Free agency: the time of the year when teams get delusions of grandeur and offer giant contracts to players who probably don’t deserve them, and then end up buying out said player in a few years’ time, quietly admitting defeat. There were plenty of winners this year, but a handful of head-turning transactions, too. Some of those make my list of free agency losers:
Columbus: Yes, they got Brandon Saad from Chicago, at a reported $36 million over six years, and didn’t have to part with any of the promising young talent they’ve nurtured for the last few years, but at $36 million? That’s serious amount of money for a guy like Saad who is obviously a special player, but one who’s yet to score more than thirty goals in a season. Was he a product of that awesome, dynastical Chicago system? That’s the thirty-six million dollar question, isn’t it? We’ll see how this deal works out. Columbus seem to think it’s the right thing to do – ask me in a few years’ time.
Carolina: They’re buying out Alexander Semin’s contract (five years, $35 million) after the lockout-shortened 2013 season. Since then, we’ve seen little of worth from the Russian, and plenty of examples of why Washington let him go without a fight. His 2014-15 season saw him play just fifty-seven games, scoring 6 goals and tallying 19 assists. It was, in other words, unmitigated disaster. Even with a buyout, the ‘Canes will still owe him nearly $14 million, with a cap hit of $2.33 million a season.
St Louis: Traded away reliable Barret Jackman to Nashville and TJ Oshie to Washington, and, for reasons that don’t make sense to me, wanted to trade star American defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk, too. They got Troy Brouwer for Oshie, but got sweet nothing for Jackman, and that makes me shake my head. The Blues seem to be fading from relevance as far as a Stanley Cup championship goes. If their Cup window was half-closed after this season’s one-and-done playoff appearance – as some tend to think is the case – then there’s barely any room to wiggle now.
Boston: They handed a five-year deal to Matt Beleskey, whose career to this point has been uneven – streaky is perhaps another word you could use – but who also caught fire with the Anaheim Ducks this season, playing alongside Ryan Kesler there, and doing a good job of shutting down a lot of great players. In that regard, he should fit in nicely. The money isn’t obscene at $3.8 million per year, but the length of the deal is interesting, given the lack of production from Beleskey prior to 2014-15. The Bruins will hope that he isn’t a one-season flash in the pan.
Chicago: Marko Dano and Artem Anisimov are both good players, but they aren’t of the same ilk as Brandon Saad, who they basically replace Saad after the monster trade that kicked things off. The Blackhawks have also lost Brad Richards to Detroit, and the status of defenceman Johnny Odouya, who played a lot of time on the team’s second defensive pairing, is unknown at this stage. There’s no guarantee that veteran faces Bryan Bickell or Patrick Sharp will be with the team next year, either.
San Jose: The Sharks got Joel Ward out of Washington. He’s a clutch player who doesn’t mind mixing it up physically, but he’s thirty-four years old. Defenceman Paul Martin is the same age, and was handed a four-year contract at $19.4 million. Those two dependable players – read: dependable not superstar – join a San Jose roster with a lot of guys who’re on the wrong side of thirty. Interesting moves by the Sharks.
The NHL’s annual frenzy of wheeling and dealing is done for another year, and, as always seems to be the case, there were plenty of storylines. Now that the dust has settled, here are some of my free agency winners:
Columbus: Did something akin to a miracle, trading for Chicago’s Brandon Saad, and did so without compromising the rest of their young roster. They handed the two-time Stanley Cup champion a six-year contract after the Blackhawks had previously indicated that Saad was in their plans for many years to come. Saad to the Blue Jackets was part of a monster six-player trade. He joins Ryan Johansen and a group of other really good players. The Jackets should be contenders this year.
Mike Green: A mainstay of the Washington defence in the past few years, and the only blue-liner to score thirty goals in one season in the last decade, was demoted in Washington, didn’t like that, and moved on to the Detroit Red Wings. Easily a top-four defenceman in the Motor City.
Calgary: Got Dougie Hamilton out of Boston, signed goalie Kari Ramo to a new deal and signed Michael Frolik from Winnipeg. The Hamilton acquisition is the only major one, but general manager Brad Treliving made good, smart moves that leaves some cap space left for, possibly, another free agent. Big moves aren’t always good moves, and Treliving seems to understand this.
Pittsburgh: There were whispers at the draft last weekend that the Penguins were keen to nab Phil Kessel from Toronto to stick him on a line with Evgeni Malkin, at a cap hit of $6.8-million a year. It’s been suggested that the loss of James Neal stunted Malkin offensively last year, and Kessel is definitely an upgrade on Neal. That’s going to be a scary duo for opposition teams to handle going forward, and the good news for the often-abrasive Kessel is that he doesn’t need to be the team’s number one guy. He can lurk mostly in the background, and he’ll be happy about that.
Toronto: The trade of Kessel to Pittsburgh was a winner for both teams. Toronto wanted him gone. Kessel wanted to be gone. Now he is, and the Leafs can look towards a new future with Mike Babcock at the helm. Wonder who else they’ll look to move? Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul are likely candidates in that regard.
Washington: Definitely won, giving up Troy Brouwer for ex-St Louis Blue TJ Oshie, plus an AHL goalie and a 2016 third-round draft pick. The Olympic shootout specialist never quite became the superstar many of us thought he would be in the Gateway City – at least, not in the playoffs, where it really counts – but has a chance to reboot his career with Barry Trotz and the Capitals. Man, the Metropolitan Division is loaded now.
