Retirements
Jason Crowley, MIN,
DAL, BOS, 1986-2007
Almost undisputedly the greatest American player of all
time, Jason Crowley actually went undrafted as an 18-year-old in 1985, but a
big year at Boston College put the Rochester, MIN native at third in the
pre-draft rankings and he was ultimately taken second overall by the team he
cheered for as a boy, the Minnesota Lumberjacks. Crowley’s impact on the ‘Jacks
was immediate, as he led Minnesota back to the playoffs in his rookie season.
In his fourth season, Crowley took the Lumberjacks all the way to the Lewis Cup
Finals. The team lost to Long Island but it was a sign of things to come, as
they would win two titles in three years in 1996 and 1998. After some
near-misses in the early 2000s, The Lumberjacks decided to rebuild, sending
Crowley to the Dallas Desperados. His stint in Texas would be brief and he
would eventually sign for one more season with Boston, where he would team up
with former teammate Brendan Marlo to help the Bulldogs to the Lewis Cup, the
last one of Crowley’s brilliant career.
Kevin Hoyle, CAL/OAK,
NYC, 1986-2007
Kevin Hoyle earned an unusual distinction the moment he
stepped on the ice in 1986, as the first-ever PHL player born in Hawaii.
Hoyle’s father was a marine serving in Vietnam and Hoyle was born in 1968 while
his parents were on a break in Honolulu. Hoyle’s true hometown was Boston and
he grew up idolizing Bulldogs’ legend Johnny Bedford. Hoyle slipped in the 1986
draft, selected sixth after being ranked fourth. For the following 15 years,
Hoyle was the face of a very mediocre California Nuggets franchise. Despite his
team’s lack of success, Hoyle was determined to make things work in the Bay
area. He impressed people with his community spirit when the Loma Prieta
earthquake hit the area in 1989 and again after signing with the New York
Civics in 2001, when he started a program to help first responders after the
9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, Hoyle never even reached the Lewis Cup Finals,
retiring as quite possibly the greatest player to never win the title.
Scott Lindsay, PIT,
SEA, 1988-2007
In the post-Danny Stevenson era, Scott Lindsay was charged
with giving a rebuilding Pittsburgh Stingers club a new identity during the
1990s. Lindsay was one of the few bright spots and quickly became a
fan-favorite on a struggling team. In 2002, Lindsay left Pittsburgh for the
defending champion Seattle Grey Wolves in hopes of winning a ring, but it would
be too late, as the Wolves never did reach the finals again and like Hoyle,
Lindsay would retire as one of the better players to never with a Lewis Cup.
2007 Entry Draft
Still a year away from what hockey people had already
labelled the “Camden Draft”, there was less hype surrounding the 2007
selection. The highest ranked prospect was speedy winger Jeffery Faulk, but it was considered a wash between him and
defenseman Jordan Billings. Detroit
won the lottery and the right to pick first for the second straight year and
took Billings, leaving Faulk for the Kansas City Twisters and number two. The
Minnesota Lumberjacks took big center Mackenzie
Hicks third, while Washington took the first goaltender, Bryce Gordon with the fourth pick. The
highlight of the first round was a big trade between Pittsburgh and Winnipeg,
with Pittsburgh sending contract holdout and budding star Roman Novatny to the Pioneers for defenseman Evgeni Babkin and the fifth overall pick. The Stingers used the
pick to select small but quick center Tyler
Bass. Late in the first round, Long Island selected the oldest player ever drafted
in the first round, 21-year-old Chris
Dempsey from the University of Maine. 21 is the age limit for the PHL
draft, but previously nobody older than 20 had ever been selected in the first
round. Dempsey was previously drafted in the third round by Washingotn in 2004
but went unsigned. A huge 2006-07 campaign with Maine was convincing enough for
the Concordes to take the power forward early.
In the later rounds, there were a few more trades. Toronto
sent Igor Kharitonov and the 82nd
pick and the 130th pick to Houston in exchange for Josh McKenzie, a 27-year-old winger
unlikely to ever make the PHL. It was really a cap move, with the picks an
incentive for the Roughnecks to take on the aging Kharitonov’s $7 Million cap
hit. In terms of late
picks, Washington addressed their goaltending need with the selection of Brayden Hughes from the Maritime
League’s Truro Totems, while LA legend Stuart Holly’s son Garret was selected
in the third round by Pittsburgh.
