PuckUpdate .: The Hockey Blog
Everyone Loves Krog: I officially don't understand the Russian leagues. Jason Krog, who just signed with the Canucks, supposedly had a seven figure offer from a Russian team. Krog took considerably less (he signed for $750,000) to play for the Canucks. But had...... , posted on July 16, 2008 more
Let's Not Go to the Video Tape: So what is Chad Kilger's end-game exactly? He's been suspended by the Panthers for not showing up from Toronto. I'm kind of curious why Florida even wants him to show up. I thought they'd just pretend they weren't expecting him....... , posted on March 06, 2008 more
Rangers Take a Stand: Last week, there was some weird buzz about the Rangers fighting the NHL over control of their own Web site. Yesterday, Larry Brooks got into the details, speculating the issue isn't just the Rangers' Web site. Brooks says the issue...... , posted on October 01, 2007 more
Nothing Less Than Perfect: This weekend, the Times had a nice look at the Buffalo Sabres and their owner, billionaire Tom Golisano. Golisano said something very interesting: We can remain profitable as long as we play decent hockey...If the team were to evolve into...... , posted on May 14, 2007 more
New Year Baby: 'Who's Watching the NHL Store?': Happy New Year! What's in the NHL's future? Everyone's been talking about a proposed realignment to basically get Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby seen out west. The Blackhawks' Rick Dudley has the most accurate take on the situation (login info.):...... , posted on January 02, 2007 more
Milbury Finally Makes Sense: I've never been a huge fan of ex-Islander GM Mike Milbury. In fact, I've always considered him a bit of a simpleton. But I think I might have been wrong about him. Greg Logan over on Newsday's Islanders Blog has...... , posted on November 01, 2006 more
NHL: 'Dribble the Puck, Boys!': The NHL is opening a retail store in midtown Manhattan, a la the NBA store. Interestingly, where the NBA store is a chance to turn basketball fans into consumers, the NHL store seems to be an attempt to turn random...... , posted on October 02, 2006 more
General Manglers: Speaking of goalies, the Times had an interesting postmortem on the Rick DiPietro deal. Apparently, when the Isles were trying to sign Alexei Yashin, Yashin's agent pitched the team on an eight-year deal and a 10-year one. I always assumed...... , posted on September 18, 2006 more
Bruins: 'The Cap is on Salaries, Not Tickets. Now Let's Trade Chara!': I love how teams always have a compelling reason to raise ticket prices. The Bruins are hardly the only team to do this, but I find their rationalization of increased tickets especially distasteful, mentioning an increased salary cap as a...... , posted on August 28, 2006 more
Long Term: Good For Life Insurance, Bad For Hockey?: Erin Nicks weighs in on the true value of long-term NHL contracts. Nicks isn't a fan, writing that it's too much of a gamble for a team to lock-up a player. Basically, you see writers writing that there are too...... , posted on July 31, 2006 more
Arbitration is Hard: I like how confusing arbitration is. Here's a screenshot of yesterday's Star-Ledger Devils page: That about covers all of the bases, doesn't it? Maybe they could have said Gomez is retiring, but that's sort of a longshot. I'm surprised the...... , posted on July 28, 2006 more
Trade Madness: Tomorrow is the NHL's trade deadline. So much fun for fans. So not fun for the players. The Islanders, without a GM, locked up both Radek Martinek and Shawn Bates. That's such a great move. Because it's not like a...... , posted on March 08, 2006 more
New Year, New News, Good Times: There are a lot of great hockey tidbits floating around out there, this weekend. Larry Brooks reports that the CBA has a provision that allows incentives to come off of the cap, once they can no longer be met (login...... , posted on January 02, 2006 more
Cablevision Blacks Out Again: Here in New York City, OLN is making the October 5 NHL opener, featuring Flyers-Rangers, available to any cable system that wants it. How come? Great question. Cablevision, which owns the Rangers, doesn't think OLN has an exclusive right to...... , posted on September 28, 2005 more
Capped in the Head: I'm not sure if Brendan Shanahan has political aspirations, but if he doesn't, he might want to consider it as a second career. The guy is pretty smart. He's in yesterday's Times, talking about what a good deal the new...... , posted on August 15, 2005 more
Too Many Numbers: Sure the lockout is over, but now with the salary cap in place, we're still force to wade through numbers. Painful numbers. Kevin Paul Dupont looks at the Bruins and how the unexpected free agency of Joe Thornton and Sergei...... , posted on August 08, 2005 more
