Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.43

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Every year in the days leading up to unrestricted free agency on July 1st, the top free agent prizes are identified and then as sure as the sun will come up in the morning, all those top free agents are said to be bound for Toronto. However this time around, things seem to be much different.

This year’s unrestricted free agent class is a lot weaker than in previous years. Mats Sundin will be this year’s most coveted free agent and it seems like the only place he isn’t rumored to be going is Toronto. Other top free agents include Marian Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Kristin Huselius and Markus Naslund; none of which would I recommend general managers commit to for the long term or with significant dollars.

Many GM’s turn into kids in candy stores at free agency time: eager to spend their money on as much as possible but then end up wishing they hadn’t when they are left with queasy feelings. Look at Ryan Smyth, considered to be a top prize a year ago. While he had a decent year with 37 points in 55 games with the Avalanche last season, I highly doubt GM Francois Giguere is too pleased with a cap hit of $6.25 million for the next four seasons.

Mats Sundin notwithstanding, the Maple Leafs should go after none of these free agents. They will not be a good team next year and they probably will not be a good team the following year. Burdening themselves down with large, unwieldy contracts at this stage of the game would only hamper the rebuilding process, especially when there are still several players left remaining on the roster whose contracts the Maple Leafs are trying to get rid of.

A backup netminder? Fine. One or two serviceable and inexpensive skaters? Fine. $8 million dollars a season for four years to Marian Hossa? Forget it Cliff. Now is certainly not the time. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.42 - Ft. Matt Marquardt

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In less than two months, on what is considered a day of luck on the Chinese calendar, August 8th, 2008, or 08/08/08, the games of the 29th Olympiad will begin in Beijing, China in the year of the rat. In the hockey world though, after watching the success of the Anaheim Ducks a year ago, the Detroit Red Wings most recently and now the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, it is quite clearly the year of the defenseman.

Now more than ever, general managers are starting to realize the value of building a team around a strong core of defenseman. Brian Burke understood this when the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007 with a blueline that included the likes of future hall of fame defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer along with the rugged and reliable Francois Beauchemin. Ken Holland understood this when his Detroit Red Wings captured the 2008 Stanley Cup with a defense corps that boasted the likes of Nicklas Lidstrom, Bryan Rafalski, Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall.

In both examples, the defensive prowess was the strength of both of these Stanley Cup winning teams, always able to make a quality first pass to get the puck out of the defensive zone and rarely allowing opponents to get in position for a dangerous scoring opportunity.

Following the example of the past two Stanley Cup winners, other general managers around the league seem to be buying into the importance of solid defensemen as twelve of the first twenty seven picks in the 2008 Entry Draft were defensemen including four of the first five.

Only time will tell if Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian, Alex Pietrangelo, Luke Schenn and others will develop into the type of defensemen that the Ducks and Red Wings were so successful with but one thing is for sure, you can’t say GMs aren’t trying that route. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.41

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For the first time since the lockout three seasons ago, the NHL is facing another summer of transition. But unlike the dark abyss the league stared into as the game struggled to regain even the slightest foothold of interest in the United States following a return to action, this summer’s period of transition is indeed a much more positive one.

The television ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals in the US, while not staggering, were a considerable improvement over a year ago, returning close to pre lockout levels. This slight increase offers hope that perhaps hockey is slowing making its way onto the radar screen.

The best way for the NHL to continue this upward trend in American interest is to find a marketable superstar who becomes a recognizable name not only to hockey fans but as a cultural icon, somebody who makes hockey cool to watch, to play, to follow.

Alexander Ovechkin is quickly becoming that kind of superstar. He has single handedly turned Washington DC back into a hockey town since coming into the league and is easily the most popular athlete in the city in any sport. He loves the spotlight, never tires of talking about the game, possesses a certain endearing quality when he speaks and plays the game with the passion of a child. At times, I start to wonder if he would play for free if necessary.

Sidney Crosby is looked at by many as this marketable force, but unlike the passionate, spontaneous and carefree Ovechkin, Crosby is almost robotic in his approach to all business off the ice, lacking that compelling quality that makes Ovechkin stand out and forces viewers to take notice.

For the NHL, their players standing out (in a good way) is exactly what they want. Alex Ovechkin draws interest to the NHL for all the right reasons. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Wellwood Faces Summer of Rehab...Again

Kyle Wellwood’s plans of going through his first injury-free off season in recent memory hit a bump two weeks ago during an indoor soccer game. According to a report published in the Windsor Star, Wellwood injured his foot while playing indoor soccer as part of an off season training session.

"I was playing indoor soccer and it (my foot) sort of cracked," Wellwood commented in an interview with the Windsor Star.

Though he is expected to recover well in advance of training camp which opens in mid September, the injury does inevitably set back Wellwood’s off season training regiment where he had hope to drastically improve his fitness level in advance of next season.

