Yesterday, Forbes put together yet another list that they know readers love, in this case, the top 10 sports franchises most likely to move. The NHL and the NFL tied for most teams on the list, each with three, while Major League Baseball and the NBA both placed two teams on the list.

The candidates from the NHL aren't much of a surprise. The New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Nashville Predators all made the list, and their problems are more or less familiar to folks who follow the game closely. On Long Island, a team that hasn't won a playoff round in 15 years struggles on with an aging building; in Phoenix, a Canadian refugee is struggling financially in a non-traditional market; while Nashville is just looking for a reliable owner.

But for all of Forbes well-deserved reputation for solid reporting, they are not above getting it wrong sometimes. Here's the Nashville capsule:

Predators ownership went into the season armed with a contract clause with the Nashville officials stipulating they could leave town if the team didn't draw at least 14,000 fans per game to the city-owned Sommet Center. They wound up at just over 14,900 per game. No word on whether owner Craig Leipold tried to channel Rachel Phelps (character who played the Cleveland Indians owner in Major League) in an attempt to sabotage attendance.

Last time I checked, Leipold was the former owner of the Predators, having sold the team and been approved as the new owner of the Minnesota Wild.

I have another idea for Forbes: how about a feature on the top 10 sports franchises likely to disappear in the event of a violent economic contraction? You may even get a chance to see your predictions come true in the short term!

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.

Just when you thought this battle between the KHL and NHL had more posturing than a presidential campaign and enough useless press releases to furnish the cages at your local ASPCA, the Nashville Predators have out done everyone. Today they released their entry for the world renowned 'Most Useless Press Release of the Century' competition. Despite the infancy of the current century, the Predators are still confident in their chances of winning.*

Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that Alexander Radulov has been suspended indefinitely without pay for the 2008-09 season.

Radulov, 22, has one season remaining on his existing entry level contract. During the off-season, he signed a contract with a Russian KHL team in violation of his NHL contract.

So let me get this straight. You're suspending a player who isn't really yours anymore. I mean, technically he's under contract for your team, but he basically gave you the middle finger and hopped on a plane to Russia. So yeah, three months later you're suspending him. Awesome. And the Red Wings just now won the Stanley Cup, right?

But so continues the slow death march-type pace of this whole KHL vs. NHL cold war thingy. I imagine the press releases will keep coming and so will their uselessness. For this blogger, it's all reached critical mass. I'm getting pretty sick of all the bluster and posturing. I'm going to go watch football for a week or two before the NHL season starts. Someone come get me if something important happens, OK?


* - They didn't tell me that, but they might of if I had actually contacted them.

Sergei Kostitsyn just gave an interesting interview to Russian Prospects where he touched on a number of different subjects, but the parts I found most interesting had to do with Alexander Radulov's defection to the KHL and what Kostitsyn thinks about its future.

As it turns out, Kostitsyn and Radulov both vacationed in Turkey early in the offseason, with the two staying in adjacent hotels. According to Kostitsyn, the cat was out of the bag about Salavat's offer to Radulov well before the actual announcement came at the beginning of July.

With two years remaining on his own rookie contract, the reporter was wise to ask the 21-year old winger what he would do if confronted with the same choice:

- What would be your choice in this situation?

- Right the opposite. To leave the best league in the World?.. No, thank you.

- That means you're skeptical about the potential of KHL?

- I disagree with the statement that KHL can catch up and take the lead against the NHL in the nearest future. If it ever happens it is a matter of not few years. Also, it's too early for me to talk about "zeroes" in the contract. I'm still young, will get mine when it's due.

[...]

- Don't you feel regret that even after successful debut in the NHL you'll have to play for Montreal on the rookie contract without the right to re-negotiate it? And we're talking about Russia, where you'd been offered double of "untaxed" at least.

- I'll get over. There is time for everything.

It's been an interesting few days in the continuing standoff between the National Hockey League and Russia's Kontinental Hockey League. Let's recap some events:

• With little fanfare in the North American press, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman traveled to Europe last week to meet with KHL officials to begin negotiations over a new player transfer agreement. KHL President Alexander Medvedev has subsequently said that he presented a formula to determine compensation based on a player's age, how high he was picked in the draft and other "variable" factors.

• While these negotiations were going on, erstwhile Nashville Predators winger Alexander Radulov sat down with the Russian press and let loose with fusillade that would warm the heart of the most ardent Russian nationalist, accusing the NHL of "robbing" Russia of hockey talent since the end of the Cold War.

• On a Summer Saturday when hardly anyone would be paying attention, the folks running the KHL thought it was important for their North American-based press service to issue a news release announcing that the league was "unilaterally" extending its moratorium on signing NHL players, with the proviso that it would be terminated if and when the NHL violated the agreement.
  

• On Monday evening, the Globe and Mail reported that Radulov's KHL team, Salavat Ufa, had made a compensation offer in exchange for the winger, one that the NHL rejected out of hand. Further, the NHL reiterated its position that there would be no international transfer agreement until Radulov's contract with Nashville was honored.

So what are we to deduce from the recent goings on?

The Alexander Radulov scandal has certainly given us something interesting to talk about during a rather slow off-season. While we can understand why a semi-washed up Jaromir Jagr might want to play in the new KHL, it's hard to fathom why a guy like Radulov, with his best years yet to come, would want to flee the NHL early to join a league that has yet to play an actual game that counts.

Over at Russianprospects.com, Alexander opens up on his feelings about the whole matter in a very telling interview. This quote, regarding his possible suspension by the IIHF, certainly jumps up and smacks one in the face.

I can understand both sides. But the position of the Continental Hockey League has significantly more weight: NHL for 15 years brought young players from Europe, first and foremost from Russia. I think that it is time to end this. Simply put: time to stop robbing us!

Oh, the big bad EVIL NHL has been robbing poor Mother Russia blind like a highway robber! A single tear rolls down my cheek.

Radulov should very well understand the concept of PERSONAL CHOICE. Yes, those Russians playing in the NHL made a very personal choice to leave their home country and play in the NHL. Nobody forced Alexander Radulov to play with the Preds in the first place, or play in the Canadian Hockey League as a prospect. Nobody dragged Pavel Bure on a ball and chain to play with the Canucks, right? In fact, I distinctly recall Bure fleeing Russia because it was such a bad place to live and play.

I don't mind that Radulov wants to play at home, but spare us the Cold War rhetoric. kthx!

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 us in North America were trying to find a way to get away from the heat, Paul Kelly, head of the National Hockey League Players Association wasn't being chary about raising the heat when it came to the fight that's beginning to engulf international hockey.

On Saturday, Kelly released a statement protesting an action by the International Ice Hockey Federation suspending six players from international play, including Alexander Radulov, a Russian now currently under contract to play next season for the Nashville Predators in the NHL as well as Salavat Ulaef of the KHL.

Kelly's statement follows in full:

"Yesterday's announcement by the IIHF that they have suspended certain Players from international competition has no basis in fact or law, and constitutes a violation of the rights of these Players. The affected Players are being unfairly singled out in a dispute between the NHL and the KHL over whether to respect each others' contracts. The NHLPA's strong objection to this unilateral action by the IIHF has been registered, and unless this action is reversed, the NHLPA will consider all legal options available.

As has been previously reported, the IIHF, the KHL, the NHL, the NHLPA, and several IIHF Federation members met in Zurich, Switzerland on July 10th to discuss the issues existing between the NHL and KHL, as well as other international ice hockey matters. Contrary to public comment by various attendees, while the meeting was productive and progress was made in several areas, a transfer agreement was not reached by the parties. In the absence of a transfer agreement or a written memorandum of understanding agreed to by all necessary parties, including the NHLPA, the IIHF cannot unilaterally act to sanction members of the NHLPA.

The NHLPA appreciates that the IIHF is taking action in an attempt to resolve the dispute between the NHL and KHL. The NHLPA will support these efforts by the IIHF, but not if individual Players are subjected to improper sanctions."

As if the Alexander Radulov story wasn't giving Preds fans enough heartburn already, it appears that spunky scoring star Steve Sullivan could pretty much be done like Christmas roast.

After suffering a nasty back injury back on February 22, 2007, Sullivan has not seen a single second of NHL action, and missed all of last season recovering and rehabilitating.

While Sullivan has recently done some very light skating, the latest news can't be seen as anything but bad.

"Day-to-day life is a lot better. I still can't play golf. I can only kick a soccer ball for a little while. I have to be careful with what I do, but I am definitely getting stronger. I can see some improvement."

Sully recently hosted a charity golf tournament, and couldn't even make a full swing of a club. This after more than a year of trying to rehab this back injury.

Back injuries can be extremely debilitating, and Sullivan's injury seems to be healing quite slowly. If the guy can't even handle a full swing of a golf club, how could he possibly handle the stress of an NHL game?

At this point, Sullivan is an old man (in hockey terms) and one has to wonder how his back would respond to one solid bodycheck. One shock from a 220lbs defensemen could easily turn his spine into a jigsaw puzzle.

I'd be quite surprised if Sullivan makes it back to the NHL, and it might just be best if he retired while he can still walk without a lot of pain and strain.

Earlier today, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) issued a statement saying that it was investigating the international transfer of six hockey players including Alexander Radulov, the one-time member of the Nashville Predators who has signed a three-year contract with a team in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) despite the fact that he has one year remaining on his contract with the Predators.

Further, the IIHF added that all six players would be suspended from international competition pending the outcome of the investigation. The other players included in the announcement are Columbus Blue Jackets draftee Nikita Filatov, Thomas Mojzis, Jason Krog -- who has signed a contract with the Vancouver Canucks as well as a KHL team, Fedor Fedorov and Phoenix Coyotes dratee Viktor Tikhonov.