FanHouse

Here's a new feature I've been resisting for a while here at FanHouse, but with the offseason upon us I feel as if we have no choice. Welcome to The Bag Skate, FanHouse's afternoon roundup of everything that's happening on a typical offseason weekday. Why The Bag Skate? Because it's Summertime and you'd probably rather be doing just about anything else than writing about hockey with weather this beautiful. Now, might one be able to say that we're swiping this idea from elsewhere? I'd prefer to call it an homage.

The head turner of the day has to be Rick Westhead's stunner in the Toronto Star revealing that LA Kings owner Phil Anschutz and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold were the money men behind William "Boots" Delbaggio's purchase of a stake in the Nashville Predators. What's worse, Leipold and Anschutz, who both sit on the league's Board of Governors and are considered allies of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, made this $17 million loan without informing him about what they were up to. I wonder why?

In Tampa, the new regime introduced Barry Melrose as the new head coach of the Lightning, which I guess means it's all downhill from here. Granted, the pair of Oren Koules and Len Barrie seem like they'd be great guys to have a beer with, and it certainly seems like their hearts are in the right place. Then again, I've come to believe that the most important characteristic of a successful NHL owner is solvency, and the last time I looked, the sale of the Lightning was still being financed by the team's former owner. As to more mundane matters, Puck Daddy is asking folks to weigh in on Melrose's replacement at ESPN. My take: If you want quality, pick Bill Clement. But if you want stupid stuff to blog about, pick Mike Milbury.

Over at Business Week, Jason Bush is taking a closer look at the rise of professional sports in Russia. Curiously, he fails to mention word one about the rise of the KHL, but he does get one piece of the big picture righter than rain: The massive investment in sports is a combined effort the Russian government and sporting authorities fueled by a global rise in commodity prices. And for those who doubt the potential of the KHL, consider this: If Russian business is able to spend enough money to go toe to toe with some of the biggest Soccer clubs in Europe in order to retain talent, what makes you think they won't be able to do the same while competing against NHL teams?

There was another exchange in the media battle between the NHL and the nascent Kontinental Hockey League this afternoon, as the Associated Press reported that the two leagues have begun negotiating a temporary agreement where both sides would pledge to recognize each other's contracts until a permanent player transfer agreement could be reached. But despite this news that would seem to indicate that the leagues are moving toward some sort of detente -- it's always nice to pull a term out of the Cold War archive -- KHL head Alexander Medvedev is still talking tough, insisting to the AP that KHL teams could still very well sign away NHL players, and that when you consider the NHL's behavior in the past regarding Russian players under contract, he's hardly in a position to stop them.

In Toronto, Kyle Wellwood, Andrew Raycroft and Darcy Tucker are no longer welcome without a ticket ... Nashville and Philadelphia exchanged some spare parts ... Five Hole Fanatics is thinking about the dear, departed Alex Tanguay ... Scarlet Ice is helping give away a free week at Mike Fisher's hockey camp ... And the questionable rumor of the day comes from the Vancouver Province, where Ed Willes says that the Canucks are looking to acquire center Michael Nylander from Washington. Inquiries this afternoon to the Capitals were met with a polite and bemused "no comment".