Fellow AllDucks member lvsprt had a great idea in the "Lowe Sounds Off" thread. She suggested a fund raiser, much like the Beat The Avalanche fund raiser we had years ago, to raise money to be donated to the favorite charity of whatever Ducks player scores the game-winning goal in the first home game against the Oilers. The point of the fund raiser is two-fold. First, it will prove to Kevin Lowe that Anaheim is NOT a "pathetic hockey market" and second, it will raise a lot of money for a worthy cause.

Like last time you will be able to mail in donations and we will also set-up a PayPal link to donate online. In addition to standard donations I have a few other ideas for fund raisers to help us raise even more money. Last time we ended up donating over $1,500 to Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) on behalf of Sergei Fedorov so let's try to beat that mark. We have a LOT more time this time around so I think we can do it.

Again, this is a great opportunity for us Ducks fans to raise money for a worthy cause and force Kevin Lowe to eat crow at the same time. As was the case with the Beat The Avalanche Fund all of your donations will be tax deductible and you will be provided with a receipt if you are to send in a self-adressed, stamped envelope along with your donation. So start coming up with ideas for the name of this fund raiser and then start saving money to donate! Let's raise as much as possible and prove once again that the Anaheim Ducks have the greatest, most generous fans in the entire NHL!

Send donations for the Lowe Blow Fundraiser to:

Ducks Charity Fund
c/o Chris & Dawn Wassel
PO Box 424
Yucca Valley, CA 92286-0424

Checks are to be made out to Chris Wassel, who will handle the accounting for the checks/cash/money order part of the fundraiser. Paypal is still being set up.

Please include your name, address and email and Chris will confirm the receipt and amount of your donation. If you need a tax receipt, please include a self addressed stamped envelope.

08-09 SALARY ($mil)->CAP HIT NUMBER

5.500 J.S.Giguere >6.000
1.300 Hiller > > > >1.300

6.750 Scotty > > > 6.750
6.250 Pronger> > >6.250
5.750 Schneider >>5.625
1.650 Beauchemin >1.650
1.250 O'Donnell > >1.250
0.650 Huskins > > >0.625
0.800 Montador > > 0.800

4.500 Getzlaf > > >5.325
4.500 Perry> > > >5.325
3.500 Kunitz > > > 3.725
2.750 Morrison > > 2.750
2.660 Marchant > >2.518
2.000 Rob Nieds> >2.000
1.400 Pahlsson. > > 1.400
0.925 Moen > > > >0.912
0.850 Ryan > > > >1.922
0.700 Sutherby > > 0.700
0.600 May> > > > >0.600
0.575 Parros> > > >0.550
0.525 Carter> > > >0.625

1.333 Bert buyout > 1.333

$56.718mil->->->->-> 59.935mil
Team Budget->->->-> League Cap Number

Bobby Ryan has potential performance bonus money in his contract that could affect his figures.

Note: Most every figure derived from NHLSCAP.com and NHLNUMBERS.COM

This thread now really becomes a post-season post-mortem for the Ducks.

What's next? What must they do to get back into being a Cup contender?

Who do you trade?

Who do you re-sign?

Who do you get?

What about Scott and Teemu?

What about Perry?

Would you make any coaching changes?

Your thoughts?

Ducks' season preview from the official site...

Good reading for those interested in the Ducks prospects:
HF 2008 Ducks Top 20, Fall 2008

And the main Ducks page has been updated with the new 2008 draftees, and updated ratings for all players.
HF Ducks Page

Since I'm assuming most memories are as bad as mine, I had captured the "old" ratings for the players some weeks ago, and have added the "new" ratings below. Gives us a chance to see how they've changed with this update.

(I hope that adding the old ratings, and posting the new ratings, isn't contrary to HF's copyright. The old information isn't tracked on the site, and in my opinion it is a loss of useful information.)

