Winners and Losers after free agent frenzy?

[lakingsfan19]

Who do you think are the winners and losers of free agent freenzy (July 1st)?

Here is an interesting article on someones thoughts of the winners and losers.

http://www.hockeytraderumors.com/article11552.html

Here is a part of the article that claimed the blackhawks are losers on that day. I thought it was hard to believe, but he makes a good point.

Chicago Blackhawks

While signing Marian Hossa to a 12 year deal where he makes only 5.2 million a year looks like a good deal by itself, it stops looking good when you look at the rest of the roster that GM Dave Tallon has. The Chicago team is very talented and only got more talented with this signing but Tallon backed himself into a very tight corner. The Blawkhawks have 17 players signed to 47.9 million dollars worth in cap space and they are left with roughly 8.9 million to sign 5 players neccesary to reach the 23 player roster. This leaves roughly 1.78 million per player needed. While that is doable it takes them very close to the cap and wouldnt even allow them to sign Barker, Versteeg, Eager or Brouwer (who will likely be looking for raises near, at or above that 1.78 million per player). This leaves Tallon with some difficult choices to make as to see who to keep and who to trade. And that is just this year. Next year they have roughly 31.9 million tied up in 9 players. If the cap stayed the same (its assumed it will drop but ill give them this) they have 24.9 million dollars to spend on 13 players. That's rouhly 1.9 million per player and they would still want to sign next seasons RFA's Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Adam Burish. Each player will likely be getting significant raises. Their is no way they could keep all or even half of them and the fact that Campbell and Huet are almost unmovable leaves them with little options but to trade one of Keith, Toews or Kane at the very least and maybe even have to move a player like Patrick Sharp or Byfugien just to be able to sign Keith and one of Toews and Kane. And that doesnt take into account that they will for sure want to resign Versteeg and maybe Brouwer and Eager this season too. This Hossa deal is a really bad deal for Chicago and could spell long problems for them. Chicago loses no matter what.

[UKRedWing]

Biggest losers - Fans of Detroit.

[Thrillhouse]

Normally, winner and losers are hard to pick right after it happens. Sure you can say Chicago is a loser because it'll be hard to sign the kids, but what if they pull it off? I agree with the article cause I can't see them pulling it of but that time hasn't come yet.

I liked:
- Knuble deal in Washington
- Colton f'ing Orr
- Havlat in Minny has potential
- Leafs and Flames got decent/fair prices on their D signings

Skeptical of:
- The Hossa deal
- Not sure what Montreal was doing after saying they wanted to get bigger, but who knows, they might score a billion goals. And the Gill and Spacek signings too
- $7.5mil for Gaborik

Sometimes the teams who do nothing are the real winners. There was a ton of money thrown around.

[Killah_punk]

If the Pens keep both Godard and Rupp then they will be winners. How many teams dress 2 HW's. It almost seems to good to be true. Rupp would make a good number 2 guy.

[Grittzkey]

Winner = Toronto. they finally are getting close to having a team to be proud of.

[Boogeyman2383]

Originally Posted by lakingsfan19

Who do you think are the winners and losers of free agent freenzy (July 1st)?

Here is an interesting article on someones thoughts of the winners and losers.

http://www.hockeytraderumors.com/article11552.html

Here is a part of the article that claimed the blackhawks are losers on that day. I thought it was hard to believe, but he makes a good point.

Not to be a homer, but I have like the Wild signing of Martin Havlat, Kyle Brozdiak, Shane Hnidy, and Greg Zannon. Getting Saku Koivu would be great, but idk if thats gonna happen.

[Tucker_316]

Originally Posted by Grittzkey

Winner = Toronto. they finally are getting close to having a team to be proud of.

Really? They may have gotten tougher, but they're gonna suck ass.

They had a REAL team to be proud of back when they had a bunch of guys like Domi, Belak, Corson, Roberts, Tucker, Green, McCabe, Nolan and Perrot.

They were not only tough, but they were pretty damn good too.

The Leafs fans are dying I think much more to see a team that can actually compete and maybe win a cup for the first time in a few generations.

The toughness is nice, at least they'll be entertaining..but to be proud of such a suckass team?

