2008/09 NHL Thread

Only thing I can find is the 40-game rule, stipulating that once a junior-aged player plays in his 40th NHL game, the season counts toward his free-agent eligibility.

 

So, Montreal rolls into Tampa tomorrow, so expect the Lecavalier circus to keep its big tent up for at least another couple of days.

The little tent will only be taken down once we pass the trade deadline.

 

I thought it was 10 games? That was the number everyone was talking about when Jordan Staal was a rookie and scoring 167 shorthanded goals in the first week.

 

The No. 10 game is when his contract kicks in.

 

I'm pretty sure that it's just a trade deadline. As long as Sarnia still holds his rights he can go back and play there.

 

Lindsay Berra wrote a pretty good profile of Carey Price in the latest issue of ESPN The Mag.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3836512

 

trade deadline is March 4th

 

OHL trade deadline was January 9th, I believe.

 

thought she meant NHL

 

Lightning may have to trade one-third or two-thirds of the Big Three. Stamkos, Lecavalier and St. Louis, either separately (Lecavalier) or in a package (Stamkos and Lecavalier; Stamkos and St. Louis; Lecavalier and St. Louis) could bring back a package of young players and picks.

That all said, I cannot see the brain surgeons in Tampa giving up on Stamkos after half a season. My (rapidly expanding) gut feeling is that Lecavalier will be dealt.

 

Stamkos can certainly go back to Sarnia right now. It doesn't matter that the OHL trade deadline has passed. In 2001 (Edit: sorry, 2000), Manny Malhotra was sent back to his junior team - the Guelph Storm - in March I believe. It was certainly after the trade deadline, anyway.

The only reason the 10-game mark is significant is that it burns off the first year of the entry-level deal. That's it. It doesn't mean the team has to keep the player in the NHL for the whole year. There are many players who have been sent back after their tenth game.

Nor does it mean NHL teams have to pay the player his full NHL salary, even if they send him back to junior. If a player plays 15 games and gets sent down, he gets paid 15/82 of his salary, then it's back to $50 a week or whatever he makes in junior.

Finally, the difference between playing 10 games and 40 games is that when the player hits the former, he's a year closer to RFA status. When he hits the latter, he's considered to have played one of the seven years he needs to play in order to qualify for UFA status.

 

If that happens, the Lightning will turn into Atlanta and Phoenix. No-one will show up anymore.