Happy 4th of July all of our Pucking Awesome readers, and now that we are all full of hot dogs, hamburgers and fireworks we will look back at the fireworks that occurred in the first three days of free agency in this weeks Pucking Awesome Hat Trick.
The riches contract was given out before July 1st as Tomas Plekanec got a 6-year, $30 million deal to stay in Montreal. Patrick Marleau, also came off the market before July 1st signing the riches per year contract as he will be paid $6.9 million per year to continue to know the way to San Jose.
As for the riches deal given out on the 1st was to the twice traded Dan Hamhuis, as he went home to the tune of $27 million for six years. Sergei Gonchar left the friendly confines of Crosby land to sign the riches per year deal on July 1st, a $5.5 million per year to play in Ottawa.
Atlantic Division Goes Defensive:
The division that has had four teams make the playoff’s three out of the last four years just got tougher to play against, literally. With the Flyers trading for talented defenseman Andrej Meszaros, a year after trading for future hall-of-famer Chris Pronger, re-signing young stud Bryadon Coburn and adding veteran Sean O’Donnell. That signaled the race was on in the Atlantic to put up the best defensive unit in the division.
The Penguins, who lost top defender Sergei Gonchar, responded by signing the block shot machine Zbynek Michalek to a 5-year, $20 million deal. Later in the day the purged the division rival Devils, by signing the smooth skating Paul Martin to a 5-year, $25 million deal.
Lou Lamoriello responded to the loss of Martin by signing the hard hitting, tough nose Anton Volcehnkov to a 6-year, $25.5 million deal. He also added the sturdy Henrik Tallinder to a 4-year, $13.5 million deal.
We also can’t forget that the last place Islanders upgraded their defense by signing former Penguins Mark Eaton to a 2-year, $5 million deal and the hard hitting Milan Jurcina to a 1-year, $1 miilion deal.
To be fair the Rangers are more focused right now on signing their own young talent as both Marc Staal and Dan Girardi are restricted free agents and they are in talks to sign talent prospect Ryan McDonough away from the NCAA champions Wisconsin.
With all that in mind, the Atlantic division now holds some of the best defensive corps in the NHL and the matchups between all these teams got more interesting with players jumping ship for greener pastures.
Back to the Past
The biggest head scratcher of the free agent frenzy that ensued on July 1st was the return of Olli Jokinen to the Calgary Flames. Jokinen was exiled from the team just five months before and didn’t set off any fires while in New York, scoring only four goals and adding 15 points in 24 games with the Rangers.
Why would Darryl Sutter bring back the fu man chu? Well one answer is he got him back for a cheaper price as he signed a two-year, $6 million deal. Another would be the crop of free agents at center were so thin that he felt maybe the former 30-goal scorer would relish his second chance to center Jarome Iginla. But both players employ a shoot first mentality so Sutter’s other, under-the-radar move was to bring back the slick passing winger Alex Tanguay.
The 30-year-old Tanguay had two successful years playing on a top line with Iginla, with 40 goals and 99 assists, before being shipped out for a first round pick to Montreal. Sutter took a lot of heat in the media for bringing back both of these former Flames, but the joke might be on everyone, if they build instant chemistry and give the Flames a dominant top line to go with their already stellar defense and Miikka Kiprusoff, they just better hope that their playoff lives do not come down to a shootout.
The Best of the Rest
The second waves of signing are often the most overlooked signings in the offseason. The names that still roam free are some heavy hitters that could round up most teams looking to win the Stanley Cup. The question now turns to the players, if they are willing to take a short term contract to prove that they are who we thought they were.
Mike Modano has not announced his plans of if he will return for a 21st NHL season, if he does and signs with a contender he could be a great third line player, who kills penalties as he did score 14 goals last season and showed no signs that he has lost his legs.
Lee Stempniak is only 27-years old and scored 28 goals last season for the Maple Leafs and Coyotes. Sure sounds like an attractive free agent to round out your second line? The problem is he had 14 of those goals in his 18 games with the Coyotes and with only 96 career goals in 374 games it is hard to judge what Stempniak’s worth is on the open market.
Willie Mitchell is one of the most underrated defenseman in the league. The 33-year-old will hit anything and is solid in his own end. His absence from the Canucks blue line this season was very noticeable as they failed to get past the second round. Concussion issues are scaring off potential new teams, as Mitchell has had two in his last three seasons, including being out of the lineup for most of last year. He could be a cheap fine for a contending team, if he can prove the concussion symptoms are behind him.
Some other players to keep an eye on are; goalies Evgeni Nabokov, Marty Turco and Jose Theodore, wingers Paul Kariya, Bill Guerin, Alex Frolov and Eric Belanger, and defenseman Andy Sutton, Joe Corvo and Kim Johnsson.
