Which team had the best off-season so far?

Florida Panthers

IN:
G Jose Theodore
D Brian Campbell
D Ed Jovanovski
F Tomas Kopecky
F Tomas Fleischmann
F Marcel Goc
F Scottie Upshall
F Kris Versteeg

OUT:
G Tomas Vokoun
D Alexander Sulzer
D Rostislav Olesz
D Joe Callahan
F Ryan Carter
F Darcy Hordichuk
F Marty Reasoner
F Patrick Rissmiller
F Sergei Samsonov


Philadelphia Flyers

IN:

G Ilya Bryzgalov
D Andreas Lilja
F Brayden Schenn
F Wayne Simmonds
F Jaromir Jagr
F Maxime Talbot
F Jakub Voracek

OUT:
G Brian Boucher
D Nick Boynton
D Sean O'Donnell
F Ville Leino
F Nikolai Zherdev
F Dan Carcillo
F Mike Richards
F Jeff Carter
F Darroll Powe

Toronto Maple Leafs

IN:
D John-Michael Liles
D Cody Franson
F Matthew Lombardi
F Tim Connolly

OUT:
G Jean-Sebastien Giguere
D Brett Lebda
F Tim Brent
F Joey Crabb
F Fredrik Sjostrom
F Aaron Voros

Washington Capitals

IN:
G Tomas Vokoun
D Roamn Hamrlik
F Jeff Halpern
F Troy Brouwer
F Joel Ward

OUT:
G Semyon Varlamov
D Brian Willsie
D Scott Hannan
D Tyler Sloan
F Jason Arnott
F Matt Bradley
F Boyd Gordon
F Marco Sturm
F Eric Fehr


Columbus Blue Jackets

IN:
D Radek Martinek
D James Wisniewski
F Jeff Carter
F Vaclav Prospal

OUT:
G Mathieu Garon
D Craig Rivet
D Jan Hejda
D Anton Stralman
D Mike Commodore
F Ethan Moreau
F Andrew Murray
F Chris Clark
F Scottie Upshall
F Jakub Voracek
F Nikita Filatov

Los Angeles Kings

IN:
F Colin Fraser
F Mike Richards
F Simon Gagne

OUT:

D Peter Harrold
F Michal Handzus
F Alexei Ponikarovsky
F Ryan Smyth
F Brayden Schenn
F Wayne Simmonds

Minnesota Wild

IN:
D Mike Lundin
F Darroll Powe
F Dany Heatley
F Devin Setoguchi

OUT:
G Jose Theodore
D Cam Barker
D Brent Burns
F Chuck Kobasew
F Andrew Brunette
F John Madden
F Antti Miettinen
F Martin Havlat

San Jose Sharks

IN:

D Brent Burns
D Jim Vandermeer
F Martin Havlat
F Michal Handzus

OUT:
D Ian White
D Kent Huskins
D Niclas Wallin
F Ben Eager
F Jamal Mayers
F Scott Nichol
F Kyle Wellwood
F Dany Heatley
F Devin Setoguchi

Buffalo Sabres

IN:
D Robyn Regehr
D Christian Ehrhoff
F Ville Leino
F Ales Kotalik

OUT:
G Patrick Lalime
D Steve Montador
F Tim Connolly
F Mike Grier
F Rob Niedermayer

Wow. Nice list, SD. I really like Florida's moves (at least on paper). They seemed to upgrade across the board. They'll be more competitive this year. Philly's moves represent such a massive shakeup that it'll be a few weeks into the season before we get a sense of the value of their moves. Toronto upgraded in several areas as well. Great off-season for them. Columbus's moves seem fairly solid. They moved a lot of quantity out and got some quality players in (overpayments aside). LAK made some interesting moves. I'm curious to see how they fare as the season opens. I'm not sure that I like what Minnie did. Perhaps I'm biased, but I don't think that they made the right choice between Heatley and Havlat. I'd also have kept Burns if possible. SJS made a lot of interesting moves as well. I love that they got Burns to move the puck from the blueline. I think that's a great move. They lost a lot of their second tier players, but I think they'll be improved. Buffalo made some big moves. Regher and Ehrhoff are good d-men. Leino has lots of upside. Losing Connolly hurts, but he's generally lost during the season at some point anyway. They'll play in a lot of low scoring games this season.

