NHL free agency update
I drove home from my family’s house up north because I have class tomorrow so I needed to catch up on all the signings I missed during a 4.5 hour timespan. Wow! The Rangers are going to be craazy this year and I love it - they’re my team in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers are going from an awful team to a playoff contender.
Rangers sign Drury AND Gomez
The NY Rangers signed both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to long-term contracts worth a lot of money. Drury received a five year deal valued at $35.25 million, which works out to be $7.05/year against the salary cap. He will make $7.1 million in his first two seasons. Gomez signed a longer deal with the Rangers for $51.5 million. In his first season, he’ll make $10 million. $7.357 million will count against the cap each year of his contract.
”It’s pretty exciting,” Rangers general manager Glen Sather said. ”We ranked them both as number ones, and we never expected to get both of them.” …
”We still have other people we have to sign so we have to be careful but we think we have things calculated out and we’re in a good position,” Sather said. ”We think we can keep everyone we have right now.”
Although coach Tom Renney said he always has line combinations running through his head, he hasn’t mapped out exactly where everyone will line up on opening night. ”A couple of additions made it quite appealing,” Renney said.
I would not want to be a Devils fan right about now. Not only do you lose a top defenseman (Brian Rafalski) to the Wings, but your top center (Gomez) signs with a division rival. Ouch.
Leafs sign Blake
The NY Islanders lost winger Jason Blake to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who signed Blake to a five year contract for $20 million.
Flyers stay real busy today
The Flyers had already made a big splash before the start of the UFA period when they signed Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen after obtaining their exclusive negotiating rights from Nashville. So what do they do today? Sign Daniel Briere to an 8 year contract worth $52 million. Trade with the Edmonton Oilers to get defenseman Jason Smith and young forward Joffrey Lupul. They gave up defenseman Joni Pitkanen and forward Geoff Sanderson.
Avs sign Hannan
The Colorado Avalanche have signed Scott Hannan, a solid defenseman, for four years at $18 million. Even with this signing, the team still has plenty of cap space and has been rumored to be close to signing left winger Ryan Smyth. The Hannan signing is a great one especially since he’s only 28.
Viktor Kozlov signs with the Capitals
The Washington Capitals have agreed to a two year deal with forward Viktor Kozlov for $5 million. This means the Islanders lost both Blake and Kozlov.
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