The SLow Summer Simmer of San Jose's Offseason

The scene in downtown San Jose after waiting all off season for Doug Wilson to make a move.

Depending on who you ask, this has been a summer of disappointment. No moves, no change, Doug Wilson has abandoned us! If we take a step back from that brink, we discover that there HAVE been moves, they've just been smaller and less splashy than many Sharks fans had been hoping for or expected.

The Sharks let a few players go. Mike Grier, Marcel Goc, Riley Armstrong, Tomas Plihal, Brain Boucher, Claude Lemieux, Jeremy Roenick, Travis Moen and Alexi Semenov are all gone. Some have signed with other teams, some have retired, and others are still looking for work.

As far as signings, Kent Huskins, Ryane Clowe, Rob Blake, Scott Nichol, Thomas Greiss and Henrick Karlsson were all resigned or acquired. Scott Nicol is the only real new blood, ignoring the fact that Sharks fans have yet to see Huskins play in teal. This has made his contract, and the lack of other signings, a point of contention amongst fans, who have been hoping for big splashy firings and signings. The fact of the matter is, the Sharks are already up against the cap, and they won't have any wiggle room next year when several big name members of team teal become free agents.

It also remains to be seen whether or not it makes sense to blow up the President's Trophy winning team in 2009. Sure, they flamed out in a spectacularly embarrassing fashion in the first round of the playoffs, but they were still the best team in the league last season, even with their late season problems. The team, for all it's weaknesses, still has some great potential.

Maybe the lack of splashy signing *coughdanyheatlycoughcough* is for the best. If it means Sharks fans don't have to spend another season watching the MSM and bloggers poop all over the team when it fails to meet their expectations, fine by me. But I'm not the majority. Most fans appear to be frustrated by the lack of moves. Cap space be damned, they want big change and they want it now. Only time will tell if DW will throw cap caution to the wind, or if he will chose to ice a very similar to team to the one that showed such promise last season.

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Kings Have Another Boring Off Season

The Kings off-season has been b.o.r.i.n.g. Thankfully it coincided with my hectic personal summer so I feel like the off-season has been flying by without feeling like I've been missing out on all the fun. The NHL Entry Draft came and went without much fanfare. The Kings did not hold a Draft party this season for season ticket holders something I attribute to the crappy economy but was probably due to the Kings not wanting to give off the impression that having a high Draft pick is something to celebrate year after year since, of course, that would mean that the Kings still suck. The Kings aren't exactly in the top half of the league but the team is slowly getting there and hopefully next year's Draft will be even less of an event for Kings fans than the 2009 Draft.

Even without the fanfare of the 2008 Draft, I doubt the majority of Kings fans were that upset with the selection of forward Brayden Schenn. Personally, I was satisfied. There’s nothing wrong with stacking the farm system, and eventually the roster, with young quality players.

(source)

Braaaaayyyyy-den Schenn…yes, I am a jerk

The Ryan Smyth trade was definitely a huge surprise to me and, it's probably safe to say, to most Kings fans as well. In fact, that was the only surprise of the off-season but it wasn't a complete downer for the Kings community considering the Kings pretty much gave up only Kyle Quincey to acquire Smyth. One could argue that the Kings lost additional manpower since someone named Tom Preissing was also involved in the mix but he was barely on the roster last season so he will hardly be missed. The Kings have a lot of depth on the blueline so while Quincey was a dominant and productive player last year, sadly he was expendable.

The Kings made a couple other small moves, including letting go of Connie's true love, Matt Moulson and trading away Brian Boyle, who has progressed so slowly that the Kings should be given credit for giving him a chance for as long as they did. Teddy Purcell signed for an additional year and several other small fries also remained in the system.

Jack MF Johnson was the big name to re-sign this off-season and THANK GOD negotiations were completed before the start of the season (*cough*Sully*cough*). I found out about this transaction when Connie texted me while I was on my honeymoon. Yep, I got married this summer; I am officially the ball and chain. Anyway, I had been worried all summer long that Jack would get re-signed to a ridiculously unnecessary contract that he didn't deserve. I am not a fan of long contracts and paying athletes for their potential so I was slightly worried that Dean Lombardi would succumb to what seems to becoming the norm in NHL contracts. However, Deano proved why he's so f'ing awesome and came to an agreement with Jack on a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $1.425 million. I wrote a bit about the Jack re-signing here, but overall, Jack still has a lot to prove so the contract is very telling of what Jack has done for the Kings and what he needs to do in order to be paid the big bucks. It also gives both sides an out in case one or both parties are unhappy with what will happen over the next two years.

So that's it! Boring, right? I know. I live in LA where hockey news is incredibly scarce in local news. I was recently in Minnesota and spent a couple hours at the Mall of America to kill off time before my flight back to LA. I came across the Minnesota Wild Team store and so badly wanted to buy something just because I was hockey starved. I don't care about the Wild but I wanted to buy something hockey related and be near to it. Alas, I didn't step into the store in fear of what I might do. Hockey, please come back now.

