Official 2007 NHL Offseason Thread

[wh1t3bread]

APXG,

I can't honestly believe you think that bringing in Nylander+Lang+Rafalski is a better move in the long or even short term then bringing in Gomez+Drury. Lang is already on the decline and Nylander is likely headed in the same direction. Crosby, Malkin, et al. These guys just aren't going to be available in 2 years. And what makes you think that Drury (at 32) and Gomez (at 29) will start to be ineffective when Jagr retires? I don't get it.

Should the defense prove suspect, which the consensus seems to be (even by Rangers fans) that it will I'm sure Sather could make a move at the deadline for someone without mortgaging Staal or Sanguinetti.

[Wes Mantooth]

Langs point totals in the last three years 79, 62, 52. He scored 8 points in 18 playoff games this includes only 2 goals. He would not be a good fit for the Rangers.

[APXG]

[ QUOTE ]
Langs point totals in the last three years 79, 62, 52. He scored 8 points in 18 playoff games this includes only 2 goals. He would not be a good fit for the Rangers.

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Check out Nylander + Straka's point totals and trends in the years before coming to the Rangers and playing Jagr. Lang is basically a Nylander clone, except slightly older - a career underachiever who no one seems to want anymore.

[Miamipuck]

Gomez and Nylander are a wash. Basically for a few more million you are getting a younger version of a similar player. I am pretty cool with that.

Drury is a proven winner at every level and team he has played for.

To my knowledge Gomez (Gomez 10 mil in year 1) is heavily front loaded so as to give them room in coming years. My geuss is they will work the cap like football teams do. Frontload contracts and then keep extending them to lessen the blow or idealy load them in years where you have more cap leeway.

These signings are nothing like the old crazy/idiotic disjointed free agent signings of Sather and even Smith. They are proven players that add character to a team and not characters themselves, like Fleury, Kovalev etc.. They are also not square pegs in a round hole like how the NYR used Holik. Geez they could never figure out how to use him. It was astonishing to spend that much money on a predominantly checking center and than not even use for that purpose. But that was the NYR mo for a long time.

As far as their defense goes, it could be better. I think Girardi is going to be an excellent player in the NHL. I followed him for a couple of years now and he is a player that seems to just improve every game he plays. Will he be an all-star? Not likely, he is not the dynamic D-men that get hype like that. He will be an excellent #2 or 3 defenseman. Rosival is what he is, a workhorse and not a bad player at all. Tyutin is in a similar category if he can stay healthy. That being said the rest of the d for the NYR is blah. Can Staal come in and live up to the hype? Not this year. There are very few young Defenseman that can come into the league and hold their own. If he can be more than a mediocre player that will be a huge surprise to me. Again, he is not a dynamic game changing defenseman. He is a solid player but not spectacular in any one area.

All in all, I like the signings. They over paid certainly but these are not the head scrathcing disjointed signings of the past. At the very least, it is not going to be the square peg or character issue situations that Sather and Smith had a penchant to sign. If the Rangers can get the D to step it up , I think this team will be a contender for sure. I am not ready to annoint them yet as the back 6 need to be improved. (2-3 at least do). Then again Lundqvist can make an average defense look pretty damn good.

[APXG]

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The prices were not that ridiculous. There's not a chance Staal would be given up for Rob Blake, whose best days are WELL behind him. You could get him for a 1st round pick and Lauri Korpokoski, or Brandon Dubinsky, and probably even less than that.

If Lang retires his deal stays on the cap. Any player signed after the age of 35 in a multi-year deal has his contract count towards the cap in the second and proceeding years regardless of whether or not he's playing. I don't see Nylander retiring when there's money on the table either - and he could very well become terrible in his later years.

Rafalski may not turn into Ozolinsh, but he could turn into Steve Duchesne and Phil Housley in their later years. Zubov is bigger than Rafalski, and takes less punishment IMO.

Crosby isn't leaving Pittsburgh. When he becomes UFA, they will just offer him the maximum allowable contract. They'll have their new building by then so they should be able to afford it.

