NHL Puck – Arbitration, Boogaard, and Osgood
By Editorial Staff
It’s been a busy few days in the NHL and a lot has happened to catch back up on.
We’ve all heard about the Stamkos signing by now, his five year, $37.5M deal will give the Tampa fans some breathing room as they have locked up their perennial superstar for the next five season’s. It’ll be interesting what he can do with St. Louis in the next few years.
Keeping the news in the Bay, we’ll talk about the arbitration, or lack there of, regarding Teddy Purcell. The young winger agreed to terms with Steve Yzerman and company this past week just before his scheduled arbitration hearing. The deal is a two year deal where Teddy will earn $2.3625M per season with Tampa.
This is a solid deal for both sides as Purcell, 25, really broke out this season in Tampa, registering 51 points in 81 games for the Lightning in the regular season. Purcell became a new player in the post season, as he potted 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 18 games for Tampa. That was 3rd best on the team behind Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis. He’s got a great chance to really step up next season as a top six winger for the Bolts.
Another player avoiding arbitration is New York Ranger’s left winger, Brandon Dubinsky.
Dubinsky, 25, signed a four year, $4.2M deal. He notched 54 points last season with the Rangers in just 77 games, and recorded two goals and an assist in five playoff games this post season as well. This is where the misguided fans come in and ask how does Dubinsky earn that much more than Purcell did? Well, there are other aspects to the game other than just points. Dubinsky is a very solid two-way player with leadership potential. Now, does that account to an extra two million on the deal for Dubinsky? Not at all, I would have figured a deal around 3.4-3.8 million would have been more suffice for the forward from Anchorage, Alaska, but the deal is set.
It will really make things interesting for the Rangers as they still have to sign Ryan Callahan to a deal as well. Callahan, 26, posted 48 points in just 60 games this season, while providing a much better two-way game than Dubinsky and is expect to be the next potential captain for the Rangers. How does this effect his deal?
Moving onto sadder news, Aaron Boogaard was arrested this past week on drug charges. Apparently, Aaron was in possession of illegal prescription pills that are rumored to be prescribed to Derek Boogaard, who passed away May 13th, 2011 due to an accidental overdose/mixture.
The Boogaard family is still having difficult times due to the loss of Derek and now this ordeal with Aaron. From the
, Joanne Boogaard, Derek and Aaron’s mother said this. “
We are all very upset over all of this on top of losing a son and brother, and now this. This doesn’t make any sense to us.
”
Here is to wishing the Boogaard family, Aaron included, the best of luck on figuring out the situation.
Jumping into the spotlight this week was now former NHL goaltender, Chris Osgood, who made the decision to hang up his pads after 17 seasons in the National Hockey League.
Questions arose about Osgood and the Hockey Hall of Fame, siting that the goaltender could potentially be inducted. With no offense to Osgood, personally, I don’t think he belongs anywhere near the HHOF.
The Hall of Fame is for those of excellence, and while Osgood was a very solid goaltender, he doesn’t deserve the hall of fame.
As a comparison, should Curtis Joseph be put into Hockey’s Hall of fame? He had 53 more wins than Osgood did, doesn’t that account for something? Joseph played in nearly 1000 NHL games, something very difficult for NHL goaltender to do. Osgood doesn’t even come close to that. They both have comparable goals against averages and save percentages in their carreers, so wouldn’t Joseph get the nod over Osgood for the Hall of Fame?
If I had to pick and choose, I’d pick Joseph, but in all honesty, neither belong in the Hall Of Fame. Sorry Chris, you get into the Hall for being great, not just good. `
A ‘Check This Out’ Moment
Leaf’s fans will enjoy this video made by my good friend Steve Dangle.
Are you a Clarke MacArthur fan? You are? Great, check this video out!