The NHL Off-Season Thread Starts With a Bang

[Asher]

Havlat to Minnie, it's official. 6 years @ 5 mil per.

[Asher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/flames-take-big-step-closer-to-stanley-cup/article1203672/

Flames take big step closer to Stanley Cup
Eric Duhatschek

On Canada Day, the only Canadian team that put itself closer to competing for a Stanley Cup championship was the one that jumped the gun the day before and signed Jay Bouwmeester, the premier unrestricted free agent among defencemen.

That would be the Calgary Flames, whose general manager, Darryl Sutter, was so enthralled by the coup he engineered that he described Bouwmeester as “maybe the best all-round defenceman in the game” at Wednesday’s press conference.

Okay, everybody gets the fact that Bouwmeester’s skating ability conjures up images of Paul Coffey and Scott Niedermayer in their primes, but objectively it would be hard to place the ex-Florida Panther defenceman in the same class as Nicklas Lidstrom or Zdeno Chara.

Still, with Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr in the Flames lineup, all of whom are candidates to play for Canada’s 2010 men’s Olympic team, Calgary may boast the best collection of defencemen in the NHL at the moment, and that is how they imagine taking the next step forward into the ranks of championship contenders.

Contrast that with Montreal, where the additions of Hal Gill and Jaroslav Spacek just make the Canadiens a little older and slower on the blueline. Up front, Scott Gomez makes too much money for what he produces, and the player they signed to be a finisher on the top line, Mike Cammalleri, a 39-goal scorer in Calgary last season, was too expensive at $6-million (all currency U.S.) a season for five years. The Canadiens, as they stand now, are not a playoff team next year.

Nor is Ottawa, where the Senators were paralyzed for much of the day, awaiting Dany Heatley’s decision about whether to waive his no-trade clause and accept a trade to the Edmonton Oilers. It looked as if Heatley were planning to take his own sweet time before issuing his verdict. In the meantime, the slow, steady erosion of the Senators from Stanley Cup finalist to an organization looking for an identity continues.

Even though the Leafs got bigger and tougher, the fact that they missed out on the Sedins and Mattias Ohlund leaves them a long way from contending.

The best that could be said about Vancouver is that the Canucks did not go backward after getting the Sedin twins signed, but they’re no stronger either.

Edmonton turned a negative into a positive by signing a long-time Flames killer, goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, to a four-year, $15-million contract, and the only red flag there is that Khabibulin generally produces his best hockey in a contract season. As well as Dwayne Roloson played for the Oilers last season, Khabibulin is Edmonton’s best goaltender since Curtis Joseph, and ends a decade of instability at the position.

If Khabibulin’s presence in the Oilers lineup convinces Heatley to move as well, then coach Pat Quinn’s crew might contend for a playoff spot.

Still, the main threat will be Calgary, where the Flames were decent enough on offence last season – tops in their division, fourth overall in the Western Conference. Their frequent and frustrating Achilles heel was an inability to keep the puck out of the net.

Among playoff teams, they had the worst overall defensive record and were forever surrendering leads to the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening playoff round, which they lost in six games.

So Sutter hired his brother Brent to replace Mike Keenan as the team’s coach. Brent spent the past two seasons working for the New Jersey Devils, a team whose identity always revolves around a defensive game plan.

Even without the legendary Martin Brodeur for much of last season, the Devils cobbled together the fourth-best defensive record in the league, mostly with Scott Clemmensen between the pipes and a six-man defence corps that consisted of Paul Martin, John Oduya, Niclas Havelid, Colin White, Bryce Salvador and Mike Mottau.

With that group in place, the Devils’ defensive record had to be a function of system, not superior personnel. In Calgary, with three potential Olympians in his lineup, Brent Sutter should theoretically be able to turn the team into a defensive powerhouse.

And that’s what it’ll take to keep pace with the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks and the Blackhawks as well. Calgary has assembled the best roster in Canada on paper, but it came at a cost with $43.43-million tied up in its top eight players and $53.35-million altogether committed to 17 players under NHL contracts, including Adam Pardy, who signed Wednesday.

It doesn’t leave the Flames much payroll flexibility, and injuries, on a short-term basis, could back them into the same salary-cap corner as last season, when they played some games in the stretch drive two or three players short.

Sutter and Bouwmeester, sitting side by side yesterday, took turns saying as little as humanly possible about their new partnership, but that’s fine. That’s their way.

