NHL Free Agent Season begins!

[Telly Savalas]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=132066&hubName=nhl

Now's the time that the new teams will be built. Although it's evident that the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the cup this year, it will still be interesting to see who else puts together a solid team and where some of the marquee players will land.

[getmeouttahere]

1. You're too funny, Telly....

the term "uncharted terrority" takes on a new meaning in this free agent season. It will be interesting to see what some of the small market teams do that have never really participated in the free agent market before. Especially since teams like Colorado, Detroit, etc. won't have a lot of room to manuever under the cap. The capologists will start earning their money right away.

[Telly Savalas]

3. A lot of the teams that don't have much cap room...

have the core of a good squad already signed (albeit probably a bit overpriced compared with what new contracts will look like). They just need to fill in their rosters with lower priced quality players. What'll be interesting are teams like Boston which have almost nobody under contract, so they can in essence build a new team from scratch.

The Habs are well situated to exploit the new economic order. They've got quite a few pretty good players under contract already, and even after signing Koivu and Theodore, they should still have a fair amount of room under the cap to go after some pretty good talent.

[Doctor_J]

21. I'm hoping the cap will bring the the NHL back to the prairie

There should be NHL hockey in Winnipeg and maybe Regina, and maybe Halifax too. And I'd like to see the Habs improve. Hopefully the cap will help the Canadian teams compete

[Telly Savalas]

2. Isbister to the Bruins according to RDS

http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/184731.html

[Ravenseye]

4. Wasn't that draft day?

a draft day trade I thought.

[Oreo]

7. Nope... just happened today

Only 2 trades on draft day. Hnidy to Atlanta and White to MN.

[Ravenseye]

8. Ah I see it, trade

Wasn't a free agent signing, it was a trade. Gotcha. My bad. I thought you were saying it was a free agent signing.

[Ravenseye]

5. No signings so far

I wonder how many will happen today or whether most will be weighing different offers.

I hope my Pens manage a good signing or two. Bringing Kovalev back would be great. I think that they have a slight edge up from some other teams because they can offer whoever comes to skate with Crosby and/or Mario. Sure Mario is old now but he's still capable of putting up bigger numbers than most NHL'ers. If I were a sniper I'd be dying to go play with those two.

[Oreo]

6. First Free Agent moves: Roberts and Nieuwendyck to the Panthers

Just announced on Toronto's FAN 590
I don't think they planned on losing both of them. Both signed 2-year deals with the Panthers. Owen Nolan is obviously gone too.


Telly... Jeff O'Neil does not a Cup buy. There's no way the Cup is going north of the border.

[Ravenseye]

9. Good pickups for Florida short term

Both guys are old and Nieuwendyck has been having chronic knee problems hasn't he? How are the Leafs fans taking this one?

[Telly Savalas]

11. Without checking any Leafs boards...

my guess is that reactions are mixed. Those guys are among the fans' favourites, but a lot of Leaf supporters recognize that at some point we need to ditch the geriatric model of strenghtening the team and start looking for guys who don't have grey hair. Personally I would have liked to see the Leafs sign 'em for a year with the idea being we'd make a cup run with a veteran squad this season, then begin a youth movement next year when these guys and Belfour are gone. It's not the end of the world, though. I think we have enough cap room to put together a good team still.

[Telly Savalas]

10. It's not Jeff O'Neill that guarantee the Leafs the cup...

rather it is the will of the loving and benign Hockey Gods. Although I must confess to being surprised by the Roberts and Nieuwendyck exodus. Conventional wisdom in Leaf Nation was that they'd sign back up here.

[Oreo]

12. Why would the Hockey Gods look to Toronto now?

I don't think any fan right now can say how far they'll go this year. Who will your team get? Who will the other division teams get? In a few days I think we'll have a better feeling. I'm kind of hoping Naslund and Forsberg (FLOPPA) goto NY as rumored. It's always a great thing to see the rangers lose with the biggest names in the league.

[Telly Savalas]

19. From a rational, objective perspective...

obviously who's gonna be any good is a big question mark. From the standpoint of a True Believer of the Blue and White, it's clear that they're gonna win the cup this year just like it was clear last August that they'd hammer out a CBA, have a season, and the Leafs would win the cup. Or like the promise of an inevitable cup victory any other year. The law of averages dictate that one of these years our prophecies will hold true, and this year is as good as any.

[Oreo]

13. Leafs at 8 players $27million

I think that's without Roberts and Nieuwy

Fan 590 is talking about it. Said no team is going to goto $39 million ceiling in case somebody gets hurt and they need to sign somebody else. Said $36 is probably the highest we'll see.

Looks like Domi is gone too

[Ravenseye]

14. I"ve heard few past 35 million

not just because of having to sign another player, but because many GM's are worried that their revenues are going to drop this year, and they don't want to have to cut players, or sign long term deals.

What I've read is that probably most teams won't go above 35 million for this reason, and many will stay in the 31-32 million range.

27 million for 8 players. That leaves around 10 million if they aren't stingy for 12 more....That's not too bad. They should be able to pick up some decent players.

[Oreo]

15. What I don't understand

Is why do I keep hearing rumors about Naslund and Forsberg going to NYR when their salary was over 60 million last year? They'll still suck

I'm SO glad there isn't a luxury tax like in the NBA.

[Ravenseye]

16. I've heard that too

Something about the Swedes wanting to play together...

Well NYR has dumped salary, for instance Holik is gone...but they still have a sizeable amount on the payroll. Jagr is still there and will I think be getting the league max of 7.8 mill (that's the max right?). They'd have to take a salary reduction to play together, but I can imagine there are teams out there who woulnd't mind picking them up for 5-6 mil. each, I just don't know if they'd want to play at them.

I just don't see how NYR has the salary room to get them in at a reasonable amount, but who knows. Maybe they're willing to go even lower to play together. I doubt it though.

[Telly Savalas]

18. The Rangers have a fair share of cap room.

TSN's Eastern Confrence Tracker has them with $15 million spent, not including the rookie contracts of 3 new signees. So it looks like they have as much cap room as anybody else. Dunno off the top of my head, but it was probably the case that in addition to the buyout of Holik, a lot of the $60 million in payroll was invested in contracts that expired during the lockout season.

I hope Forsberg isn't stupid enough to chase the cash and sign with a perennial loser like the Rangers. It's fun to root for the guy even if he isn't on your team. It'd be impossible to cheer for the Rangers though.

[Oreo]

22. I liked Forsberg

Or Floppa as we call him here in the Twin Cities until the 02-03 playoff series between the Avs and the Wild. He's enormously talented but he dives more than Greg Louganis.

[Telly Savalas]

17. Once the Nolan situation is resolved...

they'll be sitting at $23 million for 8 players (including O'Neill). I think the 8 players at $27 mil includes Nolan but excludes O'Neill. and doesn't include Nieuwy or Roberts.

The word on Domi is that there's a good shot he'll sign with Pittsburg because he's buddies with SuperMario. I'd like to see the Leafs hang onto him too, but I'm not holding my breath.

TSN's Hockey page has good information on the state of teams' contracts. Just click on the Eastern Confrence and Western Conference trackers in the box on the right hand side of the page. It has nice little charts indicating who each team has under contract, for how much, and the total team payroll.

[Doctor_J]

20. Interesting lists

why aren't Amonte and LeClair listed? Clarke just cut them. Amonte's numbers here were due mostly to Zhamnov, but I'd take a chance on LeClair.

"Evident that the Leaves will win the Cup this year"

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

just like it was evident that the Cubs would win the series last year.