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.

There certainly has been a lot of strange salary cap-related moves in the last few days around the league, particularly in the Pacific Division. Players have been waived, demoted, and even promoted in order to maximize spending under this year's $56.7 million cap ceiling.

In San Jose, defenseman Kyle McLaren was sent through waivers in an attempt to have his $2.5 million claimed by another team, but since nobody grabbed him, McLaren was demoted to the AHL Worcester affiliate. It's not an ideal solution for the team or the player, but it does at least allow the Sharks to begin the season below the salary ceiling. In Dallas, promising youngsters James Neal and Mark Fistric were demoted to the Central Hockey League's Oklahoma City Blazers, but then were recalled the following day to take advantage of Sergei Zubov's long-term injury. Anaheim went through most of its salary-shedding a few weeks ago, with the waiving then trading of defenseman Mathieu Schneider, the demotion of Bobby Ryan, and the trading of defenseman Sean O'Donnell. On top of that, the Ducks promoted goaltender David LeNeveu just for a day to take full advantage of the long-term injury exception.

On the other end of the salary spectrum, the Los Angeles Kings' GM Dean Lombardi and forward Patrick O'Sullivan finally finished their contract negotiations, and Lombardi's stubbornness appears to have paid off, as O'Sullivan signed a very affordable 3-year deal. With the signing, Los Angeles should be comfortably above the salary cap floor, though it still looks to be a tough year for the low-spending Kings. With all the promotions, demotions, trades, and signings of the last few days, one thing is clear: the salary cap is changing the way hockey teams operate in dramatic ways, and it's becoming tough for even hardcore fans to understand what their teams are up to. Regardless of silly salary cap math, though, the North American NHL season begins tonight! Hooray!

Here we are once again with another edition of Caption This Photo! Last night, the Avalanche and Kings played a pre-season game at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It's the annual game in Las Vegas and the Avs won the game 4-3 in a shootout. But the great part in about spending the weekend in Vegas is that there is much more to do than watch a hockey game. On Friday night, members of both teams participated in the Luc Robitaille/Shelter for Serenity Celebrity Poker Tournament. It's a great charity event and also game us some interesting pictures of NHLers in front of the poker tables. Take the one above picturing Robitaille, Tony Granato and PJ DeLuca, a member of the Avalanche staff.

Here's the original caption from Getty:

LAS VEGAS - SEPTEMBER 26: (L-R) Former NHL player Luc Robitaille, Colorado Avalanche head coach Tony Granato and PJ DeLuca talk while participating in the Luc Robitaille/Shelter for Serenity Celebrity Poker Tournament at the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino September 26, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Exciting stuff, right? No. Not at all. So let's see what you guys got!

I'll get us started and please leave your own captions in the comments!

Granato: Luc, you had a pair of twos! That was clearly a hand to go all-in on!

Robitaille: That is the LAST TIME that I ever take poker advice from you. Get away from me.

Granato: Now, see you've got 7-5 off-suit. You want to slow play this hand for sure.

DeLuca: Hey... Is that Jessica Biel by the craps table?

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: Jarrett Stoll, C (Trade-EDM); Matt Greene, D (Trade-EDM); Denis Gauthier, D (Trade-PHI); Brad Richardson, W (Trade-COL).

Who's Out: Michael Cammalleri, C/W (Trade-CGY); Lubomir Visnovsky, D (Trade-EDM); Rob Blake, D (FA-SJS); Ladislav Nagy, W (FA-Russia); Brian Willsie, W (FA-COL); Jon Klemm, D (FA-Germany); Dan Clouter, G (Buyout).

What's Changed: Not enough to make the playoffs, likely. The Kings, who finished last in the west, have gone younger and cheaper while the rest of Pacific Division has gotten better around them. Realistically, this figures to be another rough season for Kings fans, who haven't enjoyed a playoff appearance since 2002. But there is a new head coach in town, and at the very least supermodel Rachel Hunter figures to attend some home games this year.

