Web hosting can be a hassle. There’s no way to precisely project incoming traffic, for starters. Also, if your server gets rocked by an influx of traffic or is for some reason experiencing technical difficulties, you want someone you can get in touch with no matter the time of day. Easier said than done, because even in the age of cell phones, texting, Twitter and Facebook, it can be hard to track down family and friends, let alone the help at your hosting company. Fortunately, we here at FanSided haven’t had those problems since we started working with exclusively with the good folks at Site 5. In fact, we were almost growing faster than we could keep up with and experiencing some server issues as a result — until they stepped in. Nowadays, we never have any significant issues with our server at all and the Site 5 team offers us fantastic support essentially 24/7/365. They are definitely an All-Star hosting company that will keep your site in the game. Site 5 has the FanSided Network stamp of approval and is our exclusive hosting company.

Disclaimer: Site5.com is a FanSided partner and paying sponsor of the FanSided Network.This post is one of a series of sponsor endorsed posts relating to Site5.com hosting.

The saga has come to an end. The biggest free agent on the market has finally decided where to go and it was the right choice. Ilya Kovalchuk has decided to stay in New Jersey.  After multiple reports coming from Los Angelas, that he would be getting a lucrative deal from the Kings, it did not pan out and now the Devils have a serious goal scorer.

Everyone knows the deal with Kovalchuk. He wanted 10 million a season and he and his agent Jay Grossman were willing to see that to the end. The Kings flirted with Kovalchuk, even wined and dined him on the L.A. town to try to get him to commit to them. But, clearly Kovalchuk knew which organization was more committed to winning, the New Jersey Devils. Ilya has made it clear that winning is the most important thing to him, hence why he chose the Devils and not to go to the KHL or to a young King’s squad. He want’s to win now and that is what the Devils have always been about, regardless of their recent playoff dilemmas.

As for the contract that was signed, all I have to say is wow. A 17 year deal is nothing to scoff about. This meant that Kovy had to look at the offer, consider it, and finally realize that he was going to become a Devil for life (that includes post Marty). These contracts are becoming more and more prevalent in the NHL, giving teams more of an opportunity to hold onto a player and let them go as they choose. Hopefully this deal does not have any kind of any effect on Zach Parise getting resigned because any true Devil fan would agree to have Zach as a Devil over Kovy any day of the week.

For the most part, this is a happy day in Devil Land and this off-season has been great for New Jersey.  With prospect camp wrapping up recently and going very well, the future looks bright for New Jersey, but all I want to see is dominance right now, not in the future. The Devils have taken a major step toward that today.

According to the New York Post, Russian sniper Ilya Kovalchuk will sign a seven year, $60 million dollar contract, which ends up being $8.6 million/ year.

The Devils now have top lines made up of Parise- Zajac – Langenbrunner and the newly formed “A” Line, if you may, with Kovalchuk- Arnott- Elias. They now have  a defense ready to compete with new additions in Tallinder and Volchenkov. And, of course, the greatest goalie in hockey to backstop all of it, Martin Brodeur!
The deal is not as much as expected, but is of course very high. I suspect Lou found a taker for Zubrus (who will be bumped down to third line), Rolston (who may even be dumped down to fourth line), and maybe White (who may be dumped down to 3rd pair.) Jay Pandolfo will also likely be gone from the team. The Devils should have enough space to still sign Parise next year, so do not fret Devils fans.

UPDATE: The New York Post is now reporting the Devils have not reached a deal with Kovalchuk, but are saying the Devils are the favorites. Atlanta is apparently back in the mix. I still expect Kovalchuk to sign with the Devils, but I do not know for sure.

UPDATE (JULY 19, 2010): Kovalchuk agreed to a 17 year, and a bit more than 100 million dollar contract. This figures to be around 5.9 million per year. The contract is probably front loaded so he will make 10 million per year now but the cap hit will still be 5.9 million. At the end of the contract, he will not be making enough money to keep him interested in playing as he will make probably less than a million per year. Or the Devils can buy him out, which will be relatively cheap. So do not fear Devils fans!

Once again as I am posting, I get more word that the Devils have signed yet another defenseman–a great one at that, Anton Volchenkov. They have signed him to a six year deal with the dollar figures still coming in through the news wire.

Lou has truly made me eat my words today. I thought he would have stopped with Tallinder but clearly he saw what the Flyers were able to do to us in the playoffs this year and had seen enough.  This is exactly the kind of guy the Devils needed. He is tough, blocks shots and will clear out any body in front of Brodeur.

Volchenkov, 28 years old, played his entire career (starting in 2002) in Ottawa before hitting free-agency today.

Details will of course follow as they come out.

