Roberto Luongo

[Ð]

He of the .985 save percentage :eek:

He saw more rubber than a $2 hooker last night against the Leafs and still shut them out and he shut out the Bruins the other night.

That's a dispersal draft I'd be watching verrrrrry closely, when the Panthers fold.

[Dozerdog]

After the lockout- you don't think the Panthers and Penguins will move instead of fold?


Isn't Winnepeg trying to get a team back? Portland Ore and Seattle are other cities mentioned

[Earthquake Enyart]

Knowing the Board of Governors, they will put teams in Winnipeg and Portland and charge them $30 mill expansion fees.

[Ð]

Winnipeg can't support a team without an owner with deep pockets (See the Ottawa Senators, or Jets version I for examples)

Portland, I'm not so sure of, I don't know enough about their local market.

I can see the post-strike/lockout fallout going something like this...

Miami, Raleigh-Durham & Pittsburgh...folded for sure

Buffalo, Ottawa, Calgary, Nashville & Montreal...in big trouble, potential for moves to other cities

Edmonton, Boston, Phoenix...on the bubble

[Earthquake Enyart]

Didn't Winnipeg just build a new arena?

The showdown will be over whether the players will take a $31 cap and still have 30 teams, or have no cap and have 24 teams.

Nashville has done it right, built a playoff contender and still only draws 12,000. So Nashville, Florida, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Tampa, Phoenix, Calgary, Edmonton and Buffalo would be in trouble.

C'mon Dougie, the NHL would never leave Montreal or Boston.

[Dozerdog]

Paul Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers- a milti-Billionaire who ws 2nd or 3rd to Bill Gates at micro-soft.


The Rose Palace in Portland is supposed to be one of the best- if not the best- arena in all of sports. He was a front runner in buying the Sabres.

Seattle has a decent shot at getting a team as well- they are a top 20 city- plus it's location on the Canadian border helps

[Dozerdog]

During the 90 minute delay to the Bruin/Islander game (hole in the ice) they filled in a lot of time talking about the upcoming lockout.

One writer (don't remember who) said the only way around a salary cap is to lower the free agency age from 31 0-to say 26-27, but get rid of guaranteed contracts. Right now a team can dump a contract but still has to pay 2/3rds the value. Go NFL style with non-guaranteed money and the writer thinks the labor woes go away.

I don't buy it. Maybe a loose cap, with the ability to go over to re-sign your own guys (like the old NBA cap) and/or a baseball style luxury tax, with the money going to teams hurt by the bad canadian dollar and high canadian taxes

[Ð]

I know the crowd for Portland Winter Hawks (Canadian WHL league) has always been good, but remember WHL games are $10-$13 tickets as opposed to $50 tickets.

Seattle is interesting, but the League has to worry about taking away some of Vancouver's fan base, similar to the way Buffalo rightfully vetoed a Hamilton team way back when.

EE, Montreal came within a hair of moving/folding a year or two ago. Bottom line, if they don't put bums in chairs, then no city is safe from losing their franchise.

[realmendontwearteal]

if the league does strike which it seems like thats gonna happen..... smaller market teams with fold