Owen Nolan

The days of Bob Probert and the other late great enforcers are over. No longer will you see players on the ice that have one job, and one job only: Beat guys up and police the ice.

Today, enforcers are more of an after-thought. They are players who can play a little, but also have a nasty left hook.

So this a tribute to the policemen of the ice and protectors of the gifted. The best of the best of the players who fought their way into hockey lore, and their team's history books as the best fighter in their team's history.

The history of San Jose Sharks' fighters and enforcers is full of some gritty players who share a special place in the minds of franchise-long Shark fans.

They can think back to Owen Nolan or Scott Parker, or even today's fighters like Ryane Clowe, Jamal Mayers and Douglas Murray.

But the majority of today's Sharks team can be considered anything but fighters. In fact, the team as a whole can be referred to as a bunch of pretty boys with, Thornton, Marleau and Heatley rarely throwing a punch.

The San Jose Sharks still have a lot of hockey in front of them this year, having most recently beat the Ducks 5-2 at home in a feisty game. It always seems that the intrastate matchups between the three teams in Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose seem to bring out the best and worst of the franchises.

NHL Free Agents 2010: The NHL has become a very turbulent atmosphere for unrestricted free agents this past summer. While some players—such as Ilya Kovalchuk— have signed huge long-term deals, others—such as veteran Bill Guerin—have been left out in the cold.

In an offseason where teams were content to let players walk away over thousands of dollars, being a free agent was a curse. When the Stanley Cup champions let their goaltender leave over less than $500,000, things didn't look good for the rest of the UFA crop.

The biggest news story of the week last week was of course, Ilya Kovalchuk.

No whispers of trouble between Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Ron Wilson and embattled defenseman Tomas Kaberle.

No, pretty well the only thing that Leafs fans had to read about was the Ilya Kovalchuk contract which was finally ratified during the wee hours of Saturday morning. According to NHL.com:

James Neal

Sources are reporting that negotiations between Neal and the Dallas Stars aren't going too well. The Stars have a glut of left wingers and maybe Neal just isn't in the picture. He'd make a great trading piece.

Owen Nolan

New Jersey Devils

Today, I will look further into the Devils' current cap situation. GM Lou Lamoriello must move more than three million dollars in cap space before the season commences to be under the cap. Who can he trade/waive? Let's see.

It's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs' offence isn't exactly the best in the league. Sure, the Maple Leafs' roster consists of two-time 30-goal scorer Phil Kessel, two-time 20-goal scorer Kris Versteeg and (likely) rookie Nazem Kadri, who is expected to be a large part of the Maple Leafs' offence, but the offensive talent level drops significantly after those three.

Long time NHL defenseman Chris Chelios finally called it quits at a tender age of 48, and will join one of his former teams, the Detroit Red Wings, in a front office position.

Chelios played 26 seasons in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit, and the Atlanta Thrashers. A future Hall of Famer, Chelios appeared in the playoffs in 24 of his 26 seasons.

The Chicago, Illinois native contributed so much to the game on the ice, but he was also a big influence off the ice, teaching kids how to play the game.

The Olympics are just a few days from being over, and the Minnesota Wild have hit the ice once more, practicing together for the first time since the Olympic freeze on Wednesday.

Looking at the standings, the Wild have a daunting task ahead of them.