Ladies and gentlemen...............here come your WINNIPEG JETS!!!!!!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bre...124498414.html

By the way things are going, it sounds pretty much official. And thank God it's Winnipeg and not Manitoba!

Tim Thomas is pretty darn close. Maybe if they give him another bionic hip he'll set more NHL records.

TSN reporting Ryan Smyth to Calgary is done, just waiting for owners approval.

This was the most obvious Flames-like move in a long time.

DAmmit! another 2nd liner who won't put up big numbers. Looks like Iggy will be shouldering the load yet again. Smyth is a great character guy, but we already have lots of Character.I wonder if this means Tanguay won't be signing with the Flames...

At least we're still as anti-youth as usual. The Flames team of overpaid old men should be renamed the Walkers.

Now all Feaster has to do is draft some low talent "Western boy" in the first round to complete the day. Maybe a goalie who'll never, ever, play.

Assuming we don't trade the pick for like... Jason Arnott or something.

The "Young Guns" era was bad, but the Old Farts phase could be even worse.

I'm torn on this one. You say we have plenty of character.. maybe. What the Flames haven't had for several years now is much "heart". We just don't have guys who will give it their all, night in and night out. Smythie is that guy, in spades. He's something we need desperately (as opposed to all the barely-show-ups like Hagman, Stajan, Kotalik, Jokinen for most of his time here, Huselius, etc, etc, etc).

Not happy about the age thing but at least we're not giving much up (rumoured late round pick). The only negative here is cap space. And if this means no Tanguay - I'll be PISSED.

Winnipeg Jets Name Returning
 

Winnipeg's NHL team will be called the Winnipeg Jets, CBC Sports has confirmed.

source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stor...ipeg-name.html

Anything new on the Regehr trade?

I heard he was going to wait until later today (before draft) and then say if he is coming to Buffalo or not. Either way, he is going out of Calgary.

If Regehr does go, I heard we could be getting Sabres' 1st draft pick and Luke Adam.

It's funny, a week ago I couldn't care about where Smytty spent the rest of his career. I did get excited about him wanting to come home though, the leadership and overall positive optics made it very appealing.

Along comes the Flames trying to throw a massive c-block on the good times. A team with jack for prospects, picks, or cap space to even sign the players they have. And they want an aged 6.5 million dollar player, hilarious.

If they want him that bad and Smyth waves his clause to go then so be it. I'd love to see him pull a Heatley on them and come to edmonton as much as anyone but honestly it's kind of a win-win for us IMHO. He comes here we get the vet we need, he goes there and he makes a division rival run by monkeys overpay, keep their cupboards dry and strangle themselves with the cap (again). Should Regher rufuse to be traded they'd really be hooped.

Good times.

new logo to represent the flames (especially if they do trade for Smyth 35+ years old)

http://i2.cpcache.com/product/274561...al%20Decal.jpg

Word is Smyth isn't lifting his NTC until the Oilers make an offer.

What the Flames are trying to do reminds me of the Oilers in the late 90'early 2000's. Way to keep that team hovering in 8/9 place.

Your first paragraph is bang on.

come home schmitty

There must be a 3-way deal being cooked up here.

It makes no sense for the Flames to strangle themselves with more old guys and salary.

I also find it hard to believe that the Oilers don't have a 4th round pick to match the Flames' offer.

He's definitely got heart, no question there.

They surely *could*, but they already have their own $6 million bag of bricks in Shawn Horcoff.

Rumour has Schmitty waiting until the Oilers make an offer, or decision, before signing in Calgary.

COME ON EDMONTON

Interesting idea, and yeah - no way Edmonton can't find something. He'd definitely be an asset to the Oil moreso than the Flames. Unless this is a short term thing and a lot more is in the works, he's more of a liability to us.

3-way... hmm, maybe some Oiler picks, but again - why wouldn't they just send those to LA?

The Oilers still have a 3rd rounder that they got from Calgary as part of the Staios deal. They should offer that.

But heck, even a 2nd round pick is worth never seeing a Smytty Flames jersey as far as I'm concerned.

I'm one of the very few proud owners of a Flames Joseph jersey. I wear it pretty much just to piss off certain Oiler fans. :P

Dreger claims Panthers offered Oilers Booth / Weiss for 1st overall pick.

I would have probably taken it :P The chances of these players being as good as a Booth / Weiss maybe isn't THAT great.

Of course, if they send Hopkins back to Red Deer, they stand a good shot of drafting 1st overall next year, too lol