Role of Roles: You have to love the return of hockey season if for no other reason than it means the return of hockey rumors. Larry Brooks has a couple of good ones (login info.). Like the Red Wings are very interested in...... , posted on August 01, 2005 more
The New NHL: So things are moving along with the NHL aren't they? They've gone from lockout to full-on trade fury in just a week or so. Although the fury is pretty much all potential fury. No one is really moving yet. Everyone...... , posted on July 25, 2005 more
The Crosby Show: So the big hockey blog meme seems to be which team should wind up with Sidney Crosby: Ben Wright weighs in here. Jes Golbez gets his in here. OffWing gets his two cents in here. PJ from Sharkspage gives his...... , posted on July 21, 2005 more
Great Players: Whenever the NHL resumes play (and it's supposed to be very soon now), the league is going to have a different look. Tim Panaccio says the league will look younger (login info.): High-salaried veterans age 31 or older are either...... , posted on July 05, 2005 more
Chelios Drops Knowledge On Us All: Chris Chelios is a smart guy (login info.). Seriously. He's blaming the coaches for the lack of offense in the NHL: "As long as coaches play their marquee players for 15 minutes a game, it's not going to change...Let them...... , posted on June 30, 2005 more
If the NHL ran the NBA...: If the NHL ran the NBA: Problem: Not enough offense in the league. NHL solution: Make the ball smaller; make the nets shorter; make the nets bigger; change the uniforms. NBA solution: Allow the zone defense to create more fast...... , posted on June 23, 2005 more
Fun With Caps; NFL Punks Canada: The thing I really hate about caps in sports is that it forces you to deal with economics. It's not enough to imagine a good trade. You also have to know the finances of both teams. It's kind of a...... , posted on June 20, 2005 more
Secrets and Caps: In yesterday's Post, Larry Brooks kvetched at NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman for not letting anyone know what's going on with anything (login info.). It is sort of annoying. You would think he'd want to get fans at least considering the...... , posted on June 13, 2005 more
Just Asking...: So Rudy Giuliani is interested in starting a rival hockey league? I think it's cool. I love rival sports leagues. But I just want to point something out. Here in New York, the mayor is trying to get a stadium...... , posted on June 02, 2005 more
Good News, Bad News: So everyone seems to agree the lockout is on its way to an end. Mike Ulmer says NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and union head Bob Goodenow won't be around for too long afterwards. The reasons are pretty obvious. The lockout...... , posted on June 01, 2005 more
NHL: 'Let's Get the NBA': The whole possibility of an NBA lockout gets more and more interesting. The Times' Selena Roberts has a neat column linking the possibility of an NBA lockout to the NHL's current, Hans-Solo-in-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-like-state: There is a theory behind this U-turn in...... , posted on May 24, 2005 more
Islanders Own Up: I love the Islanders. Their inept contract negotiating almost single-handedly forces the league to lock out the players and what do they do? Go to business school? Read MONEYBALL? Nah. GM Mike Milbury goes to China to check out hockey...... , posted on May 23, 2005 more
Put In Your Mouthpieces: The Times had a great NBA piece Friday. The gist of it is that the powers-that-be in the NBA saw some problems in the league (low scoring and plodding defenses that relegated 80% of the players on the floor to...... , posted on May 16, 2005 more
NHL: 'No Replacements, No Hockey, No Problem': So the NHL doesn't want replacement players, but they're also not really moving ahead with ending the lockout, either. How bad have things gotten with hockey? The Might Uni Watch ran a contest to improve hockey uniforms and only got...... , posted on April 22, 2005 more
Selling Ice to Hockey Fans: The issue of the NHL using replacement players is pretty interesting. According to the San Jose Mercury News, seven NHL teams are pushing for the replacements (login info.): San Jose, Los Angeles, Dallas, Minnesota, Columbus, Chicago and St. Louis. It's...... , posted on April 19, 2005 more
The Rules They Are a Changing: Wow. The NHL is pretty serious about rule changes. The GMs even spoke to some players about it. According to Al Strachan, New Jersey Devil Scott Niedermayer took the GMs through some of the ways smart players twist the current...... , posted on April 18, 2005 more
