Winner:
Toronto Maple Leafs
It's pretty obvious that the Leafs were going to be the big winner out of free agency. Think about it, they already had a good lineup, in the scoring department when last season ended. With players like Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander at the head of the class, just to name a few, the Leafs looked like they were already in good hands. Now the team manages to go out and land the best player available on the market, the hometown boy in John Tavares. Sure the Leafs did lose a little bit of talent, but they brought in the best player on the market back home to what is an already loaded core. This team has made the playoffs in each of the last two years and now added a guy with the talent level of Tavares could help them take that big step to the next level. Tavares has been in the top ten in the league in a number of offensive categories the last few seasons, which speaks to how much of a generational talent he is. If Toronto can address the possible issues of beefing up the defense and goaltending, then they would be an even greater threat as a Cup contender. Even with what they have now, this team is going to be a bigtime threat in the East
Loser:
New York Islanders
The team that had the most to lose with this whole Tavares thing was the Islanders, who just lost their best player and the face of the franchise. During his tenure in New York, Tavares leaves in the top ten in goals, assists and points in Islanders history. He also leaves the team with a bit of a hole. They have solid options with Matthew Barzal, but otherwise I'm not feeling much confidence about the depth up the middle with this team. Yes, Lo Lamoriello made some moves in the opening week of free agency. He traded for Matt Martin, bringing him back into the mix. He also went out and signed Leo Komarov, Valtteri Filppula, and Tom Kuhnhackl up fromt. They re-sigend Thomas Hickey to a four year deal and brought in Robin Lehner to play goal, since Jaroslav Halak is now in Boston. This was a team who three years ago won a playoff series for the first time in almost a quarter century/ Since then, they have taken steps backwards and now look like they are a few more years away from coming back into a contending team again. I just really hope Islanders management knows what they doing and can manage to pull a rabit out of their hat and make something happen this year. Because right now, after losing Tavares, the prospects don't look that good.
Winner:
Calgary Flames
So besides Tavares being on the market this summer, one of the other big names to hit free agency was James Neal. Key word in that sentence is was. Neal is off the board, having signed a five year deal worth $28.75 million to go play for the Calgary Flames. This coming after the Flames had dealt away one of their top defensemen, Dougie Hamilton, in a package that brought back Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. The big prize for the Flames was Neal, who's scored over 21 goals in a season ten times in his NHL career, and that includes 25 or more goals in each of the last five years. He brings a good scoring touch and a lot of veteran leadership to a young Flames team who was a playoff tea So to make up for it, Vancouver got right to work adding players.m just two years ago. Calgary wants to get back to the post season this year, and adding a guy with the skill set and leadership qualities of a James Neal will help them take more steps in that right direction. This also means a little job security for Neal, who has a long term deal after playing for three teams in the last three seasons.
Loser:
Ottawa Senators
There's trouble brewing in the Canadian Capitol. Ottawa, who in 2017 was within one win of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in an improbable run. This past season, the bottom dropped out, with the Senators only picking up 28 wins on the year. To make matters worse, the Sens aren't getting any better. Bobby Ryan is gone via the trade route and all signs are pointing to the fact that the team could soon be trading the captain and face of the franchise, Erik Karlsson. Should the Senators do that, which from every indication I've heard that is probably going to happen, it will really set the franchise back. Good luck to Ottawa, because it looks like this season could go down as a lost cause of a year.
Winner:
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis is a good team that only got better. David Perron is back in the mix with the Blues for the 3rd time in his career. He was originally drafted by the Blues, was sent to Edmonton, came back two years ago as a free agent, before being nabbed by Vegas in the expansion draft last year. After recording a career high 50 assists and 66 points in Vegas, he's back in St Louis once again. Oh but wait, that's not all. Tyler Bozak was brought on board, as was Chad Johnson via free agency. They lost Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka via of the trade route with Buffalo, but it did net them Ryan O'Reilly, Buffalo's second leading scorer from last year, in return. It's been a busy summer for the Blues, who are hoping to build off 44 wins last year, which caused the Blues to just miss out on the playoffs in the West. With the talent that the Blues brought in, plus the core of guys like Jake Allen, Alex Pietrangelo, Alexander Steen, and Vladimir Tarasenko, its scary to think how potentially good the Blues might be in a tough Western Conference next season.
Loser:
Vancouver Canucks
It has been a tough start to the offseason for the Canucks. First, they missed the playoffs for the 3rd year in a row. Then, to make matters worse, they saw the retirement of the two faces of the franchise in this century, the Sedin Twins. Its obvious that the Canucks were in need of top tier talent, guys who could carry an offense from the top two lines. So what do they go out and do? They go out and give four-year deals worth around $3 million annually to both Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel. Both guys are solid hockey players, but lets be real here, they're bottom-six role players at best. They also snatched up Tim Schaller from the Bruins for two years at a little over $3 million. Again, he's a solid hockey player, but I don't feel he got the skills to really be a contributor above being a 3rd liner. The team hasn't been a playoff team in three years and are trying to get back there. Vancouver is trying to build through free agency by adding depth and character players, which any good hockey team needs in order to succeed. But the way and rate that Vancouver is going out and doing it is a little bit alarming. Throwing around a lot of money to guys who are good but not top end talent is scary. This could be a bad sign for Vancouver.
Winner:
Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia is one of those teams that seems to be right on the edge of being a playoff team in the East. Maybe they're one move away from being the team they need to be to make it to the playoffs. Well it started off on the right foot in free agency. They signed a pretty big fish at the outset of the period. bringing back James van Riemsdyk on a five year deal with $35 million. His first three years in the league were spent playing in Philly. The price tag maybe a little high, but JVR has that dynamic ability to be able to change a game in one or two shifts. With the talent that the Flyers already have assembled, it could spell trouble for some teams in the Eastern Conference. Philly's banking on his big output from two years ago in Toronto and they should be able to get it this year. Philly is going to be a tough test this season.
Loser:
New Jersey Devils
This hockey team surprised a lot of people with what they were able to accomplish this past season. For the first time since the 2012 Cup run, the Devils made the playoffs, on the strength of Taylor Hall's MVP year. You would like to think that General Manager Ray Shero would go out and try and make a big impact in free agency to sure up and build upon his team's playoff run. That's not exactly what happened. Quite the opposite. Brian Gibbons, Micheal Grabner, John Moore and Jimmy Hayes all left new Jersey. Those guys counted for 132 combined points this year, which was a decent chunk of change on offense. Shero did sign a few players. Eric Gryba, John Ramage and Kurtis Gabriel all were brought on board to join the Devils. Those three guys combined for just two points last year. What the what. New Jersey is trying to build off of what they just did in make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row, something the team hasn't done in a decade. This is how they go out and start to try and make it happen? Unless Jersey can find a lucky charm in free agency, it looks like they're going to have to find supplies from within to really make this thing happen this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment