July 1, 2014

Michael Amato

2014-07-01

The DobberHockey Free Agent Frenzy Chat has opened up – Join Us!

Dobber is doing the updates all day (between the triple asterisks ***)

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Andrej Meszaros has signed with Buffalo for one year at $4 million

Devan Dubnyk has signed on to be Arizona’s backup goalie this year. That’s an interesting one, because Mike Smith gets hurt often…

Willie Mitchell has signed with Florida for two years at $4.25 million

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Kevin Porter has signed a two-way deal with the Red Wings

The Devils have re-signed Steve Bernier

Tampa Bay signed Michael Blunden to a two-way contract

Scott Clemmensen is returning to New Jersey – a two-way contract

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Chicago has re-signed Peter Regin

Explain this one to me – Deryk Engelland signed a three-year contract worth $8.7 million with Calgary. Seriously. Ummm…. what?

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Toronto is having a big 2012-13 reunion. After re-acquiring Matt Frattin, they have signed Leo Komarov to a three-year deal.

Anton Stralman has signed a five-year deal with Tampa Bay for $22.5 million!

Jiri Tlusty has signed a one-year deal with Carolina for $2.95 million. At that ticket price, he’ll see his ice time in the top six.

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The Leafs have signed Stephane Robidas to a three-year deal ($9 million)

Colorado has signed Nick Holden to a three-year contract extension. And they also signed Bruno Gervais to a one-year deal, per Bob McKenzie.

The Rangers re-signed Dominic Moore to a two-year deal worth $3 million, and they signed Tanner Glass for three years at $1.45 million per year.

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The Leafs have traded Jerry D’Amigo and a conditional seventh rounder to Columbus to re-acquire Matt Frattin

The Oilers sign Keith Aulie

The Panthers sign Shawn Thornton

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Florida has signed Al Montoya to back up Roberto Luongo. That one is pretty straightforward so no breakdown article. But Justin Peters going to Washington has an impact and will get a breakdown article.

Phoenix has signed Joe Vitale to a three-year deal.

Dallas has signed Anders Lindback to a one-year deal, but I think he’ll still have to battle Jack Campbell for the backup role.

Josh Gorges has been traded to Buffalo

Brooks Orpik has signed with Washington

Montreal re-signs Mike Weaver

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More minor notes (the big ones we’ll give its own article)…

Brad Stuart has been traded by San Jose to Colorado for a second and a sixth-round draft pick.

Carolina has signed Brad Malone for two years.

Montreal has signed Tom Gilbert, two years at $5.6 million

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Milan Michalek will remain in Ottawa. They re-signed him to a three-year deal.

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Manny Malhotra has signed with the Montreal Canadiens. Minimal fantasy value unless your league counts faceoffs, so we won’t be breaking it down here.

The St. Louis Blue shave finally signed the high-scoring European prospect Jori Lehtera. Details and my anaylsis here.

The Oilers signed Mark Fayne to a four-year deal.

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Happy Canada Day everyone! Or should I say Free Agent Frenzy day?

This has proven to be one of the more interesting days on the hockey calendar and this year's version shouldn't disappoint. There will be plenty of big names available and we will have coverage and analysis here throughout the day.

Some of the most sought after players figure to be Jarome Iginla, Paul Stastny, and Thomas Vanek. Iginla figures to be looking to play for a contender at this point in his career and is likely going to take a short-term deal, probably just a year to keep himself flexible. The Boston Bruins would clearly like to have him back but are struggling with cap space at the moment.

One team that should be interested in Iginla and are expected to be very active during free agency are the Minnesota Wild. I think the Wild's playoff run will have a lot to do with how they act today and they are starting to realize they are closer to contending in the West than originally thought. I still think they need a goalie, though, so if they don't land one of the big skaters like Vanek or Iginla, do they turn their attention to Ryan Miller or Jonas Hiller? Or if they do make a big splash with a forward, do they try and trade for someone like James Reimer? He doesn't have the pedigree of a Ryan Miller but it may just be the change of scenery Reimer needs to regain his form.

