Garth Snow said last season they would not put Brendan Witt on waivers to make him available at half-price to teams. But even at $1.5 million, based on the market this summer for depth players, it’s unlikely a team would have taken the veteran defenseman’s tab. He was placed today on unconditional waivers.

A buyout is probably in his future. The Islanders still carry seven defensemen on one-way contracts for the 2010-11 season. If they buy out this last season of his contract, the Islanders could add the cost as they reach the salary cap floor.

..in an attempt to be as efficient as possible, the league has encouraged the NHLPA to consolidate all of their grievances into one single master list.

Well, that list was leaked to me this week. And the interest of keeping fans informed I’m publishing it here:

- Although we’ve made our feelings crystal clear on the matter over the years, there are still between 20 to 25 players at any given time who are being forced to play in Edmonton.

- Due to difficult economic times, Philadelphia Flyer fans are now pelting our wives and children with pennies and nickels, instead of the much lighter dimes they used to throw.

read on

There were no specifics given by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, just an acknowledgment Lightning founder Phil Esposito might be in line for an expanded role with the organization. And while Vinik said the final decision will be up to new CEO Tod Leiweke, Vinik sounded as if Esposito could be an asset on the community and marketing side of the organization.

“We want him involved with this team,” Vinik said this week. “We want him out in the community. We want him involved with us. He’s a great ideas person.”

Expanding Esposito’s role from his long-time gig as an analyst on radio broadcasts of Lightning home games, a job for which he has said he never has signed a contract, makes sense for an organization ready to embrace its past and make a better effort to market the team both in the St. Pete Times Forum and Tampa Bay area.

continued

From NHL.com:

Nicholas was kind enough to take time out of his summer schedule to give us his thoughts on the Alexander Frolov signing as well his thoughts on other Blueshirt topics:

PH: What do you think of the Alexander Frolov signing?
NM: I think the signing of Alexander Frolov was something that GM Glen Sather had to do in order to get his team (possibly) in the playoffs. Without him this year’s team would be fairly identical to that of 2009-10. As far as terms go, Slats got him at a bargain price and signing him for just a year was also a clever move.

Continue reading "Checking In With The Rangers Tribune"

Trending Topics is a new column that looks at the week in hockey according to Twitter. If you don't know about Twitter, get with the times old man.

They say that the sign of a good compromise is that both sides go away unhappy, and that was the case with Blake Wheeler's(notes) arbitration hearing with the Bruins.

Wheeler was awarded $2.2 million, as first reported by ESPN Boston's Jimmy Murphy. CSNNE's Joe Haggerty talked to agent Matt Keator, who said, "Decision came in range we expected. There were no winners or losers in this case. Blake is excited for camp and ready to go."

Of course, the fact that both sides view the contract is more or less reasonable when compared to the rest of the NHL is, in a word, silly.

I think Wheeler is a perfectly good hockey player, not great or even that much above average, but good. And the fact that he's getting $2.2 million from an arbitrator rather than his team or another that slid him an offer sheet tells you that's roughly market value for comparable players. The Bruins will take that number for sure.

But think about that. He's getting $2.2 million. A raise of about 150 percent over the base salary of the two-year deal he signed when he came into the league. And for what? He was sensational his rookie year, don't get me wrong. But he declined in goals (by 14 percent) and assists (by 17percent) last season, with no change in power play goals despite an extra minute on the man advantage per game, and two extra minutes of ice time. And he's a ghost in the playoffs to the tune of 1-5-6, minus-6 in 21 career games.

Yet that's market value. Because Clarke MacArthur(notes) pulled $2.4 million from an arbitrator. Thrashers GM Rick Dudley, who likely choked on his ice water when he heard that number, wisely said MacArthur could take that money, and his sub-Wheeler point totals, and see if he could find someone to pay him it.