Yesterday, members of the Los Angeles Kings were in Burbank, California paying a visit to everyone's favorite game show, the Price is Right. They did a taping of the show that featured Luc Robitaille, Derek Armstrong, Denis Gauthier, Kyle Calder, Dustin Brown and their mascot Bailey. Drew Carey and Lucky Luc on the same stage. That's a sentence I never thought I would be able to say.

The taping was for, as you might have already figured out, a special hockey themed episode of the show. A legion of Kings fans from the website LetsGoKings.com were there and message boarder robm had a nice synopsis of what went down.

We get to the final show case, and finally, Kings. The Kings were in the first showcase. The showcase started off with Denis Gauthier asking the contestant if he wanted a punch in the face. Interesting. Then, they showed the first part of the showcase which was tickets to a game with penalty box seats during practice along with a crap load of Kings memorabilia. We could've split that among all the fans and been happy. In fact, in retrospect, I should've asked if we could've split it amongst the sixteen of us. Crap. The next portion of the prize was a trip to Switzerland for the hockey championships (next year?) and finally there was a boat. The display of the boat started off with someone (Calder?) starting a sentence and then the rest of the guys throwing him into a boat. Eventually, Army with some help was able to pull Dustin's shirt over his head. Basically, Dustin was bare chested for that part of the show case.

Mmm... Half naked hockey players. Now that's what I'm talking about. They were probably just showing off for the Price is Right models. But in all seriousness, from all accounts it sounded like a good time even though it was a long day. Did you know that the folks in the audience have to show up at 8:45 am for a 1 pm taping? Hoo boy. I can't say I could sit through that! Pictures from the day are after the jump courtesy of Getty Images.

Update (9:56 AM): Puck Daddy reports that the episode will air on November 5th.

The whole topic of Eklund is almost trivial at this point, but it continues to make waves in the blogosphere. I almost feel it's useless to reiterate time and time again as some people will never get it and the rest of us will continue to see through the veil he puts up. But, as reported by Pension Plan Puppets, it turns out that the one, the only, Eklund has been up to no good. I'm sure that comes as a shock to all of you.

The Anonymous Hockey Blogger allegedly grabbed some rumors from Los Angeles Kings beat writer Rich Hammond who writes at InsideSoCal.com. The paragraph in question is as follows in a screenshot from PPP.


And the paragraph that Hammond wrote? As you might have guessed, it's eerily similar. In fact, it's almost exactly the same. Hours later, the paragraph in the screen shot was removed from Eklund's site and replaced with the following:

Another Summer Saturday, another belligerent press statement from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Yesterday, the LA Kings quietly announced the signing of two Russian prospects, center Viatcheslav Voinov and defenseman Andrei Loktionov, who spent last season playing in the Russian Super League. Earlier today, the KHL issued a statement declaring that both players were still under contract with their KHL clubs and that as a result, the KHL was abrogating the moratorium against signing players still under contract with NHL clubs -- with a proviso. Here's the translation, courtesy of the folks at Beyond the Blueshirts:

The Continental Hockey League strictly adhered to the unilaterally declared moratorium on the invitation of hockey players with operating contracts with clubs of the National Hockey League. The NHL has violated the agreement reached earlier in Zurich and on August 28th announced the completion of contracts with hockey players Andrei Loktionov and Vyatcheslav Voinov by the Los Angeles Kings. The specified players have operating contracts with KHL clubs Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl) and Traktor (Chelyabinsk), respectively.

In connection with this the KHL considers itself free of any obligations with respect to the observance of the earlier announced moratorium on the transfer of players. On September 6th at the headquarters of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Zurich a meeting will take place on this topic, after which the Continental Hockey League will define subsequent actions in relation to the National Hockey League.

The well-chronicled romance of Jarrett Stoll and Rachel Hunter now requires an update.

It seems that Stoll's move from Edmonton to Los Angeles has helped accelerate things. First, there was the talk of babies, and now comes word that the two are engaged.

"She is engaged. She's never been happier," her rep told People Magazine.

"She has been with Jarret for a long time and everyone is thrilled for them. He was recently traded to the L.A. Kings, so it's a really exciting time in their life together. He is an amazing guy and she is an amazing girl – they're truly meant to be."

