Reports out of Europe claim three Swiss teams have expressed interest in signing unrestricted free agent winger Anson Carter to a contract but he’s rejected their offers, citing his intent to only entertain offers from North America (NHL) or Russia.
No word if any Russian Super League teams are interested in Carter but apart from a failed training camp tryout with the Edmonton Oilers there’s been no media reports of anything coming his way from NHL teams.
Some Canucks fans are still pining for the Canucks to bring back Carter, where only two seasons ago he had a 33-goal season playing with the Sedin Twins. But comments made by GM Dave Nonis over the last two summer suggest he won’t be suiting up again for Vancouver anytime soon.
Nonis never really said it, but the implication seems to be that negotiations never went well between the two sides. The fact he struggled big time last season split between Columbus and Carolina didn’t help his free agent value.
Speaking of Swiss teams, HC Lugano is reportedly very interested in signing former Calgary Flames forward Jeff Friesen, who still remains available in the UFA market.
Friesen was still a capable checking forward but his best NHL seasons are now long behind him and it appears if he’s going to keep his playing career alive that it’ll have to be in Europe.
Looks like St. Louis Blues forward Petr Cajanek is headed to Europe after all.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday the Blues could be about to loan Cajanek to Ak Bars Kazan of the Russian Super League, with that team picking up half his $2.1 million salary for this season.
Reports from Switzerland earlier this month had a couple of Swiss teams interested in him but Cajanek, who’d been demoted to the Blues minor league affiliate in Peoria, stated his intent to play in North America and try to get back into the NHL.
The Blues had placed Cajanek on re-entry waivers in hopes another club would be willing to claim him for only half his salary but received no interest.
Finally, the Detroit Red Wings have called up prospect forward Igor Grigorenko after poor conditioning landed him on their minor league affiliate to open the season.
Reports out of Detroit suggest if Grigorenko fails to earn a spot on the Wings that he might return to Russia, possibly never to return to the NHL.
Grigorenko was considered one of the Wings’ top prospects and battled back to salvage his career after it was nearly ended several years ago in a car accident.
1) Amazing how far some of these players have fallen. Friesen was a highly regarded power forward with what appeared to be a long career ahead of him. Seems like his skills evaporated
2) Carter has bounced fro team to team. never able to click/stick for any length of time(9 teams in 10 years?) He may resurface, but we'd be shocked to see Friesen back any time soon/ever
When will the Edmonton Oilers get a new coach??? Besides a fluke appearance in the Stanley Cup finals after finishing 8th in their conference, is sub-par seasons the goal for Kevin Lowe to keep his buddy and former teammates MacTavish and Huddy employed? I agree the Oilers have a lot of speed and some good goal scorers, but how can two defensive minded coaches who were never goal scorig threats keep this trend going of seeing good players become great players on other teams?
Time to see what a coaching change with people like Pat Burns out there can bring to a young and dynamic team who have the ability to out skate and out hussle their opponents. Either the Oilers are fast and attacking all the time like their players, or a solid trap and defensive style, which their coaching choices suggests. Never the less I can't see MacTavish or Huddy teaching Hemsky, Penner, and the likes how to put the puck in the net. Oilers are currently 3 wins & 6 losses, prediction for the end of this month will be 4 wins and 9 losses.
Last edited by Oilers1234 on October 24th at 2:59 AM.
Sorry, but Pat Burns -- as much as I respect him -- is the wrong man for the Edmonton Oilers bench. The man isn't going to coach Oilers hockey.
Frankly, a coaching change -- or general manager change, for that matter -- isn't going to make a dramatic improvement to the Oilers given their young talent. The club has FINALLY committed to rebuilding, and when you've got a rebuilding team filled with young unproven talent, you cannot expect to win every night.
From a fan's standpoint, I'm happy to report that the Oilers are playing good, exciting full-speed hockey again. And, with a couple of exceptions, they've been in all the games they've lost this year. When's the last time anyone was able to make that claim?
I'm overjoyed my faith in Andrew Cogliano has been rewarded -- let's hope he can keep it up another 70 games -- and I'm gleefully surprised with Sam Gagner. There's some good, raw talent there that just needs to develop. Let's give them and the rest of the kids a couple of seasons and see what happens.
Spector's noted previously that there's around 50 notable NHLers who aren't in the league at the moment. A few -- like Peter Forsberg, Danny Markov and Curtis Joseph -- may be back before the season is done. But there's a lot of experienced talent -- players such as Anson Carter and Jeff Friesen -- who've been pushed out the door likely for good, mainly for lower-priced youth. I haven't seen an exodus like this since the late 1970s / early 1980s when the "merger" of the NHL/WHA meant a net contraction of three to four teams (deepening the overall talent pool), while at the same time some of the deepest Entry Drafts in history muscled their way into the line-up.
It will be very interesting to see if this is the beginning of a trend where the NHL grows considerably younger over the next few seasons as the salary cap puts the squeeze on overly expensive veterans.
You know, I respect the Edmonton Oiler fans greatly. That being said, I can't stand the people they have running their organzation. Staying with the "ex-Oiler" alumni is so cultish like the Habs and see where it has got the Habs? Mactavish and Lowe are not considered to be the smartest hockey guys by any imagination. The Oilers cried for years that salaries were spiraling and then they throw around inflated offer sheets this year. And Mactavish--the guy insisted on not wearing a helmet when everyone else got with the program. I feel sorry for Oiler fans. The organization should go after someone fresh in terms of coach and GM....
hahahahahahaha, and everyone made fun of Iron mike coming to calgary...If we were anything like our alberta sisters (thats right I said it), we would have hired someone like Jamie Macoun or Brad Mccrimmon running the team, but no, we went out and got someone to get things done....The oilers organization is a joke...I honestly feel bad for the fans for having to cheer for them
what about pyatt from good ole thunder bay ontario? (don't say anything bad about thunder bay, thats where I'm writing from) I picked him in my hockey pool as my last pick hoping he'd put some numbers up playing with the sedins but it seems that the coach wants to play d more then o and no one is scoring for the nucks
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
