Flames 08 Sep : 17:26
Flames looking to package some d-man/Wingers/Prospects for a Superstar winger(Not aging overpriced player). hit me up if we can work a deal out !
The NAIHL Annual Awards voting wrapped up today, with the league office declaring the members polling system used this year for the first time to be a success. The league is expected to announce the final results and financial awards later this week.
"We had excellent participation levels with all of the awards voting," NAIHL spokesman Barry Melrose said. "There was a lot of interest in the awards this year, and I think GMs liked the way that the voting process unfolded."
The league decided to try using the polling system this season, after inconsistent participation levels in previous years.
"We want GMs coming to the website to do as much of their business as possible, and the e-mail method of voting that we had used in the past just didn't seem to be generating the buzz that we wanted," said Melrose.
Voting in most of the awards was close said Melrose, including two of them coming down to a coin flip.
The Dallas Stars were impacted by the salary cap and had some major decisions to make.
An internal management analysis determined that one of three courses needed to be followed to get back under the cap and maintain a competitive roster. The options were to either trade Sergei Gonchar with a $6.9m contract, Jarome Iginla at $7.9m, or a combination of Jarret Stoll, Alexei Ponikarovsky, and Tomas Kaberle for a total of $6.0m.
The last option was quickly discounted as it left many holes and did not provide for long term cap management relief. Next discussions were held with several teams about PA 85, SC 73 DF 73 d-man Sergei Gonchar, but a combination of his age and contract status resulted in offers that greatly discounted his value.
That left trading their marketable Captain Jarome Iginla as the best option to get both cap relief and fair value back in a trade. That decision was difficult, as Iginla helped bring the NAIHL cup to Calgary when Star’s management ran the Flames franchise.
It also meant breaking up the Team Canada line of Crosby centering Iginla and Staal. In the end, the Stars traded Iginla, along with veteran D-man Robert Scuderi for winger Troy Brouwer, D-man Alex Goligoski, a 2010 #3 and a 2011 #4.
In all, $8.6m came off of the payroll and $900k added in for a net reduction of $7.7m. The Stars like Brouwer for his combination of CK 86, SC 72, and DF 74. At the age of 24 he is just starting to come on strong and with the NHL Blackhawks having their own cap issues, he should see even more quality top 6 and pp ice time in the future.
Goligoski is a player that Stars management is familiar with as they originally drafted him in the NAIHL. He is a young puck moving defenseman who should be the pp QB for the NHL Penguins.
The Stars then traded the 2011 pick along with a #6 pick in 2010 to get back to back picks in round #3. As the Stars did not have any picks in the first two rounds, they were pleased to grab Blake Geoffrion and Brandon McMillan. Both forwards like to hit, should see quality time in the AHL and Geoffrion has some upside with scoring and McMillan speed to burn.
Forwards
The Stars lost some punch on forward with the exit of Iginla, but putting the puck in the net should not be a problem. PA 86 SC 88 Sidney Crosby will center the top line, while PA 91 SC 73 Brad Richards will center a second scoring line. CK 86 DF 75 Jarret Stoll and CK 81 DF 74 Sammy Pahlsson will handle the third and four checking lines.
The wingers on the top two lines expect to be juggled based on hot/cold streaks and match ups. When balance is preferred, PA 81 SC 79 Eric Staal and CK 89 SC 70 DF 76 Ryan Callahan will join Sidney Crosby. That leaves PA 81 SC 85 Marian Gaborik and CK 86 SC 72 DF 74 Troy Brouwer with Brad Richards. When an Uber line is desired, you will see both Staal and Gaborik joining Crosby on the uber line.
An interesting second line then becomes a mix of great passing (PA 91), but soft (CK 57) and so-so DF (66) Brad Richards centering two wingers that can hit, weak passing, but can score and play defense with Ryan Callahan CK 89, PA 64, SC 70, DF 76 and Troy Brouwer CK 86, PA 64, SC 72, DF 74. That combination will be given plenty of time in the pre-season to see if chemistry can develop.
Expect Alexei Ponikarovsky and Curtis Glencross to join Jarrett Stoll on line 3 and Brendan Morrison and Ryan Johnson with Pahlsson on line 4. Depth will not be an issue as Sjostrom, Ortmeyer, Laing, and Sim are all available as injury call ups. The Stars have also had early discussions with Nikolai Zherdev and expect to bring him back from the KHL next year.
Defense
In trading Iginla, but holding onto Gonchar the Stars will have one of the best and deepest defenses in the league. Ducan Keith at PA 87, SC 72, DF 82 is expected to have a Norris trophy type season and will anchor the top pairing along with stay at home CK 81 DF 78 Jan Hejda.
