NHL: Player News and Rumors (Thread finished)

Sens deal Havlat and Smolinski to Chicago
TSN.ca Staff
7/9/2006 9:40:19 PM

The Ottawa Senators have traded Martin Havlat and Bryan Smolinski to the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-way deal also involving the San Jose Sharks.

Chicago sent Mark Bell to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Tom Priessing and Josh Hennessy, who the Blackhawks added to a package to land Havlat and Smolinski.

Along with Preissing and Hennessy, the Blackhawks sent prospect Michal Barinka and a 2008 second-round draft pick to Ottawa in exchange for Havlat and Smolinski.

Havlat, a restricted free agent who has been insisting on signing a one-year deal so he can test the unrestricted free agent market next summer, missed 58 games last season following shoulder surgery. However, he recorded 16 points in 18 regular season games before a superb playoff performance in which he tallied 13 points in 10 games, making him a hot commodity this summer.

The 25 year-old Czech winger has accumulated 235 points in 298 career games, all with the Senators.

Smolinski, 34, scored 48 points and had a plus-8 rating in 81 games last season. A versatile performer, Smolinski has 582 points in 910 career games with Ottawa, Los Angeles, New York Islanders, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Boston. Smolinski was originally a first-round pick of the Bruins in 1990.

Bell, 25, had a career-best 25 goals and 48 points in 82 games with the Blackhawks in 2005-2006. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound winger also plays a physical game, having registered more than 100 penalty minutes in each of his four full NHL seasons.

Preissing, 27, is an offensive defenceman who enjoyed a very productive 2005-2006 season, scoring 43 points and registering a plus-17 rating for the Sharks. Signed out of Colorado College in 2003, Preissing has 62 points in 143 career NHL games and is set to make $600,000 this year.

Hennessey is a 21 year-old prospect that the Sharks selected in the second round of the 2003 draft. He scored 63 points in 80 games with Cleveland of the American Hockey League last season, his first year as a pro.

Barinka, 22, was a second-round pick in 2003 and played 25 games with the Blackhawks last season, recording one assist and a minus-7 rating. The Czech-born defender has good size, at 6-foot-3 and 217 pounds, and produced 12 points in 54 games with Norfolk of the American Hockey League.
 

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Hmmm, this is like the Bertuzzi/Luongo trade. Good for Ottawa if Havlat signs 1 year, good for Chicago if he goes long term. But San Jose won no matter what, getting Mark Bell. Argh. He'd have looked good in Montreal.
 

Agamon said:
Hmmm, this is like the Bertuzzi/Luongo trade. Good for Ottawa if Havlat signs 1 year, good for Chicago if he goes long term. But San Jose won no matter what, getting Mark Bell. Argh. He'd have looked good in Montreal.
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Havlat did, indeed, sign a three-year deal with the Hawks, worth $18 million US.
 

Report: Canucks ink free agent Chouinard
TSN.ca Staff
7/10/2006 9:04:11 AM

The Vancouver Sun reports that the Canucks will announce early this week they have signed free agent centre Marc Chouinard to a two-year, $2 million US contract.

Chouinard, 29, played the past two seasons with the Minnesota Wild.

In 74 games last season, he scored 14 goals and 30 points and finished seventh in team scoring.

In five NHL seasons with the Wild and Anaheim Ducks, Chouinard has 35 goals and 74 points in 278 games.
 

Agamon said:
For those that can't read Russian, Montreal has signed hot forward prospect Mikhail Grabovsky. Is good, comrade!
Click to expand...
And here's TSN.ca's article on this signing, plus a couple of other prospects.

Habs sign Aubin, D'Agostini, Grabovski
TSN.ca Staff
7/10/2006 10:03:35 AM

The Montreal Canadiens announced Monday the signing of forward prospects Mathieu Aubin, Matt D'Agostini and Mikhail Grabovski.

Aubin and D'Agostini signed three-year deals, while Grabovski signed a two-year contract. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Aubin, 19, completed the 2005-06 season with 103 points (47 goals, 56 assists) and 63 penalty minutes in 70 games with the Lewiston MAINEiacs, of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

In three-plus seasons in the QMJHL, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound center has recorded 190 points, including 85 goals, and 121 penalty minutes in 188 games. Aubin has also played in 21 career playoff games, collecting seven goals and 11 assists as well as 12 penalty minutes. Aubin was the Canadiens' fourth pick (fifth round), 130th overall, in 2005.

