30 August 2006

All Settled

Hey pens fans,
Well, the move is complete. At least yeaterday was a slow day for the Pens nothing happened yesterday. Early this morning, I was hearing a resurgance or the Carter to Pittsburgh rumor, but nothing new or definite. More as I hear it...

28 August 2006

Moving

Hey pens fans,
Just to let you know, I am moving tomorrow, back to campus that is. I may not be posting as fast as Inlike if somethhing breaks, but I will get it up, as fast as I can. After that it should be back to normal.

26 August 2006

more personnel moves by shero

Hey pens fans,
In addition to Ray Shero's oter staff editions of earlier he also filled the following jobs.

The new athletic trainer is Chris Stewart, who was with the Stnaley Cup Champion Hurricanes last season.

Dana Heinze was named equipment manager and has spent the last 6 years as the assistant equipment manager in Tampa Bay.

Frank Buonomo was named director of team services.

Travis Ramsay is now the team's video coordinator.

Dan MacKinnon and Bill O'Flaherty were named pro scouts and Jim Madigan was hired as an amateur scout.

25 August 2006

Shero hires

Hey pens fans,
Pens GM Ray Shero has hired Jay Heinbuck as their new Director of Amateur Scouting and Dan Bylsma as an assistant coach for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Looks like he is starting fill all those starts from his mass firing earlier. ALso, it seems unlikely that Dumont will end up a Penguin, as was previously thought to be likely. Ther Anson Carter saga is still unresolved and no word on if the Pens still show interest or are in the running. More as I find it...

23 August 2006

New Look

Hey pens fans,
Well, it took me long enough, but I finally finished the redesign of the site. It had to be black and gold for our pens. Also, check out a new feature, the Penshockey Poll, to your right. This is where I will poll you, the readers, with questions about our Pens or anyhthing else hockey. So, go ahead and vote. Please, feel free to let me know what you think of the new look, the poll, or anythig else involving the Pens.

Winger Rumor

Hey pens fans,
Well, the rumor is that the Pens are looking for a winger, whih one is a little harder to narrow down. I am hearing names from Bondra to Dvorak and just about anyone else who is still available. The Pens looking for a solid winger is a sensible possibility based on our currenet roster, but who is up in the air. If I narrow it down any better I will let you know, but for now Dvorak is looking to be most likely, but on a scale of 1-10 I wold put tis at about a 3. So...

21 August 2006

Penner/Malkin

Hey pens fans,
The Pens have signed free agent goalie Andrew Penner, who appeared in 40 games for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL lat season, posting a 20-12-1 record with a 3.25 goals against average and one shutout.
Also, Shero has officially made a statement on Malkin saying he is now in the US. No Shit!

