Thursday, May 24, 2007

NHL FREE AGENCY

I know, it's been months since I've been on this thing. With NHL Free Agency just around the corner, I took a look at some of the players out there, and took the liberty of ranking these players by position, and by value on the market. Don't assume that I am assessing the players value, or overall score. I am considering age of the player, recent playing history and potential to develop.

Seeing as I'm a Kings fan, this has been something I've been interested in since the playoffs started. So here we go,

Goalies

J.S. Giguere
N. Backstrom
D. Hasek
C. Joseph
M. Garon

Honourable Mention: M. Dunham, J. Thibault, J. Markannen, D. Aebischer

Defensemen

B. Rafalski
S. Souray
M. Schneider
A. Sutton
D. Sydor
K. Timmonen
S. Hannan
C. Chelios
B. Stuart
C. Rivet

Honourable Mention: C. Sarich, B. Sopel, T. Poti, G. DeVries, J. Fischer, A. Ference, R. Hamrlik, D. Markov, V. Vishnevski, S. Ozolinsh

Left Wing

P. Kariya
B. Shanahan
R. Smyth
L. Nagy
T. Bertuzzi

Honourable Mention: Tkachuk, Zednik, Roberts, Dupuis, Freisen

Right Wing

T. Selanne
J. Blake
B. Guerin
M. Recchi
A. Carter

Honourable Mention: J. Sim, Amonte, Bondra, Hartnell, Mogilny (this guy's still in the league??)

Centre

P. Forsberg
D. Briere
C. Drury
S. Gomez
R. Lang

Honourable Mention: Lindros, Arnason, Barnes, Stefan, V. Kozlov, Comrie

As a Kings fan, I'd like to see a few things happen. In this priority, I would like to see my team make the following moves:

1. Sign a goalie.
A goalie like J.S. Giguere would be amazing. Not very realistic, as I don't see him wanting to leave a contender like Anaheim. Backstrom may be a more reasonable player to pursue, and would be a valuable addition to the team. At last resort, a goalie like Thibault could possibly help, and locking up Garon for future development may be a wise move.

2. Sign a scorer.
Cammaleri, Frolov and Kopitar seem to be hitting stride at the same time. All three had great breakout years, and look to have further potential. Adding a veteran presence that can score would help to balance out the offensive attack, and also help ease the load of these young superstars. Ideally, snagging Drury out of Buffalo would be perfect, but considering the market and the crowd of suitors that will be chasing him, someone like Gomez, or Blake might add that extra offensive punch that has been lacking.

3. Sign a long term blue-liner.
Blake is getting up in years, and the gap between him and the younger prospects like Johnson, is too great. They need a mature defensmen who can lead this defense corps into the future. Someone like Sutton would be a great fit in L.A., or a big shot like Souray or Schneider would be a nice addition. Also, if L.A. can go back out and reclaim a player like Sopel, and maybe add someone like Poti, or Stuart, the defense would continue to look very strong for the future.


As I end, I would like to say to all those who don't appreciate my blogging prowess... Suck a dick.


Sources cited:
www.tsn.ca
www.prosportsdaily.com

2 Comments:

Blogger LBomb said...

You didn't even honourably mention Andrei Markov? You honourably mentioned Jiri "I should be dead" Fischer but didn't mention Markov? You ranked Andy Sutton #4 but didn't mention Markov?? Shame.

12:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.

2:44 PM  

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