OT - NHL Free Agency Discussion
I figured we could stand to discuss some of the free agency moves today, such as:
Detroit picked up Mike Commodore for $1 million, which is about $450k more than he deserves.
Philadelphia decided that poking the Penguins is more important than actually fielding a good team by picking up Jaromir Jagr and Max Talbot.
Everyone with money to burn seems to be throwing buckets of cash at Brad Richards.
Colorado forgot that they will still be terrible next year and traded their first round pick (plus a second round pick either for 2012 or 2013) to Washington for Semyon Varlamov.
I can speak as a Caps fan to say I'm ecstatic about this trade. For a while I thought Varly was going to be better than Neuvirth, but after the end of last year I'm not so sure I still believe that, and the truth is if we didn't trade him I think it was pretty certain he was going to bolt for the KHL. Definitely a great deal for us. Especially since our back up goaltender, Holtby might turn out to be the best of the three. As for Jagr, as a closet Wings fan after 4 years watching them play, I'm glad they avoided Jagr, don't think that's going to work out well for the Flyers.
EDIT: Didn't realize the Talbot deal was for 5 years, as a caps fan it pains me to say he seemed like a "pretty cool guy" on 24/7 this past season, but I know I wouldn't want him at 5 years 9 mill.
EDIT # 2: Plus, I can speak for wings fans here when I say any reason to root against the avalanche is a good one, here's to that draft pick being in the top 5.
For sure the Avalanche got fleeced in that trade. Varlamov has the potential to be good, but the last thing the Avs needed to do was blow a 1st round pick on a goalie who hasn't shown he's a reliable top-flight option. Plus with the KHL in the back of his mind, he might not be in Colorado for very long. As of right now, it looks like there are going to be some stellar players in the 2012 draft class too, so if Colorado ends up with a top-5 pick again, the Capitals will look like geniuses.
the avs got robbed, plain and simple. varlamov is closer petey budaj than he is to a patty roy or even jose theodore (when he was good). the avs have some good goalie prospect in the pipeline. they should've instead gone for a stop-gap guy, like vokoun, who could carry the load for a little while. or even better, the avs should've grabbed mike smith from tampa, who signed with phoenix for 2 mil per, or josh harding, who re-signed with the wild. now they have to pay varlamov 2.75 mil per, give up a draft pick that could very well be a lottery pick next year, and a second rounder.
be overpriced and expensive this season. The increase in the cap has forced everyone to spend more to meet the new "basement".
Its actually a bad year to really NEED free agent help.
Well, that and the free agent class was downright terrible this year. It was basically Brad Richards, some mediocre defensemen, and old and/or unwanted 3rd/4th liners.
Just got account (oblivious how to start new thread/post); but any news on DGB (WR) regarding recruiting process with Wolverines?? Oblige
big winner so far is definitely the caps.
they got a solid, gritty guy in joel ward who'll compliment the skill of ovie and semin well. they completely robbed the avs in the varlamov deal. they managed to keep laich. they managed to grab hamrlik. they traded for troy brouwer.
simply a tour de force. amazing.
Laich simply is not worth a 4.5 mil cap hit. And if they want to sign Brouwer and Alzner, they need to clear salary and they still won't be able to lock them up for any length of time. The Ward signing was great, but they've got some serious cap issues to deal with.
It's hard not to be a big McPhee fan if you cheer for the caps. Not so sure how I feel about Boudreau at this point though...
McPhee is a mediocre GM at best. The Capitals have managed to draft well in recent years, and I tip my hat to them for that, but McPhee's asset management post-draft is awful. He quite simply won't part with any of his NHL-level talent, which has led to log jams at certain skills and absolute dearths at others.
The Laich contract was a bit excessive, but he's one of the few character guys on that team so it's probably worth it. Joel Ward had one good playoffs, and now he's suddenly a 3 million/year player? Hamrlik was a decent signing, but not exactly a steal.
I'm not sure the Capitals could have done anything really this off season with the poor crop of UFA, but they wouldn't have been in this position in the first place with a better GM.
Colorado really did something that stupid? No wonder they are so sorry. They must see a young Brodeur/Roy/Luongo in Varlamov. I hope they stay pathetic forever!
NHL players are just lazy, uneducated, thugs who only care about making money. They don't try and it's obvious. I don't need to actually watch the sport to have this opinion. Why do you think they only play in short spurts? Obviously because they don't wanna put forth effort for longer periods of time...DUH. You know, I used to be a big fan of hockey until the lazy toothless white guys started taking the spotlight from the hardworking, gritty, smart black players I watched when I was a kid.
/Think this sounds ridiculously stupid? I agree. It's like some the MGoCommunity's opinions on the NBA, Hockey-fied!