I may start doing this every Friday. There's not much to report every day on the New Jersey Devils, but a good amount of miscellaneous news transpire over the previous week to put in one post.
Devils Sign Goalie Keith Kinkaid to ELC - The Union College netminder just finished his sophomore year to a two-year deal with an NHL cap hit of $640k per season (CapGeek). Tom posted a prospect profile on the 21-year old that contains an interview with Ken Schott who covers Union Hockey for the Daily Gazette. Pete Dougherty from timesunion.com has some quotes from Keith, his former coach, and his new boss Lou Lamoriello on the opportunity. Tom Gulitti has some more from Lou on the signing.
Lamoriello Interview with Gulitti - Lou "discusses" the upcoming offseason including Parise, Hedberg, Greene, the need for puck moving defenseman, the draft, the young players contributing, and the coaching search.
Vanderbeek Interview with Chere - JVB has some issues coming up this offseason as well. There's still that little ownership "breakup" lingering; Brick City Hockey (Owners Mike Gilfillan and Ray Chambers) wants to sell there stake and may even push to sell the entire team. JVB says "I anticipate maintaining a controlling interest." Bettman butted in and said the issue will be resolved. Umm..thanks Gary? It hasn't disrupted anything and it won't. Also, JVB and Lou will have their annual meeting and discuss the team's future. I bet Parise will be one of the bigger topics since it may involve a boatload of money.
No Worlds for A-Train or Steckel - Due to injury reasons and at the behest of the Devils, Anton Volchenkov won't play for Russia and David Steckel won't play for Team USA. Volchenkov suffered a lower body injury and miss most of the end of the season and Steckel was banged up a bit towards the end of the season as well. I'm fine with it. Sure it sucks you can't play for your country, but the Devils can't risk any further injury. For anyone wondering, here's the list of Devils who are playing in the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia:
Those players are forwards Ilya Kovalchuk and Vladimir Zharkov (Russia), forward Patrik Elias (Czech Republic), defenseman Mark Fayne and winger Nick Palmieri (U.S.), center Travis Zajac (Canada), forward Mattias Tedenby (Sweden) and defenseman Anssi Salmela (Finland).
Devils-Rangers Preseason Match at Times Union Center - This is pretty cool. On September 21st, the rivals will face off in Upstate New York. Tickets go on sale Monday (Pre-sale starts Saturday) If you live in the area, I say take advantage.
10 Years, $2 Billion - The NHL and NBC/Versus inked up a new TV contract. Steve Lepore from Puckthemedia.com has the deal covered, and his opinion on the deal. The exposure in the contract is incredible (better than the one game a week on ESPN2 that ESPN/ABC reportedly offered) and with the product on ice, it couldn't be a at better time. Versus will be renamed, all the playoff games will be on nationally broadcasted on a NBC/Comcast channel after this season, and more games will be on NBC/Versus next season. Awesome and good work NHL. This could ultimately increase the salary cap, but it's too early to tell (which is big news for the Devils).