Big Names On The Move...or Not?

davetherave wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:

davetherave wrote:

hemlock wrote: Silently? I'll say it loud and proud. I hope his moves blow up in his face to the point where he is fired, and never works in the league again. An added benefit would be screwing the Leafs chances for the next two decades.

In all seriousness though, I think he'll make a real splash this summer. He always seems to find a way to pull that kind of stuff off. I'd also say that if the Sedin's want to stay together (do they file a joint tax return together or something wtf), it'll be Toronto or nowhere else. I don't know if other teams have the desire to bring them in and the cap space to do it.

The Burke is all about showbiz...he would probably love to snag the Sedins. Add a stud D-man and a goalie...and Burke basks in the admiration of Richard Peddie, Larry Tanenbaum and Howard Berger LOL...not to mention the unctuous Damien Cox and David Shoalts...they love 'Hockey As Hollywood' in T.O.... Ego rules the roost there.

Am hoping all that ego blows up in their face, there are big time issues with that hockey club that won't be undone over night. (not unlike some of the issues in Ottawa), Wilson plays everything as it's the media against Toronto, well, according to Berger anyway. Burkie is bigger than the team, well his ego is anyway, so really, only two scenarios can happen, this team will turn it around and do well within the 5 to 6 years Burke has on his contract, or things will blow up on them and they will stay the status quo or worse.

The Burke will move whatever mountains (and contracts) he has to, to be anointed as the God Of Hockey in Toronto.

He will find a way to deal:
Kubina 5MM
Blake 4.5MM
Stempniak 3.5MM
Ponikarovsky 2.5MM
Mayers 1.4MM
and possibly Toskala 4MM
and Finger 3.5MM

That would get his cap down to 17MM.

They'll be calling him 'SlimFast' Burke by the time he's done...and then he'll bulk up on name guys.

If you saw the last Leafs-Sens game, there were a lot of kids in Blue. There will be many of those on the 2009/10 team. Ron Wilson has already given his entire club notice that they'd better show up ready to play next year or they are gone.

I have heard that from Wilson already, he is imposing a physical fitness regime on the players, if they don't follow it and are not in shape for next training camp, count them out of the roster I am sure.

davetherave wrote:

hemlock wrote: Silently? I'll say it loud and proud. I hope his moves blow up in his face to the point where he is fired, and never works in the league again. An added benefit would be screwing the Leafs chances for the next two decades.

In all seriousness though, I think he'll make a real splash this summer. He always seems to find a way to pull that kind of stuff off. I'd also say that if the Sedin's want to stay together (do they file a joint tax return together or something wtf), it'll be Toronto or nowhere else. I don't know if other teams have the desire to bring them in and the cap space to do it.

The Burke is all about showbiz...he would probably love to snag the Sedins. Add a stud D-man and a goalie...and Burke basks in the admiration of Richard Peddie, Larry Tanenbaum and Howard Berger LOL...not to mention the unctuous Damien Cox and David Shoalts...they love 'Hockey As Hollywood' in T.O.... Ego rules the roost there.

Were he to put pen to paper on contracts for the Sedins and Bouwmeester, and perhaps Khabibulin, he wouldn't just be basking in the admiration of Peddie. He's have the compliments of a LOT of hockey people, as that would be instant contender team. Provided he kept Kaberle and Kubina, a top 4 d of Bouwmeester, Schenn, Kaberle Kubina . THat's one HELL of a top 4!

davetherave wrote:
You mean you can't wait to see what happens to all GMs who signed big longterm deals?

Sort of, but more specifically I'm excited to see what Sather's gonna do with Redden, Gomez and Drury making 21 million.

BTW here's Lyle 'Spectors Hockey' Richardson's list of his choices of most notable UFAs:

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Spector

Notable NHL Unrestricted Free Agents - 2009.
Mar 13, 2009 | 10:52AM

With the NHL's 2009 trade deadline now history the league's fans are focused on the playoff race.