*UPDATE*  Volchenkov’s contract is $25.5 million over six years, $4.45 per. Great signing by New jersey but it also means saying goodbye to any hope you may of had at holding onto Illya Kovalchuk. We simply can not sign him for the numbers he requires considering our cap space.

As I was writing the news on Paul Martin going to Pittsburgh, I got word that New Jersey signed Henrik Tallinder who played with Buffalo for the last 8 NHL seasons.

Jersey gave him a four-year deal worth $13.5 million total, $3.375 per year.This offer more than likely kills our chances at offering up a sizable contract to someone like Anton Volchenkov and certainly looks like we wont be re-signing Kovalchuk, but maybe some things can be worked out by Lou, he has worked miracles before.

Tallinder played in every game for the Sabres last season getting 4 goals and 16 assists (WOW!). But, he is a solid defenseman, no dominant one by any means but he is an acceptable trade off for Martin leaving.

More to come later.

Paul Martin will not be returning to the New jersey Devils as previously expected. He signed with fellow Atlantic Division rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins today. The Penguins offered him a five year, $25 million contract, and he snatched it right up.

Martin had spent his entire NHL career with New Jersey since breaking into the league in 2003.  He was limited to only 22 games last season due to an injury he, ironically, suffered in a game against Pittsburgh. He did manage to be 10 in the +/- category in those 22 games. In six seasons in New Jersey he amassed 24 goals, 137 assists and led the Devils in ice time.

Like so many times in the past, I am saying so long to another Devil due to free agency. Will I miss Martin? Sure, a little bit. He is a good defenseman but he cant hit worth a damn and right now the Devils need someone with a physical presence to man the blue-line and limit the non-sense that goes on in front of Brodeur.

On the bright side, this frees up room for us to make more of a sizable offer to Kovalchuk, which is what we would need to do to keep him. However, I have been down this road with you before Lou, the first day of free agency comes and goes with nothing for us to show for it except for a roster with holes on it.  Therefore, it is only a matter of time before someone else gets Kovy and we are left to pick up the free agent scraps as always.

The Last Piece to the Devil Coaching Staff--Adam Oates

The Devils completed their coaching staff fro the upcoming 2010-11 NHL season with the hiring of former all-star, Adam Oates. He will be joining the staff of fellow assistant Larry Robinson (who led the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 2000) and goaltender coach Chris Terreri. These will be the men joining new coach John MacLean as he takes the reigns in his first season as an NHL coach.

Oates served as an assistant in Tampa Bay last season. He is 47 years old and retired from the sport in 2004. He currently has the most points of any Hall of Fame eligible player with 1,420 without being inducted–yet he never won the Stanley Cup in his 19 year career.

Nevertheless, I like the decision to go outside the box a little bit by Lou Lamoriello. When discussing reasoning of bringing Oates aboard Lamoriello had nothing but admiration towards what he was able to do as player.

“Throughout his career, Adam was without question one of the top playmaking centers, particularly on the power play, and was considered one of the top face-off players in the game,” said Lamoriello. “These attributes bring a different dimension to our coaching staff and both John and I are delighted that Adam is joining our organization.”

He normally likes to keep his staff in house, which makes this decision a bit of a head scratcher–but I like it, based on what Lou said because it is definitely an area that needed work. It’s clear Jersey needs some new faces and a new direction based on their recent playoff failures, so perhaps this particular coaching staff can bring those glory years back.

Sorry about not posting in a while I have been incredibly busy with school finals and hockey. Anyways, I am here to present what I think of the Devils draft.

Best Pick: Jonathon Merrill. He is an incredibly skilled defenseman with some offensive capabalities. He was a huge steal at the 38th pick.

Worst Pick: Scott Wedgewood. When he is on, he is on! He made 70 out of 73 saves in one game against the Windsor Spitfires. However, he was only ranked 19th for North American goalies, and there were other goalies ranked higher than him they could have picked. However, this is not a terrible pick, its just not that good. It is not like this pick was as bad as the Adrian Foster pick (ughhhh)

Overall Grade: B-. Without a first round draft pick, the Devils did not have much to work with. They did get a very talented defenseman in Merrill, and added a good offensive defenseman in Joe Faust in the fourth round, but overall did not get much blue- chip talent and I don’t think the two goalies they drafted will ever have a significant impact on the Devils. But I cannot see the future so I do not know what will happen. If I could see the future, I would probably be having somebody write this for me when I win every lottery, but that’s a story for another time.

I would like to say I was extremely upset that Lou could not make a move to get into the top 10 in order to pick up Cam Fowler. I think it could have happened easily if Lou wanted it to happen. Cam Fowler was the steal of the draft, and he ended up in Anaheim, and not in New Jersey. Very dissapointing.

I will be writing the Burns article ASAP. Please contact me at benfeder@gmail.com if you have anything you would like to tell me about.

Thank you!