PuckUpdate Solves the Lockout (part 19 of 783 in an occasional series): What would happen if all the players just started playing without a contract? What if they just started playing each other? Don't you think someone would set up cameras to record that? And don't you think advertisers would say 'Hey!...... , posted on April 06, 2005 more
NHL: Bigger Nets, Still No Players: Kudos to the NHL for looking into changing the size of their nets to yield more scoring. They're not just thinking bigger, either. They're also thinking triangle posts, to get the post clangers to bounce into the net. Goalies, of...... , posted on March 31, 2005 more
PlaceMats: The Times had an interesting article on baseball and steroids and strikes and how fans really don't leave sports, no matter how crappy things get. So I'm thinking the NHL must be wallpapering this article all over the place. Then...... , posted on March 28, 2005 more
Fix Hockey? Call a Tailor: Once again, ESPN.com's mighty Uni Watch comes through with cool hockey stuff. This week, Paul Lukas is trying to fix hockey. What's he pitching? No red line? Wider rinks? Of course not. He's pitching new uniforms. Check it out. I...... , posted on March 25, 2005 more
NHL: 'We Have Steroids, Too! Congress! We're Over Here! Call Us': Am I the only one who thinks all of this hockey steroid and stimulant talk is the league's sad attempt to get people thinking about hockey as a sport as big and as bad as baseball? It just seems so...... , posted on March 23, 2005 more
The Story of Hockey: Wow. USA Today did a lengthy piece on the finances of the NHL. It's written by Kevin Maney, a technology/business writer, so it seems pretty objective. Don't get me wrong. I love Larry Brooks, but sometimes he seems to be...... , posted on March 21, 2005 more
N.Hole.L.: Spike Vrusho, my old boss, misses hockey. College and minor league hockey isn't doing it for him, either. New York sports has definitely been missing the NHL. The Knicks are on the bubble as always, not bad enough to hate...... , posted on March 16, 2005 more
Hockey Politics: Hockey is everywhere. CounterPunch, the very liberal newsletter/Web site, has a story on the NHL lockout. Writer Dave Zirin writes that using scab players would be bad for the league, citing the usual reasons. I was just shocked to see...... , posted on March 09, 2005 more
Hockey Knowledge: The New Yorker takes on the NHL lockout/cancellation in a "Talk of the Town" piece. Interestingly, the article calls the NHLers "knowledge workers," meaning workers with a relatively rare skill set. What does it mean for owners, in and out...... , posted on March 07, 2005 more
A Case of the Mondays: A case of the Mondays: Chris Stevenson makes the really good point that when players organize games, the results usually aren't very exciting. And it's true. Games have to count for fans and players alike to get pumped. As the...... , posted on March 07, 2005 more
SlamballUpdate: So apparently NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow has a plan to end the lockout. And guess what? He's not telling anyone what it is. I love that plan. Al Strachan says NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's plan is to break the...... , posted on March 04, 2005 more
Share and Share Alike: Larry Brooks has an interesting look at the NHL's proposed revenue sharing model. Basically, the big clubs don't have to kick in very much for the little clubs. But just the fact that Brooks was able to see this document...... , posted on March 02, 2005 more
Watching Hockey: Shockingly, the less the NHL plays, the more people seem to write and think about it. Flyers goalie Robert Esche is actually talking about miking goalies to let the fans see what goalies go through during a game (login info.)....... , posted on February 28, 2005 more
Replacement Players Not Really Viable: This is really interesting. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, replacement NHL players might have trouble getting visas (login info.). It seems the only solution would be to have a group of Americans playing in America and a group of Canadians...... , posted on February 25, 2005 more
0-0: You know, I've really kind of made my peace with the fact that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was brought in to get a hard cap. That's what the owners wanted, and that's what he's doing. I'm just really not that...... , posted on February 22, 2005 more
Weekend of Nothing: You know, the saddest part of this weekend scramble by the NHL and the players to re-start the season, is that it shows just how vulnerable the sport was to the whims and intellectual limits of two men: NHL Commissioner...... , posted on February 21, 2005 more
What Happened at the Zero Hour?: Wow. How about those rumors that Jarome Iginla, Jeremy Roenick, and Chris Pronger were working with the owners to get the players to accept a cap? How crazy is that? Of course, Iginla says it's not true. I wouldn't blame...... , posted on February 18, 2005 more
