Trading Is Heating Up With Free Agency Done

Over the past week the league has seen four trades be completed. Nobody from my rumors blog has been moved as off yet and I think there is a good reason for it. The talent there is way and when I say way I mean extremely overpriced, more so then even gasoline. So with that lets look at the trades that were completed.

The first of the four trades was between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Heading to Florida are 2nd and 7th round draft picks. In return for the picks the Lightning acquired Eric Belanger and Christoph Schubert. While I like the deal for both teams I'm very disappointed with the Panthers here and I'm sure Schubert probably is as well. Schubert was just signed at the beginning of free agency to a 3 year contract worth 1.1 million. Only to be dealt not even a month later. I know that the Panthers will have to pay a penalty of one years salary to move Christoph, but really??? I know that the Panthers are a very good team, but I think next year free agents will think twice before signing there. At least they should because they might not even be with the team they signed with by the time the season starts. The good news here is that Christoph isn't moving very far geographically. I wish Schubert a lot of luck whenever he faces the Panthers next season.

The second trade this past week once again involved the Panthers. This time they dealt Johnny Oduya and prospect Adam Polasek to Pittsburgh. In return the Panthers received prospect Luca Caputi and a 4th rounder. I have to say I really like this deal for the Panthers. Johnny Oduya is a real solid defender and you know exactly what your going to get with him, but he's a free agent at the end of the year and I'm not sure he's worth the type of money with will take to sign him before or during free agency. Polasek at this point is a project, he has good size and the fact that he came to play in the CHL last year should help his development, down the road I could see him being a nice 5th 6th type if everything pans out. Luca Caputi is a solid prospect up front, while I don't think he's ever going to be a 1st line guy, I do see him developing into a solid 3rd line player that can fill in on the 2nd line for short stints. The pick nobody really knows yet, but Florida is pretty solid at the draft. Good on Florida for looking ahead and dealing Oduya.

Early Friday morning the Colorado Avalanche and the Washington Capitals got in on the trade action with an interesting deal. Mike Komisarek and prospect Marcel Mueller go to Washington in exchange for Joffrey Lupul and a 3rd round pick. Both teams dealt from a position of strength, to help in an area of need. Also interesting is that the two main pieces in this deal have a history of injury problems and both could be considered over payed. It's hard not to like the deal for either club based on what was given and received, however if I had to pick a winner for this deal I'd have to say Washington based solely on the fact that Komisarek injury problems aren't quite as serious as those of Lupul.

Now onto the forth trade or of course I suppose that there might be five trades, but my senses tell me that there is just four. Nothing has been made official from the league as of yet and neither team has confirmed anything other then two players have been moved. So I'm going on the assumption that that Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes have agreed to a deal. According to a source from Montreal the Habs have dealt David Clarkson, and they were reportedly looking for a center. Also according to a report out of Carolina TJ Galiardi has been traded. Putting the two together and we have the looks of an interesting deal. Galiardi for Clarkson?? It seems very possible but I think the Hurricanes would have to get a little more in return. I can't judge it completely until we kow the full details, but just looking at the surface I think it could be a good one for both team involved. Of course that all depends if Carolina gets more in return and if this is even a correct report. Only time will tell if my senses are right on this one.

Free Agency Part Two: Winners and Losers

This years free agent crop certainly by no means was a good one. However there will still be winners and in this years case mostly losers...I think. Every year a couple teams come out of this mess looking good and a few come out with pie on their face which might taste good to the GM, but everyone around them knows this isn’t a good look. Of course every year there are signings that looked bad and end up making guys like me eat crow. With all of that lets take a look at who the winners and losers are in this years class.

First up we will look at the losers. This years biggest loser has got to be the Phoenix Coyotes. They just spent a combined $9,500,000 on three centers (Horcoff 4.5, Morrison 3.0 and Conroy 2.0). None of which I want playing on my top two lines for any prolonged period of time. Yes the Coyotes were short up the middle heading into free agency, but that is far too much money for these guys. I think maybe half that amount wouldn’t have looked bad. The bottom line here is that I wouldn’t be shocked to see a couple buyouts a year or two down the line from this bumper crop of signings. Next on my list of losers is the Detroit Red Wings, what are they thinking in hockey town? Just under $10,000,000 for Michael Ryder, Wade Radden, and Andrew Ladd. I honestly don’t think Ryder’s own mother would have paid the 4 million to have Ryder. 2.9 million for a defenseman that used to be good when he played with a giant. Atleast it’s not the 6.5 Sather paid. While I don’t think that the Ladd signing is horrible I just think it’s a little too much for what Ladd has shown to this point in his career. While Buffalo could still match the offer I think they would be best letting Ladd walk. Of course there is a small chance that Ladd could make me eat some crow here, but for now I’m going to stick with my opinion that he is over paid. One last loser before moving onto the winners of this years silly season. My choice for a third loser is the Florida Panthers. I know most probably weren’t expecting this but here is why. The Panthers didn’t really sign anybody of significance and had some bad luck in the undrafted free agent lottery. What they did do was match the 3 million dollar offer sheet to Matt Moulson. Yes Moulson had a great year last year, but this one stinks of a one year wonder to me personally. Yes Moulson could make me eat crow in a big way. I don’t think though that it would be because of his god given talents. It would be more based on the fact that his NHL club doesn’t appear to know what it’s doing and will never acquire or develop any players to move ahead of him on the depth chart. That being the case he might just get enough ice time on a crappy team to make me look bad and Brock look like a genius. If it was me running the Panthers I would have found a better way to spend the $3,000,000. Oh wait one more loser for the period. Flyers GM Alvaro, I don’t know maybe you were on vacation, or maybe you were sick in the hospital. If not then, the least you could have done was respond to the agents regarding the offer sheet to Tanner Glass. The agents put a lot of time into this, and to not send a response is pathetic. Not only is it a slap in the face to the agents, but I think it’s insulting the other 29 GM’s that sent in offers, and responses to their own players.