Championships aren’t won or lost at the press conferences anyway. They are won and lost on the ice. And with Bouwmeester in the lineup, there is at least a glimmer of hope that maybe next year’s Flames can contend for the Stanley Cup. On Canada Day, no one needs to be reminded that it is 16 years and counting since this country last boasted a championship-winning team.

Treading water indeed, Ben.

[Flubber]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle1203672/



Treading water indeed, Ben.

The thing I don't understand is the Oilers Rolosen-Khabinulin move-- Rolosen essentially said that the term was the issue as the Oilers were steadfast in offering only a one year term at 3 million. But does anyone know if there was anything else going on other than the Oil were hesitant to offer two years to a 40 year old?

I know Khabibulin is 3 years younger but he has had some injury issues and his career numbers are slightly worse than Rollie (who from what I saw, put in a great year last year). The Khabi contract will end when he is 41, the same as the one year deal they offered Rollie. Is there something terrible about a goalie being 42? So the Oil commit longer term for more money to a slightly less aged netminder-- I see no reason that 'bulin might not continue to play well but I really don't see him as that big an upgrade.

On the flip side I thought the Isles did well to get Rollie--Since Dipietro seems to be perpetually injured they need a guy to hold down the fort-- Rollie has been very good at doing that for the Oil

[Asher]

Maybe Edmonton just thought they couldn't put up with another two years of Roloson's dramas queen antics...

[Asher]

dp

[Ben Kenobi]

It doesn’t leave the Flames much payroll flexibility, and injuries, on a short-term basis, could back them into the same salary-cap corner as last season, when they played some games in the stretch drive two or three players short.

You have worse forward corps without your top scorer on the team.

Iginla is another year older.

Kippersoft was weak last year.

Canucks have better forwards now, worse defense, better goaltending, better coaching.

What has Calgary done, except add locker room cancer Jokinen?

[Asher]

You have worse forward corps without your top scorer on the team.

Calgary was #1 in the division in scoring last year. We can take a hit there if we can massively improve our defensive corps, which was not good.

Iginla is another year older.

Kippersoft was weak last year.

Canucks have better forwards now, worse defense, better goaltending, better coaching.

Canucks do not have better forwards.

Sedins are another year older. Sundin has not re-signed, and even if he is, the Sundin-Demitra line you're excited about would be old for an old-timer's league, let alone the NHL. You've lost Pyatt also, and who did you replace him with?

Your goaltending is NOT better, it's the same. So is Calgary's.

Your defense is far worse.

Summary for Vancouver: Forwards are status quo, which was not good enough. Goaltending is status quo. Defensive corps is much worse. Overall, a worse team by most estimations.

What has Calgary done, except add locker room cancer Jokinen?

What has Calgary done? Gee, I don't know. It added the #1 free agent defenseman available, who is a lock for the Canadian Olympic team and one of the Top 3 d-men in the game right now and still only 25 years old?

Calgary got rid of Keenan and replaced him with Brent Sutter, who had one of the best defensive teams in the game with people like Paul Martin and Niclas Havelid. Imagine what he could do with Bouwmeester, Regehr, and Phaneuf.

Calgary did drop Cammy, but Jokinen playing for the full season makes up for most of that. Last year's team was too offensive, not good enough defensive.

The general consensus from people much smarter than you are, with much more knowledge about the sport, is Calgary is a much better team going into next year while Vancouver has, at best, not changed and at worse, gotten worse.

As Duhatschek has said in his article -- and by the way, he's a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame so I'll take his opinion over yours, who didn't even know Cammy outscored Iggy last year while you were making a fool of yourself:

The best that could be said about Vancouver is that the Canucks did not go backward after getting the Sedin twins signed, but they’re no stronger either.

And for Calgary:

Still, with Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr in the Flames lineup, all of whom are candidates to play for Canada’s 2010 men’s Olympic team, Calgary may boast the best collection of defencemen in the NHL at the moment, and that is how they imagine taking the next step forward into the ranks of championship contenders.

...

With Bouwmeester in the lineup, there is at least a glimmer of hope that maybe next year’s Flames can contend for the Stanley Cup.

[Flubber]

Calgary was #1 in the division in scoring last year. We can take a hit there if we can massively improve our defensive corps, which was not good.


.[/q]

Calgary has lost two top 6 forwards compared to what they STARTED with last year. bert was a bit of a bust despite his sometimes 'did you see that moments, so no big loss. Cammy will be missed. But overall they have lost a forward that is very good but not in anyone's top 10 in the league and picked up a guy that will likely be their number one dman (Phaneuf could compete for that spot)

So Calgary's plans/hopes are like this

1. Jokkinen replaces Cammy (compared to season start last year)-- recall this team scored fairly well even before he joined
2. A bag of pucks replaces bert-- sorry but 15 goals with all the time and PP time he got is just awful
3. Iggy stays being Iggy for another year
4. Phaneuf rebounds under brent Sutter and being pushed by Bowmeester
5. Bowmeester plays his usual way
6. brent gets more out of the team than Keenan does
7. Kipper is more like 3 seasons ago than last year
8. Moss, Boyd and backlund all either break out or continue their upward development

All I know for sure is that not all of this will happen. But a good chunk of this happening is reasonably likely. In fact most of these points are reasonably likley


Vancouver?? They should be reasonably good-- I stiill think Luongo is scary good-- BUT I don't see where they have done anything to improve this team over last year

[Asher]

Vancouver?? They should be reasonably good-- I stiill think Luongo is scary good-- BUT I don't see where they have done anything to improve this team over last year

They haven't. But through the eyes of Ben, all of the other teams got older while Vancouver's team didn't get older, but "more experienced".

[Sparrowhawk]

I will agree that Calgary has improved, but I don't see room for a backup goaltender in there anywhere. Do they really want to roll the dice on Kipper again this year? Not sure who I would suggest (or who they can afford) but I am amazed that they haven't addressed that, though perhaps they still plan to?)

[action=Sparrowhawk][/action]

[Asher]

Macklebackup is the backup. He's fine. His last outing was actually very good for the Flames.

He's a good goalie, and needs some NHL experience. I'm happy with him as the backup.

I'd rather the money go elsewhere than a high-priced benchwarmer.

[Flubber]

I will agree that Calgary has improved, but I don't see room for a backup goaltender in there anywhere. Do they really want to roll the dice on Kipper again this year? Not sure who I would suggest (or who they can afford) but I am amazed that they haven't addressed that, though perhaps they still plan to?)

[action=Sparrowhawk][/action]

No -- as asher alluded to, they re-signed the same kid as last year-- UNlike asher I probably would have liked them to find the moola to bring in a more seasoned guy but at the same time I agree with asher that the kid will probably be fine this year. He had a number of pretty good outings last year and his poor recrd was mainly the FACT that the team used to completely fail to show up when he played.

I think the plan this year is to play the kid more from the outset since I think the team brass have soured on the idea that playing Kipper 70-75 games is the best way to have him play well in the playoffs

[Asher]

Canucks add another Swede...Samuelsson.

[Asher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/lots-of-player-movement-but-little-improvement/article1205580/

Lots of player movement, but little improvement

Some final thoughts following another wild week on the NHL free-agent front.

Even as teams spent staggering sums of money – upwards of half-a-billion dollars – to either secure their own unrestricted free agents, or to sign players away from other teams, you wonder if the frenzy is less about the actual dollars going out, and more about the roster and trade gridlock that has smothered player movement in the NHL's salary-cap era.

Think about it.

In the old days, if a team wanted to change its culture the way the Montreal Canadiens did, they could do it any number of ways, at any number of times during the season. The trading game was never easy exactly, but it was a lot easier than it is today, when every move is filtered through the team's chief financial officer before the hockey operations people get a crack at it.

Nowadays, there are only two narrow windows of opportunity for teams to make any sort of wholesale change. The first is the trading deadline – a 48-to-72- hour period in late February or early March – and the second is the first week of July, when a quarter of the league, on expiring contracts, is up for grabs.

Every year, you wonder if the action at the trade deadline will slow down – and it never does. Every year, you wonder if teams will sit on their wallets during the free-agent frenzy – and they never do. Even those of us with only rudimentary grade-10 math skills are forced to conclude: As long as the current collective bargaining agreement is in place and doesn't get tweaked, that pattern isn't going to change, recession or no recession.

The fundamental goal of every NHL team is, as Calgary Flames general manager Darryl Sutter so helpfully stated this week, to win.

Sadly, only one of 30 teams ever does that in any calendar year. So for the remaining 29, the optics of change suddenly become paramount in terms of what they do next.

Didn't win anything this year, in your disappointing centennial season? Then move out your first, third, fifth and seventh-leading scorers (Alexei Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang) and replace them with a whole new cast and crew (Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri). Are the Canadiens better for all those changes, or worse? On paper, they're about the same.

