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Shrapnel – 8/4/11

With Shea Weber’s arbitration award of 7.5 million dollars for one season isn’t just one of the largest arbitration awards ever – it’s potentially a gun to David Poille’s head as he tries to figure out if he can keep Weber happy, if he should be looking at trading him, and what he’s going to need to do about Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne, who will both be looking for new contracts next season, and just watched this soap opera play out with their fellow team star and captain.

David Poille has been a model for small market / cap teams trying to build successfully, but I think he may have just seriously screwed the pooch. If he’s poisoned the well with Weber, my thought is to move him – fast – and bring in the best talent package you can get while trying to lock Suter and Rinne back up, before they decide to move on as well.

Did someone use the Blue Jackets‘ jerseys to make the fake Winnipeg designs that have been going around? Sure looks like it, and Icethetics makes a great case.

Pavel Datsyuk was awarded the Kharlamov trophy for the best Russian player in the NHL by Sovietsky Sport, and Dmitry Chesnokov was there to get an interesting interview.

ESPN is doing polls on who will Win the West, starting with Division champions.

Speaking of the Division, Chicago has locked up Patrick Sharp on a new 5 year deal.

Former Jacket Nikolay Zherdev returns to the KHL, signing a deal with Atlant after he was unable to find an NHL contract to his liking.

Another former Jacket, Kevyn Adams, was named the new assistant coach in Buffalo, where he’s been part of their player development department.

St. Louis’ David Perron is expected to miss training camp and at least the start of next season as he continues to struggle with concussion symptoms.

Aaron Portzline reports on twitter that once former CBJ coach Ken Hitchcock returns from helping out at Team Canada’s WJC camp, he’ll take on a larger role with the Jackets – but is not expected to be the “senior advisor” the team is reported to be looking for.

A few quick hits on goalies – THN’s Ryan Kennedy interviewed HNIC analyst and former backup Kevin Weekes, and he has an interesting dark horse Vezina canidate, while Mark Dekanich worked with CBJ hockey school yesterday, helping to coach young goaltenders.

Puck Daddy’s next guilty pleasures interview is Lyle Richardson of Spector’s Hockey.

And, of course, Cannonfest is coming…

We’ll make sure to post if anything interesting should come up later today, and in the meantime, if you haven’t already, please stop by and “like” our facebook page?