Gonchar will anchor the second line with his PA 85, SC 73, DF 73 and play with James Wisniewski at CK 80 PA 75 DF 75. The third line will see a battle between Mike Weaver, Braydon Coburn, and Alex Goligoski. That is 7 d-men and we have not even mentioned Tomas Kaberle yet.
The Stars remain high on Kaberle’s long term value and may just use him as a power play specialist this season and see how he rerates next year. However, with free agency status pending the Stars may be looking to trade either Mike Weaver or Tomas Kaberle sometime during the season.
Goaltending
The Stars have a roster that is built for title contention. Evgeni Nabokov (in likely his last NAIHL season) will look to lead the Stars deep into the playoffs. He will be more than adequately backed up by Jimmy Howard, while Kari Lehtonen tries to have a healthy season with the Stars AHL affiliate in Minnesota and rebound to challenge Howard for the starting position next year.
The NAIHL's annual Contract Assignment period opened today. GMs will have until August 14 to assign new contracts to any new players that may be on their rosters. Players eligible for new contracts include any players with a current contract of $1,111,111 for 1 year.
GMs must submit new contracts for these players to naihllines@gmail.com. GMs will determine the contract values based on where a player was drafted in the NHL draft, using accepted sources such as NHL.com or Faceoff.com.
For new players who have not been in the NAIHL before, the breakdown is as follows:
NHL Draft Round
Annual Salary Amount
1st Round
$850,000
2nd Round
$650,000
3rd Round or greater
$450,000
All other players (veterans) can be signed for the $450,000 league minimum. Maximum contract length is 4 years.
Players who do not have new contracts assigned by the deadline will have their salaries frozen at the current amount and length.
GMs are also reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that their rosters are not missing any players. GMs should check the Unassigned Players list, check player name spellings, etc. to ensure roster accuracy. This must also be completed by the August 14 deadline. After that date all players on the Unassigned Players list will be entered into the Supplemental Draft, and it will be too late to make any corrections of this type.
Details will be announced soon on the start of Free Agency!
In trying to build up a team that is lacking depth in all areas the Oilers pulled the trigger on a big deal with the Philadelphis Flyers.
The Oilers sent next years 1st round draft pick and their 2nd round pick in this years draft to the Flyers. In return the Oilers receive young scoring winger Matt Moulson, young forward Teddy Purcell, rookie defenseman Teemu Laakso, another rookie blueliner with much potential David Schlemko, and young goalie prospect Kieran Millan. They also receive this years Flyers 5th round pick & 3 million dollars cash!
"I really didn't want to give up our #1 pick next year. Last time I did that I got a great young player but the team we traded the pick to that year won the draft lottery and ended up with the #1 overall pick! I still kick myself over that", Oilers G.M. Al Wright stated. "But our team is weak in several areas and this deal brings us depth with lots of potential. We're rebuilding, everyone knows it. And when the Flyers G.M. (Jeff Childs)kept making the deal sweeter & sweeter I reluctantly had to jump on it. I think we did ok in this deal."
The Oilers also acquired steady stand up veteran blueliner Brad Stuart in exchange for their 2011 3rd round pick. " Brad is a great, hard player who gives us all every night. Everyone knows I try to build with my defense first", Wright said. " I think he's a great acqusition and will help in the development of our young d men."
Look for the Oilers to be big players in the free agent market this year since they still need help in a lot of areas plus they have lots of cap space.
A day after the Predators made a blockbuster deal with the Flyers, GM Brad Wills kept the equipment manager of the Preds busy again.
"We have added two much needed components of a contending team today." That's the quote that GM Wills used to open today's press confrence. He went on to announce another huge deal today, this time with the Dallas Stars.
"GM Steve Schwartz and I got to discussing a deal just after lunch today, when Steve called asking if I had any interest in upgrading our right side. Of course we did and now we have done that. Today the Preds have dealt LW Troy Brouwer and Dman Alex Goligoski to the Dallas Stars for RW Jerome Iginla and Dman Rob Scuderi. There were also a couple of picks going back to Dallas."
In Iginla the Preds add yet another smash mouth forward to go with just acquired Jordan Staal. Scuderi brings veteran stability to the blue line.
It has been a whirllwind of activity over the past 24 hours but the Predators aren't done yet. "We filled a couple more needs today, we still have a need for a top line LW and some depth players with veteran experience." If the past 24 hours is any indication watch for GM Wills to not wait long before addressing the Predators needs.