Night Night: It's finally over. Once again, the NHL figures out how to break our hearts. Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow failed their constituencies and failed hockey. All they had to do was agree on a number and they couldn't do it...... , posted on February 16, 2005 more
PuckUpdate Solves the Lockout: I've been thinking about ways to end the lockout. Not all the time. Mostly just when I'm waiting for the subway. I'm thinking the league and the union should just take the 24% rollback the union offered a few weeks...... , posted on February 14, 2005 more
Paris Hilton Goalie Masks: OK. So if the NHL settles the lockout in the next month, they can still play a one game season and a two game playoffs. Who's in? Seriously. Wednesday night, Mark Messier was at the Knick game, chatting up Paris...... , posted on February 11, 2005 more
NHL: '28 Second Season Still Viable': I love how no one is willing to cancel the NHL season. I swear. It's going to be May and you're going to hear things like this: OK. So we can play a one day round-robin tournament, where teams play...... , posted on February 10, 2005 more
Owners: 'Save Us from Ourselves': A reader sent me a link to Tim Panaccio's Sunday NHL column, which I missed this week (login info.). It's a pretty interesting one, where he talks about the refusal of the big market NHL owners to step up and...... , posted on February 09, 2005 more
Super Cold: Sunday night, my friend and her husband and sister came over to watch the Super Bowl. My friend is a Manhattan born-and-bred social worker who hates both violence and sports. And she watches the Super Bowl every year. That says...... , posted on February 08, 2005 more
The Only Key to the Lockout is the 'Key' in Hoc-KEY: Stephen A. Smith, apparently on a break from screaming on ESPN, discusses the lockout in his latest column (login info.). His take? NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may have been hired to institute a hard cap, but he shouldn't destroy the...... , posted on January 31, 2005 more
The Crosby Show: Wow. No NHL draft, no Sidney Crosby. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League says his contract is in effect with them unless he's drafted by an NHL team. So that means Europe isn't an option if there's no NHL draft...... , posted on January 26, 2005 more
Hockey Plays Hooky: Blah blah blah. Lockout lockout lockout. Larry Brooks says the players hate Commissioner Gary Bettman. How much do they hate him? They might be willing to negotiate a salary cap with a different commissioner. I kind of doubt that, but...... , posted on January 24, 2005 more
Game On Unless It's Off: I don't know, man. I hear the meeting between NHLPA Union President Trevor Linden and NHL Board of Directors Chairman Harley Hotchkiss (and their lawyers) went well and I'm all like 'Maybe the NHL will start things up again this...... , posted on January 20, 2005 more
New York Times: 'Hockey Is Played On Ice': I love this Times headline: "The N.H.L. Season Is Slipping Away". Um. You think? I'm so glad they get my buck a day. Or they would if I bought the print version of the Times. The article has an interesting...... , posted on January 19, 2005 more
NHLPA: 'Maybe Go On a Reality Show?': I'm not sure how I'd feel if I was in the NHL Players' Association. Apparently, they're telling their members to jump at jobs in Europe. That's great if you A) get hired in Europe and B) are able to pick...... , posted on January 16, 2005 more
Rangers Test Site; NPR Discovers Hockey: So apparently the Rangers are using this lull in the season to work on their Web site. Check out this survey. At least the usability and marketing people aren't dying of boredom, over at the Garden. Plus, one of my...... , posted on January 12, 2005 more
Books and Busts: No hockey? Don't worry. The Times has a review of Wayne Coffey's "The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team," which sounds pretty good. You can guess what it's...... , posted on January 09, 2005 more
BusinessWeek: 'Bettman; Badman...ager': So Gary Bettman made BusinessWeek's list of worst managers of 2004. Nice! The owners have got to be feeling the heat. There's no hockey. There's no hope of hockey, and the man leading their league is widely regarded as an...... , posted on January 06, 2005 more
Skating Through the Q with GB: Here's what the NHL Players' union and the league don't understand. Hockey is a cool sport. It's a cool sport with the NHL and it'll be a cool sport without the NHL. Just ask the people of Kodiak. They're learning...... , posted on January 04, 2005 more
