The Puck Stops Here

Teams will start making roster moves at a furious rate as they get an idea how best to handle the new CBA. With the first weekday of roster moves, we see a few teams making moves today. The Phoenix Coyotes are buying out Brian Savage. TSN's story is here. Detroit has waived Ray Whitney, Darian Hatcher and Darren McCarty in preparation to buy them out. TSN's story is here. The Montreal Canadiens have announced that they are declining their team option on Patrice Brisebois, making Brisebois an unrestricted free agent. TSN's story is here. Not all teams are subtracting players, Los Angeles is reporting that they resigned Luc Robitaille. TSN's story is here.

So what does all this mean? Its too early to tell. The NHL will probably be able to sell most if not all teams as contenders in the offseason this year. It will soon become clear in the season, that some teams are not actually going to contend. Will their ticket sales really suffer when this happens? Maybe ... depending upon the market.