Erik Ersberg has been placed on waivers and is expected to join a KHL team. Technically, in NHL terms Ersberg has violated his contract, and after he clears waivers, the Kings will be able to terminate his contract and cut ties with him. The Manchester Monarchs have already called up Martin Jones from the ECHL.
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Good luck Ersberg!
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badGoltending Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:46 pm
@Shawn11,
He’s going to need allot of luck! prayer’s and eating of vitamins.
If his talent hasn’t shined yet it never will.
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Bye bye, Ersberg… sucks to see him gone, but he was just the odd man out.
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Buster Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
@Kevin Y,
I kept wondering what was going to happen with this situation, now I know.
Good luck EE.
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I still remember him being called up at the end of the 07-08 season and just playing great. Was wishfully thinking to myself then that finally we have a starting goalie. The fact that he’s been pushed out means our future is bright. Good luck Erik
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Shakes Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:14 am
@McDonalds,
I second that feeling.
Good luck EE, it sounds like the Kings helped him make it easy for him to pursue his best personal opportunities outside of the team
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Something tells me the Kings gave him a wink and a nod to do whatever.
Good luck EE. You were nothing but a class act here.
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How did he violate his contract?
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dMan Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:09 am
@NOW IMPRESSED, not sure I get that either, unless the Kings ‘helped’ him violate his contract. That still sucks for him though.
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Kevin Y Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:16 am
@NOW IMPRESSED,
Maybe because he might have reached an agreement with a KHL club, which you can’t “technically” do if you’re under contract with an NHL team.
But I don’t think the Kings minded. They probably helped him, said “if you can find a deal with another club in Europe, we’ll waive you and let you go”.
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Quisp Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:41 am
@Kevin Y,
My guess is that the Kings could have loaned him to the KHL, like they did with Fransson and Mikus, but by allowing him to “defect” the Kings get out of the contract and save themselves a chunk of change.
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GoKings09 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:59 am
@Quisp,
And possibly allow Ersberg to make more money if the other team is willing to pay him more than the Kings were paying him already. Or at least get a longer term contract signed in the KHL.
Rei Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
@Quisp,
Nor Fransson nor Mikus are loaned to KHL. They both have valid full time contracts for 2 years in St.Petersburg and Riga respectively.
Quisp Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
@rei
LATimes:
“The Kings said Wednesday afternoon that defenseman Johan Fransson, who was signed to a one-year contract in June, has been loaned from the Manchester (N.H.) Monarchs of the AHL to the Russian team SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League.”
I thought I had seen the “loan” language somewhere re Mikus, but I could be wrong. And Helene could of course be wrong about Fransson.
The “loan” designation has entirely to do with whether or not a player continues to be on the team’s reserve list, and whether the player can be recalled. Maybe Rich can clarify the status of these three players at some point. It’s all slightly “above my pay grade.”
CBA Article I definitions:
“Loan” means the transfer of a Player from a Club’s Active Roster, Non-
Roster, Injured Non-Roster or Injured Reserve List to the roster of a club outside the
NHL.
Rei Reply:
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:57 am
@Quisp,
Yes, yes I know there were such things said about Fransson. I think loan was the initial plan that never came through. But SKA announced that he has a valid 2 year contract. With Kings he only had a 1 year contract so he could not be loaned to them for 2 years. Also this stirred up some trouble with Swedes since he was supposed to return to Sweden if the contract with Kings would come to an end.
And Mikus first of all went on a try-out for Spartak. Since they had their 5 imports already, he was let go and he joined Riga. Doesn’t really sound like a loan to me. Also the thing about him having 2 year contract while he would have only 1 year with Kings applies here as well.
I would like some insights in Franssons case as well since it’s really unclear what is his status.
But I would like to urge to check everything you read that has something to do with KHL, because I have read quite a lot of misinformation of some writers that simply lack the knowledge in this field. Not saying that it applies to this article of course.
Good luck EE.
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Good luck ersberg! Hope you can revitalize your game in the khl.
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badGoltending Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:52 pm
@Oldthunder,
revitalize, re-tool, craft, revolutionize, change,
words wont help him get better.
it is what it is
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Good Luck Eric and best wishes. Unfortunatly, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope you get some more game time.
