CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Let me see.

There are five teams in the Northwest Division.

Let’s subtract Colorado – isn’t that nice after all of these years.

So, you have Edmonton, Calgary, Minnesota and the ‘nucks.

Now, the Alberta twins have new coaches – very good coaches at least for two season shelf lives – and Edmonton has the sniper Dany Heatley, and Calgary as Jay Bouwmeester.

And, Minnesota is very interested in the Sedins.

What happens if the Sedins are Wild bound?

Three teams are significantly better, one is still the shits, and the 5th team – the ‘nucks have taken a step or two backwards.

Mike Gillis has to be a tad nervous.

*****

Vancouver’s best hope should be that the Wild go for a brother reunion and acquire Saku Koivu.

One of the most in-the-know writers is the StarTribune’s Michael Russo.

He is somewhat optimistic about Vancouver re-signing the twins.

by Michael Russo

“It’s going to be a very interesting free-agent market because there’s only about 10 teams that can legimately take on a huge contract.

Even with today’s Scott Gomez pickup, Montreal has tons of cap room. Vancouver, Toronto, the Rangers, Dallas, the Islanders, L.A., and the Wild have the most flexibility in the league.

Also, if the Sedins don’t re-sign in Vancouver, they might really be in for a reality check as far as this package deal goes. Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto were the only teams maybe, and now Montreal is likely out because I think they’ll go after a single star now (i.e. Gaborik or Hossa).

That’s why I really feel sanity’s going to prevail and Sedins re-sign in Van.”

For those of you who want to keep up with what’s happening in the Northwest Division, access Russo’s twitter account:

twitter.com/russostrib