Loading ...NHL Free Agency Part 6
Ah, the season is almost upon us. Soon, the sounds of hockey will be in the air, as players will be skating, fighting, hitting, passing and shooting their way to glory. It’s a sublime time of year. However, first thing’s first: Before the puck drops, it’s time to do another (perhaps final) roundup of the league’s free-agent movement, and this week’s topic will be the interesting Northwest Division, as there’s plenty to talk about.
No, you're not seeing double. We're both equally good.
Vancouver Canucks: I hate to pat myself on the back, but at the beginning of the summer I predicted that the Sedin Twins would stay put in Vancouver, and I was of course, correct. Really, where else would they possibly go? There’s no way that the city would let them go or else they would be completely sunk. They’re the cornerstone of the franchise. Considering the frailty of Pavol Demitra, and the indecision of the now Brett-Favre-esque Mats Sundin, Vancouver needs the twins to provide the bulk of their offense. However, the team didn’t stop with the re-signing of Daniel and Henrik. They re-signed stellar goalie Roberto Luongo for twelve years, so that position is all locked up. (Incidentally, I don’t understand the new age of ridiculously long contracts. They’re recipes for disaster. Just ask the New York Islanders, but more on that later.) They also signed capable backup Andrew Raycroft just in case something happens to their franchise goalie. Additionally, they stole underrated forward Mikael Samuelsson from Detroit and re-signed D-man Shane O’Brien. O’Brien isn’t a household name, but he’s still a solid stay-at-home backliner. They did lose Mattias Ohlund to Tampa Bay, but don’t worry. Vancouver also signed the aging but still relevant Mathieu Schneider, and gave some draft picks to San Jose for Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich, so they’re loaded at defense. Including the emergence of hated forwards Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows, look for the Canucks to make major noise this year. They had a nasty playoff series with Chicago last season, and while I’m sticking with my Chicago boys, anything could happen as far as who comes out of the West this year.
Calgary Flames: The Flames made their biggest acquisition at the draft this year when they made a trade with Florida for star defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Many may be familiar with the young backliner’s offensive talent, but he never saw his full potential realized while struggling with Florida’s lackluster squad. Behind a relatively strong defense, look for Bouwmeester’s +/- to jump exponentially this year, making him a top 10 D-man. He’ll also have his former teammate in Florida, Olli Jokinen, at center for a full year to help out the offense. Jokinen looks feisty in camp this season, even engaging in a fight. It looks like linemate Jarome Iginla is rubbing off on him. Of course, the other big story in Calgary is the aging and diminutive Theo Fleury getting a second chance at life. Folks may remember Fleury getting bounced from the league a handful of years ago due to drug problems, but now at 41 years of age, is being offered another shot at making the club. Now, I’m certainly not a big believer in this move. If we’ve learned anything from San Jose’s Claude Lemieux experiment, it’s that there’s no place for geriatric forwards who haven’t played at the NHL level in years. It’s simply a much different league now. However, having said that, if there IS anyone who could make a comeback like this, it’s Theo. In his heyday, Fleury was a superstar and a fast one at that. I have my doubts, but he may just help a team that I feel is a bit limited in the depth department, but it will be in a limited capacity. However, anything is possible for the Flames when they have Miikka Kiprusoff as their goalie. He’s never mentioned in the same breath as Brodeur and Luongo, but he should be.
Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers are sporting a touch of a new look this season. They have some solid, young talent up front, and with the addition of Nikolai Khabibulin in goal, the Oil could do some damage. Even at 36, Khabibulin is an upgrade over Dwayne Roloson. Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky and Sheldon Souray for a full year (one each lost to injury in the past two seasons), and they’ll also have talented forward Patrick O’Sullivan for a full year from a late-season, three-team trade with Carolina and L.A. Additionally, they recently signed Mike Comrie from Ottawa to a deal. Now, I think Comrie is a complete fraud, and I think it’s now too late in his career for the well-traveled forward to be relevant. He should just stick to carousing with Hilary Duff. However, who knows? He might be able to help youngsters Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano at forward who The Hockey News are predicting big point jumps from this season. Hey, the St. Louis Blues miraculously made the playoffs last season, so anything is possible.
Mike Comrie: "Please step aside. I may suck, but my wife is hot."
Minnesota Wild: The big signing for the Wild this off-season was the luring of right-winger Martin Havlat from Chicago to replace the loss of Marian Gaborik. As far as Minnesota is concerned, this move makes little sense to me. Granted, Havlat is almost a point-per-game player WHEN HE PLAYS. Considering all the problems the Wild had with Gaborik, never knowing when he was going to play, I’m dumbfounded as to why they would take a chance on the equally-made-of-glass Havlat. However, maybe it doesn’t really matter. Minnesota is primarily a defensive squad even though new coach Todd Richards has claimed he’s going to let his boys roam a little freer. Additionally, they recently acquired Petr Sykora who became an afterthought in Pittsburgh last season. Sykora underperformed last year, but he’s a good fit in Minnesota and should help their offense. They also claimed steady D-man Greg Zanon from Nashville who should bolster their already decent crew. The Wild could squeak into the playoffs this year.
Colorado Avalanche: Once upon a time, Colorado was one of the kings of the Western Conference. Now, they’re sadly in the rebuilding phase. The retirement of first-ballot Hall of Famer Joe Sakic is really going to hurt them. However, it’s time for young gun Paul Stastny to take over the team. Stastny is going to be just as good as his dad Peter was, but it’s going to be some time before he gets some help. The club started getting him assistance over the summer, trading gritty forward Ryan Smyth to L.A. for defensemen Kyle Quincey and Tom Preissing. This is a tremendous upgrade on D for the Avs, but after that there’s not much. They also snatched semi-capable goalie Craig Anderson from Florida, and he will challenge Peter Budaj for the starting job, which should light a fire under Budaj and that would be a good thing for the team… about the only good thing.
Mike Comrie looks like the type of guy who would go see Nikki Benz at The Oasis-a little creepy and little sad at the same time. He needs to focus.