FanHouse ClaudeLemieux

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 Pacific Division.

San Jose saw its Presidents' Trophy campaign come to a surprising end in the first round of the NHL playoffs, Los Angeles is still the perfect spot for Dany Heatley, and is there any hope for success on the ice in Phoenix?

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

Senators 3, Canadiens 2: First, the bad news for the Montreal Canadiens: they dropped a 3-2 decision, at home, to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. Now, the really bad news for the Canadiens: remember those injuries to Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider? Yeah, they're worse than expected.

Back in November, the prospect of months without Martin Brodeur seemed like a long and daunting wait, but with Scott Clemmensen and Kevin Weekes playing the way they have, the time has gone quicker than expected. Still, everyone in New Jersey wants Marty back, and we're getting closer and closer to the reality of having No. 30 between the pipes again.

Brodeur had his first full practice with the team today after almost four months. "I'm comfortable to go into a game if I had to [Sunday]," he told Tom Gulitti, but any hockey fans hoping for a cinematic return against the incredible Sharks to inject some drama into this NHL season will have to settle for Claude Lemieux possibly playing his former team instead.

Over at my other blogging home, The Sporting Blog at The Sporting News, I've been keeping a close eye on the return of Claude Lemieux to the NHL with the San Jose Sharks. Safe to say, no matter how one might feel about Lemieux, his comeback has been one of the more interesting stories this NHL season.

Heck, when I asked Darren McCarty about it the day before the 2009 NHL Winter Classic in Chicago, even Lemieux's old nemesis admitted he was impressed that a player that far past 40 could make it back to the NHL.

Then again, not everyone is exactly touched by Lemieux's return. One of my posts over at TSB elicited a rather heated response out of George James Malik. And coming from a Detroit fan who will more than likely carry memories of Kris Draper crashing face first into the boards to his grave, I can certainly understand.

Then again, while it's one thing to hate the player, it's quite another to knock his game. Which is what brings me to USA Today's Ted Montgomery. On Tuesday, he posted some "burning questions," concerning the second half of the NHL season, one of which concerned how much action Lemieux was likely to see with the Sharks.

The Bruins and Capitals helped kick off the second half of the NHL season on Tuesday, and the top two teams in the Eastern Conference did not disappoint in Boston's 3-2 overtime win.

While it was an exciting game for much of the night, the best action came in the overtime period as goaltenders Tim Thomas and Jose Theodore exchanged incredible saves at each end of the ice. Following a Niklas Backstrom hooking penalty, David Krejci sent a pass through the slot only to have it bounce off Shaone Morrison's skate and find the back of the net behind Theodore for the game-winner.

The Penguins and Hurricanes entered Tuesday's game in Pittsburgh separated by one point in the Eastern Conference standings, and when you consider the two teams occupied the No's. 9 and 10 seeds respectively, with an opportunity to jump into the No. 8 seed closing out the first half the season, well, it was a pretty big game. Cam Ward rose to the occasion for the Hurricanes, stopping 32-of-33 shots, leading them to a 2-1 win.

Ward was fantastic most of the night, but saved his best play for the final five minutes of regulation when the Penguins were on a four-minute power play. Over the past two nights, the 24-year-old netminder has stopped 66-of-67 shots.

When Claude Lemieux signed a contract with the China Sharks of the Asia Hockey League in November at 43, I don't think there was anyone in their right mind who thought he would wind up back in the NHL. I know I sure didn't. But a few days after Christmas, he was signed to a two-way contract by the San Jose Sharks.

Today, Lemieux has been called up by the Sharks from their AHL affiliate in Worcester. The team also placed Brad Lukowich on IR and sent down Brad Staubitz and Tom Cavanagh.

Consider this blogger shocked.

Claude Lemieux's comeback attempt is almost complete, as the 43-year old forward officially signed a two-way contract with the San Jose Sharks on Monday. After a brief stint in the Asia Hockey League with the China Sharks, Lemieux signed a minor league tryout deal with San Jose in late November, allowing him to play for the Worcester Sharks of the American Hockey League, where he's scored two goals in 14 games.

His new deal will allow San Jose to call him up to the NHL, assuming he clears waivers by 2:00 PM ET on Tuesday, and I'm guessing he will. It remains to be seen if and when a callup will occur, as San Jose general manager Doug Wilson called the contract "the next step in the evaluation process."

Still, things are going quite well in San Jose, and I'm not sure how much of a need the Sharks currently have for a 43-year old agitator. Though, I'm guessing he would become the first player to ever play for three different teams named "Sharks" in the same season.

A couple of week ago, we told you about Claude Lemieux, one of the National Hockey League's greatest agitators, surfacing in China as a member of the China Sharks of the Asia Hockey League. Turns out, it was a relatively brief trip for him, as he's now inked a tryout contract with the San Jose Sharks, taking one more step towards his ultimate goal of completing an NHL comeback.

Lemieux will report to the Sharks American Hockey League team in Worcester sometime this week. During his two-game stint in China, he recorded no goals and one assist, with seven shots on goal and four penalty minutes.

Apparently, the 43-year old Lemiuex is a longtime friend of Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, which probably played a role in his signing with San Jose.

He last played in the NHL during the 2002-03 season with the Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars, recording 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 68 games.

I'm not sure how much of an impact a 43-year old grinder is going to have for the Sharks, especially one that hasn't played in the NHL in years -- and it's not like the Sharks are in dire need of help up front. Of course, as Greg Wyshynski suggests over at Puck Daddy, perhaps the Sharks are just looking to add a little fire and brimstone to their inevitable playoff meeting with the defending champs. I hear they have quite a history with Mr. Lemieux.