YoungGuns1340

Hes got the A in his prospect picture. He might have good character..

Awesome. 6'4? He may not amount to anything, but its nice to see some size in the cupboard.

What?? What on earth does this have to do with Howard?? You act like the kid is ready to step in. Howard is five years older than McCollum. He was drafted five years earlier. Its taken Howard five years to develop. If it takes McCollum that much time to develop, Howard will be 28 when McCollum is only making his debut. Howard could potentially be in his prime when McCollum is still pulling backup duty.

Half you guys on here are nuts. How on earth do you think you can know whats the better choice for the Wings that the Wings brass themselves do. Do YOU guys scout the players? Do YOU guys have the best NHL scouting record of the past 15 years? Jesus if this isnt a flashback to the Johan Franzen selection, I dont know what is. Youd think people would get it by now that the Wings know more than we do..

A Dman?? OR TWO?? If the rumors that Carter re-signed for 5M a year are true, then the Flyers have 55M tied up in payroll for this year. And thats with a pretty crappy defense. At this point, they have two good Dmen in Coburn and Timonen, two young guns who havent proved anything in Parent and Kukkonen, and two guys who simply cant cut it in the NHL anymore. Now, unless Hatcher pulls a surprise retirement AND they sell of Knuble, theres no way theyre gonna get a Campbell/Redden deal, let alone another Dman to boot. Theyve effed themselves into next season unless they can find a taker or multiple takers for any combination of Gagne, Rathje, Hatcher or Knuble.

From what it seems, Cammalleri is completely disinterested in playing with an unestablished team. You could just see it in his game. The guy was completely disenchanted with the entire Kings organization. He'll be better on Calgary than he was on the Kings, and the Kings get another pick to help them rebuild. Cammys value at one year left prior to FA status wasnt that great anyways, and it adequately replaces Tanguay. Smart deal for both sides.

The Habs have as good a chance as any to sign Sundin. But my question is this. Its looking more and more like Montreal gets Sundin, and Pittsburgh loses Hossa. So does this make Boston the big destination for Hossa now? I sure freaking hope so. Cause with Campbell testing free agency and the rumors surrounding Marleau, I could easily see San Jose making Hossa their big splash.

Heh...the Flyers? They have needs on defense that theyre not going to be able to address at the rate of overpaying every player on their team by a good 1M.

I LOVE this deal for Phoenix. They are going to have a SICK offense. Vrbata, Mueller, Hanzal, Turris, Jokinen, Doan and some great depth guys who can play in the top 2 lines like Reinprecht. Good stuff. Morris, Jovo, and Michalek is a great start to a good defense too, although their D does lack depth big time. Bryz will help with that though. Ballard, on the other hand, is a good/great young Dman, but really? REALLY? Boynton is a throw in as is the 49th. The only reason I can see Floridas reasoning on this is if they plan on making a hard drive for Perrry or have another trade lined up to fill the hole on offense. Ballard, Allen, Bouwmeester is probably the best trio of young defenders in the league. A young #1 and 2 young #3s (both Ballard and Allen are vastly underrated), not to mention Van Ryn and Montador give them good depth and Vokoun is there as well. Im guessing theyve got something up there sleeve to replace Jokinen. Nazzy, an offer sheet to Perry, Langkow, Huselius going back, Rolston. Jesus maybe even Hossa. Florida still has Horton, Weiss, Frolik, Matthias, Booth, and Olesz. Add that to Van Ryn, Allen, Bouwmeester, and Ballard and that makes for an AWESOME lineup in 2-3 years. Florida looks like the Oilers of the East right now. Which is actually a good position to be in with 9-10 up and comers filling up your roster..

Id take Jokinen over Franzen 11 times out of 10.

They got a good deal on Ellis because hes not a sure thing. Hes the new flavor of the off-season. Mason, Roloson, join the club. He had one good season, and a regular season that was pretty inconsistent. Mason looked the exact same way at the start of last year. And they paid him 3M. Poile isnt making that same mistake again. At any rate, Im happy to see that they didnt overpay him for 2 years. Believe it or not 1.75m is what you SHOULD pay for re-signing a guy like Ellis. This, along with the Suter, Legwand, and Dumont signings are impressive from Poile. Hes definitely climbing the GM scale with these moves. Props.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/06/19/...hree_year_deal/ The Flyers sign Jeff Carter to a three year deal that is reported to be for AT LEAST 5 million dollars per year. And in case anyone is wondering, Jeff Carter scored 53 points last season. Somewhere Kevin Lowe is laughing..

There is NO way to justify this signing. 1. They could have taken him to arbitration. Yes, thats not a good way to form player-team relationships, but neither is threatening your GM with potential offer-sheets. 2. Taking a player to arbitration means you can still sign him to a 2 year deal, if you do in fact get to arbitration. There are many more comparable players making less than 5M - Michalek, Boyes, Blake, Semin, Legwand, Dumont, Guerin, Comrie, Erat, Brown, Cammy, Penner, Sharp, Roy. Players that are making at or above 5M - Richards, Getzlaf, Ribeiro, and Vanek. Now correct me If im wrong, but the comparable players to Carter here are CLEARLY the ones making sub 5M. Just a few months ago Sharp was signed at 3.6, and people called THAT a bad deal. Sharp and Carter are nearly identical players. 3. A GM and a player going to arbitration have UNTIL THE ARBITRATION DATE to agree to a deal, at which point THE PLAYER CANNOT ACCEPT AN OFFER SHEET. Arbitration hearings go up until August 20th, so its very likely that the two sides wouldve had extra time post-July 1st to get a deal done, at which point any desperate GM would be looking to get in on the big name UFAs - Naslund, Hossa, Rolston, Langkow (maybe), Huselius, etc - and other RFAs such as Vermette, Perry, Bouwmeester, etc.

And coincidentally, theyre much better teams than 2/3rd of the Eastern Conference.

Well considering the West has the better Dmen overall, yeah it is pretty significant. 3M bucks is the difference between Niedermayer and Whitney.

Your hockey career ends when youre 40 or so. Theres a lot of life after that. Who knows if he has a dream to start a company, buy a hockey club, own more cars than Teemu Selanne... If you think playing pro hockey in your home for twice the money youd make in the NHL isnt enough for him to get over that whole "playing for the best league in the world" bit, give your head a shake. ANYONE in his right mind would be considering that deal. Players who get offered 3M deals in Russia still consider the offer, because tax free makes a big difference.

Not to mention, the cap isnt going to rise forever. I read a report I think a year ago from a pretty reliable capologist that said NHL revenue doesnt project to ever hold a cap higher than around 62M which I think is estimated to be around 2011, but dont quote me on that. All I can say is the economy is looking towards a downfall, and Im in agreeance that this cap isnt going to rise forever. And whoever has a 36 year old Hossa tied up for 7M when hes trying to re-sign a UFA Crosby is going to be hurting...

Yeah. Those guys are either punching walls or bawling their eyes out. I remember just a few years ago when I thought Datsyuk for 3.9M was a complete rip-off. God was I wrong.

It makes all the people that laughed and pointed at Lowe for paying Penner 4M over 6 years look like idiots. Penner isnt as good as Carter, but this pretty ensures Carter will be asking for over 5M in 3 years.

Just out of curiosity, what do you see as "much"?

Why does it mean someones on their way out of Toronto. Mayers doesnt exactly displace anyone. Especially since they have so many key fixtures in their lineup that are either untouchable through a trade or cant afford to waste their talent in the AHL. On a serious note, Mayers is a good player, but I dont understand why the couldnt have addressed what he brings through free agency. There are about 20 enforcers available in this years UFA pool, and probably a good 10 players who can provide veteran leadership.

Campbell is an improvement over Schneider in most ways. It was pathetic enough seeing Schneider get 5.75. Now I can see Campbell pulling 7 million easy. Considering the Grand Canyon-sized gap there is between Lidstrom and Campbell's talent, its kinda sad. On the bright side, San Jose is back to having big holes on defense.

If Niedermayer doesnt say if hes coming back or not prior to July 1st, Ducks are screwed. If Niedermayer retires pre-July 1st, they can negotiate with/sign Perry ASAP. But if they dont know if theyre gonna have that extra 6M some dollars to play with on the open market on July 1st, theyre gonna be spending July 1st and after chasing after Perry and maddeningly trying to sign him before an offer sheet comes his way. They might lose out on filling those big holes up front if the earliest time they can sign Perry is July 1st.

You kind of proved your point with comparing Beauchemin to Stuart. Cause thats exactly what he is. Beauchemin is a decent defenseman who has had the benefit of playing in a well-played Randy Carlisle defensive system with one franchise defenseman, if not two at all times. Look nothing more than the improvement players make when they play alongside Niklas Lidstrom. Markov, Lilja, Schneider, etc have ALL looked like they could be bumped up the depth chart playing alongside Niklas Lidstrom. Once they leave, they drop back to reality. Look at the reality of Beauchemin. He couldnt make Montreals lineup, was put on waivers as a 25 year old defensman with nothing more than a games worth of NHL experience, and was ONLY able to make it as an NHL Dmen once he was getting fed pucks from the point alongside Scott Niedermayer. The funny thing is, what happens when Niedermayer is no longer there and Pronger has an off-season? Can Beauchemin pick up he slack? No. Of course not. Because anyone can look real good when 1/3 of their defensive teammates belong in the HHOF. No franchise Dmen to pair up with = mediocre Dman. One Franchise Dman to pair up with = good Dman. Two franchise Dman to pair up with = his best year ever. Beauchemin is 28 years old with his only good years coinciding with Niedermayers presence on the Ducks. Thats not coincidence. Ask him to drive the boat and he cant cut it. Hes a great complement Dman, nothing more. Thats why once Niedermayer was gone for the first half of the season, Beauchemins name was floating all around the rumor mill. Thats where the story begins and ends.

Campbell will get close to Lidstrom money. Thats so sad...I'm almost positive San Jose offered him around 6M..