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Calgary continues to tinker with its depth. The Flames acquired Kyle Greentree a left winger who played in Philadelphia for the Phantoms of the AHL, and briefly with the Flyers this past season, is first as a pro. In exchange Calgary sent a former 2nd round pick in Tim Ramholt to the Flyers, Ramholt had played a couple of seasons for the Flames in the AHL, and was recalled early this year but didn’t play much in his lone NHL contest.

The Flames were not happy with Ramholt’s development he had been passed by both Adam Pardy and Matt Pelech in Quad City. I had a chance to talk to Coach Ryan McGill at the end of the season and his reports were not glowing of Tim. With all of that said the Flyers see something in him and a change is as good as a rest, in fairness to the kid the 2 seasons he spent playing pro in his native Switzerland set his development back since he didn’t see the ice much.

Greentree was signed as a UFA last summer by the Flyers from Alaska Fairbanks of the CCHA; he was BCHL player who found his scoring touch in his 3rd season of college. This past season he put up decent numbers as a first year pro and certainly has some size to him at 6’3” 215lbs. He addresses a need that the Flames have and that is depth at forward in the 20 – 26 year range. Don’t know much about him so we will have to wait and see him in camp.

With just one day to go until the July 1st free agent bonanza it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Flames to continue to make more moves like this one. With the Flames recently losing Tim Hambly to Chicago and now trading Tim Ramholt, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them sign a little blue line depth for the AHL. Especially if Adam Pardy and Pelech are give a shot to join the big club this fall.

I do believe the Flames will be active in free agency, I still think they would like to acquire a veteran winger. I know my friend Eric Francis, who doesn’t like trade rumors by the way, speculated that Darcy Tucker would be a good fit with the local hockey heroes. I would look at players like Tucker, Ruslan Fedotenko, or Andrew Brunette as the type of player the Flames may look at adding.

We will be on the air tomorrow morning beginning at 10 am and right until at least 4pm with all of the latest in the NHL signing and dealing on Canada day.

Flames announcing today that have signed four players.

Daymond Langkow signs a 4 year deal, it wasn’t announced earlier due to tagging rules on next years cap, but with next years cap announced they could move ahead with making it public. Langkow clearly wants to be here because what he gave up in free agency to remain a Flame is pretty significant. I do want to address my blog from a couple of weeks ago, there was indeed a time where we thought it ha come of the rails, but that was purely speculative and as I wrote in the blog that I am glad I was wrong.

Quickly Craig Conroy signed a 2 year deal, I am happy for Craig since I know how badly he wanted to stay. Eric Nystrom signed a 2 year deal, could have been an unrestricted free agent too. Curtis McElhinney signed a 1 year 1 way deal I am told so he will be Kippers back up this year.

Darryl addressed the 3 players waived yesterday, saying a decision on their future has yet to be made that the reason for placing them on waivers was to see if there was any interest from around the league.

As far as July 1st goes Sutter said he didn’t expect to make any big splash in the first week of the free agent frenzy, but if he can’t get some of his other free agents signed he maybe forced to change his strategy.

Not surprising the news from the Flames today that they have bought out @ D-men and a forward. It has been long speculated that Rhett Warrener would be bought out, and it made sense that Anders Eriksson and Marcus Nilson would be bought out, but the prospects that all 3 would be waived and then bought out was a longshot. It should be noted that all 3 players are currently on waivers until Friday morning and it is possible that they could be claimed, if they aren’t claimed Calgary could choose to buy them out or I suppose assign them to Quad City thus taking the full amount of their salary of the Flames NHL books, or they could do nothing.

The basic formula for these players if they were to be bought out would be to take 2/3rds of their remaining salary divide it by two spreading the buy out over 2 seasons. In effect these players would count against the Calgary cap for 2 years.

Warrener will be the most missed, not so much for on the ice as the game seemed to pass him by at times, but in the dressing room he was a leader and a respected veteran. The media will miss Anders, only because he was a great interview, and Marcus never was the same player after the lock out and didn’t mesh with the new Mike Keenan system. My guess is both Eriksson and Nilson will both find employment, either in the NHL or in Europe. There is speculation The Rhett will retire and join the Flames as a coach in Quad City.

In the next week don’t be surprised to hear the Flames announce officially Curtis McElhinney, Mark Giordano, Owen Nolan, and hopefully Daymond Langkow.

Salary Cap has gone up for the 4th straight year to 56.7 million this is going to become one of the biggest stories of the summer. It is good for the Flames though I doubt they will spend to the cap but it will leave them some wiggle room for the trade deadline.

