3 BEST UFA signings + 3 WORST UFA signings

...so far.

Just for fun...

I have:

BEST:
1.Brian Elliott
2.Sheldon Souray
3.Kyle Wellwood

WORST:
1.Tomas Kaberle
2.Ville Leino (yikes, I wanted him pretty bad)
3.Roman Hamrlik

Honorable Mentions:

Fleishmann (best), Gagne (best), Ian White (best), Jovanovski (worst), Prospal (best), Mark Bell (worst, just for being an bunghole), Bergenheim (worst), Connolly (best), Jagr (best)

How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

this. MAYBE an average second liner but he was nothing special

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

I watched him a lot, he's more than a 3rd liner. I assume he's having trouble adapting to Buffalo's system, because he's a hell of a lot better than the 6 points he has right now (lol).

Plus, Babcock always lamented on how much he didn't want to let him go - are you calling Babcock wrong?

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

I watched him a lot, he's more than a 3rd liner. I assume he's having trouble adapting to Buffalo's system, because he's a hell of a lot better than the 6 points he has right now (lol).

Plus, Babcock always lamented on how much he didn't want to let him go - are you calling Babcock wrong?

I am. If they wanted him so badly they wouldn't have traded him for nothing.

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

I watched him a lot, he's more than a 3rd liner. I assume he's having trouble adapting to Buffalo's system, because he's a hell of a lot better than the 6 points he has right now (lol).

Plus, Babcock always lamented on how much he didn't want to let him go - are you calling Babcock wrong?

No, he's not. That's the point. He was always a 3rd liner, will always be a third liner. He might be better than 6 points but he isn't better than a .5 ppg player. In fairness, he should have 11 points based on what I said and that's still a major over payment.

I'm surprised to hear you say considering not too long ago you said "Horcoff sucks".

Big Ev wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

I watched him a lot, he's more than a 3rd liner. I assume he's having trouble adapting to Buffalo's system, because he's a hell of a lot better than the 6 points he has right now (lol).

Plus, Babcock always lamented on how much he didn't want to let him go - are you calling Babcock wrong?

I am. If they wanted him so badly they wouldn't have traded him for nothing.

Not sure it worked that way - don't quote me, but Datsyuk was returning from injury and they had to send Leino down. Didn't he get plucked off of waivers?

NEELY wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:How anyone couldn't see Leino coming is beyond me. He is nothing more than a 3rd liner that got some points playing on a stacked team.

I watched him a lot, he's more than a 3rd liner. I assume he's having trouble adapting to Buffalo's system, because he's a hell of a lot better than the 6 points he has right now (lol).

Plus, Babcock always lamented on how much he didn't want to let him go - are you calling Babcock wrong?

No, he's not. That's the point. He was always a 3rd liner, will always be a third liner. He might be better than 6 points but he isn't better than a .5 ppg player. In fairness, he should have 11 points based on what I said and that's still a major over payment.

I'm surprised to hear you say considering not too long ago you said "Horcoff sucks".

As of right now, I'm not really in a position to argue as he's sucking like a vacuum. So unless he pulls his socks up, he's not even a 3rd liner.

If you watched him in Philly, you saw that he didn't depend on his linemates, he was a solid player in his own right, but he's gone down the toilet.

A lot easier to produce against 3rd and 4th lines with Giroux as your center. Anyways, it still boggles my mind how you could have such a high opinion of a guy like Leino but abolutely tear Horcoff apart, a guy who has had years Leino will never have in his career.

NEELY wrote:A lot easier to produce against 3rd and 4th lines with Giroux as your center. Anyways, it still boggles my mind how you could have such a high opinion of a guy like Leino but abolutely tear Horcoff apart, a guy who has had years Leino will never have in his career.

I dunno, one of them can at least skate. Horcoff's a slug, he's the typical pre-lockout player.

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:A lot easier to produce against 3rd and 4th lines with Giroux as your center. Anyways, it still boggles my mind how you could have such a high opinion of a guy like Leino but abolutely tear Horcoff apart, a guy who has had years Leino will never have in his career.

I dunno, one of them can at least skate. Horcoff's a slug, he's the typical pre-lockout player.

Since the lockout he has had 4 season's of 50 points or better, one of which was 73 points and another which was 50 points in 53 games. He's on pace for anothee 50 point season this year as well. Even last year he was on pace for 50 plus points. Leino has hit 50 points exactly once in his career, Horcoff basically does it every single year.

For one guy that can't skate he must be in the right place a lot and Lenio must be doing tripple axels in the defensive zone.

If Horcoff can pull it together this year, then that's great, but he's been terrible the last couple of years. Terrible.

SpezDispenser wrote:If Horcoff can pull it together this year, then that's great, but he's been terrible the last couple of years. Terrible.

27 points in 47 games last year. Played pretty well when he was healthy. The only bad year he had was the year where they blew it all up, other than that he's been pretty consistant year after year. He's a 50 plus point player every single year (minus one season) in his last 6 years. If Leino got 50 points that signing would be considered fantastic but since people have decided Horcoff is some awful hockey player his production is meaningless.

Saying Horcoff has been awful the last 3 years is not true. He's a little over paid but he's still a very good and effective hockey player. He's also a captain in the NHL and that carries a ton of weight.

Lenio would be lucky to have an average Horcoff year. Hell, his salary would be justified at that point.

Pretty happy Buffalo dropped the ball on that one though. Erhoff was another huge mistake.

What can I say, I'm just not a fan. I'm glad he's putting up points for the Oilers so he can live up to that contract, but he's been invisible in 90% of the Oilers' games I've watched the last few years.

At this point Buffalo would be lucky if Leino produced as much as Horcoff - which is funny to me.