Free Agency 2012

Free Agency is soon upon us and there are some big fish out there people.

Detroit will be looking to fill 2 major defensive gaps. Both Brad Stuart and the God-like Deity of Nick Lidstrom have both left the Wings and so GM Ken Holland will be looking to sign some big names. Ryan Suter has already been touted.

Parise
Suter
Jagr
Rask (G)
Jackman
Semin
Penner
Hudler
Parenteau
Gill
Harding (G)
Wideman
Radulov
Salvador
Carle
O.Jokinen
Garrison
Kuba
Doan
Gaustad
Whitney

All are decent top 2 line players, and surely some must be worth a punt. For a start, Hal Gill would be a good fit for the Wings. He's defensive, he's big and tough, and he's old. Ticks all the boxes!

I would like the Flyers to sign a d-man for under 3.5mil/year. Then again, I don't see any pigs flying.

You can scrub Jax off that list. The Blues have inked him to a new deal - $9.5m over 3yrs.

I know he is regarded as 'Mr Blue' by many of the old guard of supporters - and without sounding to post lock out....He really doesn't put up enough points.

That deal is way too high!!!!

With the Ducks blistering season just gone I don't see them dabbling in the free agency market this summer. Why upset the balance and mess with perfection?

Unconfirmed reports saying the Ducks have re-signed Teemu Selane.

Hey CJ how much do you think Rask is going to rinse the Bruins for?

I am crapping it re Rask to be honest. He could really screw the Bruins if he wanted to. As could plenty of teams if they put a huge offer sheet in for him which the B's would have to match.

Radulov (as expected) has buggered off back to Russia too....

Unfortunately for the Leafs, Harding is off the list as well. Signed to a 3 year $5.7m deal with the Wild.

leafygiraffe wrote:Unfortunately for the Leafs, Harding is off the list as well. Signed to a 3 year $5.7m deal with the Wild.

Harding would have been a good fit there actually.

Ooo, Ducks have traded Lubo and his 5.6 million cap hit to the Isles. Being currently way below the cap floor expect some big moves this summer...

Calamity Jane wrote:Unconfirmed reports saying the Ducks have re-signed Teemu Selane.

Everything is crossed, CJ.

Calgary have signed Wideman. It looks like Jay-bo will be traded now.

J-Iggy wrote:Calgary have signed Wideman. It looks like Jay-bo will be traded now.

Who's really going to want to take on that cap hit?....I think the Flames are going to have to bury him in the minors.

He's a good defenceman. No team would bury him in the minors. Personally I would be happy to keep him, he's criticised for not putting up points but he plays close to 30 minutes a game against top lines. I think he would fit well with Wideman, but feasted has mentioned Schultz a few times which is why I see jay being traded.

Interestingly, St Louis were one of the teams mentioned as a trading partner...

An overpaid d-man is on the block? He is heading to Philly.

Interestingly, St Louis were one of the teams mentioned as a trading partner...[/quote]

We are being linked with most d-men at the moment, mainly due to the fact that we haven't resigned Colo or Huskins...and maybe even Polak come to think of it . We did however resign Jackman on about 3.5m, so there is no way I can see us picking up that tab.

Jonzee wrote:An overpaid d-man is on the block? He is heading to Philly.

Giroux please

J-Iggy wrote:

Jonzee wrote:An overpaid d-man is on the block? He is heading to Philly.

Giroux please

Bad luck, we have already met our annual quota of trading away players we have recently extended. You can have Luke Schenn.

I saw some rumours that the Stars could look to trade for him to help them to the floor for now. Jaybo may not be putting up the numbers he used to but according to his corsi rating he played the toughest minutes. Still a -21 is nothing to write home about but I do think he is/can be still a solid defender.


That said, I hope those rumours are wrong

He was a -21, but most of the Flames were a big - last season. Also, a lot of that was from that Boston game when they scored nine goals, i think he was a -7 in that game.

There is no doubt he isn't playing up to his contract at the moment, but i don't think the way Calgary have played the last few years has helped that. He's also had to play with Chris Buttler a lot, and Buttler should not be playing top pairing minutes.

I would be happy to keep him, the issue is the contract, but as a fan i don't see it as my job to worry about contracts and cap hits. All we can ever do is support the players we do have and hope managment know what they are doing.


If he did go to Dalla, who do you think would be sent to Calgary?

I took that into consideration that most of the Flames were a minus but only Jackman had an equal -21 for worst on the team!

I wouldn't think we would give up too much as it would be a salary dump more than anything. Perhaps a prospect D and a pick or something? I know there have been lots of talks about Ott being traded around but if Ott was in for a trade for Jaybo I would be rather annoyed as we need centres first and foremost!

And before you say it....you can't have Oleksiak!

I think this is where I don't understand the +/- ratings. Jackman was on the stingiest team in the league for goals given up. He played most of his minutes against the top line and on the penalty kill. He was our no1 stay at home d-man and he gets a -21 rating....it dosen't work out!!

That said, I would rather have seen us use his cap hit elsewhere. $3.5m is rather steep!!!

DRIZ wrote:
I think this is where I don't understand the +/- ratings. Jackman was on the stingiest team in the league for goals given up. He played most of his minutes against the top line and on the penalty kill. He was our no1 stay at home d-man and he gets a -21 rating....it dosen't work out!!

That said, I would rather have seen us use his cap hit elsewhere. $3.5m is rather steep!!!

If Jackman is playing against the opposition top line, he will be conceding goals in theory. If the STL top line doesn't put up the numbers while he is on, that will be a minus. The PK doesn't matter, if he played on the powerplay lines he would get a bigger +. The best way for a stay at home d-man to post a decent +/- is for your boys to score short handed. As a general rule, stay at home d-man will always have a low +/- because of the nature of the lines they play on - ie against the opposition top players....