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 I’ve spent the last month or so working on a new way to measure hockey players. I call it the Heavy Lifter Index (HLI). I didn’t invent the term heavy lifter for hockey players, I just added the index part. I’m pretty sure my contribution to the name is much more important than the rest. For [...]   Here’s a article I wrote on the merits and detriments of the contracts handed out to the Blues David Backes and the Flyers Jeff Carter for Hockey Prospectus. I also have a post coming up on HP soon where I unveil the Heavy Lifter Index to profile some of the NHL’s best players against the other [...] I had to give myself some time before I commented on the big fan interaction problem infecting the NHL right now. I’m not talking about the whole “Rick Rypien fan-grab” controversy, mainly because it’s not a controversy. Let me break it down for you: Dude is fired up from a hockey fight. Fan says something to [...]  Here is a study that I did for Hockey Prospectus on NHL Team Architecture. Obviously since I posted it on HP, I believe they have a great site, so definitely take a look at some of the material from their other great writers too. Front Office Focus – NHL Team Architecture What is the best way to [...]  With news that Cristobal Huet is headed to Switzerland to play for HC Fribourg-Gotteron, the Huet Haters are becoming more vocal than Don Cherry and Pierre McGuire combined. While it’s easy to say that he didn’t live up to expectations in Chicago the past two seasons, the question remains as to how good Huet really is [...]  This article was posted originally on Matchsticks & Gasoline. I have signed on as an author at this fantastic Flames’ blog, so come on by and check it out. I’m obsessed with the behavior of GMs and how they handle the salary cap. It’s amazing how many teams are run by men who can only see [...]  For those of us that believe outshooting the opponent is the most surefire way to victory in the NHL, the LA Kings signing of Alexei Ponikarovsky should set off fireworks. In his book, Moneyball, Michael Lewis referred to Kevin Youkilis’ as “The Greek God of Walks”. For NHL GMs, Ponikarovsky could be Ukrainian for “Net-peppering Ninja”. I [...]  A review of Kovalchuk’s contract that I wrote for Puck Prospectus on Wednesday. I was away for a few days so didn’t have time to share it here until now. Front Office Focus – Is the NHL doing the Devils a Favor with the Kovalchuk contract? All H-E-double-hockey-sticks has broken loose with the NHL rejecting Ilya Kovalchuk’s [...]  Yesterday over at Behind the Net, Gabe made a post about Mikko Koivu’s contract extension with the Wild. In the comments, there was some great debate about how the contract compared to those signed by Tomas Plekanec and Nicklas Backstrom. Given that I’d written up reviews of both contracts here and here, I figured it [...]  Here is the story as published on Puck Prospectus today. Front Office Focus – The Flames Free Agent Moves Free agency frequently brings a variety of deals that range from astute to downright absurd. This year’s free agency period was no different. While there are a variety of teams that have appeared to alter their talent level significantly [...]  We’re almost a week into Free Agency at this point and there is no way to declare who has won or lost, just like we should never declare the winner of the NHL draft two days after it’s happened. That said, we can definitely evaluate the dollars spent at various positions and the deals that seem [...]  Let’s put it this way. I don’t give a flying puck where LeBron is going on July 1st. I care about celebrating Canada Day and seeing where NHL free agents end up. As a fan, there are always players that are more fun to track than others, since they could have a big impact on [...] Here is the latest analysis I wrote for the great team at Puck Prospectus. Feel free to read it over there with this link or continue reading below. The reason I wanted to explore the contract value was the initial reaction so many people had to the dollar figure. I personally felt it was WAY too much [...]  I have to admit that I’m pretty excited today. The great people over at Puck Prospectus have agreed to publish one of my articles. A special thanks to Timo Seppa for all his ideas and help along with Andrew Rothstein for agreeing to publish it. For those of you that have never been to PP’s site, [...]  After watching the ‘Hawks appear to decimate the Flyers in Game 5, I couldn’t help but think that the last few games had seemed so different from the beginning of the series. The ‘Hawks just seemed more aggressive with the puck and appeared to control the play more. Now if I was a TV announcer, [...]  I can’t lie to you, I was awesome in the conference finals. No, I didn’t actually play any games, but I picked those series bang on. Sure a monkey or a coin could do the same thing 25% of the time, but just let me gloat. Just a little more….a few more minutes….OK, I’m good, [...]  While the playoffs are in full gear, a fairly interesting piece of news was announced in the NHL in the last week. Nicklas Backstrom signed a 10-year deal with the Washington Capitals that ensures they have their top pair of he and Alex Ovechkin intact for a very long time. At first, $67 million over 10 [...]  If you missed my predictions for the Eastern Conference Finals, go take a look. The East Finals will be flooded with stories about which Cinderella has the more dainty glass slipper. Here’s a tip for you though, it doesn’t matter. The West has two powerhouse teams playing and whomever wins the West will win the Cup. Just [...]  We’ve just hit my favorite part of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the conference finals. We’re down to only four deserving teams and it’s now possible to watch every game left without ending up in a divorce. The real question, as always, is who will win. Here is my Eastern Conference prediction, and I’ll try to post [...]  Not since 1987 has a Shark gotten his revenge like this. But that was on the silver screen and this is on the frozen stage. “Jumbo” Joe Thornton was shipped out of Boston for his failure to lead the Bruins to the promised land. And since his arrival in San Jose, he’s been a regular season [...] |
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