The next round of significant player movement won't occur until late June, particularly the entry draft weekend slated for June 26-27, and the start of unrestricted free agency on July 1st.

Here's a list of the notable pending UFA players of each team.

ANAHEIM DUCKS: Francois Beauchemin, Bret Hedican, Rob Niedermayer, Scott Niedermayer,

ATLANTA THRASHERS: Eric Perrin, Marty Reasoner.

BOSTON BRUINS: PJ Axelsson, Manny Fernandez, Steve Montador, Mark Recchi, Tim Thomas, Stephane Yelle.

BUFFALO SABRES: Maxim Afinogenov, Dominic Moore, Teppo Numminen, Andrew Peters, Jaroslav Spacek, Mikael Tellqvist.

CAROLINA HURRICANES: Erik Cole, Chad LaRose, Dennis Seidenberg.

CALGARY FLAMES: Adrian Aucoin, Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Cammalleri, Jordan Leopold, David Moss.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS: Martin Havlat, Nikolai Khabibulin, Samuel Pahlsson.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS: Christian Backman, Wade Dubielewicz, Chris Gratton, Manny Malholtra, Michael Peca.

COLORADO AVALANCHE: Tyler Arnason, Ian Laperriere, Andrew Raycroft, Joe Sakic.

DALLAS STARS: Steve Begin, Jere Lehtinen, Brendan Morrison, Mark Parrish, Darryl Sydor, Sergei Zubov.

DETROIT RED WINGS: Chris Chelios, Ty Conklin, Johan Franzen, Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson,

EDMONTON OILERS: Ales Kotalik, Dwayne Roloson.

FLORIDA PANTHERS: Craig Anderson, Jay Bouwmeester, Nick Boynton, Radek Dvorak,Karlis Skrastins,Richard Zednik.

LOS ANGELES KINGS: Derek Armstrong, Kyle Calder, Denis Gauthier.

MINNESOTA WILD: Marc-Andre Bergeron, Kurtis Foster, Marian Gaborik, Martin Skoula.

MONTREAL CANADIENS: Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault, Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek, Tom Kostopoulos, Alex Kovalev, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Alex Tanguay.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS; Radek Bonk, Greg de Vries, Ville Koistinen, Scott Nichol.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS: Scott Clemmensen, Brian Gionta, Niclas Havelid, Bobby Holik, John Madden, Johnny Oduya, Michael Rupp, Brendan Shanahan.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS: Andy Hilbert, Joey MacDonald, Dean McAmmond, Mike Sillinger, Doug Weight.

NEW YORK RANGERS: Nik Antropov, Paul Mara, Derek Morris.

OTTAWA SENATORS: Mike Comrie, Chris Neil.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS: Andrew Alberts, Martin Biron, Mike Knuble, Antero Niittymaki.

PHOENIX COYOTES: Dmitri Kalinin, Ken Klee,Steve Reinprecht.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: Philippe Boucher, Ruslan Fedotenko, Mathieu Garon, Hal Gill, Bill Guerin, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora.

SAN JOSE SHARKS: Rob Blake, Brian Boucher, Mike Grier, Kent Huskins, Travis Moen, Jeremy Roenick.

ST. LOUIS BLUES: Dan Hinote, Manny Legace, Keith Tkachuk.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING: Marek Malik.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS: Martin Gerber, Curtis Joseph, Olaf Kolzig, Brad May.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Jason Labarbera, Mattias Ohlund, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS: Donald Brashear, Sergei Fedorov, Viktor Kozlov.

davetherave wrote:I suppose you will add Ottawa to the list of teams caught in the cap crunch...

Just to set the record straight on Chicago, as everyone seems to be fascinated by them... 8)

Dale Tallon is negotiating with Martin Havlat, and both parties have said they want to find a workable arrangement.

Obviously, keeping a roster together and staying within budget parameters is tough, and will probably get tougher should the cap decrease. Dale Tallon and the Chicago brain trust which includes Rick Dudley, Stan Bowman and the illustrious Scotty Bowman, no doubt understand this, being the clever and well paid hockey men they are.

