Koivu Signs 7 Year, $47.25 Million Deal with Minnesota

Minnesota Wild center Mikko Koivu signed a massive, long term deal with the Wild yesterday, and his new contract includes seven years at a little over $47 million with no-trade clause.

“Thursday afternoon, the club announced that it had signed a seven-year extension with the team captain, assuring that the 27-year-old is locked up until the 2013-14 season.

“It’s a milestone day in the history of the Minnesota Wild,” Fletcher told the team’s website. “When you have your franchise player commit to you, really for the next eight seasons. He’s our best hockey player. He’s our captain. And he’s still just 27 with his best hockey years ahead of him.”

It is a proposition that excites Koivu, who has called the Wild home since being drafted in 2001.

“I’ll be a Minnesota guy for the next eight years, and it feels good,” Koivu said in an evening conference call. “Everybody has treated myself and my family and friends always first class. I really feel Minnesota is my home. That was the biggest point when we started. I’m happy to be there and to be a member of the Wild.”

According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Koivu’s pact is the richest in the history of the franchise, totaling $47.25 million. Russo also reports that the deal comes with a full no-trade clause.

This past season, Koivu, a first-round pick of the club, had a career season with 22 goals and 71 points in 80 games. He led the team in points, assists (49) and multi-point games (20)

Koivu also took on more of a leadership role, accepting the team’s captaincy on a permanent basis this past October.

“Mikko possesses all the qualities you want your leader to have,” head coach Todd Richards said at the time Koivu was named captain. “He is passionate, has a great work ethic and competes for everything. The way Mikko plays defines him as the leader of our team.”

In fact, that competitiveness is what drew Fletcher toward Koivu when Fletcher took the team’s reigns. He saw a win-at-all-costs player that plays the rarest of forward positions — power center. AS a result, a long-term commitment between player and team seemed to be a no-brainer.

“I don’t think I realized how competitive he is on the ice,” Fletcher said. “He is not a flashy player, but he truly is a dominant power center in the NHL.”

In five NHL seasons, Koivu has 79 goals and 255 points in 362 NHL games. He also starred for Finland at the 2010 Winter Olympics, winning a bronze medal.

Now, his immediate goal is to get the Wild back into the postseason after a two-year absence from the postseason. That quest will appropriately enough begin overseas, in Helsinki, Finland, as the Wild play as part of the 2010 Bridgestone Premiere series.

“Now we can focus on the next season and getting ready for the preseason and Helsinki after that,” Koivu said. “I’m excited and I can’t wait to get started.”

And, Koivu added that he will be fully healthy by the start of the 2010-11 season. In fact, he says he will be 100 percent when the Wild open camp on Sept. 17. He underwent surgeries on both his knee and shoulder after the season, but says his recovery is ahead of schedule.

“I’m very confident I’ll be ready to go when camp starts [on September 17],” he said.

While Fletcher wanted to get Koivu inked to a multi-year deal from Day One, Fletcher had to wait well into this summer to make his dream a reality.” {NHL.com}

It’s a huge contract for a 20+ goal scorer, sure, but is it a totally unjustified deal?

“Now, as for why he is worth it, even without the points. Why that is is difficult to explain to people outside of Minnesota. It takes watching the guy play for 82 games a season to see why. It’s those pesky intangibles. The leadership, the steady presence, the battles in the corner. It’s the little things that few people in the league do as well as he does, but that don’t show up in the stat sheet.

Sure, lots of guys have the leadership. There are 30 captains and 60 alternates in the league, right? Lots of grizzled vets like Owen Nolan out there to provide that element. Plenty of centers have face off win % above 50%. More than a fair share of players have 70+ points a year.

But how many have all of it?

There’s your answer. There is the $6.75 million answer.” {Hockey Wilderness}

Looking at the stats alone is enough to make you scratch your head, and the numbers don’t seem to make sense for a 22 goal scorer, but he’s still got potential, and the Wild front office went far out of their way to make Mikko the face of the organization, offering him the biggest deal in franchise history. The detractors of this contract list the other players in the League who are at the $6 million range – Backstrom, Datsuk, Marleau, and Patrick Kane – and they maintain that Koivu simply doesn’t belong with them.

I wonder what, if any, leverage or other offers Koivu brought to the table. $47 million was really the cheapest price they could all land on? The contract is still leaving many Wild fans scratching their heads, but Mikko has seven years to earn the cash, and prove to everyone that his ‘intangibles’ were worth the cap hit.

