General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

SpezDispenser wrote:
Toskala turned down a long term offer to be backup in Calgary. Don't know why...

He's not going to play many games behind Kiiprusoff. Not to mention 0% chance for him to steal the #1 job which is what he wants.

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:
Toskala turned down a long term offer to be backup in Calgary. Don't know why...

He's not going to play many games behind Kiiprusoff. Not to mention 0% chance for him to steal the #1 job which is what he wants.

so...he wants to be a senator?

Care less what he wants...

Michallica wrote:
so...he wants to be a senator?

Essentially yes

Mind you I'd prefer Leclaire on a lifetime contract with an NMC than Toskala ....

Hoags wrote:

Michallica wrote:
so...he wants to be a senator?

Essentially yes

Mind you I'd prefer Leclaire on a lifetime contract with an NMC than Toskala ....

what happened to toskala? he actually had a very bright future when he was with san jose. Then the leafs ruined him.

eery to also think about the dreadful success of goalies in Ottawa since the lockout (last two seasons being some of the worst):

2005-2006: Emery takes over for Hasek via Injury
2006-2007: Emery takes over for Gerber via Gerber sucking
2007-2008: Gerber takes over for Emery via Emery douching around
2008-2009: Auld takes over for Gerber who due to his awful play is waived
2008-2009: Elliott takes over from Auld briefly to gain experience
2009-2010: Elliott takes over from Leclaire due to injury and bad play
2009-2010: Brodeur seemingly gets the nod over Elliot against the Rangers and Habs, starting the 11 game win streak.
2009-2010: Elliott takes over for Brodeur due to illness
2009-2010: Leclaire takes over for Elliott in the playoffs due to performance by team in game 4 that can be described as only

2010-2011: Elliott....Leclaire.....Brodeur......Lehner......Simon Lajeunesse?

Thank goodness for Lehner and Elliott. That's all I'll say.

Rangers sign Marc Staal. 5 years 19.875 mill... decent enough

3.975 avg

Amnesia021 wrote:Rangers sign Marc Staal. 5 years 19.875 mill... decent enough

3.975 avg

I guess that's par for the course. He's quite good, so the term is nice, not sure about him making 4 bills yet though.

Lousy for Staal that he's barely making more than Dan Girardi. Probably a case of overpaying Girardi more than underpaying Staal.

It just sucks for Staal that Sather's dart landed on the 4 million range. I bet that was one intense dart game that finally decided Staal's salary.

Michallica wrote:

what happened to toskala? he actually had a very bright future when he was with san jose. Then the leafs ruined him.

eery to also think about the dreadful success of goalies in Ottawa since the lockout (last two seasons being some of the worst):

Leafs having a bunch of pylons on their defence which doesn't help their goalies any.

We've had some horrible luck with goaltending over the past year.

Gerber's performance in the '06 Olympics turned out to be a fluke, he wasn't that good and couldn't cut it here.

Emery was a good goalie, I don't know if the Sens could (or did) see the problems with his attitude and could've handled him differently.

I think Leclaire was a good acquisition, he's very talented. Last year was a huge fluke with his injuries (they had nothing to do with his past injuries either). Elliott stepped and played very well and he's still an up and comer. Leclaire of course was outstanding in his playoff appearances (I don't think he should've had to face so many shots), but he handled a very tense situation extremely well.

Going into this year I think we're fine with Leclaire and Elliott. I think odds are very good one of them will emerge.

SpezDispenser wrote:Coyotes sign Eric Belanger.

Man, they're downright scary.

Have you seen/heard the huge commotion around this signing? He's threatening to sue the Washington Capitals because he deems them to have violated a verbal contract agreement. It's a pretty dicey can of worms this is gonna open up.

Best part is, the Capitals come out of this as losers no matter what happens.

This is a fantastic article that should bring people up to speed on the situation:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/agent-rips-capitals-for-backing-out-of-belanger-deal/article1708426/

PKC wrote:This is a fantastic article that should bring people up to speed on the situation:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/agent-rips-capitals-for-backing-out-of-belanger-deal/article1708426/

I followed that story. It looks pretty pretty bad on Washington. I believe the NHL only recognizes signed/written contracts so in the league's opinion they did nothing wrong. There might be legal consequences if he decides to sue.

It sounds like the Caps were trying to make a trade to make a room. That trade fell through but they were so sure it would happen that they had him prepare to stay in Washington.

Since Belanger had nothing in writing, at some point in the summer he should've just solicited offers elsewhere, regardless of what the Caps said. I'm surprised he didn't do that.

PKC wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Coyotes sign Eric Belanger.

Man, they're downright scary.

Have you seen/heard the huge commotion around this signing? He's threatening to sue the Washington Capitals because he deems them to have violated a verbal contract agreement. It's a pretty dicey can of worms this is gonna open up.

Best part is, the Capitals come out of this as losers no matter what happens.

Yeah, big problems here. The Caps had him at 1.8 verbally, then reneged and he was forced to sign for 750K. Bettman has already commented and said that the NHL goes by written contracts, not verbal. So, this is gonna be a mess.

Hoags wrote:

PKC wrote:This is a fantastic article that should bring people up to speed on the situation:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/agent-rips-capitals-for-backing-out-of-belanger-deal/article1708426/

I followed that story. It looks pretty pretty bad on Washington. I believe the NHL only recognizes signed/written contracts so in the league's opinion they did nothing wrong. There might be legal consequences if he decides to sue.

It sounds like the Caps were trying to make a trade to make a room. That trade fell through but they were so sure it would happen that they had him prepare to stay in Washington.

Since Belanger had nothing in writing, at some point in the summer he should've just solicited offers elsewhere, regardless of what the Caps said. I'm surprised he didn't do that.

I believe he can bring a civil lawsuit against the Washington Capitals for breaching a verbal agreement to pay for impending goods and services.

The easiest way to look at it from a business perspective would be like what happened with the City of Ottawa and Siemens when council backed out of the original LRT proposal. That was still at the verbal stage as no contract for services had been signed, but Siemens easily won that lawsuit because of the impression of the contract being done and waiting for final approval.

Wow, I just read that article/e-mail and the Caps organization looks very, very poor right now. Real shady stuff there MacPhee. Karma is always looking for an opportunity to even the score.

PKC wrote:
I believe he can bring a civil lawsuit against the Washington Capitals for breaching a verbal agreement to pay for impending goods and services.

Is it worth the trouble ? His family has been horribly inconvenienced having to pull up stakes in Washington and move to Phoenix. I don't think the Capitals intended to do this to him, it sounds like they counted on their chickens before they hatched.

Still he should've just signed with Phoenix earlier since he had nothing in writing. Caps kept saying 'next week', at some point he should've just said 'Cuss it' and go elsewhere.