The OFFICIAL 2009-10 NHL Regular Season Thread

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

WolfDawgs... er, Coyotes please

Phoenix overall ranking is 6th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. Oliver Ekman-Larsson D (3)
2. Kyle Turris C (12)
3. Mikkel Boedker RW (14)
4. Max Goncharov D (44)
5. Kevin Porter RW
6. Brett Maclean LW
7. Viktor Tikhonov LW
8. Chris Summers D
9. David Schlemko D
10. Mike Stone D

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

Springfield Oilers, please and thank you.

Oilers overall ranking is 12th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. Jordan Eberle C (6)
2. M. Paajarvi-Svensson LW (11)
3. Jeff Petry D (56)
4. Taylor Chorney D
5. Anton Lander C
6. Teemu Hartikainen C
7. Alex Plante D
8. Riley Nash C
9. Linus Omark LW
10. Johan Motin D

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Chubby

sabres please

Sabers team ranking is 15th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. Tyler Ennis C (29)
2. Zack Kassian RW (53)
3. Jhonas Enroth G
4. Nathan Gerbe RW
5. Brayden McNabb D
6. Luke Adam LW
7. M-A Gragnani D
8. Mike Weber D
9. Dennis Persson D
10. Drew Schiestel

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Caps, please.

Caps team ranking is 13th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. John Carlson D (5)
2. Karl Alzner D (18)
3. Michal Neuvirth G (30)
4. Marcus Johansson C (60)
5. Mathieu Perreault RW
6. Braden Holtby G
7. Stefan Della Rovere LW
8. Dmitri Orlov D
9. Anton Gustafsson C
10. Oskar Osala LW

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Chicago, please

SI

Chicago's overall team ranking is 4th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. Jack Skille RW (47)
2. Corey Crawford G
3. Kyle Beach LW
4. Bryan Bickell LW
5. Akim Aliu RW
6. Marcus Kruger C
7. Dylan Olsen D
8. Shawn Lalonde D
9. Bill Sweatt LW
10. Brandon Pirri C

[Dr. Sak]

One note on the team ranking...it is a ranking of prospects 21 and younger. So there is some weight to NHLers in there.

[sterlingice]

Thanks kindly

SI

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

One note on the team ranking...it is a ranking of prospects 21 and younger. So there is some weight to NHLers in there.

Thanks for the clarification. The Chicago one had me confused. A 47th ranked guy and they were 4 overall, but NHLers being included helps explain it.

[johnnyshaka]

Thanks!

[bronconick]

Sharks, please, if you're still posting them.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Sharks, please, if you're still posting them.

San Jose's overall team ranking is 27th

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

1. Logan Couture C (36)
2. Nick Petrecki D
3. Derek Joslin D
4. Steven Zalewski LW
5. Patrik Zackrisson LW
6. Tyson Sexsmith G
7. William Wrenn D
8. Taylor Doherty D
9. Julien Demers D
10. Samuel Groulx D

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

Overall rankings are in parentheses:

NYR Team Ranking 5th

1. Derek Stepan C (16)
2. Evgeny Grachev LW (21)
3. Chris Kreider C (22)
4. Ryan McDonagh D (67)
5. Bobby Sanguinetti D
6. Chad Johnson G
7. Ethan Werek C
8. Scott Stajcer G
9. Mike Sauer D
10. Ryan Bourque C

Thanks Sak. No clue who that #1 kid is.

[Dr. Sak]

Derek Stepan C, 19 Wisconsin (WCHA)
6-0 172 lbs
24 GP 6 G 23 A 29 Pts

Stepan, who grew up in Hastings, Minn, and attended Shattuck -St. Mary's, punctuated his rise to the top spot with an outstanding performance as Captain of the US team that defeated Canada in the World Juniors.

He led all players with 14 points, including 4 goals in 7 games. Scouts describe him as a playmaker in the mold of Craig Janney and Adam Oates.

"I don't know if I'd put him in that category, but they can make a play at any time to win a game and that's what he showed," said director of player personnel Gordie Clark.

Acquired: 2008 draft 51st overall

[JonInMiddleGA]

48-year-old defenseman Chris Chelios called up by Atlanta Thrashers - ESPN

Chris Chelios is headed back to the show.

The 48-year-old defenseman has been called up by the Atlanta Thrashers, general manager Don Waddell told ESPN.com Wednesday.

Chelios had 22 points (5 goals, 17 assists) in 46 games with the AHL's Chicago Wolves this season. He signed an NHL deal with the Thrashers on March 2. The Wolves are Atlanta's primary AHL affiliate.

The Chicago native last played in the NHL last May 27 with the Detroit Red Wings against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference finals.