D'Agostini, 19, completed the 2005-06 season with 79 points (25 goals, 54 assists) and 81 penalty minutes in 66 games with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League. In two complete seasons in the OHL, he scored 125 points, including 49 goals, and 110 penalty minutes in 125 games.

Grabovski, 22, completed the 2005-06 season with 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) and 28 penalty minutes in 48 games with Moscow Dynamo of the Russian Elite League. The previous season, he collected 36 points, including 16 goals, in 60 games with the Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik of the Russian League. A native of Potsdam, East Germany, Grabovski was the Canadiens' fourth pick (fifth round), 150th overall, in 2004.
 

From TSN.ca!

Ice Chips
Monday, July 10

> The Brendan Shanahan signing means Petr Sykora won't be back witht he Rangers, but Martin Rucinsky is expected to be re-signed to a one-year deal. - NY Post, NY Daily News

> The Blueshirts are considering bringing back former New York Rangers blueliner Brian Leetch. - Toronto Sun

> The Red Wings have cap room to bring in a possible replacement for Brendan Shanahan, with $13 million to spend. Wings GM Ken Holland also says he'll make a decision soon regarding his goaltending, where it's believed he may make a contract offer to Ed Belfour. Holland also suggested Dominik Hasek is in the mix. - Detroit News

> Predators GM David Poile is likely finished making forays into the UFA market, but with his depth at forward could explore a trade. - The Tennessean

> Rangers defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh underwent successful knee surgery in Colorado. GM Glen Sather expects Ozolinsh to be on the ice for training camp in September. - NY Post
 

Oilers News!

Oilers obtain Jan Hejda from Buffalo
Edmonton Oilers Press Release
Jul. 10, 2006 at 11:07 AM MDT

The Edmonton Oilers have traded their 7th round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the rights to defenceman Jan Hejda.

Hejda, a 6’3”, 209-pound native of Prague, Czech Republic, was the Sabres’ fourth choice, 106th overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

The 28-year-old defenceman has played his entire career to date in Europe with teams in both the Czech Extraleague and the Russian Superliga. Hejda spent the 2005-06 season in Russia with Mytishi Khimik, where he was teammates with former Oilers Ales Pisa and Valeri Zelepukin. He scored 3-12-15 in 50 games with 56 penalty minutes and added 2-3-5 with 24 PIM in nine playoff contests during his third season in the Russian Superliga.

A veteran of four world championship tournaments, Hejda has been a member of the Czech Republic national team from 2003 to 2006. He was a member of the gold medal winning team at the 2005 IIHF World Championship and helped his country win the silver medal at the 2006 tournament in Riga, Latvia.

Prior to the 2005-06 season, Hejda played two seasons with CSKA Moscow in 2003-04 and 2004-05. A six-year veteran of the Czech Extraleague, he made his debut with Slavia Praha HC as a 19-year-old in 1997-98. The 2002-03 season saw him help Slavia Praha win the Extraleague championship as he led all defencemen in playoff scoring with 5-8-13 in 17 games. Hejda scored 21-36-57 with 275 PIM in 243 career games in the Czech Extraleague.

Hejda has scored 27-64-91 with 416 PIM in 413 games during his nine seasons in Europe and has added 11-12-23 with 62 PIM in 46 playoff games.
 

More Oiler News!

Dvorak wants to stay in Edmonton
Oiler News
Jul. 9, 2006 at 9:03 PM MDT

Radek Dvorak never said he wanted to leave the Edmonton Oilers.

In a wide-ranging interview with the official Czech hockey federation site, hokej.cz, Dvorak said:

“I’m doing everything to make sure I have a good year, similar to my previous successful seasons. I talked to Edmonton’s management and they told me they were interested in me. I am thinking of other offers, too. I hear from (a journalist) that my agent Rich Winter told the Edmonton Journal that I do not want to play for Edmonton. I don’t know why he said it and he’ll have to explain it to me.

“Obviously, it must be a part of his negotiating strategy. I’ve never said anything like this, I love Edmonton, and I would never say anything bad about a team where I’d worked. The truth is Oilers coaches weren’t giving me as much space as they had before (my injuries). If I stay, I would like to play as much as I had before.”

Dvorak said the recently finished season ended up being extremely disappointing. He was part of a team that made it into the Stanley Cup finals, just as he had 10 years ago, as a Florida Panthers rookie, but in both cases, the team couldn’t overcome the last hurdle, in the Oilers’ case, Game 7.

