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!

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: Dan Boyle, D (Trade-TBL); Brad Lukowich, D (Trade-TBL); Rob Blake, D (FA-LAK); Jeff Friesen (FA-tryout)

Who's Out: Brian Campbell, D (FA-CHI); Matt Carle, D (Trade-TBL); Craig Rivet, D (Trade-BUF); Curtis Brown, C (FA-Switzerland)

What's Changed: A surprising amount, actually, considering that the San Jose Sharks had the second-most standing points in the league last year and surrendered the third-fewest goals-against. How do the Sharks plan on improving on those results? Simple -- fire the head coach and replace half the players on the blueline.

Out the door went coach Ron Wilson, who had improved the Sharks' regular season points total each year since the lockout, but had the misfortune to lose back-to-back-to-back games in the second round of the playoffs three years in a row. New coach Todd McLellan comes from the assistant coach position with the Detroit Red Wings, and Sharks fans are hopeful that he can bring some of that postseason success they've been starving for. Also, the three new defensemen -- Blake, Boyle, and Lukowich -- all come in with cup rings. Have the Sharks improved with all this postseason experience, or were they actually better off last year?

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.

With NHL training camps opening up in little more than a week, a few teams are still looking to shed salary to get under the $56.7 million cap. A week ago, Dan Wood of the OC Register Duck's Blog posted a list of overcommitted teams, which includes the Anaheim Ducks, the Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks and Washington Capitals. "The amounts in question range from a few hundred thousand dollars to as much as $4.5 million."

Now I'm not really an expert on the CBA and the salary cap, which is entering its fourth season in the league (don't turn to your cartoonist for technicalities), but I do know there is a Long-Term Injury allowance that lets teams temporarily outspend the salary cap while a player is unable to dress.

While I fully expect that the teams in question this summer will fix their salary issues through traditional means (trades and expensive demotions), I do wonder what the future has in store for spend-happy general managers. Will they ever get to the point where a budget-dictated surgery becomes a cap-cheating strategy? It's unlikely, I suppose, but if it ever does happen, I hope they'll now cut me in on the cap savings.

Jeremy Roenick has been one of the game's greatest characters throughout his stories career, so is it any surprise that he'd want to continue being a character after his playing days are done?

While I think Roenick would be awesome as a color commentator or studio guy, it seems that he's got his mind on other outlets for his need for public adoration: Professional Acting.

After previous bit appearances on Hack and Ghost Whisperer, Roenick will continue to develop his thespian skills with a small role in a new series called Leverage.

"Leverage," which debuts in December, stars Academy Award-winner Timothy Hutton as he leads a highly-skilled team of thieves, hackers and grifters who act as modern-day Robin Hoods.

"I'm pretty proud that's [Roenick's scene] the first scene of the series opener," Roenick said. "I play a security guard who gets duped by a woman. I have five, six or seven lines."

"I'm not nervous at all," Roenick said. "The tricky part is finding the right roles and to look natural. You've got to get the mannerisms and facial expressions down. If you're too stiff, you're not believable. The best actors are the most believable. They completely change their personality. My role is smaller, but it's still difficult."

Yes, it helps to have friends in high places, and Roenick has "leveraged" his connections to get him these roles.

And if the acting career doesn't take off, perhaps JR ought to try out for Dancing With the Stars!

Late last summer, we brought you the story of Leafs (and ex-Sharks) winger Mark Bell, the young man who was foolish enough to drive around town after a long night of quaffing beers at the bar.

As you might expect with a drunk driver, Bell roared around Silicon Valley at very high speed, rear-ended an unsuspecting sap and causing serious upper body injuries. Thanks to his semi-celebrity status, Bell managed to avoid serious jail time and settled his case out-of-court.

Still, Bell had to pay some price and learn his lesson. In addition to the token NHL suspension, Bell had to perform 440 hours of community service (eight hours a day, five days a week for 11 weeks) of "professional landscaping".

"I don't consider myself an alcoholic and I never will consider myself an alcoholic. But I got in trouble because of alcohol and, to me, that's a problem. I had to change things in my life so I changed them," he said.

"I was ashamed of what I did when it first happened. And embarrassed, all the emotions that came along with it. But you know what? It happened. I made a mistake. At the same time, I've been through a lot and I've overcome a lot. I'm actually very proud of myself for what I've overcome."

Perhaps this humbling experience of forced manual labor really did give Bell enough time to reflect on what he did and where he was going in life. Bell was fortunate that he didn't cause the death of the victim, and now has the opportunity to get his hockey career back on track. Many other drunk drivers aren't quite so fortunate.

As for Bell's hockey career, it's very hard to project just how he'll do and how much he'll play. For all of his career, Bell has not put up the offensive numbers that many expects were expecting, and his last two seasons in the NHL were among his worst. I think 30+ points would be a pleasant surprise.

With the Summer Olympics nearly underway, forgive us hockey fans for not yet being fully in the spirit of the Games.

