Faceoff Factor

Hockey News And Notes

Matt Bodenschatz | National Hockey League

Aug 8, 01:32 PM | Hype this story!

We’ll start out this edition of Hockey News And Notes with some Pittsburgh Penguins news. According to Jon Bombulie, the Penguins have invited 20-year-old undrafted free agent Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll to training camp, where he will be competing for a contract.

FF Take: Barring an extreme surprise, it seems most likely he’ll play in the AHL, if signed.

Offer Sheets Warrant Offer Sheets, Say Kings GM

With Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson slated to become restricted free agents next summer, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi issued a word of warning to other GMs who may consider signing either to an offer sheet.

“We’re not only going to match any offer sheet, we’ll have enough space to go after your guys,” he said to the Sporting News. “Go ahead and make our day. If you sign our guy, we’re coming back with both barrels firing. You’d better be damn straight that you have the cap space and all your guys are signed.”

FF Take: Wow. Lombardi means business. If he was smart, he’d work on contract extensions early, like the Penguins have done with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Then offer sheets wouldn’t even be a concern.

Four Receieve Lester Patrick Award

NHL.com reports that four people — Brian Burke, Phil Housley, Ted Lindsay and Bob Naegele — were honored with the Lester Patrick Award, for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

“It means that your mother and father taught you right and you did what you were supposed to do,” Lindsay told NHL.com of what he believes the Lester Patrick Award signifies. “What you did was right and appreciated by people in the community.”

FF Take: Kudos to all four.

Khabibulin Silent On Huet Signing

PuckUpdate.com is reporting that Chicago Blackhawks management admits to not being worried about Nikolai Khabibulin’s feelings with regards to the free agent signing of Cristobal Huet.

“[Khabibulin is] in Belarus,” said GM Dale Tallon. “It’s hard to get ahold of him there…But I did talk to his agent the day after [Huet’s signing], and we had a great conversation…I’m sure [Khabibulin] was taken aback, and rightly so. No one saw this coming, except within our staff. But this is all about winning. It’s not about keeping people happy.”

FF Take: I’ve been a big fan of what Chicago is doing, and I like the signing of Huet, but setting precedent that players’ happiness is not atop the priority list isn’t necessarily the best idea. That quote could come back to haunt the team down the line.

Import Draft Picks Could Be Thing Of The Past In CHL

The National Post is reporting that the QMJHL could be first of the CHL leagues cracking down on drafting non-Canadian players.

While the move initially would be to prevent Europeans from taking advantage of Canada’s junior development programs, word is that it could expand to the United States before long.

“It will be either to reduce or completely eliminate import players,” QMJHL president Gilles Courteau said Thursday. “But before we do something, we want to get a position and take it to our Canadian Hockey League partners.”

FF Take: The logic seems sound, yet the fans will suffer by not seeing some of the world’s most talented youngsters. Ales Hemsky, Alexander Radulov and Radim Vrbata are just three Europeans with signficant NHL resumes to have passed through the QMJHL.

Fleury Signs With Minor League Baseball Team

Former NHL player and current hothead Theoren Fleury has signed with with Calgary Vipors as gimmick move by the team to gain some exposure.

“Theo is one of the great sportsmen of Calgary and we are thrilled to have him with the team,” Calgary Viper’s President Peter Young said to Our Sports Central. “He’s an incredible athlete and while we anticipate that his time as a Viper will just be these three days, you never know what can happen in this wonderful game.”

FF Take: What?