the marcus nilson affair: hmph...

so the official word on marcus nilson is out ---he's signed with russian club locomotiv (not CKSA, as initially reported). the flames will pay him a million bucks but it won't count against the cap.

this is, presumeably, a loophole in the CBA that will have more stipulations in the future. and he's apparently getting more dough from the siberians.

training camp starts tomorrow ---the folks governing season ticket holders have once again put out an invitation to watch: this time with all the popcorn and pop you can handle in the avison young lounge on saturday afternoon !!!

;)

in other news.... ;)

i had some to kill at the airport today, and went into the fan attic to find out how many bertuzzi jerseys they've sold.

um. none.

why, you ask ?

well, apparently the folks at the fanattic (owned by the calgary flames organization, i might add) are not printing bertuzzi's #7 because they're "waiting to see if he has an opportunity to take 4 or 44."

hm. interesting.

if you ask me, there is zero possibility that bootuzzi will get into jim vandermeer's #4. but i think it's fascininating that someone in charge of such things still thinks #44 will come available before the start of the year....

that's all !!!

baby flames v. baby greasers

this game was painful to watch on the internet. so i did alot of listening and far less watching.... BUT

- kyle greentree left on a stretcher after getting hit from behind. this does not bode well...
- john armstrong is effin' good. he's seriously mobile like backlund (or juice or foppa). he is my horse for sure, alebeit a longshot for the QC this season.
- matt pelech either had a terrible game, or he's just not a good hockey player. i'm gonna bank on the former but it was pretty much shocking. other than delivering the night's biggest hit, the monster looked absolutely awful (penalty, losing pucks, falling down etc). he will not be happy with that outing and i expect he'll bounce back on monday.
- mikael backlund is effin' good.
- brett sutter scored the game's only goal, shorthanded, topshelf: keeping on a 2-on-1.
- dan ryder is glad to be back, you can just tell...
- john negrin is effin' good.
- keetley was rock solid when he had to be and ended the night with a well-earned shutout.
- tj brodie and mitch wahl are ones to watch
- greg nemisz is effin' good.

so what once seemed an empty cupboard actually has some viable prospects !!!

oil country rookie tourney: baby flames

i just took in the first hour of the flames' rookie camp this morning at the saddledome, so there's not a whole lot to tell. plus i was only paying half attention cause i was with a friend of mine and her one-year-old, who was pretty stoked about the hockey (and therefore sucking up a lot of attention)....

the only news is the lines and pairings i saw towards the latter half of the practice, which is (presumeably) how the kids will line up in camrose. admittedly, i'm missing some players so i'm not sure if they were absent or just off my radar (for some reason).

greentree - backlund - nemisz
bouma - armstrong - watt
grantham - ryder - cracknell

pelech - brodie
negrin - aulie
jonsson - wilson
baldwin - cole


[sutter - carpentier - seitsonen ?]
[tremblay ? wahl ?]

i look forward to seeing how the boys fare in camrose....
:D

the marcus nilson affair: final story

i am not gonna write much today cause i'm actually working (!!!) but i wanted to make a note about marcus nilson being released by the flames and signing with CKSA in russia.

thanks to stu hackel for the shout out on the slapshot blog, and the informative article on the situation. also huge thanks to shep for the swedish press link here.

too bad eriksson didn't want to go to russia...

baby flames start practice tomorrow at 10am @ the dome. i'll be there. anyone wanna join me ?

the marcus nilson affair: answers...(sortof)

with further information coming out regarding marcus nilson, but very little in the way of solid answers, i decided to enlist the help of the guys over at the NY times slapshot blog. they seem to have quite a good understanding of KHL/NHL relations, and post almost daily on the new goings-on, mostly with the radulov situation. the complete void over there regarding nilson seemed to be an oversight, considering the potential fallout of nilson not showing up to camp and trying to sign with the russian club that he's reportedly practicing with...



my comment this morning:
"a lot has been made of the radulov situation but it’s been extremely quiet on the marcus nilson front… in north america, that is. quite a few articles have been published in the swedish papers, recently, outlining that nilson is practicing with a KHL club, though still under contract with the flames….

i thought i’d bring it up here because you guys seem to have a pretty good handle on the KHL/NHL dealings, of late, and i’m fascinated with watching the nilson situation unfold. it’s the story of a guy who was a healthy scratch for most of last season, and who the flames put on waivers in june (but never bought out). a guy who doesn’t want to return to the team in 08/09, and a contract the flames should want to shake.

calgary could certainly stand to lose nilson’s million from the cap, and if nilson wants out (which seems to be the case) can this contract just be scrapped ? if nilson signs with CSKA moscow, will there be radulov-like fallout ? will sutter force nilson to honour his contract with a year in the quad cities, or suspend him for not showing up to camp ???

i wish i was fluent in swedish…. ;)"


stu hackel's response this afternoon:

"You are 100 percent correct (or maybe, since this is hockey we’re talking about, it should be 110 percent): We have written little or (in my case) nothing about Marcus Nilson, and it’s an oversight. Frankly, it’s been pretty time consuming to pour over the Russian sports press daily and figure out what has been going on with both the birth of a new league and the fractious relationship that league has with the NHL. Those are two major topics; they may concern individuals, but they are connected with very large issues. In Nilson’s case, it’s more about this individual player, so I’ve regrettably let him slip past and I’ll try to keep a lookout for news on him from now on.

