In The Dark

Tarik El-Bashir has this little snippet about Nylander's agent, Bill Zito, not having spoken to any KHL teams. There's no overt reason to believe he's putting up a smoke-screen.

"For a year I've been hearing the [rumors]," Bill Zito told me earlier today. "Michael called me a couple times and asked, 'Have you talked to these guys?' In the past it's been Yaroslavl, then it was Moscow, then it was St. Pete. We haven't spoken to them, and anyway, he has a contract with Washington."

So, is Nylander to the KHL dead? Likely. Very likely.

Those looking hoping he still might make the jump may want to remember that Nylander negotiated his contract with Washington without using his agent. And Kevin Lowe and the Edmonton Oilers didn't like that at all. (Funny looking back at that situation with hindsight, hunh?)

Unlikely that Nylander plays anywhere but Washington in the 09-10 season, in our opinion, but Nylander's deal with Washington was likely news to his agent, as well.

Kissing The (Paper) Cup

About this time every year, fans and pundits alike pass out a Cup in late July - the Paper Cup.

The Paper Cup is given to the team or teams that make the flashiest moves in Free Agency, or who shuffle their roster like a deck of cards. As no actual NHL hockey is being played, the Paper Cup is awarded on the merits of speculation and popular opinion. No moves are bad moves in competing for the Paper Cup - the only way to truly eliminate yourself from consideration is to make a few low-profile moves, run under the radar, or just generally not draw attention to yourself.

The All-Time Greatest Recipient of The Paper Cup? Last year's Tampa Bay Lightning, and it's not close. New, maverick owners came in and ruffled the feathers of the 'traditional hockey establishment', spent plenty of money and generally drew as much attention to themselves as possible. Len Barrie predicted his team would win the division. He and Koules may have individually negotiated free agent contracts, and Koules apparently made a majority of the day-to-day decisions for the club for the past year.

All of this flash certainly dazzled many. Legions of fans were blown away, leading to some truly memorable message board posts - including this true gem over at Hockey's Future. Professional hockey observers seemed to like the moves, for the most part, though were split on how much of a breath of fresh air the new ownership actually were - were they rebels with a cause? Were they punks? A little of both?

Well, through the crystallizing lens of hindsight, it seems that the traditional hockey establishment was spot-on. The team finished second-to-last in the league, made questionable move after questionable move on the personnel front, including bullying Dan Boyle into accepting a trade, and Barrie and Koules are at odds with each other and had to be called into Principal Gary's office.

As it is late July, and we're in the bleakest days of the hockey-free season, there isn't much to do except talk hockey and judge the moves of our favorite teams and rivals. We at DH certainly engage in more than a little discussion on that front, and heartily endorse it. As we write names on The Paper Cup, however, we are reminded that it's all just more hot air in the Summer.

Short snippet from Dev. Camp

So, when the scrimmage on Saturday was done, I headed over to Front Page for a post-scrimmage beer with some pals after some media time (where I stood around pretty good, watching the bags of my fellow bloggers and shamelessly listening in on conversations around me).

As many will know, the pace of the elevators at Ballston Commons can charitably be described as 'glacial'. Many of the participants of the Dev. camp were waiting with the rest of us, staring at the floor, the doors, the ceiling, whatever. I didn't recognize most of them, but Josh Godfrey and Eric Mestery were two I did.

The elevator comes, and the players file in, stacking their gear bags with the precision of engineers (and I have trouble with my laptop bag), and we all pretty much sit there, as the floors crawl by. We finally hit the designated floor, and I hold the door for everyone, as there's a crowd and a bunch of bags to go around. The players all file out after getting their bags, followed by the rest of the folks in the elevator.

Every player said thanks to me, while pretty much none of the 'civilian' passengers did. I don't mind, it's not a big deal (it's holding an elevator door, not heavy lifting), but I found it interesting that every player did.

Does this say anything other than the players had some manners? Likely not. Stuck in my head, though.

Knee-Jerk Development Camp Thoughts

Rookie Camp has concluded, and has provided us with precious hockey to discuss over the grim period between mid-July and early September.

- Followers of the blog know that I like the grinders, and guys like Breuss, Eakin, and Della Rovere are right up my alley. All worked hard, brought speed, forechecked and did the little things. Mitchell was less noticable for me, but I like the trend of the Caps picking hard-working, character guys in the middle/later rounds.

- Dmitri Orlov was the surprise player of the camp for me. Clearly skilled, his willingness to play the body was even better. Good speed, good vision, good hands, and only 17 years old. He's a player I could see making Hershey.

- I'm not as impressed with Perreault as everyone else, it seems. Holding the puck too long in high-traffic areas was a big concern for me. I'm certainly not down on him, I just wasn't as impressed as the majority.

- I'm not as down on Gustafsson as some. Finding new and interesting ways of belittling Gustafsson was a cottage industry at Camp, it seemed. The injuries are absolutely a concern, and should stay so until Gustafsson can stay healthy for a prolonged time. The knocks on his skill, however, are unfounded, and likely the product of faulty expectations. Never touted as a flashy player, he was disparaged for not making flashy plays. He drove the net, made some smart passes, and played a responsible game, which is all that could be reasonably asked of him. Not performing like an offensive dynamo in camp clearly caused some sentiment as him being a 'bust', which is somewhat short-sighted.

- I have no idea where Gustafsson will play next season. Would he get significantly more minutes in Hershey than in the SEL? Would he make the Hershey squad at all?

- It was a brief expiriment but it really intruiged me - Finley at forward. He has good North-South speed for his size, and was will/eager to go in deep on the forecheck. He also was immobile in one instance in front of the crease, taking a rebound and feeding it across the crease to set up a teammate for a scoring chance as a defender struggled in vain to move the big Minnesotan. It's just one and a half scrimmages in Rookie Camp, but it wouldn't bother me at all if Finley was tried on the wing a bit in Hershey. He's a good interview, as well, and gives at least as good as he gets with a microphone in front of him.

- Nobody was happier to have hockey in July than Bruce Boudreau.

- John Carlson didn't have a flashy camp, per se, but he had an effective one. There's a guy who could be in the Red, White & Blue in September.

- Braden Holtby started off roughly on Monday, but was in good form by the end of camp. Dann Dunn seemed to have both high and low moments.

- Think Dubuc caught management's attention?

- Francoius Bouchard created several chances today, but seems to keep to the perimeter. Taking a cue from Perreault and heading into the tall trees might help his game.

- Patrick Wey was a player that I wanted to keep an eye on, but it was somewhat hard because he plays a very non-descript game. Not overly anything, he seems to make the simple, smart play and that's that.

- Seriously. SRO crowds. On a Saturday morning in July. For a Development Camp scrimmage. That says something.

Hey, wathcing hockey in July, getting to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones, well, that's not too bad. See you at the rink in September.