2013 NHL Free Agency...

[MichaelWinicki]

July 5
TJ Brennan signs in Toronto: one year, $600,000
Brad Richardson signs in Vancouver: two years, $2.3 million
Jeff Schultz signs in Los Angeles: one year, $700,000 (link)
Yannick Weber signs in Vancouver: one year, $650,000
Travis Hamonic re-signs in New York (Islanders): seven years, $27 million (link)
Anton Khudobin signs in Carolina: one year, $800,000 (link)
Eric Nystrom signs in Nashville: four years, $10 million (link)
Dominic Moore signs in New York (Rangers): one year, $1 million (link)
Valtteri Filppula signs in Tampa Bay: five years, $25 million (link)
Dan Ellis signs in Dallas: two years, $1.8 million (link)
Matt Hendricks signs in Nashville: four years, $7.4 million (link)
Stephen Weiss signs in Detroit: five years, $24.5 million (link)
Matt Cullen signs in Nashville: two years, $7 million (link)
David Clarkson signs in Toronto: five years, $36.75 million (link)
Clarke MacArthur signs in Ottawa: two years, $6.5 million (link)
Tyler Bozak re-signs in Toronto: five years, $21 million (link)
Viktor Stalberg signs in Nashville: four years, $12 million (link)
Jared Spurgeon re-signs in Minnesota: three years, $8 million (link)
Scott Hannan (one year, $1 million), Tyler Kennedy (two years, $4.7 million) re-sign in San Jose (link)
Michal Handzus, Michal Rozsival re-sign in Chicago: n/a (link)
Pierre-Marc Bouchard signs in New York (Islanders): one year, $2 million (link)
Ryane Clowe signs in New Jersey: five years, $24.25 million (link)
Rob Scuderi signs in Pittsburgh: four years, $13.5 million (link)
Mike Mottau signs in Florida: n/a (link)
Yann Danis signs in Philadelphia: n/a (link)
Jesse Joensuu signs in Edmonton: n/a (link)
Keith Aucoin signs in St. Louis: one year, $625,000 (link)
Andre Benoit signs in Colorado: one year, $900,000 (link)
Jason LaBarbera, Boyd Gordon sign in Edmonton: n/a (link)
Nathan Horton signs in Columbus: seven years, $37.1 million (link)
Mike Ribeiro signs in Phoenix: four years, $22 million (link)
Mike Komisarek signs in Carolina: one year, $700,000 (link)
Frazer McLaren re-signs in Toronto: two years, $1.4 million (link)
Kyle Chipchura re-signs in Phoenix: n/a (link)
Thomas Greiss signs in Phoenix: one year, $750,000 (link)
Joey Crabb signs in Florida: two years, $1.2 million (link)
Ray Emery signs with Philadelphia: one year, $1.65 million (link)
Daniel Alfredsson signs with Detroit: one year, $5.5 million (link)
Peter Regin signs with New York Islanders: one year, $750,000 (link)
Andrew Ference signs with Edmonton: four years, $13 million (link)
Evgeni Nabokov signs with New York Islanders: one year, $3.25 million (link)
July 4
Daniel Briere signs with Montreal: two years, $8 million (link)
Keith Ballard signs with Minnesota: two years, $3 million (link)
July 2
Vincent Lecavalier signs with Philadelphia: five years, $22.5 million (link)

Lot so money being thrown around to some average players.

Gotta say I'm please with what the Flyers have done this offseason. They still need a #1 defenseman, but I think the goalie situation is better than last season at a fraction of the cost.

I think Lecavalier is a good addition.

 

[RastaRocket]

These guys are getting paid this year. I'm glad the Stars filled needs through trading.

Lecavalier is a good addition, but the problem in Philly was never offense. Now you are forcing B. Schenn or Couturier (two young talents) out of their natural position or onto the trade block. Philly is also in some heavy cap trouble at the moment.

Emery was a great addition at a great price though, and that will help them quite a bit. Defense is still a need but the money situation wont allow them to fix it. However, the defensive free agents this year were awful anyway.