Well the draft has come and gone, and this is the first chance to blog, this thing hits like a hurricane and you really do hang on for dear life. A couple of months ago when be planned our coverage we thought, we will do the radio show and blog live from the draft floor, while in theory a good idea it just wasn’t practical. First off the internet didn’t work in the building for most of Friday night, while it was an inconvience for Dean and I it wasn’t the end of the world, the same can’t be said for our newspaper brothers. The media was pissed on Friday night, they couldn’t file their stories, and the media lunch never showed up so now they were hungry and angry.

I have never seen anything quite like the first round in Ottawa, it was fast and furious, and thank god Dean was here with me this year. As much pride as I take in being a one man band, Dean bailed me out for sure this year. During the first round while NHL radio was carrying the draft, Boomer was handling the interviews of the draft picks I was able to get the Cammalleri interview done and keep track of all of the other trades.

As far as the trade for the Flames I like it from the stand point that Cammalleri wants to be in Calgary and Tanguay didn’t, I am not sure that Mike is as good an offensive talent at his top end. But he brings speed and skill that the Flames can use, the jury is out in my eyes.

Of all of the players the Flames drafted this weekend I enjoyed my time with Mitch Wahl the most, he is a fun colorful guy. The Seal Beach native won the Memorial Cup with Spokane and is one of those guys, like a Craig Conroy, who has a passion for the game that few have. Hockey is not the number 1 pastime in So Cal, but it was Wahl’s game and he really loves the fact it means so much in Calgary. I admit to not having watched Mitch very close in the past, I will watch with great interest his progression.

Nick Larson is a name to file away; he is a forward in the USHL who many think will be a late bloomer. He will play again in Waterloo this year and go to Notre Dame in the NCAA after next year; the Flames have his rights for 5 years. He will be out of sight and out of mind for a while but is a real good kid who wants to play in the worst way.

Sometimes you forget real quickly about players drafted recently but not last year, an example of this is Flames prospect Per Jonsson. The Swedish player is very much on the Flames radar according to Director of Scouting Todd Button. He was taken in the 7th round 209th overall and has been all but forgotten by the media a fans alike, but the team is hoping him to come over in the next year.

Notes from Ottawa:

Never did get a chance to try a Beaver Tail, a local delicacy, I am very disappointed.

Flames jersey’s that I saw in the crowd included Iginla, Phaneuf, Kevin Lalande, and Oleg Saprykin. Oleg Saprykin? Yes Oleg Saprykin, dude also had a Flames championship banner from 1989.

Ottawa is a strange town the side walks get rolled up pretty early, after the 1st round we got back to our hotel around 1am, the only meal we could get was at a Tim Horton’s it was also the only place open. Bad enough for us but how about being first round picks of the Philadelphia Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes, Luca Sbisa and Viktor Tikhonov respectively in their jerseys and hats having to have a bowl of chili at Timmy’s, come on!

The LA Kings impressed me with what they did with their first 2 picks, both early in the first and both stud d-men. Drew Doughty and Colten Teubert are both going to play in the NHL, and soon, add to that Calgary product Thomas Hickey drafted last year, and current King youngster Jack Johnson, that is an impressive young stable of blueliners.

Marion Hossa will go to free agency; Ray Shero the GM of the Penguins announced at the end of the draft that his trade deadline pick up is going to stick his big toe in free agency to the absolute shock of the Pittsburgh media. I think the pens will be okay, but adding Hossa to the free agent market place will certainly add intrigue to July 1st (shameless plug time we will be on the air at 10 am on Tuesday July1st with free agency coverage).

Speaking of free agents, Flames voice Peter Maher joining us this afternoon, suggests that Daymond Langkow could indeed sign the deal put in front of him by the Flames. 10 days ago Roger Millions reported on Sportsnet that Langkow might try his hand at being a UFA. After that report came out subsequent checking confirmed what Roger reported. Darryl Sutter was adamant at the beginning of the week that Langkow would be a Flame. It looks like Sutter may get his man after all.

It is a little distasteful reading the Ollie Jokinen bashing that seems to be taking place today. The former Florida captain has had his character questioned by “NHL Executives” who don’t want their names used, give me a break! Ollie Jokinen will help the Yotes up front, but they Wayne Gretzky led Coyotes will have to get a d-man or two.

Congratulations to Joe Colborne of Calgary, the Camrose Kodiaks forward was drafted at #16 in the first round by the Boston Bruins, making him the highest drafted player taken from the AJHL. Brent Sutter was selected #17 in 1980 by the New York Islanders, Joe and Brent are the only two first round picks right out of the JR A circuit. For the record Dan Heatley who played for the Calgary Canucks was drafted out of college.

