NHL Free Agency begins
July 2nd, 2008
Whew, this is what I get for being out of the loop for a couple of days. It’s hard to even keep up!
Let’s see, we’ve got:
- Marian Hossa to Detroit, where he obviously wants to try to win a Cup from the other side of that equation.
- Michael Ryder to Boston, not surprisingly leaving the Habs for our arch-rivals.
- More surprisingly, the Habs also lost Mark Streit to the Islanders. Streit was one of the most valuable Habs last season, and I’m frankly stunned that Gainey didn’t make keeping him into a bigger priority.
- Rangers shit-disturber (and surprising fashionista) Sean Avery heads to Dallas.
- Wade Redden to the Rangers, taking one of the top D-men out of the free agency market.
- Brian Campbell to Chicago, taking care of the other.
- After being traded to the Caps in time for an inspiring playoff run, former Hab netminder Cristobal Huet is heading to Chicago to try to give all the young talent over there a fighting chance.
- To fill that void, the Capitals have acquired Jose Theodore from the Avalanche, who in turn signed Toronto-castoff Andrew Raycroft. Definite downgrades for both teams, there.
- Tampa Bay has signed three free agents, most notably top forward Radim Vrbata, as well as Adam Hall and former Caps’ veteran goaltender Olaf Kolzig. Along with their previous signings of Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts and Vinny Prospal, and their first-round draft of Steve Stamkos, Tampa Bay is clearly determined to dig out of last place in a big way.
And the Habs? Aside from re-signing Andrei Kostitsyn, and picking up Alex Tanguay on draft day, Gainey has been pretty quiet. We lost Ryder (no surprise there) and Streit (big surprise and tough loss) and so far we have nothing to show for it. Not even Sundin, who I don’t even want, but who surely would have signed by now with Montreal if he had any desire to be here.
We cleared cap space, we made offers, but it’s starting to look like Gainey’s highly publicized announcements about his intention to land an “impact” forward will end this year much as they did last year. And I have to wonder how many people will stick to the “In Gainey We Trust” bandwagon this time around.
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