NHL Capsules: Bruins return to Boston with Stanley Cup
BOSTON (AP) — The Stanley Cup glistened in the morning sun, the nearly 35-pound symbol of NHL supremacy raised high over the head of 255-pound Zdeno Chara.
Then, the captain of the champion Boston Bruins lowered it to his knees. He patiently answered reporters' questions after a night of little sleep and much joy on a flight from one side of North America to the other — from the disappointed city of Vancouver to the title town of Boston.
For the 6-foot-9 defenseman and his gritty teammates, the first club to win three seven-game series in a single postseason, the heavy lifting was over.
The celebration was on.
"We are pretty OK with that weight," Chara said Thursday, the Cup in his grasp just as it was when he was the first to hoist it after the Bruins' 4-0 win in Game 7 over the Canucks less than 12 hours earlier.
He walked over to some of the about 500 fans who had gathered outside TD Garden, where the Bruins were 3-0 in the series, outscoring the Canucks 17-3. He let some of them touch the coveted trophy that hadn't been in Bruins hands in 39 years.
"It's unbelievable. It's very exciting for the whole city, for us, for the whole organization. It's a very special day," said Chara, one of the NHL's top defenseman but never a champion in his previous 12 NHL seasons. "We're very honored to be here. We're so happy."
They won with Brad Marchand, a rookie pest, and Patrice Bergeron, who missed most of the 2007-08 season with a concussion. Each had two goals in the clincher.
First-line right wing Nathan Horton was on the ice to hold the Cup but hadn't played after sustaining a severe concussion on a late hit by defenseman Aaron Rome just 5:07 into Game 3. The Bruins did have midseason pickups Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly, playoff scoring leader David Krejci, and, of course, feisty, focused goalie Tim Thomas.
"We went out there on a mission, came back champions," Marchand said. "We proved we were the best team in the world."
They did it with team depth and determination.
"We're blue collar, not flashy," hard-hitting right wing Shawn Thornton said. "We work hard. We take pride in that."
The Bruins hadn't won the title since 1972 and that team's name was erroneously engraved on the Cup as the BQSTQN BRUINS. This year, Thomas provided the Os — as in the number of goals he allowed in two of the last four games against the Canucks.
He gave up just eight goals in the seven games to the highest-scoring team in the regular season — the same number Vancouver's Roberto Luongo allowed in Game 3 alone.
"After the game, I was kind of in shock. I still am to some extent," the normally unshakable Thomas said after stepping down from one of the two buses that took the team on the short ride from Logan International Airport, where the plane landed at about 8:30 a.m.
"We're tired from the series," Thomas said. "It took everything we had to win this. I'm sure it will sink in some time, but it hasn't completely yet. You get here, you see the fans, it's starting to sink in a little."
There will be many more fans lining the streets at a parade scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Boston's seventh in the past decade following championship celebrations for the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics.
But their place in history as the sixth Bruins team to take the title and the third Original Six club to win the Cup in the last four seasons wasn't the first thing on their minds as they flew home.
"It wasn't quiet, that's for sure," said coach Claude Julien, pumping his fist as he left the bus and flashing a wide smile rarely seen in public. "They deserve to celebrate. And it's their Cup and it's Boston's Cup and, as far as I'm concerned, they could do whatever they want."
For the city, the Bruins' triumph completes the championship quartet. Each of the four major pro teams have won titles in the past seven seasons — the Patriots in the 2005 Super Bowl, the Red Sox in 2007, the Celtics in 2008 and now, the Bruins.
Some fans are savoring this one even more than those others.
"This is a hockey city," said Neil Cashman, 53, of Andover, who was at the Garden on Thursday. "Everybody thinks it's a basketball city, a baseball city — it's a hockey city. If you talk to people, you find that out. We were the first team in the NHL from America, and we take it real seriously here."
Motorists honked horns as they drove by. Fans took pictures by the statue of Bobby Orr in full flight after his Cup-winning, overtime goal in 1972.
Emotions overflowed for another fan, Tom Collins.
"It sank in when I got home. I actually started crying," said Collins, 44, of Quincy, who said he was the man who put a Bruins jersey on a statue of President John Adams in the city just south of Boston.