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Good luck EE I believe we will see you again in the NHL.
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badGoltending Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:55 pm
@flatlinered,
i wouldn’t count on it.
only way that happens if he buys a ticket to a game.
its the truth. His talent wasn’t good enough.
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Sad to hear. Good luck, Erik Ersponge! I’ll always have a soft spot for you.
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I’m going to bet Philadelphia, to name one, is going to regret not taking a flyer on Ersy. Good luck to him. I’m still shocked no one claimed him.
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NOW IMPRESSED Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm
@Sam, The Stanley Cup winning goalie wasn’t even resigned by Chicago and went several weeks before San Jose picked him up. And for less than the arbitrator said he should get.
Just saying…
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Dime a dozen… but, if you’re so inclined as to think he was the potential second coming of Christ, I have a game worn Ersberg that I will sell you…
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fsd1 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:55 am
@Marc Nathan, for a dime?
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:29 pm
@fsd1, for a dozen!
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Mucker Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
@Marc Nathan, Marc – I totally (100%) agree with you about Ersberg being a dime a dozen and it blows me away when I read here and LGK how fans thought he was the second coming.
The guy – who’s a nice guy, no dobut – was TOTALLY over achieving at this level. He was quick but very small and struggled with covering corners on post to post moves in ‘bang bang’ situations and had a really difficult time covering his high blocker side.
There was a game a year / year and a half ago against Anaheim, where Getzlaf (I think it was Getz) cut in from the half boards and sniped him high to the blocker. Shortly after that, Perry got him there and suddenly a bunch of Dux players all started ripping away at that corner with similar moves.
It was as though the the entire Dux bench all said, “get this guy moving side to side and snipe him high to the blocker…he has to butterfly down to go post to post and there’s 3 feet of net open on the blocker side when he does”.
After that game, he barely got another start. He had great technical chops, but he’s just too small to be successful at this level.
Maybe we’ve all gotten used to really substandard goaltending over the years (since Hrudey / Fuhr), but EE is not / was not the #1 guy…maybe he might have been in the Brust / Fukufuji era, but not now.
There’s a reason that no other teams grabbed him off waivers, folks!
I don’t recall reading whether EE ever reported at Manchester, so he probably bailed and went back to Sweden waiting for an offer to come in…that may be why the ‘awkward’ wording of RH’s headling / blog entry.
Rich? Care to confirm / elaborate?
[Reply]
Quisp Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:44 pm
@Mucker,
Actually, Ersberg had been playing in Manchester.
Is Grant Fuhr an example of good Kings goaltending or bad?
I have never heard anyone say that Ersberg was the second coming of anything.
What’s awkward about “Ersberg heading out”?
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Mucker Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm
@Quisp, Thanks for clarifying on him playing in NH. I hadn’t heard whether he had, but I also didn’t bother to go check.
My Fuhr refernece was less about how bad he might have been in a Kings uni and more about he and KH being elite class guys.
I personally don’t think Cloutier was a sub-standard goaltender, but clearly he had an injury that prevented him being able to move right to left but what I resented was MCs refusal to actually ADMIT IT! We all knew something was wrong, but they never acknowledged it.
Read around a bit on this page…there was a quote by at least one person who had EE pegged as the #1.
Finally, EE was – technically – better than JLB, but JLB was a bigger presence in the net and wasn’t exposed up high the way EE was – this is why I think JLB kept being played despite the fact that he had personal distractions and fitness issues.
DougS Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
@Quisp, Mucker
It’s a bit of hyperbole, of course. But I noticed that from the beginning of this year’s camp, there were a lot of posts here that wildly overstated both EE’s ability and value to the Kings. And an awful lot of crocodile tears shed over how the Kings were sticking a knife in his back and twisting it. About half of the posts on Ersberg fit either description, I’d say. It was really weird.
Ersberg was, in his own way, a bridge player, nothing more. He was supposed to help bridge the gap between the horrors of sticking Barry Brust in goal and the time when Quick and/or Bernier would be ready. And he succeeded at a job at which (e.g.) Dan Cloutier failed quite spectacularly and expensively. It’s enough to merit a, “Vaya con Dios” from us, but let’s not overdo it.
