Day Two (July 1) (I've moved today's analysis to the top of the post) -
- WSH Mike Green signs for 5.25M for 5 years. That's a lot of cash for a kid that's only done it once and can't play defense yet. Time will tell if this is misstep or not.
- TSN also has the Langkow deal on their UFA tracker - apparently he's up to 4.5M/year over 4 years. That's a pretty good value contract, assuming Langkow can sustain his level of play. I like.
- Corey Perry, another RFA, cashes in with a 5.35M/year deal. Man Anaheim's going to be tight to the cap this season.
- Word is Edmonton has dealt Raffi Torres for Gilbert Brule. Im not a big Torres fan, but I'd say he's currently the superior player. Brule had some big expectations coming out of Junior, but he might have been totally ruined by the BJ's rushing along his development. He's been a fringe player - at best - since he made the leap. Oilers win this one if Brule somehow finds his footing in the Stinktown. If not, clear loss. For now, it looks to me like the Oilers get smaller and worse at ES (moreso).
- Good news everyone! Don't expect Eric Godard back in Flames colors next year. Now we just have to hope Sutter stays away from other slow-moving pugilists.
- Out of nowhere, Sutter acquires 26 year-old RFA Rene Bourque for a conditional draft pic. Like Greentree, Bourque is a LWer. Unlike Greentree, he's already an established NHLer. I dont know too much about him, but his stats suggest a 3rd line-type. Nystrom just got bumped down the depth chart I'd say.
I'm in favor of this move.
- The Alberta teams are wheeling and dealing today. Kevin Lowe trades Pitkanen to the Hurricanes for Eric Cole. Huge win for the Oil here. Pitkanen was showing signs of looking for a big pay-day as an RFA and his skills are probably already replicated on the Oilers roster now anyways. In return, they get an excellent player who can produce at ES. Cole's only problem is his penchant for getting hurt. Still, a big win for comb-over here.
- Word is TBL have somehow signed Radim Vrbata as well (3 years, 3M/year is the rumor). If you had a career season as a forward last year, T-bay wants you!! The question is, who the hell is going to play defense for this club next year??
- The NHL Network is reporting the Wild have (re-)signed Andrew Brunette (sorry Kyle) and traded for the Preds Marek Zidlicky. decent moves, depending on the costs. Zidlicky is a guy I've had my eyes on for awhile, so Im disappointed Minnesota got a hold of him.
- A couple hours in and all the big fish are still swimming. Mirtle is hearing whispers (via TSN) that Sundin is being offered 10M/year (!!). Sundins a great player, but that's ridiculous.
- The Pens have re-signed Mark Eaton for 2 years, 1M/year. Dirt cheap. There goes one of the guys from my bargain bin.
- Im hearing Kolzig is headed to - who else - Tampa Bay. Hey guys, maybe you didn't get the memo, but...Kolzig isn't very good. And he's 38. Might as well stick with Ramo and Smith.
- What Im actually waiting for today is the Giordano contract announcement. It's been a "done deal" in spirit for awhile now. Time to make it official.
- Looks like Jose Theodore has landed in Washington. Good bet Huet ends up in Colorado then.
- PHX plugs the Ballard hole by nabbing Kurt Sauer. Sauer was amongst the top 3 defenders on COL in terms of QUALCOMP last year and had the best ES +/- of any blueliner (+15). Seems like a good move.
- Here's an interesting question...which potential reprehensible signing would you dislike least, Flames fans:
1.) Darcy Tucker
2.) Todd Bertuzzi (Keenan favorite lets not forget -- puke!)
3.) Todd Fedoruk
4.) Sean Avery
- TSN says the Avs have signed FAILcroft. What in holy hell are they thinking? He's proven to be a hopeless starter and probably couldn't offer anything more than Budaj in the back-up role. Baffling.
- Speak of the Devil, PHX picks up Todd Fedoruk. One of my feared hypotheticals finds a home. Phew.
- More stuff coming down now. Huet signs in CHI of all places, leaving the Avs with the woeful duo of Raycroft and Budaj. Maybe they can broker a deal for the now displaced Bulin Wall. Stillman lands in FLA while PIT scoops up Godard.
- Toronto pays 3M+/year for Jeff Finger...a defender whose first full season came at age 29. And I thought they were getting wise out there.
- TSN reports that the Canucks have submitted an offer sheet to........David Backes!? WTF?
- Another sigh of relief: Darcy Tucker lands in Colorado for 2 years, 4.5M. That's two bullets dodged to today. YAY!
- The Lightning add ANOTHER forward by signing Adam Hall. This is getting ridiculous.
- Things seemed to have slowed down a tad. Lots of rumors about Sundin to Vancouver and Hossa to Edmonton (how would they afford that?), but nothing substantive.
- Is Brad Stuart @ 3.75M for Detroit the best deal of the day? Sauer's reasonable deal might be in the running too.
Worst contracts? Finger, for sure. Green, maybe, depending on if he can replicate his successes next year. Raycroft and Kolzig finding work in the NHL is dubious as well.
- A quote from an unnamed GM on TSN just now: "Im going home...this is the most bizarre free agent market I've ever seen."
- Looks like Soupy is going to CHI. Salary estimates hover around 7M/year (over a long term...think 8+ years). Campbell is NOT that good folks. It's a bad deal if true. Double plus bad, in fact.