Top Ten Goals of 2010

NHL.com recently complied a list of of the best ten goals of the 2010 NHL season, and there’s some amazing goals and individual efforts on this highlight reel. Crosby finds the list twice, while Ovechkin and Stamkos both get one entry each. Check it out, and reminisce about the season that was:

Hossa and Stamkos’ goal are stunning examples of their exemplary hand-eye coordination, and I think Steven Stamkos’ goal against the Ducks definitely deserved the #1 spot. Ovechkin’s one-handed goal against the Rangers probably should have made it into the top three, but fourth-place isn’t bad. It’s a great list, don’t get me wrong, but there’s some glaring omissions. David Perron’s goal early last season should have at least cracked the top ten:

Granted, this was against the Islanders (I’m pretty sure you or I could probably go coast to coast against that defense), but it’s still an incredible individual effort. If I was compiling the list myself, I’d probably have to include this slick shootout goal from Pavel Datsuk as well:

There’s probably twenty or more incredible shootout goals I could have posted from Datsuk. Just an unreal talent 1-on-1. And finally, here’s a non-NHL goal from then WHLer (now New York Islanders first round draft pick) Nino Niederreiter showboating a bit during a skills competition:

The Best Non-Kovalchuk UFA’s

Are you tired of reading yet another post about Ilya? Guess what! I’m tired of writing posts about the greedy Russian, and odds are, your team doesn’t have a shot of getting him anyway, so let’s take a look at the best of the remaining UFA pool.

Lee Stempniak: After being dealt to Toronto from St. Louis, Stempniak failed to produce for the Leafs (and Burke always had doubts about his level of truculence), so he ended up having a decent year in Phoenix, almost notching 30 goals. He wouldn’t be a bad addition for the right price.

Alexander Frolov: Sure, there’s been some questions about his level of effort night in and night out, and his numbers have declined over the last couple of seasons, but he’s supremely talented in the offensive zone, and he’s a potential 50 goal scorer. Problem is, he won’t sign for cheap, and there’s a legitimate chance he’ll run off to the KHL.

Marc-Andre Bergeron: Statistically speaking, he’s the best defenseman UFA left, notching 34 points in 60 games with the Canadians last year. The Habs could still retain his services, but there’s plenty of teams who are willing to overpay for mediocre blueliners if the Hjalmarsson situation has taught us anything, so he could be a hot commodity right now.

Maxim Afinogenov: Another Russian forward, Maxim has produced good numbers with Buffalo and Atlanta, flirting with the 30 goal mark last season. A handful of teams are looking at him, and depending on what his asking price would be, it might be solid move to sign him. I’d hesitate on giving up a deal longer than 3-4 years, but if it’s a manageable cap hit, why not? 20-30 goal scorers are hard to come by.

John Madden: Are his best days behind him? Probably, but if your team has struggled with the penalty kill (looking at you, Nashville, Toronto and NYI), Madden could be just what you need. He’s not a point producer, but he’s the ideal third-liner; willing to win the battles in the corner, and doesn’t shy away from the physical aspect of the game. He’s probably the best 3rd-4th liner in the pool at the moment.

Jose Theodore: He’s a 30 win goaltender, which would normally attract all kinds of offers, but after his collapse in the first round of the playoffs, questions linger about Theodore’s ability. How much of his previous season’s success was due to Ovechkin and the Capitals high-powered offense? The former Vezina and Hart Trophy winner has seen his stock drop, and there’s only a few teams left that have needs in net. Philadelphia leaps to mind, but they will likely lack the cap space needed to sign him unless they unload Gange soon.

Ping Pong for the Cup?

Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp just finished his day with the Cup, taking Lord Stanley’s prize back to his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, where lines of fans, friends and family waited to get pictures and autographs.

“Patrick Sharp just left the Fort William Gardens, where he greeted and took pictures with roughly 1,000 visitors.

This arena, which seats close to 5,000 fans, was where Sharp played his junior hockey with the Thunder Bay Flyers from 1998-2000. Sharp was able to sit at his old locker and spoke with old teammates, as well as friends and family members. The session was only supposed to last until 1 p.m., but Sharp stayed late and made sure everyone received an autograph and/or picture. Many of the hockey-crazed folks here had tears in their eyes, and Sharp fought tears himself when he was announced and came out with the Stanley Cup.

From there, Sharp took the Cup to the George Jeffrey Children’s Center in Thunder Bay, where roughly 50 people were able to meet the Hawks’ winger. Once again, Sharp signed plenty of autographs and took pictures, only this time with special-needs children. Everyone is all smiles.” {NHL.com}

During Sharp’s Cup-day, he played a high-stakes game of ping pong with his brother Chris:

The Stanley Cup has been through a ton of interesting predicaments – the Rangers took it to a strip club in New York, while Brent Sopel recently took the Cup to a gay pride parade, but this just might be the first time Stanley’s Cup has been decided over a ping pong game.

