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NHL Off-Season Review
September 25, 2003
Story by: Navin Vaswani
September is just about over and although
it's almost playoff time for Major League
Baseball, pre-season hockey dominates the
sports headlines here in Canada.
Meaningless hockey games consisting of
jobbers who will open the season in the
minors are way more important than nerve-wracking
pennant races.
Really, they are. Screw baseball. Don't
get me wrong, I still support the Jays,
it's just that they suck. They clinched
third place in the American League East
division for the sixth year in a row. First
of all, I didn't know they kept track of
teams "clinching" third place
and second, when's the parade?
Hockey's back baby. A lot has changed and
a lot hasn't. The off-season was very interesting,
as will be the coming season. It could be
the last NHL season for a while.
Hurricane "Labour Dispute" is
heading our way and is projected to hit
next September. It's predicted to do some
serious damage.
The collective bargaining agreement in
place between the owners and the players
expires Sept. 15, 2004. The owners want
a salary cap and revenue sharing. The players
are telling them to shove it.
Nobody knows what will transpire. We can't
dwell on it. I'm sick and tired of these
disputes in professional sports. If hockey
learned anything from baseball, they better
not go on strike.
I'm just looking forward to some hockey
this winter.
The summer has been full of activity as
teams look to grab the Stanley Cup out of
the hands of last year's champs, the New
Jersey Devils…
Sergei Fedorov is a Duck, but he's shed
his "red" wings.
Vinny Prospal is quacking too.
Dominik Hasek is back! Thankfully, Mario
Lemieux is too.
Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne walked hand-in-hand
into Colorado and signed contracts for practically
nothing. They make a good couple.
Chris Drury is a Buffalo Sabre. For the
first time in my life, I heard someone say
they were happy to be going to Buffalo.
Drury's weird.
Derian Hatcher joins Nicklas Lidstrom,
Chris Chelios and Mathieu Schneider on Detroit's
defense, with Hasek tending goal. Yeah,
that's fair.
Patrick Roy retired but Stevie Yzerman
and Mark Messier couldn't hang their skates
up just yet. They're coming back for more.
The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure, is grounded
with serious technical problems. His knee
is ridiculously torn up and rumour has it
me might be forced to retire.
Eddie Olczyk is younger than a lot of guys
in the league, but he's taking over behind
the bench in Pittsburgh. What a mission.
Poor Eddie's hair is going to be grey by
December.
Felix Potvin is now tending goal for the
Boston Bruins. If cats do have nine lives,
Felix is going through all of his hella
fast. This poor guy really gets around.
Two of hockey's best players in the early
90's, Eric Lindros and Jaromir Jagr, were
reportedly close to being traded for one
another this past summer. Washington needs
huge numbers from Jagr and Lindros has a
lot to prove in New York.
Lindros is supposedly in excellent shape
after working tremendously hard this summer
but it's going to be a hefty task getting
the Rangers into the playoffs.
Roman Cechmanek is now a Los Angeles King.
I'm not sure what they're smoking out in
La La land, but how is Cechmanek an upgrade
in goal over Potvin? They're both garbage.
The Kings are also welcoming back, for
a third time, lucky Luc Robitaille. A class
act, but here's a case of a guy who just
doesn't know when to let go. Retire already
Luc!
Philadelphia, who traded the unpopular
Cechmanek, signed Jeff Hackett as their
#1 goalie. Hackett has never won anything
in his life, but Bobby Clarke believes he
will take Philly to the promise land. Another
brilliant move by Clarke; chalk it up next
to John Vanbiesbrouck.
Leafs fans celebrated the departure of
Jonas Hoglund, who signed with the Florida
Panthers. Wow, the Panthers must be desperate.
John Ferguson Jr. was named the new General
Manager of the Leafs and somehow, he managed
to get Robert Svehla to file his retirement
papers. It was a miracle.
Toronto also welcomed Bryan Marchment and
Joe Nieuwendyk to the fold. I guess the
Leafs felt they were a little old, so they
brought in some youth in Marchment, 34,
and Joey, 37.
Unfortunately, Robert Reichel remains a
Leaf.
Carolina has quietly acquired Bob Boughner,
Danny Markov and Glen Wesley to shore up
on defense. They give the Hurricanes a very
talented and underrated defense core.
Jose Theodore, still a member of the Montreal
Canadiens, needs to talk to his Hells Angels
buddies about "lending" Montreal
some much needed cash, so they can get some
decent players. Bob Gainey, Montreal's new
GM, is never going to win another Cup with
the Habs.
The league and the fans said goodbye to
two future hall of famer's recently, as
Doug Gilmour and Mike Richter retired. Class
acts, on and off the ice; they will both
be missed.
Due to Hurricane "Labour Dispute",
a lot of quality NHL players are without
contracts as training camps have already
begun.
Dmitry Yushkevich, Bryan Berard, Ken Klee,
Adam Oates, Steve Thomas, Adam Graves, and
Phil Housley are just a few of the players
who are looking for work.
Oleg Tverdovsky and Jamie Storr, two qualified
and talented NHL players, have signed contracts
to play in Russia this season. Unfortunately,
this proves how serious the upcoming labour
dispute could be.
As you can see, a lot went down this off-season.
The 2003-2004 NHL regular season kicks off
on October 8th. I can't wait. This was the
off-season review; stay tuned for my season
preview.
Oh yeah, one more thing.
Curtis Joseph's a backup! HAHA!!
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