As for what the Flames can do with his contract, it just can’t be scrapped. He has to be bought out or traded or assigned to the AHL. I don’t know for certain but I suspect they tried to trade him (that’s sometimes why teams put players on waivers, so see if anyone is interested) and had no interest.

Can he sign with CSKA? The short answer is no — because he has a year remaining on his Flames contract. And since the KHL has instituted a moratorium on signing players who are under contract with NHL teams, they won’t do that (unless they feel the NHL has been signing KHL players again, in which case they will drop their moratorium).

Nor can the Flames trade or sell him to CSKA. There are no mechanisms for that at this time and the NHL is not in favor of club to club dealing like that and will strongly oppose that in the negotiations of any future transfer agreement.

In Radulov’s case, the KHL says they had no formal moratorium in place at the time of the signing, even though Medvedev had said publicly (and privately) that the KHL would not do that. They contend that in the absence of a transfer agreement, they were not bound to honor the NHL contract when Radulov was signed. That’s the essence of the discrepancy that has to be decided.

If Nilson doesn’t report, I suspect he’ll be suspended, but unlike Radulov it doesn’t seem as if he’ll have a place to play. I’ve read where Sutter would like him to report and fight for a job in camp. It’s probably in Nilson’s best interests to do so.

Thanks for the comment and question. We’ll keep an eye out for news on Nilson."


*********************

i think right now it's a nothing story. nilson will probably not show up to camp, be suspended and informally retire (at least for the year). potentially, however, it will get effin' interesting....

*********************

in other news:

the baby flames land in calgary today, play golf tomorrow, fitness test friday and start practicing saturday morning at the 'dome....

the preseason is just around the corner... !

early lineup predictions: part deux

i have a lot of time on my hands and i do a whoollle lotta thinking about what the calgary flames will look like as the 08/09 season starts. i did some lineup predictions last week, but i must admit there is a part of me that's been second guessing the top line....:

option #1:
bertuzzi - langkow - iginla
this is the way i see it going down in reality.

option #2:
cammalleri - langkow - iginla
if your team only has two natural RWs, why put them on the same line ??? demote bertuzzi to the second unit and chuck cammalleri in here on the wing for some added speed and finesse.

option #3:
bertuzzi - cammalleri - iginla
i seriously doubt that langkow will get bumped from the top unit, but if cammalleri and iginla show some chemistry, why not give him a spot here at centre, leaving bertuzzi around to shovel in the garbage ??

uhhhh, that's kindof it for now.

i'm guessing that the rookies probably start camp sometime this week, on the ice over at the 'dome. i'm only presuming they'll get a couple of practises in before heading up to camrose on the weekend.

the marcus nilson affair: questions

everyone's new favorite blog reader, shep (who joins us from sweden), has been posting some interesting comments lately about the plight of marcus nilson and, to a far lesser extent, anders eriksson.

initially he linked to a fabulously translated article dated june 26th, but yesterday shep did all the work for us, quoting from an article on sportbladet.se, published september 2:

****************************************

"Calgary stops Nilson from fleeing
"They refuse to buy out me"
At Calgary - against his will.

Marcus Nilson forced back to Canada.

-- I was hoping that Calgary would buy out me. But they refuse, said Nilson.

Now begins the majority of NHL pros to go over to North America to prepare for camp and the season.But the Calgary Flames Marcus Nilson, World Cup players this spring, is not satisfied with stepping on the flight across the Atlantic next week.

-- I was not playing so much last year and had hope that Calgary would buy me out. But they refuse. Now I do not know really what is happening, said Nilson.

...The reason for the schism between Nilson and Calgary is spelled Mike Keenan. Keenan has decided to Nilson does not belong to the Flames future.

-- It will not work between me and Keenan. Just accept that and work on, says Nilson.

