Lacrosse is booming.

I played in college then coached grades 1-6. Kids love the game and it doesn't have the cost barriers hockey does. PLUS, it is already gaining traction in the inner cities.

The other thing it has going for it is it is essentially a North American game.
- John Jaeckel

I got interested in lacrosse over 20 years ago when indoor came to Buffalo (the Buffalo team was very dominant, winning the championship in their first two seasons - 1992 and 1993). I was in High School but purchased season tickets (they were cheap and very few games per season) and loved going - the atmosphere at the games was always so good.

They're now in their 25th year of playing and in the Championship again.

Back in the day, lacrosse sticks were expensive, but it looks like the pricing has really come down in that time as we were at Richard's Sporting Goods recently and I showed my kids a lacrosse stick as I was surprised at the low price compared to when I wanted to get into it way back when.

Lacrosse is booming.

I played in college then coached grades 1-6. Kids love the game and it doesn't have the cost barriers hockey does. PLUS, it is already gaining traction in the inner cities.

The other thing it has going for it is it is essentially a North American game.
- John Jaeckel

Yep. Something I notice with lacrosse is how my younger son is always wanting to do it. He will practice shooting in the garage for hockey, but he has spent VASTLY more time away from the regular lacrosse practices doing lax on his own. He doesn't do the same with ice hockey, mainly relying on me to setup camps/clinics for him. He's WAY better at ice hockey right now, but by the time he hits high school it wouldn't shock me to see lax catchup due to the fact he's doing it "on his own". In my mind, that's when kids get really good at something, when they just "go do it".

Just what I heard. Very good source.
- John Jaeckel

Legitimate question here, not trying to be snarky at all - did your source indicate anything about how the Blackhawks would get around Shipachyov's contract with SKA St. Petersburg? He (along with fellow Panarin linemate Evgeny Dadonov) were late in filing there KHL contract termination papers, which means that they are not eligible to leave SKA and the KHL until December at the earliest.

There are rumors that Shipachyov could be bought out of his contract early, but that would have to be done by the player himself and is rumored to be at a cost of $700,000.

All that said, this would be an AMAZING signing for Bowman to pull off. Shipachyov and Panarin have otherworldly chemistry - even more than Panarin and Kane have. Imagine having him Panarin-Shipachyov-Kane, freeing up Anisimov to center a 3rd line with Hossa and whoever else.

Toews-Panik-Teravainen
Shipachyov-Panarin-Kane
Anisimov-Hossa-??
Kruger-Desjardins-??

I could live with that.

Just heard:

Hawks may go hard after Shipachyov and Vesey.

Also, depending on where the cap settles, there could be some "BIG SURPRISES" coming.
- John Jaeckel

in regard to ship, Its a little unclear if he is a FA or has a 1/2 year or full year.

Shipachyov Thought they were going to be UFAs, now being told they have half a year left on their deals and can't sign in the NHL before December. It's believed they can buy their way out of their own deals, but that's not cheap and, usually, NHL teams are not allowed to buy them out for them.

Would you trade AA to sign Ship? I was thinking that could be a possibility. Can you afford AA to be 3rd line C and kruger 4th? Not unless you are moving a few big pieces.

Just heard:

Hawks may go hard after Shipachyov and Vesey.

Also, depending on where the cap settles, there could be some "BIG SURPRISES" coming.
- John Jaeckel

Just heard:

Hawks may go hard after Shipachyov and Vesey.

Also, depending on where the cap settles, there could be some "BIG SURPRISES" coming.
- John Jaeckel

Might go a very long way to convincing Panarin to stick with the Hawks.

Legitimate question here, not trying to be snarky at all - did your source indicate anything about how the Blackhawks would get around Shipachyov's contract with SKA St. Petersburg? He (along with fellow Panarin linemate Evgeny Dadonov) were late in filing there KHL contract termination papers, which means that they are not eligible to leave SKA and the KHL until December at the earliest.

There are rumors that Shipachyov could be bought out of his contract early, but that would have to be done by the player himself and is rumored to be at a cost of $700,000.

All that said, this would be an AMAZING signing for Bowman to pull off. Shipachyov and Panarin have otherworldly chemistry - even more than Panarin and Kane have. Imagine having him Panarin-Shipachyov-Kane, freeing up Anisimov to center a 3rd line with Hossa and whoever else.

Toews-Panik-Teravainen
Shipachyov-Panarin-Kane
Anisimov-Hossa-??
Kruger-Desjardins-??

I could live with that.
- BreakoutHockey

No, source did not indicate. But may result from other moves to reduce cap hit (my speculation).

Just heard:

Hawks may go hard after Shipachyov and Vesey.

