Teddy Purcell has signed a two-year deal with the Lightning worth nearly $2.4 million cap hit. That kind of money, plus his playoff play, will keep him on the second line now.

As expected, the Red Wings have signed Ty Conklin. Attention Howard owners – Conklin is more of a threat to steal some starts than Osgood was. It may only be marginal, but it will be different.

Brett MacLean has signed a two-way contract. Man, these kids just do not get an easy path into the NHL, do they? Perreault, Jeffrey and now MacLean. If the agent is good, they can at least get a two-year deal where the second year is one-way. Otherwise, they'll just get the same thing offered to them next summer. Although, in the case of MacLean, who is younger and has seen less NHL time, this deal is far less of a surprise.

The Coyotes have also signed Kyle Chipchura to be their water boy. I'm kidding, he's a better hockey player than me so I can't poke fun.

Andrej Sekera shocks me with his new contract. At four years, $11 million, it's hard to imagine him taking a backseat to anyone in terms of power-play time. I mean, that's just serious coin. And long term. With Gragnani still unsigned, I wonder what is going to happen here. The Sabres are over the limit in terms of cap space. Ehrhoff is signed for a million years. Sekera now for four. Leopold is making big bucks for another two. Ditto for Regehr. In keeping with my statement in the paragraph above – is Gragnani actually going to get a two-way contract and get screwed out of the NHL? After leading this team in playoff scoring? The Sabres already have seven defensemen signed and all to big dollars except for Myers and Weber. And Myers is a Golden Boy. So who gets traded? Leopold? And does anybody want him for that cap hit?

Something needs to happen in Buffalo even if both Morrisonn and Kotalik are buried in the minors.

I wish they would start the Hall of Fame over again and get rid of 30% of the players. Not exclusive enough. The fact that we're even talking about Chris Osgood for the Hall of Fame tells me that much. I like Osgood, and it sucks that I have to be negative about him when talking about this with some people. Screw the stats. Start the HoF over with simple criteria for the committee to go by:

1. For defensemen – was he at any point in his career one of the three best defensemen in the world during a given year?

2. For goalies – was he at any point in his career one of the two best goalies in the world during a given year?

3. For forwards – was he at any point in his career one of the five best forwards in the world during a given year?

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. There is going to be a run of years where most of the same players would fall into that criteria, so this would severely limit the inductees each year. SCREW THE STATS. This would get the Ciccarellis and the Joey Mullens out of there, and put the Bures, Mogilnys, the Lindros', and the CuJos in there. Basically, if there was Team Earth vs. Team Mars, would the player have ever been on that team? Pointing out this stat and that stat drives me nuts.

The Flyers have signed Jason Bacashihua as their No.4 goalie, effectively chasing Johan Backlund to Europe.

Dallas has signed minor leaguer Ray Sawada. A two-way contract of course.

Here are my thoughts on the Colorado Avalanche, via The Hockey News

The Sharks have signed defenseman Andrew Murray to a one-year deal.

Stunning move, if you didn't see this on Puck Daddy already, by a player who is not even a prospect…

Keep firing me YouTube clips!