We couldn't be happier, either.

I'll bet Stoll is pretty thrilled. After all, it's not often that a 26-year-old, relatively anonymous hockey player can claim to be engaged to one of the most well-known models on the planet.

Yes, it's gossip. But it's August. I mean, unless Mats Sundin wakes up tomorrow and actually makes a decision related to his hockey career (or lack thereof), we got nothing around here.

The very least we can do is share in the joy of the future Mr. and Mrs. Stoll. Or, at least we could be supremely jealous of the groom-to-be.

Anyone got any ideas for the bachelor party?

(Thanks, Jes!)

Say what you will about Larry Brooks and his Sunday NHL column in the New York Post, there's little doubt that everyone in the league reads it -- which is probably why Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) President and CEO Tim Leiweke decided to turn to Brooks when it came to coming clean about AEG's low-profile loan to William "Boots" Del Baggio.

One of the hottest stories going in the league off the ice during this offseason has been the starting revelation that Del Baggio had some covert help when it came to financing his purchase of a minority interest in the Nashville Predators.

As most folks have read by now, Del Baggio, who seems to have been a little light in the wallet when it comes to his own cash reserves, was able to buy a piece of the Predators thanks to some creative financing from AEG, the owners of the LA Kings, and Craig Leipold, the former owner of the Predators who is now in control of the Minnesota Wild. And, as we've also subsequently discovered, the deal was pulled off without the commissioner knowing a thing about it.

From the outside looking in, it's clear Leipold was looking for any way to grease his skids out of Nashville after losing millions on the Predators, while you don't have to be a rocket scientist to conclude AEG was in on the deal to help Del Baggio gain control of the team and move it to Kansas City where another AEG-owned arena is looking for an anchor tenant.

Needless to say, the commissioner is a little miffed and is promising an investigation.

Enter Leiweke, a sports executive who has been around the block a few times.

While most of the rest of the sports world is preoccupied with the trade of Brett Favre from Green Bay to New York and the possibilities that deal presents going forward, the hockey world has been spending most of this week looking backward at a trade that 20 years ago shook the foundations of the game -- the deal that sent the greatest player in the history of the game, Wayne Gretzky, from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.

I'm having a tough time gathering up many thoughts that haven't been said and written here and elsewhere before. As it turns out, FanHouse had our own little spasm of Gretzky-mania in and around the 19th anniversary of the deal. I looked at the trade from the 50,000 foot-level; our old buddy Greg Wyshynski recounted the reaction of the media from August 9, 1988; and J.P. and Dr. Mirtle put Gretzky's greatness into perspective on the stat sheet. Earlier this week, Kevin Schultz shared the perspective of a hockey fan who got to watch the trade from his highchair.

Over at the NHL Network this week, it's been all Gretzky, all the time, beginning with Wednesday night when it premiered A Day That Changed The Game: August 9, 1988, an hour-long documentary about the deal. The rest of the week has been peppered with plenty of other Gretzky-centric programming, including replays of some of the most significant games from his time in a Kings uniform.

Even when I turned off the television, I couldn't get away from Gretzky. It was on Tuesday evening that I arrived home to find an express mail package on my doorstep from an old college buddy who lives outside New Orleans. Inside were a pair of Todd McFarlane figurines, both Gretzkys, one in an Oilers uniform and the other in his LA duds. Apparently, they still don't know who he is in rural Louisiana, so you can snag them for a buck a piece at the local dollar discount store.

As you've probably been reminded about 1,000 times already, this Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the hockey world's Trade to End All Trades (Also known as Mark Messier Meltdown Day and the Day Canada Died Albeit Temporarily). More commonly, it is known as the day when Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings from the Edmonton Oilers for some guys who were pretty good but never really equated to the value of Wayne FREAKING Gretzky.

August 9, 1988. A day that will live in hockey infamy forever. At least in Canada. Or maybe just Edmonton.

But however you remember it, wherever you were that day when you first heard the news (heck, it might have taken a week to hear about it back in those days with the pony express and all), it's something that hockey fans will remember forever. At least those of us who were old enough to remember it.