It adds up

Have you caught this?

NHL chief operating officer John Collins says the league might put ads on game jerseys for the right price.

The NFL and NBA allow advertisement patches on their practice jerseys. It won't be long until the NHL follows suits and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they take it a step further and put them on their game jerseys.

I'd prefer it not to happen but it's inevitable. It's a cash cow that is about to get milked for all it's worth. Hopefully the logo is small and is done tastefully. I don't want anything to take away from our sweet unis.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Rick Nash was ranked the 7th best Canadian player by NHL.com:

7. Rick Nash, F, Columbus -- Nash put together one of his best all-round seasons in 2008-09, with a career-high 5 shorthanded goals, 39 assists, 79 points and plus-11 rating in leading the Blue Jackets to the first postseason appearance in team history. He has posted at least 54 points in each of the last five seasons.

Here is the top 10:

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Martin Brodeur
3. Jarome Iginla
4. Marc-André Fleury
5. Chris Pronger
6. Ryan Getzlaf
7. Rick Nash
8. Roberto Luongo
9. Joe Thornton
10. Vincent Lecavalier

As much as I love to see Nash on this list I'm not sure he cracks the top 10 quite yet. Top 15 yes. Maybe after this season. Personally I think Lecavalier and Thornton or too low while Fleury is way too high. Heck I'd make a case for Cam Ward over Fleury.

Eric Staal, Dion Phaneuf, Scott Niedermeyer, Mike Richards and Marc Savard are all names I could see being on that list. Watch out for Shea Weber after this season as well.

Nik Zherdev was awarded 3.9 million in arbitration according to Steve Zipay’s Twitter.

The Rangers were offering 3.25 mil while Z's camp wanted something in the neighborhood of 4.5 mil.

As I've stated before I don't think there is any question the Rags part ways with Z... be it by trade or just not accepting this offer.

It will be very interesting to see where he lands. Especially if it ends up being somewhere in the central division.

I'll tell you one thing if the light doesn't turn on for this guy in the next year or two he could quickly find himself out of this league. I don't think he'll get 9 lives.

Good read on Mase here from Slam hockey:

One of the few awkward moments in Steve Mason's sensational first NHL season happened at the league's awards show last month in Las Vegas.

The Columbus Blue Jackets goalie watched normally soft-handed Chicago Blackhawks scorer Pat Kane and a former London Knights teammate struggle to open an envelope revealing his Calder Trophy successor as rookie of the year.

"I was sitting there saying to myself, 'Kaner, just get that thing open and put me out of my misery,'" Mason said with a grin. "And when I went on stage (after winning it), I shook Luc Robitaille's hand, then went in for a hug with Pat but the trophy was in between us and there wasn't a lot of room."

So they botched the big embrace.

But not much else went afoul this season.

The annual Traverse City rookie tournament will be held this year from September 6th through the 9th.

I wonder if Filatov will partake? I doubt it.

Less than 40 days til camp opens!

-LTL