A Million Vacations

is what I've got in mind.


I'm away until roughly July 9th, at which point the entire NHL landscape will have changed. A few notes, both major and minor:

• Apparently - FINALLY - the salary cap figure will be agreed upon today or tomorrow at the NHLPA executive board meeting - it could go as high as USD$50 million. Last year's cap was at USD$44 million. Prepare for the annual round of logic-defying head-shaking contracts. I expect to get a number of mind-blowing text messages on Sunday when free-agent season begins.
  

• In another exclusive-rights deal, the Atlanta Thrashers traded the rights to free agent center Keith Tkachuk back to St. Louis for the conditional first round pick they gave up when originally acquiring his useless carcass at the deadline. I can never understand why rebuilding teams would re-sign retreads like this.

• The Hall of Fame committee meets tomorrow and will vote in one of the greatest classes ever, led by Mark Messier. Other possibilities include Ron Francis, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis, Adam Oates, Igor Larionov and Claude Lemieux. A maximum of four can be inducted each year.
  

• On the (very) light side, Wayne Gretzky is getting into the wine business in Southern Ontario despite admitting that he doesn't "know a whole lot about wine." Rumours that he plans on hiring Jeremy Roenick, Owen Nolan, and Marty McSorley to pick grapes are unfounded.
  

Please follow the critical hockey links in the right-hand column below to keep tabs on all goings-on over the next few weeks.

A High Cost for Osteoporosis

In two separate deals Atlanta deals for 1998 Olympians:

The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Keith Tkachuk from the St. Louis Blues for winger Glen Metropolit, a first-round draft pick in 2007, a third-round draft pick in 2007, a second-round draft pick in 2008, and a conditional first-round draft pick in 2008.


The Atlanta Thrashers acquired defenseman Alexei Zhitnik from the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Braydon Coburn.

In all seriousness, these will probably help Atlanta in the short-term (or at least won't hurt them) but the Thrashers should have recognized their weaknesses up front long ago (Bryan Little would have had fun as a rookie on the top line) before having to give up 3 or 4 draft picks for Tkachuk, who is at this point a decent - but hardly an All-Star - winger.

I'm guessing they'll hope that Zhitnik provides some stability to a team that appears to be panicking. In a few years they'll wonder who Zhitnik was as Coburn is putting together a rock-solid career in Philadelphia.