By JIMMY D / Rick and a Dip-stick deal in Long Island | Jimmy's archive

The NHL survives in spite of a cast of characters that has brought often times ridicule and sometimes disrepute to the league.

From Charlie Finley’s kooky scheme to a) put an expansion team in Oakland in 1967 and b) make them lace up white and yellow skates to Alexandre Daigle posing in a nurse uniform for a hockey card shoot to the Gary Bettman/Bob Goodenow game of chicken that killed the 2004-05 season, it always seems to be something gnawing away at league credibility.

Forget the salary cap, how about removing the intelligence cap.

But over on Long Island, efforts are being renewed to trump all the foolishness. Boss Mike Milbury’s reign of error – which saw trades galore, goofy draft picks and turning Alexei Yashin into team captain – is over. But owner Charles Wang appears ready to lower the bar.

He spent the summer hiring and firing GMs and front-office folks, talked his backup goalie into retiring and then hiring him as the new GM. Then, in a stroke of wisdom that perhaps only Michael Jackson or Tom Cruise will comprehend, he signed his goalie to a 15-year contract.

Yup, Rick Dipietro now has a 15-year contract.

Now if you’re still wondering why Neil Smith and Pat Lafontaine quit shortly after being hired, now we know.
Mr. Wang: “OK guys, here’s my idea. We’re gonna sign Dipietro to a 15-year contract for $67 million. Sound good?”
Smith and Lafontaine in unison: “Ah, I think I hear my mother calling me. I gotta go home now. Bye.”

It also gives a pretty good idea that newly minted GM Garth Snow is simply a Wang yes-man. As a player who enjoyed short-lived success and whose career was basically kaput at the age of 36, he must know the folly in giving a goalie a 15-year contract that won’t end until he is 40.

Sure it locks you into a good salary cap position, but you just made the kid untradeable if he happens to play poorly or gets in trouble with the team. Who will trade for that contract? You have to hope that Milbury resurfaces with another team for that to happen.

For the record, Jimmy predicts that Dipietro will hold out for more money within two years when other keepers are making more per season.
Sadly for Islander fans, it says here that WANG is an acronym for: Winning? Absolutely Not Guys.

NHL preseason starts

With games starting on the weekend and three games here locally within the next week, Jimmy will withhold his first NHL fantasy volley of the season. So far, not much of note except the Evgeni Malkin legal schmozzle with his Russian team and a few retirements, including recent Flyer captains Eric Desjardins and Keith Primeau.

The blueline situation in Philly bears watching this preseason, as some new names will need to materialize in a thin defence corps there. Stay tuned and Jimmy will do some homework for you for next week’s column.

Jack Johnson & ’74 Pacers

Alan Muir of SI was writing this week about the folly of Carolina’s reported interest in trading stud prospect Jack Johnson because the kid went back to University of Michigan again.

In mentioning the lack of Hurricane depth on the blueline, Muir spouted “Oleg Tverdovsky and Andrew Hutchinson … are as dependable as a ‘74 AMC Pacer in their own zone.”

Ah, we must be careful in invoking the memory of 1970s lemons. AMC didn’t start making the Pacer until 1975 and it was a baby blue 1976 model in Wayne’s World that brought it back into vogue.

A 1974 Pinto, sure. A 1974 Maverick, no problem.
Jimmy knows because he is trying to find a good Pacer to join his little car collection.

Fantasy football update

A few dozen Jimmy Nation readers logged in to thescore.ca football contest and Jimmy didn’t fare very well. Drop me an email if you wanted to join.

Jimmy had better luck in his head-to-head Yahoo! league, winning again but just barely. Seattle’s defence bailed him out with 13 fantasy points, while big yardage and a score each for Donte Stallworth and Darrell Jackson kept Jimmy unbeaten.

Dolphin Ronnie Brown was the scourge of Jimmy’s roster again, but this week he didn’t score any TDs as the Fish lost to the Bills.

And once again, benched 49er RB Frank Gore produced better numbers. Might be time to peddle Brow and get Gore into the lineup.

Stay busy and stay lucky.

Jimmy D

JPoole@Herald.ca