Transactions
After
Losing defenseman JP Laporte to
retirement and winger Patrice Goulet
to Houston via free agency, the Milwaukee Choppers were a busy team in the
summer of ’07. Milwaukee acquired veteran defenceman Oleg Popov from Pittsburgh in exchange for center Alyn Marleau and a second round pick,
but the big move came July 1, when the Choppers signed Vancouver star Andrei Yegorov to a six-year deal worth
$7 Million. Milwaukee had to clear cap space to get under the new $53 Million
cap, so they sent Brendan Bittner to
Carolina in a three-way deal that also send rising star Dan McBride to Chicago and big Judy
Weircoch to the Chops, who needed to replace Bittner’s size at a lower
cost.
Oakland
was also busy over the summer, resigning their franchise defenseman, Jordan Rifkin, to a ten-year, $8
Million/year contract. The Nuggets then added star winger Kyle Clark as Dallas lacked the cap space to resign him. Many
expected 40-year-old defenseman Randy
Fernandez to retire, but once again Fernandez surprised everybody when he
signed a one-year extension with Dallas for $2 Million. The biggest free agent
on the market wasn’t available for long, as Joe Murdock signed a new 10-year deal with the Racers worth $10
Million/year. The deal meant Murdock would likely finish his career in Toronto.
News
The
2007 off-season felt tame after the tumoultous summer before it. In July,
commissioner Greg Nolan gave his state of the league address at the conclusion
of the annual GM meetings. Despite rumours of rule changes, such as the
addition of the shootout, Nolan said the league would first need to navigate
CBA negotiations and a potential work stoppage in 2008. The other issue of
interest to the fans was that of expansion. As soon as Nolan, an Ottawa native,
was appointed as commissioner, speculation began immediately that the city
might return to the league. Nolan was quick to dismiss that speculation. “Our
focus right now is on the health of our current markets” said Nolan. “We need a
new CBA, and we have an expiring US television deal to look after. Ottawa is a
good market and we will certainly consider it when the time comes.”
Nolan
also addressed possible rule changes, most notably the shootout, stating that
the league would look into it potentially in time for the 2009-10 season, after
the CBA is settled. One rule change that will come into effect for 2008 is a
change to the draft lottery system. The current system takes the bottom two
teams from each conference and puts them in a lottery with more weight given to
the last place team. Beginning in 2008, the lottery will take teams’
performance from the previous three seasons into account. The bottom two in
each conference will still be entered into the lottery with the teams given
increasing odds in reverse order of finish, but now any team that finished in the bottom two of their conference three
years in a row would receive the best odds whether or not they ever finished in
last place. The league hopes the new system will help out teams that were truly
bad, decreasing the chances of a good team having a bad year and getting a
phenom. It should also help discourage tanking, as it is unlikely a team would
want to tank for three consecutive seasons.
Ground was finally broken for the Toronto Racers’ new
downtown arena in June, while the Washington Generals also announced plans for
a new arena set to open in 2011. In Calgary, the Wranglers scrambled to secure
a new home after multiple problems were discovered in the 46-year-old Calgary
Exhibition. An assessment from the city and the PHL found that the building was
no longer suitable for professional hockey. The Wranglers will continue to play
at the Exhibition in 2007-08 until arrangements can be made to move the team
into the 10,000-seat Beltline Center until a new arena can be built.
Immediately, concerns were raised about the community-owned Wranglers’ survival
in the city. “We will do whatever we can to keep the team in Alberta” said Greg
Nolan. Another anonymous league official was less encouraging; “It doesn’t look
good, this is as bad a situation as we’ve seen.” Speculation began immediately
about the Wranglers’ future. The news of the failed inspection came just days
after Nolan’s expansion comments and many predicted that the Wranglers could
move across the country to Ottawa. Calgary’s status as a the league’s only
community-owned franchise meant the team’s fate could be at the mercy of the
municipal government, unless a buyer showed up with interest in keeping the
team in the city. Realistically, a new arena would need to be secured within a
year if the team was to remain in Calgary.
