Comments / New

FlightZone: Kings Pay Pauper’s Price for Ehrhoff

As per the unequalled Bob McKenzie, Christian Ehrhoff and the LA Kings have agreed to a one-year deal, with the number later revealed as $1.5 million. Unsurprisingly enough, our friends at Jewels From The Crown sound quite pleased with this development.

Christian Ehrhoff probably won't be the player he used to be, and injuries are undoubtedly a concern. But for a team which paid a significant price for 16 regular season games of Andrej Sekera, not to mention the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Slava Voynov, he's a fine addition and a cheap one to boot. And here's another way we can look at it: is he a worse option than Robyn Regehr?

Now is a perfect time to introduce our new segment, Blight On The Land, where we look at how our very own arby_18 has recently rustled your jimmies on Twitter:

And now the news.

All Central Division, All The Time

This list of Chicago's Top 5 prospects is greatly strengthened by the continuing presence of both Marko Dano and Teuvo Teravainen, though the rest are fine players in their own right. I for one am very curious to see what Artemi Panarin can do in a scoring role at the NHL level. (The Hockey Writers)

Through the team's victory and his own game winning goals, Antoine Vermette changed what could have been a very ugly narrative for everyone involved. (The Hockey News)

"A bit of a strange ride" is a rather apt description of Mikhail Grigorenko's post-draft career thus far. Our friends at Mile High Hockey seem to be setting the 2015-16 bar for him at 3rd line and 30ish points, both of which sound completely fair. (MHH)

Dallas Stars GM is determined to expose his team's kids to winning. Enter Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya and Antti Niemi. It doesn't hurt that all three can play hockey, either. (Dallas Morning News)

Newsflash: Devan Dubnyk's continuing success is of some importance to the Minnesota Wild. (RantSports)

It's been easy to forget that James Neal's 2014-15 season was actually a little underwhelming. His potential bounceback, coupled with Cody Hodgson's role and Carter Hutton's ability are the three questions facing Nashville according to Robby Stanley. I might have gone with having 35 year olds as your top-two centres or the 25th ranked power play, but that's just me. (NHL)

The forwards of Nashville's supposed Top 5 prospects aren't the biggest or beefiest collection of players, but they all seem fairly able at putting the puck in the net. For the team's sake, one hopes that Jimmy Vesey doesn't skedaddle to free agency following this his last season at Harvard. (NHL)

We better start getting used to the names Dmitrij Jaskin and Petteri Lindbohm, as they're all set to play more prominent roles for the St. Louis Blues in 2015-16. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Yesterday was Jets day on ProHockeyTalk, and here is the content they provided:

My favourite quote comes from the last link: "For all the future talk, it’s a make-or-break season for the current crop of key players. Byfuglien is 30, Ladd is 29, Blake Wheeler is 28 and Bryan Little is 27. Those core players aren’t ancient, but management probably needs to see them win some playoff games (or even series) to justify keeping the band together." James O'Brien with the mic drop, ladies and gentlemen.

Last but certainly not least, Jan Kostalek and his agent Patrik Stefan read Arctic Ice Hockey, confirmed:

And A Few Scattered Others

Here are the twenty best players set to become unrestricted free agents in the 2016 offseason, according to Jared Clinton of The Hockey News. It's a damn good list, but how many of these names do we actually expect to hit free agency? Five, maybe? (THN)

The IIHF has fined the Russian Hockey Federation $80k in Swiss francs, after many players (but not all, including exceptions in Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Viktor Tikhonov and Dmitry Kulikov) as well as coaches and training staff departed the post-game ceremonies early. Good. (IIHF)

Eddie Lack recently had himself inked with the visage of a taco. No, seriously:

Mike Cammalleri thinks Leafs Nation should be excited about the addition of Lou Lamoriello. That's all well and good, but if Lou's presence ends up costing them either Mark Hunter or Kyle Dubas, the torches and pitchforks should be out in force. (Sportsnet)

And finally, Phil Kessel laid his heart bare on Twitter, in a short and sweet farewell to Toronto fans. I hope he scores 50 and Pens fans shower the ice with hot dogs:

Thanks for reading!

Looking for an easy way to support Arctic Ice Hockey?
Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch this holiday season!

Talking Points