Maple Leaf draft picks

I'm a little slow on a review of the Maple Leaf draft picks on June 26-27. Several scouts have commented that the "Burkenized" Leafs did a great job. I did a little research and here is what I have come up with.

Nazem Kadri -7th pick

This would be the only non-physical, skill player selected by the Leafs. Kadri plays for the London Knights. He finished with 1 point less than Matt Duchene in the regular season for the OHL London Knights, scoring 25 goals and registering 53 assists for 78 points. He would have been the team’s leading scorer if not for a midseason trade that brought in John Tavares. At 6′ and 177 lbs he will need to fill out and is likely 2 or 3 years away from the NHL. He should turn out to be a decent offensive forward, as his competitive drive is very high which is likely what attracted him to Brian Burke. He has the potential to be a second line centre.

Kenny Ryan - 5oth pick

Ryan is considered a strong skater who is hard to knock off the puck. He is considered defensively responsible, strong in the corners, and his offensive outlook pegs him more as a shooter than a playmaker. The Leafs must have liked the rugged aspect to his game because there is nothing fancy about his game. Ryan is 6′0″, 204 lb and was drafted by the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL. He has elected to go the NCAA route which likely means he’s probably about 3 years away from signing with the Leafs. He was one of ONLY 7 players at the NHL scouting combine to recieve high grades for both his upper and lower body development. He has the potential to be a second or third line physical winger.

Jesse Blacker - 58th pick

Jesse Blacker is a 6′1″ and 190 lbs defenseman with the Memorial Cup winners, the Windsor Spitfire. He is a physical defenseman but will need to put on a little more weight if he is to continue with that style in the NHL. Not much of an offensive threat at this point in his career. He will need some seasoning before hitting the NHL.

Jamie Devane - 68th pick

Jamie Devane stands at 6′5″ and 210 lbs and plays left wing for the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL. I don't think this guy was ranked so the Leafs must have turned some heads with this pick in the third round. The NHL employees at the draft didn’t even have a name plate ready for the draft board, so they had to go and quickly make one up. Devane is a huge kid with a nasty attitude and a very good fighter. He had 14 fights last season with 4 more in the playoffs. His fights can be viewed on YouTube. Some might say this is a pretty high selection for a fourth line fighter.

Ed Knodel - 128th pick

Ed Knodel is another giant kid picked by the Leafs. He’s a 6′6″ 216 lb defense man who has been playing with the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers in the US Tier 1 Junior A Hockey League. Scouts didn't start looking at this guy until later in the season. I'm sure his size is a factor although he isn't considered a tough guy. Thinking long term, the Leafs are probably looking at Knodel turning pro in about 3 or 4 years, so he isn’t about to turn up in at the ACC this upcoming season unless he has bought a ticket. Late rounds are always a gamble.

Jerry D'Amigo - 158th pick

In the 7th round, the Leafs drafted another American Jerry D'Amigo. Highly skilled from an offensive perspective, D’Amigo has been criticized by some for lacking in mental focus, and irresponsibility with the puck (meaning he coughs it up too much). He was actually expected to go higher in the draft (Central Scouting had him listed at 67th) so the Leafs appear to have done well with this pick. He made quite an impression with an outstanding World U-18 tournament, where he was Team USA’s best player and leading scorer.

Baron Smith - 188th pick

The Leaf's last pick is another huge bodied (6'4/5". 191 lbs) project defenseman with modest stats. Smith has spent the last 3 years playing on 3 different teams, and amassing a grand total of 7 points over that span. He is the son of former NHLer Steve Smith and is described as a stay-at-home defender with limited mobility and “very limited upside”. Everyone gambles at this stage of the draft and Burke went with size. Even if he never makes the NHL, he might be a useful player in their system.

Back from my vacation

DAY 2: $8 million more to spend

With the signing of Grabowski, Brian Burke has $5 to $8 million remaining to spend on salaries depending on how close he wants to get to the cap. Burke has a history of spending to the cap each season so he is not likely done. A group of ex-Habs are available which might make the Toronto-Montreal rivalry that much more emotional. They are Robert Lang, Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu and Alexei Kovalev. Some speculate Koivu is off to Minnesota to join his brother. Kovalev will likely land with a team needing some offensive. Los Angeles tried to make a splash in the free agent market but failed to do so. Kovalev may be the best of the rest so perhaps the Kings are interested. Lang and Tanguay are interesting propositions and I wonder if Burke would be interested. My guess is the term of a contract would be the issue here as he is avid to get into the bidding for Rick Nash next summer.

