MVN - Most Valuable Network

Anderson to the Hall, Oilers at the draft

-Glenn Anderson became a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame this week.  He was the source of debate for years over whether or not he actually should be in the Hall of Fame.  Personally I don’t feel that he should be, he was never the best player on his team, played on the most offensive team ever in the most offensive era ever and still didn’t manage to break 500 goals.  Sure he won six cups but so did Kevin Lowe and Anderson never played on the first line.  He was a very good player but not quite an all-time great, which I feel the Hall of Fame should be.  If Anderson is good enough to make it to the Hall then how can they exclude Bernie Nicholls.  Their numbers are basically the exact same except Anderson was fortunate enough to play on one of the greatest teams of all-time which accounts for the difference in cups and playoff points (and their playoff points per game ratios are comparable).  Guys like Lindros, Bure, Damphouse, and Nicholls should never be admitted to the Hall but with players like Dick Duff already admitted it makes it hard to keep them out.  Also in hockey there are no arguments over who should be in, only on who is in and why they shouldn’t be there.  To me, that is a sign of a weak Hall of Fame.

-Darryl Katz is now the official owner of the Oilers. The new arena debate is probably going to heat up now.  With the Oilers generating so much in gate revenue as a tax-payer I don’t see the need to build a new arena for my favourite hockey team.  If they do personally I hope they build a 22,000 to 25,000 monstrosity.  I don’t see the point in building an 18,000seat arena. That really isn’t much more than what the Oilers have now and if the city is going to spend so much money to build a new one, might as well swing for the fences because in relative terms it isn’t going to cost that much more.  Imagine a 25,000seat arena sold out during the playoffs, it would be absolute insanity and a hockey Mecca at the same time.

-CTV has bought the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song.  It case you didn’t know the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada is the second most important song in Canada next the national anthem.  The CBC is dying slowly and this is a huge nail in their coffin.  It won’t be long until they lose the rights to Hockey Night in Canada and possibly quit broadcasting hockey games all together.  Canadians should be not be saddened by this at all though because TSN (which is owned by CTV) has been very good to hockey.

TSN is a big the reason why the NHL trade deadline is such an event. Sure the way trades have evolved over the years have increase the deadlines importance but with TSN broadcasting it the day’s importance to fans has increased tremendously.  They were the first to broadcast the NHL draft lottery, the first to put the colour commentator between the benches, made the World Junior Tournament almost a bigger deal than the Stanley Cup finals (it sometimes outdraws the Cup finals for ratings and in 2003 it did by a country mile) and now they broadcast the NHL draft (I am not sure when they first started to do that though). The guys over there know what they are doing and are far more innovative then their colleagues at the CBC.  The CBC doesn’t even have a late night sports program in English. They do in French and if my French was better I would watch it but instead they broadcast the Hour with Strombo, which is an O.K. show but doesn’t give me my hockey fix.
-The draft is tomorrow and while the hockey world will be focused on Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty, I will be personally paying attention to Tyler Ennis of the Medicine Hat Tigers and defenseman Vjateslav Voinov from Russia.  Ennis has a ton of skill but is really small (if the guy was 6’4 he would likely be ranked in the top ten) and Voinov really impressed me during the Super Series and during the World Juniors.  TSN has ranked Ennis   33rd overall and the THN has him ranked 41st.   The Hockey News ranks Voinov 76h overall and TSN ranks him 44th overall.

-All media reports are saying the Oilers are staying put on draft day.  Torres and Pitkanen could be used as bait. I personally really like Pitkanen. I feel he has the skill to be one of the top ten defensemen in the entire league with his skill set and defensemen like that don’t come along everyday.  With the money the Oilers have already committed to Gilbert and Souray though I don’t know if he will fit into the team’s salary structure.  Torres could be out of a job if Glencross resigns.  Right now it appears that Glencross won’t resign in etown, which will give a roster spot to Torres. Glencross now wants 1.5-2 million a season, which is too much for a fourth line player.  Guys like Glencross and Malone should be very careful about switching teams.  Sure they could probably get more money elsewhere but when a guy is a good fit on a team they likely won’t have the degree of success they currently enjoy anywhere else.  If a guy produces they big bucks will come.  Malone will get big bucks on the free market but I highly doubt he will put up numbers anywhere close to what he had last season on any other team other than the Penguins.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.