NoHockeyitis

Well after 3 months here goes my second blog

Lets see we have now reached mid June-A month and a week after the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley cup-Month and three and half weeks after the Stars were eliminated by the soon to be champs-and 3 months and week and a half since the Mudbugs last skated. Ooo how time goes by.....Slowly!

Unlike years ago, free agency in the NHL has exploded all over the news. With teams trying to fit under the cap and other teams trying to rebuild, it has become a hot topic to follow through the summer. The story of the summer has to be the Tampa Bay Lightining. After finishing the 2007-2008 season in last place and new ownership coming in and firing head coach Tortella; the summer was not looking good. They then hired Barry Melrose to replace Coach Torts and suddenly it looked like the Lightning where becoming the joke of the NHL. Then comes draft day. They picked up Steve Stamkos with the first selection in the draft. Then signed Ryan Malone, Mark Recchi, Adam Hall and Gary Roberts after their run to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Penguins. After that they went out and brought Vaclav's Prospal back to Tampa. Extended Lecavalier and picked up Radim Vrbata from Phoneix and Brandon Bochenski from Boston. Whew. Thats a long list and thats just what they did up front. For the backside they went out and signed free agent Olaf Kolzig and extended Mike Smith to guard the nets. They traded away their all-star defenseman Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich for Matt Carle and Ty Wishart and a firt round draft pick in the 2009 draft. They signed Janne Niskla from Philly and Andrew Hutchinson from the AHL Champions Chicago Wolves to man the defensive lines. Talking about busy, this new ownership just went out and bought a new team. With the signings seeming to slow down this all looks good on paper. It will atleast be one of the top 3 offensive teams in the NHL but the back side seems to be paying the price for it. Not to mention they are being coached by a guy whose been on ESPN since 1996 and hasnt coached since 1994. This will be the team to watch through out next season though. Should make for some good story lines.

Other big free agent signings include

Brian Campbell and Christabol Huet to Chicago
Sean Avery to Dallas
Pavol Demitra to Vancouver
Todd Bertuzzi to Calgary
R.J Umberger to Columbus
Rob Blake to San Jose
Satan and Fedotenko to Pittsburg
Marian Hossa to Detrioit
Jose Theodore to Washington


Onto the other hot topic in the NHL and hockey is the new Conteniental Hockey league or as the Russians call it, the KHL. This league is being created by Alexander Medvedev, a Russian Billionaire, to replace the Russian Super League. The League is starting with 24 teams in September and is supposed to be up to 30 in 09-10. This league has started to to go after NHL superstars like Evegeni Malkin even as they're still under contract in the NHL. Last week there was a report that Alexander Radulov of the Predators has signed a contract with a KHL team and plans to jump while he is still under contract. This is after a story reported the day before that the NHL and KHL will respect each other's contracts. One thing I have learned in my short life time is don't trust the Russians. The NHL does see this new league as a threat as the KHL has no salary cap and have been throwing wads of money at NHL players. The NHL has supposively been doing some work behind closed doors to help defend itself. With the U.S dollar weakining I fear that there is not too much they can do. The weakened U.S dollar has also affected minor league hockey in America and has not skipped the Mudbugs. Days after Joe Ori signed with the Mudbugs he opted for a bigger contract in Europe. Many CHL players have signed with teams in Europe before him and I'm sure there are more to follow. This is sure to weaken the quality and legitamacy of the league and the future is not as bright as it once was.

Other NHL defects include Martin Straka, Ray Emery and Jarmir Jagr.

So here goes another month and a half of no hockey before training camps start up. This is where news will start to slow down and excitement and the hunger for hockey builds up. The worst time of the year.

Good day and hope you have a great offseason everyone!