[sterlingice]

...

SI

[Maple Leafs]

Did the Leafs make the Top 30?

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Did the Leafs make the Top 30?

18th

[Dr. Sak]

No suspension for Cooke.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

No suspension for Cooke.

Ridiculous.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Did the Leafs make the Top 30?

LOL

[Suburban Rhythm]

Now I know was Sak does at work all day

I probably post this same rant every year, but I still don't understand the rankings alot of the time. Seems like either a guy in the most recent draft is the flavor of the month. Or the old standbys. A guy drafted in 2008 who is playing another year in junior (rather than in the NHL as an 18/19 year old) is downgraded. but then you have-

Exhibit A: Jack Skille. 5th straight year in the top 50, maybe top 30 a handful of those. This isn't to say he won't still turn into a good player, but even as soon as 3 seasons ago, the Hawks were not a stacked team, and they couldn't find a spot for him.

Exhibit B: Kyle Turris. 12th overall, really? His draft year he was 3...and after being awful in the NHL and mediocre in the AHL...he's 12th?

That said, there are alot I agree with: Jacob Markstrom in Florida has raised his status every year, up to 2nd. Or a guy like Sbisa being 9, who keeps proving he should be in the NHL.

[chadritt]

Thrashers please

[Galaxy]

3-3 after one in the Stars-Sabres game. Pretty fun to watch (Miller is having a off-night).

[TurnerONU22]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

48-year-old defenseman Chris Chelios called up by Atlanta Thrashers - ESPN

Chris Chelios is headed back to the show.

The 48-year-old defenseman has been called up by the Atlanta Thrashers, general manager Don Waddell told ESPN.com Wednesday.

Chelios had 22 points (5 goals, 17 assists) in 46 games with the AHL's Chicago Wolves this season. He signed an NHL deal with the Thrashers on March 2. The Wolves are Atlanta's primary AHL affiliate.

The Chicago native last played in the NHL last May 27 with the Detroit Red Wings against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference finals.

I'll get to see his first game back tomorrow night.

Hopefully they inform him not to wear his Confederacy uniform tomorrow night against the Blue Jackets.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Thrashers please

Overall ranking 9th

1) Patrice Cormier (34)
2) Jeremy Morin (49)
3) Carl Klingberg
4) Paul Postma
5) Arturs Kulda
6) Daulton Leveille
7) Angelo Esposito
8) Spencer Machacek
9) Alex Kangas
10) Eric O'Dell

Poor Esposito...remember in 2005 when he was the next Crosby?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

18th

Cool. Rebuild mission complete. Time to start trading draft picks.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Cool. Rebuild mission complete. Time to start trading draft picks.

Done!!

[Galaxy]

5-3 win! Myers had a 4-point night (1 goal, 3 assists). He is just exciting to watch. Love how the team finally picked up for Miller, who was not on his best tonight. Something they need to do on a regular basis.

[Wolfpack]

Canes give a good accounting against Caps in DC, losing in OT, 4-3. Caps threatened to run away and hide early with the first two goals of the game, but Carolina settled down and generally played with or outplayed Washington the rest of the way. Only got a point, though, so still eight out and continuing to cling to the slimmest of hopes. Losing those games in Edmonton, Calgary, and Florida are probably what's going to ultimately finish them off, though. Just dug far too deep a hole in the first two months of the year.

Pens in Raleigh to finish a really brutal back-to-back set tomorrow night. Wonder if attendance will be up or down tomorrow since State and UNC will be in the late session games tomorrow night in Greensboro, but both teams suck royal this year and are expected to be eliminated quickly.

[Galaxy]

Hey Sabres, do you think you could actually give a shit about tonight's game?

[Fidatelo]

I love watching Ovechkin play, and he's a great character, but its time for him to dial it back a notch. He's gotten out of hand with the dirty hits this season.

[Arles]

Sounds like there's a decent chance the Coyotes could stay in Phoenix. Their attendance has increased from about 9K a game earlier in the season to almost 12K because of their recent success. This has made a long term purchase a little more realistic:

Ice Edge CEO optimistic deal for Coyotes can be reached

The CEO of Ice Edge Holdings, emphasizing that financing is not a problem, is optimistic that the purchase of the Coyotes
can be finalized by the close of the NHL season.

Anthony LeBlanc said the "whole deal" is contingent on renegotiating a new lease with the city of Glendale.

"We indicated it was going to take us three to six months, and best case, we have this closed before the playoffs start," he said. "We certainly expect that this will be closed by the time that the Stanley Cup is awarded this year. That's our plan, but it will require the city and us working together to get the lease ratified."

