NHL Transaction Madness Through 7/9

I’m just going to go over a few of the key free agent signings in the past week or so and talk about the relative impact for their teams.  I’ll also talk about some the big names that are still out there that could be good for our Boston Bruins.  Since the North East division has been kind of beefed up this offseason, I expect Chiarelli to make some kind of move for a forward or two.  Let’s get into the free agent madness though:

C Olli Jokinen – 2 years, $9M, from Calgary to Winnipeg

The 33-year-old Jokinen will be entering his 13^th NHL season this year with the Jets.  This is a pretty devastating loss for Calgary in my opinion because of the impact it will have on Jarome Iginla.  The Jokinen-Iginla 1-2 punch in Calgary had always been a great scoring combination, but once again Jokinen will be playing somewhere else.  The Jets have been having a pretty good offseason now after signing crafty center Ponikarovsky from the Devils and now Jokinen.  I predict Winnipeg’s first line consisting of the 20 year old Evander Kane (who had a breakout 57 point season last year), Jokinen and Blake Wheeler (who had 64 points last season).  I think that Jokinen will definitely bring Kane’s game up with him in Winnipeg next year, and there’s no doubt that the members of this line will all exceed 60 points next season.  Great move for the Jets, they’re going to have tremendous offensive depth next season.

LW Jiri Hudler – 4 years, $16M, from Detroit to Calgary

Nasty

Calgary lost Jokinen, but acquired Hudler who is coming off of a 50-point season in Detroit.  The 28-year-old has a great two-way game and can score, pass, play on the power play and penalty kill.  He also has some nasty dangles… check out his shootout videos on YouTube! When it comes down to it, he's a utility guy who will do whatever Calgary asks him to do.  I expect that he’ll stay behind Alex Tanguay on the depth chart only because of Jarome Iginla’s chemistry value with Tanguay, but he should be able to have a 40-50 point season with Calgary.  Despite being a little pricy, the 4-year contract will ensure strength at left wing for the Flames.

RW Jaromir Jagr – 1 year, $4.55M, from Philadelphia to Dallas

The Salute!

Yay! I can stop hating Jagr now that he’s no longer on the Flyers! Awesome move by Dallas, Jagr is well worth the price. Dallas has been having an incredible offseason so far with acquisitions including Derek Roy, Ray Whitney and now Jaromir Jagr. Jagr gives you physical play with added scoring and veteran experience.  Jamie Benn, Loui Eriksson, Michael Ryder and Ray Whitney are all 60+ point scorers for the Dallas Stars. Then you throw Derek Roy (44 points) and Jagr (54 points) in the mix and you’ve got yourself 2 exceptional lines of offensive production.  If Kari Lehtonen plays at the same level he did last season I believe the Stars have a good chance of making the playoffs.  Watch out for Dallas, they’ve got a lot of talent on the offensive end and two new old guys who will make everyone else look silly!

LW Steve Sullivan – 1 year, $1.85M, from Pittsburgh to Phoenix

This was definitely an attempt to fill the void left by Ray Whitney in Phoenix. The 38-year-old utility forward will be going into his 16^th season next year and brings a veteran presence plus leadership to Phoenix.  Phoenix had an incredible run last year, making it to the Western Conference Finals and giving the LA Kings a bit of a scare after winning two straight to come back 3-2 in the series.  However, with the loss of the Coyotes leading goal scorer, Ray Whitney, I’m not sure they will be the same team they were last year.  While Steve Sullivan is a guy who can put up between 40 and 50 points a season, he’s no Ray Whitney.  However, the Coyotes are a fairly young team (average age of 27 years old, not including goalies) and maybe Sullivan will have a bigger impact than I think in Phoenix.  He also knows how to play with superstar players like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.  This is a more important intangible than most people think.  All in all, however, I don’t see Phoenix having the same success that they did last year.

D Jason Garrison – 6 years, $27.6M, from Florida to Vancouver

Why the Canucks, Jason… Why?!

Curse you Canucks! Why do you take away the guy that I wanted to join the Bruins? So the ‘Nucks drop Aaron Rome and pick up Jason Garrison.  Not bad… but worth a $4.6M cap hit every year? No way! I think Garrison was way overpaid for.  While the 27-year-old Garrison did score 16G and 17A last year, I don’t think he’ll continue to put up those numbers for the next 6 years.  Maybe I’m wrong though… he did have a fantastic year last year running the Panthers power play and had the third most goals as a defenseman in the NHL last year.  He can also hit and play solid defense. He’s a physical defenseman with a wicked slap shot and a high hockey IQ.  Will he continue to score like he did last year though? Doubtful. Maybe I’m just bitter that the Canucks got him instead of us… At least they overpaid him and lost that cap space, I guess?

I also wanted to include that the Nashville ‘Messiah,’ Alexander Radulov, is headed back to the KHL for another 4 years.  The kid can score, there’s no doubt about that, but the lack of effort and poor attitude landed him back in the KHL.  He applied no defensive pressure whatsoever and had a terrible playoff run with the Preds.  Hopefully more time in Russia will help his two-way game.

Radulov's Defense…

By the way, if you're reading this wondering, "Where the hell is the Parise/Suter coverage?!" read a little further back in the blog and you'll find it.  Follow me at @bearbluni and follow the blog on @SportsBlaggah for more NHL transaction news.

