Nitzy's Hockey Den

No, Arron Asham is not the best of the unsigned Unrestricted Free Agents, although teams could do alot worse than a gritty guy who played a part on a Stanley Cup finalist and can chip in 10 to 15 goals. Especially when he can be had for around a million per year. Assuming Ilya Kovalchuk is going to New Jersey, or Moscow, or Reykjavik...the following are the best of the rest. The Defensemen Perhaps the best two remaining defenders may not play another game due to concussion issues. Neither Kim Johnsson or Willie Mitchell have come close to getting a clean bill of health. If either of them do, they would be highly sought after by teams with cap room (are there any really?). Mike Mottau, Ruslan Salei, Andy Sutton, Randy Jones, Shaone Morrisonn, Freddy Meyer, Andreas Lilja, Paul Mara and Marc-Andre Bergeron. Each is more than capable of filling the role of depth defenseman or powerplay specialist. Perhaps these are the kind of guys to find a larger role by signing in Europe as Denis G...

It may be a little premature to make the above statement, but over the first five seasons of an NHL career Ovechkin just may very well be the top all-time. Firstly, he has notched 269 goals over his first half decade which is overall the fifth most ever over the first five. Gretzky is far and away the leader with 356 markers during one of the highest scoring eras in hockey history. This is where the difficulty of comparing eras comes to the forefront. As I've stated before, hockeyreference.com does a great job at solving this problem with a stat called Adjusted Goals. Adjusted Goals involves putting each season into a "neutral" scoring era of 6.00 goals per game and an 82 game schedule. As shown in the chart at the bottom during Gretzky's first five seasons the league average for goals per game was 7.67. This is almost a one/third higher scoring rate than Ovechkin's first five year NHL average of 5.83. Further still, Gretzky's league average is 80% higher th...

As I've mentioned a few other times, I once worked for Harold Ballard. Well, my small pay-cheque had a stamped signature of Ballard on it and had Maple Leaf Gardens Limited across the top (I really should have kept one for posterity). I was employed by the Newmarket Saints, the AHL farm club of the Leafs as game videographer. In doing this for four years (86/87 thru 89/90), I got to chat nightly with the coach of the Saints, Paul Gardner. After each game, I'd make my way down to the coach's room of The Newmarket Recreation Centre to deliver the video of that evening's game. I'd usually just say a quick, "Tough loss again Gardsy", but once in a while we'd have a quick chat. Once, when a younger cousin of mine was in the hospital for some surgery I ventured to ask Paul for a little souvenir I could pass along. I mentioned he was a PeeWee rep goalie, and by the time I dropped the tape off that night he had one of Peter Ing's goal sticks signed by the...

I'm not here to tell you the Vancouver Canucks should not retire the number 19 of Markus Naslund. Although I do feel it's a bit silly to bestow such an honour on very good players and not reserve the treatment for alltime greats. The likes of Trevor Linden, Stan Smyl, Naslund, Rene Robert, Glen Wesley, Neal Broten, Bill Goldsworthy, Emile Bouchard, Ken Daneyko, Bob Nystrom, Adam Graves, Dale Hunter, Yvon Labre, Barclay Plager and Thomas Steen were all good and some even great players, and all have their number retired by their respective teams...but should they? I will not argue against players having their numbers retired after succumbing to a disasterous injury or even death. To honour gentleman such as Bill Barilko, Keith Magnuson, Bill Masterton, Barry Ashbee, Michel Briere or Bob Gassoff is perfectly fine by me. These guys were average, or slightly above average players who were cut down in their prime and should be remembered as such. In my mind, in order for a player ...

Sad news of the passing of one of the most unique NHL players ever in Bob Probert. Drafted in the third round in 1983 by the Wings, the 6'3", 225lb Probert go on to score 35 goals the following season for Brantford in the OHL, then 72 points in 44 games for Sault Ste. Marie. He had 189 and 172 PIMs each season as well. He then scored almost a point per game and had 152 PIMs in half a season with the Wings AHL farm team in Adirondack. Probert's breakout season in the NHL was his third one in 1987/88 when he had perhaps one of the most unique seasons in history. He scored 29 goals and collected 398 PIM's and played in the All-Star game. He also led the Red Wings in points in the playoffs (with Yzerman injured) with 8 goals and 21 points in 16 games. He would finish seventh overall playoff scoring, and tops among players who didn't play in the Final. His 51 playoff PIMs were actually 26th overall in the league and only third on the Wings behind Rick Zombo and Gerard ...

With rumours of Ilya Kovalchuk soon to sign a large multi year deal for at least 8 million dollars per year, the question should be posed...is he worth it? The facts are, Kovalchuk just turned 27 years old and is one of the elite goal scorers in the NHL. Indeed, over his first eight seasons, Kovie is one of the elite goal scorers of all-time . Over his eight full seasons, Kovalchuk has tallied 338 goals or an average of 42.25 per season. This is the 13th highest total for goals in a player's first eight years in NHL history. The top five are: Wayne Gretzky 543 Mike Bossy 474 Brett Hull 413 Mario Lemieux 408 11 of the top 13 players on this list accumulated their totals in the late 197o's or early 1980's. Only Kovalchuk and Teemu Selanne started their careers in the lower scoring 1990's and 2000's. Once again, the Goals Adjusted tool comes in handy in order to compare eras. When Kovalchuk and Selanne's scoring is adjusted to a neutral era they rise to near th...