Month: June 2009

MONTREAL – The Pittsburgh Penguins traded goaltender Chad Johnson to the New York Rangers for a fifth round pick and used it to select Belleville Bulls centre Andy Bathgate on Saturday

MONTREAL – The Calgary Flames have acquired the rights to Jay Bouwmeester, buying themselves a brief window to negotiate exclusively with the pending free agent

MONTREAL – Brian Burke didn’t need to land John Tavares to make an impression at the NHL draft.The Toronto Maple Leafs GM was unable to achieve his goal of landing the top-ranked forward on Friday and was further agitated when the Bell Centre crowd booed him mercilessly as he stepped to the draft podium

MONTREAL – The Vancouver Canucks selected U.S.-born centre Jordan Schroeder with the 22nd overall pick in Friday’s NHL draft in Montreal.A native of Lakeville, Minn

MONTREAL – Already destined to pick in the bottom third of the first round of the NHL draft, the Calgary Flames felt it was more important to accumulate picks than to target a specific player

MONTREAL – Don Maloney figures the ball is in his court now.The Phoenix Coyotes GM continued to conduct business as usual during the first round of the entry draft on Friday, the same day Jerry Reinsdorf submitted a US$148-million bid to purchase the team

MONTREAL – The nearly-packed Bell Centre went wild with cheering and chanting as the Montreal Canadiens gave their fans what they wanted – home town forward Louis Leblanc

MONTREAL – The Edmonton Oilers hope Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson will deliver an offensive punch to a team that struggled to find the back of the net last season

MONTREAL – Bryan Murray wanted to have the Dany Heatley situation settled by the end of the first round of the NHL entry draft.It didn’t happen

PHOENIX – A conservative watchdog group is suing the city of Glendale after being denied records of negotiations between the city and any potential new owner of the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes hockey team

MONTREAL – It wll be high-scoring centre John Tavares who leads the New York Islanders’ rebuilding movement.As general manager Garth Snow took the podium to announce the first overall pick in the NHL Draft on Friday night, weeks of uncertainty ended for Tavares as his name was called to cheers from a near-full house at the Bell centre

PHOENIX – A group led by Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has offered to buy the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes for US$148 million and keep the team in Arizona

MONTREAL – In the end, only one NHL star found a new home during the first round of the league’s annual draft.Paul Holmgren hopes the addition is significant enough to alter the balance of power in the Eastern Conference

MONTREAL – Scott Niedermayer is going to play another season.The Anaheim Ducks defenceman pondered retirement before deciding Friday that he wanted to return

PHOENIX – As he’s done at NHL games for more than 20 years, Claude Lemieux put his hand on his heart Friday as he listened to “The Star Spangled Banner

MONTREAL – The NHL and the Players’ Association will announce the officially announce the figures later Friday, but TheHockeyNews

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings want a new deal to play at Joe Louis Arena.The team says it will not exercise an option to renew its lease at the arena, but wants to continue talks with the city on a new deal

BROSSARD, Que. – If Bob Gainey finds the right dancing partner, the Canadiens could make some noise on home ice this weekend when the NHL Draft lands in Montreal

MONTREAL – Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Chris Pronger, Jay Bouwmeester, Tomas Kaberle, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.The list of players involved in trade rumours on the eve of the NHL draft could easily have been taken right from an all-star game program

MONTREAL – Maurice Richard retired 31 years before Matt Duchene was born but The Rocket was still an idol for the talented centre from Haliburton, Ont