BTW, hoping other teams will 'lose a peg' is not good for your hockey karma...better to hope your team gains one, and congratulate your rivals on their success.

Yeah, Ottawa's in the cap crunch and it'll get worse. It's gonna happen league wide, we'll just have to wait and see what'll happen when GMs get forced into action.

As for the Bs, they'll lose a couple of substantial players, I didn't mean it as a diss perse, just as a fact of life.

504Heater wrote:

davetherave wrote:I suppose you will add Ottawa to the list of teams caught in the cap crunch...

Just to set the record straight on Chicago, as everyone seems to be fascinated by them... 8)

Dale Tallon is negotiating with Martin Havlat, and both parties have said they want to find a workable arrangement.

Obviously, keeping a roster together and staying within budget parameters is tough, and will probably get tougher should the cap decrease. Dale Tallon and the Chicago brain trust which includes Rick Dudley, Stan Bowman and the illustrious Scotty Bowman, no doubt understand this, being the clever and well paid hockey men they are.

BTW, hoping other teams will 'lose a peg' is not good for your hockey karma...better to hope your team gains one, and congratulate your rivals on their success.

Yeah, Ottawa's in the cap crunch and it'll get worse. It's gonna happen league wide, we'll just have to wait and see what'll happen when GMs get forced into action.

As for the Bs, they'll lose a couple of substantial players, I didn't mean it as a diss perse, just as a fact of life.

It's part of the new CBA, if you have good young players, you hope to win before all those entry level contracts are expired, then it is big payout time for the young stars, Ottawa had it, Pittsburgh is living it right now, and Chicago will have their time as well, then the GM will be forced to make a touch decision or two.

504Heater wrote:

davetherave wrote:
You mean you can't wait to see what happens to all GMs who signed big longterm deals?

Sort of, but more specifically I'm excited to see what Sather's gonna do with Redden, Gomez and Drury making 21 million.

There's one thing a hockey fan needs to remember about Darth Sather...he went over to the 'dark side' many years ago, and he has so much money (Sather put up the $1MM bail for his ex-boss Pocklington) he just does this job to keep busy.

SensFan71 wrote:It's part of the new CBA, if you have good young players, you hope to win before all those entry level contracts are expired, then it is big payout time for the young stars, Ottawa had it, Pittsburgh is living it right now, and Chicago will have their time as well, then the GM will be forced to make a touch decision or two.

Pretty much exactly, yeah. Which means teams either deal with sucking for a year or two to maximize their young talent, or they have terrific scouting.

By that rationale though, there will be a ton of guys unable to find work in the NHL in a few years. There simply won't be any room for them.

davetherave wrote:There's one thing a hockey fan needs to remember about Darth Sather...he went over to the 'dark side' many years ago, and he has so much money (Sather put up the $1MM bail for his ex-boss Pocklington) he just does this job to keep busy.

That's so sad. If you're a Rangers fan you can look forward to the summer knowing that he'll be fired and someone who has the passion and creativity will be brought in to clean up the mess.

504Heater wrote:

davetherave wrote:There's one thing a hockey fan needs to remember about Darth Sather...he went over to the 'dark side' many years ago, and he has so much money (Sather put up the $1MM bail for his ex-boss Pocklington) he just does this job to keep busy.

That's so sad. If you're a Rangers fan you can look forward to the summer knowing that he'll be fired and someone who has the passion and creativity will be brought in to clean up the mess.

Sather won't be fired as long as MSG Cablevision, the owners of the Rangers, keep making gazillions on the team and the concession...which is going to be a while...

Anytime you want to see how much Rangers fans hate Sather, take a look at the comments on Larry Brooks' NY Post columns; or Stan Fischler's Rangers posts at GameON! http://blogs.msg.com/gameon/stan-fischler/

Rangers fans are merciless, as I have experienced first hand watching hockey at Madison Square Garden.

