David Poile gave a firm indication that he is done with UFA’s for this summer at yesterday’s press conference and he left the door open for a potential trade though, so the drama may not be done for July, but… there are still a few too many free agents out there for the taking before the serious horse trading begins. The Predators will be waiting for that time. Will the team move Kyle Turris or Nick Bonino? Who knows? While those decisions happen, let’s look at the storylines from day one of free agency, and there were quite a few… so let’s give out a few post-July 1 awards… who cares that it has only been 24 hours…
The “Best Dramatic Moment” Award goes to an event that has the whole league buzzing… the offer sheet that Montreal dropped on Sebastian Aho. A five year offer with an AAV of $8.454 million. OK… I will give the Habs a few points for throwing some excitement into the first day of free agency, the NHL hasn’t seen an offer sheet for quite a few years, but minus quite a few points for the typical mistake made in these types of things… underestimating the team they are trying to pry the player away from.
Does Habs GM Marc Bergevin believe that a bonus heavy, front loaded contract is really going to scare off Carolina? Maybe he should have consulted with Paul Holmgren about how that strategy worked out for him in the Shea Weber deal… or he could’ve just called his captain and asked him. The arrogance coming from this front office is palpable… oh, and Carolina is the Bunch of Jerks???
The other part of this was Bergevin’s press conference… he was very public in his comments about Aho wanting to be in Montreal. I don’t recall that happening before. It’s going to be very embarrassing when the Hurricanes match the offer and the Habs end up with nothing, seven days behind the rest of the league. It’s also going to be even funnier when/if Carolina turns around and trades Aho is a “Herschel Walker to the Vikings” kind of deal. This situation bears watching as the Canadian media is rallying to Montreal’s defense, selling falsehoods about the Hurricanes financial situation…
The offer sheet almost obliterated the news of the most idiotic signing of day one, which happened to be the first announced signing. The “Headscratcher of the Day” Award goes to Jim Rutherford and the Pittsburgh Penguins signing Brandon Tanev to a crazy term… the Tweet of the day on this one goes to Jeff Veillette…
“… certifiably insane.” Yup… it’s crazy term and crazy dollars. Your honor… I rest my case.
The “We Won the Stanley Cup on July 1” Award goes to the Dallas Stars! They have won this award multiple times and with the signing of Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry, they have won it again. Does Pavelski fill the Mats Zuccarello void… yup. They added some nice depth and some sandpaper. If they get more consistent, this could be the time where the 7/1 Cup leads to a June one. The runner up here is Florida, addressing some real needs in net and on the blueline.
The “Wait Till Next Year Already” Award goes to… the Minnesota Wild. Look… Zuccarello is a nice player and Ryan Hartman is a helluva nice guy… but five years for a 31 year old already starting to fade a bit and a waiver wire add? And they may still be trying to move Jason Zucker… again! This team is a mess and getting messier (and no… I didn’t forget to capitalize messier)… It’s going to be a long season in St. Paul. The runner up for this award is the Penguins… the Tanev deal is one thing… the Kessel for Galchenyuk trade is another. This team is definitely worse after the first day of free agency.
The “Trade of the Day” went to the Toronto / Colorado deal that saw the Leafs send Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen to the Av’s for Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot. I think the Maple Leafs may have fleeced the Av’s on that one… but time will tell.
Let’s see what day two brings… more stupidity? More overpayment? Count on it…
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