Couldn't help but notice that Nik Antropov snared a $4 million per season contract yesterday. Umm, no comment.

DAY 1: Leafs got tougher, Canadiens got smaller

Wow, yesterday was no different than the past few July 1st with around $400 million spent. So much about concern that the salary cap falling next season. So far we can see that Brian Burke is living up to his promise to make the Leafs tougher. And he overspent for defensive defenseman Mike Komisarek at $4.5 million per season but there are no bargains in the free agent bin. Throw in Garnet Exelby along with Komisarek and Schenn and you have some big hitters on the blue line. However the defense right now is pretty crowded so there may be more trades coming. The fringe players Stralman and Frogren cannot be moved up and down between the Leafs and Marlies without exposing them on waivers. And let's not forget Burke expects the losers in the Bouwmeester hunt to coming asking about Kaberle.

Defense
Michael Komisarek
Tomas Kaberle
Ian White
Garnet Exelby
Luke Schenn
Jeff Finger
Mike Van Ryn
Jonas Frogren
Anton Stralman

However, with the addition of only fighter Colton Orr, Burke has so far failed to land any skill players that the Leafs dearly need up front. They are incredibly thin at centre after trading Moore and Antropov and have only soft and inexperienced players at this position. Their top centre is Grabovski but he is an unsigned restricted free agent. Then there is Stajan who rarely throws a check and Mitchell is best suited on the fourth line but saw first line duty at the end of the season. Here is the complete list of centres.

Centres
Mikhail Grabovski
Matt Stajan
Jiri Tlusty
John Mitchell
Tyler Bozak
Christian Hanson

The Leafs strongest position is left wing where they have several 20-goal scorers and the rest with the potential to score 20. Right wing is pretty pathetic which makes you think if some help isn't coming then some left wingers will play their off wing (Blake did last season) or some centres will shift to the right. Still Burke as money to spend and has indicated that he will spend to the cap every season.

Left Wing
Jason Blake
Niklas Hagman
Nikolai Kulemin
Alexi Ponikarovski

Right Wing
Lee Stempniak
Jamal Mayers
Colton Orr

Around the league Montreal has done a total makeover of their lineup. Last season their top line was Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay. This season is appears to be Cammalleri, Gionta and Gomez. Who knows how well this combination will work out. They are all small and relied on other star players to improve their performance. But maybe this combination will work.

The Rangers did well by replacing Gomez with Higgins, McDonagh and Gaborik. They were 28th in the league in scoring this past season but the key for them is the health of Gaborik.

Elsewhere Minnesota replaced Gaborik with Havlat and Chicago replaced Havlat with Hossa. This looks like a saw off for these teams but Hossa may be the best of thses players so Chicago did well. Throw in the free agents Madden and Kopecky, both players from winning organizations (Devils and Wings) and the Hawks may be a strong condender next year if they have goaltending. Detroit was unable to hang onto all of their free agents but they have lots of both skill players and grinders in their system waiting to fill those spots.

The best signing so far was Mike Knuble to Washington. They still need to fill a centre spot with the defection of Federov to the KHL but Knuble is a big, tough player that can score. He will fit in well in Washington. He would fit in well on any team.

Tampa Bay signed Ohlund to a massive contract that will help the team on the blueline but what does it do for them financially? They cannot afford their current massive contracts and just added to them. Obviously the only reason Ohlund signed with this dysfunctional contract was the money.

Free Agency frenzy is about to begin

It was just a year ago that Mats Sundin was the hottest commodity on the free agent market and we know how that ended. What a difference one year can make. Sundin has yet to decide on his future and really no one actually cares.

The hot tickets belong to a pair of Swedes, the Sedin twins who have yet the sign with Vancouver as the clock is about to strike 12. Supposedly both Montreal and Toronto are hot after the pair although no one will confirm that. It would be tampering. But the boys want 12 years which is way too long for these two. The Leafs can afford to spend close to $5 million per season on 2 forwards but they also need to add some muscle up front (eg, Colton Orr on the Rangers) and a plugger (eg, Sami Paulsson).

