Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.43

www.afootinthecrease.com

July 1st signaled the beginning of open season on the NHL’s free agent market bringing with it, the busiest week of the year in terms of player movement. For talent hungry GM’s, the time had come to hunt down their players and make their moves. With all the dollars being thrown around this past week, a number of players became very rich. For us whose job it is to report on all this action, I frankly become quite desensitized to just how much money this is when I read this guy gets $30 million and that guy gets $50 million. I’d like just one of those millions but that’s a whole other issue.

Naturally with lots of movement comes winners and losers in the NHL’s silly season. By signing Daniel Briere, Kimo Timonen and Scott Hartnell and adding Scottie Upshall, Joffery Lupul, Ryan Parent, Jason Smith and Martin Biron through trades, Philadelphia could experience a Penguins-like turnaround next season. Mark the Flyers as the big winners. The Rangers big signings in Drury and Gomez should improve them as well. If the Leafs can stay healthy, they should be a playoff team this year. Keep in mind with a weaker roster and numerous injuries, the Leafs only missed by one point. Consider the Islanders, Devils and most of all the Sabres to be the big losers. They will be but a shadow of their former selves next season.

In the west, replacement not improvement was the name of the game. Anaheim is likely to lose Niedermayer and Selanne to retirement so Brian Burke replaces them with Schneider and Bertuzzi. Detroit loses Schneider to Anaheim so Ken Holland fills his shoes with Rafalski. Colorado and LA should be better next year after making splashes of their own but not to the same extent as teams from the East. Undoubtedly some of these major signings will turn out to be busts, but with nothing but dollars standing in the way of potential improvement, how can you blame GM’s for getting out their cheque books. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.