Coyotes making moves...for the future

Hockey Betting Lines

02/21/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If things are going to get better in Phoenix, it's probably about time some new Coyotes start running with the pack.

The Phoenix Coyotes have been making moves over the last two weeks and one of them involved the jettison of forward Ladislav Nagy, who at the time of the trade was the team's leading scorer. Nagy was dealt to the Dallas Stars last Monday.

Nagy skated in 55 games with Phoenix this year and had eight goals and a then team-high 33 assists for a team-leading 41 points. In six seasons with Phoenix, Nagy had 92 goals and 157 assists in 321 games.

In return, Phoenix received left wing Mathias Tjarnqvist and a first-round pick in the 2007 draft. Tjarnqvist had just one goal and three assists in 18 games with the Stars this year, but already has a tally and a helper in four games with Phoenix.

The move made sense for the Coyotes, who are currently riding a six-game losing streak and have just three more points than Los Angeles, which is dead last in the Western Conference.

Nagy is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason and thanks to the trade, Phoenix will now have two first-round picks in the upcoming NHL draft.

Just three days later, the Coyotes made a move to shorten the rebuilding process by signing captain Shane Doan to a five-year contract extension. The 31-year-old has 19 goals and 17 assists for a team-best 36 points for Phoenix.

The move will certainly help the Coyotes keep their fan base interested during their rebuilding process. The club drafted Doan in 1995 when it was still in Winnipeg, and the Alberta native is the only player on the roster that made the move to Phoenix when the club relocated in 1996.

"Shane is the face of our franchise and our best player. He is a great captain and leader and an even better person," said Coyotes' managing partner/head coach Wayne Gretzky in making the announcement of the extension. "He has a great work ethic, plays hard every night and is one of our most active players in the community. We are thrilled to have him in a Coyotes uniform for the next five years."

Phoenix later made a set of smaller moves when it re-signed goaltender Mikael Tellqvist and center Mike Zigomanis to two-year contracts.

However, these moves are most certainly just the first of more to come. It is possible Gretzky will not be back next year as head coach. In Gretzky's first year as head coach last season, the Coyotes finished last in the Pacific with 81 points. The club has just 53 points through 60 games this campaign.

Also, center Jeremy Roenick, who signed a one-year deal this past offseason to return to the club, could retire at season's end. Roenick, though, has just seven goals this season, leaving him nine shy of 500 for his career. If he doesn't reach that milestone this year, it could motivate him to come back for another year, but probably not with Phoenix.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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