2009 NHL off-season trades, rumours, draft thread

to me it makes better sense than Komiserek's contract.

 

Not surprising, though. He was fantastic in the playoffs. You knew somebody was going to open the wallet for him and the Penguins just don't have the cap room to match it. I was hoping they could at least find a way to keep Gill to soften the blow a little.

 

Still some interesting UFAs available including: Kovalev, Koivu, Manny Fernandez, Afinogenov, Chad LaRose, Nick Boynton, Robert Lang, Tanguay, John Madden, Kevin Weekes, Mike Sillinger, Blair Betts, Paul Mara, Derek Morris, Mike Comrie, Martin Biron, Ruslan Fedotenko, Phillipe Boucher, Miroslav Satan, Marek Malik, Viktor Kozlov, Francois Beauchemin, Todd Marchant, Adrian Aucoin, Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Pecca, Mike York, Manny Maholtra, Darryl Sydor, Sergie Zubov, Mikael Samuelsson, Ales Kotalik, Derek Armstrong, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Martin Skoula, Radek Bonk, Vernon Fiddler, Mats Sundin.

 

Wow. I missed that Madden signing.

 

Gotta seriously wonder if the Blackhawks are now the best team in the division.

 

"Here come the 'Hawks, the mighty Blaaaaaaaaaaaackhawks..."
;D ;D ;D

Also a couple of interesting days in Atlanta, adding Kubina and Antropov.

Don't know how much those two will help, but it might be a nice step in the right direction to convincing Kovalchuk to stay beyond this year.

 

Could be enough to at least hold the fort down until the likes of Kane and Esposito are ready to make the jump and really contribute.

 

Blackhawks, and I love them dearly, are still not better than Detroit. They got better, especially with Madden as the defensive center for the whole season, but I don't see them catching Detroit. Maybe getting lucky in a seven-game series.

And their cap situation for next offseason is horrific. It's going to be either lose Kane or Keith or two good role players like Versteeg or Byfuglien.

 

They're not completely screwed. Hossa is less of a cap hit than Havlat, plus they dropped Khabibulan's big contract. Madden is only a one year deal, so they will have room to move to get Kane and Toews signed to similar $5 or 6 mil per deals.

 

If they sign Toews and Kane to $5 million each, and Keith to $3.5, that still puts them at about $49 million for 11 or 12 players. And then Seabrook hits RFA the year after that. (and that's not even including some lesser but still good guys like Barker who are RFAs too).

It's not the Hossa deal that's the problem, it's Campbell and Huet, but with the Campbell and Huet deals in place, I don't see how they think they can afford Hossa once their core young players start hitting free agency.

 

Aucoin signed with Phoenix.