Besides, personally, Dvorak had a season from hell. He dressed for 64 regular season games and registered what he termed “a miserable 28 points (8 g + 20 a)”, adding two more assists in the 16 playoff games he appeared in.

Speaking of the Oilers regular season, Dvorak wondered: “We took off just fine, and then we had a seven-game losing skid, and that had a negative impact on the entire team. Then, just like that, we won four times on away ice, and I even scored points in four consecutive games, and things changed.”

But then, bad luck got to him: “A day before going on a road trip to New York and cities around, I had a groin injury. Somehow I went into the boards, and had to leave the ice in pain. So, I stayed back home, and after five days, I flew to join the team. In the first period in New Jersey, I made one wrong move, and I tore it completely. I couldn’t play for the next two months, and that must have shown in the level of my play when I got back.”

This injury led to one more disappointment: Dvorak had a spot on the Czech national team roster for the Torino Olympics, and that spot went to a healthy player (in his case, New Jersey’s Patrik Elias). Alois Hadamczik, the Czech coach, met in Edmonton with Dvorak (as well as Ales Hemsky and, what a weird situation, with then-Chicago Blackhawks’ Jaroslav Spacek) during a tour of NHL teams, and he liked what he saw of all three. “I did regret it,” said Dvorak, “but I watched the games and talked on the phone with Ales Hemsky.” Besides, he got a few more days to heal.

Dvorak was surprised that it took the Oilers last-minute heroics by Hemsky to make the playoffs. “We had a high-quality team. We got Michael Peca and Chris Pronger in the summer, Shawn Horcoff was playing well, we added Jaroslav Spacek during the season, young Hemsky was playing like a man obsessed. We shouldn’t have had such problems we eventually had with this kind of team. Then again, ours was the toughest division in the entire NHL. I mean, Vancouver, Calgary, Minnesota and Colorado, and we had to play each of them eight times, and that’s a tough way to earn points. Besides, thanks to the new rules, the league became more balanced.”

And then they made it.

“We had a great series against Detroit. Next round, San Jose led 2-0, and yet, we managed to turn it around. We eliminated Anaheim in the semifinals 4-1, but frankly, with the exception of one game, they were better. They had more chances. Dwayne Roloson was our hero. And the finals against Carolina? I think we lost it in Game 1. We led 3-0 and ended up losing 5-4!

“Had this not happened, we would have had home ice advantage for the deciding game. We believed in ourselves on their ice in Game 7, too, but they jumped at us from the get-go, scored twice, and that made it too tough. We did manage to cut into their lead, we were all over them in the last period, but it wasn’t enough.

“I hope I’ll earn another chance earlier than 10 years from now. I’d be almost 40 then, and I don’t think I’d still be in the NHL then.”

Dvorak missed a third of his team’s playoff run, too: a knee injury took care of that.

“They gave me a special orthesis for my knee. I had to wear neoprene shorts and a special neoprene belt for my groin. It took some time to get used to it, the blood wasn’t circulating there as it should have, it just didn’t feel good. When I was changing in the dressing room, the guys had fun, laughing and saying I looked like a robot. I still feel pain in the groin, but I saw Dr. Pavel Kolar (a noted Czech sports medicine guru, considered one of the best on the continent by many), and he told me it’s getting better. The knee looks better, too. Still, I can only do rehab for another month.”

Before jumping into the full on-and-off-ice practice regimen with buddy Vaclav Prospal, Dvorak plans a few golfing days in Mallorca with Spacek and Jan Hlavac. By the time he returns to practice ice in the Czech Republic, he hopes to know where he’s going to play next season: as of July 1, he’s completely free.

But, as he had said:

“I talked to Edmonton’s management and they told me they were interested in me. ... (and) I love Edmonton.
 


Red Wings sign Cleary to two-year deal
TSN.ca Staff
7/10/2006 1:59:10 PM

The Detroit Red Wings announced Monday that the team has re-signed forward Dan Cleary to a $1.325-million, two-year contract.

"Dan's a gritty player and we value what he brings to the team," said General Manager Ken Holland. "I'm glad he will be in a Red Wings jersey for the next two seasons."

Cleary, 27, played 77 games and posted 15 points in 2005-06 with the Red Wings.

Cleary was originally signed as a free agent by Detroit on October 4, 2005. Prior to joining Detroit last season, the eight-year veteran made stops in Chicago, Edmonton and Phoenix.

He has skated in 406 NHL games and collected 127 points.
 

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