Jay Bouw to Calgary, Heaters to Edmonton....

*UPDATED*













I will learn to hate you Bouwmeester

So I wrote something earlier for Cycle Like the Sedins for their Free Agent Special, (which I'll post the link once it's up), but one of the questions was: "What is the one thing that I did not want to see this free agency?" I think that would be Jay Bouwmeester signing a 5 year contract with Calgary! I shudder at the thought of Jay Bouw and Phaneuf shutting down Vancouver's top lines 6 times a year! I can only hope now that salary cap revenge will get you Calgary...please do enjoy that 6.6 million dollar cap hit.

On another note, "sources" tell TSN the trade for Heatley to Edmonton for Cogliano, Penner and Smid is all but done.

C'mon Mike Gillis. You need to sign the Sedins or pull off some miracles tomorrow. I want to be saying 'In Gillis I Trust' tomorrow....

Update at 9:30pm PT:
It now seems that Heatley has not waived his no trade clause for Edmonton...

21 hours to free agency...

Gillis flew to Sweden (on the same flight as JP Barry)...
Met with the Sedins and gave his final offer...
Is on the way back to Vancouver...

and now we wait for the Sedins to decide...

CKNW is reporting that the Canucks have given Wellwood a qualifying offer and he will have until July 5th to accept.

Around the NHL...

Well it's been nice to get back into hockey from my little mini hockey vacation. I'm excited to get some hockey news from now till the free agent frenzy is over in early July, because after that it'll be pretty slow in the hockey world until training camp...what is that, only 78 days away? (I'm so making that number up by the way). For those of you who haven't hear about the moves that were made before/during the draft, here's what you missed:

• Pronger (with forward Ryan Dingle) was traded to the Flyers for D Luca Sbisa and Joffrey Lupul and two 1st round picks, and conditional 3rd round pick (if they win the cup). The Flyers overpaid. This is the second time that Lupul has been traded for Pronger. Pronger is in the last year of his contract, and this doesn't guarantee a contract extension with the Flyers, which makes the Flyers have a lot of pressure for this to be THE year. But Carter and Richards are still young, why is there so much pressure on this year being the year for the cup? Won't there be a few chances at it with this core? Whatever, that means Pronger is out of the western conference and now Lupul can party with Getzlaf instead of going to frat parties in Philly with Richards
• Niedermayer tell the Ducks he'll be back for another season yesterday. Today, Selanne does the same.
• J-Bouws rights have been traded to Calgary. Doesn't mean he'll sign there, but if he does, have fun with that salary cap there Calgary.
• Luongo was at the Canucks draft table, he also made selection for Schroeder (and mispronounced it). Cue Luongo's agent denying whatever there is to deny.
• TSN keeps writing stories about nothing. Gillis met with the Sedins' (and half of the league's) agent on Friday night. No news, this reminds me of the amound of 'news' they kept writing about Sundin for months last year.

I was hoping for more trades before the draft...only the Pronger one happened, but hey thats fun to write about, and now we can all hate the Flyers even more.

If you did watch the draft, was is not too freakin long? 4 hours? C'mon...enough with the speaches, just make the pick. I did have great girls to girl out over the selections with, but if I hadn't, I would have lost interest around #12. First 3 went as expected: Tavares, Hedman and Duchene.

If you didn't check it out, James at Cycle Like the Sedins had a Draft Preview from tons of homer bloggers (yes, even me), you can click on the link here. I'll be participating in his Free Agency Frenzy stuff with a Canucks take, so I'll throw up the link once it's up.

Canuck Draft Picks: Day Two

The Canucks have finished their picks for Day Two of the draft
-Anton Rodin, Swedish RW, selected 53rd overall (2nd round)
-Kevin Connauton, D, selected 83rd overall (3rd round)
-Jeremy Price, D, selected 113th overall (4th round)
-Peter Andersson, D, selected 143rd overall (5th round)
-Joe Cannata, G, selected 173rd overall (6th round)
-Steven Anthony, LW, 187th overall (7th round). This pick came from a trade from Vancouver to Phoenix for Shaun Heshka.

I don't know any more about these players than you do. If you really are interested, check out their info at the the Canucks website.

Canucks Select Jordan Schroeder at 22nd Overall

The Canucks picked a forward (C) from Minnesota. After John Moore was picked at 21 (CBJ traded up), Gillis selected the next best player available

-He's 5'8" and 180 lbs, which makes him look huge, but still short

-represented the US at the 2008 and 2009 IIHF World Junior Championships

-played for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers

-Bob McKenzie calls him a steal at 22

Oh and it's pronounce "Shray-der". For more info about him check out the Canucks website.

