by  Richard S. Pollak,
The Hockey Attitude
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
Dallasentertain@aol.com

I would like to thank Dallas Stars General Manager Joe Niewendyk for giving my Philly Flyers the 2012 Stanley Cup! By trading Nick Grossman to the Flyers, supposedly in order to stockpile draft picks, he may have given “us” a final piece of a championship puzzle.

How can you trade away the Stars’ best defensive defenseman when you are only 3 points out of the playoffs? This is not to say that your are giving up; potential comeback player of the year, Sheldon Souray, is injured (Adam Pardy is suppose to replace him with a -11) and the new owner has plenty of money to pay to keep unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.

However, it doesn’t make sense unless,  according to Bob Stevens of  UPI Radio, ” Niewendyk made the deal for the draft picks to package  for a major deal before the trade deadline.”
Sounds good to me, after all the Stars have only manufacturered a grand total of  4 goals  ( Tomas Vincour)  From their last 3 draft classes!!!!!!!

MY SOLUTION FOR THE STARS?
I say the Stars should give the Columbus Blue Jackets young goaltender Richard Bachman,defenseman Philip Larsen and just about anyone else they might want out of Austin for All-Star winger Rick Nash and Dallas have the next Mike Modano. Nash would be another potential Hall of Famer playing in teh AAC.

Get rid of the $9 million that you paid to those 4th liners and the last pairing of defenseman last season, bring up a bunch of kids from the AHL and you’ll have plenty of money to pay Nash!

re-alignment back in discussion
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently gathered  the media to discuss a variety of league-wide and local issues of interest. The most interesting tidbits – at least regarding what Bettman would call “new news” – revolve around dealings with the NHLPA.
Bettman’s comments:

“The most significant thing I can say about that is the governors were overwhelming in support of the plan,” Bettman said. “It’s something that we, as a league, thought was the right thing to do for our fans, for the team, for the game. But we made the decision based on the position that the union was taking to try not to be confrontational right now. Ultimately, our goal will be to be to implement the will of the board [of governors].”

For the most part, Bettman didn’t provide a whole lot of information about the negotiation process regarding the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. He did share an interesting little nugget about when the discussions could begin, though:

“Well, Don Fehr has repeatedly said that he wouldn’t be ready until after the All-Star [weekend],” Bettman said. “My guess is that at some point in the next few weeks, we’ll probably sit down—assuming the union is comfortable doing that. There’s a pretty steep learning curve in terms of the business from the union’s standpoint, what the players are focused on, and we’ve been respectful of that process. So whenever they’re ready, we’re ready. We’ve been ready.”

Bettman spoke about what is likely the greatest fear of hockey people: another protracted work stoppage.

“I’m not sure it’s about learning lessons, because the lesson that everybody knows – and it’s not one you have to learn – is that you want to not have work stoppages,” Bettman said. “They’re not fun. They’re counter-productive. But if, if you’re in a situation as we were where there were fundamental problems that had to be addressed, you have to address the problems. Because you can’t live with a dysfunctional system.”

It’s not crazy to view that quote as a bit cryptic, especially if he views the current system as dysfunctional.

It’s tough to imagine the league taking that stand, but that doesn’t mean that a work stoppage is out of the question – especially with the aforementioned realignment talk in mind.