Construction of new arena in Pittsburgh begins this week

Finally. They've only needed a new arena forever. The Igloo (Mellon to most) is 47 years old, and it definitely feels it. It's cramped, dark, no frills whatsoever, and a lot of seats have some kind of obstruction to the view. I've been to seven NHL arenas, and eight AHL arenas, and all of the AHL arenas, save perhaps Allstate, were nicer than the Igloo inside. The AHL Hershey Bears for sure have nicer digs, which stands out in particular because it's in-state. The Igloo still impresses from the outside though, with the round dome and setting on a hill.

Years ago they retrofitted additional seats into the Igloo by suspending them from the ceiling. I've sat in those seats -- it's a little scary. And how they meet fire code is a mystery.

I saw my first NHL game there, at an age too young to really remember it. And during college I would get the student rush tickets, which were a great deal. They probably don't have too many of them left over anymore though. Despite the fond memories, I'm not sad to see it go. It's too long overdue.

Anyway, happy new construction to the city. The official groundbreaking is Thursday and we look forward to puck drop in 2010.

And in what turned out to be a related topic, here's a fun question from a Q&A with Pens prospect Ben Lovejoy:

HF: From my understanding, your former teammate and Pittsburgh native Grant Lewis is quite the gamer, is there any videogame that you can play better?

BL: He plays all video games better than I do. I don’t play any, and he is sort of a connoisseur. That guy loves the city of Pittsburgh more than anyone else I know loves their hometown.

Did I put Ian up to asking that? Yep. The funny thing is that I wasn't even thinking about Grant being from Pittsburgh. I just thought of it because they played together at Dartmouth.

Players under contract 2008-09 and reserve list

By request, here's a list of the players the Atlanta Thrashers have under contract. Currently 44 players are signed for next year. Newly-drafted defenseman Zach Bogosian is still unsigned. I would expect that one to be done shortly. He wraps up USA national team camp this weekend. There are four goaltenders under contract, but I expect one more to be signed. The organization lost out on college free agent Peter Mannino, who signed with the Islanders, but it would likely be someone else of that vein (turning pro). Note, this doesn't necessarily mean that they will send two to the Chicago Wolves. It's entirely possible that one or two prospects could be assigned somewhere at the AA level that is not Gwinnett.

Signing Bogosian and another goalie would bring the Thrashers up to 46 contracts, leaving a bit of room under the 50-contract limit for flexibility. Below the contracted players are those on the 90-player reserve list.

Players under contract 2008-09

Forwards (29)
# Player Height Weight DOB Age
Colby Armstrong 6' 2" 190 Nov 23, 1982 25
Eric Boulton 6' 1" 225 Aug 17, 1976 31
Erik Christensen 6' 1" 210 Dec 17, 1983 24
Ilya Kovalchuk 6' 1" 220 Apr 15, 1983 25
Vyacheslav Kozlov 5' 10" 190 May 3, 1972 36
Brad Larsen 6' 0" 210 Jun 28, 1977 31
Junior Lessard 5' 11" 191 May 26, 1980 28
Bryan Little 5' 11" 190 Nov 12, 1987 20
Eric Perrin 5' 9" 180 Nov 1, 1975 32
Marty Reasoner 6' 1" 202 Feb 26, 1977 31
Jim Slater 6' 0" 195 Dec 9, 1982 25
Chris Thorburn 6' 3" 225 Jun 3, 1983 25
Todd White 5' 10" 195 May 21, 1975 33
Jason Williams 5' 11" 194 Aug 11, 1980 27
Joseph Crabb 6' 1" 190 Apr 3, 1983 25
Angelo Esposito 6' 1" 180 Feb 20, 1989 19
Mike Hoffman 6' 5" 248 Sep 20, 1980 27
Riley Holzapfel 5' 11" 170 Aug 18, 1988 19
Rylan Kaip 6' 0" 175 Mar 19, 1984 24
Jordan LaVallee 6' 3" 225 May 11, 1986 22
Spencer Machacek 6' 1" 182 Oct 14, 1988 19
Joe Motzko 6' 0" 184 Mar 14, 1980 28
Chad Painchaud 5' 11" 190 May 27, 1986 22
Tomas Pospisil 6' 0" 185 Aug 25, 1987 20
Matthew Siddall 6' 1" 205 Sep 26, 1984 23
Brett Sterling 5' 7" 180 Apr 24, 1984 24
Grant Stevenson 5' 11" 170 Oct 15, 1981 26
Myles Stoesz 6' 2" 197 Feb 15, 1987 21
Colin Stuart 6' 2" 205 Jul 8, 1982 26

