SmokingChicken

Dickson, TN • United States •

A Round of Updates/Expansion D'Jour!

According to an article on the AHL's Website, EA Sports' NHL08 will feature all 29 teams from the American Hockey League as fully playable for the first time in video gaming history. Let's just hope the AHL doesn't opt to expand next year and make the game worthless.

Still no word on Euro leagues, unfortunately. I was really disappointed that they cut them out of NHL07 for the Xbox360. But here's my suggetions for which leagues they should put in:

DEL (Germany)
Elitserien (Sweden)
SM-Liiga (Finland)
Czech Extraliga (Czech Republic)
National Liga A (Switzerland)

What do YOU think?
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Predators Sale: Day 21

This from the Nashville Post:

06-13-2007 10:44 AM —
The Canadian newspapers National Post and the Globe and Mail have posted stories in the last hour documenting moves that incoming Nashville Predators owner Jim Balsillie is making to relocate the team to Canada.

In the National Post article, Balsillie is said to have filed a formal request with the National Hockey League, along with his ownership application, to be granted permission to relocate the team. Balsillie is asking that the contentious issue be handled at the same time is ownership application is considered on June 19 and 20 by the 30-member NHL Board of Governors.

In related news, the Globe and Mail is reporting that Balsillie has reached an agreement with the city of Hamilton, Ontario that would make it the new home of the Predators in the case of relocation. This news would come as a major disappointment to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which had been courting Balsillie.

NashvillePost.com sources close to the team say that both news items have outgoing Predators owner Craig Liepold and NHL Gary Bettman "irked" and that they are not pleased with the prospective buyer's actions.

When Balsillie recently tried to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, he abandoned the move over a refusal of the NHL to allow him to move the team.

I laugh so hard at some of what the Canadian media puts out about Balsillie moving the team to Canada. A lot of it makes no mention of the fact that the move has to gain approval from the Board of Governors and any teams with in an 80 kilometer radius of the new location of the team. They also seem to forgoe the fact that Metro can subsidize the tickets necessary to reach the 14,000 mark, up to a maximum of $2M (which would range from $1-2 in taxes per person in Metro, since I don't have specific population figures), and the team stays here. They also seem to think that nobody cares about the Predators here, which, if you've ever listened to George Plaster and Willy Daunic, you know that's inaccurate.

Balsillie is already making a lot of enemies in the NHL, including but not limited to Gary Bettman. And even if he's not the greatest commissioner, he's still the single most powerful man in Hockeydom today, and the last person you want to tick off. Okay, third to last: Ray Emery and Georges Laraque are the last two. I suspect either the NHL will block the sale or Balsillie will withdraw the bid, and the Predators will stay in Nashville.

I also thought Preds and Pens fans would get a kick out of this. And while I normally try to maintain an air of professionalism... this was just too good to pass up.


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I have found sixteen (potentially) viable markets that the NHL could expand to. Some of them are a stretch, but I'll have more research built on them in the coming months. Also, upon popular demand, I will do some spotlight pieces on select cities. By the end of the month, I will (read: should) be able to determine the two markets most suited to the NHL's needs and desires in an expansion city.

Here they are, in alphabetical order:
Hamilton, Ontario
Hartford, Connecticut
Houston, Texas
Indiannapolis, Indiana
Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas
Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario
Las Vegas, Nevada
Missisauga, Ontario
New Orleans, Louisiana
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Portland, Oregon
Quebec City, Quebec
Salt Lake City, Utah
San Antonio, Texas
Seattle, Washington
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Be sure to drop in tomorrow, as I'll have the first batch of Free Agent Rankings ready to roll.