Ottawa is a neat town, although it is tough to get beaver tails at night time.

Just some quick notes to start the day:

Upon arriving at the Flames hotel this morning I was met by 3 TV Satellite trucks, and …..Protesters. Now I know Darryl has his critics, but protesters picketing Sutter I thought were a little much. I went in and did my interview with Todd Button of the Flames, and when I came out there were 10X’s the number of protesters (hippies actually) it turns out they weren’t upset about the constant Tanguay trade rumors, but Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain was speaking at the same hotel. Darryl is apparently off the hook.

By the way I ran smack dab into another protest on my way back to the hotel, this one over abortion, what a town.

Some minor moves around the league today, Chris Mason is a Blue, which means Ellis will likely be the number 1 in Nashville.

Lots of smoke but no fire when it comes to blockbuster trades, but the day is still early.

I will blog more for the draft floor; I am heading off to talk to Paul Kelly the head of the NHLPA. Later on in the afternoon around 4ish Calgary time we will be talking to the Commish Gary Bettman, but I have already been told he won’t talk about the New York Rangers issue in front of the courts.

It seems that I can’t go away with out some kind of technical glitch happening, yesterday it was a computer issue, in the past I have had power supply’s blow up, phone lines not work, I am an engineers nightmare when I leave town.

Having gone to the last 3 drafts, this Ottawa event certainly has a feel of its own, the rink is no where near and the hotels are a little spread out, but there is a buzz around downtown about the event. Columbus has been the best so far from my perspective, the city was into it, the arena and the hotels were next to each other it was all NHL all the time.

All is quiet on the Flames front, I have had contact with the Flames group and they say all is quiet so we will wait and see.

Little trades so far nothing of the earth shattering variety, and I suppose if no real big deals happen the media will be depressed. I expect that Friday something will go down.

Had a chance to meet with a number of the top prospects earlier today, Kyle Beech of the Everett Silvertips was an interesting guy to talk to. Beech comes into this draft with a ton of baggage for things that he has and hasn’t done on and off the ice. He knows he had to answer some tough questions and stood in there all day and answered the questions like a pro he got the same questions over and over and never got frustrated. He is a greasy hockey player, who Jarome Iginla has mentored in the past couple of summers.

Coming up today on Sportsline, we go one on one with one of the top agents in the NHL JP Berry. He represents players like Malkin, Sundin, Heatley, Toews, and others. Pat Steinberg interviewed Calgary Hitmen forward Ian Shultz, and former Flame Carey Wilson is the proud father of Colin Wilson one of the best forwards available in this years draft, Cary spends some time with us.

Notes:
The Ottawa Sun is reporting that Brian Campbell is going to free agency and won’t be resigning in San Jose.

One of the bizarre yet big rumors here in Ottawa is that the Pen’s may deal Malkin.

2:25 - The Ottawa Sun also reporting that former Flame Shean Donovan has turned down a 1 year deal with the Sen’s and become a UFA July 1st.

4:05 Are the Sedins about to be traded? Their agent JP Berry has admitted to a Vancovuer paper that it could happen. I think the GM in Vancovuer wants to make a splash, so maybe it will.

4:24 - Nothing concrete by there are now some rumblings that the Flames are active, for what or who wasn’t told. To be honest with you it is not much, but it is the first we heard anything involving the local hockey heroes.

4:55 - We didn’t even come close to playing all of the audio we collected today check out the podcast section of the website and the audio areas as well.

They say all great plans must have contingency’s built in, for the Calgary Flames we may be about to find out if that is true. There is rampant speculation that the long term extension that we were told was coming for Daymond Langkow, may not get signed. Sources are strongly indicating that Langkow has been advised to test free agency on July 1st.

I want to point out that it is not uncommon for rumors and innuendo to fly around rampantly with just a few weeks to go before free agency begins, so it maybe a tactic in negotiations, or quite honestly it maybe someone jumping the gun.

This is an interesting situation indeed, Darryl Sutter tends to keep his cards very close to his vest but even he admitted openly at the season of the season that a deal was all but agreed to that would keep Langkow here for around four more years. Daymond himself admitted that the deal was in the works, and Mike Keenan went as far as including Langkow as part of the Flames core moving forward.

