Pesky forward Sean Avery is taking his act to the Lone Star State.

The Dallas Stars signed Avery to a four-year, $16 million contract, worth $4 million per season against the Stars cap.

Stars co-GM Brett Hull was apparently instrumental in bringing Avery to Dallas, as the two used to be roommates when they played for the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the decade.

Avery is a very good physical forward with a decent scoring touch whose abrasive style should be a good fit with the Stars in the short term, but his act tends to wear thin after a couple of seasons so it’ll be interesting to see how things work out for him in Dallas.

Grim news today out of New York as Rangers bad boy forward Sean Avery was rushed to a Manhattan hospital this morning unconscious and not breathing after what the New York Daily News called cardiac arrest hours after his team lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Three of their Eastern Conference Semi-Final game.

TSN reports Avery suffered a lacerated spleen and is out for the rest of the playoffs but is expected to make a full recovery.

Regardless of what Avery's critics (of which I am one) may think of his on-ice actions and off-ice comments here's hoping that Avery does indeed make a full recovery and returns to action next season.

**UPDATE** Reports of Avery rushed to hospital unconscious and not breathing were not true, according to a Rangers spokesman.

As per The Globe & Mail:

"The spokesman said Avery went to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Lower Manahattan after the game with a team doctor in a town car. He walked into the hospital and was not on a stretcher, the spokesman said."

Regardless, best wishes to Avery for a speedy recovery.

NY Rangers forward Sean Avery has been making a name for himself as one of the league’s most pesky players (and arguably the most disliked) and now his name will likely be enshrined for posterity for a rule change.

During Sunday’s playoff game between Avery’s Rangers and the New Jersey Devils, he created a stir by planting himself in front of Devils goalie Martin Brodeur during a power-play, facing Brodeur and waving his stick in the netminder’s face.

The tactic screened Brodeur, who after the game said that he couldn’t see the puck or the play developing in front of him because of Avery’s antics.

It failed to result in a goal, although Avery would score moments later on the same powerplay. You can check out Avery’s little gambit in more detail here.

Commentators were stunned by Avery’s actions, most saying they’d never seen anything like this before in their lives. Brodeur obviously wasn’t pleased with it, the game referee warned Avery and the Rangers bench that it could result in a penalty if he did it again, and even Avery’s teammate Chris Drury shouted at him during the play to keep his stick down.

Globe & Mail blogger James Mirtle was all over this story, as well as its aftermath.

Avery’s stick wind-milling action failed to draw a penalty at the time because there wasn’t anything in the NHL rulebook saying you couldn’t do what he did.

Screening a goalie is a common practice during a game, but players doing so aren’t facing the goalie and waving their stick in his face. Their backs are almost always turned to the netminder, facing the play as they look for the incoming shot, not only to prevent the goalie seeing the puck and create a scoring chance, but also to avoid injury themselves by getting hit from behind with the puck.

It didn’t take long for the NHL to react. Effective Monday, the league issues the following:

"National Hockey League Senior Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell today issued the following advisory on the interpretation of Rule 75 - Unsportsmanlike Conduct: "An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."

Now some may argue as to why there was such an uproar over Avery’s actions and question the league cracking down on it.

Regardless of the interference implication or the unsportsmanlike conduct, what Avery did was dangerous, to Brodeur, an opponent or teammate, even to himself.

Avery couldn’t see the play developing behind him, has no idea where the puck is nor does he know where the position of his teammates or opposing players are around him, as he was mainly focused on Brodeur.

With his back to the player and waving his stick around in that manner, he risked injuring Brodeur despite the netminder’s protective equipment, and could’ve clipped a teammate or an opponent in the face or head with his stick.

Avery was also putting himself in danger of being struck from behind with an incoming shot, which could’ve seriously injured him if it struck him in the head or back of the neck, despite the helmet he wore.

It’s good to see the NHL jump on this quickly, and obviously they had the blessing of the NHLPA implement this rule change so quickly. No one wants to see this become an established practice throughout the playoffs by waiting to change this rule in the off-season, especially if it were to result in a game-or-series winning goal.

Can you imagine the uproar if Avery or another player were to pull the same stunt resulting in a Stanley Cup winning goal? It would dwarf that of Brett Hull’s controversial “foot in the crease” goal from the 1999 Cup Finals, which was an embarrassment the league front office has no wish to repeat.

If Avery harbored hopes of his name going down in NHL history, he got his wish. This will forever be known as "the Sean Avery rule".

The Los Angeles Kings continued their rebuilding process today.

Less than a week after trading center Craig Conroy to the Calgary Flames, the Kings have shipped center Sean Avery, along with prospect John Seymour, to the New York Rangers for forward Jason Ward and prospects Marc-Andre Cliché and Jan Marek.

Avery became the focus of trade rumors over the past two week following news that his roughhousing with teammate Scott Thornton gave the latter a broken wrist, upsetting GM Dean Lombardi.

Avery’s known as an agitator who’s penchance for putting his foot in his mouth earned him a bad reputation as a loose cannon, but this season he’s toned down the rhetoric and focused on his game. He’s on pace to crack the 40-point plateau for the first time in his career.

He’s like a younger Darcy Tucker, playing an energetic, aggressive style that gets under the skin of his opponents, and he can also contribute offensively.

The Rangers, who’ve slid out of the playoff standings of late, badly needed depth at center and more grit up front. Avery should address those needs. He could see second-line duty and might even be paired with Brendan Shanahan. It remains to be seen, however, if Avery is enough to snap the Blueshirts out of their recent doldrums.

Ward was once projected as a power forward when he was made a first round pick of the Montreal Canadiens but he’s since settled into the role of checking forward, a job he’s done well. He’ll be an affordable addition to the rebuilding Kings.