New episode here.  This time, in true middle-of-the-summer fashion, we steal someone else’s idea- Wyshynshi’s “5 Things I’d Change About the NHL”.  Oh yeah, and we make fun of the idea of bringing Jeff Friesen to camp.

No, no they don’t.  In the second part of a 4 part series, I’m breaking down the Kings in a post that’s one part information, five parts snark.  In an (infinitesimally small) way, I wish the Kings were better, because the S.F. – L.A. rivalry is a good one.  But like other rivalries that fell into disrepair since one or both teams now suck (like Niners-Rams), the Sharks-Kings bad blood doesn’t run as thick as it once did.  And now, I must say in true Nelson Muntz fashion- Ha ha!

The Kings are the very definition of a rebuilding team.  Stocked with young players with great potential, they still aren’t nearly ready for NHL prime time, and probably look to this season as a castor oil situation.  As in, “swallow hard, I’m sure we’ll be better next year.”  Actually, castor oil isn’t nearly the funniest analogy I could have made there.

The Good

Youth Youth Youth.  I’m willing to bet the Jonas Brothers will be the most popular locker room pregame music.  Kopitar, Frolov, Brown and O’Sullivan are all strong young players.  I’m trying to think of another good thing, but I can’t right now.  Oh wait, I think they are adding Ice Girls too.  That’s good, right?

The Bad

Where to start?  How about the coaching choice?  Terry Murray last had a head coaching job with the Panthers in 2000.  He did lead Florida to a playoff berth in 2000, and the Flyers before that to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997.  Neither of those rosters had any youth to speak of like these Kings do.  And his assistant coaching job the last few years was back with Philly, where coaching up a young hockey team is as foreign as cheering for Donovan McNabb.

Let’s continue with the blueline, where the top 5 D will probably be Denis Gauthier, Tom Preissing, Jack Johnson, Matt Greene and Peter Harrold, with the sixth likely being Drew Doughty, the #2 overall pick just two months ago.  That’s two very young guys, one second pairing guy (Preissing), and three third pairing guys.  Man, the Kings are really going to have to rely on a good goaltender.

The Ugly

No dice.  After starting everyone but Justin Timberlake in goal last year, the Kings could reprise that sorry tune this year.  Choosing between Ersberg, LaBarbera, and Bernier is like choosing between Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.  The choices are thin (bah BOOM).  And none of those three even have Vicodin connections.

Maybe that’s why Dean Lombardi is steering the ship like a drunken sailor.  After trading Vishnovsky and Cammalleri for below market value and letting veteran leadership like Blake just walk away without even a contract offer, I think the Kings are hoping the fan base will be too focused on Heroes this fall to care.

Here it is.  Took some emails, talked about what movement we might see in the east, and some more Sharks trivia.

Also, I’m on deck to do a Kings preview sometime this week, so stick around for that.  If you want us to talk about something specific on the show, or you have feedback, email us.

Since there’s just not that much to talk about and the subject of how the Sharks are going to get under the cap totally beaten to death, let’s start to take a look at the Pacific Division and the state of our competition, shall we?

The Phoenix Coyotes came on strong at the end of season in 2007-08 and were a better team than many expected, including myself. Don Maloney is building this team the right way, with a combination of youth and veterans, but sticking with the young guys in key roles instead of bringing in vets who are stop gaps and just stunt the growth of the team.

THE GOOD
This team is stocked full of young, exciting talent up front. Martin Hanzal, Brett MacLean, Peter Mueller and Kyle Turris all appear to be in a position to have an impact on this season with this years draft pick, Mikkel Bodker, potentially available to play in the NHL this season as well. This means all four of the Coytoes first round picks could be major contributors to the big club, which says a ton for how well they’ve drafted the past few years. Adding Jokinen was a major get and he should help this team take the next step and give Shane Doan the veteran support he needs, both on the ice and in the locker room.

Also good is their goaltender, Breezy. He can steal a win on any given night and was a true steal for Phoenix off waivers, and an excellent deal at 4.25M per season. He could have been the most prized goalie on the UFA market this offseason, probably getting 6M from either Chicago or Washington. Not sure it was a great move by Breezy’s camp to not wait it out, but it was a sure sign of loyalty that they believe in what Phoenix is doing.