Kovalchuk Meeting with the Kings Today

Ilya Kovalchuk is flying out to Los Angeles today to meet with the Kings front office, in the hopes of hammering out a deal. Kings GM Dean Lombardi has been hot and cold over the prospect of signing Kovalchuk, twice declaring that the Kings were ‘out of negotiations’ with the star Russian winger, but talks seem to have taken a positive turn for LA.

“Kings GM Dean Lombardi told TSN that Kovalchuk will be coming to Los Angeles on Monday for an in-person meeting and that the sides “are a long way from agreeing on a contract.” Lombardi also told LA Kings Insider’s Rich Hammond that reports of a deal announcement for Monday are “utterly false”…On the bright side, it appears this Kovalchuk saga will be finally coming to an end this week. Meeting face to face is a good sign that things are close. And once that domino falls, there’s a good likelihood that the rest of the free-agent crop will begin putting pen to paper.” {Puck Daddy}

I don’t think a deal is coming today, but it seems like the Kings could have Ilya signed by Tuesday or Wednesday. There’s been a couple of free-agent signings over the last week, but nothing incredibly significant, and it’s mostly because of Kovalchuk, so after he finally inks a deal with someone, expect a flurry of activity. There’s still some decent names left in the pool, like Alex Frolov, Lee Stempniak, Maxim Afinogenov, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Marty Turco, and Jose Theodore.

As promising as this meeting is for the Kings, if Kovalchuk has proven anything this off-season, it’s how incredibly fickle he is during contract negotiations. Don’t hold your breath – he’ll walk away yet again if the price doesn’t seem right, but it’s good news, especially for LA fans.

Why Not Canada?

TSN has just finished up their six-part series about the NHL adding more teams in Canada, and if you haven’t had a chance to catch it yet, you absolutely need to. Dave Naylor takes a look at each prospective market, and gauges the different variables (profitability, economic stability, population..etc) that would factor into the viability of a potential franchise in Winnepeg, Hamilton, Quebec City, and Toronto.

One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary is Naylor’s interview with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who offers some interesting insight on the tantalizing possibility of adding or relocating franchises back to Canada. Click over to TSN.ca and check out the entire six-part series first, but here’s the interview with Bettman:

Bettman:

“I’d like fans to know that we’re very focused on the issue, and we have been, and that we know that they are at least a couple of markets that with the new economic system that we’ve had over the last few years, that is it quite possible that with the right ownership and the right arena arrangement, that we could have additional teams in Canada…but it’s not going to happen overnight, and people need to be patient”

From the tone of this interview, it really seems like the League is looking closer at new teams in Canada than it has in a very long time. Some of the economic issues have changed, and with the introduction of a decent salary cap, smaller-budget teams can compete in the new NHL. It’s tough to say which city out of these four (Winnepeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Quebec City) would be the best, but looking at the economic issues, Winnepeg seems to come out on the top.

A second team in Toronto, as profitable as it may be, would likely be mired in a ton of legal issues, as the Leafs have already told the NHL that they could ‘Veto’ any new expansion team in their turf. Hamilton could be a solid location as well, but their close proximity to Toronto and Buffalo is enough to keep the NHL away for quite some time. Quebec City would definitely support a franchise, but the NHL has made it clear that they would not place a second team in Quebec unless Quebec City builds a new arena. Winnepeg has the arena, the fanbase, and the bustling economy that could support a team immediately – in fact, the NHL released a statement during the Phoenix ownership debacle admitting that they had already drawn up an emergency schedule for the Jets if a buyer hadn’t surfaced by December for the Coyotes.

Interesting documentary from TSN, and it’s exactly the kind of complete and in-depth look needed to gauge the viability of any Canadian relocation or expansion.

Ovechkin Releasing a Single

Yes, you read that correctly. Alexander Ovechkin is in the studio, working on a track for the lady in his life:

“Alexander Ovechkin recorded a song for his girlfriend, along with the artist Dzhigan of Black Star Inc. Russia’s forward wants to be a star not only on the ice. Very soon a real surprise is awaiting the true fans of hockey and the fans of rap.

It is unlikely that the song that was co-created with artist Dzhigan of Black Star Inc. will appear on live radio, but hopefully it would seep into the internet.

The best hockey player is not giving the name of a lucky girl to whom he devoted his premiere creation, the 24-year-old hockey player only said that at this time it’s “all very serious” {With Leather}

I don’t think I have to show you all the countless examples of how terrible athlete-music usually is, but with A.O, this single has potential to be one of the worst ever. Exhibit A, ladies and gentlemen:

They’re gonna need a ton of auto-tune to fix up THAT singing voice, no question. When the actual song hits the internet, I’ll throw it up here ASAP. And if it’s as bad as I suspect it will be, expect every other team in the Eastern Conference to play it non-stop when the Capitals come to town.

