Final offseason update (?)

Well, I figured I ought to post before it goes an entire month without hearing from me. Luckily, the offseason is almost complete and I shall switch into true hockey mode. It helps, of course, that my college football team has already tanked, so the only distraction from the coolest sport on earth will be that pesky thing called "school".

Anyways, this week the Canes named Rod Brind'Amour Director of Forwards Development, finally finding him the position that they had guaranteed him when he retired earlier this summer. Definitely a good fit, I'm sure that he'll try to instill some of his famous work ethic in our younger forwards. I'm also really glad that he stayed with the organization - for he did have a long and significant stay with the Canes.

And it seems to be fitting to wrap up the summer with what is hopefully the conclusion to the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle. I believe the last time I posted, the NHL rejected his contract. Well, they accepted a new one, and added a section to the CBA to prevent teams from creating similar contracts. Now, the league has fined the New Jersey Devils $3 million and two draft picks - their third round pick in the upcoming draft and a first round pick sometime in the next four drafts. A pretty steep penalty which shows that the league is serious about protecting its salary cap.

But, if the Devils win the Stanley Cup sometime in Kovalchuk's tenure, I'm sure they'll think it's all worth it.

So that's the end of the offseason, or close enough - there's only 6 days until the Canes play their first preseason game! Promise, promise, promise that I will pick up the posting frequency!

Man, it's boring around here

Well, it's been a while since I posted... primarily because there has been absolutely nothing interesting going on.

But to make it up to my loyal readers, here's a picture of an astronaut raising the Stanley Cup:

See, it's an away jersey because it's on the moon! Get it?

This is the reason you should not let me get near image editing software of any kind.

Anyways, I suppose some things have gone on, just nothing that is even remotely Canes related. Kovalchuk's contract was rejected by the NHL, but that story has dragged on far past its fifteen minutes in the spotlight (more like a three hour epic movie), so I'm pretty much uninterested. Other than that debacle, not much has gone on in the league, making for a pretty boring summer all around.

And, unfortunately, summer for myself is ending (although the offseason will continue to drag on) with a trip to college tomorrow. What does this mean for this blog? Well, I'm not entirely sure. Last year I attempted to post continual game recaps as I always did, but I think I fell short a little bit in that. This year I'm thinking maybe a weekly recap with the occasional post when something major happens. The goal is to give relatively timely updates and maybe increase the quality of said updates. But the season is still far away, so I'll see how that plan shapes up when it gets here...

And I'll definitely try and post more hockey and/or space themed clip art. Because that's looking awesome up there...

Canes reveal red logo

Canes news of the day is the revealing of the 2011 All Star Game logo.

And, uh, there's a lot of red.

Artist's rendering of Canes All-Star Logo

But other than that it looks fine, I think. It's not groundbreaking, but it's not too horrendous that I won't consider buying some memoribilia with it on there.

Also newsworthy today is the NHLPA filing a grievance protesting the NHL's rejection of the Kovalchuk contract. From here, the deal goes into arbitration, with the results being the contract being legit or Kovalchuk being a free agent again.

Only problem? They have to decide on a arbitrator. Which, of course, will drag out this saga even longer. Although I'm not complaining too much, as it does add some spice into this rather droll offseason.

Updates whenever something interesting happens, per normal.

There goes the hopes for a Kovalchuk-free summer...

Soooooo, I take back that last post about Kovalchuk. Not because I said something that I now disagree with, just that the NHL rejected the 17-year monstrosity last night.

The reasoning behind the NHL's rejection is that the last few years at $500,000 were only tagged on to lower the overall cap hit on the contract - that no one really expects Kovalchuk to play into his forties.

Which, I think, is kind of obvious to all of us. But, why was Kovalchuk's contract rejected but Marian Hossa's of last year accepted? My theory is that the NHL wanted to nip these sorts of contracts in the bud before they become standard. That, and they really dislike the number seventeen.

Of course, none of that makes sense. Which is what will make what happens after this all the more interesting. Will the Devils submit a better, more realistic contract? Will the NHLPA file a grievance? Will Kovalchuk make it to the market again? All I can say is that summer just got a lot more interesting...

Kovalchuk finally signs

Finally, it has happened!

Ilya Kovalchuck, the biggest-name free agent on the market this year, has finally signed with a team.

And, man, this contract is a doozy. 17 years, $102 million to stay with the New Jersey Devils. This is another one of those "front-loaded contract" deals, where the player only ends up making league minimum for the last few years of the contract. Kovalchuk will be 44 years old when this contract expires.

It's hard to say how I feel about this. I think signing players for such a long time is almost always a stupid idea due to the prominence of injuries in the NHL. And, somehow, Kovalchuk's name doesn't readily come to mind when I think of players in the league I am certain will be consistent for almost two decades in the future. I mean, the guy's only won one playoff game.

I guess I think that, while Kovalchuk is a good player, he doesn't seem like the superstar that I think deserves the money-loaded long contracts (i.e. Sid Crosby or AO).

But, who knows, maybe he'll live up to his contract, now that he's not playing in Atlanta.

As for the Canes, they convinced Riley Nash to give a big "screw you" to Edmonton and forgo his playing career at Cornell to join the big leagues. (And to be honest, I wouldn't want to live in a place that cold either). The Canes also signed Brett Carson to a two-way deal, meaning that all the small parts are getting aligned for this next season.

Kovalchuk's signing will likely create some movement in the free agent market, and although the Canes are highly, highly unlikely to do anything, at least the summer won't be so boring for so long.