Luongo to long term contract?

H/t to Wazzupwitchu for telling me first, ESPN's John Buccigross told Pratt and Taylor today that Luongo has agreed to a long term extension that will be officially announced July 1st!

Link to the Team 1040 story here.

Egads. I have no words. I hope this is for real.

Of course Luongo's agent has already denied it. But he also can't confirm it until July 1st....so I'm crossing my fingers.

Draft Preview

**UPDATED**










Vancouver is picking at #22. I'm not going to do a draft preview for the Canucks because I have been lazy while enjoying my time off from hockey and blogging...and I will revisit that again in about a week or so, but right now some hockey stuff.

For draft stuff I recommend to check out Cycle Like the Sedins' draft preview. He has a blogger from almost every team to give their thoughts, which in true CLS fashion, has both insight and humour. I'll update this post when the one for the Canucks goes up.

So here is the link to my take on the Vancouver Canucks and the draft...CLICK IT! DO IT!

NHL Awards - Luongo and Kesler

I turned on the NHL awards for all of 5 minutes...they had Robin Thicke performing...oh it was cringe-worthy in that 'cringe because I'm embarrassed for you way'... I couldn't bear to watch anymore...but Luongo wont the Fan Fav award!


















Our boy Kesler didn't win the Selke, but he was a pretty dashing man in his photo:

















Yowza...He does rock the suit rather well..

Do you know who else was looking rather cute?














That's the look he gives just be for he robs you....

Some more from the NHL awards:



















And this one is of Kelser yesterday doing motion capture for NHL2K10 at Caesars Palace

Sergei Shirokov signed?

Nothing confirmed yet, but the Bleacher Report is saying that the Canucks have signed one of their Russian prospects, Sergei Shirokov, to a two year deal. The Province is calling this a deal that has been agreed in principle. Shirokov led CSKA Moscow in points and was considered to be a steal in the 6th round of the 2006 draft.

More on this later when it has been confirmed.

Video's to watch during the summer...

The 1st video has a little something for every hockey fan...

CBC 2009 Stanley Cup Playoff Video


SCF Game 7 Intro Video


SCF Game 6 Intro Video

Wooooo! Penguins WIN!!!!

Wooooooooo!!!! Pens win! MAF=UNREAL. Woooo! Talbot=Superstar!!!! Woooo!!! sjklafjklda!!!! Stanley Cup Champions!!!! Woooo!

This and That around the NHL

Just in case you live under a rock:
The Penguins won Game 6! Woooooo! Fleury was unreal tonight, and when he wasn't, Scuderi was.

Game 7 will be on Friday in Detroit. Dinner plans are postponed (at least till after the game). Now all I just have to do is get through another 2 day break without going crazy.

Around the NHL:

• The Flyers have called a news conference for tomorrow to announce the one-year contract they have signed with Emery. I'm sure in addition to speeding tickets, we will be seeing many Emery appearances at frat parties at Temple with his new BFF's Richards and Carter.
• Dany Heatley has asked for a trade out of Ottawa. CBC mentioned tonight during the idesk that he has requested a trade to the Western Conference. He has just finished the 1st year of his 6 year contract, which gets me thinking, why do teams/players sign long contracts only to want to get out of them right away? Anyways, may the bidding wars begin with the Kings, Oilers, Wild, Canucks...Sharks...who's team hasn't been thrown around today in the NW or Pacific division?
• In court today, the judge decides that the NHL is entitled to a relocation fee if Jim Balsillie wants to move the team. The NHL could ask for a $100 million relocation fee...Balsillie's lawyer Freeman suggested that Balsillie will walk away if the $100 million is approved in court.
• Oh, and Brent Sutter stepped down as head coach in NJ, and has traded the NHL for Red Deer, until he decides to go work for his brother in Calgary...
  

No Hockey = The Bachelorette

Did anyone watch the Bachelorette tonight? I did. That's what happens when there is no hockey on Mondays....I start watching the Bachelorette... Tonight's episode was cool because it was in Vancouver....but that's not the point about why I'm writing about it.

