Well, it's July 1st, which means teams are turning over a new stone. That said, we're going to expand and add the Anaheim Ducks and LA Kings to our coverage as well. With that said...
Anaheim Ducks
General Manager Bob Murray managed to lock down Saku Koivu for another two seasons (which is a promising sign Temmu Selanne will follow suit) and managed to sign defenseman Toni Lydman from the Buffalo Sabres. Not bad, but they definitely still need another top-four defenseman (Luca Sbisa could still benefit from further development) while getting the Bobby Ryan situation solved. Murray went public with the discussions that thy offered a 5-year/$25M contract to him and it was still denied. Ryan seems to want salary that's identical or higher than Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry. Will someone try an offer sheet? It would be fun to see what happened if they did.
Detroit Red Wings
Ken Holland didn't make any signings today but that had to be expected considering they aren't in the market for any large components. Still, some versatile depth defenders remain available as to some logical choices for the "enforcer" role (we're hoping Holland drops his requirement of needing the guy to take a two-way contract.) We'll see who the Wings shore up soon enough.
Los Angeles Kings
The L.A. Kings were very silent today; but if the rumors pull true, we'll soon know why. Supposedly, they're the front runners in the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes and should soon know whether or not if he'll be playing in L.A. The team did manage to lose two players to free agency. While Alexander Frolov was considered a welcome departure, losing Raitis Ivanans to the Calgary Flames not only opens up a hole for the role of the enforcer, but also a really good team-first kinda guy who's great to have in the locker room. There's still a handful of enforcers available though and it might not be a bad idea for them to call Andrew Peters; he can be had for cheap and doesn't have to play in every game the way some of their younger energy players due (like Wayne Simmonds and Richard Clune.) Otherwise aside from some fine tweaking (and signing Kovalchuk) L.A. has a pretty fine looking team.
Phoenix Coyotes
The team lost Zbyenk Michalek to the Pittsburgh Penguins but retained Derek Morris for four more years. Veteran forward Ray Whitney also agreed to a two-year contract to help shore up a veteran scoring forward. The team apparently couldn't come to terms with Matthew Lombardi, who is now seeking a deal from other teams. Lee Stempniak has been offered a contract, but he hasn't responded due to being on his honeymoon. As it stands, the team could stand to sign a scoring forward (would love for it to be Lombardi, would be fine with it being Stempniak or Viktor Tikhonov, and would have to see whomever else would be considered), a veteran two-way forward on a short deal (Mike Modano), and a depth defender to round out a very underrated defense corp.
Around the NHL
- Martin Biron was the first free agent to sign today; securing a two-year deal with the New York Rangers.
- Olli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay going to the Calgary Flames will help them out as long as they play on the same line. One's a playmaking winger in decline while the other's a scoring forward in decline; put the two together and hopefully some magic will happen.
- 4 years and over a million a season to Derek Boogaard? I like him and all but are you freakin' kidding me New York Rangers?
- The Atlanta Thrashers gets tougher with Andrew Ladd while signing Chris Mason to platoon with Ondrej Pavalec. Suddenly Atlanta's starting to look fierce.
- New Jersey's defense looks pretty sharp; as defenders Hendrik Tallender and Anton Volchenkov secured multi-year deals while goaltender Johan Hedberg signed on to back up Martin Brodeur for the team.
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