After an impressive rookie campaign in 2005-2006 where Wellwood registered 45 points while competing in 81 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, his sophomore season was cut short. He managed appearances in only 48 games after suffering an abdominal injury that required surgery. Wellwood spent the better part of last summer recovering from that surgery to a point where both he and the Toronto Maple Leafs felt he would be able to regain the form he showed during the first season and a half of his NHL career.

That was not quite how things worked out though. Early in training camp before the 2007-2008 season, Wellwood required another minor surgery forcing him to miss the first month of the season. Throughout a lackluster and disappointing season, Wellwood’s conditioning was called into question as he struggled mightily during his third NHL campaign.

A restricted free agent as of July 1st, 2008, there are no guarantees that he will be back with the Maple Leafs for a fourth season. Wellwood will need to be extended a qualifying offer in order for the Maple Leafs to retain his rights. General Manager Cliff Fletcher will have to decide if he feels Wellwood is still an integral component to the Maple Leafs core group of young players that includes Matt Stajan, also a restricted free agent this off season, Alex Steen, Jiri Tlusty, Anton Stralman, Ian White and Carlo Colaiacovo.

However, with Jeremy Williams, a young player with scoring prowess who has been knocking on the big league door for the past few seasons and the highly touted Russian winger Nikolai Kulemin, both expected to get serious looks from the big club next season, even if Wellwood is back, a demotion to the Toronto Marlies may be in order.

The Maple Leafs are clearly not in a position to challenge for a Stanley Cup next season and as a result, they will likely rely more heavily on their contingent of youth next season in hopes of expediting their development at the NHL level. Wellwood will not just be allowed to coast through another season with a lot of young players eager for a shot with the big club.

If anything is for sure with Kyle Wellwood, an off season with much uncertainty just got a little bit cloudier.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.40 - Ft. Matt Stajan

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While many viewed the Pittsburgh Penguins as the understudy to the Detroit Red Wings on the NHL’s biggest stage this season, paying their dues before eventually rising to the top for years to come, do not expect this year’s big stars to just step aside next season, out of the way of the march of the Penguins. Unlike the Penguins who have several key players without contracts for next season and an even bigger problem a year from now when the contracts of Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal run out, the Red Wings have all their cornerstone players locked up.

Up front, only Dallas Drake, Darren McCarty, Aaron Downey and Mark Hartigan are facing a summer of unrestricted free agency. With all due respect none of these players would present a significant loss for the Red Wings should they not be resigned. Valtteri Filppula is a restricted free agent but should not be a problem for GM Ken Holland to get under contract. On defense, Brad Stuart is the only significant rearguard in need of a contract. Andres Lilja and Chris Chelios are also unrestricted free agents but neither are integral pieces of Detroit’s puzzle.

Dominik Hasek’s $2 million salary will be off the books next year as he is not likely to return leaving Holland with money for a more inexpensive backup netminder and extra to allocate where he sees fit. A year from now, the only players who will likely see significant pay raises will be Hendrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen. Other key members of the 2008 champs including Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Darren Helm, Nik Lidstrom, Nik Kronwall, Bryan Rafalski and Chris Osgood are all locked up as a group at least until the 2009-2010 campaign.

So while the Pittsburgh Penguins, with their staggering collection of young talent, may yet begin a Cup collection down the road, they may have to wait a few more years for the Detroit Red Wings to complete a Cup collection of their own. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.39 - Ft. Justin Hodgman

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Thirteen fantastic seasons in Toronto; ten of those as captain. During that time he reached countless personal milestones and set new marks for franchise records in goals and points. He has spent countless hours on humanitarian projects benefiting numerous charities around Toronto and handled himself always with dignity. However, despite all of his work and contributions to the Maple Leafs and the city of Toronto, Mats Sundin’s legacy will be determined by only one decision: the next one he makes.

Come back next season to the Maple Leafs, retire, or come back next season to play elsewhere. Those are the three options facing Sundin in the summer of 2008 and only one of those options will truly preserve his legacy in the hearts of Maple Leaf fans. After all of those aforementioned accomplishments and years of dedication and loyalty, you would think that Sundin has earned the right to do what he feels is best for him. But if he indeed cares about the way he is remembered in Toronto, unfortunately that just not the way it works in this city.

Should Sundin decide to retire, fans will wonder why he didn’t agree to be traded to take one last run at a Stanley Cup while yielding a strong crop of young talent with which the Maple Leafs could build around. Should Sundin decide to return next season with a team other than the Maple Leafs, fans will angrily wonder why Sundin did not agree to a trade at the trade deadline but suddenly decides to move on when it doesn’t benefit the Maple Leafs at all.

For Sundin, returning to the Maple Leafs next season is the only decision that will prevent him from being blackballed in the city that he has come to love. A harsh but true reality for still as of right now, the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.