Hawks finally move Campbell off their cap in a trade with Panthers for Olesz and trade Brouwer to the Caps for a 1st round Pick.

Good move to to release Campbells salary on the cap, reckon they'll dump Olesz in the minors or try to trade him unless they feel he can deliver in a Hawks jersey.

Sad to see Brouwer traded as he played a key role in the Cup run but to get a 1st round pick for a 4th line guy is a good deal.

Just worried that we are starting to look very thin with regards to guys who can hit and mix it.

We're a couple of days into the free agency period and the biggest name this year Brad Richards has decided to take his talents to the bright lights of NY to play for the Rangers.

The Blackhawks have been busy getting older and getting more toughness with the signings of Mayers,O'Donnell,Brunette,Montador and the strange signing of Dan Carcillo.I suppose he's signed up to be the next Hawk to get inside the heads of the Canucks when we play them next season.

Must say I'm a lot happier with the additions apart from Carcillo (who is just another Sean Avery type) as they add some steel, grit and experience to the roster. Gives us a chance to bring on the prospects rather than expecting them to deliver straight off. Mayers & Brunette are good aquisitions along with Montador who is reliable and can hit and with O'Donnell adds a bit more size and weight plus he can play.

We lost too many games through not been able to see teams off last season and also getting bullied on the ice. Think these additions will help address this with the experience and steel something we missed losing players like Buff and Madden.

Would prefer to have had Burish back instead of Carcillo but i guess he commands a much smaller fee and hopefully if he can curb his stupid antics and stick to a game plan he may prove a shrewd signing.

If Crawford can back up his performances this season next season then I honestly think we have a very good chance at regaining Lord Stanley. Still think we may see at least one more deal yet.

Looking more likely that the Redwings are going east after next season as the Wild owner has told a Minnesota radio station that they are moving to our division with the Jets and Dallas to replace Detroit and St louis.Nothing will be decided for real until December when there's a meeting about realignment

That would be a crazy move and a bad one to split an original 6 rivalry particularly, I can't image not having the Red Wings as divisional rivals.

Ray Emery to attend the Hawks training camp on a try out basis.

If he does well at camp he could well be a decent signing as back up to Crawford, as Hawks have let Turco go be interesting to see how this pans out.

Just got a ticket to see the Kings play the Avalanche in a pre season game at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

I'm going over for my sister's wedding and I got lucky with the dates, and it's the same hotel i'm already booked in to.

Got a seat on the blue line, 7 rows back, I can't wait

Enjoy, as they say 'there aint any friendlies in hockey'



Hoping to get across to Chicago later this year and catch a couple of games

Ex Sheffield Steelers Player Coach Ben Simon has been given the Assistant Coaches job at Rockford Ice Hogs!! Wonder if this will lead to a few more Brits given a chance to go over and try out in the minors. Was disappointed to see Dave Phillips come back, thought he may have stayed a long while over there.

Year of the Blueshirts next year. Got Callaghan, Dubinksy locked up and adding Richards gives us a great few lines and still have King Henrik between the pipes.

Rick Rypien found dead in his home in Alberta



[urlhttp://www.vancouversun.com/Canuck+Rypien+found+dead/5260260/story.html[/url

R.I.P so sad and only 27.

And Artem Anisimov.

Richards is arguably the signing of the season and I'm hoping that his presence will give us the push that the Blueshirts need to get into the playoffs and make a good go of it.

Set-up and NHL fantasy league on ESPN.

League name - Hockey RLFANS

password - superleague

draft is - Sunday 18th September 7.00pm

12 teams. All welcome.

Wade Belak has been found dead!!!!!

Apparently took his own life.

Thats 3 NHLers is just over 4 months.

Think the NHL need to takle a look at what is happening with the players mental welfare in what is at times a brutal contact sport particularly for the enforcer/fighters of which all 3 of these guys were.

Saw Belak play a few times whenever I was in Toronto and was lucky enough to see him ply his trade in the UK during the lock out year.

Such another sad loss

R.I.P Fella

R.I.P Wade Belak

More tragic news for ice hockey fans this off season with the plane crash in Russia today with the Lokomotiv KHL team on board.Over 40 people died including a few former nhl players.Vasicek,Skrastins,Demitra and Salei are said to be among the dead.

Tragic and awful news. Brad McCrimmon was the Coach and Hawks ex player Igor Korolev was assistant coach.

R.I.P

R.I.P

Boston Bruins have re-signed restricted free agent Brad Marchand to a two-year, $5 million contract

We're a few days into the pre season and i'm getting worried that there won't be any NHL on tv this year as the NHL have sold broadcasting rights for the next 5 years to somebody called AMI and they so far haven't got an agreement with anybody in this country to show games.I'm still hopeful ESPN can agree a price to show it or I will have to sign up for gamecentre online as I can't go without watching hockey.

Lets Go Bruins!

Got a link for Game Centre this side of the Atlantic?

I've not got it yet but if you go on nhl.com you can sign up for it on there.On the HF Boards forum there's a discussion about the european sign up for nhl gamecentre and some people are having problems with it so i'm waiting for the season to start before getting it so i know it works properly for us over here.

Who do you post as under HF Boards mate? I posted, then tried to re-register as my log in details didn't work and they told me I had to email so I did, never got a reply. Now I've just tried to log in and it's worked. I post under "EnglishRanger".

Not posted in a while,used to use DRG.I don't know if that still works as i just go on these days and look at what everybody else is posting.It's good that people from all over the world post on that site.I remember a couple of years ago having an argument with a frenchman about the premier league being the strongest football league in europe

I might start posting again now the season has started.

Slightly off topic, anyone who bought NHL 12 played it recently since the 1.03 update? The game freezes when I try to load my season at 100% progress. Deleted the update and it works fine afterwards. Is this a common problem?