As we mentioned on Twitter this morning, there's a report in the Finnish media that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Sami Salo(notes) suffered a pretty serious injury on Thursday. Here's the delightful Google Translate version of the report:

According to information received by the magazine Salon went to the Achilles tendon cross-section on Thursday, when he was playing floor hockey with colleagues.

Disability will be aware of Salo, at least four months' sick leave.

The Canucks have since confirmed Salo's injury, putting him out indefinitely. 

The Vancouver hockey media picked up the story, with The Province's White Towel blog reporting that assistant general manager Lorne Henning said the Canucks were checking into the report's legitimacy.

(Perhaps he means the team is waiting to see if the Salo news actually originated with a caller to a New York sports radio station.)

Usually, a player prone to injury will be labeled "oft-injured" in a story like this, but simply publishing the name "Sami Salo" serves as a worthy synonym. In his 11 NHL seasons, he's played less than 70 games in nine of them. Frankly, it would have been a bigger story had he been completely healthy heading into camp.

Nucks Misconduct has a rather wonderful graphic chronicling Salo's chronic injuries.

The reason this report could be significant, however, is because the Canucks were in the process of attempting to trade Kevin Bieksa(notes), shedding salary and a defenseman from their crowded blue line. If Salo's missing in action, would they hold onto Bieksa?

Ah, the perils of floor hockey. Glad we hung up the plastic stick back in middle school. Incidentally, we've been told the Finnish refer to the game as "Ball Hockey," which makes this the most painfully ironic story of the day, given recent Salo injury history.

(UPDATE: It wasn't ball hockey or floor hockey -- it was FLOORBALL!)

With none of the parties involved in the dispute talking on the record, confusion reigns after the NHL rejected the New Jersey Devils' 17-year, $102 million contract with free-agent star Ilya Kovalchuk(notes).

The next big news in the dispute will come when the NHLPA decides whether to fight the voided deal in arbitration. But there's been a lingering question about Kovalchuk's status among interested observers:

Is he still an unrestricted free agent?

Coming up, some fresh analysis on the pending NHL/NHLPA war over the contact. 

It's a salient point, because the Los Angeles Kings have already stated their interest in Kovalchuk should he go "back to market," even after having spurned them for the Devils; and lord knows the rumor mill has been churning out other B.S. about teams swooping in to sign Kovalchuk.

Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti of the Bergen Record, after receiving the usual 'no comments' from general manager Lou Lamoriello, sought to define Kovalchuk's current status. From Fire & Ice:

As for Kovalchuk's status-whether he is an unrestricted free agent or Devils' property-Lamoriello wouldn't answer that question either. According to someone who would know but was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, Kovalchuk is still contractually linked to the Devils, though that contract is not considered legal by the NHL. So, he is not a UFA and is not free to speak with other teams about a contract. He could change that by requesting that the NHLPA not pursue the matter with a grievance, but that does not appear to be his intention.

So there you go: Devils property, pending NHLPA intervention.

Three other Kovalchuk notes Friday morning: First, here, how the contract rejection has affected the Devils' and Kings' Stanley Cup wagering odds. 

The National Post spoke with a few agents about the potential arbitration case, and discovered (shocker!) that they believe the NHL will have a hard time winning:

But several player agents said if the matter goes before an arbitrator, the league would soon find out that it "doesn't have much of a leg to stand on."

"I can tell you that during bargaining, that the league was not successful in negotiating rules to limit the length of contract a player can sign with a club," said player agent Ian Pulver, who was one of the authors of the CBA. "So the NHL is going to have to show evidence that the club and the player were trying to defeat rules in the collective agreement, because they can't certainly prove that a player will not play when he's 44 years old.

"You have to have the evidence to support that. Saying 'we think' is not strong enough."

Also, this Jim Kelley column from SI is an interesting read, chronicling the politics and personal disputes in the Devils/NHL dispute; including this:

GMs in mid-sized and small-sized markets were upset because they couldn't afford to do the same and felt that larger market teams were gaining an unfair advantage. Fans had a gripe because their favorite teams were losing good-to-great players after management had spent years preaching patience and the virtues of developing from within only to see the best of that effort moving on for the kind of monster dollars the cap rule was supposed to limit.