18 August 2006

The Malkin Story

Hey pens fans,
Well, Malkin in now in the LA Area, and here is what his agents said has happened in the past few days, as it appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Malkin surfaces in Los Angeles
Russian's former hockey team calls his letter of resignation 'crude falsification'
Friday, August 18, 2006By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Russian hockey player Evgeni Malkin, surfaced yesterday, fittingly on an ice rink -- in Los Angeles alongside NHL players -- and apparently poised to sign, seal and deliver his services to the Penguins by month's end. Yet the latest plot twist in his global hockey melodrama unfolded half a world away, over a fax machine in his air-polluted steeltown home of Magnitogorsk.
Gennady Velichkin, head of the Metallurg Magnitogorsk team from which the player he called "a national treasure" fled last weekend, told Russian media yesterday that the contract termination sent the team was so unacceptable that the club's lawyer tossed it into the trash.
Mr. Velichkin added that the faxed, handwritten letter, part of the two-week's notice required under Russian law to void a contract, was a "crude falsification" bearing a signature that didn't resemble the one on the deal Mr. Malkin, 20, signed, reputedly under duress, in the wee hours of Aug. 7.
"They would take his signature at 3 in the morning on a contract, but not on a letter of resignation?" joked Ronald Brand, the director of Pitt's Center for International Law Education and an internationally noted expert in foreign court judgments.
So begins the next leg of the ongoing Malkin saga, which may see him end up in court before he plays for the Penguins.
"I'd be surprised," said Downtown attorney Dennis Unkovic, an international-law specialist who isn't involved in this case, "if this doesn't have to be negotiated out, as opposed to just walking away from the contract. It's one thing if you're working on an assembly line. But these [young hockey stars] are very specialized people with the potential of damages. [Metallurg officials] are probably looking for a cash settlement."
NHL Executive Vice President and chief legal officer Bill Daly echoed that notion, pointing to Moscow Dynamo's litigation against Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, who was drafted immediately before No. 2 Malkin in the 2004 draft. A U.S. District Court judge last January ruled in favor of Mr. Ovechkin, who, differently from Mr. Malkin, didn't have an enforceable contract in place with his Russian team.
"I think the cases have factual differences," Mr. Daly said in an e-mail interview. "But the themes are similar -- the players both want to play in the National Hockey League, and the Russian clubs are trying to extort large sums of money to allow them to play here." The Russian Hockey Federation has declined the past two years to sign the international player trade agreement between the NHL and other foreign countries, mostly because many team officials there contend players like Mr. Malkin should earn them much more than the $200,000 guaranteed in that deal.
Mr. Daly added that NHL officials and attorneys would become involved in any potential Malkin litigation, the same as they did with Mr. Ovechkin "although we weren't named as a party. We felt there were league interests involved, and we wanted to advance and protect league interests. It would be premature to speculate what might happen here, but it's certainly possible that league interests will be implicated again."
Agent J.P. Barry, who was there to greet Mr. Malkin in Finland and begin the cloak-and-dagger escape plan across three continents, told Canadian media that he and co-agent Pat Brisson aim to have their client in Penguins training camp on time next month.
"Hopefully, he'll be able to go to Pittsburgh in a few weeks," he told the TSN network in Canada. "As far as we're concerned, the two-week notice is the next area that we'd look into in the next little while. He could very well sign after that. Or we could look into different circumstances the past month." He didn't specify, though those circumstances likely involve the pressured negotiations Aug. 7 and two written attempts to terminate Mr. Malkin's existing Metallurg contracts.
In the first interviews piecing together this tale of foreign intrigue, Mr. Barry told TSN that the L.A.-based agents were contacted Aug. 5 by Mr. Malkin, two days before he re-signed with Metallurg and amid the firing of his previous agent, Don Meehan, after two months and rehiring the Barry-Brisson firm. He asked one of them to meet him in Finland, where Metallurg would land en route to a tournament. Mr. Barry said Metallurg team officials withheld Mr. Malkin's passport for most of the past month, and immigration at the Finland airport would be the first chance he would have to get it back.
Mr. Barry whisked him into seclusion at an undisclosed apartment -- "we have some Finnish friends who helped us out." They awaited visa clearance from the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki. That visa arrived Wednesday, he said. Two hours later, the player and agent boarded a flight to America.
The crux of the case remains the document signed Aug. 7 in Magnitogorsk.
"The Russian labor code is the applicable law, and it's a matter of the contract between Malkin and who he played for," said Kirk Junker, director of international programs and assistant professor with the Duquesne University law school. "He may have agreed to all sorts of things" under not only the jurisdiction of Metallurg, but possibly the Russian Hockey Federation as well.
Neither the U.S. nor Russian governments can legally get involved. It's strictly a labor case, in which his Russian team could seek an injunction to delay Mr. Malkin's Penguins debut or seek an arbitration settlement against the player, which would be enforceable to a degree in U.S. courts.
"Incidentally, according to the law, he is obliged to work at least those two weeks, and he ... has been shirking [such responsibilities] for five days," Mr. Velichkin contended.
In the meantime, Mr. Barry said, Mr. Malkin skated yesterday with NHL star Rob Blake and others on an El Segundo, Calif., rink that the L.A. Kings use as their practice facility.
For the first time in this five-day saga for Mr. Malkin, the Penguins commented yesterday in a statement by new General Manager Ray Shero: "We have been informed by Evgeni Malkin's agents that Evgeni is now in the United States. At the appropriate time, we look forward to sitting down with Evgeni and his representatives to discuss what can be a very bright future with the Pittsburgh Penguins."

17 August 2006

more on Malkin

Hey pens fans,
Well, Malkin is suposed to be in the Pittsburgh area sometime today. There is a rumor going around that Montreal has made an offer of 4 players and a draft pick, for him, but everywhre I turn it is a differnet 4 players. I do not think the Penguins will go for the deal. currently, the plae that sews the Pens Jerseys is making Malkin Jerseys for the upcoming season. Inclding, the ones to be sold to the fans. In my opinon, the Penguins would not invest the money in this if dealini him was a serious possibility. More as I hear it...

16 August 2006

More on Malkin

Hey pens fans,
Well, Malkin was in Toronto and he is now alleged to be in an undisclosed loation inn the United States. That is all I know, at the moment. More, as I hear it...