Another Adams, Charles F., was the first president of the Bruins, from 1924-36. The current president, Cam Neely, was drafted in 1983 by Vancouver and traded in 1986 to Boston, where he scored 50 goals three times, and dished out punishing hits ... but never captured the Cup.
On Thursday, Neely was one of the first off his bus, followed by general manager Peter Chiarelli and Julien before the players — some wearing their white championship hats and still sporting their playoff beards — set foot in the Garden parking lot.
"We got it done," Julien said. "We brought it back to Boston and this is where it belongs."
The Cup itself had an eventful trip, being passed around by the players.
"We didn't need a passport" for it, Marchand joked. "We didn't need to buckle it in. It was pretty cool."
Despite another 2,500-mile flight — the Bruins' sixth of the series — Thomas wasn't complaining.
"It was great," he said. "Most of our plane rides during the season we're getting ready for the upcoming game. This five-hour flight wasn't the case. We had the Stanley Cup on the flight with us. We could truly relax and enjoy the accomplishment that we did."
The silvery symbol of the NHL champions will make many more journeys. Each player gets to keep it for at least one day. Thomas plans to take it to Flint, Mich., the blue-collar town about 70 miles northwest of Detroit where he was born. He'll show it to family and friends he hasn't seen in a while.
"I've been busy," he said, "trying to accomplish some goals."
He already has the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the postseason, and could add his second Vezina Trophy, which goes to the NHL's best goalie, next Wednesday.
But before the players start touring with their hard-earned hardware, they had more immediate needs.
"I need a nap," Thornton said, "I haven't slept."
Bruins victory parade to be on Saturday
BOSTON (AP) — The route is set for the Bruins' victory parade.
The Stanley Cup champions will board duck boats for the parade that will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the TD Garden. The parade will proceed down Causeway Street and turn left on Staniford Street, then turn left on Cambridge Street, right on Tremont, and right on Boylston before ending in Copley Square.
City officials said Thursday that traffic will be shut down on the parade route starting at 9 a.m. and parking restrictions will be in effect.
Officials are strongly urging parade-goers to use public transportation. The MBTA says it will offer bus and subway service comparable to a weekday rush hour throughout Saturday.
The T will also offer a special $10 round trip ticket on commuter rail.
Seven arrested in Boston following Bruins victory
BOSTON (AP) — Five men arrested during celebrations of the Bruins' Stanley Cup championship have appeared in Boston Municipal Court.
Police say one man encouraged a crowd near TD Garden to turn on police and dared officers to arrest him. Authorities say that when at first they didn't, he shouted obscenities, took off his shirt and threw his belt at the officers. He was arrested on charges including inciting a riot and disorderly conduct. Bail was set at $500.
Three men have been charged with malicious destruction of property. They're accused of smashing mirrors on parked cars. They were released Thursday on personal recognizance.
A fifth man was arraigned for assault and battery after allegedly shoving a police officer.
Two other arrests were reported. Police say most revelers behaved responsibly.
Vancouver Canucks
Nearly 150 hurt in Vancouver riot following loss
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Almost 150 people required hospital treatment and close to 100 were arrested after rioters swept through downtown Vancouver following the Canucks' loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
Vancouver Coastal Health spokeswoman Anna Marie D'Angelo said Thursday that three stabbing victims had been admitted and a man was in critical condition with head injuries after a fall from a viaduct. Rioting and looting left cars burned, stores in shambles and windows shattered over a roughly 10-block radius of the city's main shopping district.
It was similar to the scene that erupted in 1994 following the Canucks' Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers, but the latest violence shocked Canadians unaccustomed to such riots.
Police Chief Jim Chu said nine officers were injured, including one who required 14 stitches after being hit with a brick and some who had bite marks. He said 15 cars were burned, including two police cars. A local business leader estimated more than 50 businesses were damaged.
Chu called those who incited the riot "criminals and anarchists" and officers identified some in the crowd as the same people who smashed windows and caused trouble through the same streets the day after the 2010 Winter Olympics opened.
"These were people who came equipped with masks, goggles and gasoline," Chu said. "They had a plan."
In Boston, five men arrested during celebrations of the Bruins' win appeared in municipal court Thursday. Police said one man encouraged a crowd near TD Garden to turn on police and dared officers to arrest him. Authorities said he shouted obscenities, took off his shirt and threw his belt at the officers. He was arrested on charges including inciting a riot.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said "organized hoodlums bent on creating chaos incited the riot" in his city, while city councilor Suzanne Anton said the rioting has shaken Vancouver and overshadowed the hockey team's playoff run.
