Silly Season 2009: Free Agents and Trades--Who Goes Where?

wprager wrote:Australian rules hockey. Now that would be something, eh?

does that involve kangaroos?

SensFan71 wrote:

wprager wrote:Is it Friday yet?

it is in Australia, but they don't like hockey.

http://www.iha.org.au/

If you ever have time to spare, look at iihf.org at the division 2 and 3 lists. A lot of countries have national teams.

SensFan71 wrote:

wprager wrote:Australian rules hockey. Now that would be something, eh?

does that involve kangaroos?

Of course. You should see the size of their skates.

wprager wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:

wprager wrote:Australian rules hockey. Now that would be something, eh?

does that involve kangaroos?

Of course. You should see the size of their skates.

anything can happen in the outback I guess, as long as the dingoes stay away, we are good.

Let's see...so what potential blockbusters do we have on the table?

Lecavalier to Montreal

Heatley to who knows where

The JayBo Sweeps

The Number One Draft Pick Guessing Game

Sedin-Sedin, who's got Sedin

Gabbing about Gaborik

Hossa in Da House? Whose?

...not bad for a start... cool)

From the NY Post via Kuklas Korner...just in.

The NHL players union has voted to trigger the 5-percent escalator on the 2009-10 salary cap, The Post has learned.

This means that the 2009-10 cap will remain within a couple of hundred thousand dollars of last season’s figure of $56.7 million.

davetherave wrote:From the NY Post via Kuklas Korner...just in.

The NHL players union has voted to trigger the 5-percent escalator on the 2009-10 salary cap, The Post has learned.

This means that the 2009-10 cap will remain within a couple of hundred thousand dollars of last season’s figure of $56.7 million.

Could this screw the NHLPA a bit for the future, since they can only implement it a limited number of times (IIRC)?

i.e. any drop next year would end up being far more dramatic - no?

Acrobat wrote:

davetherave wrote:From the NY Post via Kuklas Korner...just in.

The NHL players union has voted to trigger the 5-percent escalator on the 2009-10 salary cap, The Post has learned.

This means that the 2009-10 cap will remain within a couple of hundred thousand dollars of last season’s figure of $56.7 million.

Could this screw the NHLPA a bit for the future, since they can only implement it a limited number of times (IIRC)?

i.e. any drop next year would end up being far more dramatic - no?

Not necessarily...the talk about a drop has never been confirmed one or the other...

ESPN's Pierre Lebrun gives us the scuttlebutt--well, his scuttlebutt anyway--from Montreal:

Latest rumblings: Habs busy, Leafs talking trade, Ducks and Wings figuring out cap picture
Pierre Lebrun, ESPN.com, June 25, 2009

MONTREAL -- Is there an NHL GM with more on his plate than Bob Gainey?

The man at the helm of the Montreal Canadiens has 10 players headed for unrestricted free agency next Wednesday: Mike Komisarek, Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Alexei Kovalev, Robert Lang, Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault, Patrice Brisebois, Tom Kostopoulos and Mathieu Schneider.

The clock is ticking.

"I've been in touch with everybody on that list of players in some way or another over the last 2-3 weeks," Gainey told ESPN.com on Thursday afternoon. "Some of them more than once. … Komisarek is the only one that I will have a direct negotiation with right now. Everyone else has been told that we're waiting through the draft until next week and then I'll get back to them and see how our roster for next season might look or change between now and Sunday or Monday."

There have already been preliminary talks between Gainey and Komisarek's agent, Matt Keator, and the two are slated to meet here Friday. Schneider told ESPN.com's Scott Burnside on Thursday his agent, Pat Morris, has also been in touch with Gainey and the two sides will chat again. Gainey is also scheduled to talk with Koivu's agent, Don Baizley, and Tanguay's agent, Bob Sauve, after the draft.

"We can't bring everybody back," Gainey said. "We have three or four young players who we project on our team. So we don't have 10 spots available on our team, but there's four or five important spots that we want to fill as best we can."

