First exciting free agent moment in Wild history. Suter apparently picks Minnesotaand Parise is likely to as well.
Wow ESPN is saying they both went for 13 yr, 98 million. Not that far from what Crosby got.
Well I hope the biding for Semin doesn’t go that wild(hehe)
Meh. We’ll see if Minny is a force to be reckoned with. I have my doubts. Loved this tweet from Darren Dreger though:
Yes. Dany Heatley knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup; namely, getting Dany Heatley off of your team. 
As witnessed by the Sharks finally ending the Senators’ dynasty this year.
Well, I now have to hope they fail. I really hoped the Stars would make a move for Suter.
Oh well. Fuck Minnesota.
Without Suter, Nashville will have a lot of trouble keeping Weber now I’m guessing. And with the the new CBA coming, I bet these 12-13 year contracts will be impossible in the Future. It seems to me that Weber’s best option is to get a long term contract done this year. My guess is that Nashville will make him big time offer now. Which he will either accept(which I doubt) or refuse.
At that point I don’t see Nashville risking allowing him to walk away for nothing, so I am thinking he will be on the trade market soon looking for a sign-and-trade, It seems the best for both sides.
But I really don’t see anything happening with Detroit, since even under the eventual new realignment they will be same division.
The Wings really do need an upgrade at D though. losing Rafalski last year hurt them, and now without Lidstrom and Stuart, they are a bottom half of the league on the blue line. I really wanted Suter (Parise Inever wanted much). Without Him and only a very tiny chance of ever getting Weber, they have a serious issue. Without more help, I simply don’t see them as a cup contender. 
People are talking Carle who I’m not to big on. He would be an upgrade, but he is going to get hugely over paid. Hopefully Kenny Holland can pull off a Datsyukian pick-pocket move and come up with some kind of brilliant trade without giving too much up.
It’d better work out. Minnesota has half the cap tied up in five players. Next CBA better be kind as well, though maybe they’re hoping for a cup win this year and being able to release people from contracts with the new CBA to get out of it. I wondered at work today when I heard about the signing if they had talked about playing together, and apparently they had as early as last year.
This may sound like sour grapes, but I’m not altogether upset that Detroit didn’t try to match the contract offered by Minnesota. Detroit has been smarter with management after the cap came into play, and I’m happy they’re staying that way instead at throwing money after whatever player they’re perceived to need.
And now that the big two have signed, I think Detroit will go hard after Doan. Possibly Semin and Nash. Push offense to make up for the loss of defense. They may even sign Doan so they can shop Franzen around for some help on either end.
The issue with Doan is he says he wants to wait see what the ownership situation is. I don’t know if they can wait that long before seeing what other guys might want.
Yeah yeah yeah, my joke sucked. But still. That was a lol worthy tweet from a fallen star and locker room cancer, who’s been anemic in just about every playoff game he’s been in!
Here is a little video for Guin.
Wild fans are rejoicing today, but I don’t think they will be for very long once the season gets going. I’m utterly baffled. They went hard at the two biggest names on the market, and kudos to them for acquiring them, but now what?
The term I get, it’s obvious by the structures that it’s to knock down the cap hit, but even still the cap hits are restrictive. $7.5m for Parise is on the high side but about what I expected, but also for Suter? And both get full No Movement Clauses? Just short-sighted decision making which might make sense if they were in “win now” mode, but considering their depth, or lack thereof, they won’t even win their division never mind the West.
Top line looks good: Parise - Koivu - Heatley. After that… Bouchard - Granlund - Setoguchi? Clutterbuck - Brodziak - Mitchell?
Not looking so good.
And on defense: Suter - Spurgeon and then Scandella - Gilbert and Falk - Stoner?
Rough. And they’ve got no cap room left to add anyone without losing someone.
As a Devils fan I don’t begrudge Parise for making the decision he did. He said all the right things along the way and seemed to genuinely agonize over leaving the only team he’d ever known and never really even considered going to divisional rivals like the Penguins or Flyers despite some reports. He played the game well and got exactly what he wanted (nice signing bonus, Zach) where he wanted, so I wish him all the luck in the world. Looking at that team, he’s going to need it.
Yeah but this year has proven beyond a doubt you don’t have to be very good. If you are good enough to get into the playoffs, you just need some injury luck and a semi hot goalie. And they are good enough to make the playoffs now.
The biggest thing you need to win a cup is depth. By putting half your payroll into one line, you sacrifice that. Injury luck becomes mandatory. Suter goes down and the blue line looks mighty sparse. Koivu breaks a bone and the top line sputters. Having one good line makes it nice and easy for the opposing coaches to shut things down. Too many power plays and your big three forwards start getting worn out. What happens if Parise and Koivu don’t mesh? Which massive contract gets bumped to the second line? Is Suter going to be as good without Weber?
This is a massive gamble. It’ll be a brilliant move if they win a cup. If not? They’re gonna have a bad time.
Seen it, thanks. I wanted to get one of those Christmas ornaments made from the roof, but they sold out fast.
I don’t know what Shero’s next move is going to be, but I’m sure he’ll pull something off. (Just as long as Semin doesn’t end up on our teams – we need a good winger, not a percussionist)
I keep hearing Bobby Ryan, but it’s really a question of “watcha gonna give up to trade for him?”
To a degree. The Kings, who I’m assuming are your example, were very good. They suffered terrible luck and struggled to put it all together until exactly the right time. As you say, anything can happen once you’re in, but generally the better teams prove themselves to be better teams against the Cinderella teams who rely on “getting hot” or a goaltender stealing them the series.
Are they good enough to make the playoffs? I don’t think they are at this moment. They aren’t going to win their division; Vancouver is still a vastly superior team. Which means they’ll be fighting for 4-8 and I just don’t think they have the horses.
To put it in perspective: They missed the playoffs last year by 14 points, finishing only 7 points ahead of 14th place Edmonton. Parise and Suter don’t make them 14+ points better in the standings.
They’re undeniably a better team with them, but better does not necessarily mean good. Yet.
I see these contracts as a gamble for a few years from now. They’ve got prospects coming up and eventually they’ll be out from under Heatley’s contract, etc., and I believe they’re trying to time the tail end of Parise/Suter’s peak with the rise of their prospects in the hopes that they get a 2 or 3 year window where they can win.
But to put that into perspective, they were leading the west at the all star break and then got hosed with the injury bug. That’s part of their depth problem, sure, but a healthy Wild with Suter, Parise and Konopka is going to be fun to watch, and I think they’ll squeak into a 7 spot.
Jagr in Dallas is going to be funny as hell to watch, as well.
Injuries were part of it, but they were overachieving. Their success wasn’t sustainable even if they’d remained healthy.
Anything can happen and you may very well be right; I just don’t see it happening. But, that’s why they play the games!
And, yes, Jagr in Dallas will be funny.
That’s pretty much what happened to the Habs this year. The team expected Markov back, but he wasn’t ready, so they got Campoli (not much of a comparison, but a warm body for a month or two…) and then he got injured and suddenly your top D is Hal Gill, Josh Gorges (both of whom I adore, but they are defensive defensemen and don’t help the offence or PP much) and PK Subban who is amazing but still rather inexperienced. It got pretty thin after that.
Then on the forwards, losing Gionta (Gomez…does his play count as a brain injury) and then all the other players who got hurt for stretches of time and couldn’t play (White, Cammalleri…I don’t even remember anymore) and you are left with one good line (Patches-DD-Cole) and a bunch of mismatched AHL call ups, rookie or young forwards, and fourth line pluggers trying to fill the gaps.
It was easy to shut down/score against the weaker lines and the rest is history. Plekanec played way too many PP and PK minutes and just couldn’t provide that seconday even strength scoring as a result, especially not with a rotating cast of random wingers.
I really, really hope everyone stays healthy all year this year! I’m tired of watching the Bulldogs wear the CH!