When Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Barry Melrose benched defenseman Shane O'Brien for Sunday's game against the New York Rangers in Prague, Tampa Bay Online's Damian Cristodero wondered out loud whether or not the benching wasn't so much for poor play as it was to make sure O'Brien wasn't injured while the team was trying to deal him.

Just 24 hours later, Cristodero was proven right when the Lightning shipped O'Brien and and right wing Michel Ouellet to Vancouver for defenseman Lukas Krajicek and minor league winger Juraj Simek. Needless to say, the move provoked a lot of headscratching in our FanHouse email group. After all, if Tampa Bay's blue line is soft now, how in the world will the addition of Kajicek -- and the rumored interest in free agent defenseman Bryan Berard -- make things better?

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Pavol Demitra, F (FA-MIN); Kyle Wellwood, F (FA-TOR); Steve Bernier, F (trade-BUF); Nolan Baumgartner, D (FA-DAL); Darcy Hordichuk, F (FA-NSH)

Who's Out: Brendan Morrison, F (FA-ANH); Markus Naslund, F (FA-NYR); Trevor Linden, F (retired)

What's Changed: The change in Vancouver involves the loss of veterans Naslund and Linden. Those guys were mainstays of the franchise for many years, and it's not going to be the same without them. However, did the Canucks adequately address their goal-scoring problems? It was a major issue down the stretch as Vancouver collapsed, but it was largely lost in the talk of goaltender Roberto Luongo's own personal slump.

Is Demitra ready to help? On one hand, Jacques Lemaire has a reputation for sucking the life out of the offensive side of hockey. On the other, Demitra was in a contract year, spent much time playing on the same line as 40-goal scorer Marian Gaborik, and still could only produce 15 goals. Lemaire's system can be suffocating, yes, but he also gets a lot out of players who are pretty average.

(A good example of this is Marc Chouinard, who scored 14 goals in 72 games for Minnesota in 2005-2006. He signed in Vancouver, posted two goals in 42 games, and hasn't played in the NHL since.)

Which will it be for Demitra? Canuck fans hope Lemaire - and not Demitra - is to blame for his poor season last year.

According to our friends at Hockey Fights.com, NHL heavyweight Darcy Hordichuk went 7-1-4 in 12 bouts last season with the Nashville Predators. But if one of the folks Hordichuk has been training with this Summer is on the money, a whole lot of other NHL players might want to think twice about taking him on as a dance partner this upcoming season.

As it turns out, Hordichuk, now in Vancouver, spent two weeks this Summer working out with UFC star Chuck Liddell and his trainer John Hackleman in California. Ben Kuzma of The Province has the details:

"It's all about confidence and just seeing how those guys work -- they train, then they're meditating on the beach and running in the hills -- was kind of neat and a good experience," Hordichuk said Wednesday following an informal skate at Burnaby 8-Rinks.

"Obviously, it's lot different than training on the ice. It's violent, but it's a controlled violence and there are things you can learn from hitting the bag with them, wrestling and other stuff to get your stamina up a bit.

Hackleman, who trained Hordichuk at The Pit in San Luis Obispo, told Kuzma that he expects that Hordichuk's punching power will turn out to be five times as effective thanks to his UFC-inspired training. Last season, the Canucks finished third in the NHL in fighting majors, with 68, only two behind league leading Calgary. Something tells me that adding Hordichuk to the mix will make road trips to Vancover all that much more intimidating.

Thanks to J.P. for the pointer.

Most NHL players would probably tell you that while Training Camp(!) fills them with some excitement of the season to come, the grueling two-a-day workouts, bag skates, and defensive drills are about as fun as driving through rush hour traffic. Just get the games going!

Canucks players will be happy to know, then, that their training camp will be a nice, compact TWO days long. Sure, there are still practices to be had between meaningless pre-season games, but the Canucks' vets won't have to put up with too many monotonous workouts before getting some in-game action.

Is this coach Alain Vigneault being nice? Nope, it's the CBA.

According to the CBA, training camp (preseason) can be no longer than 20 days for veteran players. Still, the Canucks are returning to Whistler for their NHL training camp this year, but the on-ice portion there will be two days -- down from three last year at Bear Mountain Resort, near Victoria.

