Sport-scan daily brief

Boston Herald LOADED: 06.28.2013

682657 Buffalo Sabres

Weber signs three-year, $5 million contract with Sabres

June 27, 2013 - 8:22 PM

By John Vogl

Mike Weber, who was set to become a restricted free agent July 5, has signed a three-year, $5 million contract with the Sabres.

Weber, who just finished a two-year deal that averaged $950,000 per season, will make $1.5 million in each of the next two years and $2 million in 2015-16.

There was no immediate word from the organization.

"Really excited to be staying in Buffalo for 3 more years," Weber wrote on Twitter, along with the hashtags "IsItOctoberYet" and "letgobuffalo." He then erased it.

The 25-year-old defenseman has spent parts of five seasons in Buffalo. He played 42 games last year, recording one goal, seven points and a plus-3 rating with 70 penalty minutes.

The 6-foot-2, 211-pounder was a healthy scratch to start the season but became one of the more dependable defenders by the end. Coach Ron Rolston continually praised his leadership.

Buffalo News LOADED: 06.28.2013

682658 Buffalo Sabres

Sabres keep Weber with three-year deal

By John Vogl

on June 27, 2013 - 11:16 PM

updated June 27, 2013 at 11:41 PM

The Sabres are keeping their “unsung hero” in the first move of what could be an eventful week.

Buffalo defenseman Mike Weber, who was set to become a restricted free agent next Friday, agreed to a three-year, $5 million contract Thursday night. He’ll make $1.5 million during the next two seasons and $2 million in 2015-16.

He averaged $950,000 per season during his expiring two-year deal.

“Mike is very happy,” said Weber’s agent, Howard Gourwitz, who began negotiating Monday with Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier and his assistant, Mark Jakubowski. “They have been saying Mike was in the future plans and they count on Mike as one of their top defensemen and they count on Mike for leadership and everything. I said, ‘Then you have to make a commitment. A commitment is real money, long-term contract.’ Finally, they did.”

Gourwitz also represents forward Steve Ott, who has one year remaining on his contract, and the agent “hopes and expects” to begin extension talks next month.

Weber’s teammates voted him as Buffalo’s “Unsung Hero” at their season-ending awards ceremony. The 25-year-old defenseman was a healthy scratch to start the season but became one of the more dependable defenders by the end. He played 42 games, recording one goal, seven points and a plus-3 rating with 70 penalty minutes. His 92 blocked shots ranked 24th in the NHL, and he was second on the Sabres in hits (122).

The 6-foot-2, 211-pounder has spent parts of five seasons in Buffalo.

It could be an interesting weekend for transactions. The festivities started Thursday morning when Tampa Bay announced a compliance buyout on captain Vincent Lecavalier. Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier doesn’t anticipate buying out a player, but Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek are on the trade market as they enter the final season of their contracts.

Miller texted Thursday night he had “no comment right now” on his mind-set heading toward the weekend.

“I really don’t have any updates from my end,” Vanek’s agent, Steve Bartlett, said in an email. “I am available to meet with Sabres at any time and hope to see them at draft.”

Regier and Buffalo’s scouting staff, featuring Kevin Devine, the director of amateur scouting, are in New York preparing for Sunday’s NHL selection process.

“We’ve got some holes to fill on both sides,” Devine said.

The Sabres have an opportunity to stock their system. They hold 10 picks, tied with Nashville, Winnipeg and Los Angeles for the most. Buffalo is set to select four times in the opening two rounds, including eighth and 16th overall.

Devine heads toward the draft with a loose plan of picking six forwards, three defensemen and a goaltender. He raised eyebrows when he said a goalie could be on the radar with the second pick of the first round.

As far as quantity, goaltender is the position of least worry for the Sabres. Even if they trade Miller this weekend, they still have Jhonas Enroth and Matt Hackett available with NHL experience. Buffalo also has a trio of promising prospects in Andrey Makarov, Linus Ullmark and Nathan Lieuwen.

There’s no guarantee any will become stars. Although goalies usually go in the mid- to late rounds, Buffalo could opt for a first-round talent like Zachary Fucale, who backstopped Halifax to the Memorial Cup title.

The Sabres also appear to have depth at center, though it’s unclear whether they have top-end talent in the system. They drafted Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons in the top 14 selections last year. They added Johan Larsson in the late-season trade that sent Jason Pominville to Minnesota.

Girgensons and Larsson can play on the wings, but the only elite, pure winger the Sabres have is Joel Armia, the first-round pick in 2011.

The Sabres went heavy on defensemen from 2008 to 2010, drafting six blue-liners in the first three rounds, including Tyler Myers, Mark Pysyk, Brayden McNabb and Jerome Gauthier-Leduc. They selected only three with their 14 total picks the last two years, and the defense was further depleted with the trades of Robyn Regehr, Jordan Leopold and T.J. Brennan.

Rasmus Ristolainen and Darnell Nurse might be around at No. 8.

“It’s a toss-up between the forwards and defense,” Devine said, “at least for the first pick.”

Buffalo News LOADED: 06.28.2013

682659 Calgary Flames

Flames enter Sunday’s NHL Entry Draft with clear plan to draft best player available

By Scott Cruickshank, Calgary Herald June 27, 2013

Calgary Flames general manager Jay Feaster vows the club will stick to its plan of drafting the best player available.

Because of the Calgary Flames’ depleted state — one which leaves them in desperate need of size, skill, grit, at every single skating position — no one can scoff at Jay Feaster’s declaration.

The general manager is clinging to the stock answer, that his team’s goal is to snare “the best player available” at the National Hockey League draft Sunday in New Jersey.

Usually, that response is good for a knowing chuckle and a theatrical eye-roll. Like, what a cop-out.

Not now.

The rebuilding Flames really do need it all.

So the best player available? Yes, by all means. More than one, too, while you’re at it.

“We will be looking to do that, with an eye for the players that we draft to have an opportunity to come in for training camp and make our hockey team,” says Feaster, whose squad holds — as it stands right now — three first-round bids, Nos. 6, 22, 28. “We really like this draft. Our guys think it’s a deep draft. We think at 22 and 28, we’re going to be happy with the players that are still on the board.”

Adds Tod Button, the team’s director of amateur scouting: “We’ve improved our prospect base in the last few drafts, but we’re still not flush at any position. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do and where we want to go. When you have your first three picks in the first round, that’s huge for us.”

Huge, too, then for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who possess hollers at Nos. 14, 19, 27. Which for them means keeping one eye on the draft board and another on the Flames.

“We’re obviously looking at them very closely, seeing what they might do,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told the Columbus Dispatch. “I would imagine we’re having a lot of similar conversations with many of the same teams.”

It would surprise no one if the Flames flipped one or two of their first-round selections — or even all three. Well-publicized is the team’s attempt to shove its picks to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for the first overall selection. Did not work.

Shakeups, though, are never easy, despite the best intentions.

Ask Kevin Lowe.

Heading into the 2007 draft, Lowe had declared loudly that his team — the Edmonton Oilers (holders of three first-round picks) — was “open for business.” There turned out to be zero fireworks. The Oilers, to varying degrees of success, ended up making all of their opening-round calls — Sam Gagner (sixth), Alex Plante (15th), Riley Nash (21st).

Feaster acknowledges the challenge of draft-floor dealings, especially this year when all seven rounds are confined to a single sitting.

“What makes it hard . . . is that you’re under a time constraint,” Feaster says. “The good thing is, we’re already gone through a lot of different scenarios. Dry runs. Mock drafts. We’ve identified which teams have those multiple (second-rounders) that might want to move up. Some guys have already knocked on the door and said, ‘If the right guy’s there . . . .’ So we’ve kind of walked through that. We’re confident in our order and where we have guys and how we prioritize players. So I think we’ll be set to go.”

Yes, at its base, this venture is all about the list — until it isn’t.

“You know, we went off the list a few times last year,” says John Weisbrod, assistant general manager of the Flames. “Usually you have to go off the list when you’re taking players that fit into a different compartment. Goaltenders are on a separate list. So we went off the list, so to speak, to take Jon Gillies in the third round (75th overall).

“I’m obviously glad we did. This guy is arguably our best prospect at this point.”