I think if I had to choose between them, I'd say either SJS or Florida made the best moves, overall. Philly has the biggest boom/bust potential with their moves.

On paper, I think I like the Panthers moves the most, but we all know it takes a lot more than just buying players, there's a chemistry that has to be forged. That could take a long, long time and by the time the Panthers are ready to be okay, they might be out of it.

They have some trade bait though - and that never hurts, but sometimes I wonder if Tallon actually knows what he's doing.

Philly got some nice players back in the two deals they made, but damn...if those guys don't perform, they're in a lot of trouble.

And the Caps too, what an f-ing coup getting Vokoun for that price.

SpezDispenser wrote:And the Caps too, what an f-ing coup getting Vokoun for that price.

The caps are enormous winners in the goalie sweepstakes. Getting Vokoun for 8 bucks is one thing, getting two picks that are likely in the top 35 for Varlamov, who was ready to bolt, is undeniably brilliant. Goalie-wise, Washington had an unprecedented summer.

spader wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:And the Caps too, what an f-ing coup getting Vokoun for that price.

The caps are enormous winners in the goalie sweepstakes. Getting Vokoun for 8 bucks is one thing, getting two picks that are likely in the top 35 for Varlamov, who was ready to bolt, is undeniably brilliant. Goalie-wise, Washington had an unprecedented summer.

Blah, that deal with the Avs was terrible (for the Avs). What the heck were they thinking?

SpezDispenser wrote:

spader wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:And the Caps too, what an f-ing coup getting Vokoun for that price.

The caps are enormous winners in the goalie sweepstakes. Getting Vokoun for 8 bucks is one thing, getting two picks that are likely in the top 35 for Varlamov, who was ready to bolt, is undeniably brilliant. Goalie-wise, Washington had an unprecedented summer.

Blah, that deal with the Avs was terrible (for the Avs). What the heck [W]ere they thinking?

No, no they weren't.

spader wrote:
No, no they weren't.

Sherman remind me of Ed Wade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Wade Wade GMs the Houston Astros and really appears to have Dung for brains.

He just traded Michael Bourn for a potporri of average pitching prospects and a 24 year old outfielder who's already tested positive for steroids.

Bourn can steal 50 bases, hits for average (.303) and just won his 2nd Gold Glove, has already been to an All-Star game and is but 28 years old. The kicker is, the team that acquired Bourn had three amazing pitching prospects. Not one of them included in the deal.

So, the NHL has its own version of Ed Wade it appears and he GMs the Avs.

spader wrote:Wow. Nice list, SD. I really like Florida's moves (at least on paper). They seemed to upgrade across the board. They'll be more competitive this year. Philly's moves represent such a massive shakeup that it'll be a few weeks into the season before we get a sense of the value of their moves. Toronto upgraded in several areas as well. Great off-season for them. Columbus's moves seem fairly solid. They moved a lot of quantity out and got some quality players in (overpayments aside). LAK made some interesting moves. I'm curious to see how they fare as the season opens. I'm not sure that I like what Minnie did. Perhaps I'm biased, but I don't think that they made the right choice between Heatley and Havlat. I'd also have kept Burns if possible. SJS made a lot of interesting moves as well. I love that they got Burns to move the puck from the blueline. I think that's a great move. They lost a lot of their second tier players, but I think they'll be improved. Buffalo made some big moves. Regher and Ehrhoff are good d-men. Leino has lots of upside. Losing Connolly hurts, but he's generally lost during the season at some point anyway. They'll play in a lot of low scoring games this season.

I think if I had to choose between them, I'd say either SJS or Florida made the best moves, overall. Philly has the biggest boom/bust potential with their moves.

Both Florida and Philly moved out 9 players. Florida could be just as much of a mess as Philly.

spader wrote:Wow. Nice list, SD.

http://proicehockey.about.com/od/nhlfreeagents/a/nhl-trades-and-free-agent-signings-2011.htm

It's from this website. Nice work by this guy (or girl).