[clydefrog]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but 4.5 mil for komiserak seems pretty steep. If he can return to the Komi of 08 he could end up earning that money. And now that he has a real 'enforcer' in Colton Orr, maybe Komi will be more effective.

Thats alot of iff's

Another interesting team was the Bruins. The only guy the signed was Begin (other then there own RFA). They lost a few fringe players (Montador and Hnidy will be replaced by some guys form Providence most likely Boychuck) but kept the team mostly intact.

Rask will be a HUGE upgrade from Fernandez ( Tuukas only game was a 33 save shutout of the Rangers).

The big question is Kessel. If they keep him win, if they trade him Im sure there gonna get something of value so its winn either way.

They didnt trade Savard or Bergeron (both rumered to go) and have there best players still here (Chara and Thomas) as well as the coaching staff and what seem to shaping up as a pretty good front office in Chiarelli, Neely and Don Sweeney.

Id say the B's are winners.

see i didnt even mention you-know-who.

[caps87]

the caps win and lose.

they win because they a good player in mike knuble for a good price.

they lose because they lost brashear, and didnt replace him, making knuble one of our toughest guys . and he hasnt dropped the gloves since '02-'03. but he can do work in front of the net.

they also lose because they didnt pick up a 2nd line center to replace fedorov- yet.

[Thrillhouse]

Originally Posted by Tucker_316

The toughness is nice, at least they'll be entertaining..but to be proud of such a suckass team?

I pretty much agree with this. Unless something drastic happens, the Leafs will be brutal (look at the forwards!). But I'll be tuning in every night this year that's for sure.

[Cat Smasher]

Originally Posted by Tucker_316

The toughness is nice, at least they'll be entertaining..but to be proud of such a suckass team?

That's what being a fan is all about. Still rebuilding, this is Burke's first full year. **** is still being sorted out. It's not an overnight thing. I know this has been said for 40+ years, but wait till next year or the year after when things are in place, and the free agency pool is a higher quality .

After dumping Tucker and Sundins departure, Antropov, Moore, etc, they did the same pretty much as when those guys were here.

I mean what really happened so far? We lost Kubina, oh WOW, now we are gonna suck way more? I don't see it. But, if we do, that's alright! Getting tougher and worse, is a good thing for a rebuilding team imo.

And so far, so good. The goalie situation hasn't even been addressed, you think Toskala is the goalie of the future? I sure as hell hope and think not.

There is still a lot to do, as said before, it has to get worse, a lot worse, before you can better.

[FightingIsGood]

Could the Pens be considered winners when their only losses so far has been their 3rd D pairing and managed to keep their top 3 lines intact?

[Alexifighter1]

I'm so pumped that Toronto got tougher. It'll actually be entertaining to watch HNIC this year

[Machinehead2k5]

For the two teams I follow the most:

Penguins: B+
Got Guerin, Adams, Tank resigned. Added more toughness with Rupp. If they don't let Godard go I'll give them an A. Still need to address the issue of who's going to be the 6th d-man. As of right now they aren't talking about signing Boucher and they lost Scuderi/Gill. I wouldn't mind to see Sergei Zubov back in a Penguins jersey if the price was right since he's been injured the last few seasons.



Thrashers: C+
Picked up Kubina (better overall for Anderson's offensive system than X) and Antropov (Kovy's going to be in his ear if he doesn't perform). Resigned Reasoner and Thorburn who are great in their roles. However with the money they paid Antro, they could have signed Cammalleri instead.

Still have to sign Lehtonen & Colby Armstrong. October actually looks promising for a change in Atlanta.

Kovalchuk - Peverly (28pts in 27gms when acquired playing with Kovy) - Antro
Little - White - Kozlov (The Little White Russian line accounted for most of the Thrashers points outside of Kovy)

Bogosian (could have had ROTY nomination if he wasn't hurt) & Enstrom (had a soph slump)

Kubina & Hainsey (probably going to be a -40 combined on the season)
Big Boris & Annsii Salmella (showed a great all around game during this few games with the thrashers)

[R.Middleton]

This thread should be renamed to "How your team did at free agency".