(x-posted to Purple Crushed Velvet)

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Housekeeping

It’s been a busy month around the Predators Front Office with signings, trades, mock drafts, draft parties and a fresh crop of baby Preds coming in town to test out their legs on NHL ice. Here’s a rundown of the events that have taken place over the last few weeks:

June 3rd and June 11th – Predators Front Office holds a Mock Draft with a select few season ticket holders as well as members of the local media. The first night was used as an informative/brainstorming session to set our draft boards before “Draft Day” on June 11th. I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend this event and enjoyed every second of it. It was a great experience and one I hope they will think about offering again in the future. The seven of us STH were basically the “guinea pigs” for the Preds as they had never done something like this before. I, of course, had to ask their reasoning behind doing it at all. I was told that someone thought it would be fun to see who we as fans would pick if we were in charge of the draft picks. They weren’t sure if they were going to offer the chance to do it again in the coming years but I made sure to let them know I’d be down for it if they decided to try it again. I think there was a little more to the story (based on some other conversations I had with a few of the front office people) but I’ll let them stick to the “fun experience” idea because honestly, a good time was had by all.

June 16th – Defensemen Ryan Suter signed to a four year/$14 million contract. Based on all the rumors going around, I was a little surprised that Ryan decided on such a long contract. However, you can’t ever believe all the rumors you hear and all in all, this was a great signing that shows we’re on our way to really solidifying a core group of guys that we can count on for years to come.

June 19th – First trade of the off-season. Forward Darcy Hordichuk was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for a fifth round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft. This didn’t come as much of a surprise to me because Darcy was one of about five interchangeable third/fourth line forwards. He was our other fighter and I was enjoyed his fisticuffs better than Tootoo’s so I’ll miss him for that bit of entertainment value. He and his wife were also huge fans of the city of Nashville (so much so that they got married here last year instead of in Canada) so I’m sure it will be a little bittersweet to move on. I wish him the best of luck with Carolina.

June 20th – This year’s draft day equaled a dream come true for me as the most surprising transaction thus far was executed by trading goaltender Chris Mason to the St. Louis Blues for a fourth round pick. This opened up a bit more space in our salary cap and allowed us to extend a two year/$3.5 million contract to Dan Ellis. I honestly did not expect David Poile to make this happen as it seems almost too good to be true. I am a tiny bit weary of the decision if only because it gives me a sense of déjà vu based on what happened last year with our goalies. Granted, this year it was definitely our choice to trade away a netminder but let’s hope the same situation with the starting goalie getting stage-fright doesn’t happen again next season.

June 23rd – The lingering doubts that anyone had about whether or not we would be able to keep Shea Weber around were squelched with the Front Office announcement of the three year/$13.5 million deal. With this signing came a huge sigh of relief for most Predators fans as we can rest assured that the organization is building on the good we already had by keeping all the key players. With both the Suter and Weber signings, we also left the ball in our court when their current contracts expire since they will still be RFA’s at the end of each of their deals.

June 24th – June 30th – Prospect camp is held for this year’s draft picks as well as a few other select invitees. I was able to sneak a peek during practice on Friday and our first draft pick overall, Colin Wilson, looked really good out there. I’m anxious to see him again at training camp because I think he is really going to try and fight his way into the lineup for the coming season. We don’t normally make it a habit to incorporate draft picks into the normal rotation, but I could see Wilson impressing the coaches enough to change that habit. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to September.

June 26th – Qualifying offers are extended to Matt Ellison, Triston Grant (acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers organization for defensemen Janne Niskala on June 24th), Kevin Klein, Ville Koistinen and Rich Peverley. Ellison and Grant spent last season with the AHL while Klein and Koistinen were on the Predators roster for the entire ’07-’08 season. Peverley is the only player to have split his time between both the AHL and the NHL, helping the Predators in their push towards the playoffs and showing the coaches that he was NHL-ready. I still stand by my opinion that Klein will be one of the first to go. I do hope that Koistinen will be willing to stick around and hope for more ice time next season. As much as I would like to have Peverley around next year, I still think he might try his hand with another team, if someone makes an offer. I don’t know much about Ellison or Grant so I won’t make any speculations on their behalf. (Note to self: learn more about AHL players next season).

After breaking it all down, a lot more happened this month than I originally thought. David Poile has been working his butt off and I couldn't be happier. Now I really can't wait until September.

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Early Christmas Gift; Spezza Signs an Extension

Our boy, Jason Spezza has been signed to a contract extension worth $49 million over 7 years. He will receive $8 million for the first five years and then $5 million and $4 million in the last two. He will receive a $4 million salary in the first three years with a $4 million bonus and then a $6 million salary for the next two with a $2 million bonus. His cap hit will be the average at $7 million.

The deal is also rumoured to consist of a No Trade Clause that will kick in his first year of unrestricted free agency although that is not yet confirmed. Negotiations reportedly went very quickly and smoothly between Bryan Murray and Rick Curran. This is good news as the Senators will have Spezza at the peak of his career and won't have to worry about him signing elsewhere from free agency. As iffy as I am about how heavy the price tag is, I think it's interesting to note that the trend seems to be locking in your players to longer-term contracts.

There does come a considerable risk with long-term deals since you never know if the player will maintain their high level of play and there's always the uncertainty of injuries. However, despite injuries, you know what you're going to get with Spezza and there's no danger of him retiring anytime soon and still having his salary counting against the cap.

All in all, it's very good to see Murray actively locking in key pieces to the franchise long-term. I don't really have an updated spreadsheet of the salary outlook for the Senators quite yet, but I do worry where the money to sign Chris Kelly and Antoine Vermette will come from. Wade Redden will for sure be gone or come at an extremely hefty discount, and I can imagine a decision on him won't be made until the end of the season, provided he's not shipped out at the deadline.

Either way, the Senators dodged a bullet with the Mississauga native (represent!) as he was due to become a Restricted Free Agent at the end of the season and offer sheets are apparently trendy now. Although seeing Murray cuss out Kevin Lowe would have been hilarious.

^{Cross posted to Scarlett Ice}

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