Top Five Disappointments of the 2010 Season

I recently wrote about how I thought the 2010 NHL season was one of the best in recent memory , but this season was far from perfect, so here’s a list of the huge disappointments and let downs this year had to offer.

#5 The Pittsburgh Penguins

The defending Cup champions had a ton of hype going into the 2010 season, and they had all of the necessary pieces to repeat. The Pens recorded 249 goals for, the fifth-best in the entire NHL, while Sidney Crosby notched an incredible 109 points (51g, 58a). Their blueline was one of the best and most promising in the league – a solid mixture of experienced veterans (Gonchar, Orpik) and up and coming defensemen (Goligoski, Letang). They had the offensive talent and stable goaltending to win back-to-back Cups, but their power play disappeared during the second half of the season, ranking 19th in the NHL in power play goals. Their season finally came to a close at the hands of the Montreal Canadians in the second round of the playoffs.

#4 The St.Louis Blues

Going into the season, the Blues had a great deal of promise and potential. They had the best second-half record of any team in the NHL in 2009, and they snuck into the postseason, finishing 6th overall before being swept by the Vancouver Canucks. High priced winger Paul Kariya had just gotten healthy, and many pundits (including yours truly) projected a decent season for St. Louis. The Blues even opened their season in Sweden against the Red Wings, and swept the two-game series, but they never followed that success with any consistency, and they ended up missing the playoffs entirely due to their inability to hold on to leads, sketchy goaltending and an atrocious power play that finished 20th overall in the NHL. They have a wealth of prospects, and after signing Jaroslav Halak, have some decent goaltending now, but the 2010 season was an abject failure in St.Louis.

#3 Martin Brodeur

Undoubtedly, this season was a huge disaster for the future Hall of Famer. Despite his 45 wins, the veteran goaltender cracked under both Olympic and playoff pressure, disappointing in both platforms. First, Brodeur won the starting job for Team Canada, only to lose it after a terrible 5-3 loss to the Americans, allowing weak goal after weak goal. He wouldn’t see the ice for Canada again, as Luongo would lead Canada to Gold in Vancouver. Then, during the NHL postseason, Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils were bounced in the first round by the seventh-seeded Flyers. Over the five games in the first round, Brodeur recorded an abysmal 3.01 GAA, with a measly .881 save percentage. Only time will tell if Brodeur has anything left in the tank, but this was definitely a season to forget.

#2 Nikolai Khabibulin

The ‘Bulin Wall’ was one of the biggest names in the free-agent pool going into the 2009 season. He had just cut his ties with the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Edmonton Oilers moved in and signed him to a huge four year, $15 million dollar contract. Khabibulin would only play 18 games for the Oilers in 2010 (and lost 9 of those starts), before going down with an injury in his back, which required a season-ending surgery in January of 2010. Edmonton would go on to lose 47 games, which was the worst record in the entire league, and to make matters worse, Khabibulin was arrested on a DUI charge while driving in Arizona. With such a big contract, the Oilers were sure that they’d get at least a decent goaltender, but instead, they paid Khabibulin for essentially nothing.

#1 The Flyers Clinching a Playoff Berth in the Shootout

The Flyers had a great cinderella run through the Eastern Conference during the postseason, and they upset a couple of great teams to get to the Stanley Cup Final, but their season shouldn’t have earned them a spot in the playoffs to begin with. Inarguably, the Flyers snuck in on a glorified technicality, beating the Rangers in the 82nd game of their season in a skills competition. The NHL clearly doesn’t want shootouts deciding seasons (why else would they only allow OT in the playoffs?), but despite their best efforts, the Flyers ended the Rangers playoff hopes with a cheap victory that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. The Flyers measly 88 points in the standings placed them 19th overall in the NHL, but somehow, that was enough to get them into the dance. The NHL’s abolition of the tie created a league where bad teams can still succeed by cashing in on cheap points in the standings, and the Flyers took 88 of those points to the Finals.

Jersey Disaster [PIC]

One of our writers is currently spending some time over in Colorado, and was in attendance for a Rockies game this week, when he saw this horrible jersey mashup and had to take a picture.

Beyond being an awful half-and-half jersey, it’s an even worse pun. Patrick Roy (which, any good hockey fan could tell you, is properly pronounced as ‘Rwha’ or ‘Wah’) takes up the Avalanche portion of the uni, while the Rockies half simply says ‘Ker’ – which is a reference to slugger Larry Walker. Get it? Larry ‘Wah-Ker’? Just absolutely terrible.