My first winner for this year is the New Jersey Devils. While signing Teemu Selanne for 4.5 million might be a slight overpayment I think for one year it’s worth it in a big way. Have you seen the group of wingers these guys now have? Probably the best group in the entire HFNHL. On top of that they brought back Brandon Prust for not much money and let Bruno Gervais walk after receiving a 1.5 million offer sheet, which he is unlikely to live up to. My next winner or should I say winners is Vancouver, Calgary and San Jose who really stole the show during the undrafted free agent lottery. Of the 35 lotteries for players these three clubs managed to win a combined 16 of them. That is almost half of the lotteries. Not only are they the winners for the amount of lotteries that they won but they also signed most of the guys that might actually be worth the money it took to get into these lotteries. One last winner for the free agency period, and my choice is the Carolina Hurricanes. These guys managed to bring in five serviceable players for a combined 6.8 million dollars. While names like Fehr(resigned), Ward, Mair, Ellis, and Meech may not be sexy or exciting to anybody they are all solid pickups for reasonable dollar amounts. For a team rebuilding adding a couple inexpensive veterans for leadership is not a bad idea. Also bringing back Fehr who plays in a high octane offense could prove to be a very smart move at 2.5 million.

Watch out for my season previews as the season approaches, also on the agenda more rumors, trade reviews and whatever else might be worth while writing about.

Rumors from around the league

Another year and once again apparently the Flames are looking to move Jarome Iginla because of budget issues. I'm not sure why Jarome ever even resigned in Calgary. Sure he's the captain and the fan's absolutely love him, but with his style of play he'd be a fan favorite in any city and probably a big part of the leadership inside the dressing room. Now I'm not going to say Jarome is greedy but would any other team have given him max money? Sure he's a great player but there are only two players in the league that deserve max money and neither of them get it. It is rumored that this time around Jarome has been asked to waive his no trade clause and he has said he would waive it for only a select few teams. Carolina, Colorado, Montreal, Vancouver, Anaheim and New York. The problem is that Mr.Kershaw wants to move him to Atlanta.

Other players rumored to be on the move are Doug Weight, Tim Connolly, and Milan Hejduk. Now if your going to acquire Doug Weight, you really better not give up a whole lot. Really the guy isn't even half the player he once was. If I was GM of a team I wouldn't give up more then a late round pick. The guy really isn't anything more then a 3rd liner at this point in his career. Connolly is another guy that is likely over priced as rumors have the asking prive at the equivalent of 3 first round picks. Now Tim is a very skilled player but, really??? Judging on talent, salary and asking price Milan may be the best bargain. I haven't heard the asking price yet, but from my experiences Kowalchuk is a fairly reasonable guy.

Free Agency: The good, the bad and the ugly part one

Even though this years free agent class was not what you would call strong, hell I'm not even sure you'd say it was weak. To be completely honest it was and is crap. However there was still a huge amount of excitement leading up the silly season. I mean how could you not be excited to find out where Teemu Selanne will sign before he retires? So lets take a look at what went down yesterday.

I will start with the good. HFSN was good, the ongoing tweets that Vin and Ken had throughout the day was real good. I especially liked the report about the Panthers not sending in the correct paper work on their bids.

The bad, well this one might go to the HFNHL itself. The Islanders signed two restricted free agents to offer sheets. The compensation for both being a second round pick. The Islanders have two second round picks so giving up the required compensation isn't a problem, but where this gets bad is... The league doesn't appear to have any rules regarding what club will receive what pick.

The ugly, this is an easy decision for me to make. 4 years at 4 million per for Michael Ryder? You have to be kidding me. I know he has the ability to score 30 goals, but this guy will disappear more then David Copperfield. Making it more likely that he struggles to score 20 goals and stay out of the dog house.

Look out for part two the free agency blog where I will examine the winners and losers of the silly season when it comes to a halt.