Also good is the mountain of cap space Phoenix has both this season (13M) and going into next season with around 24M of room with only Derek Morris as their major UFA. So, it’s possible the Coyotes could be in prime position to add a big piece at the deadline and try and convince them to stay on for the ride….Marion Gaborik anyone?

THE BAD
Todd Fedoruk. Daniel Carcillo. Brian McGrattan. A trio that provided around 500 PIM’s last season, and that is with McGrattan and Carcillo not playing a full season respectively. Why the hell do you need all three of these guys? I think this could backfire big time for a team looking to take the next step – and the Coyotes could find themselves on the penalty kill more often than not. Talk about following the Ducks model…literally. Their old back up goalie, some talented young forwards and a couple of thugs. Didn’t Phoenix learn from last years playoffs that this model might be out of date and killing penalties all game is no way to win?

I’m also not sold on the Coyotes blue line. Jovo-Cop is not worth the 6.5M he gets at this point in his career and management didn’t do a great job of replacing Boynton and Ballard, instead it looks like they are rolling the dice with Avalanche cast off Kurt Sauer and Calgary reject, David Hale. This is a weak spot for the Coyotes for sure.

THE UGLY
Why would you give Todd Fedoruk a three year, 3.3M deal? Did they forget that this guy got waived last year by Dallas? I guess he was effective for the Wild, with over 100 PIM’s and 11 points, but usually a guy who performed so poorly to get waived in season isn’t worth a three year term. Could backfire for the Coyotes. I smell an offseason buyout….

What do you think about the new look Phoenix Coyotes? Tough to beat or gonna bust?

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.

As the lone holdout from last years roster waiting for a new contract, it appears Ryane Clowe’s deal could be announced in the next few days, as David Pollak’s blog hinted today. This is very good news, very good news indeed but it might be hard to speculate what the dollar amount and term will be of Clowe’s new deal. Before I had guessed that due to his injury last season, overall lack of NHL experience (only 91 regular season games and 44 points) and his recent brush with the San Jose Po-Po, Clowe might settle for a two years deal worth 3M total. But, the market has been bizarre for a player of Clowe’s stature in the RFA market.

Daniel Carcillo got 2 years, roughly 1.8M from Phoenix. He has only 75 NHL games under his belt and 31 career points. Patrick Eaves got 4.2M for three years with 168 games and 76 points. Steve Bernier got 2.5M with 177 games and 90 points. Antoine Vermette just got two years, 5.5M for 297 games and 139 points.

So what is Clowe worth in this market? Will he take less term and less dough in order to cash in later? Will he want security and will Doug Wilson pull a “Matt Carle” type of deal of overpay for the potential long term investment? I see the former happening. I’m sticking to two years and 3M, and it should be no more than 3.2M or that’s a minor slap in the face to Little Joe.

As for some of the McLaren bashing that is happening on other message boards, and I admit to being a little guilty of it at first – don’t we think that Kyle deserves a little more than being thrown out like trash to the lowest bidder? With a positive suggestion in the post below, bcsteve brings up the LA Kings could take Kyle and his 2.5M salary to make the cap requirements and Lombardi might have a passing interest since he’s the one who brought McLaren to San Jose in the first place. Good idea, and I’m sure DW would prefer to send him out of the division, but with Kyle the odd man out – he might not have a choice…and neither might the Kings.

Newest podcast episode can be found here. Let’s hope we’ll be talking about Clowe’s new deal next week as a done deal.

In a bizarre turn of events, including the first case of its kind under the current CBA, the Bruins are about to buy out winger Glen Murray after the regular buyout period had expired. Let me try to explain. The Bruins resigned defensemen Dennis Widemen, who filed for salary arbitration. If a player files for arbitration and is resigned, either for the reward assigned by the arbiter or if the team and player come to terms prior to the hearing (as was the case with Widemen), then the team has a 48 hour window to buyout up to three player contracts in order to accommodate the new contract. (DEEP BREATH).

Does that make sense? It was a loop hole that Mike and I had never heard of, but obviously the GM of the Bruins was well aware. Reports speculated that Chiarelli has been trying to get some return for the struggling Murray, but no one wanted to take a flier on him at 4.1M this season, or last…or the year before. He’s been in the rumor mill longer than Patrick Marleau. So – even with the Sharks current salary cap crunch and crammed roster – it would not surprise me if Doug Wilson reached out to Glen Murray and offered him the chance to reunite with Thunder Joe and restore his former glory as a player on a Cup run with the Sharks.

