July 07, 2011
Jeff Angus
2011-07-07
Some afternoon news which will be expanded upon tomorrow:
Ryan Shannon has signed a one-year deal with TB. Jeff Tambellini has signed to play in the Swiss League next year.
Philly has locked up Wayne Simmonds to a two-year extension. Cap hit of $1.75 million.
Nashville has signed three of their four RFAs involved in the contract issue – Halischuk (two years), Spaling (two years), and Cal O’Reilly (one year). Sergei Kostitsyn remains unsigned.
The quick-reference “key” free agent tracker is updated.
The St. Louis signings are great hockey moves, but terrible fantasy hockey moves. I agree with Dobber that Arnott is a lock for the third line, but he will eat some PP time up. He can still hammer the puck and will likely push one of the younger forwards off of the power play.
Langenbrunner kills D'Agostini's fantasy value, which is too bad. He's an exciting player to watch – shifty and crafty with the puck. He'll move up with injuries, but it's hard to peg him for much more than 40-45 points looking at the depth chart right now.
Do the signings have anything to do with the lack of progress from David Perron? Possibly – especially the Langenbrunner signing. Perron has yet to return to any sort of intense workouts after suffering a concussion last year from a late Joe Thornton hit.
David Poile appears to be committed to sticking at least one rookie on Nashville back end.
A set of Swedish twins arrived in Vancouver for the prospects camp yesterday – Ponthus and Pathrik Westerholm. Pathrik was selected in the 2011 draft, Ponthus was invited to camp. Their scouting report – skilled, love to cycle, question marks about how they play without each other. Sound familiar?
Eric Fehr has to be trade bait at this point. The Capitals inked Brouwer to a contract extension. Brouwer and Knuble are locks for the top six on the RW, assuming Semin plays on the LW and Laich moves to his natural C position (at least at even strength). Joel Ward is the third line checking winger. Eric Fehr – relegated to the fourth line again?
He is a band-aid boy but I still believe he has the ability to score 30 with enough ice time and the right linemates.
Some beauty goals from Ottawa prospect Jakob Silfverberg: