Staal Inks New Deal
Congrats are in order for Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal. Staal has signed a new four year, $16 million dollar contract with the club that will keep him a Penguin through the 2012-13 season. The new deal will take effect at the beginning of next season.
Staal, who broke into the league as an 18 year old rookie, scored 29 goals in his first season, and has continued to mature as the years go on. So far on the season, Staal has scored 11 goals and picked up 10 assists. His all around play has been a strong point for the Penguins, as Staal is able to play in all aspects of the game, including the penalty kill and power play.
"He's a good young player, we've always wanted to re-sign him. His best years are ahead of him," Penguins general manger Ray Shero said.
Staal recently became the youngest player in NHL history to play in 200 career games. Again, congrats to Jordan on the new deal.
.jpg)
Brown Headed To Montreal
NBH would like to congratulate Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings for being named to the 2009 Western Conference All-Star team.
This will be Brown's first career All-Star appearance of his young NHL career. The Kings captain has 13 goals, including three game winners, and 13 assists this season and has been a great leader for a young Kings squad. He also recorded his first career hat trick on December 11th against the St. Louis Blues.
Brown is not afraid to throw his weight around either as the fifth year forward is known for his physical play as well as his scoring. At the young age of 23, Brown became the youngest captain in Kings history and the first American-born captain in franchise history. Brown is coming off a career year in which he scored 33 goals and had 27 assists. You can be sure making the All-Star team and representing the Kings will be quite the thrill for the young captain.
.jpg)
Honors, All-Star Game And More
It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks in the world of hockey, and Nike Bauer has been right in the middle of it.
Let's start out with the NHL Stars of the month for December. Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins was a co-recipient of the NHL's first star of the month for his tremendous play during Boston's historic start to their season. Thomas went 7-0-0 with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage to go along with a shutout. Five of his seven wins during the month came on the road and for the season Thomas is now 16-4-3 with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage. Just unbelievable numbers for the fifth year netminder.
.jpg)
The second star of the month was Jeff Carter of the Philadelphia Flyers. Carter was tied for the most points in the month with 21, by scoring 11 goals and picking up 10 assists. During the Flyers 14 games last month, Carter scored goals in nine of those contests and now has 27 on the season which is tied for the league lead. He also had a career-best +5 rating in a 7-1 victory against Washington.
 300.jpg)
Switching gears now to the 57th NHL All-Star game that will take place the weekend of January 24th up in Montreal. Fan voting for the starters ended last week and NBH will be represented in the starting lineup by Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, and Scott Niedermayer.
Malkin currently leads the league in scoring with 60 points. He finished with over 1.5 million fan votes. For the season, Malkin has 15 goals and 45 assists.
Kane led all Western Conference players with over 900,000 fan votes. The second year winger leads the Blackhawks in points with 16 goals and 25 assists for a total of 41 points.
Scott Niedermayer will be making his fifth appearance in the All-Star game. He has five goals and 17 assists this season and has helped the Ducks pull into second place in the Pacific Conference.
1.jpg)
1.jpg)
Last, but certainly not least, NBH would like to congratulate Team Canada's World Junior team for winning their fifth straight World Junior Hockey Championship on Monday night.
Team Canada defeated Sweden 5-1 in the gold medal match to tie a Canadian record with five straight championships. Canada went undefeated in this year's tournament and has now won an amazing 29 of their last 30 games during the WJHC.
Team Canada will be looking for a record sixth straight next year when the event will take place in Saskatoon and Regina.
.jpg)