Weiss to Detroit... I think that was the steal of free agency.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Like the Emery signing.. especially for the price. Two goalies who can get it done this year, but again.. no defense. Hopefully they let some of the younger guys tart to play more. Im sick of the guys who are big, but can barely move. Gonna need agile guys who can recover when they turn the puck over every other time it touches their stick in their own zone.

Being big doesn't really help much when you don't clear the porch or play the man in the crease anyway.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Like the Emery signing.. especially for the price. Two goalies who can get it done this year, but again.. no defense. .

Timonen-Schenn
Streit-Coburn
Gustafsson-Grossmann

No defense?

I don't think that's a bad corps of defensemen. There's no #1 there but I see a couple #2's and #3's. No out and out bad defensemen either.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Timonen-Schenn
Streit-Coburn
Gustafsson-Grossmann

No defense?

I don't think that's a bad corps of defensemen. There's no #1 there but I see a couple #2's and #3's. No out and out bad defensemen either.

I see alot of old and immobile in there, not good when you have alot of turnover prone D men. So many TO's in our own zone last year. Gustafsson will help if they even let him in the third pairing this year. Hope to heck they do.. they still have Gervais who they seem to like for some reason and who knows what you're gonna get from Mezaros.. probably nothing though. Need to get younger and more mobile on the D end.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I see alot of old and immobile in there, not good when you have alot of turnover prone D men. So many TO's in our own zone last year. Gustafsson will help if they even let him in the third pairing this year. Hope to heck they do.. they still have Gervais who they seem to like for some reason and who knows what you're gonna get from Mezaros.. probably nothing though. Need to get younger and more mobile on the D end.

I agree that they need to get younger and more mobile, but I don't see an out & out bad defense here.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

I agree that they need to get younger and more mobile, but I don't see an out & out bad defense here.

They may not be awful, but i don't see even an average defense right now. Bottom third of the league, imo. If Gustafsson doesn't make the top 6 from game 1, i don't have much hope. Hopefully our goalies will be great this year, because they may have to be.

Also not sure why we haven't resigned Gagne like a week ago. He can't be asking for much and we could definitely use another talented winger. Why we resigned Adam Hall is beyond me.. let some of the kids get a chance to play already.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

They may not be awful, but i don't see even an average defense right now. Bottom third of the league, imo. If Gustafsson doesn't make the top 6 from game 1, i don't have much hope. Hopefully our goalies will be great this year, because they may have to be.

Also not sure why we haven't resigned Gagne like a week ago. He can't be asking for much and we could definitely use another talented winger. Why we resigned Adam Hall is beyond me.. let some of the kids get a chance to play already.

Bottom 3rd in the NHL on defense?

Nah.

But that aside, is this defense better than the one that started the past season?

 

[RastaRocket]

They may not be awful, but i don't see even an average defense right now. Bottom third of the league, imo. If Gustafsson doesn't make the top 6 from game 1, i don't have much hope. Hopefully our goalies will be great this year, because they may have to be.

Also not sure why we haven't resigned Gagne like a week ago. He can't be asking for much and we could definitely use another talented winger. Why we resigned Adam Hall is beyond me.. let some of the kids get a chance to play already.

http://capgeek.com/

That is why Philly is not signing any more people! They blew all their money on Vinny. Holmgren is like the Jerry Jones of the NHL. Not to mention Giroux just got Crosby money.

 

[RastaRocket]

More great news for Stars fans...

Follow
Gare Joyce‏@GareJoyceNHL
This just in: Longtime DRW scouts Joe MacDonnell (head amateur) & Mark Leach (east area) have jumped to Dallas in Jim Nill's wake.

Follow
Gare Joyce‏@GareJoyceNHL
More on MacD/Leach: Have to presume that Hakan Andersson will be a target for Jim Nill at some pt. HA has close work relationship with McD

Corey Pronman @coreypronman 23m
MacDonnell is highly respected. Interesting that he's going off to Dallas now.



Nill is turning Dallas around in no time!

 

[MichaelWinicki]

http://capgeek.com/

That is why Philly is not signing any more people! They blew all their money on Vinny. Holmgren is like the Jerry Jones of the NHL. Not to mention Giroux just got Crosby money.

I think Homer did pretty well.

