|
 Clearly
there is no moss growing under the feet of the Ducks this off-season. After
winning the cup, the Ducks wasted little time in moving to replace two
players contemplating retirement - Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne. The
Ducks dipped into the UFA market and signed aging but very useful Mathieu
Schneider, and are hoping that Todd Bertuzzi can rediscover his form of
2002-03. Bigger roles are imminent for Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and
newly re-signed J-S Giguere needs to continue to show he’s a top tier
‘tender. The Ducks re-signed almost all of their RFAs from last season – but
none of them will have a particular fantasy impact for the team. Chris
Kunitz re-upped a year early, without changing the Ducks’ salary commitment
to him for this season. The one that did get away was Dustin Penner whom the
Ducks lost to an RFA offer-sheet from the Oilers. Watch Chris Pronger to be
named captain of this still very talented club, assuming Niedermayer
retires. His numbers should rise, as well as Francois Beauchemin’s, with the
additional playing time. The strengths of the club are still defence and
goaltending. Weaknesses only appear to be a relatively short off-season and
the resulting lack of rest the players will get from winning the cup. The
Ducks are already at $48M in terms of committed cap, but that includes
Niedermayaer’s $6.75M per season. If he does retire, it won’t take long for
the Ducks to acquire one or two more veterans UFAs, one up front and one on
defence, or watch them try to lock up Getzlaf and Perry for longer term
contracts and avoid them being plucked in next seasons RFA crop.
 With
an aging team that lost in the first round of the playoffs, the Dallas Stars
needed to get more offense in the off-season, and unfortunately for them,
that did not happen. Already at $43M in salary, this year’s team is going to
closely resemble the 2006/07 version that started off great and then slumped
in the middle and end of the season. Mike Modono is still a legitimate #1
center, but it finally looks as though the 37 year old may be slowing ever
so slightly. The Stars will rely on aging veterans Zubov, Lehtinen and
Barnes for big contributions, as well as improved performances from Mike
Ribiero and Jussi Jokinen. Their blueline is deep in NHL caliber defencemen,
but they are getting longer in the tooth than most. In goal, Marty Turco was
finally able to shed the reputation of only being a regular season goalie,
as his playoff performance was not the reason the Stars couldn’t advance in
the playoffs. Back-up Mike Smith will likely see more playing time. The
Stars look to be a team that needs to begin re-building their farm system as
they have no real blue-chip prospects and their aging team is not good
enough to advance very far during the post-season. They remind us of the
NHL’s version of the San Fransisco Giants.
The Kings entered the off-season with a lot of cap room and proceeded to
fill their roster with tier II free agents. Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy,
Tom Preissing and Brad Stuart bring solid veteran experience to a relatively
young team. Kyle Calder had a bit of a disastrous 2006/07 season in Philly
and then Detroit, and he’s a good bet to better last year’s stats. Heir
apparent to Rob Blake, Jack Johnson, will play with the big club this
season, unless he absolutely falls apart in training camp. Alexander Frolov
and Mike Cammelleri still lead a now very solid group of forwards and the
defence has gotten better with their off-season additions. The biggest
question has got to be whether Dan Cloutier comes close to earning the big
contract he signed prior to the start of last season, rather than playing
like a beer league hockey goalie prior to a season ending leg injury. If he
falters at all, the Kings will be putting their goaltending eggs in Jason
LaBarbera’s basket. LaBarbera was a decent prospect at one time, but some
personal issues had threatened to sideline his career. Those appear to be
all sorted out and LaBarbera is our dark horse player of the year. The Kings
still have cap space with about $43 M committed, and they’ll likely make one
more move for a veteran forward or perhaps wait until the new year and then
see where they figure in the playoff picture…if at all.
 After
reviewing what the ‘Yotes have done this off-season, there can only be one
conclusion…it will be another long year for the desert dogs. Phoenix is not
going to re-sign Curtis Joseph and have added two new goalies – David
Aebeschier and Alex Auld. It will be an interesting competition for playing
time with current incumbent Mikael Tellqvist. After that, the strength of
the team is along its blueline where the likes of Keith Ballard, Zybanek
Michalek and Brendan Bell form a nice young defence corps. We are almost
certain that one (or maybe all) of Ed Jovonovski, Nick Boynton and Derek
Morris will get moved shortly after the All-Star break at the latest, as the
team’s “starting over” plan becomes a reality…yet again. The Coyotes’
forwards are led by Shane Doan, and then a cast of players that, from a
poolie’s perspective, are long shots, at best, to make your team. Mike York
and Radim Vrbata are just above average forwards that might be worth a very
late round draft consideration because they will get lots of playing time.
 After
taking almost three weeks to decide the fate of incumbent coach Ron Wilson,
GM Doug Wilson pulled off a “salary clearing/house-cleaning” in ridding his
team of Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell for draft picks to the Maple Leafs. San
Jose locked up pending UFA Craig Rivet, who played very well after being
acquired at the trade deadline last year. They also ensured that perennial
league MVP Joe Thornton will remain a Shark until July 2011. Strengths of
this team include their very big and physical wingers and possibly the
league’s best one-two punch down the middle in Patrick Marleau and Joe
Thornton. Much is now expected of the teams crop of young guns up front in:
Steve Bernier, Ryan Clowe, Pat Rissmiller and Milan Michalek. The team’s
most glaring weakness is their coach; a poolie nightmare the way he punishes
skilled offensive players and refuses to allow them to play to their true
offensive potential. Don’t believe us? Just ask Jonathan Cheechoo, Matt
Carle and Steve Bernier how much fun last year was. The Sharks have about
$36M committed headed into training camp and they do need to find a
replacement for Scott Hannan, so we’d expect them making a move for a Dany
Markov-type defenceman prior to training camp. Even though he signed a long
term deal, there are rumblings that Patrick Marleau could still be moved,
though that seems less likely now that he won’t be lost to free agency at
the end of the season. Luring Jeremy Roenick from retirement won’t help a
lot of fantasy owners, but it is a savvy move by Wilson to add depth and
bring in some veteran leadership to what is still a relatively young
locker-room. For his part, Roenick has pledged to be “quiet” – no one is
holding their breath.
...up next: The Southeast |
