Remember that story yesterday about how the Blue Jackets are chalking last season’s injury devastation to bad luck? Have a looksie at their man-games lost since 2001 (for comparison’s sake, according to mangameslost.com the Winnipeg Jets came 15th with 232 games lost in 2014-15):
#CBJ man-gms lost by season: 01: 176 02: 155 03: 199 04: 213 06: 289 07: 290 08: 233 09: 343 10: 275 11: 244 12: 411 13: 137 14: 297 15: 508
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) July 19, 2015
And now the news.
Central Division
Even amidst the Great Purge of 2015, Chicago Blackhawks line combinations still have no trouble sounding dangerous. Anisimov-Kane was to be expected; it's the hypothetical third line built around Garbutt-Teräväinen which I find mildly terrifying. (ProHockeyTalk)
When listing five games to look forward to in 2015-16, our frenemies at Mile High Sticking didn't circle any dates with Winnipeg on the calendar. Offense taken. (MHS)
Interesting hire to announce, as the Colorado Avalanche have brought very-recently retired Brian Willsie aboard in a player development capacity. (ProHockeyTalk)
Reading news of Sergei Zubov joining the Russian national team as an assistant coach prompted me to check some other Dallas Stars of old. And holy geez, Ed Belfour is already age 50, while Jere Lehtinen is a relative spring chicken at 42. (IIHF)
Our friends at Hockey Wilderness are mulling over what difference a healthy Jason Zucker could have made in the playoffs. A part of me wants to pull them out of this "What if?" rabbit hole, but it's Minnesota. (Hockey Wilderness)
Craig Smith's five year deal at $4.25 million per strikes me as eminently fair and agreeable to both sides. He'll be making $150,000 less than Mike Fisher, which is pretty good for a player whose most common linemates 5v5 were actually Filip Forsberg and Mike Ribeiro. (Yahoo! Sports)
It's going to be a fun season seeing what three-man units teams deploy during the new overtime format. The Milwaukee Admirals "exclusively used two forwards and one defenseman", but I'm looking forward to which NHL team will be the first to trot out a three-forward super squad. (The Tennessean)
Breathe a sigh of relief people: Troy Brouwer says that he's not going to try and be T.J. Oshie. I presume he's planning on leaving that to Ty Rattie. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
The Jets are already not a cap team, and one wonders how much of an impact the falling Canadian dollar will have on their budgetary ability to keep pace with rivals in the Central. Chicago is a given, but St. Louis, Dallas and Minnesota aren't shying away from spending money either. (The Province)
It's a Week of Dustin Byfuglien over on the Jets' official website. I can only assume that this is leading up to his contract extension press conference:
This week, we’re all about Dustin Byfuglien! Check out some of his 2014-2015 highlights >> http://t.co/Ri65w6EFKI pic.twitter.com/dlDzI2Mrqs
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) July 20, 2015
And All The Rest
One almost gets the impression that Peter Chiarelli changed the locks and pulled down the curtains on former Bruins Head Coach, General Manager and President Harry Sinden. But never fear: Sinden days are here again! (ESPN)
This footage of the Columbus Blue Jackets draft table is as close to must-watch hockey TV as you’ll find during these dog days of summer. And as a companion piece, Aaron Portzline‘s Twitter feed has a great breakdown of the events depicted. I am endlessly entertained by the CBJ table’s reaction to Tim Murray drafting like a boss. (Jackets TV)
Speaking of Columbus, they supposedly have interest in Christian Ehrhoff but live in a post-Saad world of cap space limitation. Anybody interested in a more-than-slightly used Rene Bourque? He can be yours for only $3,333,333. (BlueJacketsXtra)
It's hard not to feel a bit for Mark Jankowski, who didn't draft himself at 21st overall in 2012. But that sounds like I'm writing his career obituary, which would be outrageously premature. We still have no idea as to what he'll be at the professional level, and the Flames seem quite content with allowing him time to develop. (NHL)
With news that Pavel Datsyuk could possibly be out until sometime in November, the solid Brad Richards signing is looking even better all the time. (MLive)
Glen Sather has been the face of the Rangers for such a stretch of time that for a lot of younger folks, it’s easy to forget he won five Stanley Cups with the Oilers. He was right smack-dab in the middle of their glory years, and it’ll be fitting to see his banner raised to the old Northlands Coliseum rafters. (TSN)
Martin St. Louis has been fighting to succeed for a very long time now. It's for this reason I can find it very believable that, when faced with continuing his career elsewhere, he reached the realization that his "heart wasn't in it". (Yahoo! Sports)
Larry Brooks gives us his Mount Rushmore for all 30 NHL teams. I'll tell you right now that there's a pretty egregious omission on Winnipeg's granite face, and it may rhyme with 'Seemu Pelänne'. (NY Post)
News of how Devils prospect Pavel Zacha had an impressive development camp is all well and good, but I found the transfer fee details to be most interesting. Since July 15th has come and gone, New Jersey will have to pay Liberec $100,000, and he'll need to be under contract by August 18th to be eligible for 2015-16 at all. (Fire and Ice)
Jeremy Roenick is fairly high on Jakub Voracek, and this is one instance where it's hard to disagree with him. Goodness knows what Voracek's going to rake in on his next contract, though. (CSN Philly)
The Pittsburgh Penguins could really use some cheap forward depth right about now, and Oskar Sundqvist is more than happy to oblige. He apparently looks to emulate Marcus Kruger, who is pretty good so far as 4th line role models go. (CBS Pittsburgh)
After almost a month, Toronto officially announced hiring Steve Briere as the team's new goalie coach. The curveball came when they simultaneously named longtime Kings and Red Wings spotter Ari Vuori as Director of European Scouting. That's an intriguing hire right there. (Maple Leafs Hot Stove)
And finally, is this wave of expansion an automatic failure if two teams are awarded and neither is Seattle? Considering how this would still equal $1+ billion for the league in expansion fees, I'm not so sure. (The Hockey News)
Thanks for reading! Be sure to say in the Comments section below just who would go on your Winnipeg Jets Mount Rushmore.