Know who's kicking himself right now? Matt Moulson(notes). Guy plays one full season, picks up 30 goals (only nine fewer than Wheeler had in two years), and settles for another year at $2.45 million. That doesn't seem fair, does it? Especially when Tomas Fleischmann(notes) picked up a year at $2.6 million for fewer goals (though more assists and a proven track record of increasing his production every year he's been in the league).

Of course, in their case, they reached an agreement with their teams before the arbitrator had a chance to hear the case, which is probably good news for their clubs.

Here are two guys who got a lot of time with legitimately excellent players and benefited hugely. Fleischmann got about 30 percent of his ice time with one of Alex Ovechkin(notes), Nick Backstrom or Alex Semin, and 8-22-30 of his points came when one of those three factored into the scoring.

Moulson got 12 of his goals and 11 of his assists with either Kyle Okposo(notes) or John Tavares(notes) in on the scoring, which makes sense since he was on the ice with at least one of them 73 percent of the time.

Not that that kind of thing seems to matter.

So in a couple months, when you're sitting there wondering why your team is paying a guy with 11 goals through 50 games, or a guy who doesn't seem to do much except stand in at the top of the crease and shovel in highlight-reel passes, $2.something million, you've got your answer.

The arbitrators are out of their minds.

The last of the Douchegate fallout I promise 

Yes, Max Talbot(notes) called Ovechkin a douche and everyone got a good laugh over it. Except the Capitals.

Perhaps in response to this treacherous barb, they went out and traded for St. Louis tough guy D.J. King(notes), who does his best work when he's punching dudes in the face. Of course, King wasn't aware of the insult at the time of the trade, but when told about it by the Washington Post's Tarik ElBashir (who is unfortunately now off the Caps beat), he had this to say:

"Wow. I guess that's not going to be happening too much longer, I guess."

It's gonna be awesome when King punches someone square in the kisser for mouthing off to Ovie.

Yet more NHLers on Twitter

Yes, more current and future NHL players are joining Twitter every week. This week saw the addition of Mike Rupp (@Rupper17), who considers this week's episode of Big Brother to have been "amateur hour," and American Hero/Dallas Stars draft pick Jack Campbell (@JCampbell921).

On Sami Salo's(notes) Floorball injury

This week I got an interesting email from one Kelly Twomey, who provided me with a cautionary tale about taking Twitter rumors seriously. Said K-Dawg, "[O]ur own Greg Wyshynski was recently guilty of that."

It seems Kelly made an absent-minded (and by his own admission rather poor) testicle joke, and our dear Greg took it to be serious.

"Who knows though," writes Twomey, "maybe Wysh was double-timing me and posted it so I would be further ridiculed. His genius cannot be overstated."

True. That's why he gets to go on vacation in August, while Leahy and the rest of us refresh Twitter for the Niemi arbitration numbers, which are sure to be insane and therefore hilarious.

If you've got something for Trending Topics, holla at Lambert on Twitter or via e-mail. He'll even credit you so you get a thousand followers in one day and you'll become the most popular person on the Internet! You can also visit his blog if you're so inclined.

The Bruins are very much in cap hell right now and Blake Wheeler’s $2.2 million arbitration decision doesn’t help matters (though it didn’t damage them any further, either). Because the gifted Seguin is under an entry level contract laden with bonus opportunities, his cap hit would most likely mirror No. 1 pick Taylor Hall’s $3.75 million in Edmonton. That’s a problem.

Naturally, Seguin is not guaranteed a roster spot on the Bruins, anyway; he’ll have to earn it this fall, just like everyone else. But for the sake of argument, if Seguin is good enough, money may dictate his ultimate fate for the year.

I would say a highly palatable scenario is for Seguin and Boston to follow the Alex Pietrangelo route in St. Louis – have the rookie play nine NHL games, with perhaps some healthy scratches mixed in to both elongate his stay in the bigs, plus allow Seguin to soak up some knowledge from the press box. Then, send him back to the Ontario League to tear it up for a couple months before heading to the World Junior Championship, where he can represent Canada and challenge for a gold medal.

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