- TSN stating someone (not the Flames) is offering Nolan 2M+ a year over 2 years (like the Tucker deal) or so. He played alright against tough competition last year, but his offensive rates were very pedestrian...not to mention the risk of "diminishing returns" for a player nearing the big 4-0.
- Rumor is that Tampa Bay might be shopping Mike Smith (??). That would be baffling and absurd.
- Had to take a break and a bunch of stuff went down while I was away. I think I'll leave an added punditry to tomorrow therefore. Parting shot: that Redden contract is awful.
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- The Circus, aka Tampa-Bay Lightning, made separate deals to acquire the bargaining rights to pending UFA's Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts and Brian Rolston last week. Improbably, those moves are already "bearing fruit":
- Feaster inked Malone to a mind-boggling 7 year, 31.5M contract. That's right, the Lightning have given a retirement contract to a 28 year-old player whose peak season of 51 points came on Evgeni Malkin's wing. Malone's stock climbed thanks to his 27 goals and frequent nose-breaking in the post-season, so many figured he'd be demanding something in the 4.5/5M area. Malone, who has averaged about 40 points as an NHL winger, is going to struggle to justify those dollars and that 7 year term is going to look very silly very quickly.
- Tampa Bay has also locked up the Gary Roberts with what is apparently an incentive-laden contract. Roberts is certainly a warrior - but an old warrior. He spent most of the last season injured or playing on the 4th line. He'd probably be more valuable as a coach than a player.
- Forgetting that they actually need defensemen, the Lightning also grabbed the aforementioned Rolston, but have yet to sign him. The ex-Wild forward is one of the more coveted UFA's this summer, despite being 35, and will probably cost more than Malone (in terms of per year dollars) to ink.
A few thoughts occur to me in light of Tampa Bay's pre-July machinations:
1.) Will other clubs start dealing for pending UFA's in the future? Aside from a few rare instances, trading for negotiating rights a few days before the July first deadline always seemed like a potential something for nothing proposition. If Feaster makes it 3 for 3 will other GM's start to consider it a worthwhile gamble?
2.) Should Rolston sign for a supposed $5M+/year, the Lightning will have about 30M committed to 10 forwards - and just under 15M committed to a blueline featuring Dan Boyle, Paul Ranger and a bunch of shlubs (Kuba, Lukowich, O'Brien, Picard, Lundin). Imbalance much?
3.) To what degree do Koules and Barrie take credit for these moves? It's pretty clear Feaster wasn't the guy who hired Barry Melrose to replace Tortorella. And one would assume Feaster had learned his lesson with big, long-term dollars after the Brad Richards albatross - except now we're looking at the Malone head-scratcher. I think we can guess that the Bolts GM has either had a very hot fire lit under his ass by the new regime, or he's simply been reduced to dancing on the end of strings.
- The Oil moved Jarret Stoll and Matt Green for PP-quarterback Lubomir Visnovsky late yesterday. Technically not really UFA related, but I feel compelled to comment anyways.
Lowe seemed to do well when looking at the guts of this deal: he got a very good player for a couple of not very good players (assuming Stoll doesn't bounce back). On the other hand, Edmonton now has 11M in cap-space invested in Sheldon Souray and Lubo-Viso (The Flames have 10.5M invested in Phaneuf and Regehr by comparison). Both defenders are excellent on the PP and neither are very capable at ES. Last season, Visnovsky faced easier opposition than Jack Johnson and Jon Klemm and still came out on the bad side of the ledger. Also, his new contract stretches to 2012/13 and apparently includes a NTC. That's a lot of dough locked up for a lot of time in two guys that can't take on the bad guy's big guns at even-strength.
Should make for a pretty good PP, I guess. Assuming Souray plays more than 25 games.
- Panthers sign young Rusty Olesz to a 6 year, 18.75M deal (3.125M/year). Management must be high on his potential because he certainly hasn't looked like a $3M player so far. His career high of 30 points in 3 seasons of play and constant injury problems sure make the Lombardi contract (1.817M/year) look pretty damn good. I've been tough on ol' Darryl recently but he certainly deserves credit for that deal.
- Word is coming down from Inside the Flames that Calgary has yet to formally buy-out Warrener (or anyone else for that matter)...with the deadline fast approaching. Not sure what to make of that - are all 3 guys to be buried in Quad Cities this year?
- Mirtle has a good post on the glut of teams that will be looking to spend big bucks this summer. The amount of big spenders (NYC, CLB, VCR, PIT, MIN, CHI, MTL, ATL) and the amounts they have to spend seems to outstrip the amount of worthwhile UFA's in my humble estimation.
Therefore: if Sutter could convince Aucoin to waive his NTC, there would likely be a market for him. An extra 4M would would come in handy: it could be used to re-sign Nolan and Vandermeer or land a Satan type player, for instance. Not to mention the fact that I dont think Aucoin will earn his money this coming season. The best time to get rid of bad value contracts is as soon as possible.
What this also means is it's going to be an effing GONG-SHOW tomorrow, and maybe the rest of the week. Expect someone to sign Wade Redden to some ridiculous contract and expect me to laugh my head off when they do.
- Adding to the Tampa-Bay Cluster-F is Vaclav Prospal, whom I completely forgot about until his announced signing today. No numbers were released, but I doubt he was cheap. That's 3/4 of "negotiating rights deals" locked up by Feaster so far.