Gillies, six-foot-five, turned in a superb freshman season at Providence College this past winter, being named the national rookie of the year.

Now the Flames need more direct hits, starting with an opening round, which, for the first time in franchise history, contains three selections.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of strategy involved,” says Button, adding that the Flames’ late-season stockpiling didn’t affect his marching orders. “You always keep in mind, as you’re going through the year, that you have to know all the players. You always have to be prepared. You can’t sit at the table in the meetings and have the GM come in and say, ‘We just picked up the second pick,’ and go, ‘Hey, we don’t know any of those players.’ ”

The Flames’ list, in fact, when it’s carved out in January, then fine-tuned in May, doesn’t simply highlight the locals’ picks. It’s a straight run-through of all 30 shouts. Of course, getting to that point of the process is not as easy as it sounds.

Not when the scouts want to have their say.

“It’s passionate, it’s heated — it’s people fighting for what they believe in,” says Button. “It’s very respectful, but when you get everybody in the same room and everyone has a stake in what’s going on — we’ve been told, and we recognize as a staff, how important this draft is — it certainly will get heated. It certainly will get raucous in there.

“It’s all part of the path to make this a spectacular draft for us.”

Calgary Herald: LOADED: 06.28.2013

682660 Calgary Flames

Flames get younger and bigger in trade with Avalanche

By Vicki Hall and Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald June 27, 2013 11:18 PM

David Jones, right, celebrates a goal with Gabriel Landeskog during a game against Calgary last season.

Like most Canadians, right winger David Jones has a friend in Calgary with a harrowing story to tell about the southern Alberta floods.

As of Thursday afternoon, Jones’s own place of employment, the Scotiabank Saddledome, is also in the disaster zone.

“It’s just devastating,” one of the newest members of the Calgary Flames said over the phone from his off-season home in Vancouver. “A buddy of mine, the first floor of his apartment building, I think it was completely under water. But thankfully, he lives on the fifth floor, so he’s a little lucky.

“It’s just devastating. Horrible. I hope everyone stays safe there . . . I have a lot of friends there, so I’ve definitely been following that very closely.”

No doubt Jones, 28, will follow news of the cleanup even more closely after the Flames acquired his rights along with defenceman Shane O’Brien, 29, Thursday for left winger Alex Tanguay, 33, and defenceman Cory Sarich, 34.

The deal actually sees the Flames fork out more money ($16 million in cap hit for O’Brien and Jones compared to $12.5 million for Tanguay and Sarich over the life of the respective contracts). But in the early days of an organization rebuild, Calgary gets younger, bigger and nastier.

Youth, size, and grit are all key items on general manager Jay Feaster’s shopping list.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about for some time and we certainly talked about at the end of the season, is the need to become a harder team to play against,” Feaster said Thursday night. “We wanted to get bigger and younger as well.”

Jones is a six-foot-two, 210-pound power forward originally selected by Colorado in the ninth round of the 2003 draft. He has three years left on a four-year, $16-million US deal with an annual cap hit of $4 million.

Born in Guelph, Ont., Jones spent roughly four years of his early childhood in Calgary before moving to the West Coast.

“I learned to ski at Canada Olympic Park and my wife actually went to school at the University of Calgary,” Jones said. “I would go visit her all the time there. My sister and her husband lived there for the last six years, and I would go visit them all the time.

“They’ve moved back to Vancouver this year. They’re kind of giving me a hard time, because why couldn’t this have happened when they were living there?”

Three years back, Jones collected career highs in goals (27) and assists (18) for the Avalanche. He followed that breakout season in 2011-12 with 20 goals and 17 assists.

Then came a miserable lockout-shortened 2013 campaign where he managed just three goals and six assists for nine points in 33 games.

“I just had a tough year,” he said. “Just try and forget about it. I’m not going to make any excuses. I just wasn’t playing very well.

“I just couldn’t really get things going.”

The Flames believe Jones can turn things around in a hurry with a change of area code.

“With Jones, we get a guy who is an up and down winger,” Feaster said. “He’s a big body, he protects the puck well. We like the fact he drives to the net. He’s willing to go and play in the dirty areas. He’s a right shot, a penalty killer.”