The future is clearer for Jay Bouwmeester who just hours ago signed for the next 5 years with Calgary. He will be making the same money has the Flames stud defenseman Dion Phaneuf, $6.5 million. If you compare this to the Brian Campbell signing last year, Bouwmeester is 5 years younger, more talented and will cost $600,000 less per season. Great deal for the Flames.

Glen Sather has indicated that Nik Antropov was asking for at least $5 million per year so he has bid Nik farewell. Russian agent Mark Gandler certainly knows how to over price his clients. So that second round pick is looking much better already.

Sports Illustrated called the Scott Gomez contract the worst signing in recent memory so kudos to Glen Sather for making any kind of deal to move Gomez. I can't believe that Gainey gave up Ryan McDonagh, a first draft pick, on what should have been a salary dump. Maybe Gainey would be interested in Jason Blake too?

There were rumours that Dany Heatley was heading to San Jose where he could have joined the Sharks' existing under performers, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton. Now it appears the Oilers will have to honour.

Don't be surprised if the Leafs are quiet on free agent front. Burke will not likely overpay for free agents (eg, Jeff Finger) unless it is someone he dearly wants. The Leafs also have most of their roster already signed but if Kaberle and/or Kubina are traded then things can change. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

No big splash at the draft from Brian Burke

Prior to the draft Brian Burke did an awful lot of talking about how he was going to use the draft to remake the Leafs, how he was going to move up to get an impact player, and on and on and on. I had this sneaking suspicion that he was going to fall short of his rhetoric. GMs have increased the value of draft picks under the salary cap. The days of " draft, shmaft" are over.

Moving up in the draft was a near impossible goal. The Islanders have a dwindling fan base and need a marquee player to market. They had to draft John Tavares. A trade with Tampa Bay right now is next to impossible because the two leading owners do not agree on the direction the club should take. It is unlikely that a trade of their first pick would have gotten both their blessing. However, we will never know because Burke has counting on the Islanders not picking Tavres and that didn't go his way. The Colorado GM has been at the job for only a couple of weeks and you don't start your tenure by trading away your first pick. Both Atlanta and Phoenix are financial messes so trading their first pick would also be counter intuitive. So that means no chance at John Tavares or Braydon Schenn.

Ironically the team that did make a big splash at the draft was Anaheim. Burke' successor in Anaheim, Bob Murray has done a fine job at rebuilding his team by moving Chris Pronger for a cartful of prospects and draft picks. Murray achieved the almost impossible task of getting younger, cheaper and more explosive offensively. Moving Pronger will allow him to make offers to some of the Ducks' free agents he would like to retain.

That's not to say that Burke failed at the draft. He took the initial steps to draft players that will eventually fill the gaps in the Leafs roster in terms of toughness and size. You can't assess the success of a draft until years down the road. But Burke has done his homework and clearly has a plan. The first pick Nazem Kadri doesn't really have the size but was the best player available when the Leafs first picked. But there is no question why Jame Davane was picked. He is the toughest fighter in junior hockey.



I will provide more insight into these picks when I return from my vacations. In the meantime Burke will continue to mouth off on the world as he sees it. Just remember the rest of the world doesn't really care what he has to say.

On vacation till July 6

Though there may be an occasional post. Have a Happy Canada Day everyone!

What free agents would you sign?

As important as the draft may be to a team's future, the free agent market is critical if teams are to make a move in the standings. But there are likely more bad signing than good ones. I don't think I need to explain that to any Leaf fan. So who should Brian Burke sign considering the top players are looking at sometimes 7 year contracts or longer.

So here is a hypothetical situation. Let's say Brian Burke trades both Kaberle and Kubina. That means he has a payroll of about $33 million including Darcy Tucker's buyout. So if he decides to cap his payroll at $53 million that gives him $20 million to spend on 4 forwards, 2 defensemen and 1 goalie (no Jonas Gustavsson signed). This is all hypothetical and assumes no younger players make the squad (Tyler Bozak, Jiri Tlusty, Dale Mitchell, Viktor Stalberg). Here are his choices with current salaries and what he would likely cost to sign this summer.

