Today, with the dawning of the free agency player movement, starts the new hockey year. This is going to be fun, as watching the rosters take shape is one of my favorite aspects of the sport. Can Brian Burke sell Brad Richards on the potential of playing with the sweetest shot in the NHL, Phil Kessel? Or, as has been suspected for a long while now,will he sign with his former coach John Tortella and the New York Rangers?
Where will Jagr wind up? What goalies will the Avalanche and Coyotes end up with? Who will spend too much at the onset, and who will wat til the dust settles and bargain shop among aging vets worrying they'll be left without a team when the music stops?
Teams I will be watching today...
Detroit Red Wings
Rafalski's retired, and Ericsson may not be back. The forwards should return pretty much intact (only one possibly not returning is grinder Drew Miller), but the Wings back end is in the process of being rebuilt. How quickly the pieces, and who those pieces are, will determine if GM Ken Holland can turn a team that lost in round 2 in back to back years into a cupcontender. I figure the Wings will ad 2 blueliners, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ed Jovonoski end up in Motown.
Minnesota Wild
They gave up a dynamic all around defenseman in Brent Burns to get Devin Setoguchi from the Sharks. But they still need skilled forwards, and there's now one less dynamic defenseman on their roster. What will Chuck Fletchr do nest to remake his roster?
Colombus Blue Jackets
Great move adding Jeff Carter. I believe he's the better player between him and Mike Richards, and he should do well skating shotgun with Rick Nash. Tomas Kaberle would give them another dangerous powerplay component.
0 comments:
Post a Comment