Bergenheim avoids arbitration, signs 2 year deal with Isles

From Greg Logan of Newsday:

Forward Sean Bergenheim, who was the only Islander to file for arbitration, avoided a hearing when he reached agreement today on a two-year deal worth $1.725 million. It appears Bergenheim’s recent decision to change agents facilitated the process.

Bergenheim switched to Allan Walsh. His previous agents, Mark Gandler and Todd Diamond, have clashed with Islanders management several times in the past. Once he made the change, negotiations began in earnest. Bergenheim, who will have one more season as a restricted free agent when the contract ends, will make $800,000 this season and $925,000 the following season.

Read more from On the Islanders Beat here.

Bergenheim didn't need to cause anymore distractions for himself prior to next season. Now that he has a new contract in-hand, he can just focus on playing and proving himself to be an important cog in the Islanders' youth movement.

Sean Bergeinheim fires Mark Gandler

From Greg Logan of Newsday:

Forward Sean Bergenheim, who is the only Islander to file for arbitration, has fired his agents, Mark Gandler and Todd Diamond. General manager Garth Snow was notified of the change earlier this week and just began negotiations that potentially could avert a hearing. Snow declined to name Bergenheim’s new agent.

Read the entire entry from On the Islanders Beat here.

It would be interesting to find out what led to this divorce.

Morning Musings

Due to the high number of articles this morning, I am going to skip my usual preamble.

On to the morning papers:

• Shawn Horcoff may not be penciled in on the Oilers' number one line, but he will still play on the top powerplay unit and kill penalties. To his credit, Horcoff is not complaining about being demoted from the team's top line.
• All the youngsters were impressive for the Oilers last night versus the Flames writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
• Sheldon Souray takes it personally when people put down the city of Edmonton and the province of Alberta.
• As Steve Gorton writes, Olli Jokinen is coming into his own as captain and leader of the Florida Panthers.
• Dan Boyle suffered a freak accident in the locker room and the team will be without his services for 3-6 weeks.
• Injured Mike Van Ryn and Steve Montador both skated on their own yesterday in an effort to get ready for the team's first regular season game.
• After an impressive rookie campaign, sophomore Anze Kopitar is looking to improve upon last season's terrific numbers; Lonnie White of the L.A. Times has the story.
• Most families hate to see their children fight, however, the Boogards are a different breed writes Michael Russo.
• The newest line of Fiddler-Arnott-Dumont is gelling at Predators' camp writes John Glennon of the Tennessean. Meanwhile, the Predators made more cuts on Saturday and have now trimmed their roster down to 28.
• Saku Koivu think that the Habs need to work on their powerplay. The Habs went 0-for-5 on the man-advantage in their 2-1 loss to the Sens on Saturday.
• The Rangers' forward combination of Gomez and Jagr needs more time to click writes John Dellapina of the New York Daily News. The Rangers left much to be desired in their 5-0 defeat to the Flyers on Saturday.
• Sean Bergenheim and Charles Wang have put their differences behind them and Bergenheim is looking forward to a having big season with the Islanders.
• With Sheldon Souray gone from Montreal, Jason Spezza picked a new Habs' defenseman to pick on and that was Mark Streit.
• Christoph Schubert impressed a number of scouts who were taking in the Sens/Habs pre-season game on Saturday.
• Many fans are unhappy with the look of the NHL's new uniforms writes Hugh Adami of the Ottawa Citizen.
• Wayne Gretzky was very happy with the way his team's youngsters performed in a 6-5 victory over Dallas on Saturday.
• Because the new uniforms repel moisture, players are noticing all of their equipment is having to absorb more sweat than before writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• The Pens lost to the Red Wings 5-2 on Sunday.
• The NHL is looking to grow its brand across Europe writes Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• There is plenty of competition in Detroit for the final two roster spots writes George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press.
• As David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News explains, there are four players fighting tooth and nail to win the Sharks' sixth defenseman job this training camp.
• The Blues were able to sign Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya for the same price it would have cost to sign Scott Gomez writes Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Blues defeated the Thrashers 3-2 on Saturday night.
• According to Mark Zwolinksi of the Toronto Star, the best case scenario for a Kyle Wellwood return is 3-4 weeks. However, Paul Maurice thinks we should know more about the situation in the next 2-3 days.
• The Leafs are considering lining up Chad Kilger as the team's number two center. The adjustment may not be as significant for Kilger as people thing because, as Kilger points out, he started his career as a center.
• Damien Cox of the Toronto Star opines that the 2005-06 NHL season was the exception rather than the rule in terms of increased offensive hockey.
• Not unlike just about every game last season, the Canucks asked too much of Roberto Luongo as the team was defeated by the Sharks 3-1 on Saturday.
• Patrick Marleau is opting to put last season's playoff struggles behind him and is looking forward to 07/08 writes Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province.
• Mike Modano is only six points from passing Phil Housley and becoming the all-time points leader for American born players.
• Chris Clark has moved from a scoring role, back to his old checking role and is not in the least bit complaining.
• The Columbus Dispatch has a Q & A with the Blue Jackets' owner.
• With Jose Theodore nursing an injury, long-shot candidate Tyler Weiman may begin the season as the Avs' backup goaltender; Andrian Dater has the story.
• As Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains, Keith Tkachuk has only good things to say about his time in Atlanta.
• The Hurricanes lost to the Predators 4-1 on Saturday; Luke Decock of the News Observer has the recap.
• While making the Sabres' opening day roster seems unlikely at this point, Patrick Kaleta only has one gear and he is not going to change his style of play just because his chances to make the team are slim at Sabres' camp.
• Kevin Paul Dupont's usual Sunday morning gem of an article can be found here.
• Dupont also provides us with a recap of Saturday's Bruins/Leafs contest and notes from around Bruins' camp in this morning's Boston Globe.
• Newcomer Peter Schaeffer has developed great chemistry with Marc Savard in Boston training camp thus far.
• The youngsters were flying on the ice for the Flames as they took on the Oilers on Saturday night. While the number one line of Iginla-Langkow-Tanguay was put together for the first time this pre-season and didn't disappoint.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.