The process took on a new urgency for Coyotes fans in the past few days when gloom-and-doom reports surfaced in the Canadian media. An article in the Toronto Globe & Mail riled fans and prompted LeBlanc to post a letter of reassurance on a Web site.

LeBlanc said most of the time he and his colleagues just laugh off stories such as those - "Here we go again," he said.

"But this kind of rubbed people the wrong way. Especially with everything that's going so well right now, team playing so great, getting ready for playoffs for first time (since 2002), we just felt the fans needed to hear something from us that it wasn't true.

"First off, nothing has changed. It's only been three months since the LOI (letter of intent) has been signed, and at that time we said to people it's going to take us, best case, three months."

LeBlanc said when municipalities build arenas, they expect long-term leases, which he said was fair. He added IEH, which "went into this with our eyes open" wants to renegotiate the lease to make it more attractive to the team and that it can be a "win-win" situation.

"However, the thing that's important for people to understand is, we never walked into this thing looking for handouts. We've never looked for subsidies," he said.

LeBlanc said two developments last week thrust the Coyotes' saga back onto the front burner: the NHL's lawsuit against former owner Jerry Moyes and the general manager meetings.

LeBlanc also took issue with a statement from deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly.

"He made a comment we don't agree with," he said. "He said something about our financing. The problem isn't our financing - let me rephrase that, there are no problems - the thing that has taken longer than expected is finalizing the lease."

Saying that the sides are very close in settling the issue, LeBlanc noted that there has been an agreement on the items "in principle," but several steps need to follow, starting with putting it into a document.

"The city's lawyers have to bless it, our lawyers have to bless it, and then most importantly, the City Council has to ratify," he said. "So you could technically say, 'Well, your financing is not in place,' because our financing is contingent on the lease … so technically I guess that's a fair point, well, no, it's not a fair point; technically, it's correct, but in theory it isn't.

"I think my colleague (COO) Daryl Jones, said … 'Look, I've got a raft of term sheets sitting on my desk from a variety of banks. Banks like fees, we like hockey, but we can't do a bad deal.' "

[samifan24]

I wish the NHL would just admit hockey in the desert was a mistake and move the team back to Winnipeg or a real hockey market.

[chadritt]

Are you implying that the Jets were making a ton of money and got moved anyway? Winnipeg had problems too you know.

[Pumpy Tudors]

OH SHIT IT'S ON NOW

[chadritt]

not starting shit, just annoyed that when a non-traditional team has money troubles its a "failed experiment" but when Winnipeg has money troubles nobody says the same.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by chadritt

not starting shit, just annoyed that when a non-traditional team has money troubles its a "failed experiment" but when Winnipeg has money troubles nobody says the same.

I think the beef would be that Winnipeg is in fact a hockey market that simply doesn't have the corporate backing that the "new" NHL wanted in place. Phoenix has all the money but nobody gives two shits about hockey so they aren't spending their money to support the NHL.

What's worse?

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

I think the beef would be that Winnipeg is in fact a hockey market that simply doesn't have the corporate backing that the "new" NHL wanted in place. Phoenix has all the money but nobody gives two shits about hockey so they aren't spending their money to support the NHL.

What's worse?

Neither is good by any means but I tend to think that at least in a place like Phoenix profit is possible, they just need multiple successful years first. Id love to see a place like Winnipeg have a team if it were realistic but im not convinced it is.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

I think the beef would be that Winnipeg is in fact a hockey market that simply doesn't have the corporate backing that the "new" NHL wanted in place. Phoenix has all the money but nobody gives two shits about hockey so they aren't spending their money to support the NHL.

What's worse?

Yes, this was basically my point. Of course I'm jaded because Peter Karmanos ripped my team out and moved them to North Carolina.

[Honolulu_Blue]

DirecTV and Versus have finally reached an agreement.

VERSUS will be returning to the same DirecTV programming packages it was at the end of August 2009.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

DirecTV and Versus have finally reached an agreement.

VERSUS will be returning to the same DirecTV programming packages it was at the end of August 2009.

And 12 people celebrate

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

I think the beef would be that Winnipeg is in fact a hockey market that simply doesn't have the corporate backing that the "new" NHL wanted in place. Phoenix has all the money but nobody gives two shits about hockey so they aren't spending their money to support the NHL.

What's worse?

Another problem with Winnipeg, beyond the lack of major corporations, is the inherent problem that Winnipeggers are really, really cheap. It's a blue-collar, 'whole-sale' city and that's where it comes into direct conflict with the current-day NHL. Do we love hockey? Sure. But only to a point, or I suppose a price-point, and the million-dollar question is what that price-point is. The city has changed a bit in the last 15 years, it is loosening up a little, but I'm not sure if it's enough.