15 August 2006

The Malkin Saga Continues/rumor

Hey pens fans,
Well, Malkin is somewhere between North America and finland. Hopefully, it all turns out for him. This is what the General Director of his Russian Club had to say, as it appeared on TSN's website. ''We all are really shocked by his departure and we will take legal actions against the NHL club Penguins from Pittsburgh,'' Metallurg general director Gennady Velichkin told Itar-Tass news agency. ''Americans like to speak about democracy and teach the whole world how to live but engage in sport terrorism and simply steal people.'' So, now we steal people? At least we weren't threatening him to play in our country. This will be going on for a while, I supose...
As for the rumor, the Pens have a shot at Carter. More as I get it...

13 August 2006

Malkin

Hey pens fans,
Evgeni Malkin landed in Finland with his Russian hockey team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Malkin took his belongings and passport. He has not been located since. It has been heard that he is heading for North America, possibly Canada. Other sources have said that Russia has been putting intense pressure on his family and their business. I do not know exactly what or to what extent, but Malkin is MIA, at the moment.

09 August 2006

Pens Sign Connor James/Rumor

Hey pens fans,
The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed free agent right wing Connor James, who appeared in 77 games with the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL during the 2005-06 season and recorded 42 points (17+25).

Also, it is rumored that we may be a possibility, but not the favorite for Dumont and we are still in it for yannic perrault.

07 August 2006

Malkin

Hey pens fans,
Well, it looks like Malkin may not be in the NHL this season afterall. Reports are saying that he has signed a new one year deal to replace his 2 year deal with his Russia club.

06 August 2006

Fleury

Hey pens fans,
Well, I know I just got back from vacation, but I went on a bit of an impromtu camping trip this weekend. While I was gone, the Pens have resigned Marc-Andre Fleury to a 2 year deal.

03 August 2006

Announcer/signings/Russia/Rumors/WBS coach

Hey pens fans,
Well, longtime Penguinns annoucer Mike Lange, who was recently fired by fox sport, will be doing gthe play-byplay on the radio this upcoming season with Phil Bourque doing the color commentary. Paul Steigerrwald is doing the tv play-by-play with Bob Errey doing thhe color.

The Penguins have signed Libor Pivko to a one-year contract. Pivko spent last season with the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey playing in 69 games. He recorded 70 points (12+58) and 63 penalty minutes.

The Penguins have also signed Alain Nasreddine to a one-year contract. He had appeared in 71 games during the 2005-06 regular season with the Penguins’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, recording 12 assists and 71 penalty minutes.

Evegeni Malkin, might just make it to the NHL for the upcoming season after all. After Russia rejected the IIHF transfer agreement, it looked as though all hope was lost. The good news is Russia has a old law on the books that the employee of any company can submit a letter of resignation and a notice of 2 weeks to leave their job. Malkin has sent such a letter to his Russian club. Now we can assume that they will try to stop this and try to change the law, or at least challenge it or try to sue the Penguins or somthing actition. they will not let him go easily, but thhis mighgt just be te loop hole we have been lookinig for.

Rumor has it that the Pens are still in the Yanic Perreault hunt. It is "likely he will become a Penguin," as one source put it.

The Penguins have also named a new head coach for their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Todd Richards has been named coach. He has spet the lasat 4 seasons as asn assistant coach for the Milwaukee Admirals.

That's it for now...

02 August 2006

Shero cleans out the staff

Hey pens fans,
well, there is one thing I forgot to post in my hurrie dpost last night. Shero went on a bit of a firing spree. He fired Gilles Lefebvre (goaltending coach), who was replaced by Gilles Meloche. He fired Rick Kehoe (Scout), Steve Latin (equipment manager), Paul Flati (assistant equiptment manager), and Scott Johnson (assistant trainer). Latin had been with the Pens for 18 years and Kehoe for 31 years. Also, just a reminder in case you missed it scout, Greg Malone left the Pens for Phoenix. That is a lot of vacancies for Shero to fill and don't forget Meloche's scouting position needs filled too.

01 August 2006

I'm back and did I pick one Hell of a Time to go on vacation.

Hey pens fans,
Well, the Pens have been busy recently. I guess I will just run it down item by item.

Malone was awarded a two year deal with salaries of $1.3 million for 2006-07 and $1.45 million for 2007-08.

Dominic Moore to a two year deal.

Sold! Well, a group led by Sam Fingold has signend a letter of intennt to buy the Penguins. I am taking that to mean that as long as all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed and the money comes though, they are sold.

Gilles Meloche has been named goaltendinig coach, he has held this position with the team before along with also haveing bee a scout with the club.

I think that is it for now. If I missed anythting I will add to it later, but I have only been home for 2 hours, so please cut me some slack.

More as I hear it...
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