Michael Phelps is impressive and all, but we prefer our water frozen and skated upon. Field hockey? Close, but no cigar. And while the NHL is not without its divers, we prefer our reverse three-and-a-half somersaults to be accompanied by unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. "8.8.08" may have meaning to most sports fans, but to puckheads it's just "the day after Sidney Crosby's 21st birthday."

With a little finesse, however, there are hockey tie-ins, even in Beijing in August. And come September? Well, Shanghai will become Hockeytown, China as the Sharks open their season at the end of the month.

Is it too hot for hockey? You may be right, but until the cold weather returns, welcome to The Bag Skate, FanHouse's afternoon roundup of everything that's happening on a typical offseason weekday.

We've heard about the rumors that Jaromir Jagr has an offer in his hip pocket to rejoin Avangard Omsk, the KHL team he played with during the lockout, and now, thanks to The Hockey Rodent, we have the first report of some solid numbers in the Czech press. I'm thinking Glen Sather is unmoved.

Though it has a fancy sounding name, don't be fooled: Finding Dulcinea boasts a good hockey blogger.

Barry Melrose wants you to know that the game hasn't passed him by. In fact, he now says that the game is right back where he left it. I'm thinking he's got plenty of people to convince otherwise. Elsewhere in Tampa, Bill Barber is moving on and Marc Denis has been bought out, while Brian Lawton is in.

Is hockey sexist? John MacKinnon says yes.

With all of the fast and furious deals on the draft floor yesterday, one sad story slipped under the radar.

David Carle, the younger brother of former Hobey Baker winner and Sharks player Matt Carle, was forced to retire from competitive hockey after discovering that a serious heart condition.

Denver recruit David Carle has retired from competitive hockey after doctors discovered a heart abnormality. The condition, known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - or thickening of the heart - can cause sudden cardiac death if there is too much exertion.

Carle also informed Denver coach George Gwozdecky that he would not be able to play. Gwozdecky told Carle that he would honor his scholarship, and make him part of the team.

"Not only are we morally and ethically obliged (to fulfill the scholarship), but we have established, and we try to establish, strong relationships with our student-athletes,'' Gwozdecky told the paper. "And we have had that relationship with the Carles for a long time because of Matt.

It's nice to see that the university will continue to sponsor David's education, and it's certainly good that they discovered this condition early. We certainly do not want another Jiri Fischer near-death incident. Hockey is an intense sport, and requires any athlete in the league to be in top condition.

The interesting aspect to this story is that the abnormality was discovered at the NHL's testing combine, and not during a routine checkup. We never figure the combine would be used to catch something serious like this, but it's good to know that there is a screening process. Hopefully, any future abnormalities can be detected in the same manner.

It's hard to add much that hasn't already been said about the election of Igor Larionov and Glenn Anderson to the Hockey Hall of Fame earlier today. The wheels of justice may grind slowly, but they grind nonetheless, eh?

Larionov's elevation is richly deserved, another in a long line of Soviet-era players who were lucky enough to get a chance to ply their trade in the NHL after the fall of the Iron Curtain. As Joe Pelletier wrote earlier this week, his linemates on those great Soviet teams, Sergei Makarov and Vladimir Krutov, are just as deserving, as are a number of their other teammates. Here's hoping the Hall throws off the last vestiges of the Cold War and makes way for a number of players who were not only stars of Soviet hockey, but in a very profound way, were also its prisoners.

When it comes to Anderson, his selection was long overdue. All these years, it seems as if the voters punished Anderson for merely being the least talented and prolific of his incredible Edmonton Oiler teammates -- as if that were some sort of sin.

In the end, you'd figure that any player of Anderson's obvious skill level (498 career goals and 4th place all-time in playoff scoring) that managed to get his name on the Stanley Cup six times might have earned the right to have the argument revolve around how you could possibly keep him out of the Hall. But considering the lesser lights that are enshrined there and the impenetrable politics that surround the Hall and its voters, I guess some questions are beyond rational explanation.

Over at Puck Rakers, a Blue Jackets blog at the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins have made a 7-year, $50 million contract offer to keep unrestricted free agent in the fold.

If a Blue Jackets blog seems to be an odd place to serve as a source for Penguins news, think again. Reportedly, if Hossa does sign, the Penguins would immediately deal the negotiating rights to unrestricted free agent Ryan Malone to the Blue Jakcets. As you might expect, with Hossa demanding that much coin, keeping Malone, as tough as he might be, becomes something of a luxury. With Minnesota reportedly considering Malone, the Blue Jackets seem ready to part with a player or a pick in order to have an exclusive negotiating window with Malone before the free agent signing period begins July 1.

Something tells me that Pittsburgh GM has decided that the Penguins have a short window to shoot at a title and he might as well take advantage of it now. Though one has to wonder: If Hossa is worth more than $7 million per season, what will Evgeni Malkin demand at the end of next season, and how in the world can Pittsburgh stay competitive with three players accounting for somewhere around $25 million in cap space per season?

Another interesting rumor from Portzline: The BJs are also reportedly interested in Sharks captain Patrick Marleau, who has been ticketed out of town for salary cap considerations.