Fans: 'Shut Up and Play Yer Game': This is pretty interesting. Bob Dicesare of the Buffalo News did a straw poll of Buffalo hockey fans at an AHL game. None of the fans sided with the union in the lockout. Obviously, this wasn't a scientific poll, but...... , posted on December 29, 2004 more
Being Gary Bettman: The Times has a long piece on NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and his role in the lockout. There's not much new information, but it did remind me of a few things: 1. Bettman's insane expansion of the league really drove...... , posted on December 28, 2004 more
NHL: 'The Season is Over Unless It Isn't': So not much has changed in the world of hockey since my brief vacation. I mean, I moved into a new apartment, but I'm not sure that's really considered the world of hockey. Larry Brooks of the New York Post...... , posted on December 27, 2004 more
Hockey: 'We're Pretty Drug Free and No Violent Than Anyone Else, If You Think About It, But Not Too Hard': The NHL really needs to end this lockout. Seriously. Look at the other sports. They're really ripe for the picking. Look at baseball. It's all drugs and steroids, steroids and drugs. Look at basketball. Don't even think about the Pistons-Pacers...... , posted on December 13, 2004 more
Owners: '24% Raises For Everyone!': The thing I most love about the 24% pay-cut the union is offering is that it does a great job of giving the owners enough rope to hang themselves with. Assuming the league approves of the union's plan, or something...... , posted on December 13, 2004 more
Union: '25% Off! Everything Must Go': So the Players' Association released their latest offer to the owners. It seems pretty crazy to me. They're starting with 24% salary reductions across the board, which is a lot. I don't see how the owners can turn that down....... , posted on December 09, 2004 more
Inside the NHLPA and Their SuperComputers: The Star Tribune has an amazing look inside the NHLPA's contract-tracking software. Called SCORE, it allows NHLPA agents to track what comparable players make in the league (login info.). The software even allows agents to see how teams tender offers,...... , posted on November 08, 2004 more
Players Locked Out or Owners Locked In?: Larry Brooks at the New York Post looks ahead of the lockout to when the owners might try and bring in replacement players. Brooks urges Mario Lemieux, the player and the owner; and Wayne Gretzky, the former player, current owner,...... , posted on October 25, 2004 more
USA: 'What Lockout? What's Hockey?': Matt Law reports that Yahoo! has its own lockout log. There's big money in lockout logs. I'm thinking of making this a log instead of a blog. I'm not sure what that would entail, though. The Rangers are freaking crazy....... , posted on October 21, 2004 more
Schoolhouse Lockout: Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News has a cool peek at what the players are doing with their new-found free time. Obviously some are playing in Europe or rehabbing injuries. But a lot of them seem to be just enjoying...... , posted on October 13, 2004 more
Idol Hands Are Winter Sports Play-Thing: Lockouts do strange things to people. The whole not working thing plays with your mind. You start thinking about things you never thought about. And that's how elderly defenseman Chris Chelios wound up trying to make Greece's bobsled team. Right...... , posted on October 12, 2004 more
Pretend Hockey: This is what it's come to: writing about video hockey instead of real hockey. Motley Fool has a pretty interesting story about how Sega is going after EA's sports video game supremacy. Sega's weapons? The ESPN brand and a cheap-ass...... , posted on October 06, 2004 more
PuckUpdate to NHL: 'Pay By the Goal': The Boston Herald talked to some AHL players to see how they'd feel about crossing the Players Association. It's nothing scientific, so of course the answers are pretty much what you'd expect: some players would cross the picket line to...... , posted on October 04, 2004 more
Isles Live Beyond Their Means: The Post has a really interesting tidbit that isn't about the lockout, but actually might be about the lockout. You know. If you read between the lines. Or read the blog that reads between the lines. That would be PuckUpdate,...... , posted on September 29, 2004 more
Players: 'Where Are Our Keys? Oh Dip. We're Locked Out': Lockout shmockout. A University of British Columbia law review article suggests the NHL can improve financially without a blanket salary cap. Professor Stephen Ross writes that revenue sharing and team-specific salary caps can fix the NHL. Oh. And allowing players...... , posted on September 27, 2004 more
