The NHL generally tends to get lost in the shuffle in the lower 48, so it likes to start its own fireworks display a few days ahead of the Fourth of July.
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| Mats Sundin still can't decide which team he will join next season. (Getty Images) |
The highlights:
Show me the money: Politicians often lip service to the notion of fiscal restraint. Apparently so do several NHL general managers, who doled out more than $400 million in new contracts, many of them on the very first day. Funny thing is most observers considered this year's crop of free agents to be mediocre at best, but when demand exceeds supply the way it did, there's an opportunity for several people -- hello, puck-moving defensemen Brian Campbell and Wade Redden -- to get very rich very quick. How many of these deals really end up being regretted? Check back in a year or two to find out the answer.
Truth be told: Obviously things weren't as hunky dory in Pittsburgh as Marian Hossa would have had us believe. The talented forward kept saying all the right things about staying with the Penguins, who acquired him at the trade deadline, but a few weeks after he helped them get to the Stanley Cup Final, Hossa decided the grass was greener in Detroit. The money certainly wasn't, because Hossa was offered around the same $7.4 million he took from the Red Wings for one season by the Penguins, and for a lot longer term. His argument was that Detroit offered him the best shot at winning a Stanley Cup next season, which conveniently overlooked the fact that back-to-back titles are extremely rare in the NHL and that signing a lot-term deal with a team led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin offered him a pretty good shot as well. This was about more than money.
To Siberia with love: OK, we get that Jaromir Jagr actually enjoys playing in Europe and that the money he'll get from the deep-pocketed Omsk team is some very serious tax free coin. But c'mon, there is something seriously wrong with a picture that has one of the greatest offensive players the NHL has ever seen finishing his career in a place that is best known as a landing spot for exiles. Jagr and the New York Rangers did a dance about having him return to Broadway, but that was never in the cards. But Jagr admitted to having some very attractive offers to remain in the NHL, most notably from the Edmonton Oilers, and it just seems like that's the place he should be.
They're back: Hockey trades, we mean. You know, the kind that are done to fill teams' actual needs rather than just to dump salary. There were several of them made this week, with Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets being the most active need swappers. And several other GMs are promising to follow suit in the coming weeks now that the market for impact help has effectively dried up. Of course it wouldn't be the "new" NHL if some teams didn't make deals to lighten their payroll load the way Tampa Bay did with its tacky handling of veteran Dan Boyle, who was effectively coerced into waiving his no-trade clause by the Lightning.
Give 'em the Finger: Jeff Finger, that is, a nominal second-pair defenseman who saw his salary jump eight-fold when the Toronto Maple Leafs signed the former Colorado player for four years and $14.5 million. Interim GM Cliff Fletcher called it a reasonable price considering the market, which is true of you consider a player with fewer than 100 NHL games under his belt worthy of jumping into another tax bracket. Finger, by the way, was a healthy scratch in five of Colorado's 10 playoff games, which means he'll have no trouble adapting to being out of uniform next spring when the playoffs roll around and the Maple Leafs again aren't there.
Go figure: There were more than a couple of signings that raised eyebrows last week -- can anyone explain to us how Mark Streit wheedled more than $4 million a season out of the Islanders and why that team signed
Where in the world will Mats Sundin play: Can you imagine waiting on his table at a restaurant? The former Leafs captain has been off since the playoffs began and saw his negotiating rights traded before he officially became a free agent, but he still can't decide which team he will join next season. In fact, he hasn't figured out if he even wants to play. Problem is Sundin has limited his options by his procrastination, with two of his top suitors -- the Red Wings and Rangers -– losing patience and filling up their salary cap space with other options. The Canadiens are still as interested as they have been since getting his negotiating rights before the market opened, and the Canucks have put a $20 million offer for two seasons on the table. Edmonton, having been shunned by Hossa and Jagr, is in the running as well, but no one can afford to wait forever. Maybe they should repeat their list of specials.
Quacking back: Brian Burke has never met a microphone or notepad he didn't like, and this week the Anaheim GM took the opportunity to deliver another tirade against Edmonton counterpart Kevin Lowe, who he blames for creating the rapid run up in free-agent salaries. Burke has been barking at Lowe since last summer for making offer sheets to a pair of restricted free agents, including Dustin Penner, who was signed away from Anaheim. This week, though, the Oilers GM decided he had finally had enough. On a local radio station, Lowe described Burke as a "moron," an "underachieving wanna-be in terms of success in the NHL" and "pathetic." "He won a Stanley Cup? Great. I've won six Stanley Cups, if you want to count rings?" Lowe said. "Here's a fact -- he left (former Canucks GM) Dave Nonis nothing in Vancouver. Nothing. He destroyed that team. If it wasn't for Nonis' incredible deals -- to con Mike Keenan to get (Roberto) Luongo in Vancouver -- that team was taking a nose dive two years ago." Who needs the Hatfields and McCoys?
