2007 Off-Season

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 82^nd pick and the 130^th 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.