"That's just the way it is," said Vigneault. "In those 20 days we have to get the team ready for the regular season. We have 12 days to practice and we play seven (preseason) games."

Quite honestly, I've never understood why the preseason has to be as long as it is. Today's players, with the exception of a few Kyle Wellwood-types, are in peak condition thanks to grueling off-season training regimens. Do the players really need to spend almost a month playing meaningless pre-season games and practicing the same stuff they've been doing for decades?

Given how short the off-season is for some clubs, especially those teams that go deep into the playoffs, I'm sure many players would appreciate an even shorter preseason. Scrap a couple of exhibition games, especially the ones where it's mostly prospects that won't even make the opening night lineup, and start the actual season a bit sooner.

Of course, that just makes TOO much sense for the NHL to consider, and we can't have them losing precious preseason ticket revenue, can we?

One rumor we keep hearing in and around the Washington Capitals this offseason concerns the disposition of veteran centerman Michael Nylander. With the team almost $2.7 million over the cap after re-signing a passel of players and a logjam up the middle, it's hard for the folks who watch the team not to speculate as to what General Manager George McPhee might have up his sleeve to get under the cap by opening night.

Toss in the fact that Nylander's former agent, Mike Gillis, is now General Manager in Vancouver, and you have a pretty typical recipe for intrigue.

And here's something new for the mix: Our FanHouse colleague Jon "J.P." Press, with an assist from some of his readers, discovered that Nylander put his Potomac, Md. house on the market back on July 17. The discovery is just more fuel for the fire, as former goalie Olie Kolzig's departure from Washington was also presaged by a real estate listing for his home.

When you take a look at the numbers, it's clear that moving Nylander, who was imported from the New York Rangers as a free agent before the start of last season, would solve the team's cap problem in one fell swoop. Coming in at a cap hit of $4.875 million, trading the veteran center would take care of the overage and provide about $2 million in cushion going into the season -- just the sort of cushion that most GMs would like to have come the trade deadline.

But will the Caps need to move Nylander at all? The answer: It depends.

After two weeks of hard deliberating and consultation with family and friends, superstar Mats Sundin decided to have blueberry pancakes for breakfast. This comes as a shock to media and ex-teammates, who figured Sundin for a apple and cinnamon kinda guy. Raspberry remains heartbroken by the news (she should have seen it coming).

Yes, Sundin has yet to make a decision as to whether he'll play in the NHL next season, and has a few teams (Canucks, Leafs, Canadiens) waiting with bated breath as he considers their offers. O NOES!!!

There are far too many people, it seems, that think that Sundin, like every other free agent piece of meat, should have signed a contract at midnight on July 1st. OMGZ, How could Sundin possibly not pounce on the first big contract like a horny dog?

A few examples for your viewing pleasure ...

Sportsnet.ca, who calls Sundin's decision process 'dithering'. Nice. Apparently, making snap decisions is the only way to go.

Jim Kelley, douchebag exemplar, goes off on Sundin for putting a wrench in team's off-season plans. As if it is Mats' fault for GM's not having a Plan B?

Mike Consentino of Sports Full Circle compares this to a "Soap Opera", and says Sundin will look worse than Brett Favre. If this is a "Soap Opera", where are the lurid affairs, shower scenes, and evil twins?

Even our old buddy Greg Wyshynski is questioning Mats Sundin's heart, despite the fact that Sundin is one of the grittiest players in the entire league! WTF?

This doesn't count the 100's of forum posts I've read chastising Sundin for his careful consideration.

Perhaps Fedor Fedorov wants to be known as "the tough" Fedorov.

At 6'4" and 230 pounds, the Devils' pivot is a good two inches and 23 pounds bigger than his more celebrated older brother (the two are pictured at right), and he certainly has a bit of fiestiness to him that Sergei hasn't displayed (on the score sheet, at least) since he last dropped the gloves with Kelly Kisio back in 1992.

The younger Fedorov had 117 penalty minutes in 49 games in the RSL last season, at least fifteen of which came as the result of this scrap with former Washington Capitals wannabe pest Darcy Verot (who, to his own discredit, racked up a whopping 511 PIMs in just 43 games), and has already had his first scrap since coming back across the Atlantic, getting into a dust-up with Devils prospect Harry Young (who had 17 fights in the OHL last season) on the fourth day of Jersey's development camp.

This whole Mats Sundin free agency charade is turning into one big game of Mats stringing along different teams until he finds just the one he wants. It's sort of like he's the only girl at the bar on Saturday night. He gets to choose whoever he damn well pleases -- if he chooses anyone at all.

So now Mats and his agent(s) have gone all Peter Forsberg on us. Yeah, I said it. You know how that kind of thing goes. Mats is playing. Unless he's not. Or maybe he's going back to Europe. Hell, for all we know at this point he might join the Peace Corps and head to [remote African nation or pacific island].

Earlier in the weekend a report from Sweden leaked that Mats was going to become a Canuck. Usually reports like these from a random newspaper in the player's home country can be pretty telling. This, apparently, is not one of those cases. Also apparent is that "Klar for Vancouver" means something to the effect of "Hey look! Breaking News! Mats Sundin to Vancouver!" in Swedish. I'm not really sure about the exact translation. But either way, it was not to be. At least not yet. Earlier today, Sundin's Swedish representative denied the rumors.

(Sidenote: Swedish representative... Wha? How rich do you have to be to have an agent AND a 'Swedish representative??')

Getting back to the point -- this is starting to become ridiculous. The Sundin Charade hasn't yet reached the epic level of Brett Favre's Will He or Won't He Routine but it's getting there. It's already a Code Forsberg and that's only a hop skip and a jump away from Brett. Mats, buddy. Do us all a big favor and figure this all out already because frankly, no one outside of Canada really cares where a 37-year old center who is good but is not going to change the direction of a franchise in a heartbeat is going to play next year.

UPDATE (12:27 AM): Alanah McGinley from Canucks and Beyond has an absolutely epic breakdown of how all this may have gone down. It's a great read. An excerpt, emphasis is hers:

Umicevic's contact in Russia told him that an unspecified KHL club was very interested in signing Sundin (which is certainly believable) and that Sundin's agent turned them down (also believable, sure) because he had already signed with Vancouver. (Ummm... say what?!?).

The Minnesota Wild have been quite busy in free agency.

One thing they never bothered to do was re-sign free-agent center Pavol Demitra. Instead, the Wild watched as the long-rumored deal between Demitra and the division rival Vancouver Canucks was finally made official Thursday. Demitra gets $8 million over two years.

"Throughout his NHL career, Pavol has proven himself to be an offensive contributor wherever he has played," Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis said in a statement. "Pavol is a strong two-way hockey player with excellent quickness and finish. His play-making abilities will be an asset on our power-play and make him a great addition to our top six forwards."

It's worth noting that Gillis is Demitra's longtime agent, so there may be some bias in the above.

I'm a Wild fan, so there may be some bias here, too. That's okay. We're all biased in our own little way.

I don't begrudge Demitra for leaving. In fact, I'm kind of glad he did. He was generally useless offensively for Minnesota in 2007-2008, despite it being a contract year. The 15 goals he scored marked his lowest full-season total as an NHL player, and his 54 points were the lowest he'd tallied in eight seasons.

That said, Demitra is a solid veteran addition for a team in Vancouver that is practically devoid of serious offensive upside. It's likely he will rebound from what was really not much of a season for him in Minnesota.

(Tap of the stick: Dr. Mirtle)

Every Thursday, Earl Sleek will conspire with his pen and scanner to bring you another installment of PuckToons. Hopefully you will find these amusing, relevant, well-drawn, or you're a person who is tolerant towards mediocrity.

A summer without hockey can be a long one for an NHL fan, but at least offseason signings help to keep things exciting. With the recent outbreak of offer sheets to unsigned restricted free agents, though, GM feuds can become awfully entertaining, as well.

The Vancouver Canucks and the St. Louis Blues have been providing the fun this summer, as Greg Wyshynski chronicles at Puck Daddy. The back-and-forth poaching and matching has shown that GMs don't need to be vocal in order to make things personal.

While offer sheet battles do affect team payrolls and may irk Canucks and Blues fans, at least the antics can keep fans of 28 other teams amused while we await the start of hockey in the fall.