Capped: Money Well Spent

Chris Pudsey

2015-05-07

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Free Agency can bring good value to the general managers that look for it, including names like Stralman and Vrbata.

Every year, July 1^st is the opening day of Christmas shopping for NHL GM's. This is the day free agency opens, and so does the wallets of team owners everywhere. Some buys are bargains and some turn out to be busts. Some even turn out to be a good purchase for both the players and the teams.

In last weeks Capped, we took a look at last year's free agent busts. This week, we are going to review the free agent deals that actually worked out for the teams involved. In no particular order:

Devan Dubnyk – MIN – One year, $800K

player	GP	Win	L	OTL	SO	GA	SHA	GAA	SV%
DUBNYK, DEVAN	58	36	14	4	6	115	1625	2.07	0.9292

I will bet you three Connor McDavids when Arizona Coyotes GM, Don Maloney, signed Dubnyk to a one year deal last year, he had no idea he was signing a Vezina Trophy finalist. I am fairly sure no one saw that one coming at the time.

After stealing the starting job in Arizona from the incumbent, Mike Smith, Dubnyk was shipped off to Minnesota for a third round pick in the upcoming 2015 NHL draft. Minnesota was struggling to keep their playoff heads above water and Dubnyk came in and calmed the ship. He was easily the team's MVP this year even though he only appeared in 39 of the Wild's games, and you can bet he won't be a bargain this off-season when he becomes an UFA again.

Not that this should be a surprise but the numbers above are all career highs for Dubnyk. Looking at all goalies with at least 30 starts, his 36 wins were sixth-best in the league (even though he started fewer games than the five in front of him), his GAA was second only to Carey Price and his SV% was second in the league to once again, you guessed it, Carey Price.

That's one heck of a return in the $800K investment.

Radim Vrbata – VAN – Two years, $10M

player	GP	G	A	P	PntPG	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI	%PP	%SH	TOI/G	%TOI
VRBATA, RADIM	79	31	32	63	0.80	6	20	267	44	12	23	0	25	02:55	60.0	1.5	16:37	27.4

Vrbata was probably Vancouver best off-season move last summer. He led their team in goals and had career high 63 points this year. He was also voted the Canucks MVP. He was key in returning the Canucks stagnant power play back to relevance, and helping Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin bounce back after a few years of decline.

This past season, the NHL only had 15 skaters score 30 or more goals. Of those 30, only four of those skaters, Vladimir Tarasenko, Max Pacioretty, Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler made less money than Vrbata and two of them were on ELC's (Tarasenko and Monahan). That's excellent value for the Canucks and a very smart signing.

One has to wonder why there are rumours about Vrbata being dealt this off-season. Stay tuned to that one.

Anton Stralman – TB – Five years, $22.5M

player	GP	G	A	P	PntPG	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI 📢 advertisement:	%PP	%SH	TOI/G	%TOI
STRALMAN, ANTON	82	9	30	39	0.48	22	26	138	104	2	14	0	77	02:29	43.7	48.8	21:57	36.2

I won't lie, when the Bolts signed Stralman to the five-year deal at an annual rate of $4.5M, I raised my eyebrows and thought, "Really? How much??" To say Stralman has been worth that much and more is an understatement.