Jets announce preseason schedule, True North donates $1 million, NHL News

Winnipeg Jets News

The Jets announced their preseason schedule today (barring a lockout). Which game are you most looking forward to?

Winnipeg 2012 NHL Pre-Season Schedule:

September 24, 2012 – @ Edmonton Oilers (Rexall Place)

September 25, 2012 vs. Edmonton Oilers (MTS Centre)

September 29, 2012 – vs. Boston Bruins @ Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon, SK

September 30, 2012 – vs. Boston Bruins (MTS Centre)

October 2, 2012 – @ Minnesota Wild (Xcel Energy Center)

October 4, 2012 – vs. Minnesota Wild (MTS Centre)

October 6, 2012 – vs. Ottawa Senators (MTS Centre)

Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation donates $1,050,076 to 44 local children’s charities.

From the official press release.

“Today, the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation is proud to announce the donation of $1,050,076 to 44 local children’s charities.

The True North Foundation serves as the entity through which The Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club performs its philanthropic responsibilities to the Province of Manitoba. It fulfills this obligation by supporting registered charities within our community who focus on the youth of our province and by developing and operating programs that serve disadvantaged kids.

Money for the foundation is raised through 50/50 sales at all Winnipeg Jets home games, the sale of Jets License Plates, the Mike Keane Celebrity Hockey Classic, the Ranger Golf Tournament, the 2010-11 Gala Dinner along with various donations and third party events.

“To reach over the million dollar mark in monies donated to charities is a great accomplishment for the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation,” stated foundation Executive Director Dwayne Green. “This would not be possible without the generosity of those who support our fundraising activities, our event sponsors, our passionate fans and all our volunteers and our internal staff and management who get behind all of our events. They are the reason we are able to help so many children in need around the province.”

The Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation operates under the direction of Dwayne Green, Julie Chartier, and Murray Cobb in partnership with a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors who include Mark Chipman, Patti Chipman, Robert Thorsten, John Olfert, Norva Riddell, Blake Fitzpatrick, Brian Lerner, George Sigurdson, Gerry Price, Kevin Chief and Kevin Neiles.”

It’s truly remarkable how much money the return of the Jets has brought to almost fifty different charities. In comparison, the Manitoba Moose Yearling Foundation raised about $2.5 million in fifteen years.

National Post: Two weeks to fix a franchise: Winnipeg Jets. Noah Love doesn’t offer many suggestions on how to fix it, but to simply stay the course and be patient. Jets fans, all you need, is just a little patience, ooooohhhh yeahhhhh, just a little patience, yeahhhhhh, yeahhhh.

Star Tribune: Housley to coach U.S. junior national team. Housley appeared on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show last year and indicated that he wanted to get back into coaching. He had been coaching Stillwater High School boys team for the past eight seasons. Congratulations to Phil Housley on his new position.

NHL Draft

Globe & Mail: Profiling the NHL’s 2012 draft class: The Top 10. James Mirtle takes the rankings from Craig Button, Corey Pronman and McKeen’s Hockey to create an aggregate of the top ten. Mikhail Grigorenko ends up at number nine.

NHL News

SI.com: Free agency, trade rumors heating up. It’s that time of year and the Red Light blog has a nice roundup of the rumor mill.

The Hockey News: Rick Nash talks heat up. Is Rick Nash the new Tomas Kaberle? I hope not, we’ll have to endure another two years of Rick Nash rumors for that to happen.

CSN Philly: Holmgren: 50/50 chance Jagr returns to Flyers. Jagr seemed like a perfect fit in Philadelphia, it would be hard to leave the wing of Claude Giroux. Sarah Baicker cites Montreal as a possible destination to play with fellow Czech Tomas Plekanec.

CSN Bay Area: Report: Sharks sign Stuart. Three years at $3.6 million per season. The Sharks had acquired the rights to Brad Stuart from Detroit for Andrew Murray and a conditional 7th round pick after Stuart stated he would like to play in California to be closer to his family.

Sportsnet.ca: Predators’ Radulov heading back to KHL. Don’t let the door kick you in the rear on the way out.

MLive.com: Will Red Wings’ Jiri Hudler have surprising appeal if he hits the free agent market next month? Earlier today Ezra Ginsburg put Hudler on his list of players the Jets could target. My worry is that the David Jones contract (4 years, $16 million total) might have set the market too high for that calibre of player.

Vancouver Sun: Sammy Pahlsson returns home to Sweden, signs with Modo. The 34 year old returns home after eleven NHL seasons. A Stanley Cup winner with Anaheim in 2007, Pahlsson made a name for himself that season on the checking line with Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen. Additionally, he was a part of Swedens gold medal winning hockey team at the ’06 Olympics in Turin.

Ottawa Citizen: For NHL GMs, finding work-life balance the toughest task of all. These guys work around the clock ensuring they are putting contenders on the ice.