Also, depending on where the cap settles, there could be some "BIG SURPRISES" coming.
- John Jaeckel

Per Chris Johnston verified Twitter account:
Next year's NHL salary cap is expected to remain "relatively flat," per Bill Daly.

Time to buckle your seatbelt folks!

No, source did not indicate. But may result from other moves to reduce cap hit (my speculation).
- John Jaeckel

Ah, interesting. I would honestly be willing to trade Anisimov and his $4.5mil to sign Shipachyov at 2.5 mil and maybe be able to keep Shaw as well.

- EnzoD

From Eliteprospects.com....

VADIM SHIPACHYOV Russia
a.k.a. "Vadim Shipachev"
Open print friendly window (pop-up) views: 118895

BIRTHYEAR 1987-03-12 BIRTHPLACE Cherepovets, RUS
AGE 29 NATION Russia
POSITION C SHOOTS L
HEIGHT 183 cm / 6'0" WEIGHT 85 kg / 187 lbs
YOUTH TEAM Severstal Cherepovets CONTRACT 16/17
SOCIAL


Shipachyov is a skilled center with excellent on-ice vision. He skates very well and with a fluid stride. Owns great offensive instincts and likes to have the puck on his stick. Could improve his all-around game. Isn't overly efficient in physical battles.
- Ulf Andersson, EP (2013)
- See more at: http://www.eliteprospects...9550#sthash.nzDTcnPD.dpuf

Hitch re-ups with the Blues for one more year. And their Stanley Cup drought will continue ....

From Eliteprospects.com....

VADIM SHIPACHYOV Russia
a.k.a. "Vadim Shipachev"
Open print friendly window (pop-up) views: 118895

BIRTHYEAR 1987-03-12 BIRTHPLACE Cherepovets, RUS
AGE 29 NATION Russia
POSITION C SHOOTS L
HEIGHT 183 cm / 6'0" WEIGHT 85 kg / 187 lbs
YOUTH TEAM Severstal Cherepovets CONTRACT 16/17
SOCIAL


Shipachyov is a skilled center with excellent on-ice vision. He skates very well and with a fluid stride. Owns great offensive instincts and likes to have the puck on his stick. Could improve his all-around game. Isn't overly efficient in physical battles.
- Ulf Andersson, EP (2013)
- See more at: http://www.eliteprospects...9550#sthash.nzDTcnPD.dpuf
- dahawks8819

It would be great to see his chemistry with Panarin, but the bolded part gives me concern, since I thought board battles were a Hawks weakness all year, and were exposed in the playoffs.

Ship - Petr Svoboda is his agent, and he has been working to get him to MTL. Looks like he needs to be bought out of his KHL contract. Because he is 29, SKA team seems to be willing to let him go to the highest bidder for the buyout. Any bonus he may be paid to cover the buyout must be a cap hit.

Vesey - I'm telling you, he will be a Bruin before the end of June.

TT, AA and rights to Shaw are the only truly tradeworthy chips the Hawks have right now, and moving AA MUST yield a solid center in return for it to be worth moving him.

Ship - Petr Svoboda is his agent, and he has been working to get him to MTL. Looks like he needs to be bought out of his KHL contract. Because he is 29, SKA team seems to be willing to let him go to the highest bidder for the buyout. Any bonus he may be paid to cover the buyout must be a cap hit.

Vesey - I'm telling you, he will be a Bruin before the end of June.

TT, AA and rights to Shaw are the only truly tradeworthy chips the Hawks have right now, and moving AA MUST yield a solid center in return for it to be worth moving him.
- Return of the Roar

I worry about 15's durability and if moving him gets you a Top
6 projected C or Top 4 D, Stan needs to strongly consider making the move.

Ship - Petr Svoboda is his agent, and he has been working to get him to MTL. Looks like he needs to be bought out of his KHL contract. Because he is 29, SKA team seems to be willing to let him go to the highest bidder for the buyout. Any bonus he may be paid to cover the buyout must be a cap hit.

Vesey - I'm telling you, he will be a Bruin before the end of June.

TT, AA and rights to Shaw are the only truly tradeworthy chips the Hawks have right now, and moving AA MUST yield a solid center in return for it to be worth moving him.
- Return of the Roar

is moving aa allows you to sign SHIP then it does not matter what you get back as long as its cheap. ELC, draft pick or cheap player. Vesey is not a free agent until Aug 15th so unless Boston is giving up something of real value they will have to wait till then.

Ship - Petr Svoboda is his agent, and he has been working to get him to MTL. Looks like he needs to be bought out of his KHL contract. Because he is 29, SKA team seems to be willing to let him go to the highest bidder for the buyout. Any bonus he may be paid to cover the buyout must be a cap hit.

