To be honest, I thought this would be a slow week, but there’s kind of a lot of stuff going on.

• Are the Blues going to try and sign Brendan Shanahan, who’s been waiting for the Rangers to clear cap space for him? I’ve said this before, but Shanahan was positively snake-bitten last season. He had tremendous chances that just didn’t hit the back of the net. Obviously, some of it is his age and speed and wrists and legs, but some of it was also bad luck. And he’s a great penalty killer. If you don’t need a top-six forward, why not sign him for incentives. If the collective bargaining agreement allows that. I kind of forget sometimes.
• Toronto defenseman Bryan McCabe for Florida Panther defenseman Mike Van Ryn? I like that the Panthers are pretty much telling the league they’re looking to get slower and less mobile next season.
• The Islanders won’t reveal how long new coach Scott Gordon’s contract is, presumably to make it harder for the media to countdown the days until he’s off the Island. The big winner in this signing was GM Garth Snow and it’s straight out of ex-Isle-GM Mike Milbury’s playbook. Hire an inexperienced coach. If he does great, you look like a genius. If he doesn’t, you blame the coach like you had nothing to do with the hiring.
• Puck Daddy has been asking people for five ways they’d change the NHL. There are some great people, like Helene Elliott of the LA Times. I thought Craig Custance from The Sporting News was pretty funny. There’s no real archive, but here’s a decent search of the Google.
• Howard Shapiro has written a children’s book called Hockey Player for Life. It has an introduction by Keith Primeau. Here’s a promo video for the book.