Hockeytalk with Barry Melrose

A few questions with the ESPN analyst/mullet man with some news and views thereafter. Because some people need their hockey fix.


SprungOnSports -Is Ottawa the clear favorite in the East right now?
Barry Melrose- I'd say so. Pitsburgh has started slow, I like Carolina, but others don't look good. I don't think anyone can argue that they're not.
-No argument here. The Penguins and Rangers need to get back in gear, but the 'Canes look good in a seemingly mediocre Southeast.


SprungOnSports-Can Paul Stastny become the next great Avalanche superstar?
Barry Melrose-He's pretty good--comes from a hockey family, obviously has an immense talent and great work ethic. The Avalanche have some great young players along with him. Their future is very bright.
-He's only 21 and leads Colorado in points with 13. The Joe Sakic age is quickly turning into the era of Stastny and Ryan Smyth to go along with vets like Sakic, Brunette, and Hejduk. The present and future are bright for the Avs.


SprungOnSports-What will the Senators do with Ray Emery?
Barry Melrose-Same situation as the Ducks--you're never in a hurry to get rid of a good goaltender. It gives Emery more chances to get ready to play and a chance to get hungry to play. They can afford to pay him and not hurt the cap. They're very happy with that situation right now.
-Martin Gerber is having a huge start to the season along with the entire team, and you never know when a Goalie will be on the fritz, and then they'll have Emery to take his place. Two capable goaltenders are always better than one.

The Rangers need to get back on track, and will try to do so against an 0-6 Thrashers team that just fired their head coach Bob Hartley. Saturday on CBC, Chicago takes on Toronto, followed by Edmonton and Calgary. The Flames could possibly deal Alex Tanguay to Montreal for a package of people or possibly Alexei Kovalev, according to the Calgary Sun. Boston battles Montreal Monday on Versus, the Rangers battle the Penguins Tuesday on the same station, while Colorado takes on Edmonton Tuesday on TSN. The next night on TSN, Detroit takes on Vancouver.

Hockeytalk Thursday

I'm probably a bit rusty when it comes to hockey. But let's talk about the quick start the Islanders are having. They usually start well, but maybe their preseason fight against the Rangers sparked them. Their showing good chemistry with Comrie, Guerin, Satan, and Fedotenko, and DiPietro is playing well. Barry Melrose said that it would be an accomplishment if the Isles could reach the playoffs, but they look good so far as do the Flyers early on led by Paul Holmgren. One of their enforcers Jesse Boulerice will likely be suspended after crosschecking Vancouver's Ryan Kesler in the head. The Canuck Center believes that the Philly tough guy should be suspended 20 games. The Rangers have that elite talent every team looks for, but it'll take them a while to build chemistry and get hot, especially Scott Gomez. They're going to be dangerous once their power play gets to work. Ottawa's off to a sensational start, and they've sent Ray Emery on a 2 game AHL conditioning stint. The Sens and Penguins will open up next season in Prague. Interesting. Washington is off to an especially fast start, led by Ovechkin and some sick sweaters. Atlanta is a surprising 0-4. Columbus is one of those teams I see as a dark horse for a playoff spot. They're getting Michael Peca back, and they've just gotten 2 consecutive shutouts by young goaltender Pascal Leclair. The kid looks like the good, he's already on my salary cap team. Since longtime Blackhawks owner William Wirtz passed away, his son Rocky has taken over the team and has now reassigned longtime senior vice president Bob Pulford. Minnesota looks legit, San Jose look like Cup contenders, and the Ducks are once again among the West's upper echelon.

NHL Viewers Guide
Friday- No national TV, but the Rangers host Washington on MSG, and Boston is at Los Angeles on NESN.
Saturday- CBC twinbill has Crosby and the Pens against the hot Leafs at 7 followed by Edmonton and Vancouver at 10.
Sunday- Minnesota and Anaheim is a great game if you could get it.
Monday- Toronto plays at Buffalo at 7 on Versus.
Tuesday- Surprising Philadelphia hosts Atlanta at 7 on Versus, Montreal hosts Florida at 7:30 on TSN.
Wednesday- Nice Atlantic battle on TSN as the Devils play the Penguins at 7:30.

Hockeytalk with EJ Hradek

The real posts will begin soon with all the news, notes, and analysis, but here are two questions I asked ESPN The Magazine's Hradek about some of the big stories, exclusively on SOS2.

SprungOnSports: How serious is the talk of expansion?
EJ Hradek: I think they're very serious. As I reported last February, the league is considering expanding to 32 teams. That would mean adding 2 and that Las Vegas is a likely spot for one of the new franchises. It's not a done deal by any stretch, but it is something the league is seriously considering. And TV mogul Jerry Bruckheimer is very interested in being involved with a new team in Las Vegas. I think it would be great to have someone with Bruckheimer's background and real passion for hockey involved on an ownership level.

SprungOnSports: What's your take on the Ranger-Islander game last night? Will this provide a spark for the Isles to start the season off well?
EJ Hradek: Well, I think sometimes those things are overrated. I think that in some ways that's short term. The season is long. With that said, I'm sure the Islanders felt good about the fact that teammates stuck up for one another and were working together. From that standpoint, it doesn't hurt.

Hockeytalk Tuesday

Lots of news and rumors on a Tuesday in mid July.

