Saturday, September 02, 2006

Pre-camp News Roundup

Not too much going on - we're all waiting for Evgeni Malkin to sign. Rookie camp beings in 6 days, and that will be the first chance we have to see Malkin and Staal (remember that guy?) on the ice for the Pens.
  • Shelly Anderson of the Post-Gazette says that the Barry and Brisson, who represent Malkin, will begin negotiations with the Pens after the holiday weekend, with the stated goal of having Evgeni here for rookie camp on September 7th. The negotiations should be short and sweet - Malkin's salary is pretty much locked in by the CBA. Of course, this same information was available a day earlier from the Tribune Review. Karen Price of the Trib has been kicking the stuffing out of the Post-Gazette lately. It will be interesting to see how well that continues now that Dave Molinari is back, speaking of which...
  • Dave Molinari has returned from his vacation to post a new Q&A, but in my opinion, it's pretty useless. Take a look for yourself... maybe I'm being too harsh.
  • The Pens will attend a four day leadership course at West Point. Is it me, or does this sound like Michel Therrien's dream vacation? I'm all for it - anything that lets Coach Therrien put his stamp on this team from the start. There's no reason this team can't be the hardest workers in the league.
  • Edmonton will send some players to Wilkes-Barre (and four other teams) since they will not have an AHL affiliate this year. I say as long as the Pens prospects don't lose development time to the Oilers prospects, then so much the better. Wilkes-Barre's roster has bee kind of light so far this off-season, so I suppose it's better for the Pens young guys like Filewich and Stone to play with legitimate prospects, as opposed to journeymen who will never make it out of the AHL.
That's about it. Let me take another opportunity to pimp the Igloo Dreams fantasy hockey league, totally free and on Yahoo. I'm getting nothing out of this, by the way - I just want to see a full league! We have four spots left. Instructions on how to join are here.

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