Buffalo: Grabbed Ryan O’Reilly from Colorado, and gave him a seven-year extension for a healthy $52.5 million. He’s only twenty four, and will doubtless enjoy playing with Evander Kane, Jack Eichel, Tyler Ennis and the rest of the group general manager Tim Murray is putting together.
Antoine Vermette: What a difference a few months make in hockey! Traded away from Arizona at the deadline, won a Stanley Cup with Chicago – and was a big part of that win, too – and now finds himself back in Phoenix, at least for as long as the Coyotes are there. Obviously, Vermette is comfortable there, returning on a two-year contract at $3.75 million per year, and comes after Arizona received a first round pick and a likely prospect for Vermette in the first place.
Martin St Louis: Had a chance to play on – there were apparently interested parties in New Jersey and Pittsburgh – but the pint-sized superstar, who wrote the book on punching above his weight, is retiring on his own terms. That doesn’t often happen in hockey, but I’m very glad it did for MSL, who is definitely one of the good guys in the sport. We should see him in the Hall of Fame soon, too, if there’s any justice.
The frenetic period of free agency wheeling and dealing that surrounds the annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is done and dusted for another year, after some interesting trades and signings. Here are my Free Agency losers:
Calgary Flames: Yes, GM Brian Burke got Jonas Hiller from Anaheim to solve some goaltending woes, sure, Mason Raymond will be okay in place of the departed Mike Cammalleri but the real head-scratcher here is Deryk Engelland getting $8.7 million over three years. No wonder the former Penguins defenceman was so happy to take his talents north to Calgary for the next three years.
It’s crazy, crazy money when you take into account what Engelland was on in Pittsburgh – a relatively meagre $575,000 last seasons – and that’s when the light bulb really goes off for me. They got Engelland because he can fight. Oh yeah, he’s good at swinging punches and taking them, and will definitely help keep the Flames offensive players safe out there.
At the end of the day, though, I keep coming back to the money. $8.7 million for three years equates to nearly three million per year. I thought Burke was smarter than that. Honestly, Engelland, a sixth or seventh defenceman, deserved to be on the Winners list in the vein of new Capitals blue-liner Brooks Orpik with the money he’s just pulled in. Sometimes I wonder whether the hockey world’s gone mad.
Martin Brodeur: The former New Jersey Devils goaltender/legend can’t seem to take a hint. When the Devils signed journeyman Scott Clemmensen to back up Corey Schneider in net, Brodeur, the NHL's all-time leader in wins, shutouts and just about every other statistical category during a sparkling career in Newark, was left out in the cold.
And remains there. Brodeur has never been in the position of needing to look for work. It’s always come to him. Nor has he ever had to face the fact that, at best, he’s going to be a back-up getting 15-25 games a season. He also wants to play another season, with a team that’s likely going to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. That, of course, makes his options few and far between.
I wrote a few weeks ago that it was time for Brodeur to call it quits. He’s had a great career, and deserves to be lauded as the greatest New Jersey Devil to ever play – and that’s damn near a certainty. It’s sad to see him still a free agent, and apparently not figuring in anyone’s plans. Hanging on and trying to play for another club, where he’d spend most of his time riding the pine, cheapens his incredible legacy. There’s a time to graciously bow out of the game, and this, for Brodeur, is it.
Washington Capitals: Good lord, are the Capitals, with a new head coach in Barry Trotz and a new GM in Brian MacLellan are throwing ridiculous money around the place, or what? They gave Brooks Orpik (a definite Free Agency winner now with a pretty heavy wallet), a player whose best days are behind him, $27.5 million over five years and will probably backfire pretty quickly, given that he will be thirty-four before training camp is done.
They also splashed out on Orpik’s former Pittsburgh teammate, Matt Niskanen, who was handed a $40.25 million and seven years. Now, Niskanen is good, but is he great? Great enough that he deserves five and a quarter million dollars per year? Not from where I sit, no.
The Caps have tied up a lot of money in guys who are either old or unproven, and it looks like, despite new faces, the same old song and dance in the American capital. Their obvious defensive inefficiencies have led them to make some ill-advised signings. It could be a pretty spectacular blow-up-in-your-face situation for the Capitals before too long.
Detroit Red Wings: For a team who normally make a big splash around free agency – and around the trade deadline, for that matter – the Red Wings were very quiet in 2014, ending up with…well, not much of anything, really, hence their appearance on this list.
Obviously looking to shore up their defence, Ken Holland, as savvy a GM as there is anywhere in sport, and his team prepared offers for Brian Boyle (who signed with the Rangers) , Stephane Robidas (Toronto), Anton Stralman (Tampa Bay) and even Christian Erhhoff (Pittsburgh) and were rebuffed by all of them.
A bunch of good blue liners slipped through Detroit’s fingers, and the best the Red Wings could do was re-sign Kyle Quincey for $8.5 million and two years. Now, Quincey is a pretty solid player at the back end, but he’s no superstar, and most definitely not the name Holland and the Wings were expecting to land during free agency.
Particularly interesting in the cases of Boyle and Robidas is that Holland’s offers were more than the Rangers and Toronto paid for those two players, which makes me wonder. I mean, back in the day – by which I pretty much mean right up until the last year or two, and for about a decade before that – guys were falling all over themselves to get to Detroit.
Why? Because Detroit always represented a solid chance at Stanley Cup glory. Now…well, you hesitate to say it of a club who had been so resilient for so many years, it seems that the Wings are being perceived as on a slide. Things change pretty quickly in this game, don’t they?
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The frenetic period of free agency wheeling and dealing that surrounds the annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is done and dusted for another year, after some interesting trades and signings. Here are my Free Agency winners:
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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