FanHouse Andrew Raycroft

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

It appears we are setting up for an offseason of significant change in the Northwest Division. Only the Vancouver Canucks will have the same coach as last year, and there could be some real upheaval in terms of personnel. Not only that, but two teams (Minnesota and Colorado) have changed general managers.

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The Boston Bruins reached an agreement with starting netminder Tim Thomas on Friday, signing the 34-year-old to a three-year extension that is believed to be worth "around $5 million per year," according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.

Thomas currently leads the league in goals against average and save percentage after being tied for the fifth best save percentage in the NHL a season ago, so it's certainly a great deal for the Bruins. That said, it's bad news for the number of teams around the league in need of a starting goalie heading into the offseason.

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

Ducks 7, Avalanche 2: This game won't be showing up on the career highlight film for Andrew Raycroft, as the veteran netminder surrendered four goals on just eight shots during the second period of Anaheim's 7-2 thrashing of Colorado. Corey Perry scored a pair of goals for the Ducks, while rookie Andrew Ebbett added a goal and two assists in the win.

One of the most controversial changes to the NHL in recent years has been the addition of the shootout. Is it fair to decide a game in which two teams play until their faces bleed for 65 minutes (including overtime) with a series of breakaways? I think we can put Boston Bruins prospect Tuukka Rask down for an emphatic "no."

Devils 4, Bruins 3: The premier matchup on Thursday's schedule had to be the New Jersey-Boston tilt, and it didn't disappoint as the Devils took a 4-3 decision in overtime. Jamie Langenbrunner scored a pair of goals for the Devils, including the game-winner 1:11 into overtime.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead through the first two periods, New Jersey watched the Bruins roar back with three goals in the third period before Patrick Elias tied the game with just under two minutes to play in regulation. Zach Parise picked up his 29th goal of the season in the win, while Scott Clemmensen made 24 saves. New Jersey has now won seven consecutive games while allowing only 12 goals during the streak. Who needs Martin Brodeur, eh?

There are certainly at least two really good teams in the NHL's Western Conference. Defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit and fast-starting San Jose appear in the clear to duke it out for the right to play for the Stanley Cup later this year.

Of course, we know that anything can happen in a best-of-seven series. In addition, we still have half a season left to play. What we don't know is which team in this conference is set up to challenge either the Red Wings or Sharks. They've beaten - at least once - pretty much everyone who has stood in their way, including each other.

While the top of the conference appears to virtually locked in place at this point, there are still serious battles to be fought, especially for the last four positions in the West. Currently, eight teams are separated by just six points. St. Louis, the last-place team in the West, is just nine points out of eighth.

Brian Burke's acquisition of tough-guy Brad May helped add to some of the intensity and entertainment value in Thursday's Montreal-Toronto game, as the two teams beat the snot out of one other physically, while the Canadiens dominated on the scoreboard, pulling out a 6-2 win. The victory for Montreal is its third in a row, and eighth in its past 10 games.

We've already talked about the penalties and wrestling matches between Mikhail Grabovski and a linesman, so let's talk about the game itself. The Canadiens jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period, thanks to goals from Sergei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse. Jaroslav Halak, making his fourth straight start in goal for Montreal, turned aside 30 shots to pick up his eighth win of the season.

Bruins 6, Senators 4: Boston snapped a brief two-game losing skid on Thursday night with a 6-4 win over Ottawa. The Bruins let a 3-1 lead slip away late in the second period, and then scored three consecutive goals of their own in the third, as Ottawa goalie Martin Gerber had a rather forgettable start in goal, stopping only 16 of 21 shots. Marc Savard scored what proved to be the game-winning goal, while also adding two assists.

I don't know what the Thrashers give-a-crap level was at, but the Penguins certainly kicked their give-a-crap level up a few notches as they snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over Atlanta. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28-of-29 shots, while Petr Sykora scored a pair of goals in the win.

Not only did Pittsburgh ends its losing streak, it also ended an 0-for-32 power play drought by going 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

It was a costly win of sorts for the Penguins, as Ruslan Fedotenko and Pascal Dupuis left the game with injuries and did not return. Both players had been playing, perhaps, their best hockey of the season in recent weeks.

Fedotenko appeared to suffer a hand injury when he punched out Colby Armstrong in the first period. It was perhaps the shortest fight of the season, as it consisted of one Fedotenko punch to the jaw, and Armstrong attempting to throw one when both players were on the ice. Fedotenko could be seen shaking his hand as he went to the penalty box, and then headed directly to the locker room and did not return.

Alex Goligoski was again a healthy scratch, as head coach Michel Therrien used the same lineup he used in New York the night before, with much better results. Evgeni Malkin recorded three assists, while Sidney Crosby scored his 16th goal of the season.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored the lone goal for Atlanta late in the third period, ending Fleury's shutout bid.

Another night, another win for the San Jose Sharks. What else is new? The Kings jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals by Matt Greene and Ted Purcell, but because they refuse to lose in regulation (or at any point, really) the Sharks managed to tie the game with tallies from Ryane Clowe and Patrick Marleau.

The game remained tied throughout the third period and overtime, leading to a shootout where the Sharks picked up goals from Clowe and Dan Boyle, while Brian Boucher turned aside two of the three Los Angeles shots, giving San Jose a 3-2 win.

The Sharks win, combined with Detroit's loss (more on this in a bit) gives San Jose an eight point lead for the top spot in the Western Conference. The victory also gives San Jose the best record in NHL history through the first 30 games of the season, as the Sharks currently boast a 25-3-2 mark. They haven't lost a game in regulation since November 9, which is a 15-game streak where San Jose has picked up at least a point.

Boucher made 26 saves in the win, while Los Angeles snapped its modest two-game winning streak.

As of right now, the NHL is the San Jose Sharks -- and everybody else. It remains to be seen how long they can keep playing at such a pace, and who knows, it may hurt them in the long-run that they're playing their best hockey in November and December as opposed to, say, May and June. But none of that changes the fact this is quite an incredible stretch of hockey. Kudos, San Jose.

There are a lot of big names still on the board through the early stages of free agency today. The one position that there's been no shortage of movement at? Goalie. Goalies are changing teams left and right today and the effects of some of the moves are going to be pretty wide-ranging. Let's take a look at some of the moves that have taken place and what they might mean. All of the exhaustive contract details are via TSN.

Jose Theodore to the Capitals- It's a two-year, $9 million deal and Eric's got the details below. Theodore did seem to regain some of his form this past year with the Avalanche, but he melted down in the playoffs against the Red Wings while suffering from a bad case of the flu. He'll probably give the Caps an upgrade over what Olie the Goalie was giving them earlier in the year, but he won't carry them the way Huet did down the stretch last year. And $4.5 million seems like a lot of money for a guy that just might be washed up, doesn't it?

Cristobal Huet to the Blackhawks- With a ton of moneyalready tied up in Nikolai Khabibulin (~$7 million a year), the 'Hawks are now paying Huet $5.635 a year as well. Huet's an upgrade over what the Blackhawks have, for sure, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around paying more than $12 million a year for their top two goalies.

More goalie moves after the jump.