Sedin Twins - $7.5 million ($11 million)
Marion Gaborik - $7.5 million ($7.5 million)
Mats Sundin - $7 million ($5 million)
Jay Bouwmeester - $5 million ($ 7 million)
Matthias Ohlund - $3.5 million ($5 million)
Mike Cammalleri - $3.6 million ($5.5 million)
Nik Antropov - $2.1 million (2.6 million)
Martin Havlat - $6 million ($ 6.5 million)
Maxim Afinogenov - $3.5 million ($2.5 million)
Jason Williams - $2.2 million ($3 million)
Todd Bertuzzi - $1.9 million ($1.5 million)
Chris Neil - $1.2 million ($1.8 million)
Dominic Moore - $0.9 million ($1.5 million)
Hal Gill - $2.2 million ($2 million)
Paul Mara - $2 million ($2 million)
Francois Beauchemin - $1.6 million ($2.4 million)
Dennis Seidenberg - $1.2 million ($2 million)
Martin Gerber - $3.7 million ($1.5 million)
Manny Fernandez - $4.75 million ($2 million)
Scott Clemmensen - $0.5 million ($1.2 million)
Manny Legace - $2.5 million ($1.2 million)

Now remember you only have $20 million to spend.

My thoughts on the Draft

People have been asking me for my thoughts on what will happen on Draft Day. I don't see any point in predicting how the draft will go. About 95% of the hockey media are going to trot out their own slightly tweaked versions of a mock draft - and the first round is usually pretty stable as far as selections go. A few players slide, a few jump up to replace them, but knowing what any team, let alone 30 teams, is/are thinking heading up to draft day requires more psychic powers than I’ve got.

I also don’t think it’s very logical to attempt to predict trades, and considering how many draft day moves are made these days in the NHL, that kind of screws everything up from a mock draft perspective. Sure we know Brian Burke has been making a lot of noise about trading and more recently even trading down. Obviously he has certain players targeted and unless a higher rated player is still available when he selects he may move down rather than take a guy early. But then Burke likes to talk a lot and the 24/7 Toronto hockey media always need a story.

These days most NHL GM’s will pick the best talent available at the time they are selecting, rather than picking based on “needs” in certain positions. Outside of the first few "can't miss" picks it is really a gamble. How else do you explain Henrik Zetterberg at 210th in 1999, Dominik Hasek at 199th in 1986, Tomas Kaberle at 204th in 1996, and Pavel Datsyuk at 171st in 1998.

Popular misconception is that GMs decide who to pick; they leave that up to the scouting staff. An NHL GM doesn't see enough junior games to second guess his staff. If the GM and scouts are out of sinc it leads to trouble. In 2004, the Phoenix scouting staff told GM Mike Barnett to draft Blake Wheeler with the 5th overall pick. Barnett wasn't very high on Wheeler but went with his staff's recommendation. But Wheeler was never signed by Barnett and eventually became a free agent in 2008 after finishing college. The Bruins signed him and he scored 21 goals as a rookie this past season.

Storm Nation starts the new season with wet BBQ

Last Saturday was like many Saturdays this spring - wet. But the rain didn't stop the team from getting together for some burgers and dogs. John and Deanna graciously opened their home up for the team. The umbrellas were up which reminded me of this song.

While NHL tries to fix Coyotes franchise, the Lightning are about to blow

Bad news for Gary Balsillie yesterday in Phoenix - the bankruptcy court will be holding an auction in August for parties interested in keeping the team in Phoenix. Only if that process is unsuccessful will an auction be held for parties wishing to relocate the team. Word out is that Jerry Reinsdorf will be submitting a bid. So unless it is an absurd low ball offer, he has the team.

So while the NHL has been burning up dollars to keep the Coyotes alive, the Tampa Bay Lightning are falling apart. A year ago new owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules were the talk of the NHL with their numerous trades and free agent signings. Today they aren't even talking to each other. The split is destroying the team. It seems Koules wants to likes GM Brian Lawton, wants to trade Vincent Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Meanwhile Barrie has different ideas. He would like to get rid of Lawton, thinks the team should build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million. These aren't minor differences with the free agent season beginning in one week and Lcavalier's no trade contract kicks in.