• A guy nearly as busy as Gainey is Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, who was burning up the phone lines again Thursday trying to make something happen.
"Working on multiple aspects here," Burke said via e-mail. "Discussing straight player trades, working on three draft scenarios -- move up, pick, move down."

As we've discussed before, if the Islanders don't select John Tavares with the No. 1 pick, we believe Burke will spring into action to try to get Tampa's second overall pick. If that doesn't work out, we think Burke could also try and move up to Atlanta's No. 4 pick in an attempt to draft Brayden Schenn, the young brother of Leafs blueliner Luke Schenn.

In the meantime, as Burke pointed out, he's also looking at traditional player trades. A source told ESPN.com late Thursday afternoon that the Leafs received an offer for veteran blueliner Tomas Kaberle. Things are getting interesting!

• Nothing much new on the Dany Heatley front, meanwhile.

"Unfortunately, nothing has changed," Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray said via text message Thursday afternoon. "A couple of conversations only."

• One name that has suddenly popped up on the trade front is Ryane Clowe of the San Jose Sharks. The power winger is a restricted free agent July 1, and two NHL GMs told ESPN.com Clowe is available.

• The Anaheim Ducks could be players here this week, but, at this point, they still don't have an answer from Scott Niedermayer on whether he's playing next season or not. That complicates things for Ducks GM Bob Murray. Or does it?

Regardless of Niedermayer's decision, it's clear the Ducks would rather move goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere and the $13 million over the two years on his deal than trade away star blueliner Chris Pronger.

But if the Ducks can't move Giguere this summer and Niedermayer returns … the Ducks need to cut payroll somehow and somewhere, which leaves Pronger. I think Murray will do his very best to move Giguere first because he doesn't want to lose Pronger.

• Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland continues to talk with Marian Hossa's agent Ritch Winter, but, as of Thursday, still doesn't have a deal for the pending UFA star winger.


"Until I know what the [salary] cap is, I'm sort of in a holding pattern," Holland told ESPN.com on Thursday.

"We're challenged. We've made some commitments to keep players on our team. It starts to add up after a while. Ritch knows the challenge we're up against. I'd like to keep him; Marian has been a very good player. But can we keep him? I need to know what the cap is, and then Ritch and I will talk."

• The number crunchers for the NHL and NHL Players' Association actually met Thursday in New York to agree on the final number for next year's salary cap. A source told ESPN.com the players voted in favor of the 5 percent inflator, so the cap will likely be in the $56 million range and could be officially announced as early as Friday.

Once the cap is official, Holland can figure out whether Hossa fits or not.

• It doesn't appear that Ian Laperriere fits into Colorado's plans. The veteran winger will be a UFA on Wednesday. He's the kind of guy that will draw some sizable attention on the free market, a tough customer who can also play the game and score a few goals.

"I've had a few conversations with [Avs GM] Greg Sherman and we're going to talk again, but it's not looking promising at this point," Laperriere's agent Pat Brisson told ESPN.com on Thursday.

• And finally, we've been hearing for weeks that former Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough was on the short list for the vacant GM job in Florida. Lo and behold, there was Risebrough sitting at a table at the Sheraton Hotel on Thursday with veteran hockey man Bill Torrey, who is running the search for the Panthers. Hmm …

Lots to write about as the pundits and the scribblers scurry...this today from The Hockey News:

Plenty of trade buzz as NHL executives convene for draft in Montreal

MONTREAL (CP)- Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Chris Pronger, Jay Bouwmeester, Tomas Kaberle, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

The list of players involved in trade rumours on the eve of the NHL draft could easily have been taken right from an all-star game program.

While scouting departments went through their final preparations on Thursday, the league's 30 general managers were busy working the phones. And judging by some of the rumours, there could be a lot of fireworks at the Bell Centre during the first round of Friday evening's draft.

"It heated up pretty well today," said Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. "Not just on the draft front, but on some other trade issues."

