More notes and thoughts as the National Hockey League gets ready for it’s annual game of musical chairs:
• Spoke to Matt Keator, the agent for Calgary unrestricted free agent (UFA) Chris Higgins, Wednesday morning.
Most times, when a player is about to go unrestricted, agents are less interested in discussing his former team. But Keator went out of his way to say that both Brent and Darryl Sutter — Calgary’s coach and GM respectively — had called Higgins to say good things. We’ll assume the Flames are a fall-back for Higgins, who shouldn’t expect to be that hot a commodity on Thursday. He’s scored only 20 goals combined the past two seasons combined.
• Keator also has Pavol Demitra, and figures he’ll be able to get him an NHL contract this season.
"He was the leading scorer at the Olympics. He’s a good player," Keator said. Demitra did indeed lead the Olympics in scoring, but in his next 28 games — the remainder of the NHL season and playoffs — Demitra produced just 4-14-18 for the Vancouver Canucks.
Keator admits the KHL is an option for his client. We’d add Ducla Trencin, his first pro team back in Slovakia.
• The Penguins without Sergei Gonchar? How strange would that be?
For the past five seasons he’s been the engine that drives that offence from the back end. The Sergei Zubov of the Eastern Conference – an underappreciated runner of power plays, with a first pass that defines the overused term "makes a nice first pass."
It’s one thing when a team is as weak on the wings as the Pens are. (Sounds like Bill Guerin will go UFA as well.) But if they lose Gonchar, along with Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill from their Stanley Cup winner, GM Ray Shero will have to work some magic on his blueline if he wants to get back up on top in the East again.
• Agent Steve Bartlett on the UFA crop: "It’s not a bountiful harvest (of high-end guys). There is less and less cap space with lots of teams…less buying. It’s supply and demand. There could still be a frenzy for some guys like (Dan) Hamhuis, but I suspect teams will be a lot more patient."
• Philly settles, signing Mike Leighton to a two-year deal worth just $3.1 million. Good for Leighton, a journeyman who finally gets to put some money in the bank.
But what about the Flyers?
Another year with a major question mark in goal in Philly. The hockey Gods have seldom smiled on the crease at Broad Street.
• Hockey without Rod Brind’Amour? It’s not going to seem the same, for a reporter who broke in as an NHL writer in the late ‘80s, right when Brind’Amour was an up and comer in St. Louis, in a dressing room that included the little known Brett Hull and Curtis Joseph.
Talk about a hockey player’s hockey player. The league won’t feel the same without Brind’Amour in it. He played 1,484 games with just three franchises before retiring on Wednesday, one of the most well respected players of his time.
No Brind’Amour, no Rob Blake, no Keith Tkachuk, no Kerry Fraser… Mike Modano wearing a different uniform (Detroit)? Guess nothing lasts forever.
• Nice deal Edmonton makes for Jim Vandermeer. They need experience and toughness on their blueline, especially with Sheldon Souray being shopped hard.
Vandermeer’s a 30-year-old from nearby Caroline, AB — the cattle country home of figure skater Kurt Browning — and will make the Oilers that much tougher to play against. Inch by inch, GM Steve Tambellini is making Edmonton better.
• I’m betting Colby Armstrong ends up back in Pittsburgh if Shero wants him. He was crushed when he was traded away the first time.
Armstrong was tight with Sid Crosby.
• Nigel Dawes likely to be bought out by the Flames today? For an $850,000 cap hit he scored 14 goals. I always kind of liked the guy…
• More buyouts than we can ever remember. Todd Fedoruk gets paid out by Tampa. Robert Nilsson officially bought out in Edmonton. Georges Laraque is looking for work, after the Canadiens bought him out. A few others in New York…
One buyout that won’t happen is Cristobal Huet in Chicago.
At $5.625 for two more seasons, the Blackhawks will get more relief by burying his salary in the minors and eliminating it from their cap completely. Chicago has lots of money — it’s cap space that is scarce.