In O’Brien, the Flames get a rugged defenceman who likes to play the body — basically Sarich but five years younger.

The six-foot-three, 230-pound rearguard is clearly not reticent to drop the gloves with 853 penalty minutes in seven NHL seasons.

A certified NHL journeyman, O’Brien has played for the Anaheim Ducks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche.

While in Vancouver, O’Brien was perhaps better known for his life as a party boy at the Roxy than his work on the ice.

“I was a little bit younger then,” he said Thursday upon learning of the trade in the middle of a round of golf with his dad. “I’ve learned my lesson with that kind of stuff. That’s in my past. I know a lot of people still joke about it. But if you ask the guys who have played with me, I take my job extremely serious.

“Everyone likes to have fun now and then, but I’ve definitely grown up. Hockey is definitely my main priority.”

As for joining a team in the baby stages of a rebuild, O’Brien envisions a quick turnaround for the new-look Flames.

“It’s a younger NHL now,” he said. “I don’t think it takes nearly as long to rebuild as it maybe did a few years back.

“I think Jay’s a great hockey man. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, and I’m excited to be coming to a young team.”

The feeling is indeed mutual.

“He’s someone who has been on our radar screen for some time,” Feaster said. “He’s a hard guy to play against. He’s a guy that has the real ability to annoy other players on other teams. I can’t count how many times this past season when we played Colorado, he would be the guy that would be crashing into (Miikka) Kiprusoff, coming in late, and just creating havoc in front of the net. We liked that. He’s a guy who sticks up for his teammates, he has good size.

“We got younger, we got bigger, and I think we got harder to play against.”

Calgary Herald: LOADED: 06.28.2013

682661 Calgary Flames

Flames GM Feaster keeping door open to further trade activity

By Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald June 27, 2013 11:05 PM

Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster felt Thursday’s trade with Colorado was a good one for his club, which gets younger and grittier in the deal.

All along, Jay Feaster has made it clear that the Calgary Flames are open for business.

And, since the conclusion of their 2013 National Hockey League season, the general manager vowed to get bigger, younger, and, in general, become a harder team to play against.

The latest proof of that promise was Thursday’s deal with the Colorado Avalanche that shipped Patrick Roy’s former teammate and winger Alex Tanguay and veteran defenceman Cory Sarich to the Mile High City.

Coming to the Stampede City are 28-year-old right winger David Jones and 29-year-old defenceman Shane O’Brien.

“We’re open to doing a lot of different things,” Feaster said. “Does that mean there’s another deal waiting to be done and another shoe to drop? No.

“But, again, we’re not closing the door at any possibilities.”

That also means Michael Cammalleri, who is in the final year of his contract, is fair game, too.

Feaster said no trade demand has been made and that they expect to start the season with the 31-year-old who had 13 goals and 19 assists in 44 games for the Flames last season. He also said they plan on finding him a centreman to complement him.

But, then again, no extension discussions have been initiated, either.

“He recognizes the situation he’s in,” Feaster said. “We have a lot of holes to fill, certainly. We have a lot of needs.”

All of which have been identified heading into this weekend’s 2013 NHL entry draft in New Jersey — where Feaster and his scouting staff have been since Monday.

And some of those needs, he believes, were addressed with Thursday’s trade.

With O’Brien, a wish-list player from last year’s free agency, they have an addition to their starting six defenceman — a pestering presence who’ll also stick up for his teammates.

“We talked about wanting to have an identity to our third-pairing group,” Feaster said. “Again, this idea of being tougher to play against and time/space eliminators, we see Obie fitting in nicely with that.”

With six-foot-two, 210-pound Jones, they get a big body and puck protector; a penalty killer who has 272 games of NHL experience with 70 goals and 56 assists. Feaster expects him to fit into their top-nine grouping of forwards.

“I don’t want him to worry about his contract, what he’s being paid, and because of what he’s getting paid, what the perception is of how many goals he should score or has to score,” said Feaster of Jones’ $4-million contract (Tanguay’s was $3.5M) which keeps him as a Flame through the 2015-16 season. “I told him, ‘We just want you to come in and play your game.’ We want you to be hard on the puck. We want you to protect the puck. We want you to go to the net.