"I would never have believed that Vancouver would be a city where there would be looting," she said. "I just feel such a profound sense of disappointment. We like to think we live in paradise here in Vancouver. It's hard to imagine here."
Anton said there was no loss of life or police brutality. She also said dozens of volunteers patrolled the city's entertainment strip on Thursday, picking up debris and garbage.
One of the volunteers, Al Cyrenne, carried his broom downtown to clean up the damage.
"I'm all choked up," he said, as he surveyed broken windows. "I can't believe the scene. Just talking about it brings me to tears. I can't believe the people of Vancouver would do this. It's just a few idiots."
While police said it was mostly young people responsible for the mayhem, an equally young crew turned up in jeans and rubber gloves, some with Canucks jerseys, ready to help clean up.
Dozens of remorseful and dismayed commuters crowded around the smashed display windows at the flagship Hudson Bay store, a historical building that was the first focus of rampaging looters Wednesday night. Someone had tacked a rough, hand-painted sign that read: "On behalf of my team and my city, I am sorry." People waited in line to sign it.
Across the street at London Drugs, the windows were also smashed.
Wynn Powell, the president and CEO of London Drugs, estimated the damage there at $1 million alone. He said the looting wasn't the random consequence of a mob mentality.
"The rioters attacked us for two hours before they got into the store," he said. "They were down attacking the stores of Vancouver to try to steal product."
Television footage showed a man being beaten after he tried to stop looters, who were seen grabbing T-shirts and anything else they could get their hands on. Young women were seen with MAC cosmetics, with one carrying out part of a mannequin. The landmark building was filling with smoke as people, their faces covered in bandannas, continued the violence.
The looters turned their attention next on a Future Shop store a few blocks away, smashing windows and flooding up the stairs to the second-floor store, only to turn around quickly. One witness said police were at the top of the stairs.
Sears and Chapters stores were also looted, their glass fronts smashed.
"What I've seen is a complete disgrace," said Beth Hope, 28, who is originally from England but has lived in Vancouver the last two years. "I'm a Canucks fan, but my jersey's in my bag. I'm ashamed to be a fan right now."
NBA star Steve Nash, from nearby Victoria and the brother-in-law of Canucks forward Manny Malhotra, sent a Twitter message imploring fans to stop the violence. "We're a great city and have a lot of class. Our team is great and our championship will come. Soon," Nash wrote.
Some seemed to revel in the rampage, recording the vandalism on cell phones and video cameras. A few congratulated those who tried to attack police, and others erupted with cheers every time something was damaged.
Authorities asked that those with photos and videos upload them to a police website, and a Facebook group has collected images of rioters that could lead to arrests.
Ryan Arndt, who works in social media by day, was among the crowds of fans who packed the streets. He returned home as the crowd began to grow unruly and hours later created the public Facebook group to share photos of possible crimes being committed.
-- Jeremy Hainsworth
On Hockey: Riots overshadow Canucks fans' Game 7 heartbreak
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The plywood sheets filling in for shattered windows on the historic Hudson's Bay Co. department store Thursday were turned into a canvas for expressing a city's embarrassment.
On a spectacularly sunny day after a dreary, disturbing night in Vancouver, hundreds inscribed messages and drew pictures on the wood. It was a form of group therapy for a city recovering from extensive rioting after the Canucks' blowout loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Some messages were hockey-centric: "So Proud of Our Boys." ''Real Fans Don't Riot." ''We'll Get 'Em Next Year."
Others were pure apology: "On behalf of my team and my city, I'm sorry."
Overturned cars, raging bonfires, hospitalized fans and hooliganism are likely to be the lingering memory of the Canucks' agonizing failure on the precipice of their first Stanley Cup title.
And that's a shame. Vancouver's citywide pain after the Canucks' 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins already was heartbreaking enough without the ugliness that followed.
A year after Vancouver hosted a successful Winter Olympics, this gorgeous, cosmopolitan city on the Pacific coast was ever so close to a championship it desired perhaps even more than those gold medals won by the Canadian hockey team on the Canucks' rink in February 2010.
