Winners and Losers after free agent frenzy?

[clydefrog]

Originally Posted by The Crow

How much does clyde pay?

dont get it.

[acd1]

Originally Posted by clydefrog

dont get it.

You didn't misspell anything in your signature block this time -- FYI

[Maggie3and Me]

Free agency is only the first step to putting the puzzle of what your team is going to be like for next year.

These superstars need a supporting cast, and there are going to be some trades made to either offset losses or supplement gains. Until this plays out a little more, I think that it is a little premature to say who is going to be the big winners.

I am not thrilled with Hossa for 12 years, especially if it means we lose Kane next year because we have no money to pay him. But, until we see more, it is to early to judge.

[bigjohnson]

Originally Posted by jkidd

As far as what the Wild did.. and didn't do.

Bringing in Shane Hnidy was huge. One of the major things this team has lacked for seemingly ever, is that tough as nails defenseman, and Shane will fill that role very nicely.

I wouldn't say Hnidy is tough as nails. But he will certainly bring depth to Minnesota. When out on the ice, he, more than anyone on the Bruins last year, would stick up for his own guys.

He use to be a tough customer. He has fought Stock, Asham Burtuzzi, Rupp Belanger, and Domi. He isn't the same fighter he once was, be he will be a good pickup for the Wild.

[Rugged]

Originally Posted by acd1

I give the Pens a B-. Hal Gill will be tough to replace - what's his wingspan, like 30 feet? Between Gill and Orpik you had two of the best stay at home Dmen in the league. Losing Gill was obviously a cap thing.

Rupp was a great pickup to be your #2. Lose Godard and the Pens grade go's down to a D IMO. Godard is awesome and one of my faves.

Losing Scuderi leaves you guys a little thin on the blueline, but if Gino and Sid each hang 100+ I guess it doesn't matter. If Guerin and Staal each hang 50+ you guys should have another great year.

FYI -- I hate the Penguins.

I realize that my A+ grading was overzealous and homerific but there was no way they could match or beat the offers made to Scuderi and Gill, so I can't blame management for that. For the simple fact that they managed to persuade Guerin and Fedotenko to take less money to stay, along with the addition of Mike Rupp, I believe that they deserve a pretty high mark.

Although I liked Gill as much as the next guy, I believe that Shero has something up his sleeve to replace him. I know they're high on Jay McKee. We'll see.

If they somehow manage to lose Godard, I'll begrudgingly replace that A+ with a D+.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally Posted by R.Middleton

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

Here goes ....

The Sabres ,as usual, did very little. They lost Jaroslav Spacek to the Habs (IMO no big loss, never liked him) and picked up Steve Montador at about half the $$$. Look for them to attempt a trade to recoup the offense that went with Spacek. We all know Montador's pros and cons .... I'd give them a C. They were predictably inactive, but replaced a soft Euro with a gritty stay-at-home D man. On a team with more than it's fair share of undersized "skill" players, that was a necessary move.


I like what the Leafs did. Like others said ... Saturday nights will be a lot more entertaining .

[Word]

Winners:

NYR - dumping some salary to sign Gaborik. Sather shows that it doesn't matter how dumb he is, someone in the league will be even more dumb to make a trade with Sather.

Vancouver - adding Samuelson to play with the twins. Essentially Vancouver will be the same team as last year (if they can add a puck moving d-man).

Losers:
Montreal - proving that Sather can make the dumbest signings in history, but still able to rape another team in a trade.

Toronto - not much has worked for Burke and his big plans. No Tavares, no twins. They got tougher. Other than the fights, which they may lose as much as they win, they are looking to a losing season.

Mixed:
Calgary - Getting JayBo is great, but their cap issues will be tough. Improved defense, same goaltending, weaker offense with Cammeleri gone.

Philly - I know people will be angry at this, but IMO, signing Emery was not a good move and won't help this team at all. Pronger would help, but not enough to replace Emery.

[NJD Oliwa]

If people are defining a "winner" as a team that went out and overpaid for a free agent or agents or threw a ton of money at a few people and they still have players in their core to lock up, the I would consider the devils Losers.

If you define "winning" as not jumping on the "throw money at people" bandwagon so prevelant today while securing some RFA's important to your whole teams system the the Devils would be winners.

[jkidd]

Originally Posted by Word

Philly - I know people will be angry at this, but IMO, signing Emery was not a good move and won't help this team at all. Pronger would help, but not enough to replace Emery.

I like the mixed with Philly.

They bring in a guy that is a locker room cancer, couldn't stop a beach ball when he was given the full nod, and has injury problems. Yeah, adding Pronger is huge on the back end, as he'll be a guy that can actually move the puck effectively and provide some semblance of defensive scoring.

But, I'm still not sold on the defense, or the backstopper.