By the time Malkin and Crosby reach UFA, Jagr's career is finished. Right now, Jagr's cap hit is very cheap for the Rangers, so they can load up - they won't have a Jagr-like player at a Jagr-like salary in a few years. And Drury is light years ahead of Lang, and Gomez a good ways ahead of Nylander in terms of what they bring to a team.

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Agree that:

1)Rafalski is a risk in the latter years. However, I think Gomez is a bigger risk b.c. he could easily flop next year and become a Yashin (or worse) and its 7 years. I would not sign Rafalski to more than 5. Drury's risk is less, but still significant b.c. he is paid for intangibles, which usually only surface when a team is winning. On a losing team, Chris Drury and his winning spirit + "clutch" would be soon forgotten. So if you clone the Rangers of last year and add Drury, they could win a cup -- clone the Rangers of 5 years ago and add Drury and he's a huge bust.

2)Lang + Nylander should not be signed to more than 2 to 3 years. I would pay them extra in cap hit to take 2. I'm not sure if this is where their market currently is - if they are getting offered 5/25, I take back my endorsements for them and would look to Drury. I still would NEVER EVER offer more than 3/16.5 to Gomez.

3)Crosby is just one player. He probably won't be available, I agree. The point is that members of the Corsby generation will become available, and they are what the Rangers need for the post-Jagr era in terms of age, because they will be 26-27-28 at that time. Even next year, Hossa + Heatley are 2 guys way above Gomez + Drury in value at the top of the class.

Disagree:

1)The value of Rob Blake. Forsberg, Guerin, Tkachuk, Smyth got insanely inflated value. Blake would fetch more than any of those 4 guys simply because there aren't 4 comparable Blake-level defensemen on the market during the deadline to mitigate / cannibalize value, and you could even argue he'd have a bigger impact intrinsically. I truly think that even if the Rangers offered Staal + 1st rounder, there is a decent chance they would get outbid. Insane, I know, but thats how deadlines work.

[Triumph36]

Miami - the NHL salary cap does not work as you suggest. The reason they front-load deals like that is because A: players like it that way and B: if gomez sucks much later in the contract, they can send him to the minors while paying him much less money and C: poorer teams can't pay out that kind of money in the first year. Gomez's 'cap number' stays the same for the duration of his deal.

APXG - Blake isn't that high level a defenseman anymore. Even so, it looks like the Rangers may get Souray - they can clear out salary room by dumping Mara, Prucha, and Cullen. Gomez is very unlikely to flop the way you suggest - he's a solid contributor and has been for several seasons. His skills don't really 'flop' - last year was about as bad as it gets for him.

[DonkeyKongSr]

Bertuzzi to the Ducks. If this nets out as Selanne and Niedermayer for Bertuzzi and Schnieder, I'm not all that happy. If one of Selanne or Nieds stays, I'll be pretty happy. If both stay, I'm liking this team a lot. I just think it's near impossible to afford all 4 players (haven't seen Bert's deal yet).

[bluef0x]

The talent keeps on dropping. Every hour more LW's and d-men are taken away..... I wonder if DW is going to make a trade. I really hope he doesn't think Doug Murray can play a lot of minutes (I like the kid, though).

[bluef0x]

Sharks have about ~37.5m tied up right now. If we could spend to the cap we'd have ~11.75m to spend on 1yr/contracts (which nobody wants). We have a crazy amount of RFA/UFA (incl Marleau) after this year..

Sadly, Sharks can't spend the max. Even shittier, our owners' goal for the Sharks is to break even.... not win the cup. They reportedly lost money after spending ~45m last year.... so we probably only have 7m to spend on a d-man and/or top-6 LW.

[DonkeyKongSr]

Hey, the Kings finally decided to play the free agency game!

Nagy and Handzdus signed. If they'd get a decent goaltender, they definitely are a playoff caliber team...although they are stuck in a tough division.

Oops, missed the Calder and Preissing pickups. Seriously, get a freaking goalie and there could be the first Ducks/Kings simultaneous playoff run/series.