Antoine Laganiere is fresh off helping the Yale Bulldogs to their first NCAA championship. (Jeanine Leech/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

At 18, Antoine Laganiere was on no one’s radar. Slow, gawky and plagued by questionable hockey sense, he was completely overlooked in the NHL draft.

Four years later, the late bloomer became an NCAA champion with the Yale Bulldogs and, as of today, the newest member of the Anaheim Ducks. Laganiere signed a two-year deal this afternoon with Anaheim. It’s expected that he’ll spend a week with the team, and then return to Yale to finish his exams.

Laganiere, a 6-foot-4, 215-lb winger from Quebec, had 15 goals and 29 points in 37 games with the Bulldogs in 2012-13. Scouts see him as a power forward, but there are differing opinions on his upside. “He’s big, strong and protects the puck really well,” one scout told SI.com. “He knows how to fish where the fish are.” Another expressed concerns about his skating and hockey sense, but still thinks he can be a piece of the puzzle for Anaheim. “I can see him stepping in right away and playing on their third line,” the scout said. “He’s a big body who will chip in with the occasional goal.”

The Ducks came in as a dark horse to secure his services. The Canucks, Canadiens and Predators were thought to be the front-runners, with Columbus, Pittsburgh, Winnipeg and Edmonton also in the mix.

While Laganiere could suit up for the Ducks immediately, he is ineligible to dress for them in the playoffs.

Yankee Stadium will feature a bit more ice next season when it plays host to two NHL matchups. (John Iacono/SI)

By Allan Muir

If one outdoor hockey game each year is special, the NHL is banking that six is even better.

Multiple sources are reporting that the New York Rangers will skate in a pair of outdoor games next year at at Yankee Stadium. The Blueshirts will play the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 26 and the New York Islanders on Jan. 29.

The timing might seem odd, but it plays out as a genius act of coat-tailing. With the Super Bowl slated for the following weekend, the largest media contingent of the year will be descending on New York City that week. What better way to fill their downtime–and help promote the sport–than with a pair of hockey spectacles.

The games will complement a burgeoning outdoor schedule that already features the Red Wings and Maple Leafs facing off in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1. Other matches in the works include Pittsburgh vs. Chicago on March 1 at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, along with the expected return of the Heritage Classic on March 2, when Vancouver will host Ottawa at BC Place. There also are reports that the Los Angeles Kings will to host the Anaheim Ducks at Chavez Ravine on Jan. 25.

You can expect cries of overkill from some corners, but the league is gambling that the public’s appetite for these outdoor spectacles is nowhere close to being sated. Odds are they’re right. You can bet the games will sell out and draw huge numbers on TV.

And that’s why it’s not just the paying public that’s excited by this news. These games will provide the league a chance to soothe any ill will that lingers with sponsors in the wake of the lockout. NBC Sports, the network that invested heavily in the league almost two years ago to the day, will gain five new appointment dates on its schedule. There will be five new title sponsor deals, like the one that’s worked out well for Bridgestone, and five new opportunities for the rest of the league’s affiliates to line their coffers.

We’ll have more as the story develops.

An injury to Jonas Hiller means a 42-year-old unknown will be on the Ducks bench. (Debora Robinson/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

It’s another one of those dream-come-true moments that only happen in the NHL.

With Jonas Hiller a late scratch for tonight’s game against the Dallas Stars, and minor-league recall Igor Bobkov unable to make it to the Honda Center in time for the start of the game, the Anaheim Ducks reached into the local hockey ranks to find someone to fill a sweater…and sweat it out on the bench.

42-year-old Rob Laurie, whose claim to fame might be starting for the Anaheim Bullfrogs roller hockey team in the first-ever professional sporting event at the Honda Center, is in the lineup for the Ducks.

Laurie, who last played on ice for the El Paso Buzzards of the Central Hockey League in 2002 and had his jersey retired in 2011 by the Bullfrogs, signed a one-day pro tryout contract. If nothing else, he’ll take warmups tonight, and have a heckuva story to tell the boys in the beer league.

UPDATE: And the dream dies quickly. Bobkov arrived 3:56 into the first, sending Laurie to the showers. Still, he earned a #43 Ducks jersey and the chance to face some NHL shooters in the warm-ups. Not bad for a guy whose previous career high-water mark might have been a one-game stint with the AHL’s Adironcack Red Wings in 1995-96.

Corey Perry’s new deal means the Ducks have now wrapped up their two best players in Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. (Rob Grabowski/US Presswire)

By Allan Muir

The story started making the rounds just as I was leaving the Stars-Flames game tonight. Somehow, the Ducks defied the naysayers and signed Corey Perry to a long-term extension.