I'd say look for a deal in midseason involving the Wilds' Josh Harding going to Philly for one of their perennial 20G scorers - if the Ray Emery experiment doesn't work out.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally Posted by Word

Losers:


Toronto - not much has worked for Burke and his big plans. No Tavares, no twins. They got tougher. Other than the fights, which they may lose as much as they win, they are looking to a losing season.

I disagree about the Leafs. Burke said he was going to get tougher , and he did. They may not improve much in the W - L columns ... but they will be more fun to watch, that's for sure.

[Jensen]

San Jose is a big time loser. We are against the cap with 4 or so spots to fill in the lineup and have signed Blake and Clowe to expensive contracts that we can't afford right now. DW has done nothing about his proposed "there will be change" motto, which right now seems to mean that the 3rd and 4th lines along with the 6th defenseman will be changed. I hope DW is gone after the Sharks lose again in the 1st/2nd round, because with the core we have we aren't going to go anywhere in the playoffs.

[Word]

Originally Posted by Jack Schitt

I disagree about the Leafs. Burke said he was going to get tougher , and he did. They may not improve much in the W - L columns ... but they will be more fun to watch, that's for sure.

We will see if you think they are fun to watch losing every game.

Many teams just won't fight. Detroit can't fight. Same with many teams. So you will get maybe a dozen or so really good games with losses.

But very little of what Burke wanted came to pass. No Tavares, no Sedins. No big signing of free agents at all.

Toronto is a loser.

[Knucklechucker]

Originally Posted by Word

We will see if you think they are fun to watch losing every game.

Many teams just won't fight. Detroit can't fight. Same with many teams. So you will get maybe a dozen or so really good games with losses.

But very little of what Burke wanted came to pass. No Tavares, no Sedins. No big signing of free agents at all.

Toronto is a loser.

They didn't have anyone better last year, and they still weren't the bottom 5 teams in the league.
They got better, and to say they didn't is the stupidest thing i ever heard, they dumped alot of salary getting rid of Kubina, who was replaced with Komisarek(which im not happy with), we got Exelby.
They haven't done much with forwards, but on defense they got leaps and bounds better.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally Posted by Word

We will see if you think they are fun to watch losing every game.

Many teams just won't fight. Detroit can't fight. Same with many teams. So you will get maybe a dozen or so really good games with losses.

But very little of what Burke wanted came to pass. No Tavares, no Sedins. No big signing of free agents at all.

Toronto is a loser.

Not being a Leafs "fan" ... I really don't care if they win or lose, but that being said I'd rather watch a team that scraps regularly and rarely wins than a winning team that rarely scraps.

Being on the border I watch HNIC quite a bit, and this Leafs team is most likely going to play a style I appreciate. The Eastern conference has a whole lot of teams that will fight, so IMO your dozen "good" games is a bit off base.

Burke wanted to get tougher - that is the type of team he builds. That came to pass ....

[mikebflorida]

Losers-

New York Rangers- how can people be calling them "winners" in free agency when they got a guy who is injured 50% of the time and costs a fortune. They lose Orr and pick up little else. LOSERS right now. If Gaborik is healthy and scores 40+ goals, winner but who is going to dish him the puck? Dubinsky? lol
Brashear is washed up but for a million bucks, maybe worth the chance that he comes back strong. I don't see that at all.

Philadelphia- Pronger is a reach and they gave up a ton for him. it's only a win if they get over the hump and make it to the conference finals. Never the less, I like this team as they sit right now.

Pitt signing Rupp is pointless. They have guys in the system who can do it for less money. Rupp is nothing special at all, not in today's game. They may have done it in anticipation of losing Godard though so, whatever, no harm no foul, I'd rather have Godard though.

Toronto- Sure, getting Orr is a nice coup but they still suck and trade Kubina for that scumbag Exelby? Salary cap stupidity I guess. Kubina is a bigger loss than you think. He plays better with better players around him. The Lightning don't win the cup in 2004 without him.

Montreal- What is wrong with this franchise? Nuff said.

The Lightning are winners. They needed defense and went out and got it in the draft and free agency. They will improve at least 15-20 points this season.

Minnesota are winners. I'm not a fan of them at all but they made good signings and improved themselves a lot.

Chicago- this remains to be seen. As others have said, they have oodles of talent and then sign Hossa. They lose The Wall and it's a mistake. The Lightning let him go and down hill they went with a similarily talented team, 2 gifted centers, good dmen. Chicago could take a page from the Lightning book about what not to do the next couple of years.

Losers- Fans. The salary caps in major sports except baseball really make it difficult to like these sports when players are tossed around like pieces of meat to whatever team offers the most or you see the real selfishness of certain players and not always about money. I hate it and grow more and more tired of it each year but it is what it is. They might as well not even put names on the jerseys anymore.