BTW Fischler is one of the best hockey writers ever, with a number of excellent books on the subject. While his knowledge is encyclopedic, he has a self-deprecating sense of humour and wry perspective on the game that makes him fun to read. And he personally answers e-mail questions.
8)

davetherave wrote:BTW here's Lyle 'Spectors Hockey' Richardson's list of his choices of most notable UFAs:

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Spector

Notable NHL Unrestricted Free Agents - 2009.
Mar 13, 2009 | 10:52AM

With the NHL's 2009 trade deadline now history the league's fans are focused on the playoff race.

The next round of significant player movement won't occur until late June, particularly the entry draft weekend slated for June 26-27, and the start of unrestricted free agency on July 1st.

Here's a list of the notable pending UFA players of each team.

ANAHEIM DUCKS: Francois Beauchemin, Bret Hedican, Rob Niedermayer, Scott Niedermayer,

ATLANTA THRASHERS: Eric Perrin, Marty Reasoner.

BOSTON BRUINS: PJ Axelsson, Manny Fernandez, Steve Montador, Mark Recchi, Tim Thomas, Stephane Yelle.

BUFFALO SABRES: Maxim Afinogenov, Dominic Moore, Teppo Numminen, Andrew Peters, Jaroslav Spacek, Mikael Tellqvist.

CAROLINA HURRICANES: Erik Cole, Chad LaRose, Dennis Seidenberg.

CALGARY FLAMES: Adrian Aucoin, Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Cammalleri, Jordan Leopold, David Moss.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS: Martin Havlat, Nikolai Khabibulin, Samuel Pahlsson.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS: Christian Backman, Wade Dubielewicz, Chris Gratton, Manny Malholtra, Michael Peca.

COLORADO AVALANCHE: Tyler Arnason, Ian Laperriere, Andrew Raycroft, Joe Sakic.

DALLAS STARS: Steve Begin, Jere Lehtinen, Brendan Morrison, Mark Parrish, Darryl Sydor, Sergei Zubov.

DETROIT RED WINGS: Chris Chelios, Ty Conklin, Johan Franzen, Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson,

EDMONTON OILERS: Ales Kotalik, Dwayne Roloson.

FLORIDA PANTHERS: Craig Anderson, Jay Bouwmeester, Nick Boynton, Radek Dvorak,Karlis Skrastins,Richard Zednik.

LOS ANGELES KINGS: Derek Armstrong, Kyle Calder, Denis Gauthier.

MINNESOTA WILD: Marc-Andre Bergeron, Kurtis Foster, Marian Gaborik, Martin Skoula.

MONTREAL CANADIENS: Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault, Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek, Tom Kostopoulos, Alex Kovalev, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Alex Tanguay.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS; Radek Bonk, Greg de Vries, Ville Koistinen, Scott Nichol.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS: Scott Clemmensen, Brian Gionta, Niclas Havelid, Bobby Holik, John Madden, Johnny Oduya, Michael Rupp, Brendan Shanahan.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS: Andy Hilbert, Joey MacDonald, Dean McAmmond, Mike Sillinger, Doug Weight.

NEW YORK RANGERS: Nik Antropov, Paul Mara, Derek Morris.

OTTAWA SENATORS: Mike Comrie, Chris Neil.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS: Andrew Alberts, Martin Biron, Mike Knuble, Antero Niittymaki.

PHOENIX COYOTES: Dmitri Kalinin, Ken Klee,Steve Reinprecht.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: Philippe Boucher, Ruslan Fedotenko, Mathieu Garon, Hal Gill, Bill Guerin, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora.

SAN JOSE SHARKS: Rob Blake, Brian Boucher, Mike Grier, Kent Huskins, Travis Moen, Jeremy Roenick.

ST. LOUIS BLUES: Dan Hinote, Manny Legace, Keith Tkachuk.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING: Marek Malik.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS: Martin Gerber, Curtis Joseph, Olaf Kolzig, Brad May.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Jason Labarbera, Mattias Ohlund, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS: Donald Brashear, Sergei Fedorov, Viktor Kozlov.

