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Last season was full of surprises in the Northeast Division. The Montreal Canadiens finished first after being expected to miss the playoffs. The Ottawa Senators crashed and burned instead of repeating their stirring run to the Stanley Cup Finals the year before.
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| The Canadiens are hoping Mats Sundin will hop from one Northeast team to another. (Getty Images) |
How much things shift this season is an open question, but no one in the division has made any dramatic moves as yet. In order of last season's finish, here's a graded look at what has transpired so far this summer.
Montreal Canadiens
The biggest news out of Montreal so far this summer has been the announcement that the team will host next spring's draft. It's going to be part of the franchise's centennial, an anniversary the team hopes to celebrate with a 25th Stanley Cup title.
Montreal believes that goal is in reach if it can land the missing piece it has been seeking so desperately since the trade deadline. That would be big center Mats Sundin, the former Toronto captain who has yet to decide if he even wants to continue his career. Montreal traded for his negotiating rights before the free-agent market opened, but to this point have failed to convince the 37-year-old to sign.
In the meantime, the Canadiens haven't stood still, trading for high-scoring but sometimes tentative forward Alex Tanguay and adding some muscle with enforcer Georges Laraque. Montreal also re-signed some key young players including Andrei Kostitsyn, who was targeted by the upstart new Russian league. Overall, the Canadiens probably has enough to repeat as division champs, but if they can land Sundin, the Habs might just be legitimate Cup contenders. Grade: B
Ottawa Senators
The Senators got rid of a really big headache when they bought out goalie Ray Emery, which means Ottawa also lost the most convenient excuse it had for falling apart last season.
But there have been several other changes for the Senators, who are fragile for other reasons and trying to get back on the track that took them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007. Most notable was the departure of defenseman Wade Redden, considered the anchor of the blue line not long ago. Veterans Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore also took the free-agent train out of town, and the Senators really haven't managed to fill all those voids yet, though former Flyers captain Jason Smith should be a good free-agent addition to the back end.
Ottawa signed agitator Jarkko Ruutu and backup goalie Alex Auld as well, but there will be as many question marks heading into the new season as there were when the last one ended. Grade: C
Boston Bruins
Boston really wanted to land Marian Hossa this summer, but the Bruins' megabucks offer couldn't compete with the allure of the Red Wings and their potential to win a Stanley Cup next season. So the B's turned to Michael Ryder, signing the former Montreal winger for $12 million over three years in a deal that still has a lot of folks shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. Ryder has scored 30 goals a couple of times, but he had only 14 last season in his contract year, which is enough to make anyone wonder.
Boston scored something of a coup by getting former high-school standout Blake Wheeler, a high first-round pick of Phoenix in 2005 who wouldn't sign with the Coyotes, although he probably needs some minor league time before making his debut in the Garden. The best news though for Boston though came when Patrice Bergeron, who missed almost all of last season because of a concussion, was able to take part in the team's rookie development camp last week. Grade: C-
Buffalo Sabres
Owner Tom Golisano, who once aspired to live in New York's governor's mansion, recently announced he was willing to dig deep into his pockets to support state candidates of either party who would support policies he favored. Too bad he isn't as generous with the team that has made him some serious money since he bought it out of bankruptcy a few years ago.
Golisano, for those who haven't noticed, doesn't like to pony up to keep or replace top players, though he keeps selling out its building. The most recent example is defenseman Brian Campbell, who was traded to San Jose at the deadline because he was due a big raise as a pending free agent, but the Sabres also let another solid defenseman in Dmitri Kalinin walk this summer.
Newcomer Craig Rivet is a decent addition to the back end and the signing of backup goalie Patrick Lalime will take some pressure off Ryan Miller. But after being real Cup contenders in the first two post-lockout seasons, the Sabres, who just announced their season-ticket renewal rate was 97 percent, continue to head in the other direction. Grade: D
Toronto Maple Leafs
Were they trying to give their fans the Finger? Nothing personal against Jeff Finger, who might be good enough to be a marginal fourth defenseman, but signing the former Colorado player with limited NHL experience to a four-year, $14 million deal qualifies as a bit of an insult to a long-suffering fan base when there were several other top-flight defensemen available.
Bringing back aging local favorite Curtis Joseph isn't enough to offset that. Then again, maybe it's all part of the plan to ensure Toronto gets the first overall pick next spring when John Tavares is available.
In the meantime, Toronto seems intent on shuffling the deck chairs, at least those they can. They have rid themselves of a couple of salary albatrosses in Darcy Tucker and Andrew Raycroft and brought in the aforementioned Finger, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers among other spare parts. It's going to be a trying season for Ron Wilson, the colorfully quotable new coach who might run out of things to say before long. Grade: D-
