The Score.ca's NHL Weekly Notebook
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Roughly two weeks into the free agent period, we round up the top remaining free agents (as of July 13), and take a look at what's buzzing around the 30 NHL cities...
AVALANCHE
After cutting some payroll and bringing on a bit of a youth movement, new Avs GM Francois Giguere has been busy plugging some holes deep in the depth chart, and fishing for diamonds in the rough along the way. None of Mark Rycroft, Ben Guite, or Matt Murley will make an offensive impact this season, if ever. Rycroft may prove valuable defensively. Third string goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik, after a decent run in Colorado last season, has signed to play in Russia this year.
BLACKHAWKS
Last week we reported the 'Hawks as being strangely quiet, for a team with so many weaknesses. They must have been saving up for a mighty roar, because they sure changed the face of their team this week! Big left winger Mark Bell was shipped to San Jose in a three-way deal with Ottawa that brings potential superstar left winger Martin Havlat to the Windy City, along with two-way stud Bryan Smolinski. Chicago's questionable offense suddenly has a scary element to it. They also locked up newcomer Tony Salmelainen, as well as youngster Patrick Sharp to two-year deals, and brought in a third-line center in Denis Arkhipov, who had played last season in Russia.
BLUE JACKETS
All GM Doug McLean did this week was sign backup goaltender Ty Conklin to a contract, and re-sign their waiver-wire steal from last year Ron Hainsey for two years. Conklin will provide a challenge to fellow newcomer Fredrik Norrena. The two of them will battle it out for the right to play behind youngster Pascal Leclaire, with the loser becoming the starter in Syracuse (AHL).
BLUES
After a week in which the Blues locked up some big name unrestricted free agents Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, Petr Cajanek, and Jay McKee, they were suddenly quite silent. First overall draft pick in 2006 Erik Johnson made official his intention to play college hockey this year, leaving the Blues with a roster that is spotty, but seems complete nonetheless. Going with an unproven goaltending tandem in Curtis Sanford and Jason Bacashihua may prove to be a mistake.
BRUINS
Boston has made perhaps the biggest impact on the free agent market this summer, but it certainly was not because of this past week. Adding a small, but offensively-talented winger in Chris Collins will add some scoring punch to their AHL affiliate Providence, and he'll serve as a fine injury stand-in on a top scoring line with the big club. Mark Mowers was added to provide depth to the checking line.
CANADIENS
Tied with Chicago as the quietest team in the NHL this summer, the Habs continued to ride Chicago's coattails in the noise department by coming out with a mighty roar of their own. Dishing off Richard Zednik to Washington and replacing him with Mike Johnson from Phoenix were tiny moves compared to the signing of the most talented free agent still left on the market. Sergei Samsonov will now line up on the top line with Saku Koivu and Alexei Kovalev to form a formidable troika. They also re-signed some key youngsters in Chris Higgins, Mike Komisarek, and Mike Ribeiro, as well as backup goalie David Aebischer.
CANUCKS
Problem: Vancouver is in desperately need of scoring from the right side, yet they have eaten much of the payroll in the re-signing of Roberto Luongo and the Sedin twins, pushing former Canuck right winger Anson Carter out of their price range. Solution: Sign Marc Chouinard? While that certainly can't be the answer to their problem, Chouinard was brought on board to add offense to the third or possibly second line as a winger, or take up his usual position at center (although Vancouver already has three pivots in place, and they brought in Tommi Santala earlier to fill the void on the fourth line). The Canucks will be in a lot of trouble if they don't solve that right winger problem by October.
CAPITALS
In looking for a potential skilled right winger to fit in on the Alexander Ovechkin line, the Caps turned to an old friend. Richard Zednik was picked up from Montreal for a draft pick. Zednik got his start in the NHL in Washington, and was drafted by them in 1994 (249th overall). His career high is 50 points in a season, and the Slovak will certainly top that if he even gets a sniff of Ovechkin's line.
COYOTES
Phoenix had an abundance of second-line players on their team, and not enough first-line players. They cleared up some of the logjam (and freed up some salary in the process) by trading winger Mike Johnson to Montreal for a draft pick. Their lineup becomes a little more set, and they have lots of salary room to make the necessary changes during the regular season.
DEVILS
After pushing their salary to the brink of the cap with the re-signing of Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner, and with the knowledge that they would soon shell out the dough for rearguard Colin White, the Devils know that they need to fill any remaining holes as cheaply as they can. Enter Michael Rupp, a former New Jersey depth player who will be back to fill the same role.
DUCKS
After landing superstar defenseman Chris Pronger, Anaheim fans would be happy if they did nothing else this summer. However, GM Brian Burke will usher Stanislav Chistov back into the lineup, signing him to a two-year deal after Chistov's self-imposed banishment to the Russian League last season. The enigmatic Russian has offensive upside, but after a strong NHL rookie campaign, Chistov faded in year two and wasn't overly impressive in his AHL and Russian League stints either.
FLAMES
GM Darryl Sutter opened some eyes upon announcing that he was stepping down as head coach. Assistant coach Jim Playfair will take over, and bring with him a looser dressing room and a marginally more offensive style of play. Calgary also secured the services of Jamie McLennan, who will act as backup goaltender to star Miikka Kiprusoff.
FLYERS
GM Bob Clarke, under a bit of a cap crunch, has spent the summer adding a lot of cheap bodies that will ride the carousel on and off the third and fourth lines. Players such as Randy Robitaille, Mark Cullen, Marty Murray, and Brad Tapper will not be the answer to a Stanley Cup, but they will provide depth and skill on the lower lines. Last Friday, the Flyers locked up youngster R.J. Umberger.
HURRICANES
Carolina has absolutely no depth up front, and this week they added a former Atlanta fourth round pick in Pat Dwyer (116th overall in 2002). A little on the small side, Dwyer will likely serve as an injury reserve for the NHL squad, but a big contributor to the AHL squad in Lowell. The Hurricanes will likely continue to restock all three forward positions with depth players throughout the summer.
KINGS
The Kings may be trying to find a diamond in the rough when they signed undrafted, but former NCAA All-Star Gabe Gauthier. A short, but stocky pivot, Gauthier finished fourth in scoring for the University of Denver behind the likes of San Jose rookie Matt Carle and Colorado prospect Paul Stastny. Los Angeles also added depth defenseman Kevin Dallman to the mix.
LIGHTNING
Tampa Bay is quite happy with their four lines up front, it's the back half that they want to fix. In adding netminder Marc Denis, they have solidified their goaltending. So they have set their sights on their defensemen. They have lost several defensemen, for one reason or another, and added Filip Kuba a week ago. This past week, the veteran Luke Richardson and youngster Doug Janik signed up. With the price the Lightning paid to keep their forwards, you can see when looking at their group on the back end where the extra money was found.
MAPLE LEAFS
After rumors galore involving the Maple Leafs and several prominent free agents, all that Toronto fans have to show for it is a couple of re-signings. Young grinder Ben Ondrus was locked up for two years, and constant-enigma Nik Antropov was signed for one. In just getting a one-year contract, Antropov will be eligible for unrestricted free agency next year. Maybe playing for what could potentially be a big raise will motivate the lanky Kazak.
OILERS
Scrambling to rebuild a defense corps that was decimated simply by losing one player (of course, that one player is Chris Pronger, but he's still just one man!), Edmonton aggressively traded for prospect Jan Hejda from Buffalo, and then wasted no time at all in signing the big Czech. At 28, he'll be ready to join the lineup immediately, albeit as a No.5 or 6 rearguard.
PANTHERS
GM Mike Keenan spent the week attempting to lock up his restricted free agents, and was successful in signing power-forward-in-waiting Nathan Horton, along with depth defenseman Steve Montador. Keenan also grabbed 28-year-old Finnish rearguard Ari Vallin, who has yet to play in the NHL, but may be ready to step in immediately.
PENGUINS
Pittsburgh is fairly weak on both wings, and this past week saw nothing changing in that department. Or any department, for that matter, as new GM Ray Shero was silent. In fact, other than the signing of Jarkko Ruutu, Shero has been silent all summer. Penguin fans are hoping their new GM is not gun-shy, just patient.
PREDATORS
Another team that was silent this week, but they made all the noise they needed to earlier with the signing of Jason Arnott. Blue-chip prospect Alexander Radulov's arrival will likely not be very silent in the fall, either. The Preds have built one of the strongest teams in the NHL, and they will likely head to camp with the team as it is now.
RANGERS
New York fell apart in the first round of the playoffs last year, and it exposed a huge need: veteran, stable leadership. Does Brendan Shanahan fit the bill? Um... yes. And then some. The Rangers won the much-hyped Shanahan sweepstakes, locking up the 37-year-old 40-goal scorer for this season. Coming off his best year since 1997, Shanny adds grit, leadership, and offense to a lineup needing all of the above.
RED WINGS
While other teams wheel their shopping carts up and down the aisles of the free agent supermarket, Detroit continues to find the shelves cleared of all the merchandise that they wanted by the time they get there. What they are left with is the same team that they had last year, minus Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, and Manny Legace. This week they managed to re-sign Daniel Cleary and Brett Lebda, but no new pieces have been added.
SABRES
The Sabres are too busy wading through all their restricted free agents to worry about any unrestricted ones. More players are without contracts, than with, and there is also a long list of said players ready to go to arbitration. GM Darcy Regier is chipping away at the pile, however, locking up goaltender Martin Biron, rearguard Brian Campbell, and tough guy Andrew Peters.
SENATORS
Shaken up after watching defensive stud Zdeno Chara walk out of Ottawa without the Sens getting anything in return, GM John Muckler would be darned if he let something like that happen again. Good-bye Martin Havlat. In trading Havlat, along with Bryan Smolinski, the Sens shored up their defense in acquiring offensive rearguard Tom Preissing, and restocked the shelves with Josh Hennessy and Michal Barinka. They also re-signed backup goaltender Ray Emery, and depth forward Jeff Heerema. The Ottawa roster looks quite a bit different from last year, but is still highly-skilled, and flush with talented prospects in the system.
SHARKS
Cha-ching! That's what Jonathan Cheechoo was thinking when San Jose picked up Joe Thornton last fall. And after winning the Rocket Richard Trophy on the strength of 56 goals, Cheechoo was certainly correct. Now it's Mark Bell's turn to say "Cha-ching", after his trade from Chicago to the Sharks. The big winger will line up on the left side of Thornton and Cheechoo, and he is exactly the player GM Doug Wilson was looking for to play in that spot. The Sharks will now boast the most formidable line in the NHL.
STARS
Dallas seems to be easing into a rebuilding phase. They are unwilling to jump into the free agent market with both feet, and seem ready and willing to give the youngsters a chance. At the same time, they are hanging onto veteran stalwarts like Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, Stu Barnes, and Jere Lehtinen. The rebuilding process will be slow this way, and the Stars are hoping they can pull it off without missing the playoffs.
THRASHERS
Bet you didn't think that CSI: Miami star David Caruso could play hockey. Well, the Thrashers signed Caruso as further insurance between the pipes. Okay, maybe he's not that Caruso. Regardless, he'll be the No. 5 goalie in the system. Don't laugh, four goalies wasnât enough last fall, as the Thrashers went through injury after injury in that position.
WILD
After making moves to fix up their offense, which was lacking in the new NHL -- particularly in the second half -- Minnesota now focuses on tweaking their depth. Last week they added Branko Radivojevic, who adds some two-way skills to the third line.
