Thursday's thoughts: Ranking the greatest coaches of all time, and a buyer's market for free agents

It's a slow hockey news day overall, but there must be a reason for that, right? Perhaps there's a conspiracy at work...

Free agents twisting in the wind - From The Rink
Agents are complaining that the NHL is orchestrating a conspiracy to avoid signing free agents as long as possible to get them to lower their salary demands, but James Mirtle walks through the numbers and shows that there's just not that much money out there to spend.

Sporting News' 50 greatest coaches of all time
The Sporting News ranks the top 50 coaches of all time, across major professional and college sports. Scotty Bowman ranks highest among hockey coaches at #7, and as you can expect, this list is heavily skewed. 11 of their top 20 are from either college football or the NFL,

Nashville Predators - Features: Summer Snapshot: Kevin Klein
Defenseman Kevin Klein checks in with a quick blog from his summer break up in Ontario. He better rest up, as the way it looks now, he's slotted for a 2nd-pair job alongside Dan Hamhuis this fall.

Williams A Red Wing? - Puck-rakers
In a conversation with Aaron Portzline, free agent forward Jason Williams sounds like he's heading to Detroit, as they're the only team which has expressed interest in his services. His name has often been tossed around as the kind of affordable secondary scoring that Nashville could use.

The Associated Press: Cablevision to spin off Madison Square Garden
Cablevision Systems Corp. plans to spin off its Madison Square Garden business (which includes the NHL's Rangers and the NBA's Knicks) as a separate entity. In the future expect to hear stock reports triggered by Marion Gaborik's wonky groin.