Sideways isn't just a movie about relationships and the California wine country any more.

It is an operating philosophy adopted by a lot of NHL teams, all of them currently flogging season tickets, with a goal of demonstrating to their loyal fan base that they are doing something tangible to turn last year's disappointing results into next year's Stanley Cup celebration.

Faced with a grumbling unhappy paying public, teams understand that to do nothing is suicidal. Anything is better than standing pat.

So follow the dominoes, as they fell, one by one, earlier in the week.

The Chicago Blackhawks lure Marian Hossa away from the Detroit Red Wings, but did so at the cost of Martin Havlat, last year's leading scorer. Hossa has been more durable over the long term than Havlat, which is why the Blackhawks were willing to commit multi years to him, but . . .

Last year, Havlat actually played seven more games, and each averaged 0.95 points per game. Objectively, it is hard to argue that Chicago is any better with Hossa than Havlat, just different.

Thus scorned by Chicago, Havlat turned around and signed a five-year deal with the Minnesota Wild, where he will replace Marian Gaborik.

Gaborik and Havlat share similar frustrating injury histories, but last year, Gaborik was the far more fragile of the two, getting into only 17 games (but scoring 23 points in that stretch).

How much better is Minnesota with Havlat as opposed to Gaborik? Again, they're about the same. Gaborik left to join the Rangers, where his contract replaces Gomez's on New York's payroll. As a player, Gaborik is the complete opposite of Gomez. He is a dynamic finisher, Gomez an accomplished play-maker.

Before, the Rangers had a set-up man in Gomez, with no finisher; now they have a finisher, but no set-up man. If GM Glen Sather had played his cards right, it would have been Chris Drury that he shuffled out of town, not Gomez. Then, at least, you'd have two-thirds of a fairly interesting line, moving into next year. As it stands now, Brandon Dubinsky is probably going to be Gaborik's centre, unless they sign Lang for cheap.

The carousel spun that way all around the NHL this past week. Few teams were able to add any key assets, without subtracting a commodity elsewhere.

One of the rare exceptions was the Calgary Flames who managed it by acquiring the free-agent rights to, and then signing Jay Bouwmeester. To make the numbers work, the Flames traded Jim Vandermeer and the rights to Jordan Leopold, while allowing Adrian Aucoin to leave as an unrestricted free agent. In terms of the quality of the respective players involved, that makes them better on paper. They better cross their fingers that none of their high-priced help gets injured; otherwise, replacements will be hard to come by.

Free agency can be a funny animal. With the exception of a Zdeno Chara here or a Scott Niedermayer there, most of the players who switched teams for big dollars since the lockout ended have been major-league busts. Consider two years ago, when the Rangers earned headlines for signing Gomez and Drury and earning kudos for being most improved. It didn't work out so well, did it? And the player that they let go in order to sign those two, Michael Nylander, was the only one that ever developed any chemistry with Jaromir Jagr who, frustrated, eventually took his act to Russia. Or how about the Philadelphia Flyers landing Daniel Briere in a tough bidding war with Montreal and Los Angeles? Oops. Briere hasn't been a difference-maker either.

It may well be that when the dust finally settles, the winners in the free-agent season of 2009 will be the bit players – such as the Colorado Avalanche, who paid modestly to upgrade their goaltending by signing Craig Anderson. Or maybe it'll be the Columbus Blue Jackets, who finally have the player in Sami Pahlsson, to fill the need for a third-line checking centre. In Ken Hitchcock's universe, where that role has been filled variously by everyone from Guy Carbonneau in Dallas to Keith Primeau in Philadelphia, it is an absolutely critical piece of the puzzle – and now he has someone to do the job for him. Or the Washington Capitals, who were able to sign a 27-goal scorer in Mike Knuble for a few dollars more than they paid enforcer Donald Brashear last year.

For all the shuffling that went on this week, how many teams are significantly better today than they were on Monday? Realistically, perhaps only one or two. For the rest, about the only thing that you can safely say is that they are different. But in Montreal and Toronto and even in Chicago and New York, different is better than the alternative – status quo. Or it is until teams get on the ice in October and discover that while the faces may have changed, the results are probably going to stay pretty much the same.

Poor Ben.

[Ben Kenobi]

They better cross their fingers that none of their high-priced help gets injured; otherwise, replacements will be hard to come by.

I notice you ended your bolding right here.