Vancouver was eager to see the Stanley Cup in Stanley Park, the green-and-blue oasis just off downtown. Both are named after Lord Frederick Stanley, the former Governor General of Canada who donated the iconic trophy in 1892 — and whose statue in Vancouver's park wore a Canucks jersey and held a replica Cup and a hockey stick during the playoff run.
Not counting the 1915 Vancouver Millionaires, whose names are inscribed inside the bowl for winning the Stanley Cup before the NHL existed, a Vancouver team has never really won anything much bigger than the B.C. Lions' five CFL Grey Cups.
Boston ended its 39-year Stanley Cup drought on Vancouver's ice.
The Canucks are at 41 years without a championship after their Game 7 flop.
"I think it would probably mean even more than the Olympics," said Dan Hamhuis, the Vancouver defenseman and British Columbia native who missed the series' final six games with an injury. "I don't know how you compare the two, but the Olympics are a two-week tournament. The Canucks are part of people's everyday lives in B.C. and Vancouver. We're proud to represent this part of the world."
Vancouver was the NHL's best regular season team by far, racking up a franchise-record 54 victories and 117 points while winning the Presidents' Trophy. The Canucks led the league in goals scored (262), fewest goals allowed (185) and power-play efficiency (24.3 percent), and were second in penalty-killing success (85.6 percent).
Vancouver has the NHL's past two scoring champions, supremely smooth Swedes Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who also are likely to win consecutive Hart trophies as the league's MVPs next week. The Canucks also have the NHL's winningest goalie, Olympic hero Roberto Luongo, behind the NHL's deepest group of defensemen.
How could the Canucks lose?
In spectacular fashion, as it turned out.
After Vancouver reached its first finals in 17 years, the Canucks beat Boston in the first two games, spurring talk about parade routes and parties. Vancouver then lost four of the next five games in blowouts, becoming just the third team since 1966 to blow a 2-0 lead in the finals. Game 7 was barely competitive, with Boston goalie Tim Thomas easily turning away 37 mostly punchless shots while the confident Bruins simply outworked the nervous Canucks.
So while Boston planned yet another celebration, Vancouver quietly suffered — and a few hundred criminals went to work.
Only three NHL teams have longer championship droughts: Los Angeles and St. Louis have never won the Cup in 44 years, and Toronto also hasn't won since 1967. Vancouver's drought is matched by the Buffalo Sabres, its expansion partner in 1970.
Fans older than most of Wednesday's rioters still remember the violence that followed Vancouver's Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers in the 1994 finals — more than $1 million in damage, roughly 200 injuries and similar vandalism.
Yet the Canucks still unite a culturally diverse city with fans of every age and ethnicity. Canucks car flags are as ubiquitous as Lakers flags in Los Angeles — and until the rioting, the downtown fan gatherings for every Canucks playoff game were peaceful celebrations.
"We know what this team means to this city, because we're all part of this community," captain Henrik Sedin said. "We're proud to live here, to be part of it. My kids are Canadian. This is their home, and it's mine now."
The Canucks have sold out every game and made fans across the world with a flair that's not limited to their striking blue-and-green jerseys. The team plays aggressive, entertaining hockey in a league still battling trap defenses and dominant goalies, who drive away casual fans with their monotonous success.
And then a dominant goalie shut out the Canucks in Game 7.
While the exhausted Canucks drove home to their posh Yaletown apartments and large suburban houses, the downtown riot raged. By dawn, Vancouver had largely put itself back together.
Volunteer cleanup crews aggressively reversed the riot damage, and glaziers had already replaced windows on the Toronto Dominion Tower.
Vancouverites gathered in outdoor cafes and walked the streets in tank tops. A chalk artist drew large peace signs on the Granville Street sidewalk near the riots' epicenter.
The Canucks are likely to be contenders again next season. This cool Canadian city and its flashy team will be back.
Greg Beacham covered the Stanley Cup finals for The Associated Press.
Other Stanley Cup News
Game 7 earns best TV rating for NHL game since '74
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boston Bruins' Stanley Cup-clinching victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night earned the highest television rating for an NHL game in 37 years.
Boston's 4-0 win in Game 7 on NBC earned a 4.8 rating and 8 share. That's the best since a 7.6/27 for Boston-Philadelphia in 1974.
It's up 2 percent from last year's deciding Game 6 between Chicago and Philadelphia and up 12 percent from the most recent Game 7 in 2009 between Detroit and Pittsburgh.
The seven games averaged 4.6 million viewers on NBC and Versus, the most for a series split between network and cable involving a Canadian team.
The game earned a 43.4/64 in Boston, the best for a hockey game since records began being kept for the market in 1991. That's higher than any game in the Celtics' last two NBA finals.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time.
Other NHL Capsules
Kolzig returns to Capitals as associate coach
WASHINGTON (AP) — Olie Kolzig left the Washington Capitals on less-than-ideal terms after nearly two decades as a popular and productive goalie. Clearly, that rift is a thing of the past.
The man known as "Olie the Goalie" returned to the Capitals on Thursday as their associate goaltender coach. The team also announced that Dave Prior will come back in his past old role of director of goaltending and NHL goaltender coach.
"Time heals all wounds," Kolzig said on a conference call with reporters. "The more I was removed from a few years ago and being retired and getting a better perspective on things ... you realize it's a business and things were handled in a business fashion."
Kolzig played with the Capitals from 1989-2008 and holds most team goalie records, including 711 games played, 301 wins and 35 shutouts. He was a two-time NHL All-Star while with the Capitals and won the 2000 Vezina Trophy for the league's top goalie.
But at the trade deadline during the 2007-08 season, the Capitals acquired Cristobal Huet, who became the team's No. 1 goalie, supplanting Kolzig during the stretch run that put Washington into the playoffs. Kolzig wasn't pleased by the demotion and he left during the following offseason.
"You move on," Kolzig said, adding that he spent time with team owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee at a convention for Capitals fans last year.
"There's no ill will toward each other," Kolzig said.
He was a teammate of some current Capitals, including captain Alex Ovechkin, and said there will be a bit of an adjustment to his new job.
"Once I get in there, I'll have to remind myself I'm a coach now and not a player, and maybe back off some of the things I might have said as a player," Kolzig said.
While away, he kept tabs on his former club.
And Kolzig said he noticed some things while watching the Capitals make earlier-than-anticipated exits from the playoffs the past two years after finishing each regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference.
"They have too much talent to not go further than they have," Kolzig said.
In 2009-10, when Washington won the Presidents' Trophy then lost in the first round to the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens, Kolzig said: "I think the big thing was they didn't have the killer instinct."
And this season, Kolzig explained, "I think they need to find a good balance of offense and defense."
He referred to Prior as "sort of a father-figure for me."
Prior was Washington's goaltending coach from the 1996-97 season to 2008-09.
He comes back in place of Arturs Irbe, whose departure was announced a week ago after two seasons coaching the Capitals' goalies.
McPhee said Prior "did a real good job for us there before" and that Kolzig was the "first one who came to mind" when it came to having someone else on staff.
As of now, the Capitals have three young goalies who potentially could be vying for playing time: Michal Neuvirth, Semyon Varlamov and Braden Holtby.
"My biggest advice would be, 'Play your game,'" Kolzig said.
-- Howard Fendrich
AP source: Wild name Yeo new head coach
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Wild have made Mike Yeo their new head coach, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.
The person spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the hire. The Wild called a Friday news conference at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, their home arena.
Twin Cities radio station KFAN-AM first reported Yeo's hire.
Yeo will be the third coach in club history, replacing Todd Richards. He led the Wild's top farm club in Houston to the American Hockey League finals this season, his only year as coach of the Aeros. Richards was fired after two years without a playoff appearance.
The 37-year-old Yeo spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, helping them win the Stanley Cup championship in 2009. He has never been an NHL head coach, like Richards, but his NHL experience was more significant than his predecessor.
Yeo played four seasons of junior hockey in Canada and five seasons with the Aeros in the minor leagues before a career-ending knee injury. The native of North Bay, Ontario, was an assistant for six seasons with Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before making the jump to the Penguins in 2005.
Jacques Lemaire was the Wild's only coach from their inception in the fall of 2000 until he resigned in April 2009. Under Richards, the Wild were often undermanned, with injuries piling up and a lack of top prospects who were contributing, and they had an eight-game losing streak last March and finished in 12th place in the Western Conference.
The Wild went 39-35-8, 11 points out of the final playoff spot. The 44-year-old Richards went 77-71-16 in his two seasons.