And here I was thinking the biggest news coming out of SoCal tonight would be Peter Murphy’s DUI arrest.

My first thought? What a coup this is for Anaheim GM Bob Murray. Instead of facing a major rebuild this summer, his franchise cornerstones are locked into place. Who thought that was possible at the beginning of this season?

Just two weeks after signing captain Ryan Getzlaf to an eight-year, $66 million deal, he gets Perry to agree to a very similar eight-year, $69 million pact. Call the extra $3 million the MVP bonus and everybody’s happy.

Happy and probably more than a little surprised. There were many folks around the league who believed that Getzlaf’s massive contract signaled the end of Perry’s tenure in Anaheim, either at the trade deadline or, to preserve the team’s Cup chances, this summer. Signing both would be prohibitively expensive, especially in light of the healthy decrease in next season’s salary cap.

But Murray did the math and determined that losing Perry would be even more costly, in terms of franchise prestige and the ability to compete at a high level moving forward. So he ponied up to the tune of $8.625 million per year for Perry on top of Getzlaf’s $8.25 million.

That’s a serious commitment.

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By Allan Muir

Corey Perry just earned the season’s first “message” suspension.

The Anaheim winger learned he’ll sit out four games and forfeit more than $115,000 in salary for his late hit on Minnesota’s Jason Zucker last night.

Brendan Shanahan conducted the hearing by phone, but it was Rob Blake, his Department of Player Safety cohort, who checked off all the obvious points in the video explanation: it was a late hit; Perry “recklessly made significant contact to the head of a player ineligible to be hit,” he had time to avoid or minimize it; Zucker was injured on the play; Perry had previously been suspended.

But the most interesting part of Blake’s presentation was this line: “In spite of the fact that all players need to be aware of their surroundings, it is perfectly reasonable that Zucker should no longer expect to be hit this long after possession.”

The whole “blame the victim” thing has long been a part of hockey culture. Honestly, I’m as guilty of it as anybody, because I was always taught that a player has a responsibility to keep his head up and stay alert, especially just after making a pass or taking a shot. If you’re dumb enough to stop to admire it, you’ll get what you deserve.

When I caught the replay, that was my initial reaction. If Zucker doesn’t take such a long look at his pass, he would have seen Perry in time and dodged the brunt of the hit.

But that’s wrong-headed thinking because all it does is validate opportunistic predation. Once a player has given up possession, he should have a reasonable expectation that he won’t be destroyed by a late hit.

I guarantee there will be plenty of disagreement with that since it essentially takes the onus off the victim to protect himself. But this doesn’t mean that players can’t finish their checks. It sets a standard that should eliminate the long runs like the one Perry made.

There should be punishment and prevention elements to any supplemental discipline decision. Shanny made an example out of a superstar-caliber player. Odds are the message won’t be overlooked.

Signing Ryan Getzlaf may also be the key to determining Corey Perry’s future in Anaheim. (Gary A. Vasquez / US Presswire)

By Allan Muir

Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray crossed one item off his to-do list today by signing team captain Ryan Getzlaf to an eight-year extension worth $66 million.

That’s a significant commitment from the Ducks. The eight-year term is the max allowable under the new CBA and the annual cap of $8.25 million ties him for the fourth highest in the league, trailing just Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. That’s pretty thin air for a player that put up career-low numbers last season and ranked among the year’s biggest underachievers.

But Getzlaf has been among the most impactful players so far in 2013. His 27 points puts him among the league’s top-10 scorers and he’s been a consistent force for a Ducks team that has to be recognized among the few legitimate contenders for the Cup.

There’ll still be plenty of voices suggesting this is an overpayment, but this feels like a case of a team paying to hold onto one of the best players in franchise history, and fearing the alternatives if they don’t.

Yeah, $8.25 million is a chunky hit, especially with the cap going down next season to $64.3 million, but big, proven No. 1 centers like Getzlaf are hard to come by. If he’d gone to market as a UFA this summer, another team would have put up at least that much…and the Ducks would have had to settle for an inferior replacement. This was a much smarter option.

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Though his Leafs took a while to prove it, Brian Burke is still a master judge of talent. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

It’s clearly not about the money for Brian Burke.

Burke, removed as general manager of the Maple Leafs last month, could have stayed in Toronto, puttered around and collected on the final two years of contract that paid a reported $3 million per. Instead, he’ll rejoin one of his former teams, the Anaheim Ducks, as a part-time pro scout.

The Ducks made the announcement early Thursday afternoon.

The position might seem like a step down, but it’s more of a career retrenchment for the voluble, irascible Burke.

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