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Daily Cupcakes - Links from around the unlocked out NHL - January 24th, 2013

Bruce Bennett

Want to see Joe Sakic play again? What about Scott Parker, Ken Klee or Stephane Yelle? The Cutthroats are hosting a charity game and you can witness it happen!

Part of a "Pink at the Rink" weekend initiative for fighting cancer, the game will feature a handful of former NHL and Colorado Avalanche faces, including Rick Berry, Scott "The Sheriff" Parker, "Super" Joe Sakic, Ken Klee, and Stephane Yelle as well as Cutthroats Head Coach and former Los Angeles Kings forward Derek Armstrong and Cutthroats scout and former Denver Grizzlies skater Jeff Sirkka.

CBC has an interesting list about the undrafted players currently in the NHL. The Avalanche have two, do you know which ones?

What do all these players have in common? They went undrafted. They slipped through the cracks, but still eventually found their way to the NHL.

In total, there are 84 undrafted players currently sprinkled on NHL rosters. That's approximately 12 per cent of the league.

Here is a list of undrafted players in the NHL this season:

Scott Gomez isn't looking for a team anymore.

Scott Gomez became a Shark on Wednesday, but how soon he plays and in exactly what role remains uncertain.

Gomez signed the one-year, $700,000 contract that reportedly has been in the works since he began practicing and traveling with the team on Saturday. The two-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils became an unrestricted free agent the previous week when the NHL changed its rules to allow the Montreal Canadiens to buy out the final two years of his seven year, $51 million contract.

Marek Svatos has found a home, unfortunately it isn't in the NHL.

Former Colorado Avalanche wing Marek Svatos has signed a contract till the end of the season with Slovan Bratislava, the KHL newcomer announced Wednesday.

After a 21-month break due to serious problems with his knees, he attended the Florida Panthers training camp last week but failed to make it onto the roster and decided to return to his native Slovakia.

The Avalanche memorialized Jessica Redfield in their own way (link has image).

The Avalanche returned to the Pepsi Center ice on Tuesday night for the first time since last April, and the media returned to the press box along with them. Jessica wasn't there, but Jessica was there.

The Oilers will be getting a new home in Edmonton.

The Edmonton Oilers are getting a new downtown arena.

The NHL team and city councillors agreed Wednesday to resurrect a previous deal that collapsed three months ago when Oilers owner Daryl Katz demanded $6 million more a year from taxpayers.

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel says the new deal is airtight.

MacLeans.ca has a graphic that you can scroll over to see what each NHL team has offered the fans.

Players should be front and centre in that effort, says Kaplan. They should call season-ticket holders to thank them for their loyalty, or do more for fans on game days. "Why doesn’t every player sign autographs after every game? Why isn’t that mandatory?" he asks. "Kids don’t want free popcorn. They want to meet Phil Kessel. That’s the power these players and leagues and teams have."

Speaking of interactive charts the Toronto Star has one too. This one you can see how many goals were scored, from which section on the ice and what type of shot, last season.

The sweet spot, for scoring in the NHL, would appear to be from 11 to 15 feet from the net. The weapon of choice: The wrist shot.

The Star analyzed every one of the 6,949 goals scored in the NHL over the 2011-2012 season (including shootout goals) from data available on the NHL’s website and analyzed by Star number cruncher Andrew Bailey.

The wrist shot proved the most deadly, accounting for 3,369 goals, 48.5 per cent of all goals. Shots from the 11-to-15 foot range accounted for 1,577 goals (22.7) per cent with the six-to-10 foot range a close second (1,426, 8.5 per cent).