The Wild have made the playoffs three times in their 10-year history: 2003, '07 and '08. They've passed the first round once.
They are still one of the most strongly supported teams in the league, but for the first time in their existence did not sell out every game this season.
General manager Chuck Fletcher — hired in May 2009 — said after firing Richards that fan frustration with the continued mediocrity didn't fuel the change.
"My job is to put a winning hockey team on the ice and build a team that ultimately gets to where we all want to get to," Fletcher said. "When we do that, the season tickets will follow. This was not a reactionary move."
Andrew Brunette, John Madden and Antti Miettinen — three of the top 10 scorers this season — lead the list of unrestricted free agents, and the roster is sure to turn over. With little room under the salary cap, trades could be coming.
-- Dave Campbell
Avalanche promote Deadmarsh to assistant coach
DENVER (AP) — Colorado has promoted former Avalanche player Adam Deadmarsh to assistant coach. Deadmarsh, who helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 1996, has spent the last two seasons overseeing video and development.
The Avs also brought in Tim Army on Thursday to serve as an assistant coach in charge of video. Army has been the head coach at Providence College for the past six seasons.
Steve Konowalchuk, an assistant for Colorado the last two seasons, has left to become head coach with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League.
On Wednesday, the Avs signed Swedish forward Joakim Lindstrom to a one-year contract. The 27-year-old Lindstrom was with Skelleftea HC of the Swedish Elite League last season and led the league in scoring with 60 points.
Winnipeg's NHL team has no name yet; arena does
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — The new NHL team in Winnipeg still doesn't have a name, and it may not have one before the league's draft next week.
The president of team owner True North Sports and Entertainment had predicted the team would have a name before Tuesday's board of governors meeting. That won't happen, and it might not happen until after the June 24 draft.
Among the suggestions are Winnipeg Jets — the name before the club moved to Phoenix in 1996 — and Manitoba Falcons for the first team to win an Olympic gold medal in hockey, the Winnipeg Falcons.
The arena, however, is keeping its name of MTS Center. The telecom company MTS Allstream agreed to a new deal announced Thursday that runs until 2021. The arena was home of the AHL's Manitoba Moose.
Predators sign Finnish right wing to two-year deal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed right wing Juuso Puustinen to a two-year, two-way contract. The Predators announced the deal Thursday.
Puustinen, 23, played last season with HPK of the Finnish Elite League and ranked fourth with 26 goals. The 6-foot-2, 187-pound forward played the previous two seasons with the Espoo Blues. The Kuopio, Finland, native played for Kamloops in the Western Hockey League between 2006 and 2008 after being drafted by Calgary in the fifth round of the 2006 draft.
He has played for Finland internationally, including in 2006 when he won a silver medal at the Under-18 World Championships. He was named one of Finland's top three players at the 2008 World Junior Championships.
Devils acquire Noreau from Wild
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey Devils acquired Maxim Noreau from the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, in exchange for forward David McIntyre.
Noreau, 24, will enter his fifth professional season in 2011-12. He split each of the past two seasons with Minnesota and Houston of the AHL. The 6-foot, 195-pound defenseman had two goals and ten assists in the AHL postseason, as Houston reached the Calder Cup finals.
McIntyre, 24, had been with the Devils since Feb. 3, 2009, after his rights were acquired from Anaheim.
Wild, Devils swap minor leaguers
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Wild have traded defenseman Maxim Noreau to the New Jersey Devils for center David McIntyre in a swap of minor leaguers.
The 24-year-old McIntyre had 12 goals and 18 assists for the Albany Devils in the American Hockey League last season. He played in college at Colgate and was a fifth round pick of Dallas in the 2006 draft.
The 24-year-old Noreau ranked third in the AHL for scoring among defensemen with 10 goals and 44 assists last year. He also skated in five games for the Wild last year.
Hurricanes agree to two-year contract with Harrison
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes have agreed to a $1.4 million, two-year contract with defenseman Jay Harrison. Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford announced Thursday that Harrison will earn $650,000 next season and $750,000 in 2012-2013.
The 28-year-old Harrison played 72 games last season, with three goals, seven assists and 10 points. He was chosen by Toronto in the third round of the 2001 draft and signed with the Hurricanes as a free agent in July 2009.