Thanks to Mike for snapping a photo of this one. Easily one of the worst jersey fouls I’ve ever seen.

Where Will Kovalchuk Sign?

July 1st is nearly over, and the biggest free agent Ilya Kovalchuk has to yet sign a contract with anyone. This is probably to be expected – he’s clearly the most talented player on the market right now, and he’s got no real reason to hurry up and agree to terms with anyone. A deal could go through tomorrow, next week, or a month from now, there’s really no real way to tell, but we can start to take a look at the teams that have the cap space to sign Kovalchuk. Here’s the organizations who have a shot.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs GM Brian Burke soundly denied the rumors that Toronto was close to signing Ilya Kovalchuk, but the Leafs actually have $7 million in cap space, and might actually be in a position to sign him if he dropped his price just a bit. That being said, it’s still a darkhorse team, and definitely not a Cup contender, which is what Kovie will be looking for the most.

St. Louis Blues

Another possible destination with the front office soundly denying any and all connection to Kovalchuk. The Blues have a decent amount of cap space, but they’ve got a slew of important RFA’s to resign, like Erik Johnson and David Perron. Jaroslav Halak has yet to sign, and he’s due for a significant raise. St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong spoke about the Kovalchuk rumor today in an interview:

“There’s certain points in an organization where you’d want to make that plunge…he’s not the right player for this organization at this time”

The Blues are focused on developing their talent through their prospects, so don’t expect Kovie to end up in St.Louis.

L.A Kings

The Kings seem to be the most likely destination for Kovalchuk – they’re sitting on $17 million in cap space, and Kings forward Alexander Frolov seems to be on his way out, so they’ll have an even greater need to fill up their top-six.

“All day long it’s looked like the Los Angeles Kings were the frontrunners on Kovalchuk, but over the past few hours things have slowed down a bit on the Kovalchuk to LA talk. Right now the Kings are working on trading for a defensemen after missing out on the top free agents, and now it seems their focus isn’t completely on Kovalchuk.

While there’s a number of teams in on the Kovalchuk negotiations, including the New Jersey Devils, even now it seems like the Kings are still the favorite destination for the Russian sniper. Yet the rush of rumors and whispers about the contract talks have certainly slowed, as Kovalchuk waits for the perfect deal to come along.

Word is he’s waiting on Los Angeles to make the offer he wants, although as of now their focus is on improving the defense.” {MSNBC}

I’ve been saying from the beginning that it’s really been a three-way race between Colorado, L.A and New Jersey, but L.A seems to be the front runner.

New Jersey Devils

Not much else to report on this front – the Devils are evidently still trying to resign Kovalchuk, but New Jersey picked up defenseman Anton Volchenkov with a six year, $25 million dollar contract, so you’ve got to figure they wouldn’t have a ton of money for anything else if they locked up Kovalchuk. The Devils could get Kovie to re-up, but it’s looking more and more doubtful by the day.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs have a ridiculous amount of cap space, and they could afford that huge contract that Ilya is after, but it doesn’t look like they’re at the point where they would want to sign a player like Kovalchuk.

”
“The Avalanche organization is about winning, so certainly our expectations are that,” Sherman said on Thursday afternoon. “As we look to the future we feel very confident about the young group that we have and that we’re going to build around.”

Sherman’s “no shortcuts” strategy makes complete sense when you look at where the Avalanche came from and where the team sits today.

After a tough 2008-09 season, Colorado was assumed to be in the early stages of a “rebuilding phase.” But after adding gifted teenagers Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly at the 2009 NHL Draft, and coupling them with the young talent already in Colorado’s system, the Avalanche fast-tracked the “rebuild” and surprised many pundits when the organization achieved its goal of returning to the playoffs this past season.

“We have an expectation as a franchise. We have a standard as a franchise,” said Sherman. “We certainly want to exceed the expectations that we have internally.”

With expectations met for the 2009-10 campaign, the Avalanche is now focused on the future.

Instead of trying to add a high-priced free agent or two this offseason – and possibly hampering the organization’s ability to re-sign its own players down the road – Sherman has stuck to his guns and shown faith in the young Avalanche squad. And why not? A quick examination of Colorado’s returning players shows a solid core in place that will certainly continue to grow and improve.” {NHL.com}

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, just because of their $29 million dollar cap space, but it seems like L.A is the better destination out of the two. If someone put a gun to my head, I’d have to say that Kovie will end up in a Kings jersey. Toronto or Colorado might pull the trigger if the price is right, but it’s doubtful.

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