This can all be summed up by one word OPPORTUNITY, honestly I have been surprised that more players don’t go this road, they are after all independent contractors. I believe that a quality player who goes the free agent route will more often make anywhere from 20-50% more in an open market. Look at the last few July 1st’s, there was no way Chris Drury, or Scott Gomez would have gotten anywhere near the dollar figure if they stayed with their old clubs, but in the open market with a bidding war they end up making out like bandits. Look at the potential free agents this season, a guy like Langkow will be a day 1 signing.

There is opportunity for the Flames here as well, their first choice is of course to keep Langkow as their number 1 or 2 center, but if he doesn’t sign that will force the organization to go in a different direction this summer. The Flames admitted that if they signed Daymond long term, and with the big 4 locked in long term there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room to re shape the team. While the reported 4 millionish a year that would have gone to #22 isn’t enough o compete for a Marion Hossa, it is cap room they didn’t plan on.

While I am sure the Flames don’t feel this way the big winner in this maybe that segment of the fan base that feels the last 3 years have been like watching the Bill Murray movie Groundhogs Day, the same thing over and over. Calgary would be forced to address the fact that not only do they not have a bona fide number 1 center but they don’t have a proven #2 (Sorry Lombardi fans, he still hasn’t proven himself). The team would then get a face lift, it would be a different looking team and as they say sometimes a change does you good.

It is all speculative at this point, but in this new era in the NHL stuff like this more likely to happen then ever before. My hope is that Langkow stays, I think he is under appreciated around the league and even here in Calgary. He is a stable player in the locker room, not a rah rah leader, but by no means a distraction.

If I can just address the rampant Ollie Jokinen rumors that are out there, early in the week I mentioned that speculation (there is that word again) is that the captain of the Panthers will be traded this off season. If the Flames lose Langkow it maybe harder to land a Jokinen, if I was Florida GM Jacques Martin knows that the Flames are now desperate to land a front line center the price just shot up.

We had him on the air a couple of days ago Peter Loubardias is the new TV voice of the Flames on Rogers Sportsnet; you are going to love him. I have known Pete for a long time and he is a really great guy who makes his broadcasts entertaining and informative. He has a passion for this game like few I have ever met.

Just a note on Roger Millions, I don’t why the change was made as I type this, but I do know this business, it is unforgiving and at time maddening. Roger is a pro, and will be a great host, but my heart goes out to him and to Jamie Thomas.

In this business there is no greater job then being entrusted with responsibility of being the voice of a team.

Why do I love the great game of hockey so much, and this country so much, because only in Canada can the “Theme to Hockey Night in Canada” become a NATIONAL CRISIS? Hey I like the song as much as the next guy and I admit it will be a little strange not hearing it on Saturday, but I was a huge fan of Seinfeld and I survived it leaving Thursday night. I love the fact that it was TSN (actually CTV for TSN) swooping in and picking it up right from underneath mother corps nose, now that’s a bloody story. Plain and simple that was another example that the gloves are coming off in the sports media in our country, no longer will political correctness rule when it comes to dealing with your competition. With no disrespect to Rick Brace who was on Sportsline on Monday declaring that he and his company bought the “theme” to save it for Canadians, the President of CTV bought the song because he can. CTV is an 800 pound gorilla, and when it comes to sports media in Canada their offshoot TSN is the Bona Fide Silverback, this coming from a regional Orangutan. At the end of the day not one extra person in this great country will watch hockey on TSN because they have CBC’s song, not one, and at this time next year we will sit here reminiscing about the times we spent chasing our tails on this story. One thing I would watch over the next couple of weeks or months is how CBC responds, I am convinced Scott Moore the president of sports is pissed and will likely take a run at something that TSN holds near and dear, is Maggie the Monkey safe?

Darren Dreger was also on the show today, funny just seconds after Rick Brace said he wasn’t going to talk about how much they paid for the “Theme”, Dreger told Boomer and I that he was hearing some where around $2 million or maybe more, now Darren he is a pro.

Boomer also asked Dreger what he was hearing about the Flames heading into the draft, and while he noted nothing specific he did bring up rumor de jour around here, Ollie Jokinen might be leaving Florida. You know what that means, if Jokinen is on the move he must be coming to Calgary right? I remain skeptical yet intrigued, the thought of two number 12’s is pretty exciting but that rumor has been thrown out so often I am not sure it will ever actually happen and if does then what we do every year before the trade deadline?

