Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Brad Richards will wear No. 19 with the Rangers. Get used to it. [Rangers]
• Nothing short of a Stanley Cup will do it for New York Rangers fans now that Brad Richards is in town for the next nine seasons. [Hockey This Week]
• An underrated aspect of the Brad Richards signing: John Tortorella ambassador. From Richards on Wednesday in New York: "I can bring a little more experience maybe on the winning side and maybe mediate a little bit with Torts and explain how things work with him sometimes if it gets a little antsy. I'll just kind of monitor that as I go." [NHL.com]
• Another signing by the Florida Panthers, but this one's a winner: Craig Ramsay, former Atlanta Thrashers head coach, joins Kevin Dineen's staff as an assistant. [On Frozen Pond]
• How Wednesday's signings of Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner set up the St. Louis Blues for next season. [St. Louis Game Time]
• Has Jeff Tambellini left the Vancouver Canucks to sign in Switzerland? [Nucks Misconduct]
• Paul Holmgren on the Steven Stamkos to the Flyers talk: "He belongs to the Tampa Bay Lightning and I can't imagine any way he won't continue to belong to them. There is nothing to that." [Courier Post]
• The Washington Capitals ink Troy Brouwer to a two-year deal with $2.35 million each season. Now comes the tricky part: "Now the question becomes what the Caps do to sign final restricted free agent Karl Alzner. Assuming Tom Poti is placed on long-term injured reserve, Washington has $1.7 million left to spend." [Washington Times]
• Mr. Irrelevant offers "Sports Blogging 101 With Ted Leonsis," in which they dissect a recent post by the Washington Capitals owner about Semyon Varlamov and a post that Leonsis deleted from his blog. [Mr. Irrelevant]
• Drew Doughty and the Los Angeles Kings? This might take a while. [LA Times]
• ESPN analyst Matthew Barnaby gets 500 hours of community service in order to get misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment dropped. Any suggestions on how he should complete them? [AP]
• The Vancouver Canucks have set up the Chicago Wolves pretty good for next season. [Pass It To Bulis]
• Tomas Kaberle on the Carolina Hurricanes: "I talked to my brother who had played there before about the team and the organization and he said only good things." Did Tomas nod off before they got to the part about the buyout? [Canes]
• What were the Carolina Hurricanes thinking with the Tomas Kaberle signing and Joe Corvo trade, exactly? [SenShot]
• Real Admiral on Kaberle: "Now nobody's going to sit here and claim that Tomas Kaberle won the Bruins the Stanley Cup. But the fact of the matter is this: the Bruins made the move and they went on to win the Stanley Cup—had they not, we don't know that the results would be the same. But they did and they won, that's good enough for me. So thank you, Tomas Kaberle for your service and best of luck in the future. Regardless of what happens, he'll always be a 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruin and remembered a hell of lot more fondly than [expletive] Doug Mientkiewicz." [Barstool]
• Via Alexa Heinrich of Pucks and Pixels: "The NHL color palette and some of the observations I made while making this graphic. Yes, every logo, including the Jets and Thrashers, has their color palettes included."
• The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed former Islanders defenseman Radek Martinek to a one-year, $2.2 million contract. [Spector]
• Sage advice from Marty Reasoner: "I think being a pro is not an easy thing and playing this game isn't easy. It can humble you really quick." [Islanders]
• The top 10 NHL controversies. [THN]
• Are the Philadelphia Flyers a better team now, Vol. 124. [Philly.com]
• Chatting with former Florida Panthers forward Peter Worrell about hockey in Southern markets: "Atlanta was starting to put down roots and were gaining some good young players through good junior hockey programs there. It's disappointing, an NHL team helps solidify those youth movements. Florida, Georgia and Texas we are all places that are in our first generation of hockey, and as much as my brethren up north would like to think we dominate hockey, it took generations for it to become as big and as popular as it is up there." [The Rat Trick]
• What should the Dallas Stars' lines look like for next season? [Dallas Stars Blog]
• The Toronto Maple Leafs hang on to their Bozak. [PPP]
• The 10 best Boston Bruins games of the 2010-11 season. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]
• Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke on long-term contracts with small salaries on their back end: "These deals that are front-end loaded and have small amounts on the back end in my opinion are designed to circumvent the salary cap. I won't do them, I never have, I'm not going to." [TSN]