OSHL: 'Everyone Scores': Here's the thing about the Original Stars Hockey League. It's almost exclusively second and third line guys. Definitely some great NHLers, but no one extraordinary. They're guys you'd love to have on your home team, but no one you would...... , posted on September 24, 2004 more
Meet the Lockout Blog: From the "Why Didn't I Think of That" File: a lockout blog. It's all lockout news, all the time over at the UR Blog. And it's comprehensive. There seems to be a link to just about every lockout story out...... , posted on September 23, 2004 more
Agents Worried Owners Might Get Clue: With the lockout in full force, you might want to get your hockey on in other ways. I recommend reading "Money Players : How Hockey's Greatest Stars Beat the NHL at its Own Game" by Bruce Dowbiggin. It's all about...... , posted on September 21, 2004 more
Owners: 'Actually, We Hate the Game, Not the Players': OK. I kind of thought it was sketchy the Senators were sending Dom Hasek to their AHL affiliate for a "conditioning assignment." I'm not the only one. The Players' Association is also watching the situation. They're OK with him getting...... , posted on September 20, 2004 more
LockOutUpdate.com: Um. So how about that lockout, huh? Roy Mlakar, the president of the Ottawa Senators, says the Senators are actually saving money by locking out the players. How crazy is that? How can you run a business that's more successful...... , posted on September 17, 2004 more
Penguins Could Be Losing Malkin: When is a first-round draft pick not a first-round draft pick? When it's the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin. It seems Malkin is renegotiating the contract with his Russian team. But with the transfer agreement between the NHL and Europe expired, there's...... , posted on August 30, 2004 more
Devils May Predict Cap Ceiling: The New York Post has an interesting take on the potential lockout. Mark Everson guesses that if there is a salary cap, it'll be somewhat more than the $31 million per team that's been mentioned everywhere. He puts the potential...... , posted on August 30, 2004 more
Super Terrific Happy Fun League: I have no idea how to respond to the Original Stars Hockey League, which seems all set to roll when the NHL lockout begins. The Original Stars will have teams of NHL players (guys like Mike Ricci, Mike Comrie, and...... , posted on August 17, 2004 more
Lacrosse LaCrosses Hockey: Lacrosse is really serious about moving in on hockey, as I've mentioned before. Who's helping lacrosse? NHL teams. That's right. The majority of National Lacrosse League teams are owned and operated by NHL franchises. It makes sense. It gives them...... , posted on August 11, 2004 more
Literally Paying for Scoring: USA Today has some details on the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. They even have the dirt on the payroll systems the NHL is pitching to the Players Association. One of the systems is performance-based, which is kind of interesting....... , posted on August 05, 2004 more
Molinari Writes Locally, Thinks Globally: Dave Molinari at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an internationally flavored Sunday column. The thing I love about it, though, is that he doesn't talk about contracts or lockouts or anything. Instead, he talks about the lack of European players in...... , posted on July 26, 2004 more
CBA Negotiations: You Are There: So the NHL and the players have started trying to iron out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league gave the players six economic structures they'd like to see implemented. PuckUpdate has learned what those six plans are: 1) Salary...... , posted on July 22, 2004 more
Don't Get Cross with Lacrosse: So Kara Yorio, who covers hockey for The Sporting News, is probably getting nervous that maybe she'll have nothing to do during an NHL lockout. So she's working on stuff to cover next season. She seems to have arrived on...... , posted on July 14, 2004 more
More Lockout Fallout: As players all over the league are managing to find contracts despite the looming lockout, just about everyone else connected with hockey is getting screwed. The latest victims? The hard-working people at T.P.S. Hockey, a stick manufacturing company. They're laying...... , posted on July 08, 2004 more
No NHL But Plenty of Hockey: So it looks like my WHA dreams may be collapsing around me. Two of the six teams, Orlando and Jacksonville, dropped out of the league for next season. I'm not sure how exciting a four-team league will be. Or how...... , posted on June 21, 2004 more
Brett Hull Not Following in Father's Footsteps: This is a little interesting. Knight Ridder has a pretty run-of-the mill interview with Bobby Hull, talking up the WHA. But in the interview, Hull says he doubts his son Brett will join the WHA. The reason? "[Brett] has a...... , posted on June 16, 2004 more