Also worth noting that Rich called it. He was saying months ago that Ersberg would wind up back in Europe, and voila….
FKA PakiFro Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
@Mucker,
He played two games in Manchester, 1-1. He was a lot better than you make him sound to be, but I agree he wasn’t a number one. He did get shafted though. He clearly was better than cloutier and got sent down, only to return later in the year to strut his stuff. Afterwards, when crow got fired, TM gave JLB the first ten start when Ersberg was head and shoulders better than him. Sadly (for him at least), Ersberg got hurt and Quick got called up. JLB was so bad, the Kings really had an easy decision to play Quick, who promptly pitched two shut outs against CBJ in a week…and the rest is history….
[Reply]
jwr Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@Mucker,
Per Manchester’s site he did report and played there.
G Min W L SL SO GA GAA SVS SV%
31 Erik Ersberg 2 119 1 1 0 0 4 2.02 50 0.926
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Good luck Easy E, the Kings Nation will be rooting for you.
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Raises glass to EE. Fair well.
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Good luck EE go to Russia.
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Who’s going to be the witty LA Kings goalie appearing on DirecTV commercials now?
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holly Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 9:02 pm
@DBB,
I can’t lie, I really enjoyed that commercial.
Also, I thought of you all the other day helping my friend prepare a presentation on the NHL broadcast rights being up at the end of the season. She had a slide discussing the issues of Versus in the early seasons.
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EE has always been class no matter what has happened. Good luck to him in the KHL and all his future hockey and non-hockey adventures.
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Good Luck EE, hopefully this was all by design and everyone is happy. I would like him to come back after he’s done as an alumnus. I’ll always remember him as the the beginning glimmer of bright light at the end of the tunnel that helped the kings to stop their losing culture from being acceptable.
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So in other news: Rick rypien was only suspended for 6 games for his incident the other day. Is it just me or does that seem WAAAAY too small a punishment?
[Reply]
VanKingsFan Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm
@Cortex949, Nah that seems appropriate; all he did was grab his shirt. I know it is about the principle of keeping fans and athletes separate, but I think in this individual case 6 games is fine. Heat of the moment and no one got hurt, nothing real serious happened.
The thing that really pisses me off is that I heard that fan wants to sue Rypien!! Are you F’ing serious!
“Your honour he grabbed my shirt in a rough manner, and it frightened me, can I have 2 Million.?”
I hope the judge throws you in jail for being so stupid
[Reply]
BrokeKingsFan Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
@VanKingsFan, i know right! The kid see’s an opportunity to hopefully get some easy $ and i hope he fails. its to often that this kind of stuff goes down, its a shame. If the guy didnt have millions of dollars the kid wouldnt care and probably would want to retaliate.
[Reply]
Michael_DD8 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm
@BrokeKingsFan,
Its amazing, people sue for anything!!Just trying to make some money, he wont get anywhere..
Grover Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
@BrokeKingsFan,
I do hope I am reading this wrong, but is James Engquist now saying that Rypien should be “fired” from the NHL?
http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_16407806
tuan jim Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm
@VanKingsFan,
A six-game suspension is NOT enough for a professional like Rypien who attacks a fan. The kid posed no threat and the only “justification” I’ve seen in the tape is the bare possibility that the kid may have said something to make Rypien go ballistic.
As far as a lawsuit against Rypien? I say let the kid do it. It may not be a million-dollar claim — not by a long-shot — but it IS a solid means of protecting people in the audience from a tough, seasoned player who really should know better than to do what he did.
[Reply]
lakings55 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm
@Cortex949, Avery gets suspended 6 games and has to do an anger management evaluation for talking and this idiot gets 6 games for assaulting somebody, something wrong here.
[Reply]
puck73 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
@lakings55, Assaulting somebody,Really? Yah because that kid really got his brains beat in! About the only person I know who could possibly convince me on that is Barry Scheck, I mean afterall, didnt he convince the jury that the DNA evidence wasnt credible…UHHH..OK.
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lakings55 Reply:
July 21st, 2011 at 11:11 am
@puck73, lol
I still feel this is going to haunt us one day. Obviously not while he’s in the KHL, but he’s going to return and give us the metaphoric finger.
