" contract, but he played in an NHL game? That confuses me.

Still, good story.

From what I've read, he didn't get paid. If that's true, that sounds amateur to me.

Yeah, but how is that legal, to play in the freakin' NHL on a tryout contract? Legal with respect to the CBA, I mean, and the league min pay rules and what not (obviously, there is no law against an amateur contract).

I don't know the CBA at all, but there's got to be some type of concession for an emergency goaltender. Now, I realize the ECHL is a different league, but I've attended ECHL games where the starting goalie was signed off the street the same afternoon because of an emergency.

Sorry, I might not even be addressing your point. I guess I just don't understand what's so strange about the situation.

But they were paid, ya know? Getting an emergency goalie is definitely something we're all familiar with. But sticking an amateur in there, in a game in the highest professional league in the world and not paying him? That's not how this stuff normally works. I have only heard that practice in soccer, and even then, such players aren't allowed to play in games that count, just exhibitions.

So since I have never seen this before, I am curious under exactly what sort of situation this is here. Even that locker room attendant or whatever that served as the Caps backup goalies for a game a couple years ago was at least getting paid (if not as a backup goalie, certainly as a locker room attendant).

Justin Abdelkader actually did this for the Wings:

From Wiki -

On April 3, 2008, Abdelkader signed a one-game amateur tryout with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League and was to play that night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. In doing so, he forfeited his college eligibility for the 2008–09 season. The following day, Abdelkader signed a three-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings.[1]

Also, if this kid was in the WHL, he gets paid so he doesn't have amateur status anyway.

Dola,

What I meant to say is people in the WHL lose amateur status as far as college goes as they are paid to play. It's not a lot but they do get paid. That said, I believe the rule is you can play 8 or 9 NHL games without losing Junior status.

My confusion is not about Pechersky's status as an amateur. It's about the type of contract and him being allowed to play in a regular season NHL game on it.

I am suspecting we're lacking some information here. We may be assuming that "amateur" means "he doesn't get paid", when it actually means something else, some special type of one-game exemption the NHL allows in emergency situations, where the player is paid the league minimum for one game. The "amateur" could simply be a reference to the player in question not being a past NHL professional or attached to any other NHL team as a prospect.

OK, I just looked it up. Exhibit 17 of the CBA is a one-day amateur tryout contract. Its sole purpose is to allow a player to suit up as an NHL player for one day without compensation.

Also, in the case of Abby, they signed him to that amateur deal for one game when we were up against the cap and needed a player (it was near the end of the season and they didn't want to rush back guys who were healing for the playoffs)

Had he signed a deal it would have put us over the cap, but the amateur deal stopped that. He had just finished his season with MSU and was going to sign regardless, so they just used a loophole to get him in under the cap for a game.

Huh...well, that's the first I have ever heard of that being allowed by any pro league. Thanks for looking that up, Pumpy.

Yeah they do not get paid for it. It's just a way to get around the cap for a game.

In any case, Pechersky is attached to the Penguins because they drafted him. He hasn't signed an NHL entry-level contract yet, but Pittsburgh has his NHL rights. I don't think any other NHL team could sign him to a tryout agreement.

Yeah, I didn't know that about Pechersky, but assumed it, based on DeTox's example with Abdelkader, since Abdelkader was an unsigned Wings prospect at the time.

A heads up for any gamblers out there: I'm heading to the Rangers-Canadiens game in a bit. The last 7 games I've been to, the Rangers have lost. Hammer the Habs and give me a cut.

To keep him up, they would need to sign him to a longer term deal. And, Curry won't be up much longer either. Johnson is ready to come off IR, and Fleury probably could have played- he broke his finger in the Calgary game, still started the Edmonton game, finishing and winning both of those.

Curry was seen as pretty much being handed the backup job in the late summer, until Johnson took a bargain deal ($550K) to backup Fleury, and has been really good.




I don't think it's any different than a guy getting a try-out deal in September. Yes, those are preseason games, but they aren't being paid while playing an NHL game.

Also happened, strangely enough, for Vancouver againt Pittsburgh in 2003. Chris Levesque was playing for the Univ of BC in 2003 at the time, and a similar situation where Canucks were at home, but the Manitoba Moose were on the east coast. Dan Cloutier was injured, Johan Hedberg was to start, but there was no backup. Levesque shows up, sits on the bench for 60 mins, and gets to tell his grandchildren a great story.

In Levesque's case, he couldn't accept payment and still be eligible at UBC. Pechursky would be able to accept payment, but I guess all try-out deals are structured the same way.

One great point of the game, about 7 mins left, Darcy Hordichuk runs over Pechursky. Eric Godard ragdolls Hordichuk off Pechursky and just unloads to the back of Hordichuks head while he's done on the ice. Yeah, he got tossed, PP for Vancouver (game long since decided). But Godard won over a bunch of guys in that locker room and in Pittsburgh in general. If he'll do that for a guy who chances are he'll never play another shift with, he'll sure as hell protect Crosby/Malkin.

I think Godard just wanted to punch somebody. He shoved Hordichuk into Pechersky. Still, I 100% agree with your last sentence.

This

In the example above, the Levesque guy was undrafted and playing in college, free to sign with any team.

Also of note, he was playing for the same team (Magnitogorsk) in Russia than Malkin played for, prior to coming to NA to play.

Makes me wonder why Fedotenko translated and not Malkin....lazy Russian. :D

Absurd shootout goal from Dats today:

That and the Bertuzzi effort on the third shot were tremendous plays. While I'm no fan of the Wings, it's unfortunate those two efforts were spoiled in the SO loss.

Tonight is an example of why the league still has a long way to go.

Kobe vs LeBron is on ESPN tonight.

Crosby vs Ovechkin is on...well, for me, FSN Pittsburgh, and I think maybe NHL Network nationally.

Can't wait though. Malkin with the HT vs the Isles the other night (hopefully his slump buster) and Sid with a ridiculous 6 point game.

Sabres come off a wild game against the Ducks by playing the Kings tonight and continue its west coast swing.

After scoring once over the prior 10 periods, the Rangers have scored 14 goals over the next 5.

Fixed ;)

It was fun seeing Hartnell make VERY quick work of Avery. :D

Haha. At least I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Big shootout win for the Wings tonight. So glad we picked up Drew Miller off waivers. He is earning himself a contract with the team, I hope Kenny pulls the trigger on it.

Since you can't have Ryan, you could at least have his brother. :)


BTW, the Kings announcers suck. Talk about boring.

Fuck LA Kings GM Dean Lombardi. He comes out with this direct assault on Michigan coach Red Berenson (Keep in mind Lombardi is from Boston):


Well, Jack Johnson fired back today:


Lombardi is a fucking mockery.

Does this mean that Johnson is on his way out of LA? I don't see how you can say this shit about a guy and keep him on your team.

I would also expect Berenson to not say a word, as is his style. Let Lombardi look like the asshat that he is....

I saw this last night. Tortorella makes me laugh. And Larry Brooks is really a homely man.

I love the look Brooks shoots some other reporter who laughs at him.

Redden getting in that fight was probably the first and last time he's ever been cheered in the Garden.

This.

Well this is surprising. Without checking can you guess who number four is?