The Hockey News August 17, 2015

THERE ARE THREE THINGS DOMINATING NHL expansion chatter: location, location and, yes, location. We get it. The notion of where to place the league’s next team(s) is sexy and emotional. But the concept of growing the business by selling more franchises isn’t all shifts and giggles. There are multiple considerations and potential ramifications. Success in any given market comes with as much certainty as an Alex Ovechkin guaranteed win. The league’s most recent forays paint a checkered picture. From 1998 to 2000, the NHL added four teams: Nashville, Atlanta (who high-tailed it to Winnipeg when things failed in Georgia), Minnesota and Columbus. In 59 combined seasons, the quartet has had 18 playoff appearances, about a 30 percent success rate. Overall, with other factors being equal, NHL teams today have a 53 percent…

TEN YEARS AGO, INSTEAD OF being unveiled at a full arena, the best prospect in a generation was introduced to the hockey world in the ballroom of an Ottawa hotel. The 2005 lockout had just ended and the Corel Center (now the Canadian Tire Centre) couldn’t accommodate the new day for the NHL draft. But that didn’t blunt the excitement and anticipation of the New NHL, one that featured a ready-made superstar in Sidney Crosby, a salary cap to get the NHL’s economics in order and a host of rule changes and enforcements to allow its offensive stars to shine. As Mario Lemieux posed for pictures with Crosby, the Penguins’ No. 1 pick, you could just envision him using the removed red line to spring Crosby for breakaway after breakaway. For a…

WHEN HOCKEY CARDS EXPLODED in popularity in 1990, evolving from childhood collectible to adult investment commodity, many expensive cards – including Wayne Gretzky’s rookie card from 1979-80 – were counterfeited. However, another fake Gretzky card of unknown origin also surfaced, showing him as a member of the Indianapolis Racers, Gretzky’s first professional team in 1978. The card doesn’t have a copyright date on the back, but it’s similar in quality to cards from the early 1990s. Look closely, and you’ll notice No. 7 on Gretzky’s right sleeve, as a jersey with his usual No. 99 wasn’t yet ready. PUCKJUNK.COM…

In a season of surprises, no team upset the picnic like the Calgary Flames, who overachieved their way to a playoff spot and a first-round win over the Canucks. For that, THN has named Calgary’s Bob Hartley as our coach of the year. Nashville’s Peter Laviolette and Chicago’s Joel Quenneville were runners-up. In quickly building his squad into a Stanley Cup finalist, Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman is our GM of the year. Not only has his drafting been amazing, but the acquisitions of players such as Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle fit like a glove. Chicago’s Stan Bowman came in second. Regular season and playoffs counted in both votes.…

WHEN BRUCE CALLOW FOUND out that a local mall was being built in his adopted country of Costa Rica, he didn’t think much of it. But when he discovered plans to build a synthetic skating surface in the center of the food court, it sparked dreams of introducing hockey into this tropical nation. Callow had first travelled to Costa Rica in the summer of 1988 as a political science student and moved there full time in 1992 after working with NGO projects that supported development in Central America. In 1996, when he found out about the synthetic rink, he proposed a hockey program to the mall administration, and they hired him on the spot. Later that year, he started teaching hockey classes at the Castillo Country Club, which has a real…

FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, Daniel Negreanu has been the face of poker. Nicknamed ‘Kid Poker’ after winning the World Series of Poker in 1998, he’s first on the all-time money list with almost $30 million in winnings. Lately, Negreanu has moved beyond the felt and gotten involved in hockey. It remains one of Negreanu’s biggest passions outside of poker, and he even chronicles his wagers on Twitter. He was an avid Maple Leafs fan growing up, crying after losses and playing street hockey until dark almost every day after school in front of his house. Negreanu, still a Leafs fan, lives in Las Vegas, Nev., and has set his sights on bringing an NHL expansion franchise there. “I really like the prospective owner Bill Foley, and I’m confident hockey will work…