He does not know is where to play hockey in winter. The Russian league is an alternative, if the Calgary Flames drop Tre Kronor player"

**************************************************


i believe this story was also reported yesterday morning on the fan960. but it does pose an interesting question, with all of the current international transfer agreement stuff:

if marcus nilson wants to play in russia, currently he can't because he's under contract with an NHL club. i believe the rule is "hockey clubs [from different international leagues] would show 'mutual respect' for players currently under contract."

the confusing part (to me) is as follows:
while darryl sutter waived nilson late in june, he did not buy out his contract. WHY ???
- is he still hoping he'll get a return on the veteran in a nilson-for-player/prospect/draft pick deal ?
- does he intend on forcing #26 into a flaming C (or flaming QC) in 08/09 ?
- is he trying to send a message to the team that HE, and nobody else, will dictate the state of player contracts, no matter how much complaining ??
- is he just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk ??
- does he LIKE being over the cap ???

on the other hand, if nilson wants out of his contract and the flames ALSO want him out of his contract, without nilson having to retire from hockey, i have NO CLUE what happens. can the contract just be terminated ??? does it have to have NHL approval ??? is there compensation of some sort ???

and DAMN why couldn't we be in this predicament with eriksson instead ??!?!


[shep: you should really start your own blog...]

the top ten greatest flames of all time

i was trying to figure out what to watch tonight, and while was flipping around the networks, i found a 1/2 hour TSN special called "the top 10 calgary flames of all time." because i've vowed to start writing more leading up to rookie camp, camp, preseason & actual hockey, i will share a liveblog for you folks (sortof):


#10
håkan loob
my initial disgust at his low standing gave way to pure nostalgia in listening to ed whalen announce his goals. and you can be sure there were some nifty ones in the highlight reel... of course, if i was writing this list, loob would find himself at the top, but i suppose i'm happy other people (other than duncan) thought to include him at all....

#9
gary suter
there's no doubt this was a homerun as a flames draft pick. the guy won the calder and had a all-round solid career; in an 80's-era interview here, he described his ability to score as 'too many of the other guys covering macinnis.' nice one, gary. probably a bit of an understatement....

#8
joe niewendyk
um wow. this guy was effin' good, kids.
(and speaking of joes, i sure loved joey mullen)

#7
kent nilsson
uhhhhhh... not much in the way of highlights here, hunh tsn ? i remember loving kent nilsson in the early eighties (the way i loved willie plett): i couldn't tell you a thing about his game, but at about six years old he was a favorite. it was so fun to watch him play that i'm fairly certain my love for the swedes is rooted here, not to mention my love for a good moustache. ;)

#6
mike vernon
that was some seriously nice feathered hair, and the guy could stop a puck, to be sure. hometown boy makes good. yep....
but as tsn's #6 player on this list, how the hell did the calgary flames organization deem him worthy of jersey retirement ??!
(i've historically posted my issues with this and needn't go into them again now)

#5
gary roberts
"consistant," said coach dave king back in the day of roberts. yeah. no doubt. a couple decades-worth of consistancy, i'd say. and with the strangest mix of linemates: leeman - fleury - roberts in one highlight, makarov - niewendyk - roberts in another. ha. amazing... and i'm not even talking about the mullet.

#4
jarome iginla
after breaking all those franchise scoring records, i'm not sure how iggy ended up at #4 but who am i to doubt that the top three are gonna be better. apparently he did a lot of good things in that black horsehead sweater -- there's sure a lot of highlight reel footage in the third jersey (goals, fights).... oh, and iggy ? the baby dreads were not a good look. (fyi: the signature hand pump was not included).

i can only presume the top 3 are (in no order): macinnis, fleury & lanny.

#3
al macinnis
whoah. beauty slapper, hey ? whatta bullet. god it would be nice if our current top blueliners were the calibre of macinnis and suter. too bad they didn't even bother to show him with the conn smythe (although they DID bother to mention it)....

#2
theoren fleury
how can you not smile while watching this guy play ? even while on a regular shift with paul ranheim, theo still managed to put a few in the net. THAT is skill... and the post-goal celebrations ? pure magic...
i wonder if the fist-pumping was comparable after he hit a single for the calgary vipers a few weeks back ???? no ? well, at least THEY had the wherewithall to retire his jersey....

#1
lanny mcdonald.
listen, nobody's gonna argue that lanny belongs here, or that peplinski - otto - mcdonald is the kind of line that legends are made of. the classic highlight of lanny scoring the cup winner and celebrating on the right boards ??? poetry.

[but let's not forget that håkan loob was on the opposite wing !!!!]

it's a bit sad that there is only one current player in this top ten, and that there's only one or two others on the roster or in the system that would ever be momentarily considered as even remotely possible to bump anyone off of it.

*sigh

newsflash: miracles CAN happen !!!

i'm still waiting to hear confirmation of a crossed Ts and dotted Is, but the press is reporting it's essentially a done deal: bryan mccabe, and his double-cheek-checking, overrated, overpaid, underperforming #24-ness, has actually been dealt to the florida panthers for mike van ryn and a draft pick or so.

here, the leafs get rid of a defenseman the public and media have deemed useless, replacing him with a younger, cheaper blueliner (who will inevitably be put under the proverbial blue-and-white microscope and thoroughly humiliated in the next few years).

no matter how you look at it, dumping mccabe is no short of a miracle.

[which means it's still possible to get rid of eriksson and warrener....]