Vesey - I'm telling you, he will be a Bruin before the end of June.

TT, AA and rights to Shaw are the only truly tradeworthy chips the Hawks have right now, and moving AA MUST yield a solid center in return for it to be worth moving him.
- Return of the Roar

Vesey can't be signed until August 15 unless someone trades the Preds for his rights (let's reignite that debate - we can just reuse all those old Hayes posts).

Yep. Something I notice with lacrosse is how my younger son is always wanting to do it. He will practice shooting in the garage for hockey, but he has spent VASTLY more time away from the regular lacrosse practices doing lax on his own. He doesn't do the same with ice hockey, mainly relying on me to setup camps/clinics for him. He's WAY better at ice hockey right now, but by the time he hits high school it wouldn't shock me to see lax catchup due to the fact he's doing it "on his own". In my mind, that's when kids get really good at something, when they just "go do it".
- kwolf68

Not exactly the same thing, but what kids need today is - to go out and play all of the sports in season:

Sandlot baseball - if we couldn't find enough kids, we'd play 3 on 3, pitchers' hands out, imaginary runners
Pond hockey outdoors (or what passes for pond hockey in winter climes where there aren't any ponds)
Football - 4 on 4, everyone out, 5 second rush
Not to forget bowling, pool....

ALL without any adult supervision.

We'd play softball for hours at a time - if we didn't have enough for a game, we'd play "500" or "scrub". I remember a couple of our friends had contracted polio, and needed to walk with braces and crutches - but they could be full-time pitchers.

It's all too organized and specialized now - great for the kids who could grow up to be high school / college / pro prospects - but not for the rest of them.

Just heard:

Hawks may go hard after Shipachyov and Vesey.

Also, depending on where the cap settles, there could be some "BIG SURPRISES" coming.
- John Jaeckel

JJ and gang, hope you all have resumed salad consumption after a fantastic weekend of grilling....and honoring our veterans, of course.

Does "Big Surprises" indicate roster attrition or addition?

Legitimate question here, not trying to be snarky at all - did your source indicate anything about how the Blackhawks would get around Shipachyov's contract with SKA St. Petersburg? He (along with fellow Panarin linemate Evgeny Dadonov) were late in filing there KHL contract termination papers, which means that they are not eligible to leave SKA and the KHL until December at the earliest.

There are rumors that Shipachyov could be bought out of his contract early, but that would have to be done by the player himself and is rumored to be at a cost of $700,000.

All that said, this would be an AMAZING signing for Bowman to pull off. Shipachyov and Panarin have otherworldly chemistry - even more than Panarin and Kane have. Imagine having him Panarin-Shipachyov-Kane, freeing up Anisimov to center a 3rd line with Hossa and whoever else.

Toews-Panik-Teravainen
Shipachyov-Panarin-Kane
Anisimov-Hossa-??
Kruger-Desjardins-??

I could live with that.
- BreakoutHockey

That line one is atrocious.

Not exactly the same thing, but what kids need today is - to go out and play all of the sports in season:

Sandlot baseball - if we couldn't find enough kids, we'd play 3 on 3, pitchers' hands out, imaginary runners
Pond hockey outdoors (or what passes for pond hockey in winter climes where there aren't any ponds)
Football - 4 on 4, everyone out, 5 second rush
Not to forget bowling, pool....

ALL without any adult supervision.

We'd play softball for hours at a time - if we didn't have enough for a game, we'd play "500" or "scrub". I remember a couple of our friends had contracted polio, and needed to walk with braces and crutches - but they could be full-time pitchers.

It's all too organized and specialized now - great for the kids who could grow up to be high school / college / pro prospects - but not for the rest of them.
- StLBravesFan

Bounce or fly? That was one of our games growing up...

I worry about 15's durability and if moving him gets you a Top
6 projected C or Top 4 D, Stan needs to strongly consider making the move.
- EnzoD

Enzo, I'm here, too. Anisimov is so frustrating because at $4.5M, he does a lot of things well (net-front, board battles, eat traffic for 88/72, PK). However, he does not win faceoffs and is not a "difference maker" that will rise above in a tight series (see STL). IMO, he commands too much salary for what he does do well.

Is there a domino in here where AA is shipped out, the Hawks elevate Freddy K to #2C and Ladd/other physical LW is signed? Could then fill in a bottom line with another Hog that wins faceoffs. Unlikey? Probably. Would I like to see it? Yes.

Not exactly the same thing, but what kids need today is - to go out and play all of the sports in season:

Sandlot baseball - if we couldn't find enough kids, we'd play 3 on 3, pitchers' hands out, imaginary runners
Pond hockey outdoors (or what passes for pond hockey in winter climes where there aren't any ponds)
Football - 4 on 4, everyone out, 5 second rush
Not to forget bowling, pool....