As much as it pains me to say this I think it's Ottawa's 2 biggest rivals, the Leafs and Sabres. They didn't add some of the bigger names that other teams did, but they didn't lose as much either. I think they both really improved.

wprager wrote:

spader wrote:Wow. Nice list, SD. I really like Florida's moves (at least on paper). They seemed to upgrade across the board. They'll be more competitive this year. Philly's moves represent such a massive shakeup that it'll be a few weeks into the season before we get a sense of the value of their moves. Toronto upgraded in several areas as well. Great off-season for them. Columbus's moves seem fairly solid. They moved a lot of quantity out and got some quality players in (overpayments aside). LAK made some interesting moves. I'm curious to see how they fare as the season opens. I'm not sure that I like what Minnie did. Perhaps I'm biased, but I don't think that they made the right choice between Heatley and Havlat. I'd also have kept Burns if possible. SJS made a lot of interesting moves as well. I love that they got Burns to move the puck from the blueline. I think that's a great move. They lost a lot of their second tier players, but I think they'll be improved. Buffalo made some big moves. Regher and Ehrhoff are good d-men. Leino has lots of upside. Losing Connolly hurts, but he's generally lost during the season at some point anyway. They'll play in a lot of low scoring games this season.

I think if I had to choose between them, I'd say either SJS or Florida made the best moves, overall. Philly has the biggest boom/bust potential with their moves.

Both Florida and Philly moved out 9 players. Florida could be just as much of a mess as Philly.

True. Look at the players leaving both organizations, though. Florida absolutely upgraded. Philly's moves have much greater potential to be lateral.

Not so sure. Theodore is not an upgrade over Vokoun, unless he's there as a backup, in which case it's even worse (Clemmenson). Campbell was not playing anywhere near the level he played at when he got that huge contract. Similarly for Jovanovski. The forwards they got are probably upgrades, but none of them are top-liners and I'm not sure any of them are more than third liners.

Good point about the goalies. Theodore, while (imo) a very good goalie, isn't close to being on Vokoun's level. I'm not so sure about your assessment of the D. Surely Jovo and Campbell (even if he isn't playing as well as he has) are upgrades over Sulzer, Olesz, and Callahan. Significant upgrades at that.

Also, I don't think you can say that Fleischmann, Upshall, Versteeg (and to a lesser degree Goc and Kopecky) aren't significant upgrades over Hordichuk (13th forward at best), Reasoner (done), Rissmiller (never had much game but done nonetheless), and Samsonov (done in all likelihood).

Like I said, they've upgraded all over the place. You're right, Vokoun > Theodore, but I can't imagine anyone thinking that Rissmiller, Reasoner, Hordicuk, and Samsonov > Fleischmann, Upshall, and Versteeg. Nor can I imagine anyone arguing that Campbell and Jovo (even at his advanced age) aren't an improvement over Olesz, Callahan, and Sulzer.

spader wrote:Good point about the goalies. Theodore, while (imo) a very good goalie, isn't close to being on Vokoun's level. I'm not so sure about your assessment of the D. Surely Jovo and Campbell (even if he isn't playing as well as he has) are upgrades over Sulzer, Olesz, and Callahan. Significant upgrades at that.

Also, I don't think you can say that Fleischmann, Upshall, Versteeg (and to a lesser degree Goc and Kopecky) aren't significant upgrades over Hordichuk (13th forward at best), Reasoner (done), Rissmiller (never had much game but done nonetheless), and Samsonov (done in all likelihood).

Like I said, they've upgraded all over the place. You're right, Vokoun > Theodore, but I can't imagine anyone thinking that Rissmiller, Reasoner, Hordicuk, and Samsonov > Fleischmann, Upshall, and Versteeg. Nor can I imagine anyone arguing that Campbell and Jovo (even at his advanced age) aren't an improvement over Olesz, Callahan, and Sulzer.

That Jovanovski contract is going to look epic bad before the end of the year. Like, Redden epic bad, or just thereabouts.