IIHF plans a Champions League for hockey

TSN.ca - The International Ice Hockey Federation is proposing a Champions League format which would pit the top club teams in Europe against each other in a tournament similar to soccer’s Champions League.The goal is to get the Champions Hockey League off the ground in 2008-09, which coincides with the IIHF’s 100th anniversary.

“This is a vision that we have had for quite some time and started to work actively on for several months,” said IIHF President Rene Fasel.

“There are still details to be ironed out, but we are sure that we have a financial and sportive foundation that will imply a new era for European club hockey and club hockey world wide.”

Under the proposed format, a qualification round will determine six teams which will advance to the 12-team group stage which includes the national champions from the top six European leagues. The teams would then play a double round-robin schedule with the four group winners advancing to the semi-final.

The semi-finalists will play a two games, home and away, with the winners advancing on aggregate to the final where another two game, home and away, series will determine the champion.

Fasel added that the IIHF has had preliminary discussions with the NHL which would see the Champions Hockey League winner take on an NHL team – not necessarily the Stanley Cup champion – for a world trophy in September.

“This is something that we have been trying to make feasible for years and finally we believe that together with our partner NHL we have a concept for an annual September showdown,” said Fasel, who added that further details of the event would be revealed at the World Championship later this month in Moscow.

It was a good idea until it got to the part about playing against a NHL team for a world trophy in September. We’re probably going to see lopsided scores each year in favour of the NHL team playing. Which ever NHL team is playing probably wouldn’t take it seriously anyways and we’ll treat it as apart of their preseason schedule.

NHL Notebook #1

TSN.ca – The Los Angeles Kings signed prospect Marc-Andre Cliche to a three-year entry level contract.

Kings acquired him from the Rangers in the deal that sent Sean Avery to Broadway.

TSN.ca – The Vancouver Canucks re-assigned defenceman Alex Edler to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.

The Canucks recalled Edler immediately after the Saturday night game against the Sharks after Kevin Bieksa injured himself after blocking a shot. Played yesterday in Phoenix….logged 20:14 of ice-time….even rating….three blocked shots.

TSN.ca – Gary Bettman said today that he has no plans to expand playoffs from 16 teams.

Good.

TSN.ca - Joe Sakic signed a one-year contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche.

I think I heard on News 1130 that it will pay him $6,650,000, but I can confirm that it is at least $6 million.

MooseHockey.com – Former Canuck Mike Keane was named the AHL’s winner of the Fred T. Hunt Award as the AHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, determination, and dedication to hockey.

Congrats?

Sportsnet.ca – The Ottawa Senators announced that they’ve re-signed defenceman Anton Volchenkov to a US$7.5-million, three-year deal.

Cap hit of $2.5 million……not a bad deal for him.

Andy Murray to coach Team Canada

Team Canada GM Steve Yzerman and Hockey Canada will announce the coaches for the upcoming World Hockey Championships in Russia at 4pm PST.

St. Louis Blues head coach Andy Murray is expected to be named head coach. Kings and former Canucks assistant coach Mike Johnston and former Jackets head coach Gerard Gallant will be the assistant coaches.

Players expected to be on the initial list of players to attend include Columbus’s Rick Nash, Phoenix’s Shane Doan, St. Louis’s Eric Brewer, Los Angeles’s Mike Cammalleri, and Edmonton’s Dwayne Roloson.

Also, Florida’s Ed Belfour and Philadelphia’s Martin Biron are being considered to join Team Canada. But they’d like to save one spot for Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, or Marc-Andre Fleury, just in case they’d be interested in playing if their respective teams are eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.

Source: TSN.ca

Nah, no need to save a spot for Luongo, cause we’re going all the way. 

Julien Fired

The New Jersey Devils fired head coach Claude Julien today with three games remaining and announced that general manager Lou Lamoriello will assume the head coaching duties.

This was Julien’s first year as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils.

During the 1999-2000 NHL season, the Devils did a similar thing and fired then head coach Robbie Ftorek late in the season on March 23rd, they would go on to win the Stanley Cup with Larry Robinson as head coach.

