NHL Makes Big Splash!

The NHL signings kicked off yesterday and what a fury of activity it was. The first deal of the day was Daniel Briere signing with the Philadelphia Flyers for eight years and $52 million. Chris Drury and Scott Gomez signed mega-dollar deals with the NY Rangers and Ryan Smith, "Captain Canada" is no longer in Canada, signing with the Avs.

My Leafs dipped into the pool and signed Jason Blake to a five year-20 million dollar deal. This should be good news for leaf's fans because Blake was a 40 goal scorer last season. He has grit, he's speedy and he can put the puck in the net. I realize his age is a bit of a concern but I think Blake was a late bloomer. He has at least 3-4 good years left in him and ANY player can falter after a year in this league. For that price it's worth the gamble. Did you know he was the ONLY 40 goal scorer in this year's FA pool? Given the deals people like Gomez and Briere are getting, I honestly think this could is a steal.

He probably won't score 40 goals this season either but I think 30 is a reasonable number with 60-70 points for the Blue and White. Nothing wrong with that especially given it'll make Mats a better player. Finally a goal scorer on the wing, which is something they desperately lacked for many years. Seriously I think Vesa and Blake added to an already improving Leafs team is a great start. Vesa will SURELY sign a large multi-year deal with Toronto in the next few weeks making Raycroft an expensive substitute from the bench. Hopefully this will work in TO's favor much like the Kipper deal for Calgary did a few years back. It was almost the exact same situation, San Jose trades their backup finnish goaltender to Calgary for a bunch of draft picks. Numbers were pretty similar (lets face it, Vesa could have easily been the starter going into the playoffs, he played incredible) and Calgary ended up benefiting pretty good from the deal. I think the Leafs are gonna see if Lightning strikes twice.

In other NHL news, a few more teams are back in business... or it appears that way. St. Louis signed Captain Keith back to a 2 year-8 million dollar deal. Kariya also signed with the Blues, who look to be making a push for the playoffs after many years of being picked on in a very tough western conference. The New York Rangers, who at this time are making the biggest splash signing 2 of the top 3 centers in the UFA market.

The Oilers made a different splash, sending longtime captain Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul to the Flyers for Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson (Plus a 3rd rounder next year). This COULD be a steal underneath the face of Edmonton loosing MORE players who are the heart and soul of the team (loosing Ryan Smyth was tough enough) with Pitkanen a former number 4 pick overall, and just entering his prime. He really could be the new Chris Pronger if he pans out to his potential and that is something Edmonton really needs. They are building from the ground up and you can't blame Kevin Lowe for that.

That's all the news for today, love to hear your comments on these deals!

Until next time,