News and Notes
Thursday
- Phoenix signed Peter Mueller, their first round pick in 2006 and resigned D Brendan Bell.
- Edmonton finally got a big time free agent, locking up all star D Sheldon Souray to a 5 year deal worth 27 million. This is the player that the Oilers needed to shore up their blue line and make another push towards the postseason.
- Dallas resigned Mike Ribiero and Joel Lundqvist.
- Pittsburgh resigned RW Colby Armstrong to a 2 year contract.
Friday
- The Coyotes re-signed right wing Bill Thomas and goaltender David LeNeveu to one year contracts Friday and signed free agent left wing Tomas Survoy to a 1 year deal.
- Ottawa inked free agent Niko Dimitrakos to a 1 year contract, and resigned Lawrence Nykolat to a multiyear pact.
- New Jersey has hired Brent Sutter as coach.
- Atlanta signed free agent C Alexandre Giroux to a multiyear pact.
- The Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, and Switzerland ratified a four-year transfer agreement between the International Ice Hockey Federation member associations and the NHL. As with the last four-year agreement, Russia refused to sign.
Monday
- Nashville resigned Darcy Hordichuk and D Kevin Klein to 1 year deals, and signed D Greg Zanon to a 2 year contract.
- Pittsburgh extended the contract of head coach Michel Therrien for 1 year until the 2008/2009 season.
- San Jose resigned Rob Davison to a 1 year deal.
- The Islanders resigned D Chris Campoli to a 3 year deal worth 1.9 million dollars.

Rumors
- Colorado would be wise to sign Peter Forsberg. (Denver Post)
- Henrik Zetterberg said that he wants to spend his entire career with Detroit, and the two sides will work on an extension next summer. (Detroit Free Press)
- Michael Roszival's value is rising, and will likely command a large free agent deal next summer. (NY Post)
- Tampa Bay is talking with D Jassen Cullimore. (St Petersburg Times)
- The Blue Jackets see no need to make a move for a goalie. (Columbus Dispatch)
- Vancouver may move G Cory Schneider. (Boston Globe)
- It appears unlikely that Carolina will deal for Matt Cullen. (Raleigh News & Observer)

N.H.L. Saturday Special

All the free agent signings since Tuesday followed by an article by SOS Hockey analyst Adam Davis.
Free Agent Frenzy Update
7/3 - The Kings got a solid D in Brad Stuart, who signed a 1 year deal worth 3.5 million. - Vancouver made some moves, resigning D Lukas Krajicek (2/2.2) and inking forwards Byron Ritchie and Brad Isbister and backup G Curtis Sanford. - The Devils signed F Danius Zubrus and D Karel Rachunek as they try to recover by being pillaged so far in the FA season. - Minnesota resigned Wes Walz for a year and came to terms with Eric Belanger. - Edmonton signed goalie Matthieu Garon to a 2 year deal. - Anaheim resigned Brad May (2/1.2)
7/4 Buffalo resigned Teppo Numminen (1/2.6), Edmonton resigned Matt Greene for 2 years, and Atlanta resigned Slava Kozlov to a 3 year 11 million dollar deal. The Islanders signed free agent F Ruslan Fedotenko for a year at 2.9 mill, and Montreal signed F Tom Kostopolous (2/1.8)
7/5 - Buffalo signed G Jocelyn Thibault, and resigned Andrew Peters and Michael Ryan. - Nashville signed minor leaguers Dan Ellis and Shane Willis to contracts. - The Islanders signed F Bill Guerin (2/9) and F Mike Comrie to a 1 year deal. - Anaheim signed D Shane Hnidy to a 2 year deal worth 1.5 million. - Washington signed Kyle Pollock and Jame Wilson to contracts. - Montreal signed D Jaime Rivers to a 1 year deal. - New Jersey signed G Kevin Weekes. - Pittsburgh resigned Maxime Talbot and Erik Christensen. - Columbus signed Jan Hejda to a 1 year contract. - Calgary signed D Anders Eriksson to a 2 year deal. - The Rangers resigned Petr Prucha. (2/3.2) - Detroit resigned Jiri Hudler to a 2 year contract. More Updates On Tuesday

Adam Davis
So who’s your favourite team? You sure? Absolutely positive? You might want to rethink that choice, especially after yesterday’s wild first day of free agency. Why, you ask? Because the team you just chose might now have completely different players. Since free-agency opened just over 50 hours ago, 43 of the 50 signed players have already found themselves newly interested in their agents. Real Estate agents that is. The real magic of the opening days of free-agency season is seeing teams attempt to the impossible by reversing a dismal finish the previous season into a playoff-savvy team looking forward to the coming one. What’s even wilder is how the rich get richer, and big name teams have signed some big name players and just added to the amount of firepower in their rosters. Unfortunately for some clubs, such as the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings, the free-agency pool changed their playoff calibre rosters into buyers at this time next year. Teams that were off the radar merely 3 seasons ago are finally starting to pull together a formidable bunch of players to put on the ice. With the signings of Sydor and Sykora, the Pens are finally giving their young players some time to breathe with new depth on the bench. Washington has just added some help for their superstar Ovechkin by picking up two young and skilled players in Poti and Kozlov. Oh, and is this not fair or is it just me? How in the world did the Ducks pick up Bertuzzi? Seriously, how does that happen? Why didn’t the GMs just pool together some money so the Ducks couldn’t get any better?? People, they just don’t need any more help. Over in the East, the Flyers are trying to do something with their Triple-A level team and picked up some key players by signing Briere and trading for Lupul and Jason Smith from Edmonton. I think this will pan out very well for the Flyers who are moving from their pan and power style of play to fit in with the new NHL by acquiring youth and speed. An interesting fact of the opening days of free-agency is that no goaltenders were signed. A couple goalies have been dealt in the last weeks in trades, but no immediate signings. This could mean teams are looking for the offensive firepower while trying to keep their last line of defense intact. Thanks for stopping in on Hockey Talk, I’ll make sure to keep you posted as the free-agent market really starts to open up as teams try to get those key players all within their salary caps. After two days the team on top has got to be Anaheim – All-star acquisition without losing their All-stars. Good job.