FanHouse AlexTanguay

While most of the big names went off the board in the opening days of free agency, there's still some quality players to be had on the open market. Here's a quick look at three of the better players still searching for a new team: Martin Biron, Alex Tanguay, and Dennis Seidenberg.

Various media outlets are reporting this afternoon that the Montreal Canadiens have been sold to the Molson family, pending league approval (which, according to TSN, could take until mid-summer). The price tag for the NHL's most storied franchise? Depending on which report you listen to, it's somewhere between $500 million and $550 million ... or more.

How are Canadiens fans reacting to the news?

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We begin our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northeast Division.

Brian Burke begins his rebuild of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa and just what is Boston going to do with Phil Kessel and a limited amount of salary cap space?

After serving as the Florida Panthers general manager for the past four seasons (and head coach for three of those seasons) Jacques Martin will be named the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. During his four-year stint in charge of the Panthers, the team failed to make the playoffs each season, while he brings 14 years of head coaching experience to the Canadiens.

After a brief two-year tenure with the St. Louis Blues in the late 1980s, Martin took over the Ottawa Senators in 1995, leading the team to the playoffs eight times in nine years, while also winning three division titles and the Jack Adams award as coach of the year in 1999.

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Hurricanes 4, Rangers 2: Carolina continued its winning ways with a 4-2 win over the Rangers on Thursday night, extending its current winning streak to seven games. Chad LaRose scored a pair of goals in the win, while Cam Ward stopped 36 shots, including 29 through the first two periods.

On Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens continued their season of disappointment by getting crushed by Toronto, 5-2, on home ice. The recent struggles have left more than a few fans, like the fine folks over at Four Habs Fans, slightly perturbed.

Entering Monday night's action, Montreal could wake up on Tuesday morning on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture if Florida can knock off Carolina. So, where has it all gone wrong for the Canadiens in what was supposed to be a season of glorious centennial celebration?

It's not a surprise to see the Colorado Avalanche trade defenseman Jordan Leopold, seeing as how they're in last place in the Western Conference and Leopold is set to become an unrestricted free agent. It is a surprise, however, to see him go for what seems to be so little.

According to TSN, Leopold has been traded to the Calgary Flames for a second round pick, Ryan Wilson, and Lawrence Nycholat. Nycholat, by the way, was just claimed on waivers by the Flames on Tuesday.

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Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Alex Tanguay, F (Trade-CGY), Georges Laraque, F (FA-PIT); Marc Denis, G (FA-TB); Robert Lang, F (Trade-CHI)

Who's Out: Mikhail Grabovski, F (Trade-TOR); Michael Ryder, F (FA-BOS); Mark Streit, D (FA-NYI)

What's Changed: The Canadiens are hoping that a couple minor tweaks and the experience of last year's run combine to make this year's team all the more dangerous. Montreal made no changes to their defensive top six, they signed Denis only to compete for the backup job behind Carey Price, and the top forwards are all back.

Honestly, Montreal shouldn't have to change much. Price melted down in the playoff series against Philadelphia (more on that in a bit), and the defense didn't play terribly well. However, the Canadiens fielded a pretty young team, had a great season, and they return practically everyone while making a couple of potentially significant additions.

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Mike Cammalleri, F (FA-LA); Rene Bourque, F (Trade-CHI); Curtis Glencross, F (FA-EDM); Todd Bertuzzi, F (FA-ANH)

Who's Out: Kristian Huselius, F (FA-CBJ); Owen Nolan, F (FA-MIN); Alex Tanguay, F (Trade-MTL); Curtis Joseph, G (FA-TOR)

What's Changed: The backbone of this team hasn't been touched. 50-goal scorer Jarome Iginla is still the rock of the offense. Cammalleri should help bolster the Flames' top line, and Daymond Langkow is expected to remain the center. The signing of Bertuzzi is an interesting one for the Flames. Calgary has plenty of tough guys, and Bertuzzi struggled mightily at times last year in Anaheim. He did stay healthy for 68 games and tallied a not-terrible 40 points, but he still has a penchant for really dumb and irresponsible penalties.

While I know Mike Keenan wants a tough hockey team (hence the decision to let Tanguay and Huselius go elsewhere), I can't imagine he'll be happy watching Bertuzzi take a dumb penalty late in a close game. Unless Bertuzzi starts playing smarter hockey, it's not destined to go well for him.

It's about that time again. No, not to debate whether or not "Merry Christmas" is politically correct. It's time to take a look at how things are going up there in Calgary for 'Iron' Mike Keenan, with the Mike Keenan Implosion Watch.

Keenan, appointed head coach of the Flames during the summer, has a flair for the dramatic. He has a reputation as a prickly guy and has found his way to the exit door of several organizations in what can only be described as record time. Truth be told, Keenan appears to be one of those coaches who always has something to yell about. You know the kind. Think back to pee-wee hockey in fifth grade when your coach took things way, way too serious -- think laps if your shot missed the net. That's the kind of intensity I'm talking about.

A little over a week ago, Keenan was playing with fire. Word leaked that he had been toying with the possibility of moving stand-out defender Dion Phaneuf to the left wing. That, an obvious slap in the face to wingers Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius. Huselius, for what it's worth, found himself in Iron Mike's doghouse almost constantly when the winger played under Keenan in Florida.

Yesterday was simply another day in the life, as Keenan called out his star goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. To be fair, Kiprusoff hasn't been playing up to par, but it's not every day that a coach calls out his star player (unless you're Alexei Yashin).

With four straight losses, Calgary's head coach didn't hesitate to rip into his star goalie. "Let's call a spade a spade," Keenan said Saturday. "We should have better goaltending. Period. If we had, we'd be rewarded with a victory tonight."

And the 2006 Vezina Trophy winner agreed wholeheartedly.

"Everything's been so close and so tight, so you pretty much need a good goalie every night if you want to win in a game in this league," he told reporters on Monday.

"We know who we're dealing with," Keenan said on Monday.

After this latest event, it's time to update the implosion countdown, which is a guesstimate of how long it will be until Keenan either a) finds a way out of the organization, b) takes out his rage on Huselius with a pitchfork, c) spontaneously combusts into flames, or d) loses his temper bad enough that the roof pops off the Saddledome.

Estimated countdown till implosion: 18 days.