Day Two FA Thought$

July 2, 2008   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

More craziness today, what else is new?  Derek already did a fine job of recapping all the moves but I’ll add my two cents.

I got to hand it to Marian Hossa, yeah you could say he’s being a bit of a weenie trying to piggyback his way to a championship by joining a loaded Detroit team, but there’s something to be said about turning down a huge offer from a conference-winning Penguin team (a reported $49 million for 7 years) to do so!  Of course he’ll try to have his cake and eat it too by getting an even bigger contract next year, but there is always the risk of injury.  That’s a lot of money to turn down.

Many, including me speculated how the Rangers would be able to fill their forward lines while spending all their money on defense, well apparently the answer was robbing Columbus blind.  Yes, Nikolai Zherdev can be a royal pain in the russkie, but if he could come close to 30 goals on a defensive-minded team that has no offensive talent other than Rick Nash, what will he do on a Ranger team that has talented centers up and down the roster?  Not to mention other young forwards that weren’t there in Columbus either.  It’s puzzling that all they could get for Zherdev and Dan Fritsche was one decent defenseman in Fedor Tyutin (and a not-so-decent one in Backman).  I thought after what, 7 or 8 years of not making the playoffs as an expansion team the Blue Jackets would get serious about trying to break through – obviously I was mistaken.

As for the Sean Avery sideshow, I’m not shedding a tear he’s gone – I was a bit tired of Ranger-Devil games being all about what Avery said or did, now they can just be about hockey again.  I figured someone would overpay him, but I’m a bit stunned it was Dallas.  Maybe co-GM Brett Hull wanted a fellow yapper around that he could relate to.  It is telling that despite Avery’s on-ice attributes he’s now on his fourth team and counting.

A Devil fan friend in Atlanta was telling me yesterday about how the Thrashers promised they would be players in the FA market.  I’m sure he got a kick out of Ron Hainsey being the signature move of FA for Atlanta (and overpaid at that, but so is just about every other UFA), who looks more and more like Ilya Kovalchuk and the nineteen dwarves with each passing season.

Ottawa’s hasn’t done too much but they have made a couple of nice under-the-radar moves.  Letting go of clubhouse distraction Ray Emery was addition by subtraction.  Replacing him with Alex Auld, who resurrected his career in Boston last year was a good move.  Getting pest Jarko Ruutu (think Avery only with a little less offensive talent and not nearly as camera-happy) should also help a team that’s historically fought a reputation for being soft.   

Pittsburgh managed to salvage a nearly destructive offseason by extending Evgeni Malkin, who’s been rumored to be on the trading block seemingly since the Hossa trade last year and it’s not unreasonable to think he would have been dealt at some point had Hossa re-upped.  But Malkin’s the far better long-term investment anyway.  Losing Ryan Malone also hurts but at least they retained rugged defenseman Brooks Orpik.

UPDATE: And once again proving you can’t really judge moves until after the dust settles, Columbus signs Kristian Huselius at 3 years, $14.25 million, a more than acceptable replacement for Zherdev at least, though it still leaves the Blue Jackets way short on scorers.