Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Free Agent Follies
In the world of the NHL, July 1st and the days following have provided plenty of absurd and sometimes downright laughable contracts handed out to free agents. Like in the past, many players, especially defensemen have been grossly overpaid by eager GMs. The good news is, with a salary cap in place many of these foolish teams will use up all of their cap room and get little return. They will only punish themselves instead of the small markets that can't pay up to the same extent.
Most Overpaid:
Ed Jovanovski, Phoenix, $6.5 million. So Ed has gone to the desert where he will earn more per season than Chris Pronger. When he's healthy he's a good point producer, but far from a rock defensively (minus 8 in 44 games last season). Certainly not worth franchise player type money.
Pavel Kubina, Toronto, $5 million. Did anybody else even notice that this guy, who has never cracked the 40-point barrier, was a free agent? If five goals and a -12 rating get you five million, fellow Leaf teammate Tomas Kaberle didn't get the memo, because he signed for less after a 67 point campaign. Apparently John Ferguson Jr thinks the Leafs need another defensive liability on the back end, and this one's not even all that high scoring.
Willie Mitchell, Vancouver, $3.5 million. I still chuckle to myself. Mitchell is a good defensive blueliner, but he's no Larry Robinson, despite what his price tag may suggest.
Karel Rachunek, NY Rangers, $1.8 million. It cost how much to lure this guy out of northern Russia? (He played last year in Yaroslavl)
Joe Corvo, Ottawa, $2.5 million. Caught fire for one season playing the point on the powerplay with Lubomir Visnovsky in LA. Ottawa reportedly wouldn't budge on their $6 million per season offer to Chara, but turned around and gave a relative no-name half of that.
Jay McKee, St. Louis, $4 million. See Willie Mitchell. Though at least McKee had a good playoff run on his resume.
And to think, those are just the defensemen. The worst in terms of vision for the future has to be St. Louis GM Larry Pleau. He goes out a re-acquires Doug Weight at the assanine sum of $3.5 million a year. If there needed to be any more proof at all that Weight, only a third liner at this point, plays hockey solely for the money and nothing more, it has got to be this. So who joins him? His good buddy Bill Guerin, who has never once made a team he played for any better than they were before. Keep in mind that Keith Tkachuk is still there. These three amigos should create a nice circus in Missouri this season. Oh yeah, and of course there's McKee, a good player but way overpaid. Last place teams tend to get younger and faster, the Blues decided to get older and slower. At least Pleau should have Ferguson to join him in the unemployment line by Christmas. In addition to Kubina's idiotic contract, JFJ also handed goalie Andrew Raycroft a three year, $6 million deal. The same Raycroft who was unwanted on the lowly Bruins and was picked up for the pricely sum of a draft pick. Just how many more agents are going to pull a con-job on this Mike Milbury impersonator?
Most Overpaid:
Ed Jovanovski, Phoenix, $6.5 million. So Ed has gone to the desert where he will earn more per season than Chris Pronger. When he's healthy he's a good point producer, but far from a rock defensively (minus 8 in 44 games last season). Certainly not worth franchise player type money.
Pavel Kubina, Toronto, $5 million. Did anybody else even notice that this guy, who has never cracked the 40-point barrier, was a free agent? If five goals and a -12 rating get you five million, fellow Leaf teammate Tomas Kaberle didn't get the memo, because he signed for less after a 67 point campaign. Apparently John Ferguson Jr thinks the Leafs need another defensive liability on the back end, and this one's not even all that high scoring.
Willie Mitchell, Vancouver, $3.5 million. I still chuckle to myself. Mitchell is a good defensive blueliner, but he's no Larry Robinson, despite what his price tag may suggest.
Karel Rachunek, NY Rangers, $1.8 million. It cost how much to lure this guy out of northern Russia? (He played last year in Yaroslavl)
Joe Corvo, Ottawa, $2.5 million. Caught fire for one season playing the point on the powerplay with Lubomir Visnovsky in LA. Ottawa reportedly wouldn't budge on their $6 million per season offer to Chara, but turned around and gave a relative no-name half of that.
Jay McKee, St. Louis, $4 million. See Willie Mitchell. Though at least McKee had a good playoff run on his resume.
And to think, those are just the defensemen. The worst in terms of vision for the future has to be St. Louis GM Larry Pleau. He goes out a re-acquires Doug Weight at the assanine sum of $3.5 million a year. If there needed to be any more proof at all that Weight, only a third liner at this point, plays hockey solely for the money and nothing more, it has got to be this. So who joins him? His good buddy Bill Guerin, who has never once made a team he played for any better than they were before. Keep in mind that Keith Tkachuk is still there. These three amigos should create a nice circus in Missouri this season. Oh yeah, and of course there's McKee, a good player but way overpaid. Last place teams tend to get younger and faster, the Blues decided to get older and slower. At least Pleau should have Ferguson to join him in the unemployment line by Christmas. In addition to Kubina's idiotic contract, JFJ also handed goalie Andrew Raycroft a three year, $6 million deal. The same Raycroft who was unwanted on the lowly Bruins and was picked up for the pricely sum of a draft pick. Just how many more agents are going to pull a con-job on this Mike Milbury impersonator?
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