“We want you to go to the dirty areas of the ice and play your game.’”

On the other side, the trade reunites Tanguay, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in April, with his old teammate and current Avs head coach Patrick Roy who played together for four seasons (1999-2003) until Roy retired in 2003.

With Tanguay, who’ll be 34 on Nov. 21, no request was made, but he wasn’t exactly thrilled to ride out his remaining three seasons on his contract amid a youth movement.

With Sarich, who’ll be 35 on Aug. 16, being a seventh defenceman (which he’d been at the end of former head coach Brent Sutter’s reign and this season under current head coach Bob Hartley).

“As far as Alex goes, his only concern was he didn’t want it to be a long rebuild,” Feaster said. “We don’t want it to be a long rebuild either. Certainly, he had never asked for a trade. And all Cory wanted was a chance to play.

“I think this works out well for both of them.”

Calgary Herald: LOADED: 06.28.2013

682662 Calgary Flames

Johnson: While extra D-man Sarich wanted fresh start, Tanguay sad to leave a city he had made home

By GEORGE JOHNSON, Calgary Herald June 27, 2013 11:05 PM

Alex Tanguay, left, and Cory Sarich are both members of the Colorado Avalanche now.

The aging sorcerer has packed away his set of now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t cards. Stored both the trade-issue black felt top hat as well as the rabbit to pull out of it.

And taken his sleight-of-hand back to magic lovers in Denver.

“There are a lot of people in Calgary, in Alberta, going through a lot worse than I am,” said playmaker Alex Tanguay, on the phone from Quebec. “So nobody’s going to feel sorry for me being traded away, and they shouldn’t.

“You see the pictures, the video, and it’s unbelievable. Your thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by what’s happened.

“I’m just a hockey player.

“But, still, I’m sad. Very sad. I’m looking forward to the new challenge in front of me, no doubt, and it’s not the first time I’ve been traded, but our lives were settled in Calgary, our kids were settled in Calgary, and certainly I wanted to be part of the community, be part of the team moving forward, of helping the Flames be better. That’s why I came back. Why I signed a five-year deal.

“But as I said, there are people going through a lot worse than me there right now, so I can’t complain.”

The long-overdue rebuild that began with the off-loading of iconic captain Jarome Iginla and minutes-gobbling defenceman Jay Bouwmeester near the trade deadline, along with the retirement of goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, deepened Thursday with the Calgary Flames dealing left winger Alex Tanguay, the team’s purest passer, and Sarich, its toughest hombre, to the Colorado Avalance in exchange for right winger David Jones and defenceman Shane O’Brien.

The Flames actually add cap-space hit over the course of contracts, $16 million owed in total as compared to $12.5 million, but do shed some years.

Jones is 29, O’Brien 28.

Sarich is 34, Tanguay 33.

While Jones will never, not in a millenia or two, match Tanguay’s sublime way with a pass, the Flames are banking on him recapturing his 27-goal form of two seasons ago. O’Brien is, in essence, just a younger, larger version of Sarich.

“As far as Alex goes, his only concern was he didn’t want it to be a long rebuild,” explained Flames’ GM Jay Feaster. “We don’t want it to be a long rebuild, either. Certainly, he never asked for a trade. And all Cory wanted was a chance to play. I think this works out well for both of them.”

The reactions of the two Calgary principals were in stark contrast.

“I want to make this clear: I never asked to leave,” emphasized Tanguay. “I don’t think I’m making huge coin ($3.5 million for the next three seasons) — at least not for a hockey player, anyway. So I guess was tradable and they wanted to get younger and that’s what they did. That’s the direction they wanted to go. They’re entitled to do what they think is best for their team and they have people very qualified to make those decisions.

“I felt for the first part of (last) year I played very good hockey. I was asked to play a lot of minutes, I was asked to play a different position for a big part of the year. And then the team kind of derailed and I went along with it.

“Obviously I’d seen rumours. I’d heard that maybe a lot of people wanted me to be out of Calgary, fans, others. But I’m still shocked.”