Posts Tagged Steve Mason

The Guy who won’t sign … Elias hoping for Kaberle … Neal and Stars not close

  • Helene Elliott of the LA Times: Ilya Kovalchuk left Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon, his agent stayed to have more talks with GM Dean Lombardi, but left last night without a deal in place. There were rumors that the talks were off yesterday, but also rumors that things were progressing. The Kings wouldn’t say anything. I can’t wait for all this to be over, I’m getting tired of reading/writing about it, sign for $8 million and be done with it.
  • Chuck Gormley of the Courier Post: With the re-signing of Daniel Carcillo yesterday, and with the Darrol Powe still remaining, the Flyers could be about $2.75 million over the cap. Simon Gagne is most likely on his way out according to reports, the LA Kings, Maple Leafs and Rangers showing interest.
  • Rich Chere of the Star-Ledger: Patrick Elias throws out his 2-cents saying the Devils should trade for Tomas Kaberle. He also thinks that Petr Sykora should get a tryout with the team. He hasn’t heard from Kovalchuk, and doesn’t know his intentions.
  • Pierre LeBrun via Twitter: Maple Leafs still listening to offers for Tomas Kaberle according to source in the front office.
  • Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: Heika believes the Stars have offered James Neal a 2 year deal worth $2.5 million a season, but Neal wants more money and a longer term. He isn’t sure what the Stars want to sign Nicklas Grossman for. They’d probably like to keep Matt Niskanen at his $900,000 qualifying offer. Heika doesn’t think any will get an offer sheet, and they could let Neal sit out part of training if they have to as they have plenty of left wingers.
  • Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe: Blake Wheeler’s arbitration hearing is set for July 27th, but both sides would like to avoid it. They are expected to go to arbitration with recently acquired Gregory Campbell on the 22nd.
  • Tarik El-Bashir via Twitter: The Capitals and Tomas Fleischmann are “talking” according to GM George McPhee, but didn’t sound like anything was imminent.
  • Aaron Portzline via Twitter: Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson hasn’t had any contract extension talks with the Steve Mason or Jakub Voracek, but hasn’t ruled it out for later in the summer.

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Around the Boards: Halak or Price? Wheeler out of the Bruins lineup soon? Grabovski and Primeau out for Leafs, Selanne and Getzlaf back soon

  • Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette: The Montreal Canadiens seem unsure on how to handle the trade/no-trade/re-sign situation with goalies Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price. Halak had started 6 of 7 games, after not really playing for close to a month. Halak trade rumors have quieted down the last couple weeks. Both goalies have shown they have the ability to be a #1 in the NHL, but then both have shown they could be #2’s in the league.
  • Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe: With the newly signed Miro Satan, and Milan Lucic getting close to returning, Vladimir Sobotka and the struggling Blake Wheeler could find themselves out of the Bruins lineup.
  • Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: The Maple Leafs have 9 UFA and 4 RFA this year, and Burke will be paying close attention to all. Some will probably be re-signed, and others might be trade bait at the deadline. Matt Stajan and Vesa Toskala will be at the top of the list.
  • Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: The Maple Leafs will be without centers Mikhail Grabovski for 6 weeks with a broken wrist, and Wayne Primeau for 2-to-4 weeks with a knee injury. Center John Mitchell is now healthy and ready to go. Richard Wallin will mostly be back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch.
  • Eric Stephens of the OC Register: Teemu Selanne (out for over a month) and Ryan Getzlaf (out a week) should both return later this week. That is good news for Ducks fans and Corey Perry, who has only 1 goal and 5 points in the last 13 games. The Ducks have also called up center MacGregor Sharp.
  • Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch: Columbus has been going with a ‘win and you’re in’ policy with goalie Steve Mason and Mathieu Garon since mid December. Mason has played well of late so this policy will be void, at least temporarily.

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Around the Boards: Last chance for Redden? Liles on the Block? Whitney to Bruins?

  • Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal:
    • The Colorado Avalanche are shopping John Michael Liles around the league. Liles has 2 1/2 years on a 4 year, $4.1 million contract.
    • Jaromir Jagr will be a UFA next year, and might have an interest in heading to Edmonton.
    • The Bruins may make a push for winger Ray Whitney at the trade deadline for a 2nd round pick. Philadelphia is another possible destination.
  • Brian Costello of The Hockey News: This is not an actual trade rumor, but Costello thinks that a Jason Spezza for Dion Phaneuf could work out for both teams.
  • Larry Brooks of the NY Post: Wade Redden get another chance to impress John Tortorella after sitting out 2 games, and possibly avoid a demotion to the AHL.
  • Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: 20 year old Blue Jackets goalie is no longer the undisputed #1 goalie on Columbus. Mason has been pulled in 5 or 28 starts and is sporting a 10-12-5 record, .887 save percentage and 3.41 goals-against average. Mathieu Garon is 4-3-2 with a .908 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average.
  • Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News: Players in Philadelphia that have no-trade/no-movement clauses: Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, and Chris Pronger.
  • Tim Sassone of the Daily Herald: Cam Barker is day-to-day with a lower body injury.

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Frustration in Fantasy Hockey

There are 2 things in fantasy hockey pools that can be so frustrating, injuries and shutouts. Long term injuries to key players, especially early on in the season, can be really frustrating.

In the 1st week and half fantasy players have seen Andre Markov and Johan Franzen go on the shelf for up to 4 months. If you have both, you’re season may be over before it really got started.

If you’ve done a ‘pick from a box’ type of pool and had one of them, your odds of winning have dramatically dropped. Any type of long term injuries in one of those pools where you can’t interchange players, I wish you luck.

The latest player to be out, albeit for not as long Markov and Franzen, is Daniel Sedin of the Canucks, who’s gone for 4-6 weeks with a broken left foot.  Though he may be back in a month or so, it may take a little longer for him to get going after recovering from a broken foot.

Getting back to why shutouts can be really frustrating. After seeing one of your players get seriously injured, having a backup goalie get a shutout while you have that teams starter, has to be the next most annoying thing in fantasy hockey. It’s not as bad for teams that have goalies that split time (which seems like plenty of NHL teams are doing so far), but when you goalie usually gets 60-70 starts in a season, it makes you want to throw you computer mouse across the room. Stephen Valiquette was the last goalie to do this, with a 3-0 shutout last night. Antti Niemi of the ‘Hawks and Mathieu Garon have also recorded shutouts. In all 3 cases, the teams #1 starter has yet to record a shutout.

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NHL Awards

All the news from the NHL awards

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