NHL Transaction Madness Through July 1st

Before we get into everything happening in the NHL, let's quickly recap what's been happening with out Boston Bruins

Bostonians Resigning:

G Tuukka Rask – 1 year, $3.5M

C Chris Kelly – 4 years, $12M

C Gregory Campbell – 3 years, $4.8M

LW Daniel Paille – 3 years, $3.9M

New Bostonians:

LW Chris Borque – 2 years, $1.1M from Washington

Bostonians Moving On:

D Greg Zanon – 2 year, $4.5M to Colorado

LW Benoit Pouliot – 1 year, $1.8M to Tampa Bay

D Joe Corvo – 1 year, $2M to Carolina (THANK GOD!)

OK.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go over some of the key signings from the past few days.  I don’t really want to talk about teams resigning players because it’s not nearly as exciting to me – so all of these transactions that I’ll be discussing are big players moving to a new team.  And, again, these are just going to be little tidbits about the big moves happening right now. I’m actually on vacation – and if I were to go in depth about all of these moves I would be missing out on a life.  Yes, contrary to popular belief I actually have a life.

 

G Tomas Vokoun – 2 years, $4M, from Washington to Pittsburgh

As we all saw in last year’s playoffs, Fleury’s play can be a little inconsistent.  The signing of Vokoun is huge for the Pens who will have added depth in between the pipes and will always have Fleury forced to prove himself as a starter.  This pressure may force Fleury to step up his game and play better and more consistently down the stretch.  Great move for the Penguins, at an affordable price.

D Dennis Wideman – 5 years, 26.25M, from Washington to Calgary

Good for Wideman! That’s a pretty hefty contract!  Glad to see a Boston guy do well elsewhere.  The guy had a great season with Washington and was voted to his first All-Star game.  Last season he had 8G, 35A, 46P while averaging nearly 24 minutes of ice time per game.  I wonder if he’ll end up pairing with Bouwmeester? That’d be fun to watch!

RW Brandon Prust - 4 years, $10M, from NYR to Montreal

Man oh man; this is going to spice up the Boston-Montreal rivalry for sure. Prust is a grinding enforcer who will bring energy and veteran leadership to the Habs.  Ranger fans have been crying on twitter all day about him leaving.  Last year he had 5G, 12A, 17P and 156PIM in 82 games.  He will bring some fourth line production and major enforcement.  His tough and gritty play style is exactly what Montreal needs after a soft season.  Also, $2.5M a year ain’t bad for a 4^th liner eh?!

RW Pierre Parenteau – 4 years, $16M, from New York Islanders to Colorado

Damn, this upset me.  I wanted Chiarelli to go after PA, but Colorado got to him first.  We’ll see what kind of damage he can do alongside Matt Duchene this year in Colorado.  The Avalanche top line just got a lot scarier.  I keep saying that Parenteau is an underrated top 6 forward who can bring scoring and power play success and quite frankly I think he earned his contract after his last two seasons on Long Island.  The 1-2 punch from Parenteau to Duchene will be beautiful to watch next year.  You heard it first from me.

LW Ray Whitney – 2 years, $9M, from Phoenix to Dallas

Here’s a little confession, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Dallas Stars because of my love for Mike Modano.  Seeing a great player like the Wizard shipping off to Dallas made me smile.  He’s 40 years old but shows no signs of slowing down.  Last season he had 24G, 53A, 77P and a +26 rating for the Coyotes.  Yeah, he’s 40 years old!  Good move by Dallas to pick him up for 2 years. While expensive, Whitney will bring leadership and top 6 scoring to Dallas.  I’d really like to see him play with former Bruin forward Michael Ryder next season.  Hopefully he can help Ryder develop into a premier sniper in the NHL.

 

D Filip Kuba – 2 years, $8M, from Ottawa to Florida

All of my friends from Ottawa are really upset about losing Kuba.  I think Florida picked him up to fill Jason Garrison’s skates, which means he won’t be signing back with the Panthers. Chiarelli, pick him up!!! Last season Kuba had 6G, 24A for 32P with the Senators in 73 games.  4 million a year is a whole lot, can’t blame the guy for leaving.  He’ll bring 13 years of experience to the up-and-coming Panthers team as well. 

RW Arron Asham – 2 years, $2M, from Pittsburgh to NY Rangers

Not that big of a deal, just thought I should include it because this was clearly in response to losing Prust to Montreal.  Asham had 5G, 11A for 16P last year with the Penguin’s fourth line.  He also had 76 PIM.  Asham is a cheap, and smart, solution to losing Prust.  He will do well in Tortorella’s gritty system.

There is MUCH more to come in the next few days. Parise, Suter, Nash, they’re all on the move to somewhere.  I’ve heard from several NHL sources that Parise and Sutter are fielding offers from 20+ teams right now, and are expected to have answers in the next day or so.  Will the Bruins be one of those teams?  No, they will not. Chiarelli has repeatedly claimed that he intends to keep quiet during this free-agent frenzy because he believes the B’s have all of the necessary parts to win the Cup already.  I’m not sure I 100% agree with that, but he’s the GM not me.  I expect tomorrow to be an insane day in the NHL.  I’ll keep you all posted.