OK, free agencies early doors are done, I'll show the details here:
Mathieu Schneider signs in Anaheim - This could mean the speculation about Neidermayer's impending retirement is spot-on.
Briere signs in Philly - I called this one. 8 years $52 million, front-loaded and with a no-movement clause (which, in opposition to a No Trade Clause also requires the player's permission to be waived as well as traded). The cap hit will be $6.5m per year even though he will make $10m in his first year. This could start the dominoes falling into place for the rest of the teams since Briere is off the board and it could "set the market".
Thornton and Iginla sign extensions - I thought Iggy had a small chance of being traded if he didn't agree to an extension. I think if the Sharks also get Drury it spells the end of Patrick Marleau's days in SJ.
Minnesota trade Backstrom to the Bruins for Petr Klaus and a 4th - I like this trade from Minny's perspective, I'm not entirely sure what the Bruins are up to. This is a Franchise which seems to be in a weird combination of trading away established players for prospects and also doing the exact opposite. Which absolutely confuses me. Do they see themselves as contenders or not?
Rafalski to Detroit - 5 years, $30 million. Good on the power play, good defensively...a little undersized, but he gives his all every game. Will make an interesting partnership with Lidstrom. I still hate Detroit, but this was a fairly good signing for them.
b]Scott Hannan to the Avs[/b] - 4 years, 18 mill. Nice signing, definitely filling our teams need for a defensive defender. It's not too much more than lesser players like Poti and Kubina have gotten recently.
Drury and Gomez to the Rangers - Drury getting around 7.1m/year for 5 years and Gomez getting about 7.3m/year for 7. Will make them scary for next year, but they may regret these contracts later. I think they over payed slightly for both, probably more for Gomez. May spell the end for Nylander and Shanahan.
Jason Blake to the Leafs - 4 years 20 mill. Not a bad signing.
Kings sign Nagy, Calder, Handzus and Preissing - To give an analogy, it's like an 18 year old girl has been given her daddy's credit card on the day of the big Macy's sale and told to go wild. She gets to the store and all the really nice stuff she'd seen in the catalog was gone already. So she stocks up on a bunch of stuff from the "irregulars" bin. Handzus is coming off an ACL injury which caused him to play less than 10 games last season, signing him for 4 years at $4m could be a decision they regret. Calder and Nagy are coming off pretty poor seasons. Preissing is a great signing for a team that needs a small, puck moving, finesse D-man, which fits the Kings bill nicely.
Hamrlik to the Habs - $22m, 4 years. Ouch...overpayment.
Bertuzzi to the Ducks - $8m for 2 years. I was expecting him to get a small contract with big incentives. This may be my intense hatred of this guy, but I think this is an awful overpayment for a guy coming off an injury without a great record of healing (back problems).
Nylander to the Caps - Nice signing, especially for less than $5m a year. I guess the lure of playing with Ovechkin gives guys a reason to want to play there.
Sykora and Sydor to the Pens - $2.5m a year over 2 years for each. I really don't know what to say about this one. I guess they're OK.
Devils sign Zubrus for 6 years - 6 years, $3.4m/year is maybe a bit too much for a guy who figures to be a 3rd/4th liner. He's only scored 20 goals in a season once, so anything above the 3rd line is probably a stretch for him.
Bonk, Ortmeyer and De Vries sign with Nashville - Low-rent replacements for Hartnell, Kariya and Timonen. I guess when you can't spend much money you takes what you cans.
Kariya to the Blues - $6m a year for 3 years. I guess they see themselves as contending soon. With their prospects coming through the system I probably would too.
Warning to any teams with a lot of cap space left: A certain Mr. Souray is still available and given how much GMs love a right handed point shot, he may end up terribly overpaid.
In other news a
local group has made an offer for the Predators franchise. It's probably the best way to keep the team in Nashville.
If anyone's curious where I'm getting the financial figures for all these signings, the answer is
here.
Big names left: Peter Forsberg, Brendan Shanahan, Slava Kozlov (oh, that reminds me...Viktor is a Cap now), and Bill Guerin.