I have no doubts that if we were to get a team, it would sell out every game for the first 2-3 years, even at very high prices. But then, if the team on the ice were to be mediocre like the Jets/Coyotes have always been, I wonder what would happen. How much would Winnipeggers be willing to spend to head downtown on a random night in January when it's 40 below outside once the sheen has worn off the building and the team?

[Arles]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Neither is good by any means but I tend to think that at least in a place like Phoenix profit is possible, they just need multiple successful years first. Id love to see a place like Winnipeg have a team if it were realistic but im not convinced it is.

There are only a handful of markets in the NHL that could have handled a team not making the playoffs from 2002 until 2009 and stay profitable. The Coyotes drew very well when they made their playoff runs in 1998-2001, but then they stunk for 7-8 seasons. Just look at this season, their attendance has increased by almost 50% since October because they started to win. In October, they were averaging around 9,000 (against major market teams like Boston and LA). For last Wednesday's game against Vancouver, they had 16,000 fans (nearly a sellout). Heck, the team was brutal last season and still averaged over 14,000 a home game.

The problem in Phoenix hasn't been the market, it's been the quality of the team. If they put a decent product on the ice and get the ownership issue straightened out, they could easily average 16,000-17,000 a night (which would put them about mid-league in attendance). As an FYI, the Jets had maxed out at around 12-13K in their best days.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Neither is good by any means but I tend to think that at least in a place like Phoenix profit is possible, they just need multiple successful years first. Id love to see a place like Winnipeg have a team if it were realistic but im not convinced it is.

That's fair but how realistic is it to think that, a) they will have multiple successful years, and b) if it will matter one iota?

They have a great team and are in last in attendance again this season...how many seasons do they need to be successful on the ice before they become successful financially?

Not saying that Winnipeg or Quebec City is the answer but Phoenix has already proven time and time again that they don't care about the NHL so why continue to try and fix something that can't be fixed?

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Arles

As an FYI, the Jets had maxed out at around 12-13K in their best days.

Which was the capacity of the arena. There is a new arena, but sadly it didn't add a lot of seats. Maybe another thousand or so.

[Arles]

Yeah, the Glendale Arena in Phoenix is very nice (went to two games over the past few weeks and going again next Saturday). It seats 18,000 people for NHL games and has 100 luxury suites and nearly 500 club suites. I can't imagine a spot in Winnipeg offering the revenue that the Phoenix Arena offers (esp given the sweetheart lease the team is working on getting as well).

[chadritt]

Where can I find average attendance? Theres things ive heard about various teams that Id actually like solid info on. For instance Ive heard that the devils have AWFUL attendance for a good team but i dont know actual numbers or how they compare.

Edit: N/m, found 2009 data. im curious to see 2010 for phoenix though because they have picked up lately.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Which was the capacity of the arena. There is a new arena, but sadly it didn't add a lot of seats. Maybe another thousand or so.

The old barn held 15k+.

Edit: Which made it larger than the new arena, btw.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Which was the capacity of the arena. There is a new arena, but sadly it didn't add a lot of seats. Maybe another thousand or so.

Thought I saw somewhere that capacity was around 15,000...or maybe that was for playoffs and were able to add additional standing room/temporary seats.

What Fidatelo said makes a lot of sense and I would think Edmonton resembles Winnipeg only on a slightly larger scale. We're a very blue collar city where we love our hockey but I'll be very honest, I think I've only paid for hockey tickets once while I've lived here (10 years) and that was for a special occasion as I had friends from out of town and wanted to take them out for the night. If I go to a game it's usually when a buddy calls who has an extra ticket (corporate season ticket holders) and even then, the last couple of seasons I haven't really been all that excited to go because what Fid said...walking from your car in -40 for overpriced beer and bad hockey just isn't my idea of fun these days especially now that I don't get nearly as many nights out with two kids!!

Five years ago (before kids), I said yes every time somebody called to ask me to go to a game...now, the stars need to be aligned and the weather needs to be decent and the visiting better have a superstar or two on it...otherwise I'm content to hangout at home and maybe watch it on TV...maybe not.

Now, if we were winning...well, it happens, I'll let you know if anything changes.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Where can I find average attendance? Theres things ive heard about various teams that Id actually like solid info on. For instance Ive heard that the devils have AWFUL attendance for a good team but i dont know actual numbers or how they compare.

In defense of the Jets, comparing average attendance figures from their time in Winnipeg to those of teams 'nowadays' is unfair, because teams have learned how to inflate those numbers a large degree in the last 10-15 years. Those 12-13k that the Jets averaged were always actually people in the seats, whereas now you can have attendance figures showing 14k when everyone knows there are no more than 10k in the building.