First off, a very Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there. I have a few things to comment on from the past week...
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The Shea Weber situation got a little more interesting in Music City as the Nashville Predators filed for arbitration with their star blueliner. It’s a very good move for the Predators as it prevents offer sheets from being submitted for the restricted free agent superstar. It’s a risky move as well, the arbitrators have been known to award crazy sums in the process, by filing club-initiated arbitration they cannot walk away from the award.
In talking to a few folks with the team, it is believed that this move is to buy some more time to get a long term deal done with the team’s captain. Why would they need more time? Well, Shea Weber rather quietly changed agents. He is now represented by Jarret Bousquet of Titan Sports Management. There’s a rather funny web fail that our friend Dirk Hoag over at On the Forecheck called out on the company’s front page of the website… Maybe the right contract for his client may get the company the spelling help it seems to desperately need.
Weber is on record as saying he wants to stay in Nashville, however, a change in representation tends to start the negotiations at square one as the new agent gets to know his client and the opposite side of the bargaining table. David Poile with another smart move…
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I’ve been reading The Hockey News for a long time and I certainly take issue with them for their “traditional” focus. One of the worst of this lot is Ken Campbell. I have called him out repeatedly for reporting opinion as fact and generally being lazy as a reporter.
Well, he finally got it broke off this week, completely embarrassing the publication by comparing one of the co-owners of the Minnesota Wild with other NHL owners that have had or have legal issues. Now, that in itself is not a problem, but then Campbell completely failed as a journalist by not contacting any of the key players to verify the article.
That’s bad… and it drew an extensive apology from the Hockey News, but what I haven’t seen is a peep from Ken Campbell. No apology, no mea culpa, no nothing. He allowed someone to write the apology (anonymously) and publish it (also anonymously) without taking public accountability for it.
Hypocrisy at its finest. A real man admits when he is wrong... nothing so far from Mr. Campbell. He continues to write for the publication, with no apparent discipline from his employer, sending a clear message that his behavior is perfectly acceptable at THN. How far the publication has fallen…
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COMING UP ON THE NEXT SLAPSHOT RADIO…
Our latest podcast is posted… coming up this Wednesday we will preview the NHL Awards and the NHL Draft. Our guests include the Director of Recruitment and Education Services for the OHL, Joe Birch and NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. Wednesday at 6pm on Nashville’s Sports Radio WNSR.
You can get check out our podcasts at
the SlapShot Radio podcast 
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