With September looming large on the horizon, there seems to be a lot of loose ends around the league just sort of sitting lonely and un-attended. Many of them are no-brainer type issues and the fact that they continue to linger will start to raise questions in the minds of various fanships around the league sooner rather than later. Here's my list of 8 curiosities that should have been taken care of weeks ago.
1.) Flames cap issues.
Sutter waived Nilson, Warrener and Eriksson in the first week of July, ostensibly for the purposes of allowing other clubs to take them for free or, failing that, buying one or more of the bad contracts out. Neither happened and Sutter has instead gone about stocking the roster beyond it's fill point, both in terms of number of players and total cap hit. Now, Calgary's GM has just over a month to shave some 3M from the Flames pay-roll, with ever-narrowing avenues to do so.
2.) Chicago Blackhawks and their $12M crease.
Signing Huet to a 5M+ multi-year contract is one thing, but adding him while you have Khabibulin and his ridiculous 6.75M+ cap hit under contract is quite another.
The Hawks are over the salary cap by nearly $4M and, despite their active off-season, still have a relatively thin group of forwards. The smart move would have been to ensure a destination for the Bulin wall before acquiring Huet. The second smartest move would have been to deal the former Tampa Bay Lightning 'tender as quickly as possible after acquiring Huet, but before teams blew their budgetary brains out on other free agents. Now the Hawk's have about a month to move what is nearly an unmovable contract. There's also word Chicago management is considering keeping both goalies and employing a "hot-hand" philosophy during the season. Two problems with that:
a.) How else do they get under the salary cap? Thin out already thin forward ranks? Robert Lang seems to be the most "disposable" of the big dollars up-front, but would probably be useful as a mentor to the Hawks Kane and Toews. Plus, he isn't quite Amonte-useless yet.
b.) Is there a more inefficient use of cap space? No matter who plays each night, it means you'll have $5M+ or more dollars sitting on the bench doing nothing.
3.) LA Kings lack of RFA signings.
As far as I know, Brad Richardson, Jarrett Stoll and Patrick O'Sullivan still need new deals. All figure to be part of the club next year and none of them should be having overly-contentious negotiations. In addition, the Kings are still struggling to make it to the cap floor. One would assume that GM Lombardi would like an accurate idea of the salary he might need to add in order to get the Kings to the 40M or so figure. What's the freaking hold-up?
4.) Ottawa Senators continue their descent.
The Sens back-end has been decimated by the departures of Redden and Commodore (that Corvo deal sure looks stupid now) and yet they dilly-dally when it comes to signing 22 year-old already-vet Andrej Meszaros? News Flash guys...you have destroyed any leverage you might have had in negotiations. Meszaros has you over a barrel and I'm sure his agent knows it. From the angle out west, it looks like you need him more than he needs you. I would suggest paying him whatever he wants (short of ridiculous Phaneuf money) or dealing him for some sort of return forth-with.
Ottawa only has 4 NHL caliber defensemen currently and none of them are offensively capable. They are going to be getting very desperate for defenders very soon.
5.) The Tampa Bay boondoggle.
The Lightning currently have 17 NHL caliber forwards. That isn't counting hopefuls like David Koci, Brandon Bochenski, Andreas Karlsson, Zenon Kanopka, Blair Jones or Wyatt Smith, most of whom Tampa Bay added this summer. Conversely, the club dealt away Dan Boyle (whom they had only recently signed to a big dollar, long-term deal) and replaced him with...Matt Carle and Andrew Hutchinson. As such, they now have one of thinnest defense corps in the league but could staff 8 full forward lines. Baffling.
6.) Florida Panthers symmetry.
After dealing their best goal scorer and Captain to the Coyotes for a couple of defensemen, word is the Panthers are now going to add Maple Leaf anchor and whipping boy Bryan McCabe and his $5.75M cap hit. That will give Martin 8 viable NHL defenders, a blueline worth about 22.62M (assuming Van Ryn goes to the Leafs in the deal). While the move would catapult the Panthers into the top quarter of the league in terms of priciest bluelines, that's not the funny part. The fact that they will be spending as much on 8 defenders as they are on 12 forwards (23.416M) is.
Good thing they re-signed Wade Belak this summer, hey? Wow the SE Division is wacky.
7.) Why won't anyone sign Marek Malik?
He's done nothing but put up positive results all over the place for years now. It's true he and NYR coach Tom Renney had their issues last year, but, really...even while in the doghouse, Malik put up stellar advanced stats last season:
QUAL COMP: 0.06
QUAL TEAM: -0.02
GA/60: 1.63 (!!)
plus/minus: +15
Corsi: +5.5
All arrows point in the right direction. Just about every team in the league could use a guy like that. He's big and kind of slow, but you can't argue with the results. Besides, he scores great shoot-out goals.
Either Malik and agent are asking for some ridiculous dollars or there's something going on behind the scenes away from the fans view (*dressing room cancer, harms puppies, sells dope, denies Global Warming - err, Climate Change - exists, etc.). If not, one has to seriously question the collective intelligence of the leagues general managers.
*(none of these are serious suggestions or worthy of rumor-mongering. Please don't sue me Mr. Malik.)
8.) Colorado Avalanche and the worst. Goaltending. Duo. Ever.
Seriously. What the hell is Giguere thinking? Peter Budaj, backed-up by...Andrew Raycroft? In stark contrast to the Hawks, the Avs have the cheapest - and worst - goaltending pair in the league, bar none. Lose Theodore to free agency? Okay. Decide to run with Mr.Mediocre Budaj as your starter? Eh. Sign one of the leagues most obviously terrible goalies to back him up? FAIL. Especially in a division that boasts Kiprusoff, Luongo and Backstrom/Harding (and Garon...I guess). Look, Giggy, I know the Avs have a reputation for re-invigorating puck-stoppers careers and all, but I think you're really pushing it this time. Give Dale Tallon a call, I hear he might have what you're looking for...
That's my collection of the biggest head-scratchers. Feel free to add your own in the comments (or add any clarifications of the above).
