BlueJackets land Chara from the Devils

Columbus, OH

Columbus BlueJackets President and General Manager has announced that the team has traded forwards Brad Boyes, Chris Bourque and two early draft choices to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defenseman Zdeno Chara.

Chara, 29, is quite possibly the best rearguard in the league and his youthful presence, hulking size and great instincts will be a huge part of the future for the Blue Jackets. Brad Boyes, 25, was shocked by the news, " I was really shocked, i got the call late in the evening and didn't even believe it. I guess part of me is excited to play for a new team, but I will miss Columbus and the great fans there, I will of course miss my teammates."

Senators Re-sign Everyone!

I know this may sound familiar, but trust me, the CLUTCH Senators are not the NHL LEAFS!

The Sens are coming off their best season since GM Schmucky took over the team, so, make that 3 Schmucky seasons and the last awful season under the previous GM. Thus, it is the best season in AT LEAST four years! So, why not sign everyone back?

Selanne comes back for another season after contemplating retirement. He is looking to be a FORCE on a line with Hartnell, who also inked a one year deal. It's debateable who will join these two. Will it be Jeff Friesen? He is probably the front runner heading into training camp but let's not forget about youngster Alex Semin who is coming off of an incredible Junior season and his rerate makes him one of the top three Senators in Scoring ability.

Other notable signings include Goaltender Chris Osgood who inked what is expected to be his final deal in CLUTCH as the 33 year old locks into a 4 year deal with the club. Rumours are swirling though that he may be traded in the near future....

Ryan Whitney signed and agreed to remain with the club along with Rico Fata who has come to terms with the club after a full season hold out. Very few other notable players signed but young goalie who got the Sens into the playoffs, Konstantin Gorovikov was released yesterday after refusing the one year deal offered by the Senators.

Ottawa is reportedly in talks to nab a new Goalie and a 1st or 2nd line RW!

GO SENS GO!

Oilers Contract Negotiations Leave team missing Key components

The Oilers managment was in full swing tonight meeting with 6 of their players agents attempting to close deals prior to the Free Agency period,
The Good news was that the Oilers Managed to complete deals with Mike Modano (1 year @ 3.5 million) and Sergei Krivokrasov (1 year @ 2.2 million).
Their was however more bad news then good news tonight, As the Oilers report that they have failed to make deals with 4 other players.
David Vyborny decided he did not want a home in Edmonton after all and is going to walk away and become an unrestricted free agent.
Centreman Todd White decided to try the Free Agent market as well. Restricted Free Agents Marty Reasoner & Jesse Wallin could not come to
a contract agreement and have informed the Oilers that they will not be reporting to Training camp or participating in any team functions
until a contract is signed.

Panthers Ink Gonchar and Stefan

FLORIDA - Gm Michael Perrault was busy on the negotiation front today and seemed like a happy camper when all was said and done.

"We had a couple players that we were determined to re-sign and as luck would have it we were able to get deals done with both those players. Now we can concentrate on the Open Market and getting ready for next season with all our major players signed and ready to go."

GM Perault continued "We are very pleased to announce to our fans today the Defenceman Sergei Gonchar has decided to come back for one more year. We are also pleased that Centerman Patrik Stefan has also agreed to come back accepting a 4 year deal."

Here is how the Panthers faired with the rest of their free agents:

UFA - Brent Gilchrist was released by the Panthers.
RFA'S Travis Roche and David Morisset have decided to test the Open Market and declined offers from the Panthers.

RFA - Paul Elliott signed for 2 years @ 1.6 Mill + 1 Mill SB

RFA - Dan Hinote signed for 3 years @ 1.6 Mill + 500K SB

RFA - Mark Kosick signed for 1 year @ 0.4 MIll + 300K SB

UFA - Darcy Verot signed for 1 year @ 0.4 MIll + 300K SB

RFA - Michel Periard signed for 1 year @ .32 Mill + 500K SB

RFA - Alfie Michaud signed for 1 year @ 0.4 Mill + 300K SB

and the details for the Panthers 2 major signings are :

UFA - Sergei Gonchar signs for 1 year @ 3.6 Mill + 1.5 MILL SB

RFA - Patrik Stefan signs for years @ 3.6 Mill + 1 MILL SB

With the pre-signings now out of the way the Panthers will now be looking at the Open Market Frenzy to fill any holes that they may need to fill.

JUNIOR CANES LIKE THEIR P’S

Carolina

A mid summer mini camp, held in Winston Salem, showcased some of the young Junior Canes and future pro Canes in a scrimmage of sorts.

Craig Hartsburg took the time to experiment with some options and might have found a new line for this upcoming season.

Enter, the Killer P’s

A line full of beef and attitude mixed with skill and speed will be front and center to start off the season. Centered by 6’3 Ivan Pohanka with his wingers Dustin Penner and Corey Perry, 6’4 and 6’2 respectively.