Have you seen the the bachelor named Jesse? He's the winemaker from California. His pic on the abc website doesn't really do him justice...neither did the pageboy hat that he sported tonight with his purple shirt...but he looks remarkably like Bieksa....
















well not 100% in that photo...I'll have to find a better photo of Jesse (with some chin scruff) to demonstrate what I'm referring to...but rest assured, Bieksa still rocks the snarl way better than Jesse ever could...

Side thought: Mike the Pizza Entrepreneur? Does that mean he is a pizza delivery guy? just a thought...

CBC SCF Game 4 Video...

Because I'm in love with these videos...and so should you...especially that smoldering look from Letang...and that stick hit on bum of some red wing by Fleury...

SCF Game 4 = all tied up

So great game tonight with the Pens taking the game 4-2

• 3 goals in 5 minutes and 37 seconds which included a shorty from JStaal
• Beautiful passing that led to Crosby's goal (1 goal, 1 assist)
  
• Fleury was a superstar tonight with 38 saves and a 0.949 save percentage

I'm currently looking for the cbc intro to this game...they have been doing a good job with their montages, so when I find it, I'll update this post.

Around the NHL:

• Mike Chen has written a great read on What Does Gary Bettman Actually Do? It makes you actually think about who he's working for and how many of those crappy ideas are not actually his
• The Avs have named Joe Sacco (who?) their coach. He was a coach for their AHL affiliate for the past 2 years. Good for him, but again, who? Based on what their roster looks like, good luck with that Sacco.
• A 'mystery group' claims to have $1 billion in private financing, and will have a presser tomorrow, to reveal their 'vision' for an expansion team in Toronto...

All quiet on the Canucks front...

So not much has happened in Canuck-world lately....since Rypien's extention, it's been pretty quiet in the Canuck camp. I expect we should be getting some news soon about contract extentions and such since we still have Kyle Wellwood, Shane O'Brien and Jannik Hansen as RFA's coming up to July 1st and a slew of UFA's that I think we'll hear about before or on July 1st.

I didn't expect that we would hear much this past week as Gillis was at the NHL combine in Toronto on the weekend and then was at the GM meeting in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Vancouver Sun reports that the Canucks will begin contract talks with the Sedins in the next week or two...and Kyle Wellwood's agent says he expects talks to happen in late June.

But since there is no news, I would like to say Woooo! for the Pens last night....what a game. I felt like I was willing Talbot to score....and Letang! Marc-Andre Fleury played a solid game as well, which makes this now actually feel like a series. Loved the 20 seconds of 6 Pens on the ice and no call...good job refs.

News around the NHL:

• The Moose have tied up the series against the Hershey Bears and it's now 1-1. The series now moves to PA for Game 3, 4, and 5
• It's reported that Emery will be the starting goalie for the Flyers next season..which will be trouble if he starts going to frat parties with Richards and Carter next year...underage trouble, maybe with a speeding ticket or two. So the next question will be: where is Biron and Nittymaki signing?
  
• Tony Granato has been finally fired as coach of the Avs

Malkin presser from today about Talbot (=superstar):

Canucks cap seats for season ticket holders

So I missed this article that appeared through cbc news a couple weeks ago, but I saw a cdc post about it when I was on the Canucks website today so I figure better late than never.

It seems that the Canucks have sent advisals to some season ticket holders who have more than 4 seats. They have been advised that for the 2009 season they will not be eligible to renew all of their tickets.

The "ticket holder" that brought this "news" to cbc is a ticket holder who has 24!, count 'em, 24 seats! So he is a ticket broker, so this will take an effect on his business....but he says that he is doing the interview to help 'inform' the public about what the Canucks are doing to their season ticket holders. He throws around the word loyalty.

So what are the Canucks doing? The are capping the number of season tickets per person at 4 which would allow more of the fans who are paying to be on the waitlist an opportunity to get tickets. The waitlist is estimated to be a 6 year wait right now. This move looks like it is being done to reduce the number of scalpers who resell tickets, and you know what Mr. 24 seats ticket holder, I think it's freakin fantastic that you will only be allowed to have 4 tickets next year. I'm sure that you will find a way to obtain tickets again, but right now, with such a demand for tickets, this is the right move for the FANS.

If those ticket holders would like to splurge, maybe they would be interested in the Top Shelf Club tickets....prices starting at $230 dollars per ticket....which include all inclusive food, non-alcoholic beverages and a raw bar of food....which means it's gonna be a good bet there's sushi available...

CBC SCF intro video...

Just in case you missed it, cbc had a great intro video on Saturday night for the finals...which was way better than their 'dos equis' intro that they had on Sunday....