Usually, I applaud teams for signing young core players for multiple years, allowing a successful team (in this case, a Stanley Cup winning team) to maintain chemistry and consistency, but there is a lockout ongoing. Read more »
Nick Obergan - Hockey Analysis
Grading The Deals: Hypocritical Bruins Extend Three
Redoing The 1999 NHL Entry Draft
The 1999 draft was the one that GM Brian Burke has built his entire career around, acquiring both of the Sedins for the Canucks. Read more »
Grading The Deal: Oilers Extend 2010 1st Overall Pick Taylor Hall
The Oilers should be elated about locking up an important piece of their puzzle in Taylor Hall, but the one worry is health. Read more »
Grading The Deal: Flyers Buy High On Hartnell, Simmonds
Power forwards Scott Hartnell and Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers were recently rewarded for career years with a new six-year contract each. Read more »
Grading The Deal: Hurricanes Sign Jeff Skinner Long-Term
The positive momentum has yet to stop for the Carolina Hurricanes this offseason. After trading for and extending Jordan Staal, signing Alexander Semin to a no-risk one-year contract, GM Jim Rutherford announced the team had come to terms with former Calder Trophy winner Jeff Skinner on a long-term deal. Read more »
Redoing The 1998 NHL Entry Draft
Pavel Datsyuk was drafted 171st overall in 1998, but would go first if we redo the draft, even ahead of Vincent Lecavalier. Read more »
Grading The Deal: Rangers Steal Rick Nash
The Blue Jackets chose quantity over quality in their long anticipated trade of Rick Nash. Read more »
Grading The Deal: A Wild Day For Parise, Suter
The Minnesota Wild came out as big winners in free agency by Zach Parise and Ryan Suter Read more »
Grading The Deals: New Deals For Crosby, Quick et al
Breaking down the big contracts signed by Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Quick, Ondrej Pavelec, Cory Schneider, Dennis Wideman, Jarret Stoll and more. Read more »
Grading The Deals: Draft Weekend Trades
The Jordan Staal trade by the Penguins to the Hurricanes went down as the biggest move of an eventful weekend. Read more »
Grading The Deal: Seans Give Karlsson Huge Extension
The Senators did not have to make Erik Karlsson the highest paid at his position in the league, and this did not drag out all summer and into training camp. Read more »
Top-10 Unrestricted Free Agents For 2012
Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are the best two players available in free agency, giving teams who need a forward or blueliner excellent options. Read more »
Redoing The 1997 NHL Entry Draft
All in all, this draft produced a couple of likely Hall of Famers (Thornton, Hossa, Luongo) and some others who have had very productive careers that saw them earn All-Star and Olympic berths. Read more »
Improving The Lightning: Goaltending
If Tampa can get near-All-Star goaltending, they would return to being a big threat in the Eastern Conference, and even average goaltending would get them back into the playoffs. Read more »
Improving The Jets: Goals Against
The Jets averaged the exact same number of shots for and shots against, yet were outscored by 21 goals on the season. Addressing their goaltending situation, while spending to improve their defense should help them take a step forward next season. Read more »
Improving The Hurricanes: Secondary Scoring
Should they spend $5M-$10M on two or three secondary forwards to alleviate the scoring pressure that falls on Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner, the Hurricanes could make a positive step forward next season. Read more »
2012 Stanley Cup Finals Preview
The Kings ability to have a total of 18 off days by winning all of their series early will prove to be the difference as their forwards will wear down the New Jersey defense faster than the opposite can happen. Read more »
Improving The Wild: Finding Goal Scorers
It seems to be a recurring theme, but the Minnesota Wild simply do not score enough goals to be a playoff team (they averaged a league-low 2.02 goals per game). That was supposed to be fixed entering this season with the additions of Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi. But it is clear that the talent level up front is not up to par. Read more »
10 Players Potentially Traded This Offseason
This summer is poised to have one of the shallowest pools of quality free agents in years, but the trade market is flush with opportunities to change the landscape of the NHL. Read more »
Five Cents After The Second Round
The top seed in the East has struggled through two seven game series against the eighth and seventh seeds, while the bottom seed in the West has dispatched the top two seeds in nine total games. Read more »