ALL without any adult supervision.

We'd play softball for hours at a time - if we didn't have enough for a game, we'd play "500" or "scrub". I remember a couple of our friends had contracted polio, and needed to walk with braces and crutches - but they could be full-time pitchers.

It's all too organized and specialized now - great for the kids who could grow up to be high school / college / pro prospects - but not for the rest of them.
- StLBravesFan

Yep. I remember the days we'd play backyard football, baseball, hoops, etc....whatever was in, us kids would be doing it. Sometimes my kids do things like this, but it's not everyday like it used to be. Last weekend my daughter was tossing the lacrosse ball with a friend.

Outside of that I encourage hockey youths to PLAY other sports. After a grueling season I shut my youngest son down for the summer with hockey other than some camps and clinics or a few stick times. He has been asked to play in 4x4 leagues, been asked to do tournaments with people, but I feel he needs time away from the rink. The last post-season/summer tournament he did (prior to squirt 2nd year) he played quite well, but he was going through the motions. I didn't see the kid smile much...I think he was just tired. So unless he beats me over the head to do something like that again, I believe what's best for my son is to do other things after hockey season is over

....he does about 15-20 private power skating during the summer (which is about a total of 10 hours, for a 30 minute slot), he does 3 Camps with the International Hockey College (camp 1 was 4 straight mondays for an hour skating and handling, a D-man camp that is 2 Tuesdays in June, then a 3 evening (90 minute each) camp on shooting in July). This is really the only skating he does during the summer until his youth team fires up that I coach....because it's spread out when he hits the ice he's fired up and getting the most out of it instead of trudging along. Tons of kids eclipse my son's summer ice time within a month. While he's a good little player (1 of only 3 6th graders to make his middle school team), I am not grooming an NHL player here, but a true lover of hockey. So far, so good.

Vesey can't be signed until August 15 unless someone trades the Preds for his rights (let's reignite that debate - we can just reuse all those old Hayes posts).
- Marlowe

Perhaps these guys should be treated like a hybrid between FA's and RFAs where the surrendering team receives draft picks as compensation. The player can sign anywhere he wants, but the team he originally was on would only be able to get compensation based on number of years, $$$, one-way, etc etc. of said contract. That team would NOT be able to match the sheet and only collect an auxiliary pick after the end of whatever round based on the contract that is signed. The team the player signs with does not surrender anything. They can use the RFA compensation as a guideline for the auxiliary picks received and tweek from there. Those picks cannot be traded then.

So, Nashville's sour grapes will taste a bit sweeter by losing Vesey. Or, Chicago's sour grapes would have tasted a bit sweeter by losing Hayes.

Yep. I remember the days we'd play backyard football, baseball, hoops, etc....whatever was in, us kids would be doing it. Sometimes my kids do things like this, but it's not everyday like it used to be. Last weekend my daughter was tossing the lacrosse ball with a friend.

Outside of that I encourage hockey youths to PLAY other sports. After a grueling season I shut my youngest son down for the summer with hockey other than some camps and clinics or a few stick times. He has been asked to play in 4x4 leagues, been asked to do tournaments with people, but I feel he needs time away from the rink. The last post-season/summer tournament he did (prior to squirt 2nd year) he played quite well, but he was going through the motions. I didn't see the kid smile much...I think he was just tired. So unless he beats me over the head to do something like that again, I believe what's best for my son is to do other things after hockey season is over

....he does about 15-20 private power skating during the summer (which is about a total of 10 hours, for a 30 minute slot), he does 3 Camps with the International Hockey College (camp 1 was 4 straight mondays for an hour skating and handling, a D-man camp that is 2 Tuesdays in June, then a 3 evening (90 minute each) camp on shooting in July). This is really the only skating he does during the summer until his youth team fires up that I coach....because it's spread out when he hits the ice he's fired up and getting the most out of it instead of trudging along. Tons of kids eclipse my son's summer ice time within a month. While he's a good little player (1 of only 3 6th graders to make his middle school team), I am not grooming an NHL player here, but a true lover of hockey. So far, so good.
- kwolf68

Cheers to you for keeping things in perspective. Few people do these days.

Bill Daly saying the cap may remain fairly flat. That's bad for most teams but especially bad for the Hawks.

If it does stay flat, it would be nice to allow another compliance buyout. And the free agency salaries this year are going to look very tame. Stamkos for $8.5M AAV, MAX!!
- DMChi2010

Yep exactly what I've saying for a few months. Players may vote in their 5% escalator but this is NOT good news for the Hawks. I think Shaw leaving now is at about 80% baring a trade of another decent salaried guy.