It looks as though free agent signings are shifting the power in the league. I’m shocked by several moves, most notably:
Sabres got rocked, losing BOTH Drury and Briere
NYR is looking good for a cup after signing BOTH Drury and Gomez (from NJ) (I just threw up a little). Considering the way they ended last season…
Pens are just waiting to be a dynasty with their existing young talent and new pickups.
Red Wings lost a few key players. It’s like they gave up.
Ducks sign Matt Schneider and Bertuzzi, which is pretty amazing, but considering that S Neds. and Selanne are retiring, they’re still in a big hole. Additionally, it looks as though they won’t have the cash to sign Giggy again.
Kings should be more of a force this year, with a few decent acquisitions.
I’m not sure what the Leafs are doing. Jason Blake is great, but they need to be more concerned with keeping the puck out of the net. Pick up Giggy! Maybe they blew all of their money on Antropov.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to the rest!
The Avs picked up Ryan Smyth, which was a great pickup for the team. They also signed a good defensemen from San Jose (sorry, blanking on name right now), so as a CO fan, I’m happy with the moves they’ve made so far.
I’m just hoping the Habs can resign Sourey. I don’t know if they have the cap room, but their blue line would be pretty solid with the recent addition of Hamrlik.
As for the Leafs…I hope they can find a journeyman vet with serious medical issues and sign him for a 5 year, $50 million deal!
[quote]David Barr wrote:
Pens are just waiting to be a dynasty with their existing young talent and new pickups.
[/quote]
I’m really excited to see how the team develops. If they will be able to keep Crosby, Staal and Malkin? The one thing that helps is that although Malkin was drafted prior to Crosby, he only began playing last year so they have a one year grace period to sign Crosby before Malkin and Staal… although I’d rather all three tell the Pens to piss off and head to Montreal in a couple years!
words cannot describe how angry i am the devils let go of gomez without a fight.
i know they are having cap problems but that guy is part of what i consider the heart and soul of the franchise.
St. Louis resigned Tkachuk and also got free agent Paul Kariya on Monday. They’ve resigned defenders Eric Brewer and Barret Jackman. It looks like my Blues are really putting together a young talented defense group.
I don’t know why, but I actually feel bad about this situation. Screwed over indeed.
[quote]Magnate wrote:
Fucking Darcy Regier screwed us over for the next season. What the fuck was he thinking letting both Briere and Drury go?[/quote]
[quote]David Barr wrote:
I don’t know why, but I actually feel bad about this situation. Screwed over indeed.
Magnate wrote:
Fucking Darcy Regier screwed us over for the next season. What the fuck was he thinking letting both Briere and Drury go?
[/quote]
I could understand letting Briere go if he was commanding $52 million like he got from Philadelphia, but the fact that in January he offered to resign the same contract we had him under, 5 years $25 million.
To top it off they just watch Drury walk out (far better player in my opinion than Briere was, Drury was Mr. Clutch this season, saved us on many occasions).
Good news though! We signed Mair and Numminen!
Mair is a mediocre center who is just out there to be a bit of muscle, and Numminen has maybe 2 seasons left before he retired (being optimistic).
So, half our centers gone, our co-captains gone, but we got a near retirement defense man and our worst center back.
We HAVE to keep Vanek (damn good thing he is restricted) for next season, I’m glad they have said that they are making his contract a priority now, otherwise we’d be absolutely screwed.
Yeah, we did pick up Rafalski, who is a similar player to Schneider though I would’ve liked to have kept him. Got Hasek signed now too. The voices are debating again. Is he too old? I thought so at the beginning of last year so who knows anymore with that guy.
As for NJ, with the loss of Rafalski, Marty is going to be back there all by himself. Will this change the system that they’re so famous for?
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I hope so, NJ was ridiculously boring to watch this season whenever they got a lead (matter of opinion of course), I rarely made it through a whole game if they had a lead going into the 3rd, would change the channel.
Tech problems cut me off from finishing my thought from the other day.
I think hockey, more than any other sport, relies more on defense and team chemistry.
The glitzy, high priced scorers draw a lot of attention-but the bottom line is the goaltender.
Look at Jersey, Anaheim and Colorado when Roy was rolling. All had dominant goaltenders.
If Vancouver can somehow get a bit more offensive punch, they have the defense to take it all.