It's an unflattering situation for [Gary] Bettman, who appears to be legally outflanked and now needs to make his presence felt. In a way, Kovalchuk is the perfect player on which to draw the line. Unlike Alexander Ovechkin or Chris Pronger(notes), Kovalchuk has no monster track record regarding fan appreciation. He's good, arguably great, but he spent eight years in Atlanta, where he couldn't get recognized outside of Buckhead. He's also signing with New Jersey, a franchise that, despite three Stanley Cups, doesn't generate the same call-to-arms that the neighboring New York Rangers do, especially within media ranks.

Drawing the line on this deal was something akin to throwing the legal book at the over-the-top goonery of Marty McSorley and Chris Simon(notes).

Great points all around. Many people have called the 17 years and blatant "front-loading" as being over-the-line, and the NHL knew it could be seen as being on the right side of history by the majority. Like we said earlier in the week: They know the contracts coming down the pike before the next CBA war; this was a preemptive strike.

As we have been drinking since 8 a.m. really looking forward to hearing details about the 2011 Winter Classic, your 'ol pals Sean Leahy and Greg Wyshynski will be live-blogging the NHL Network coverage of this landmark summit between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals at Heinz Field at noon ET.

Sidney will be there; Ovechkin will not, unless he's skydiving in from a Russian MiG. (And you thought the insurance concerns over the Olympics were severe.)

We offered to donate $100 to the charity of Matt Cooke's(notes) choice earlier today if he started a fight with Dave Steckel(notes); Puck Daddy readers have upped the amount to over $500. Your move, Cookie Monster.

Please, join us for this short, shabbily promoted live blog. We may take comments, we may not. We will goof on Bettman. Join us, won't you?

Outside of Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi(notes), New York Islanders winger Matt Moulson's(notes) arbitration hearing promised to be the most fascinating of the offseason; and, potentially one of the most painful.

As we wrote last week:

Moulson made $575,000 last season, which breaks down to $19,167 for each of his 30 goals. Yes, this man will be getting a raise. The question: How much does he deserve? Is he a one-hit wonder? Or should he be paid like a 30-goal scorer? Does he get Clarke MacArthur(notes) money or Jussi Jokinen money? 

We predicted he'd get signed before arbitration, and that's exactly what the Islanders did Tuesday morning: Giving Moulson a one-year, $2.45 million deal, according to Katie Strang of Newsday.

It's an interesting deal on two fronts. First, for all the talk about how much Islander management believed that Moulson wasn't going to be a flash-in-the-pan offensive player, this is a one-year commitment to the player. Second, if Moulson is the real deal and hits the 30-goal mark again ... well, as Chris Botta notes, it means unrestricted free agency next summer.

Here are the players who scored between 30-35 last season, and their salaries for 2010-11.

Bobby Ryan(notes), Anaheim Ducks (35) - $1.9 million; restricted free agent
Alex Burrows, Vancouver Canucks (35) - $2 million
Anze Kopitar(notes), Los Angeles Kings (34) - $6.8 million
Rick Nash(notes), Columbus Blue Jackets (33) - $7.8 million
Nicklas Backstrom(notes), Washington Capitals (33) - $6.7 million
Jeff Carter(notes), Philadelphia Flyers (33) - $5 million
Dustin Penner(notes), Edmonton Oilers (32) - $4.25 million
Jarome Iginla(notes), Calgary Flames (32) - $7 million
Mike Richards(notes), Philadelphia Flyers (31) - $5.75 million
Mikael Samuelsson(notes), Vancouver Canucks (30) - $2.5 million
Patric Hornqvist(notes), Nashville Predators (30) - $700,000; restricted free agent
Patrick Kane(notes), Chicago Blackhawks (30) - $6.3 million
Phil Kessel(notes), Toronto Maple Leafs (30) - $5.4 million
Jussi Jokinen(notes), Carolina Hurricanes (30) - $1.7 million

So Moulson's more than Jussi, less than Sammy. Seems about right for a guy that just arrived.