Flyer Class=Bear Wings: Wow. It must be fun to work for the Flyers. If you're part of the broadcast team, they tell you they can't sign you to a contract until the lockout is settled (see below). Then they sign Keith Primeau to...... , posted on June 15, 2004 more
No Hockey, No Announcers: I'm trying not to write about the upcoming lockout, but it's kind of hard. There's so much stuff tied up in it. Like what about the announcers. In Philadelphia, it seems the broadcast teams aren't getting their contracts renewed if...... , posted on June 14, 2004 more
NHL on NBC: The NHL is moving to NBC, according to the New York Times. It's a good deal for NBC. They're not paying the NHL anything upfront. It's just an agreement to share revenue from a few regular season games, Saturday playoff...... , posted on May 19, 2004 more
Canada Represents: Jim Kelley weighs in on the rise of Canadian teams. According to Kelley, there's a reason five of the six Canadian teams are going to the playoffs, with Edmonton, the sixth, a definite maybe (although not after last night's loss...... , posted on March 31, 2004 more
Don't Buy in Advance: Filip Bondy goes after Madison Square Garden for forcing Ranger fans to watch a horrible product. It's about the Rangers, but it could really be about any horrible team. Bondy takes the Garden for task for not letting fans return...... , posted on March 24, 2004 more
WHA Targeting Motor City: The WHA is looking to set up shop in Detroit next season. The WHA's commissioner is, of course, Bobby Hull, whose son Brett, of course, plays for the Wings. WHA is still a big question mark. A lot of people...... , posted on January 16, 2004 more
MoneyPuck: So Forbes did their annual NHL valuations article. Once again, the Rangers are the most valuable team in the league. The Oilers are the least valuable, which is kind of sad. Forbes also did an extended piece on the Minnesota...... , posted on November 26, 2003 more
Roenick Ready for WHA: Jeremy Roenick said that if there's a strike next season, he would consider going to the World Hockey Association. Is there another player (other than Brett Hull) who's a better fit for the WHA? Roenick is all attitude. He's a...... , posted on November 20, 2003 more
Book: 'GMs Can Stand Some Schooling': So NHL Players' Association head Bob Goodenow was out on Long Island, busting on the Islanders for having to waive Jason Wiemer (who was claimed by the Wild) for salary reasons. Goodenow asked why the Islanders were just now figuring...... , posted on November 14, 2003 more
League Seems to Be Pushing For Cap: I sort of find all that Collective Bargaining Agreement bickering stuff dull. But Larry Brooks has an interesting piece of information. According to the Brooks, the NHL Players' Association gave the owners super-detailed proposals designed to increase owners' earnings. NHL...... , posted on November 03, 2003 more
Nike and Lemieux No More: Wow. Mario Lemieux and Nike have broken up. Lemieux is no longer endorsing Nike products. His at-the-time groundbreaking contract expired toward the end of September. No one seems to know what happened. It doesn't seem like any big deal, though....... , posted on October 29, 2003 more
Berard: 'Hire Me!': Defenseman Bryan Berard's agent is still trying to find him a team. Right now his agent is chasing ambulances. If your team loses a defensemen, you're probably going to get a call from Tom Laidlaw, Berard's agent. In fact, he...... , posted on October 21, 2003 more
Owners: 'Stop Us Before We Sign Again': Here's a shocker! NHL owners reportedly want a hard cap of $31 million. According to the Rocky Montain News NHL Commissioner is shooting for a $35 million cap, but owners can live with $38 million. Or owners can not sign...... , posted on October 17, 2003 more
The Price of Hockey: So if you want to see a hockey game, and money is tight, maybe you should check out the Hurricanes or the Flames. They have the least expensive (on average) ticket prices. Shockingly, Devils tickets went up almost 25% on...... , posted on October 10, 2003 more
Stars and Ice Forever: Ahhhh. The start of another NHL season. And you know what that means — more inane ways to try and sell the NHL to people. This season it's commercials featuring "A-list" celebrities like Jim Belushi and Shania Twain. OK. First...... , posted on October 09, 2003 more
NHL Owners: 'We Complain About Contracts We Negotiate. Is That a Problem?': The NHL owners said they lost nearly US$300 million last season. Larry Brooks at the Post doesn't believe them. He says he'd like to see their formulas. He also points out how a salary cap won't make team more competitive,...... , posted on September 22, 2003 more