Source: TSN.ca

Julien must have done something behind closed doors that really pissed off Lou Lamoriello, so as a result he was fired. 

Kings sign prospect Jack Johnson

The Los Angeles Kings are going to announce that they’ve signed prospect Jack Johnson and will make his NHL debut Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks.

Johnson’s father, Jack Johnson Sr. says his son plans to return to college after playing the final six games of the Kings season and earn a degree.

Source: TSN.ca

Johnson was originally drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 1st round, 3rd overall  in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. He was traded to the Kings on September 29th along with Oleg Tverdovsky for Tim Gleason and Eric Belanger.

It’s a three-year deal that will pay him the rookie maximum of $850,000 plus bonuses. The Hurricanes got ripped off badly for Johnson, he’s going to be very good for the Kings for years to come.

Hockey Night in Canada to remain on CBC

The National Hockey League and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced today that they’ve reached an agreement that will keep Hockey Night in Canada on CBC until 2014.

• CBC will continue to get exclusive Canadian coverage of NHL games on Saturday nights
• more regional broadcasts
• continue to get exclusive rights to the Stanley Cup Final, NHL All-Star Game, NHL Awards Ceremony
• coverage of all Canadian teams in the playoffs
• live and on-demand video streaming of HNIC will be available online at CBC.ca in the near future. There will be no blackout restrictions online.
• Leafs games will be limited and they will not be on every week

Source: CBC.ca

The best part of this deal is no doubt that we won’t be forced to see the Leaf every fricken week.

“The mix is not going to be what it’s been in previous years,” Bettman said. “We decreased the number of the Leaf games and increased the number of games of the other Canadian teams that can be made available.”

Fedoruk KOed

Philadelphia Flyers enforcer Todd Fedoruk was knocked out by Rangers enforcer Coltor Orr during a scrap 21 seconds into the game on Wednesday.

Fedoruk took a hard punch to his left cheek and was taken off the ice on a stretcher; later to the hospital.

Source: TSN.ca

Earlier in the year, you may remember, Fedoruk while he was still with the Anaheim Ducks, he got his nose shattered by Derek Boogaard of the Minnesota Wild and had to have major facial surgery.

Bertuzzi expected to debut on Thursday

Darren Dreger reports Todd Bertuzzi felt strong today at the Wings practice and will take the pre-game warm-up when Detroit hosts the Blue Jackets, and if all goes well, he will play.

Source: TSN.ca

Bertuzzi was acquired from the Florida Panthers at the trade deadline on February 27th for Shawn Matthias, a conditional draft selection in 2007 and a conditional 2nd round selection in 2008.

Bertuzzi will wear #44.

Leafs/Devils Meet

First meeting between the two teams since the late hit delivered by Devils enforcer Cam Janssen to “star” defenceman Tomas Kaberle. No sucker punch, no cheapshot, just a nice long scrap between Wade Belak and Cam Janssen.

“I think everyone in the building was tired after that one,” said Leafs coach Paul. “But probably not as sore.”

“It was an unbelievable fight. I thought it was an appropriate thing to do.” said Leafs captain Mats Sundin.

NHLPA drama stalls transfer agreement

Source/Credit: Sportsnet.ca

(CP) — A key meeting set for Wednesday which many hoped would lead to a new IIHF/NHL player transfer agreement has been postponed.

NHL Just why exactly seems up for debate. The IIHF sent out a letter to federations Tuesday advising them that the meeting, to be held at its Swiss headquarters, needed to be re-scheduled because the NHLPA, going through turbulent times, could not send a representative.

But the union issued a statement giving a different reason.

“The NHLPA was fully prepared to take part in the IIHF meetings but informed the NHL in advance of the meetings that we would not be consenting to a new transfer agreement until we had an opportunity to complete our analysis of potential agreement structures,” the statement said. “The NHL and the NHLPA agreed that it was appropriate to defer the meetings for a short period of time until the NHLPA analysis is complete.”