Clowe has re-signed, and Vlasic is in talks, but the stories and topics of the week come from the loyal listeners. Defense, offense, hypothetical, and finally, trivia questions are posed and answered.

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New episode here.  We did have some business to attend to in the Clowe signing and the Vlasic extension report, but the rest of the show was taken up with the trivial (trivia questions) and non-trivial (listener emails).

I just discovered this blog, and not to put too fine a point on it, it’s fantastic.  The good news is it gives amazing insight to the inner workings of an NHL team’s hockey management philosophy and strategy, including posts by the actual GM, assistant GM, and director of hockey ops.  The bad news is it’s about the Minnesota Wild.

I just read a book called Money Players that talks about this sort of thing, mostly a historical perspective on the players union, and the various CBAs that have been around.  It doesn’t really cover the new deal much because it was written during the lockout.  And actually, it’s not at all complimentary to Doug Risebrough, the current GM (and blogger) of the Wild.  According to the book, he made some pretty bad decisions back when he was GM of the Flames.

For whatever reason, I’m fascinated by this “game beyond the game”.  With the new CBA to navigate, changing U.S. to Canadian dollar exchange rates, rule changes, crazy UFA periods, it’s a whole science and art in itself.  It’s not easy identify good players (both good now and those that will be good in the future), choose what to pay them, and fit them under the salary cap, all while meeting any other goals ownership has set.  Plus you have constant scrutiny of your moves by fans, journalists, and oh yeah, you’re directly competing against 29 other guys who are trying to eat your lunch.  It’s like trying to do a puzzle where you don’t know the picture, the size of the final image, and the individual pieces are always changing size and shape.  Sometimes you have to get out the hammer to pound some pieces together, and sometimes they fit together like Legos.

So let me lead the call- we need Doug Wilson, Wayne Thomas, and Greg Jamison to start a blog.  Great job, Minnesota Wild.  Good luck not having Rolston and Demitra.