Posted by GameSetMatch on 19th January 2010
Michael Peca, a two-time Selke Trophy winner, announced his official NHL retirement Tuesday, ending a 13-season NHL career that was highlighted by an Olympic gold medal in 2002.
Peca, who turns 36 in March, had 465 points (176 goals, 289 assists) and 798 penalty minutes in 864 regular-season games with Vancouver, Buffalo, the New York Islanders, Edmonton, Toronto and Columbus. His feisty, two-way game was underlined by winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward in 1997 and 2002.
“The game has given me everything I’ve got,” Peca told ESPN.com Tuesday from his home in Buffalo. “I’ll be forever thankful for the time I spent in the game. I don’t think a day will go by where I won’t spend at least a few moments of the day reminiscing about the time I had.”
Click here to read the full article – By Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com
Tags: edmonton, Edmonton Oilers, hockey, Michael Peca, Michael Peca retirement, NHL, oilers, oilers hockey, oilers news
Posted in Edmonton Oilers, NHL | No Comments »
Posted by TheHockeyGuy on 1st December 2009
The Edmonton Oilers’ rally cry has started.
“Let’s tank the season.” “Let’s get a lottery pick.” The reasons?
Injured star right-winger Ales Hemsky will not play until next season because of his shoulder. The team has lost more than 160 man-games to injury and illness a third of the way into this NHL season. And with a team that’s closer to 15th spot in the Western Conference standings than the eighth and final playoff spot, it could get ugly here, folks.
But ugly could be beautiful, if you’re an Oilers fan who wouldn’t mind getting a shot at the three franchise junior players who will be up for grabs in the June entry draft: winger Taylor Hall, centre Tyler Seguin and defenceman Cam Fowler.
You can probably put flashy Russian forward Kirill Kabanov, who is hurt and won’t be playing in the world junior hockey championship next month, on that list, too. There are NHL teams, however, who are always leery of taking Russians that early in the draft unless their surname is Ovechkin or Kovalchuk.
Only five teams that finish with the worst records after the regular season will have a shot at the first overall pick in the annual lottery.
Right now, the Carolina Hurricanes are in last place, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, Anaheim Ducks, Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues and the Oilers in the running to call out the first name.
The Boston Bruins actually have the Leafs’ first pick in the draft, however, because Toronto general manager Brian Burke surrendered it in 2010 and ‘11 to get Phil Kessel who has been a scoring machine for the Leafs this season.
It has been proven that most top-five draft picks play like top picks –right away. Just take a gander at: John Tavares, who has 21 points with the New York Islanders; Victor Hedman, who’s playing 23 minutes a game on the Tampa Bay Lightning’s blue-line;Matt Duchene, who has 11 points with the Colorado Avalanche; and Evander Kane, who is a second-liner with the Atlanta Thrashers and has eight goals. They were the top four choices last June.
Click here to read the full article – By Jim Matheson of Edmonton Journal
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Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Cam Fowler, Edmonton Oilers, Evander Kane, Florida Panthers, John Tavares, Kirill Kabanov, Matt Duchene, Minnesota Wild, NHL, St. Louis Blues, Taylor Hall, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tyler Seguin, Victor Hedman
Posted in Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, NHL, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs | No Comments »