He's currently weighing an offer for Kaberle, Toronto's longest-tenured player. An "attention-grabbing" proposal arrived out of the blue for the smooth-skating defenceman, who sees his no-trade clause expire on Friday because the team missed the playoffs.

The offer caught Burke's attention.

"We got an unexpected, unsolicited offer on Tomas Kaberle," he said. "It was not my intention to look at moving him while we were here. We thought the best strategy was to wait and see where Jay Bouwmeester ended up (on July 1) and then get to work on the teams that were unsuccessful in that courtship.

"We've got an offer we have to take seriously."

Bob Gainey is also looking to make a splash for the hometown Canadiens. He has 10 players on his roster with expiring contracts and appears ready to make some big changes.

The top item on Gainey's list of priorities is acquiring a big centre and he doesn't think anyone fitting that mold will be available on July 1. That means he'll have to make a deal, adding fuel to the persistent rumour that the Habs will go after Lecavalier.

Gainey indicated that the biggest barrier to that involves establishing whether the Tampa Bay Lightning are truly willing to part with their franchise player.

"We feel like we have some of the assets needed to put a deal together if we have a partner that really wants to move in that direction," he said.

Another big mover could be Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray, who has been instructed to cut payroll and will likely have to trade one of his top players to do it.

He still doesn't know if Scott Niedermayer plans to return next season and will have a tough call to make if he can't find someone willing to take Giguere off his hands.

If that's the case, there are plenty of teams that would be happy to acquire Pronger.

With Bouwmeester ready to test free agency starting next week, the Florida Panthers are looking to deal his rights for a draft choice.

Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray is still shopping Heatley, the sniper who recently asked to be traded, in part because he didn't enjoy playing for Cory Clouston. The Sens coach spoke Thursday about the situation for the first time and indicated he was surprised with Heatley's request.

He also questioned the player's performance.

"It was just consistency," said Clouston. "When Dany is moving his feet, when he is playing his game, he is one of the best players in the NHL. I think if you asked him to assess his season, he would probably say he was not as consistent as he
wanted to be."

Burke has been consistent in saying that he wants to move up and select top prospect John Tavares.

That goal appears less and less likely because the Maple Leafs GM doesn't think there's a deal to be made with the New York Islanders (No. 1 pick) or Tampa (No. 2 pick).

"I don't think the Islanders are moving their pick, I think they're going to pick," said Burke. "The only name that Tampa's expressed interest in is Luke Schenn and he's not going anywhere. That probably leaves us out on the top two picks, but we'll see."

The GMs are also expected to officially find out Friday where next season's salary cap will fall. That should factor into some decisions.

The Detroit Red Wings, for example, are still hoping to re-sign winger Marian Hossa before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Whether they can do it or not, all depends on how much money they're allowed to spend.

"It's all about the cap number," said Red Wings GM Ken Holland. "It's all about math."

If that math doesn't work out, they might start looking at other moves.

The biggest challenge for GMs on draft day is trying to make quick decisions that pay off down the road. There are a lot of different offers to be weighed.

"It's a great day for our sport," said Burke. "It's a day of unlimited hope."

some blurbs off the Ottawa Sun, looks like Detroit has put out a substantial offer for Hossa.

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/06/25/9938826.html

Waiting on Hossa
As reported yesterday, league sources say the Red Wings have offered W Marian Hossa a 10-year deal believed to be in the $62-million US range. While Hossa and his agent, Ritch Winter, are going to mull over the offer until Monday, they also have to look at how attractive Hossa is going to be as a potential unrestricted free agent. League sources say the Bruins are trying to deal either C Marc Savard or W Phil Kessel so they can clear up the cap space to sign Hossa. If they can move either player, it would also help Boston GM Peter Chiarelli become more active in pursuit of disgruntled Senators W Dany Heatley, whose wishlist of landing spots includes Boston.
Off the glass
The Panthers were fielding offers yesterday for D Jay Bouwmeester’s negotiating rights. Sources said last night that the Flames were the frontrunners ... The Ducks are expecting an answer today from D Scott Niedermayer on whether he plans on playing next season. If he decides to return, it’s believed D Chris Pronger will be dealt. The Blues have been trying to reacquire him for soon time ... If W Erik Cole doesn’t re-sign with Carolina, expect the Senators to make a pitch for him as a UFA ... The Kings were talking to San Jose about a possible deal for C Patrick Marleau.