Best of Luck to him, Our former glimmer of hope during the Crawford years…
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Erik Ersberg is really, really good. I considered him to be our #1 goalie. Good luck Erik!
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Ersberg is a classy and talented guy…hope he does well in the future.
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Sad to see you go E
I’m hoping you get the chance to play wherever you end up. Thanks for all you did for the Kings and for being such a class act (I know this past season “blew” for you)
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Damn shame the way things worked out for Erik with the Kings. He’s a talented goaltender, and a class act all the way. Best of luck to him.
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Good luck to Ersberg, but he wasn’t as good as the other two goalies. More importantly, Bernier needs to be #1. the way he sucked it up Wed was very impressive. Nothing against Quick, he’s goog, but Bernier is special. Potentially, he could become 1of the greats. If the Kings want to go all the way, they’ll hopefully shift the majority of the games to Bernier. BTW Rich, this is Poorman. I just scored a Monday thru Friday radio gig talk show in the Inland.Empire. It’s called Poorman’s Radio Invasion on KCAA AM 1050 from 1PM-2PM. Would love to have you on as a guest!
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Dan H. Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm
@Disgruntled Kings Fan,
Sucked it up as in two soft goals?
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Disgruntled Kings Fan Reply:
October 23rd, 2010 at 10:47 am
@Dan H., and a third period where he stood on his head. What about “not so Quick”, soft, soft, soft loss. Bernier gets it done all the time in my opinion. He has the intangibles. We’ll see.
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NMKingsFan Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
@Disgruntled Kings Fan,
Wow, Poorman! That takes me way back to KROQ in the 80′s.
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puck73 Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
@Disgruntled Kings Fan, I will ask again..what ever happened to.. The Sweedish Eagle, Freddie Snakeskin, and of course Dick Blade ?
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Kingsfanone Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
@puck73,
Yeah, I have always wondered what happened to Richard Blade too. He was pretty popular back then as memory serves.
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Disgruntled Kings Fan Reply:
October 23rd, 2010 at 10:45 am
@puck73, Freddie and “Dick” have shows on serious. Egil DJs giant raves and does grooveradio.com. I can’t stand reliving that era. With me, it’s all about what’s new. The only constant is my favorite team in sports, the Kings!
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best of luck EE. you’ll be back in the NHL some day soon as a starter.
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badGoltending Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@Newf,
no he wont
he’s not an n.h.L talent. If he was the kings would’ve kept him.
Ersberg is not even backup quality in this league
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I´ve followed Erik’s career since early 2000 when he played in my local favorite team Västerås. When he reached the NHL and joined my favorite team Kings I was more than happy. Sad to to see him get waived but that’s life I guess. Good Luck Erik!
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seems like EE would do any dirty job you asked him to.
and there were plenty.
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Rich,
Is he going to the KHL to hunt racoons? Did he really violate a coontract?
[Reply]
DougS Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
@Dominick,
I’m guessing that it was technically a violation of his contract to sign with a KHL team while he was still under contract to the Kings. But in practical terms, it really doesn’t matter because the Kings would rather have Zatkoff and Jones in Manchester than Ersberg and Jones anyway. So they are actually complicit in Ersberg ‘violating’ his contract, and nothing will come of it.
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DougS Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
@DougS,
Oops, “than Ersberg and Zatkoff,” that is.
[Reply]
Dominick Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
@DougS, Thanks for the info, but I think “coon” was the focus word here. Maybe I’m the only one who see’s it.
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Dominick Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Rich,
Good going, now everyones going to think I’m crazy. LOL
Quisp Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:26 pm
@Dominick,
Join the club. I have often been left out to dry when a comment I responded to got deleted, making me seem crazy (-er than I am).
So basically, he’s been Tverdoskied.
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I am not sure of the specifics, but I think it may be good for Bernier to get a couple of starts at Manchester and one for the Kings on this road trip. He hasn’t been as sharp this year as last, and it may be due to inactivity. Maybe even an Ontario game here or there.
But, if he would be exposed to waivers, that would be out of the question.
[Reply]
Quisp Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:28 pm
@luc20rules,
he’s waiver-exempt. but i don’t think anyone thinks there’s a goaltending problem.
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