If you thought it was bad when Dan Boyle called them liars, or John Tortorella described them as cowboys or Barry Melrose accused them of being meddlers, then this is worse.

Ticket sales have been awful and they are bleeding money big time. Supposedly they are meeting with Gary Bettman to try to iron out their differences. At this point the ideal situation would be for at least one of the owners to sell off his share of the team. Otherwise this could be the next franchise to go bankrupt - calling Jim Balsillie!

Ex-Leafs in the playoffs

Eleven ex-Leafs made appearances in the 2009 Stanley Cups, including six who were on the team last season (2007-08). Sundin, Wellwood, and Gill were the only ones who played on a team that advanced at least one round.

Below is a table of all ex-Leafs who played in the 2009 playoffs, including former draft picks who never actually played with the Toronto Maple Leafs (Brad Boyes and Shawn Thornton, the latter who seems to like to shoot the puck).

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts
Mats Sundin	VAN	8	5	3	8
Kyle Wellwood	VAN	10	1	5	6
Brad Boyes	STL	4	2	1	3
Nik Antropov	NYR	7	2	1	3
Hal Gill	PIT	24	0	2	2
Fredrik Modin	CLB	4	1	0	1
Alexander Steen	STL	4	0	1	1
Shawn Thornton	BOS	10	1	0	1
Mathieu Schnieder	MTR	2	0	0	0
Michael Peca	CLB	4	0	0	0
Carlo Colaiacovo	STL	4	0	0	0

Happy Fathers Day Storm Nation

The battle to sign Jonas Gustavsson

It appears to be a 4-way battle to sign free agent Swedish goaltender Jonas Gustavsson between Toronto, Colorado, San Jose and Dallas. Gustavsson just completed a tour of the 4 NHL cities and some people are saying the Leafs have the leading contenders (mostly Toronto media I suspect). Every team has had the big guns out trying to win him over. The collective agreement caps entry level salaries so money will not be the deciding factors. His representatives have indicated that he does not expect to be a starting goalie and realizes it would be better not be a starter right away. But he would like lots of playing opportunity. Here is what Gustavsson has been looking at:

Dallas Stars

Fabian Brunnstrom is a good friend of Gustavsson's has been talking to him. Les Jackson was the man who won the recruiting battle to sign Brunnstrom and has directed the Stars' recruiting effort with Gustavsson. Also a big player has been Stars goaltending consultant Andy Moog, who visited Gustavsson in Sweden with Stars scout Johan Garpenlov. Everyone is getting the Swedes out to meet with Gustavsson. The Stars have not been happy with their backup goaltending which means too much work for starter Marty Turko. Dallas would like to have a backup play 20-25 games. Turko who is 33 will be a UFA at the end of the season is using up $5.7 million of salary cap space.

Colorado Avalanche

It has been confirmed that Peter Forsberg has talked to the goalie and so have other players though Avs management isn't saying who. He also met with new coach Joe Sacco, and team management. The Avs have no goalie at the moment having decided not to bring back Peter Budaj or Andrew Raycroft. Colorado acknowledges they are not the front runners and are the only ones able to offer a starting job right away. It is well known that this franchise is currently a mess.

San Jose Sharks

Starting goalie Evgeni Nabokov is also 33 and on the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $5.375 million. Backup Brian Boucher is a free agent. There’s a connection between the Sharks and Joe Resnick, the agent who represents Jonas Gustavsson. Resnick and John Thornton, brother of center Joe Thornton, are the two co-founders of Top Shelf Sports Management. Who knows if that means anything here.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Maple Leafs have gone all out in the hunt of "The Monster" as Gustavsson is referred to. Brian Burke has already met with him several times. The Leafs had fellow Swede Jonas Frogren talk up the team with Gustavsson. Leaf legend Borje Salming had a word with him. But the Leafs feel their ace in the hole is goalie guru Francois Allaire who has already had the opportunity to work briefly with Gustavsson.

Heatley not coming to the Leafs

Slow news day, not to worry. Just shove a microphone in Brian Burke's face and count to three. You are bound to get a headline.

