Official 2007 NHL Free Agency thread

PhilM said:
Islanders sign Comrie,
1 year deal,

Phil dies a little inside

oh, and sabres sign thibault
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I didn't mind the other signings for the Isles although I don't like Guerin at all. This is the first signing I really like. Wish they had signed him for 3 but a year is better than nothing. I think he has the opportunity to shine on the Island. Not a bad line they added

Fedotenko - Comrie - Guerin
 
Hasek resigns $2M + Bonuses up to $2M.

Love the quote from his agent (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press):

""It's a lot less than he should be making," Hasek's agent Ritch Winter said. "It's one of the few deals that I do in which the player, the club and the agent agree the player is worth $5 [million] or $6 million and we talk it down from there.

"Dom didn't want more. He's taking one for the team. It's not one of my fun deals, but Dom is happy and that's important," he said.


Much like Shanny before him - Dom is letting the wings bolster their roster by not taking the $4M + bonuses that he easily could take. I think I would look for the Wings to sign Markov in the next couple of days - and then look for a trade in Sept/October involving a couple of young D-Men (Quincey/Meetch/Lebda) and a forward and a goalie (Liv/Osgood) for an established winger. Hasek creates a problem with the development of Jim Howard - I don't think the Wings want him sitting and playing only 20 games or so. Back to Grand Rapids for him.
Just my thoughts.

bruce
 
I think Lowe might actually be going out to prove a point in that there is a problem with the current CBA. Small market teams seem to be running into the same difficulties they had before the lockout. Notice how the massive, long term deals were all struck in traditionally large markets? Sure, he is desperate to improve his hockey club but I also think he is trying to stir things up to send a message.

I really wish they would have set the cap for a 3 or 5 year period in which it would not change. That would have made things a lot easier to deal with as there would have been more time to analyze things.
 
stab107 said:
I think Lowe might actually be going out to prove a point in that there is a problem with the current CBA. Small market teams seem to be running into the same difficulties they had before the lockout. Notice how the massive, long term deals were all struck in traditionally large markets? Sure, he is desperate to improve his hockey club but I also think he is trying to stir things up to send a message.

I really wish they would have set the cap for a 3 or 5 year period in which it would not change. That would have made things a lot easier to deal with as there would have been more time to analyze things.
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You can't force players to sign where they don't want to go. It's pretty clear Nylander had a change of heart and did not want to go to Edmonton. The fact that Vanek signed the offer sheet speaks that at least someone was willing to play in Edmonton.

The interesting thing is that if Lowe was willing to spend huge on a guy like Vanek who has only had one big year, why wasn't he willing to spend more than $5 million on the guy who loved to play in Edmonton, and was willing to take less?
 
Iceman said:
The interesting thing is that if Lowe was willing to spend huge on a guy like Vanek who has only had one big year, why wasn't he willing to spend more than $5 million on the guy who loved to play in Edmonton, and was willing to take less?
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At the time they were working on resigning Smyth the salary cap was a lot lower and perhaps he and his staff were unaware it would jump so much.
 
Lowe did the right thing here... he tried to get a future franchise player and was willing to pay for him up front. The fact that the Sabres lost both Briere & Drury on the first day of UFA clearly shows that they didn't want to spend the big bucks, but were forced to when their number 1 youngster was almost snagged away.

Buffalo has ZERO ability to complain... they agreed to how the RFA program was set up... to this point, it was rare that an offer sheet was ever sent out. Now, with the small market situation like Edmonton has, they have no choice but to go after the RFAs. Good for Lowe.
 
meatmancgy said:
Buffalo has ZERO ability to complain... they agreed to how the RFA program was set up... to this point, it was rare that an offer sheet was ever sent out. Now, with the small market situation like Edmonton has, they have no choice but to go after the RFAs. Good for Lowe.
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Not only does Buffalo have zero right to complain. . . they should be thanking Kevin Lowe. They now have their best offensive threat signed for 7 years without even negotiating. Buffalo should not have any cap issues given the loss of Drury/Briere's salaries. They can now build around Vanek and not have to worry about losing him to free agency for a long, long time.

The other thing lost in this situation is that Vanek actually had to accept the offer sheet in the first place. So apparently he was willing to play elsewhere for that kind of money.

This situation would've been a lot more interesting if Buffalo had re-signed Drury/Briere and were backed up against the cap. Then, a team could've swept in and snagged Vanek since Buffalo might not have been able to match the offer.
 
This really reminds me of the ill feelings between mike Illitch and Pete Karamatos (sp?) that was caused by the offer sheet given to Fedorov in 97/98. Yes - Lowe has every right to sign these RFA's to offer sheets...... but I believe that he may have crossed one of those un-written rule lines in the sand. And in his position that will certainly blow up in his face at some future time. He cannot afford to duke it out with the big boys - so he went after Buffalo. This will most certainly come back to haunt him.

I think it would be better to leave these youngsters alone and let them be UNTIL they become free agents. All he does is raise the already escalating price structure. And while I did not have the opportunity to watch Vanek much this past year - I do have to wonder how he will fair when the opposing teams present him with their top line defensemen instead of the second grouping. Drury and Briere provided a nice cushion for Vanek - i think that the going will be a little harder next season.

bruce
 
suitman19 said:
Yes - Lowe has every right to sign these RFA's to offer sheets...... but I believe that he may have crossed one of those un-written rule lines in the sand. And in his position that will certainly blow up in his face at some future time. He cannot afford to duke it out with the big boys - so he went after Buffalo. This will most certainly come back to haunt him.
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But if you're Kevin Lowe and hired to build a contender, but players won't come to your team as UFAs, what would YOU do? He's caught between a rock and a hard place... he needs to build a team... so send out offers and piss off the other GMs, or sit back and have a crap team without any serious offensive threats? If he sits back, no one will EVER come to Edmonton to play for them... he's got balls and he knows what he needs to do.

Amazing what 25 years will do... back in 1982 NO ONE would have gone to Pittsburgh to play but would have paid their own way to play in Edmonton... now it's reversed. Craziness...
 
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