Who among the above could be useful to--and realistically affordable for--the Senators?

i'd try to get beauchemin for 3.5-4 million for 2-4 years before getting bouwmeester for 7 million for 5+ years.

Hayden wrote:i'd try to get beauchemin for 3.5-4 million for 2-4 years before getting bouwmeester for 7 million for 5+ years.

Why would Beachemin sign for 2-4 years? Just to give Murray a break?

Neely4Life wrote:

Hayden wrote:i'd try to get beauchemin for 3.5-4 million for 2-4 years before getting bouwmeester for 7 million for 5+ years.

Why would Beachemin sign for 2-4 years? Just to give Murray a break?

because he can't resist Murray's lisp, we could hope for anything.

Neely4Life wrote:

Hayden wrote:i'd try to get beauchemin for 3.5-4 million for 2-4 years before getting bouwmeester for 7 million for 5+ years.

Why would Beachemin sign for 2-4 years? Just to give Murray a break?

We've already got enough defensive defencemen. I don't see why Beauchemin would be on Murray's radar. I'd rather throw 4.5-5 at Ohlund. He's still very capable and would be a great mentor for Karlsson, and in my dreams.....Hedman. There are also a number of other Swedes projected to go in the first round and change, like Rundblad and Eckman-Larsson (who I'm a real fan of). There's also MPS who could end up in Sens colours as well.

Hmm...looks like this list of UFAs contains few players of interest to Sens fans.

davetherave wrote:Hmm...looks like this list of UFAs contains few players of interest to Sens fans.

1K!

I think after Ohlund and Bouwmeester, there's really not much of interest, and I'm not sure I see either in a Sens uniform.

I think we made our market splash by re-signing Kuba. We've never really been a big factor in FA, although that may change under Murray, but he's shown an unwillingness to hamper this team by adding another big contract, and a big contract is pretty much guaranteed if you want to get anyone of value.

If we want to stay get competitive with the Cap going down, we'll have to look to trades and the draft to do so IMO.

asq2 wrote:

davetherave wrote:Hmm...looks like this list of UFAs contains few players of interest to Sens fans.

1K!

I think after Ohlund and Bouwmeester, there's really not much of interest, and I'm not sure I see either in a Sens uniform.

I think we made our market splash by re-signing Kuba. We've never really been a big factor in FA, although that may change under Murray, but he's shown an unwillingness to hamper this team by adding another big contract, and a big contract is pretty much guaranteed if you want to get anyone of value.

If we want to stay get competitive with the Cap going down, we'll have to look to trades and the draft to do so IMO.

I would tend to agree...in fact, with the comments coming out of the GMs meetings in Naples I have the sense that (a) a number of the aformentioned UFAs won't get new contracts; (b) some of the UFAs will re-sign for 1-year deals with their current teams.

Defensemen will probably get the biggest bucks this year, with Bouwmeester, Ohlund, Beauchemin, et al cleaning up.

I can see The Burke making a serious pitch for the Sedins, Ohlund, and JayBo...maybe Cammalleri, Moss and/or Franzen...and Thomas (though I can't imagine Boston not keeping him) or Khabibulin...after he fumigates his cupboard of contracts.

Agree with you that Bryan Murray won't do much shopping...he even might be trying to move one of his current big salaries.

But IMHO the Sens need depth...

On defense, Lee, Picard, Bell don't give them enough skill back there...Smith's injury may cut his time short. Karlsson, both Erik and Mattias, may or may not be ready. Wiercoch is still in college. Maybe they get lucky and draft a starter.

There are still the same questions up front as well, as to where the depth (especially on the right side and at center) and secondary scoring are. Shannon is good, Foligno is getting better, but Comrie is not Top 6 even though his girlfriend is...but not much to choose from on this list, though I have heard David Moss' name mentioned on this thread. Again, as you say, maybe a draft pick surprise.