Defensemen (11)
Tobias Enstrom 5' 10" 175 Nov 5, 1984 23
Garnet Exelby 6' 1" 210 Aug 16, 1981 26
Ron Hainsey 6' 3" 209 Mar 24, 1981 27
Niclas Havelid 6' 0" 200 Apr 12, 1973 35
Ken Klee 6' 1" 210 Apr 24, 1971 37
Chad Denny 6' 3" 210 Mar 27, 1987 21
Arturs Kulda 6' 2" 194 Jul 25, 1988 20
Scott Lehman 6' 1" 194 Jan 5, 1986 22
Grant Lewis 6' 3" 190 Jan 20, 1985 23
Nathan Oystrick 6' 0" 215 Dec 17, 1982 25
Boris Valabik 6' 7" 240 Feb 14, 1986 22

Goalies (4)
Johan Hedberg 6' 0" 185 May 5, 1973 35
Kari Lehtonen 6' 4" 205 Nov 16, 1983 24
Ondrej Pavelec 6' 2" 200 Aug 31, 1987 20
Dan Turple 6' 5" 215 Jan 1, 1985 23

Reserve List (total 66)
Forwards (14)
John Albert 5' 9" 180 Jan 19, 1989 19
Yuri Dobryshkin 6' 0" 189 Jul 19, 1979 29
Jonas Enlund 6' 0" 185 Nov 3, 1987 20
Michael Forney 6' 2" 185 May 14, 1988 20
Juraj Gracik 6' 3" 187 Aug 14, 1986 21
Andrew Kozek 5' 10" 175 May 26, 1986 22
Nicklas Lasu 5' 11" 176 Sep 16, 1989 18
Daultan Leveille 5' 11" 163 Aug 10, 1990 18
Denis Loginov 6' 1" 211 May 5, 1985 23
Niklas Lucenius 6' 0" 189 May 3, 1989 19
Jesse Martin 5' 11" 170 Sep 7, 1988 19
Danick Paquette 6' 0" 210 Jul 17, 1990 18
Vinny Saponari 6' 0" 179 Feb 15, 1990 18
Miikka Tuomainen 6' 3" 207 May 22, 1986 22

Defensemen (6)
Zach Bogosian 6' 2" 197 Jul 15, 1990 18 (expected to sign)
Ilya Nikulin 6' 3" 211 Mar 12, 1982 26
Will O'Neill 6' 0" 193 Apr 28, 1988 20
Paul Postma 6' 3" 173 Feb 22, 1989 19
Zach Redmond 6' 2" 197 Jul 26, 1988 20
Andrei Zubarev 6' 1" 202 Mar 3, 1987 21

Goalies (2)
Christopher Carrozzi 6' 3" 185 Mar 2, 1990 18
Alex Kangas 6' 2" 175 May 28, 1987 21

Note: Andre Deveaux is still listed on the Thrashers website, but he has been signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Lasu scores hat trick in Lake Placid

During yesterday's 7-3 winS against USA Team White at the 2008 USA National Junior Evaluation Camp, Swede Nicklas Lasu scored not only three goals, but also two assists. This now puts him among the point leaders in the games. He's fearless in crashing the net, and has been continuing to hit at the camp. Here's a good photo of him at the net yesterday.

John Albert was among the 53 US players invited to camp, but he did not make the roster for either Team Blue or Team White. He participated in the intrasquad scrimmages, but not the exhibition games against Finland and Sweden.

Zach Bogosian and Vinny Saponari (USA), and Niklas Lucenius (Finland) are also at the camp.

Rules: 50-contract limit

As promised, I'll go over some more rules during August. Today, the 50-contract rule.

Every NHL team wants depth in order to deal with injuries and develop players. But teams are limited in the number of players they can sign to contracts per year to just 50. Over half of those 50 can't play for the NHL club at any given time though, since the NHL roster limit is 23. If a team uses all 50 contract slots, it's enough players to completely stock an NHL and AHL club, and have a few left over to send to the ECHL. Most teams do come close to the 50-contract limit, leaving just a little room for potential trades.

Occasionally someone will say that a team should "release" a contracted player. This isn't something that can be done in hockey, unfortunately, as it can in football. Contracts are guaranteed. Think of it like the law of conservation of energy.* Contracts cannot be destroyed during the year, they can only be bought out during a specified period in the offseason. Contracts "taking on different forms" is how you end up with players like Arturs Irbe playing in the ECHL -- the Hurricanes had no other way to get rid of him.