Two other related Flames notes; I expect that one of the announcements that will be made soon by Calgary will be the signing of back up goalie and local hockey product Curtis McElhinney. It would also not shock me if this deal is one way, meaning that come hell or high water a healthy Curtis will be the back up in October. Why hasn’t Damon Langkow’s deal been announced, the player, the GM, and the Coach all pretty much acknowledged that the deal was put to bed at the end of the season. I wouldn’t panic, I am sure Langkow is going to be back but it maybe a harbinger that some other things are to come. Next years salary cap hasn’t been announced yet, there fore the Flames budget hasn’t been set, and the 2008/09 clock doesn’t start ticking until July 1st.

Some of you may have noticed that I made a mistake on an earlier blog (hey there well be more then one) when I tried to explain buy outs. The way it was explained to me was that 48 hours after the Stanley Cup final a team could buy out players up until July 1st. I am gathering that rule only applies if the final goes beyond June 15th. I anticipate that Calgary will use this method of riding themselves of some blueliners, let me preface this by saying this is just a guess (again most of things written here are guesses).

I really believe Darryl Sutter is going to be busy this summer, I have a picture in my mind of what the Flames should look like this fall, I think we all do, younger with somewhat lower expectations. Everything I hear is that Flames owners and management want to win now, to do that they are really going to have rework the roster outside of the 4 core guys. That is easier said then done.

Just a couple of programming notes for the rest of this month: Tuesday June 10th I go one on one with Bob Nicholson the President of Hockey Canada, he shares his view on the World Championships, the 2010 Olympics, grass roots hockey, and he gives some insight into the volatile international hockey landscape. Next week Boomer and I will be in Ottawa with more coverage then you will find any where else in the hockey world, Friday and Saturday we will be live from the draft floor, and with Boom a long for the ride this year we are going to be able to keep you updated on the draft for the Flames, on Hitmen and area players, and better then ever before on the trades and deals taking place in and around the draft. Then on July 1st we will have coverage of the NHL’s first day of free agency, although I don’t anticipate it to be a bust day for the Flames in the past couple of years we see nearly 30 significant signings from around the NHL.

Todd McLellan, new friend of the program, has a pair of interviews this week for vacant head coaching positions. The Red Wings assistant is in San Jose to interview for the Sharks job, and Wednesday he will be in Atlanta to interview with the Thrashers. From what I hear the Sharks are really interested in Todd, having held their job open until the Wings finished the play offs.

Talked to Flames coach Wayne Fleming late last week, Wayne had traveled to Belarus to interview for a head coaching job in Minsk. The team is an expansion team in the Russian Continental Hockey League, and according to Wayne it would be a quite a challenge to build a successful team this year. Fleming didn’t take the job because they couldn’t come to terms on the contract, in the end it is a business. Wayne told me that he would have to open camp in about a month, the season would start September 2nd, and the team has just 9 locals signed to play. Wayne is a good coach and quite honestly is wasted by not being behind a bench, I am sure he will get another chance as a head coach down the road.

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings, at the time of writing of this particular blog, the fortitude they have just won the Stanley Cup, they deserved it, they were the best team in October and they were the best in June. Congratulations to General Manager Kenny Holland the architect of this team, the rest of the world has told him what to do, who to trade, who to fire, but in the end his patience with his players and allowing them to climb the mountain deserves to be saluted. In sports in this day and age it so easy to follow “the what have you down for me lately” mantra but the Wings showed fortitude to not waver and should be saluted. I am not sure they will win next year, but I can’t discount them either.

Credit Sidney Crosby at around 20 years of age; to compete at the level he does and make his team mates better like he does is simply amazing. Crosby will be back in a Final or two before his career is over.

I am happy for Darren McCarty, getting to know him while he was with the Flames, I always thought as a hockey player Darren was a great guy. He seemed to have a sense about him when it came to leadership and what it took to win. Thanks to injuries and his own demons he wasn’t able to perform at the top of his game while here, but I do remember having conversations about Jarome Iginla and how teams win that will resontate with me for a long time.

So the 2007/08 NHL season comes to an end, I am pretty sure that I say the same thing every year, so at the risk of repeating myself I really enjoyed this year. Some really great storey lines, some good games, some heroes and some villains, and lots and lots of really great debates.

My top 5 stories from the NHL this year: The Winter Classic in Buffalo, the 9-6 Calgary @ Tampa Bay game in December, Alexander Ovechkin’s rise in dominance, the lack of trades during the regular season, and the Detroit Red Wings going wire to wire.

My predicted top 5 stories from the NHL for the upcoming 08/09 season: An NHL team gets a new address, an out of the blue Flames rookie impacts local hockey heroes fortunes, Crosby gets a 150+ points(I will keep predicting this until it happens), Joe Thornton gets traded again, and Brian Burke becomes the GM of the Leafs.