Sure enought Brian Burke blasted Dany Heatley and his agents for the way in which they handled his trade request.

“We’re not going to be in on that,” Burke stated. “He’s a good player but I have certain guidelines on how players ask for trades.”

“When you have players come ask you for a trade, I tell the players ‘don’t finish that sentence,’ because once you ask, I’m going to move you,” Burke stated. “If a player wants out, you’re darn right I’m going to move you. I’m not kissing anyone’s ass to play in my town, so to hell with you, don’t finish the sentence. My second rule is if I hear about this, you’re not going anywhere.”

“For a player to pop off and say he wants out or leak it (to the media), in my mind you are now no longer interested in your team. If you’ve done that you’ve handicapped them, you’ve handcuffed your GM.”

I'm not a big Dany Heatley fan despite his obvious regular season numbers. He is likely a team chemistry killer.

Now I tried to check out trades made by Burke to test his rule. There is already some debate that he has contradicted himself on the Pronger trade. Pronger had asked Edmonton for a trade and some say it was Oiler GM Kevin Lowe that informed the media of the request. While others suggest Pronger's agent, Pat Morris, had been quietly spreading the word around to other GMs and it eventually leaked to the media. Either way the media will be closely scrutinizing Burke's deals (as if they wouldn't otherwise).

Stanley Cup gets around

The Stanley Cup wound up this week in Mario Lemieux's pool. However, this isn't the Cup first dip in Mario's pool. In 1991, Stanley was found at the bottom of Lemieux's swimming pool, a feat later duplicated by Avalanche goalkeeper Patrick Roy. There have been many other unusual trips experienced by Lord Stanley's Cup.

In 1996, Colorado Avalanche defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre had his daughter baptized in the cup.

In 1980, New York Islander Clark Gillies allowed his dog to eat from it. Ranger Ed Olczyk did Stanley a little more honor when he let 1994 Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin eat from it.

In 1906, members of a Montreal club took the cup to a local photographer. Pictures were taken but the cup was forgotten. It wasn't until weeks later that hockey officials found that the photographer's mother was using the cup to plant geraniums, which were decorating the studio window.

In 1905, some Ottawa Silver Seven players, reveling in their championship, decided they could punt the cup over the Rideau Canal on the Ottawa River. The water was frozen, and at the time the cup didn't have so many rings around the bottom, so it wasn't much larger than a football. The trophy was recovered the next day on the ice.

In 1924, some Montreal Canadiens left the Cup on the side of the road. They were en route to the team owner's house for a victory party and pulled over to fix a flat tire. They didn't realize until after they arrived that they had left the cup roadside. After a frantic ride back, they found it untouched, a mile and a half from the party site.

Will we get a Penguin-Red Wing rubber match next spring?

It doesn't get much more exciting than this year's Stanley Cup finals. No over-matched sweep this year. It came down to a last second sprawling chest save by Fleury on Lindstrom to decide this series. The win by the Penguins is also a win for the NHL. A young flashy team with two of the top stars in the league. I can just see the NHL marketing department spinning this all summer.



So I'm thinking why wouldn't these two teams meet again next year in the finals? First you have to look at the salary cap situation. Both teams have their top players locked in (Crosby, Fleury, Malkin, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Lindstrom)for the next few years. The rest of the players are all replaceable. Just look at the the players the Penguins lost last season but it didn't seemed to have mattered. The Red Wings will likely move out some older players but who has more organizational depth than Detroit?

I can't wait.

It's back to the drawing board for Gary Balsillie

I've had this feeling from the start the Judge Redfield Baum was not going to make a ruling outside his court's jurisdiction. He repeatedly directed the parties to negotiate but to no avail. Lets face it, bankruptcy judges are not going to rule on anti-trust matters. You have to bring those suits before the proper court. So those the majority who voted in my poll last month turned out to be wrong.

Most laypeople like myself interpreted some of the criticism aimed at the NHL by Judge Baum as siding with Balsillie However, that was not the case. While noting that the case raised many unique legal issues, Judge Baum sided with the league on most of the issues. The judge said the Coyotes had a contract to play in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb, and Balsillie’s offer would violate that contract. I understand the type of bankruptcy filing in this case requires that all existing contracts be honoured.

