An astonishing number of contracts were signed (or relative terms agreed upon) in one busy opening day of free agency. The gates flung open at noon today, and there was an immediate sense of the "frenzy" the NHL Network had been advertising. From Dale Tallon's rebuilding of Florida to the Flames and Rangers late night "Brad Richards Bidding War", this day was remarkably entertaining.
Twitterbugs were tweeting, and the NHL Network's "Breaking News" ticker seemed to never leave the screen. What was equally amazing was the number of fans like you and I that were actively weighing in with colorful commentary on practically each and every deal. After witnessing a day like today, one could only admit that the NHL is headed to an extremely interesting season and future.
No one can tell what the past few years worth of front-heavy, overloaded contracts will do to the League's future, but everyone from the athletes to the fans certainly hope there will be no looming lockout to fear. Today certainly felt reminiscent of the pre-Lockout era with teams spending unbelievable amounts of money, but what forced most of the teams to spend so much money was the salary floor of $48 million.
I don't believe that Panther's GM Dale Tallon would've spent as much money as he did on some of the new members of his team if the floor had been a bit lower. Maybe the future CBA could address teams overspending to hit the floor by adjusting to allow teams to pay realistic dollar amounts based on performance or estimated skill level. Overspending was what 2004 was supposed to be all about changing, but then again maybe what we saw today was not overspending but only a reflection of estimated inflation of the dollar!
So, on to the business of the day. I've selected whom I believe to be the top three winners and losers of July 1 and have listed them as follows:
Winner #1
James Wisniewski
With the newly provided vacancy (courtesy Mike Commodore), Wisniewski landed himself a solid contract worth $33 million over six years. I put him at #1 because he landed a monster payday, and came to terms 65 minutes before the actual start of free agency! He could've faced what other indecisive UFA's had to go through on this active day (Tomas Vokoun may be Europe-bound). This is quite possibly the most reasonable of all of the long-term, high-priced contracts on the day. Wisniewski did very well on this deal.
Winner #2
Pittsburgh/Detroit
No, this isn't a typo. These two teams dodged a bullet named Jagr when the Flyers moved ahead in the "Jaromir Sweepstakes" with a whopping $3.3 million, 1-year deal. Now, I know Jagr will now be the active points leader, and that he has performed well in Europe recently. But, I say buyer beware, and by buyer I mean you Holmgren. Swapping out Richards and Carter for an opportunity to take shots at your in-state rival (PHI also signed Maxime Talbot to a long-term deal) seems to be all that you've accomplished. Shero and Holland, I salute you for passing over this potential thorn in the side.
Winner #3
Jagr/Svoboda
Yes, I know that I just slammed the Flyers for signing Jagr, and that I inferred that he is old with the possibility to be a lemon. But, you've got to hand it to Jagr and his agent for milking the money out of this feeding frenzy. I'm calling all of it a publicity stunt aimed at getting Jagr as many greenbacks as possible that he could stuff into his duffle bag and retire with. It started to seem suspicious when ESPN's NHL headlines were "Where Are You" with a picture of Jagr outside of an airport terminal. So, hats off to you Mr. Svoboda, and congratulations to you Mr. Jagr. Here's hoping you prove me wrong, and at least add the value of your paycheck to the Flyer nation.
Loser #1
Christian Ehrhoff
I know he didn't sign today (he actually signed at 9:23pm on 6/30 - courtesy CapGeek.com), but after seeing what Wisniewski was able to land in the market I have to believe that Ehrhoff could've signed a bigger contract for a shorter term than 10 years! So, with the unknown looming Ehrhoff blinked, and a decade is a pretty long blink!
Loser #2
Dale Tallon
Don't get me wrong, I like what he did today. His losses were forced upon him because of the CBA-implemented salary floor. It used to be that really talented players could be paid whatever a team wanted to offer, and lower end talents got whatever the ownership cared to pay them. Nowadays, in the "everyone's a winner North America", teams are forced to spend X amount of dollars regardless of the talent pool. I believe Tallon's genius will not get the praise it deserves, because people will be wondering why he signed players like Fleischmann to a 4-year $18 million contract. So, to be clear, Tallon's a genius who is being sacrificed on the altar of the CBA.
Loser #3
Toronto Maple Leafs
The difference between the Panthers and Leafs is that Florida went after feasible contracts, and it seems as if Toronto was a bit distracted. It could have been Brad Richards, or it could have been that GM Brian Burke & Company was not prepared for all of the deals that actually closed today. Perhaps they thought that there would be opportunity to feel the market out, so I guess the "Fire Sale" memo never made it to there office. Now they've got two main options: fill out the roster with less-talented, low-priced contracts, or they can just go ahead and be like everyone else and just pay way too much money for the same roster filling fodder.
For a list of each UFA deal this Summer, click here.
And stay tuned, as I'm sure there's plenty more interesting deals to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment