Koivu is a great signing by GM Bob Murray. At $3.5 million a year (let me remind you that is .5 million cheaper than we got Todd Bertuzzi for) we should be thanking Murray for the steal he just got away with. That should enhance our offense enough to be able to get past Detroit, Chicago and the other Western powerhouses. However, there still remains a void in our defense. Do we try for what D is out there? A Zubov, Bergeron or someone else that can be a top 4 defenseman?
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Updated Hockey news and moves:
Anaheim Ducks: as of today the Ducks have traded Chris Pronger in return for Lupul and Scbisa, or something like that. Anyhow, sad to see Prongs go, but I think he’s not fitting into what the Ducks need now. When the Ducks won the cup, brutal force was the way to go; teams adjusted and now can defend against that so its back to the drawing board which has scoring and speed written on it. Also, late today the Ducks re-signed Erik (Spell) Christiansen to a one year deal along with Troy Bodie.
Updated: Scott and Teemu both returning to Ducks for 1 more year. Also, Teemu has notified the Ducks he will retire after that making this upcoming season his retirement tour!
Flames: Jay Bouwmeester was the biggest name being tossed around draft day as the hot property everyone wanted (before the Pronger trade happened out of no where). So now Calgary has “THE” man of the hour and maybe a renewed sense of being.
Rangers/Kings: The Rangers got the rights to Brian Boyle, a good hard nosed player that I thought worked well for the Kings, but I think they have other plans.
The Kings made a splash by not only signing Defense man Rob Scuderi and now Ryan Smith. Look for L.A. to break its playoffs drought this season.
Penguins: In the first feel good story of the off season, Bill Guerin took a hometown discount to remain with the Penguins, making Hossa look like scum, and letting his team know he’s ready to repeat!
Jaws 2: Rob Blake is going to give it one more try and see if San Jose knows the way to the cup. He signed for 1 year.
Devils: Johnny Oduya re-signed with NJ. Why is this significant? Someone somewhere had him listed as a potential Ducks deal, but low and behold, no dice. Ducks won’t be doing Oduya.
The other Jonas: GUSTAVSSON that is, won’t pick a team until…after July 1st. Why? Make a bigger splash! He’s the most sought after rookie goalie, and as of now everyone and their mother think he’s headed to Toronto.
Le Big Mac: In one of today’s biggest stories, the NY Rangers made a 6 player trade with Montreal that sent Scott Gomez packing to the Canadians! There were 5 other players involved but only care to notice Scott so there.
The biggest Non-Trade today: Heatley was traded, then not traded, then might be traded tomorrow to the Edmonton Oilers! In a deal that supposedly will send Dustin “It’s my fault contracts are so expensive” Penner and a few other bums to Ottawa in return for Heatley and some souvenirs! This deal was apparently finalized tonight around 5 p.m. PST, but then something happened and Heatley hasn’t officially agreed to being traded, so the world is holding its collective breath tonight for some sort of conclusion tomorrow…stay tuned. FYI: Heatley still in limbo.
Possible deals: I’m hearing that Havlat and Gaborik are going to be L.A. Kings tomorrow which I think will definitely spice things up for L.A. and make them a playoff contender this upcoming season. Updated: Gaborik signed with Montreal, and Havlat signed with Minny-sota!
Koivu: This is the rumor that won’t die. Apparently the Canadians have declined to offer Koivu and offer which would make him available tomorrow, which for some reason means he’ll come to Anaheim. Hey, I’ll take him, but first let’s see if this rumor is true. Updated: As more time goes by, the reality of Koivu coming to Anaheim seems more likely.
Sedins: This is another story that will be huge once it’s finalized. Vancouver made the Sedins an offer, which apparently they did not accept. The other rumored teams involved trying to sign the twins? Montreal and Toronto. Is it just me, or are all the Canadian teams stock piling players? Is this the year Canada gets the cup? Updated: The twins stay in Vancouver!
Hossa: According to what I’ve read, he turned down a multi year deal with Detroit, and may be headed to Edmonton. Updated: Hossa has cursed the Chicago Black hawks for the next 12 years! Hope it wasn’t a NTC!
Beaucheman: This guy is still without a team! I can not, for the life of me, understand why anybody has not swept this guy off his feet yet. The last thing I read, was that the Kings and Frankie were a year apart on terms.
Finally there is suppose to be a major three way deal on Monday involving the Hawks, Sharks and Maple Leafs, and the only clues that were given were that two goalies were involved and also a NTC. (WTF?)
Again, these are the deals that are of interest to me, so don’t message me saying I left so and so out. I’m aware of that. More updates as they happen.
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With the draft and July 1 out of the way, we can almost look back and evaluate how GM Bob Murray did. I like Bob Murray’s move a lot. I was very afraid that when Burke left we would fall apart one trade at a time, but this is not the case.
I still see some holes in the organization, but I expect those to be filled in good time. Let’s take a look at some of the movements so far.
The Draft: I’m not talking about the players traded because we will get to that. We selected 2 in the first round and another five in day two of the draft. We won’t see the immediate effects of the draft take place because the Ducks players tend to stay in development a little longer than other teams bring up their drafted players. Example, Jack Johnson, Anze Kopitar and Sidney Crosby all drafted the same year as Bobby Ryan. Bobby Ryan has developed wonderfully because of the patience he and Brian Burke went through to spend time raising fitness, skill and maturity in the minors as well as other leagues. I don’t think we will see an immediate effect on the franchise, but I like who we drafted and the positions they play.
The Pronger trade: While we will miss Pronger on the blue line very much, I don’t think we will miss the reputation that goes along with him. While sending Prongs out to Philly, we received fan favorite Joffrey Lupul as well as Luca Sbisa and a couple of 1st round draft picks, one for this year and one for next. Lupul was great for the franchise and its been so bittersweet to watch him play for other teams and not do as well as he did with the Ducks. My most fond memory of Lupul was the Playoff game in Colorado in 2005 when the score was Avalanche 3- Lupul 4. He will bring some secondary scoring that we need badly. I can’t say much about Sbisa because I don’t know too much about him. Lupul likes him and he was a first round pick, so I am good. Pronger has done so well for us as fans and as a team (Stanley Cup anyone?) so I know he will be missed.
Selanne and Scott Niedermayer: Aren’t we glad to have these two back for sure. And before the season started, even by the draft! So with those two under contract, we will have the veteran leadership and skill needed to prepare our other teammates for following seasons.
Projected Lines:
Offense
Getzlaf – Ryan – Perry
Lupul – Selanne – (to sign)/Christensen
Ebbett – Carter – Christensen/ Nokelainen
Parros – Brown – (to sign)/Bodie
Defense
S. Niedermayer – Brookbank
Whitney -Wisniewski
Sbisa – Festerling.
Goalies
1A Hiller
1B Giguere
I think the other good thing about the Pronger trade was that it doesn’t force us to trade Giguere away right away. Apparently he has given Murray a short list of teams of he wouldn’t mind being traded too. I suggest we hold on to him until at least pre season. We let him come into training camp, compete for the spot and if Hiller does fine we can get more for him, but I think that having those two in net dramatically increase our changes for winning a cup again.
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