So where does that leave Gary Balsillie. He has several options as I see it:

• Submit a new bid to purchase the team but it couldn't include a relocation requirement. Then sue the NHL under anti-trust law. Though that has been tried before and failed.
  
• Appeal the decision but a successful appeal is unlikely.
• Try purchasing another team under distress. There quite a few of these around but somehow I suspect the NHL will reject him as an owner.
• Start winning over existing NHL owner one at a time. When he has enough support then go after a franchise at that time.

Stanley Cup playoffs do alright on NBC

The numbers below are in millions. The are dwarfed by the Super Bowl and the World Series but for hockey in the U.S. they are decent. Not close to a record but if you drop the two games on Versus (games 3 and 4) then the NBC only average is 5.4 million which is still not at record levels but enough to get the NHL happy that have been chasing NBC.

Game	Viewers
1	4.51
2	5.33
3	2.96
4	3.45
5	4.28
6	5.45
7	7.51
Avg.	4.78

The hockey Gods have not been kind to Marian Hossa

NHL has never collected a relocation fee

When Judge Renfield Baum suggested that it was quite reasonable for the NHL to receive a relocation fee to move the Coyotes to Hamilton he likely caught everyone by surprise. The NHL has had numerous franchise moves but has never requested a fee. However, Judge Baum was likely aware that other sports team do collect a relocation fee. When the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, there was a $45 million relocation fee. The Judge understands that if an agreement can be reached on a relocation fee then that might go a long way to resolving this dispute.

There are suggestions that the fee might be as high as $300 million which would include indemnification for Toronto and Buffalo. That price would be highway robbery and would create quite the precedent. My research suggests that the six recent relocations did not include a relocation fee. However, when the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey in 1986 they did pay an indemnification fee of $35 million. That stands as the highest amount paid by an NHL franchise. In 1972 the expansion Islanders paid an indemnification fee of $4 million. In 1993, the Ducks refused to pay Los Angeles an indemnification fee but Gary Bettman was so desperate to have Disney as an owner that he game half of the $50 million dollar franchise fee to the Kings. The highest expansion fee collected by the NHL has been $80 million.

So the NHL may very well be using a form of extortion in order to get its blessing for a move to Hamilton. Of course, Gary Balsillie can always walk but most people doubt he will.

YEAR	TEAMS	FEES
1967	California Seal Los Angeles Kings Minnesota North Stars Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins St. Louis Blues	$2 million (Ex)
1970	Buffalo Sabres Vancouver Canucks	$6 million (Ex)
1972	Atlanta Flames New York Islanders	$6 million (Ex) + $4 million (Ind – NY only)
1974	Kansas City Scouts Washington Capitals	$6 million (Ex)
1976	Kansas City Scouts became Colorado Rockies	None
1976	Oakland Golden Seals became Cleveland Barons	None
1979	Edmonton Oilers Hartford Whalers Quebec Nordiques Winnipeg Jets	$6 million (Ex)
1980	Atlanta Flames became Calgary Flames	None
1982	Colorado Rockies became New Jersey Devils	$35 million (Ind)
1991	San Jose Sharks	$50 million (Ex)
1992	Ottawa Senators Tampa Bay Lightning	$50 million (Ex)
1993	Minnesota North Stars became Dallas Stars	None
1993	Florida Panthers Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	$50 million (Ex)
1995	Quebec Nordiques became Colorado Avalanche	None
1996	Winnipeg Jets became Phoenix Coyotes	None
1997	Hartford Whalers became Carolina Hurricanes	None
1998	Nashville Predators	$80 million (Ex)
1999	Atlanta Thrashers	$80 million (Ex)
2000	Columbus Blue Jackets Minnesota Wilds	$80 million (Ex)

MakeItFive.ca

You've heard about Jim Balsillie's website MakeItSeven.ca which is intended to bring together grassroots support for an NHL team in Hamilton. Well someone has cleverly developed a tongue-in-cheek parody called MakeItFive.ca. The website is supposed to be created by Roger Jolie, the French-Canadian billionaire and CEO of Swashbucks Entertainment Group, Inc., who wants to purchase the Toronto Maple Leafs, and relocate the organization to the AHL, lowering the number of NHL teams in Canada to five.