POTG Thursday Morning Headlines, News, and Links

The second day of public on-ice sessions at the Predators Development Camp begins this morning at 10 a.m. If you can't make it during the week (like me), then Saturday' 10-12 session or Sunday's final round-up at 2-4 p.m. has your name on it.

Yesterday was a bumpy day for the Preds with contentions that the team did not properly make their qualifying offers to their seven restricted free agents. The Preds and the NHL says everything was done properly but the NHLPA has officially filed a grievance in the matter.

The matter will head to an arbitrator, most likely before Friday's frenzy kicks off. The Predators can either do nothing and hope for a favorable result, or scramble to sign the players that they want with the players having the key bargaining chip in their pocket.

The Predators' quirky  2011 preseason schedule finally came out so so fans can complete their calendar for September. The details on the much anticipated "Skate of the Union" were also revealed.

Tomorrow at 11 a.m. will be the start of a poor free agent class kicking off the frenzy so expect to see marginal players get overpaid. NHL Network will have wall to wall coverage.

Make the jump for today's news and links...

In Pred Nation...

Josh Cooper reports no progress in signing Marcel Goc before tomorrow's deadline. He also has a features on Magnus Hellberg and Taylor Beck.

Ryan Porth talks to Austin Watson at Smashville 24/7. He also has the Predators' Free Agent Primer.

David Boclair frames Paul Kariya retirement with what he meant to the Predators. He also talked to Barry Trotz who does not feel that the Preds need much more offense.

Jim Diamond has a piece about Pred prospect Craig Smith's big Summer that started at the World Championships in Europe. He also has a post about Jeff Foss who recently earned his college degree while playing in Milwaukee.

Jeremy Gover has a quick poll on Steve Sullivan and Paul Kariya being worthy of number retirements. I'd say no on both but Sully was closer.

At OTF, Marc Torrence has the Day 2 Camp News and Dirk had the P.M. Links.

Paul McCann is disturbed about bad information from David Shoalts. I didn't realize that there was an option with him. It was interesting watching an exchange in a scrum in Minnesota between Shoalts and David Poile. Poile was very specific with Shoalts on detail so that he hopefully would get the story right. Shoalts didn't use the info in the resulting post.

Paul also had the season finale of SlapShot Radio last night with Paul Fenton and Jeff Marek.

Terry Crisp was on the Power Play on NHL Home Ices yesterday. Here is the audio clip.

The Predators announced that the Flex 10 Plan is now the Flex 12.

Steve Sullivan was a close to a "star" as the Predators had in the early years. Nashville is the place that he raised his kids in their early years. Here is a nice tweet from @Sullivan26: Wow! Overwhelmed by all the nice messages. Thanks for all the support! TN will always be home but looking forward to new chapter. It is a lot different than a Tweet session two years ago.

Around the NHL...

Corey Masisak has a look at what all thirty teams need to do over the summer.

The Fourth Period's top 30 UFA's shows what a weak market it is this year.

The hype on Jaromir Jagr is getting to be a bit much. He still has yet to make a decision on where he will play.

It's a poor crop when Christian Ehrhoff is the best defensive UFA on the market. After having his rights traded to the Islanders a day before, they sent him to Buffalo yesterday.

The ageless Dwayne Roloson is signing on for another year in Tampa. PHT has a round-up of other signings from yesterday.

Ex-Pred Tomas Vokoun is the latest UFA in Ryan Porth's Dirty Dozen. He also looks at the changing market for D-men.

After bashing American women for their size last year, Semyon Varlamov has decided to return to Russia.

Matt Reitz speculates on which recent draftees could see time in the NHL this season.

Mayor's Manor caught up with Ian Laperriere who was one of the most affable folks at the NHL Awards where he took home the Masterton Trophy.

The news never seems to get better in Phoenix. I can't imagine a top line free agent would be itching to sign with the Yotes tomorrow.

After speculation that he may give it a go with Anaheim, ex-Pred Paul Kariya announced his retirement.

For the second year in a row, Pat Burns was overlooked by the HHOF in the builder category. Jim Lang laments the oversight.

The Rangers bought out the contract of Chris Drury. It will be interesting to see where he ends up.

Detroit broadcaster Ken Kal has had a month full of troubles.

Rioters in Vancouver may not face trial due to an overcrowded court system.

Odds and Ends...

Here is a post that we published at one of our sister sites that needs to be read by anyone who has a blog or uses social media. You potentially exposed to criminal prosecution if they unintentionally cause "emotional distress" (undefined) to anyone under a new Tennessee law that goes into effect tomorrow.

Here is a second post we had, helping out our friends at Citizens for a Better Spring Hill in their opposition to a new crematorium.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass