NHL Gone Wild!

Canes resign Wesley! ColdForged likes Wesley... during the season I used to see him often at the bagel place about a mile from my house. Note that I'd ever actually speak to him.

Now we only have Vasicek to resign.

Vinny resigns with TB and St. Louis is close behind.

We will pretty much have the top 2 lines back from the championship team.

Vinny resigns with TB and St. Louis is close behind.

It was for 4 years 7 million a year rigt? That's a little expensive. I realize it's important that they keep him but 7 million way over what he's worth.

7 million a year? Wow... that sounds crazy.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but another one I saw earlier that looked bizzare was Johan Hecht staying with the Sabres for something like $3 million a year. In my book, Hecht is above average, but not much more than that. A steady second-liner isn't worth $3 million unless there's some upside, and I don't see the upside.

Lecavalier gets 6.8 a season. Way too much in my opinion.

Joseph has officially signed with Phoenix.

As far as I can tell Hecht's salary is undisclosed but Buffalo probably really likes him. I don't know too much other than he's a solid point producer and I think he's a major factor in their penalty kill.

Edited because Hecht is not a factory.

Vector wrote:

he's a major factory in their penalty kill.

He's a factory...that makes miniature models...of factories...I'm just letting this go now.

Anson Carter in 'Couver? Man, that's crazy!

Well, Stumple was signed by Florida so there's no chance of him returning to the Kings.

Also, Colorado added another second-tier player (Curtis Leschyshyn).

Vector wrote:

Well, Stumple was signed by Florida so there's no chance of him returning to the Kings.

Stumpel was not wanted back. Conroy is a major upgrade at 2nd line center. Stumpel was pretty much ditched before the lockout.

I wouldn't have minded having Anson Carter back. It seems the Kings basically swapped Valeri Bure into that spot. Bure came a half-million more expensive, but I think he wanted to be in LA (closer to wife D.J. Tanner ) and Carter didn't care to stay.

I prefer Carter over Bure but both are fine players. I think Carter will fit into the Vancouver system very well and Bure should be a good fit for LA.

I'm more comfortable with Bure given his performance in 03-04 (22 goals, 52 points). Carter really had a bad 03-04 (15 goals, 28 points). Of course, he started it with the Rangers, and then a stint with the Caps before ending up in LA. He only had 1 point in 15 games for LA, but I don't necessarily think that's indicative of a permanent fall-off. LA was the guy's 4th team in 2 years and I think he was pretty weary. Plus, everyone around him in LA went down - Palffy went down, Allison and Deadmarsh were already down, Straka came as a late-season trade and went down too, etc. He needs to get settled in, get on a line and stay there with some good linemates, and maybe worry a bit more about hockey than his hip-hop record label.

Of course, if Bure gets hurt again, then I would prefer Carter.

On a different note, did you know these two guys were born 7 days apart? Just noticed at the top of their hockeydb.com profiles. Both June 1974, Carter on the 6th and Bure on the 13th.

Woah, freaky. Never know that. I find it strange that Naslund, Forsberg, the Sedin's, and one or two other players were all born in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. What is in their water?

I'd rather have Bure than Carter, myself. Carter has always struggled with consistency, and to some extent I question the effort he puts into his game. One year he looks really good, the next year he can't get anything going. Which one will show up? I also think LA had a bigger need for a good right winger, as Cammelleri (or however you spell it) looks promising but is pretty untested. Meanwhile, the Canucks should have Bertuzzi and Linden ahead of Carter on the right wing depth chart.

Meanwhile, the Canucks should have Bertuzzi and Linden ahead of Carter on the right wing depth chart.

They sorta will. The Canucks have the top line (Naslund, Morrison, and Bertuzzi) and then the Sedins with the flavour of the week. After that they have random combinations of players (Linden, Cooke, Kesler, King, Ruutu, and now Park and Carter). Carter will probably play with the Sedins and Linden will be played with the combination guys.