They signed what? 4 guys and resigned one of their own and extended Giroux.

They may have gotten the best puck-carrying defenseman available... a very solid #2 center... A goalie who can compete for the #1 job and a #3 goalie.

I gotta say there is much left out there to sign who would be an instant improvement over what they already have.

If the injury bug has passed this is a solid playoff team.

 

[RastaRocket]

I believe with the cap situation they should not have signed Vinny. All he is doing is pushing young guys B. Schenn and Couturier out of the way.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

I believe with the cap situation they should not have signed Vinny. All he is doing is pushing young guys B. Schenn and Couturier out of the way.

You need 4 quality lines to compete for a championship. Vinny will be a great guy to center our second line and give us more size and skill up the middle. Couterie needs to show more scoring ability with the third line to prove he's ready to step into a top 6 role with the team. Schenn can play well on the wing.

 

[RastaRocket]

You need 4 quality lines to compete for a championship. Vinny will be a great guy to center our second line and give us more size and skill up the middle. Couterie needs to show more scoring ability with the third line to prove he's ready to step into a top 6 role with the team. Schenn can play well on the wing.

Exactly, now you are forcing an up and coming young center to the wing so you can overpay for Vinny. He wasn't needed and now the team is strapped for cap space and not in position to take down the top teams in the East. Lecavalier also got a NMC in his contract.

They could have signed a winger like Damien Brunner for around $3 mil.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Exactly, now you are forcing an up and coming young center to the wing so you can overpay for Vinny. He wasn't needed and now the team is strapped for cap space and not in position to take down the top teams in the East.

They could have signed a winger like Damien Brunner for around $3 mil.

Huh?

This move keeps the "up & coming" center from having to assume more responsibility that what he is ready for. You force a guy at center and it's going to hurt the entire line. As of the end of last season that "up & coming" center was ready to contribute a 1 point a game like the Vinny can. He also isn't as good at faceoffs as Vinny.

The point of having cap space is to spend it on resources.

And the Flyers have done that. If you haven't noticed there aren't many of those FA resources left out there.

Can take down the top teams of the East?

The Flyers had a winning record last year and only missed making the playoffs by a few points... While at the same time being one of the most-injured teams in the NHL.

Since that time they've improved all facets of their team– offense, defense and goaltending. Add in some improved health and you've got a team that can threaten.

 

[RastaRocket]

I guess we'll see. Schenn needs 5 years before he can handle a 2C role? I doubt that.

A lot of better and cheaper options out there given the Flyers situation but Holmgren's gonna Holmgren.

 

[RastaRocket]

B. Schenn and Couturier are both RFA's next season. They still need to solve the goalie situation long term before they make a cup run... they are strapped. Emery was a good signing but it is only one year. If he proves he can be relied on as a starter that's another fat contract that Philly is going to have to dish out or not even be able to match.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

B. Schenn and Couturier are both RFA's next season. They still need to solve the goalie situation long term before they make a cup run... they are strapped. Emery was a good signing but it is only one year. If he proves he can be relied on as a starter that's another fat contract that Philly is going to have to dish out or not even be able to match.

Right now the Flyers are $12 mil under the cap for next season... And that cap is likely to go up some. I don't think they're in terrible shape. Certainly enough room to resign Schenn, Couturier and Emery IF he shows he's worthy of it.

And I wouldn't bank on Coburn ($4mil cap hit) being on the roster for next season.

The idea of needing a "long-term" solution at goalie is overstated.

 

[RastaRocket]

The idea of needing a "long-term" solution at goalie is overstated.

What do you mean? If you do not have a legit goaltender you can basically kiss any run goodbye. Crawford put the Hawks over the top this year compared to previous, Rask was phenomenal for Boston, and without Quick LA doesn't sniff a cup.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

What do you mean? If you do not have a legit goaltender you can basically kiss any run goodbye. Crawford put the Hawks over the top this year compared to previous, Rask was phenomenal for Boston, and without Quick LA doesn't sniff a cup.

Emery was 17-1 this season.

It's all about the goalie getting hot at the right time.

If it was all about the goalie, then Ryan Miller and the Sabres would have won at least one cup so far.