The Killer P’s, Pohanka, Perry and Penner, look to assert their physicality on the league and hopefully conjure up some offense at the same time.

“We lost a lot of the guys this team counted on from last season,” said Hartsburg. “This team took a huge hit on the win especially and we need to somehow make up for that. This camp is giving us a chance to see where everyone fits in and right now, this new trio of heffers seems to be the line that has produced the most success here.”

Penner was named captain last season and will again wear the C for his respective team.

CANES ADD POWER TO POWER PLAY

Carolina

Last year, the Canes offense was about as pathetic as it could be. A team ful of house hold names that looked great on paper just never developed any chemistry and really looked flat on most night. This year, however, gunner Dany Heatley, playmakers Marc Savard and Tim Connolly and assistant captain Brad Stuart all look a little more excited about their chances.

What’s changed?

Well, the fact of the matter is, that the Canes have now added two new faces for what is setting up to be the club’s top power play unit. Jaromir Jagr, a former Art Ross Trophy winner, will be immediately inserted as the top right winger on the club and will no doubt get all sorts of offensive ice time to help earn that big salary of his.

“Whenever you have a guy like Jaromir, and there aren’t many of them around, you let him have the puck and you let him make the plays,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “The Canes have never had an offensive talent quite like Jagr. He is a bull in a big man’s body. He is impossible to knock off the puck and he can snipe from anywhere inside the blueline. We will let him be the go to guy and see where it all leads.”

Aside from Jagr’s new face is the “other” blueliner the team has been lacking for years. Martin Skoula, the former defense partner of Brad Stuart in Montreal, comes over to run the other point. Skoula may very well be a better offensive defenseman than his counter part, but the duo have always worked well together.

“Having two big guns back there makes everything easier,” said Dany Heatley. “We have a guy now who can control the game down low and we have slick playmakers who like to play on the perimeter in Savard and Connolly. With an option to pass to either Stuart or Skoula now, I think our power play got real dangerous over the summer.”

Heatley, who was brought in to be the man last year, admitted to having a bad year by his standards. Only notching 29 goals and receiving most of the attention form the opposition, Heatley is looking forward to playing with his new team mates.

“This year we hope to capitalize on our depth and make the necessary changes to the lineup from within,” said Quenneville. “I think we have all the horses to get it done this time around. We lacked things like backend speed, size up front and a leadership last season. We also took an incredible amount of dumb penalties. This shouldn’t be the issue this year.”

Sens Land Defensive Help on the Wing

The Ottawa Senators made a relatively small move yesterday giving up youth in exchange for some defensive prowess on the wing.

The deal was for experienced, scoring and defensive minded Daniel Cleary. The Senators gave up youngster Alexei Smirnov in the deal but did receive a 5th round pick in this years draft to make up for the youth lost in the deal.

This move makes for an interesting decision by GM Schmucky as now he has Dan Cleary, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Jeff Friesen and Alexander Semin lighting up that Left Wing. It is expected that Schmucky will have to move PMB back to Center, his natural position, in order to make room for Semin on the 2nd line and Cleary on the 3rd. Or, Friesen could potentially move to Right Wing if a deal cannot be met for Superstar, but old, Teemu Selanne.

Nonetheless, expect some position moves in Ottawa if things remain the same prior to season start. However, Ottawa is still yet to sign stars Chris Osgood who is assumed to be the protected player unless a deal is reached soon, Teemu Selanne, Rico Fata, and newly aquired hot shot Scott Hartnell. It could be an interesting, stressful couple of weeks for the Senators at Scotiabank Place.

CANES ADD ANOTHER OFFENSIVE VETERAN

Carolina

The Canes, who have been exceptionally busy this offseason, have tried to fill in the holes that they felt were there all of last season. With a spurting goal production, especially late in the season, the Canes wanted to get players who were more than willing to help spark the team and put some numbers on the board.

Smallish offensive dynamo Ray Whitney fits that mould.

Whitney, a veteran winger, comes from Chicago in exchange for newly added Taratuhkin and Mike Cirillo, along with a draft pick. The speedy playmaker has a knack for finding the open man and should help bolster a second power play unit that will feature another smallish playmaker in Marc Savard along with the big frame of the gifted goal scorer Rick Nash.

“I think adding a guy like Whitney really solves a lot of problems we could have encountered,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “He excels in various aspects of the game, he is collected when making plays and he will distribute the puck quickly and get us the scoring opportunities we need to be successful. Right now I envision him with Savard and Nash, but things can change. He has a lot of gifts to the game that he can lend us. We shall see where he fits in.”

Whitney was said to be happy about his move and is looking forward to his new life in Carolina.

Jason Smith healthy to return

After Jason Smith's late season injury last year is was questionable if he would ever return to play. Doctor's had suggested this might be the time for him to hang up the skates. By the looks of early training camp the Oilers report that Jason is healthy and is playing better then we've seen in years. The Oilers have been evaluating the Juniors already trying to determine who will get called up to fill their empty roster spots.