The big event on the NHL calendar this weekend is Smashfest—Dominic Moore's annual charity ping-pong tournament going down tonight in Toronto.
This is the fourth year for the event, which raises money for rare cancer and concussion research. Moore's wife passed away from liver cancer a couple of years ago while his brother Steve, of course, had his career ended by the concussion he suffered at the hands of Vancouver's Todd Bertuzzi.
Click here to read more about the event and the players who are participating.
For Vancouver, Alex Burrows is a returning contestant and is already gearing up his trash talk.
Cody Franson Plays Waiting Game
If you missed it, B.C. boy Cody Franson was interviewed on TSN1040 a couple of days ago about his status as an unrestricted free agent.
I wasn't keen on the idea of Vancouver going after Franson before free agency began but the longer he goes without a contract, the more I started to wonder if the Canucks are missing out on a potential bargain. I don't like Franson at $6 million a year, but I wouldn't mind seeing him as a Canuck if Vancouver could bring him in on, say, a two-year deal at $4 million a season.
Here's how he describes his discussions so far, as reported by
Sportsnet:
“We haven’t said a number and we’ll take nothing less, or a term and we’ll take nothing less than that. We haven’t said that at all. We’ve had a lot of teams call to see where we’re at. We just said in a certain ballpark. Nobody has laughed at us. Everybody has thought it was reasonable. It’s just one of those things that some teams we’re talking to are in cap crunches and some teams don’t want to go maybe as long. It’s a number of different circumstances. Hopefully something happens sooner than later.”
Franson mentioned that Boston's one team in the mix.
General Fanager shows the Bruins with $4.7 million in cap space.
That makes me think that Franson and his agent are still asking for a deal that's north of $5 million a season, which I do think is too steep for the Canucks.
As we heard before free agency opened, Franson is interested in playing here:
It'll be interesting to see where he lands. Even if he does end up signing another one-year deal, if he can get $5 million or more, that'll put him in a different contract category going forward.
More on Expansion and Alignment
Will expansion lead to eight divisions with four teams each, like the NFL? That's one idea touted by Eric Duhatschek of
The Globe and Mail in
this look at the aftermath of the NHL's bidding process for expansion teams.
Duhatschek points out that if Quebec City is granted a franchise, that'd set up the prospect of two All-Canadian divisions—where Vancouver would presumably be lined up with Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.
The idea makes sense in terms of travel and rivalries, but it doesn't change the fact that 17 of 32 teams would be located in the Eastern time zone, so somebody would most likely have to join the Western Conference.
For me, the most important thing about the schedule is that the Canucks play every Eastern Conference team twice a year—home and away. I want to know that every team will visit Rogers Arena at least once a season, especially so that we can see the stars from Eastern teams that don't get a lot of national TV time, like Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay and John Tavares with the Islanders.
A new divisional alignment would also change up the playoff format again.
I wonder if the league would consider expanding the postseason? After all, the NHL has had 16 teams making the playoffs since the days of the 21-team league, when virtually everybody got in. If they go forward with just 16 of 32 advancing to the postseason, the challenge of making the playoffs will be tougher than ever.
An expanded playoff format, of course, would also mean more games and more revenue. But as we've learned over the years, hockey's not well suited to wild-card situations or shorter best-of-three or best-of-five playoff rounds—too much potential for upsets.
How could the league expand the playoff bracket while still keeping the process fair?
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