I can't believe Detroit offered him a 10 year deal. I can't believe they offered him more than $6M a year. I can't believe they are still entertaining the idea, frankly. What do they see that we didn't see in the playoffs? Was he snake bit? Probably on a couple of plays, but I thought in the Pittsburgh series he was just lost.

wprager wrote:I can't believe Detroit offered him a 10 year deal. I can't believe they offered him more than $6M a year. I can't believe they are still entertaining the idea, frankly. What do they see that we didn't see in the playoffs? Was he snake bit? Probably on a couple of plays, but I thought in the Pittsburgh series he was just lost.

oh yeah, he had like what, 0 goals in the finals, Wang tried everything to get him going and nothing, Detroit can add by subtraction when it comes to Hossa.

i still dont see how they can afford to keep him

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:i still dont see how they can afford to keep him

They can't, not without shedding some salary. Their salary cap (according to HB numbers) is over $51M already, and that's with just 8 forwards and one goalie. Hossa simply doesn't fit unless they move salary. They'll need to move Rafalski because Ericsson replaces him, and he'll clear the most cap room. Among forwards, looking at the ones closest to free agency, I guess Holmstrom, Draper and Maltby. All of that adds up to $10.65M. Sign Hossa for $6M and you are left with roughly $9M to sign 6-7 forwards, a spare defenseman and a backup.

It's doable, but can they get Abdelkader and Helm to resign near league minimum? Probably not. I just don't see it.

SensFan71 wrote:some blurbs off the Ottawa Sun, looks like Detroit has put out a substantial offer for Hossa.

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/06/25/9938826.html

Waiting on Hossa
As reported yesterday, league sources say the Red Wings have offered W Marian Hossa a 10-year deal believed to be in the $62-million US range. While Hossa and his agent, Ritch Winter, are going to mull over the offer until Monday, they also have to look at how attractive Hossa is going to be as a potential unrestricted free agent. League sources say the Bruins are trying to deal either C Marc Savard or W Phil Kessel so they can clear up the cap space to sign Hossa. If they can move either player, it would also help Boston GM Peter Chiarelli become more active in pursuit of disgruntled Senators W Dany Heatley, whose wishlist of landing spots includes Boston.
Off the glass
The Panthers were fielding offers yesterday for D Jay Bouwmeester’s negotiating rights. Sources said last night that the Flames were the frontrunners ... The Ducks are expecting an answer today from D Scott Niedermayer on whether he plans on playing next season. If he decides to return, it’s believed D Chris Pronger will be dealt. The Blues have been trying to reacquire him for soon time ... If W Erik Cole doesn’t re-sign with Carolina, expect the Senators to make a pitch for him as a UFA ... The Kings were talking to San Jose about a possible deal for C Patrick Marleau.

Hmmm...the Wings want Hossa at 6.2MM per year if I read this right. Marian might want to have a look around.

davetherave wrote:Hmmm...the Wings want Hossa at 6.2MM per year if I read this right. Marian might want to have a look around.

Well, if he truly wants to win THE CUP, then I'd say he signs this deal as in the next 10 years, my money is on Detroit winning at least 1 Cup.

shabbs wrote:

davetherave wrote:Hmmm...the Wings want Hossa at 6.2MM per year if I read this right. Marian might want to have a look around.

Well, if he truly wants to win THE CUP, then I'd say he signs this deal as in the next 10 years, my money is on Detroit winning at least 1 Cup.

What's to say he wants to play 10 years, and what's to say Detroit's his best bet?