Dallas Stars: The Stars’ performance in Free Agency is either going to be looked upon as a major success or a startling failure. Being the glass-half-full guy that I am, I’m going with the former, by virtue of casting my eye up and down the roster that Dallas will enter 2014-15 with.
Ottawa’s disgruntled superstar Jason Spezza is now a Dallas Star, and brings with him both scoring touch and moxie. There aren’t many better guys to watch in the NHL when they’re on fire than Spezza. Yes, snagging Spezza meant giving up three solid players, including the burgeoning talent of Alex Chiasson for what may well be a yearly rental, given that’s the remaining length of Spezza’s contract, and so has drawn the ire of some in hockey.
Me? I like it. Contract terms aside, the fact remains that Spezza is an instant upgrade on offense. And the Stars are stockpiling scoring talent, enough to make their opponents in the Western Conference more than a little nervous. Take a squiz at some of the names that the Stars will ice this year alongside Spezza: fellow free agency signing Ales Hemsky (from Edmonton), Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Valeri Nichushkin, Cody Eakin and others. Dallas figure to be downright scary!
Paul Stastny: The long-time Colorado Avalanche centre – and easily the top centre in this year’s crop of free agents – is headed to the Gateway City and to a St Louis outfit who really needed an upgrade at centre. Some nice synergy here, with Paul being the son of Peter Stastny, one of St Louis’ favourite hockey sons.
Quite aside from that, the two-time Team USA Olympian is a damn good player, as his four year/$28 million dollar contract suggests, and everything that the Blues seem to covet in a player: hard-skating, hard-working, gritty, dependable. I don’t doubt that Stastny will fit nicely into a St Louis team who should be amongst the frontrunners in the cutthroat Western Conference next season.
Chicago Blackhawks: Battling a bit of a salary cap problem in the Windy City – Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa eat up a sizeable chunk straight off the top – the Blackhawks managed to level a one-year deal at former New York Ranger Brad Richards (the subject of a compliance buy-out in New York) and that’s a major get, for one year at $2 million. In fact, it’s an out-and-out steal.
Richards was a victim of circumstance in New York. The Rangers really didn’t want to let him go, but his contract became something of a death warrant given his presence (mostly) on the fourth line and Power Play during the Stanley Cup Final. Richards, a Stanley Cup winner with Tampa Bay in 2004, still has a bit to give, and will probably find a nice home anchoring the Patrick Kane line. Richards was still pretty formidable on the man advantage, and figured to continue that at the Madhouse on Madison – yeah, as if the ‘Hawks weren’t dangerous enough already.
Minnesota & Thomas Vanek: A rare double whammy here. Make no mistake, this was the reunion that the entire State of Hockey wanted. The Austrian sniper is one of the most decorated players in the history of the University of Minnesota Gophers hockey program – and that’s truly saying something when you think of names like Harrer, the Broten brothers, Mayasich, Micheletti and Ramsey – and will be welcomed back to the Twin Cities with arms wide open.
After being traded from the Islanders (who offered a seven-year, $50 million deal before he left town) up to Montreal at the trade deadline, Vanek was next to invisible on the ice with Les Habitants, and many predicted that his value would lower. Not so, apparently. The Isles took another crack, though Vanek ended up in Minnesota, with a five year contract worth $19 million.
From a team point of view, it’s a good move: for a relatively cheap price, the Wild have upgraded their scoring touch. Many Minnesotans will be hoping Vanek will rediscover the touch he had wearing the maroon and gold of the Gophers. Vanek admitted that returning to Minnesota was the main reason he tested the free agency market, so I guess it’s worked out pretty well.
Right now, Vanek’s return to Minnesota is a feel-good story that might turn into so much more.
Brooks Orpik: A good player, no doubt about that, but Orpik goes about things in a brutal manner on the blue line, and it’s taken quite the toll on his body. Also, Orpik is now thirty-three. Whether you play hard minutes or not, thirty-three is about the age where people acknowledged, generally, your best is beyond you.
That’s why a five-year deal from Washington to lure the former Pittsburgh defender down to the Capitals (where, incidentally, he will join Australia’s own Nathan Walker) seems to be a head-scratcher. Wait, it’s definitely a head scratcher, and Washington might yet end up in my next piece – the Free Agency Losers – but for Orpik, five years at $5.5 million per – the money is just about a steal.
I’ve no doubt he’ll have a positive impact for the Caps early on in this deal, and, to be brutally honest, Washington need defensive help like I need to win the lottery, so that’s good – it’s the length of the deal that Orpik doubtless accepted with gleeful urgency, that scares me. Good for Brooks, bad for Washington. More on that later.
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