Dave Taylor, Dallas Star

The story broke last week about Dave Taylor joining the Dallas Stars. The team is scheduled to make it official today, with Taylor becoming director of player personnel. According to Dallas Morning News beat writer Mike Heika, Taylor will handle the “pro side” while Les Jackson will handle the “amateur side.” For those not familiar with the situation, Taylor worked for the Kings last year even though he had been fired as GM after the previous season. Taylor still had one year remaining on his contract so the Kings had him serve it out in a different role. That contract was not renewed and it seems that Taylor has found a job that has more of a higher profile.

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Cammalleri (minor) update

Dean Lombardi has booked his flight and hotel room for Toronto in advance of Michael Cammalleri’s scheduled arbitration hearing on Thursday. I’m told that negotiations are still taking place but obviously with every day that passes, a settlement becomes less likely. I’m also told that Cammalleri’s agent, Michael Gillis, is known for being a tough negotiator, even back to the time when Cammalleri was signing an entry-level contract with the Kings.

Now that I’m back in town, I’ll do some work on that tomorrow.

In other news, the Sports Business Daily is reporting that the NHL might return to ESPN2, as soon as the 2008-09 season.

I’ll have the last part of the Jim Fox Q&A up today…

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Jim Fox, Part 1

When Jim Fox comes down with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, he’s probably going to send me the doctor’s bill and I’m probably going to have to solicit donations from you loyal readers. Just kidding, but Jim went above and beyond the call of duty in an amazing way today. I selected for him what I hoped was a good sampling of questions, hoping that he would answer a handful of them. What I got back from him in return was INCREDIBLE. He answered so many questions, and in such great detail, that I’m going to have to break it up into four parts. So I want to issue a public thanks to Jim, for taking the time to do this, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Here’s part one:
Continue reading “Jim Fox, Part 1” »

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Cammalleri update

Here’s what Michael Cammalleri, golfing in Canada, told The Canadian Press today regarding his contract negotiations with the Kings:

“The Kings have yet to make me an offer,” Cammalleri said Wednesday during the NHL Players’ Association annual charity golf tournament. “There hasn’t been all that much communication. For me, I guess I can only take that as an indication of where I stand right now.”

Dean Lombardi’s response?

“To be honest, we’re pretty far apart,” Lombardi told The Canadian Press from his Los Angeles office. “But as ridiculous as it sounds, it’s still early in the process.”

Cammalleri’s arbitration hearing will be held Aug. 2 unless a contract agreement is reached.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning, I’ll be posting a great bunch of answers from Jim Fox. He’s in the process of answering a bunch of your questions right now and as always, Jim is insightful and honest.

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Ask Jim Fox


Since it’s been a while, how about a new feature? Kings broadcaster Jim Fox has graciously agreed to come on board as a guest blogger, in a question-and-answer format. Feel free to post your questions here, and I will forward them along to Jim and get his answers. I can’t promise that Jim will be able to answer every single question, but we’ll try to get a good cross-section of topics.

Jim has been recognized by Sports Illustrated for his work and, for two consecutive years, has been named by the Daily News as Southern California’s top sports television analyst.

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Zeiler’s contract

John Zeiler signed a four-year contract today. The first year is a two-way contract and he would make $525,000 at the NHL level. The second year is worth $550,000 and the third and fourth years are worth $600,000 each. So potentially it’s a four-year, $2.275-million contract.

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