In addition to the 50 signed players, a team may have 40 more players it owns the rights to, but are currently unsigned, up to 90 total on what's called the "reserve list." (In the last CBA, the reserve list was 75, but this number was raised These players are draft picks, or restricted free agents who are holding out.

To tie this in to current events, there are some teams that still need to get to the salary floor for 2008-09. Signing more and more cheap players isn't going to get them there, because they'll run out of contracts. And they can't just give their current players more money either, since contracts cannot be renegotiated. This means they will have to trade their way up to the floor. With a salary floor of $40.7 million and a 23-man roster limit (minor leaguers don't figure in), a team needs the average salary per player to be at least $1.77 million. With a minimum salary of $475,000, you need a fair number of multi-million dollar salaries to balance it out. Parity of course is the goal, but the logic of the rules has the potential to lead teams into odd moves.

*The law of conservation of energy states that energy may neither be created nor destroyed. Energy in a system may take on various forms (e.g. kinetic, potential, heat, light). Therefore the sum of all the energies in the system is a constant.

Bryan Little vs. Parliament

From the Barrie Advance:

Former Colts captain and junior world champion Bryan Little will be in the lineup of NHL stars, past and present, taking on a bunch of Members of Parliament, in an evening of entertainment aimed at helping build the Simcoe-Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre at Royal Victoria Hospital.

Only in Canada. When you think about the US equivalent of this event, it's funny to the point of being absurd. Nancy Pelosi on skates? Oh yeah, I'd pay to see that. Even getting state legislators on the ice would be a riot.

In the article, Little was asked his opinion on lots of topics, and he answered in his usual diplomatic way. Of particular interest:

On John Anderson: "He loves to win. Some coaches don’t show a lot of emotion, but you know that he loves to win, and, as a player, you want to win for him. He’s a player’s coach, and guys love playing for him.”

.

Rookies of the year

Playing solitaire til dawn with a deck of 51
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo
Now don’t tell me I’ve nothin’ to do.
-- Statler Brothers, Flowers on the Wall

Suddenly, I’m very busy again. More on what's changing later as details get worked out. It could be an example of 'be careful wishing for change because it may not be what you want,' or it could be good. We’ll see.

As for what I’ve been writing lately, it’s funny the things you’ll do when you’re procrastinating. Cleaning the bathtub suddenly looks very appealing. So did writing an article on next year's Calder Trophy race instead of the Thrashers Top 20 prospects. But do not fear, the Top 20 will come in the next week or two.

Regarding the Calder, there are no Thrasher rookies on the likely list. Of the logical candidates to make the team, Zach Bogosian has two things against him – he’s 18 and he’s a defenseman. The last newly-drafted defenseman to win the Calder was Bryan Berard in 1996-97. If Bogosian can outscore Berard straight out of the gates, more power to him. One could reasonably make the argument that goaltender Ondrej Pavelec has a better chance than Bogosian, even though he’s slated to play in Chicago, due to the susceptibility to injury of starter Kari Lehtonen. Goaltenders have an easier time winning this award than defensemen. I would buy that argument, but not put my money there.

But my pick for the Calder is Kyle Okposo of the New York Islanders. I saw him play for Univ. of Minnesota, and came away impressed. He played nine games in the NHL last year (25 is the limit for eligibility), and scored five points. Not bad. His college, AHL and NHL experience will all help him. He should get plenty of ice time too.

Other small items

Kevin Doell signed with Leksand. It’s important to note that this is the farm club level (2nd league) in Sweden, not the elite league.

The Buffalo Sabres signed Colton Fretter as soon as they hired Kevin Dineen as their AHL coach in Portland. (Dineen coached there last year too, but that was under Anaheim.)

Among the NHL and AHL, only the Islanders and Rochester coaching jobs remain unfilled.

Don't forget Project Runway is on tonight at 9pm on Bravo.

Something to get you through til camp

Personally I'm happy for August, the only month off in the hockey calendar. But for those who need a little hockey jones, and don't want to leave their computer, here's something that may help.

There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice." -- Charlie Brown

You can watch the Zamboni go around via a live web cam at Snoopy's Home Ice at The Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa, California. Peanuts creator Charles Schultz was a big hockey fan, as you could tell by how much he drew skating and Zambonis.