....................................Old HF....New HF
Bailey, Jason.................5.5C.......5.5C
Beleskey, Matt...............6.5C.......7.0C
Bickel, Stu.....................NR..........6.0C
Birner, Michal.................6.0C.......7.0F
Bodie, Troy....................5.0C.......5.0C
Bolt, Bobby....................5.0C.......4.5C
Brittain, Josh..................NR..........6.0C
Carter, Ryan..................6.5B........6.5B
Cousineau, Marco...........NR..........6.0C
Degray, John..................6.5C.......6.5C
Deschamps, Nicolas.........NR..........7.0C
Dingle, Ryan...................6.0C.......6.5D
Dixon, Stephen...............6.0C.......6.0D
Donally, Ryan.................5.5C.......5.5C
Ebbett, Andrew...............6.5C........Grad/overage
Festerling, Brett..............5.5B........5.0B
Gardiner, Jake................NR...........7.5C
Hegarty, Ryan.................NR...........6.0D
Kampfer, Steven.............6.0C........6.0C
Levasseur, Jean-Philippe..7.5C........7.0C
Macenauer, Maxime.........6.5C........6.0C
Macmillan, Logan.............7.5C........7.5C
McMillan, Brandon............NR..........6.0D
Mikkelson, Brendan.........7.0C........7.0C
Miller, Drew....................6.0B........6.0B
Mitera, Mark....................7.5B.......7.5B
Modig, Mattias.................6.0C.......6.0D
Morrison, Brett................6.5D.......7.0F
O'Dell, Eric .....................NR..........6.5C
Platt, Geoff.....................6.0B........7.0D
Pryor, Nick .....................NR..........6.0D
Ryan, Bobby...................8.5C.......8.0B
Salcido, Brian.................7.0C.......7.0C
Schultz, Justin.................NR..........6.0C
Stefaniszin, Sebastian......6.0C.......6.0C
Tangradi, Eric..................7.0C.......7.5C
Vaive, Justin...................6.0D........5.5D
Warg, Stefan...................NR..........5.5C
Wirtanen, Petteri.............5.5B........5.5B

(NR = Not previously rated).

If you aren't familiar with the Hockey's Future player projections system, look here:
HF Player Projections

I'm posting without comment…because I don't have the first-hand experience to question any of them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Paul Kukla is making many predictions and looking for feedback on the upcoming season. The one that stood out to me is that JSG will lead all goalies in shutouts.

"Jean-Sebastien Giguere will lead the league in shutouts. (Your prediction?)


The Detroit Red Wings will win the Presidents’ Trophy. (Anyone care to go with another team?)


The Chicago Blackhawks will make it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Name a team that did not make the playoffs last year that will win at least the first round of the playoffs this season.)


Twenty-eight players had at least 30 goals last season. This season I say 40 players will light the lamp 30 times. (How many players will score 30 or more goals?)"

Kukla link

Just wishing Scott Niedermayer a happy 35th birthday! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/anaducksos1.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ots.gif)


Also Todd Marchant's Birthday was the 12th of this month, so a late happy 35th birthday to him as well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/anaducksos1.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ots.gif)

Joe DiPenta has been doing a lot of promotions for this event. Really great work considering he's going off to Sweden to play this season, and it's another charitable event to add to his White House lasagna dinner fund raiser.

Chris Pronger, George Parros, Todd Marchant, Brad May and Bobby Ryan will be at this event at the 949 Rink in Irvine. (This was also mentioned in the Fedorin Cup thread since it's being held in the afternoon on the same day.)

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(IMG:http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9540/pic02tw6.th.jpg) (IMG:http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8040/pic03ro7.th.jpg) (IMG:http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1386/pic04bz9.th.jpg) (IMG:http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4288/pic05rg3.th.jpg)
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Got a snail mail announcement a few days ago from 2008-09 WWKC captain Ryan Getzlaf:

(IMG:http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3032/wwkc3ya3.th.jpg)
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Membership flyer with details:

(IMG:http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9052/wwkc1le1.th.jpg) (IMG:http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8937/wwkc2oj8.th.jpg)
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<announcement on Ducks website>

This article was linked on the front page of NHL.com, it's a great story. about a Ducks staffer born with Cerebral Palsy who will be attempting to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro this summer.

http://ducks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=pag...rticleid=379814