Archive for the ‘NHL’ Category
Leafs Made Attempt To Acquire Ryan, Schneider From Ducks
Photo from AP Photo
Sources tell TSN the Toronto Maple Leafs made a strong pitch to acquire 21-year-old forward Bobby Ryan and 39-year-old defenceman Mathieu Schneider from the Anaheim Ducks.
The Leafs offered a conditional first round draft pick in 2009 along with two prospects.
To stay in the hunt for John Tavares, Victor Hedman or one of the projected top 5 players in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Toronto attached a condition that would guarantee the pick the Ducks received couldn’t be higher than 6th. Had the Ducks agreed to the trade, the protector on Toronto’s 2009 draft pick would have pushed the pick to 2010.
According to a secondary source, Bobby Ryan is a young player the Toronto Maple Leafs are very eager to acquire and Schneider had to be included in the package to give Anaheim cap relief.
It’s likely, had the deal gone through, Toronto would have aggressively tried to trade the veteran defenseman for a draft pick.
Full Story: TSN.ca
Pogge Not Ready for NHL
Photo by Getty Images
Justin Pogge’s ears were ringing last night, thanks to three late blasts of the HSBC Arena horn and the subsequent stinging words from coach Ron Wilson.
What looked to be Pogge’s coming-out party turned into a nightmare for the young goaltender, whose shutout aspirations in pre-season action against the Buffalo Sabres were crushed by a late flurry by the hosts.
Having blanked the Sabres over the first 57:39, Pogge allowed power-play goals to Derek Roy and Paul Gaustad, the latter scoring with just five seconds left to even the score at 2-2.
The final blow came 63 seconds into overtime when an Ales Kotalik point shot somehow eluded him, leaving Wilson to declare that Pogge is not at the stage to be a Maple Leaf quite yet.
“Yeah, he played,” Wilson said after his team’s 3-2 loss. “But he made mistakes at the end. He allowed what looked like a great effort to dribble right down his chin.
“Obviously you wish he had the last goal back and that’s kind of why he’s not ready to play in the NHL. You have to be able to play poised all the way.”
Wilson was not putting all the blame on the organization’s top goaltending prospect. At the same time, he does not want Pogge to be hyped into some kind of saviour in pads, either.
Full Story: Toronto Sun
Lecavalier Ready to Test Shoulder
Vinny Lecavalier wants to know if he’s ready, he wants to find out for himself whether or not his surgically repaired right shoulder is healed enough to take contact.
And there’s only one way for him to know - play in a live game, which he plans to do in the next preseason game in Berlin.
“My goal is to play on Sunday so I can start testing getting hit,” Lecavalier said.
The regular season begins Oct. 4 in Prague, Czech Republic, and Lecavalier wants to play in that game. And with two preseason games still on the schedule - Sunday in Berlin and Tuesday in Bratislava, Slovakia - before the regular season gets under way, the Lightning captain has a chance to test the shoulder to see how it responds.
“I’m definitely excited for that,” Lecavalier said. “I suffered the injury in April so I’m happy to start again and get back into that rhythm of playing games again.”
Lightning coach Barry Melrose said while the team is planning on having Lecavalier for the season opener, “we’re always going to err on the side of caution” with this type of injury.
Source: Tampa Tribune
