NHL Rumors: August 10th

Ducks Making Moves

Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray said he will try a different approach to re-signing Bobby Ryan. I expect this means he will offer fewer years just like Ryan wants, but they will also give him less money per year. That should be the trade-off, so the only question is will Ryan take it?

Murray remained coy about his interest in Paul Kariya. He mentioned how Teemu Selanne was very interested in playing with his old pal again, but will Kariya retire? My guess is he signs a one year contract with the Ducks.

Sweatt to Sign in August?

Bill Sweatt's agent, Scott Norton, says he plans on helping his client sign a massive contract near the end of August. This is very ill advised, as a lot of teams will now stay away from him for his antics, and also because he has never played in the NHL before.

Caps, Sharks Pursue Mitchell

The Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks seem to be the front-runners for Willie Mitchell's services. He wants to stay in Vancouver but they are not offering what he wants.

I don't see how the Sharks and Capitals can offer Mitchell much more, as he is coming off a career threatening injury. My guess is he tries to stay in Vancouver and probably will.

Kovalchuk Fallout

With the Ilya Kovalchuk contract being denied, the NHL is now looking into a lot of these long term contracts, including star goaltender Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa, and a few others.

I don't expect them to care about the Chris Pronger contract as his cap hit will stay whether or not he retires, so all the money they pay him—and maybe more—will be on their cap hit.

I would be very happy if they call all these contracts null and void since I have, for a long time, complained they are circumventing the salary cap.

Of course, if that happened, teams would rush to sign the newly-teamless players quickly, but nobody really has cap space for anything now. Regardless, the teams handing out these crooked contracts should have to forfeit draft picks for trying to cheat the system.

As for Tomas Kaberle, the Kovalchuk ruling has hurt his value a little bit, but teams interested in both Kovalchuk and Kaberle will soon realize they have to work faster for Kaberle as the deadline is fast approaching.

Besides, there are only two teams interested in both and that would be Los Angeles and New Jersey, so as soon as one realizes Kovalchuk's preference, they will go after Tomas Kaberle.