This is what FHF thinks of when they picture "Swedish Cops". For an explanation as to the inspiration behind this lovely photo, as well as some thoughts on some stories from this past week (you know, the one’s we could come up with smart-ass comments for), read on my pretties:
San Jose and Florida signed their young stars,
Milan Michalek and
Stephen Weiss, respectively, to 6-year contracts.
Michalek will collect $26 million over that span. The Sharks also guarantee his services for 7 years, since this deal only kicks in next season. Weiss agreed to take only $18.1 of Florida’s money. So, if we’re
Gainey, should we being talking to Higgins and
Plekanec about these types of contracts? It
doesn’t seem possible for the salary cap to keep spiking as it has since the lockout, but for the upside these players present those salaries are likely going to look like bargains in a few years. If
Gainey feels his guys are key players for the future of the franchise he would do well to consider it now before the price goes up and they leave for nothing. But something tells me
Gainey will go the cautious route and avoid long term contracts. Wait, he
gave Hamrlik how many years??
Peca’s signing with Columbus is good news for the
Habs. Any Leafs loss is a
Habs gain.
Ed Belfour just doesn’t know when to quit. Although you could draw some comparisons between
Belfour and Patrick Roy - both great goalies of their era (although obviously Roy is also a great goalie of anyone’s era), hated by their back ups, prone to burst of violence and
egomanical, at least St Patrick knew when to walk away with class. I can’t wait to hear the first time
Belfour assaults a Swedish cop. Then we’ll find out if Don Cherry is right about Europeans being soft. It would have been even more interesting if
Belfour had signed for a Russian team. There’s a real possibility his body would have washed up on the shores of the
Moskva river before the season was out.
Warning - Law-geek talk ahead: I find this whole Columbus/Alexander
Svitov contract situation very interesting in a legal sense. I mean,
Svits reportedly
signed a two-year deal to play with Columbus only weeks ago, and now he’s off to Russia? Did the Columbus contract contain some sort of escape clause - in which case, kudos to his agent? Was the contract never signed? Or is the fact that Columbus is doing nothing about this simply an reflection of their knowledge that any lawsuit over the contract would ultimately end up in front of a Russian Court, and given Russia’s recent return to Nationalist tendencies, something tells me that any Russian Court ruling would side with
Svitov.
Warning - previous Warning still in effect: So word was this week the Steve Moore-Todd
Bertuzzi civil trial
has reached the discovery stage. I’d love to know what kind of questions the lawyers are asking the other side, and for how long. I bet Big Bert’s gonna be sitting in that chair for days, and by the end of it
Bertuzzi is going to be wishing he had attacked the lawyer instead. Trust me when I say discoveries are BORING. Although I suppose the chance that the witness could pummel the questioner into a bloody pulp and no one in that room could stop him would probably spice things up.