Free Agents Continue to Be Free...Of Teams: Here are some columns on what I'm sure a lot of people have noticed: it's a crappy time to be a free agent. Mike Heika weighs in for The Dallas Morning News (annoying registration required) and Michael Russo weighs in...... , posted on September 10, 2003 more
Retro Marketing: OK. Remember how the NHL signed off on that whole retro jersey thing (see below)? I didn't realize it at the time, but part of the reason the NHL is interested in the project is to bring black fans into...... , posted on August 11, 2003 more
Crap in a Box: I was just on NHL.com and this caught my eye. It's the "2003 Stanley Cup in a Box." It's got "the official locker room hat from Nike, a Stanley Cup pin, a Stanley Cup Bronze Coin, a Stanley Cup collector...... , posted on August 07, 2003 more
Fashion on Ice: Geez. So next season hockey will be more than hockey. It'll also be an excuse to sell jerseys. Certain teams will sport throwback jerseys next season. You know. Because third jerseys aren't enough. Teams must need fourth jerseys, too. Although...... , posted on August 06, 2003 more
Arbitration Scoresheet: ESPN.com has a nice arbitration scoresheet. Not much to say about it. I just thought it was kind a neat thing to look at....... , posted on August 04, 2003 more
Even People With No Teeth Have to Go to the Dentist: Geez. Is there anything worse than arbitration? Probably. But not many things. Arbitration is the time of year when players and teams try to figure out salary. Teams usually do this by slamming the player ('Twenty-five goals? You should have...... , posted on July 31, 2003 more
Money for Rings: Over in the Times, William Rhoden writes about basketball players sacrificing cash for a shot at an NBA championship. That's all well and good, but I think some hockey players have done that, too. Most recently, Paul Kariya and Teemu...... , posted on July 14, 2003 more
NHL For Sale: The New York Post is saying that a third of the NHL is for sale. The paper speculates Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Calgary, Anaheim, Atlanta, Ottawa, and New Jersey are up for sale, although in some cases, management denies the teams...... , posted on April 08, 2003 more
NHL Business Report: And now to Todd with today's NHL business report. Thanks, Mary. New York billionaire Tom Golisano has reached what parties are calling a "conceptual agreement" to buy the Buffalo Sabres. Of course, a conceptual agreement probably isn't worth the paper...... , posted on February 28, 2003 more
Taking Attendance: Hey! Check out these attendance stats. It seems like the numbers are down. And they're actually even more down than these numbers indicate. Watch any game on TV and you see a ton of empty seats. If and when there's...... , posted on January 31, 2003 more
The NHL Business Report: Who's Broke?: You know, some days I'm just really glad I listened to Sally Struthers and got my MBA through the mail. Today is one of those days. The Florida Panthers might be the latest NHL team with financial problems. Broward County,...... , posted on January 29, 2003 more
Fedorov: 'I'd Like to See Other People': According to Larry Brooks at the New York Post, the Red Wings offered Sergei Fedorov $50 million for 5 years and Fedorov turned it down. The Wings aren't keeping the offer open, either. So I guess that means Fedorov is...... , posted on January 20, 2003 more
Complicated Ottawa Business Deals: Really. Should hockey be this hard? I have no idea what this article about the Senators and their new limited partnership deal means. What happened to one person owning a team?...... , posted on December 13, 2002 more
Making Sense of Team Values: I actually took a micro economics class in college, but it never really stuck with me. My teacher kept talking about beer and tomatoes and showing us all the graphs and I just really wanted to learn the economics of...... , posted on December 06, 2002 more
Watch Hockey While You Can: Larry Brooks over at the New York Post is grim as all hell about the NHL's upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. He says the strike in an all-but-certainty. The owners want a $32 million salary cap, which would mean no...... , posted on November 25, 2002 more
Strike One!: NHL Commissioner Garry Bettman is already greasing the strike wheels. Negotiations haven't even really begun and he's already preparing everyone for a strike. I can't even think about this right now. But as a thought, owners set the prices for...... , posted on November 01, 2002 more
Me-ow!: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was a busy man yesterday. In addition to his All-Star game changes (see below), he also found time to blast the player's union for not starting negotiations on a new labor deal. Yeah. Contract negotiations that...... , posted on October 04, 2002 more
© Steven Ovadia