Murray is 35 and on the downside of his career, with only 17 goals last season and has clearly struggled since Doug Wilson bamboozled the Bruins into giving him Joe Thornton. Once his center was taken away, Murray’s production slid.

With Thornton in Boston 236 games 111 goals
Without Thornton in Boston 186 games 69 goals

Right now, there is no room on the Sharks roster for Murray – but should they make room? Should Doug Wilson offer Murray the same opportunity to pick up his career that he gave J.R.? Granted, Murray isn’t in the same spot Roenick was last offseason, but he isn’t that far off. The allure of the opportunity to join the Sharks top line and find the magic with Joe again could be too much to pass up. How about the Sharks offer Murray 1M – that’s it – take it or leave it. A one year deal that could let him have a big year, get back to 30 goals and then command a larger deal on the open market in 2009.

Would it take some creative management to make this happen? Yes. But I wouldn’t put it past Doug Wilson from making it happen. A top line of Murray, Michalek and Thornton would let the Sharks roll out the best 2nd line in hockey with Pavelski, Marleau and Cheech. That’s just not fair.

Now we wait…and see….

We discuss all this and more on our current podcast. Now available.

Now available.  The entire show was pretty much driven by listener questions, so thanks for that.  The number of listens of episode 4 are a little off from the previous weeks; I hope people didnt’ stop thinking about hockey just because it’s the offseason.  We can address some more in-depth questions now that there isn’t as much going on, and this week will likely be the first of several where that is the case.

…the identity of the Sharks’ third assistant coach is the biggest news of the day.  Day?  Hell, that’s the biggest news of the week.  Trent Yawney we heard about before- ok, that’s a guy I watched play, and watched coach in Chicago.  Then, Jay Woodcroft’s name was leaked.  I guess he was the ‘video coach’ in Detroit, a title I didn’t know existed.  Isn’t that was Paula Abdul used to do, before she became a crackhead and raging alcoholic?

And now (drum roll please) we have Todd Richards, coach of the Wilkes-Barre Penguins, the top Pens affiliate.  I’ve heard of a lot of Richards- Brad Richards, Michael Richards, Denise Richards, Ann Richards, Reed Richards, Richard Christy, but never Todd Richards.  Not to disparage the new guy.  There was a story in a recent Hockey News about how the NHL loves to recycle head coaches, and it appears Doug Wilson and Todd McLellan are actively bucking that trend.  The NHL is very much a follow-the-leader kind of league; it’s a bit jarring to go off the beaten path like this.

A discussion about that last statement will probably make up a good portion of this weeks podcast.  If you have anything else you’d like us to talk about, please send a question.

• Thanks for listening to the podcast– the number of listeners for the latest episode is going up quickly.  Only we could be dumb savvy enough to start a hockey podcast after the Stanley Cup finals are over.  I guess there are more hockey-starved fans than we thought.
• The full schedule is out today, so some quick thoughts on that.  Opening at home against the Ducks is awesome.  A home-and-home against Philly shortly after that is just odd.  I’m glad there’s no 8 or 9 game road trips this time on the east coast.  However, there’s a 5-game trip and a 4-game trip in February, which is almost as bad- the second trip is at Dallas, at Detroit, at Ottawa, and at Montreal.  Brutal.  The fact that we get Sid, AO, and the new intense rivalry with the Patrick Rissmiller-pumped Rangers at the Tank are all good things.
• Six games against division opponents makes more sense than eight, but I’d go with five.  That way you can play every team in the NHL home and away every year, and there would be a definite division series winner every year as well.
• The big blockbuster trade rumor with Meszaros and Gerber going to L.A., Kopitar going to Chicago, and Khabibulin and Barker/Seabrook going to Ottawa makes great sense for the Sens and Hawks.  But Kings get absolutely screwed.  Kopitar is the best young scorer in the Pacific division in my view- better than Perry, Getzlaf, and Michalek.  East coast writers may not know how good this guy is, but I do.  Getting a #3 or #4 D-man and a disappointing goalie in return is not nearly enough.  Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense for Lombardi to make that deal.