Sillinger News and European Expansion

First off, according to Newsday, Mike Sillinger is probably not going to be ready for camp next Friday.

Greg Logan reports that Sillinger suffered a bit of a setback in his rehabilitation from his microfracture surgery on his right hip this July. Sillinger complains of being tight and not having a full range of motion yet and does not know if he'll be ready for the season opener on October 10th.

Quite a blow for the classy Sillinger. Hopefully Mike can make a full recovery and he'll be back on the ice sooner than later. Logan mentions that Rob Blake came back from similar surgery last year while playing for the Kings and both guys are in similar situations age-wise and have a similar amount of experience. Actually, with all of the Stanley Cup and international games Blake has played, he probably has more miles than Sillinger does.

A guy like Mike Sillinger just seems to be the kind of player that is super-important when you're fielding a team of young and impressionable kids. You're not going to surprise Sillinger with anything because he has been through all sorts of situations in his career. He is, by all accounts, a consummate professional and has always struck this outsider as the kind of leader that would be good for the organization after his playing career is over; if he is interested in that sort of role. He's got a wealth of experience playing on rebuilding teams, championship-caliber teams, expansion teams, teams with expectations, and teams that surprised the league.

Here's hoping that Sillinger can come back and help lead our boys back to where they need to be.


NHL European Expansion

In other news, there seems to be a little chatter around the media about NHL European expansion. Bill Daly had some interesting speculation in the Globe and Mail about a possible European Division being added to the league in the next ten years. He trotted out that grand ol' nugget that a major percentage of NHL.com's traffic comes from Europe and that those cities and countries that are hockey hotbeds may end up being part of an expanded NHL.

Pierre McGuire also checked in, reminding us all that almost 30% of the NHL's players are not North American. Seems to be a valid point there. He probably made his point real loud, too!

One thing that gets me when they talk about European expansion--and let's not forget that this was talked about as far back as the late '80s for you older hockey fans--is that no one seems to consider that the league itself would have to find markets in Europe that are able to sustain an NHL outfit.

What do I mean by "sustain"? Well, they're going to have to afford it! We see this now with the new Russian KHL: some teams have the bucks and others don't. How can we bank on these European economies? I mean, right now the Russian economy looks from the outside like it is totally booming but let's not forget that there is a wide-wide-wide disparity between the rich and the not-so-rich in that country. Those who have the money have a ton of it (manufacturing and/or oil production) and the working class is still lacking a lot of necessities.

It all comes down to this: the Russian companies and the state-run industries may have the cash to play this very expensive game, but does the average Alexei Six Pack have the money to go to watch the players play? There's no real TV money to prop up the league and if you can't get people into your building, it becomes a money-losing proposition real quick.

Also, what happens when these companies stop making money hand-over-fist? The first guys they're going to look to get rid of to save money are going to be the big ticket players.

I guess what I am saying is that talking expansion into Europe is all well and good but man, something like this has to vetted a little more thoroughly than giving $700 bucks to a private investigator to take a look into the background of John Spano. Let's all take a deep breath and push away from the table before we get too excited, you know? Couldn't we just move the Thrashers to Winnipeg and call them the Jets instead?