The insidepittsburghsports.com reports:
You are probably aware that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman met with general managers and owners on Tuesday December 15th, 2009 at the Board of Governors meetings to talk about projections for next years salary cap in the $56.8 – $58.5 million range. The league does not expect a decrease and early projections show the possibility of even a $1.5 – $2 milllion increase at the max.
This salary cap projections set the stage for Sergei Gonchar contract negotiations. Now that executives with the Penguins have the cap projections for next season, they will move forward in contract talks with defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Penguins general manager Ray Shero and J.P. Barry the agent for Gonchar, will conduct their first set of substantive talks in early January. Pittsburgh’s top priority is to re-sign Gonchar but Pittsburgh will only have a window of 6 weeks to strike a deal as the Penguins have set a deadline that they won’t negotiate with Gonchar after the trade deadline. If the two sides are unable to agree to a deal before the trade deadline, striking a deal after the season before July 1 will be unlikely.
In somewhat related news here is Ksenia Gonchar, Sergei’s wife, on the right. She says that this is what the idol of her young life looks like … Coolio! He sang Gangsta’s Paradise she adds.
Ksenia used to be a figure skater. She skated under her maiden name Ksenia Smetanenko. In 1998′s Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan she was figure skating for team Armenia with her partner, Samuel Gezalian, they placed number 24. Here is a picture of her skating.
Here is another picture of Ksenia in Turin, Italy during 2006 Ice Hockey Winter Olympics.
And another picture …
You don’t want to mess with this guy
Tags: Ksenia Smetanenko, Sergei Gonchar