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The Buffalo Sabres took Swedish goalie Jonas Johansson with the 61st overall pick on Saturday, which I thought was intriguing. This gives the Sabres cupboard another goalie prospect to stock up on as they now have somewhat of a log jam at the position. Michal Neuvirth and Jhonas Enroth are already on the roster and Johansson now joins Matthew Hackett and Linus Ullmark as highly touted prospects. This could mean Buffalo moves a netminder over the next few days for a draft pick or two. Enroth has played well at times with his limited opportunities, so he may fetch the most value outside one of the prospects. They could roll with Neuvirth and Hackett next year while the other two develop.

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Staying with the Sabres for a minute, much has been made about the cap going up to $69 million, but let's not forget that the floor is at $51 million. For some teams like Buffalo it's going to be a challenge to hit that mark. The Sabres just bought out Christian Ehrhoff and seem all in on an attempt to tank for either Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid in 2015. With that being said, they still need to add some significant salary to reach $51 million and adding talented free agents is going to be both tough to do because Buffalo isn't exactly the most desired destination right now, and counterproductive to their seemingly obvious goal of getting a high draft next year.

So what can they do? Well they can always trade for a few mediocre players with big contracts that don't have many years on them left to reach the floor. Florida did something similar a few years back with Brian Campbell. Although still a serviceable defenseman, his contract was beefy and the Chicago Blackhawks needed to get rid of some salary, so Florida scooped him up.

Wouldn't the Toronto Maple Leafs just love to unload David Clarkson's deal? Of course, Buffalo would be insane to take that ridiculous contract from a division rival, but any team with a contract they are looking to get rid of with only a couple years remaining on it, it's worth giving the Sabres a call.

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The Winnipeg Jets have re-signed defenseman Adam Pardy.

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Although it doesn't sound like a deal is imminent, Bob McKenzie is reporting that the two teams interested in Jason Spezza's services are the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues. While Spezza would give the defensive Blues a huge offensive boost, going to Dallas makes a lot of sense and he would really solidify the Stars' forward group. He's still a point per game guy when healthy and would look awfully good as a number two center playing behind Tyler Seguin. I think Spezza would thrive in a less featured role in a non-traditional hockey market, where there is less pressure and he isn't living under a microscope.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to retool their defense as they plan to buy out Tim Gleason. With addition of Roman Polak, Gleason was made expendable as the two basically fill the same role. Could this be a move to clear the way for Josh Gorges? Toronto reportedly had somewhat of a surprising deal in place for the blue liner but the Hab wouldn't waive his no trade clause. Perhaps he will eventually relent and agree to the move.

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There's a good chance Radim Vrbata will be leaving the Arizona Coyotes in free agency. He was a 35 goal man just a couple of seasons ago but managed just 20 last year. I felt he had a chance to hit at least again in 2013-14 if he played with Mike Ribeiro, but that obviously didn't pan out. Keep an eye on where he lands, because if he goes somewhere and gets to play with a strong set up man at center, 35 goals is still a possibility for Vrbata.

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Montreal traded Daniel Briere to Colorado for P.A. Parenteau. Briere struggled in Montreal and found himself as a healthy scratch from time to time. Although he was effective in a fourth line role in the playoffs.

Parenteau is a quality player and leaves a lot of young talent with the Avs but it may lead to more minutes with the Habs.

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For a pretty good rundown of all of the key players who were not given qualifying offers (and become UFA’s today), check out Dobber’s Ramblings from yesterday. He was updating them throughout the day.

And be sure to check in throughout the day today for instant trade breakdowns and analysis

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Tuesday could also mark the end for Martin Brodeur's storied time with the New Jersey Devils. The only way that happens is if a contender wants to give him a starting opportunity, which seems unlikely. Anyway, if it is the end for Brodeur in New Jersey, here are some highlights.

 

 

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor for DobberHockey and a News Editor for theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike

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