Free Agency, RFA's, and a tough goodbye

Start your engines for tomorrow, because that's when teams starting throwing inexplicable amounts of money at old players coming off career seasons in a contract year. Ryan Malone already cashed in, getting seven years and $31.5 million ($4.5 million/year) after seasons of 27, 16, and 22 goals. Not bad. I don't want to be one of those complainers always rolling their eyes at pro athlete contracts, but look at the market. Consider the absolutely childish fit Brian Burke pulled (and continues to pull whenever TSN baits him with questions about Kevin Lowe, which is as often as possible) when Penner got $4.25 million last year. Penner was coming off a season of 29 goals, played all 82 games, hardly saw any powerplay time (only 9 goals on the PP), and is three years younger. You could make the argument that Malone was the more proven commodity, but really, if you're an NHL GM, are you going to throw big money at a guy who scored 29 goals on the third line in his rookie season, or at the guy who scored less while playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin? I like Malone, him and Penner are pretty similar players (okay fine, I'd rather have Malone, he broke his nose twice in the same game and barely missed any time so yeah, of course I want him more than the Penner who sleepwalks through way too many shifts), but numbers-wise Penner is the better investment. Of course, Edmonton also paid three picks for Penner, but that's not what Burke said he had a problem with.

So I dunno, Hossa to Vancouver, Jagr to Vladivostok, Sundin to the Leafs (in December though, don't rush Mats!), Campbell to the LEAFS (yeah, out on a limb baby!), Sakic to the Avalanche (duh), Naslund to the Wings (I'm not going to bother checking to see if this is even possible under the cap, but he's Swedish so it's either Vancouver or Detroit), and Demitra to the, um, Senators. It's all madness anyways so it's more fun to watch than try to predict and make sense out of. Who thought the Rangers would get both Drury and Gomez last year? Or that Philly would get Briere, Timonen, and Hartnell? There's no way to predict any of the ridiculousness, so there's a half-serious attempt before the storm hits.

Since Kevin Lowe became the first GM to ever, in the history of the known universe, sign a player to an offer sheet, the talk around the NHL, or rather from the brilliant analysts on TV, is how the whole free agency landscape has changed. And that's somewhat true, since teams are now locking up their young stars, sometimes after just their second seasons, to long-term deals to avoid any poaching (ex. Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin's is coming soon, Ryan Getzlaf, Corry Perry). So rather than having a player go through a standard three year entry-level contract, then a moderate raise in a no-competition negotiation, before finally cashing in when they reach unrestricted free-agency, they get rich after year two. So yeah, things have changed for the young stars, but have things changed for the not-ready-for-primetime players? And what is this change based on? An actual change in strategy or just fear and paranoia?

If you account for the actual events that have occurred to stimulate this sudden shift in free agency and career contract structure, there haven't been too many. There's probably a reason for that. Lowe signed two players to offer sheets last year, one team matched (Buffalo with Vanek) and one didn't (Anaheim of course). This was BIG NEWS, because this NEVER HAPPENS. Actually though, it does. Trivia: other players have been signed to offer sheets before. Yeah I know. Shocking. Some actually changed teams. But only now, because Brian Burke threw the most public tantrum since I couldn't find the droids I was looking for, has the entire salary structure in the NHL apparently changed. It's flattering to think that Kevin Lowe is the most influential GM in NHL history, but come one. This whole fuss is still about an irregularity because non-superstar RFA's just don't get poached that often. It's not like everything will change because Lowe did it, and to suggest it will is to suggest that GM's watched Lowe and thought "Really? You can DO that? I'M gonna do that TOO, I HATE sitting through two boring-ass days at the draft each year. Looks like an extra round of golf!" There was Kesler two years ago, and Chris Gratton and Joe Sakic before that in 1997. That's it, and to re-emphasize, there's a good reason for this. It's a pretty big risk and a really big cost to go hunting for young RFA's when, if you draft properly, you could end up with someone younger, cheaper, and possibly better.

Some sad news today though. Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene were traded for All-Star defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky. Stoll is coming off a year where he had 36 points in
81 games, a -23 plus/minus, and saw his role diminish into a third-line checker, both because of performance and the emergence of Cogliano and Gagner. Greene had one assist in 41 games and played on the third defensive pairing, though does project as a 4th defenseman. Visnovsky had more points than both last year (41), and had seasons of 58 and 67 points before that. Lots of people hate this trade for Edmonton, thinking that the Oilers got softer or something. Those people are idiots, and are happy to prove it by posting their "thoughts" on TSN's Your Call. Edmonton clearly wins this trade, they get one of the top 10 defensemen in the NHL and only gives up depth players whose roles are already filled. Just like the Pronger trade of years ago, they gave up some depth to get top-end talent. Great trade.

It's a sad trade for the same reason the Pronger and Peca trades were bittersweet. Edmonton lost Eric Brewer and Mike York and later traded away Marty Reasoner for Sergei Samsonov at the trade deadline. Obviously the 2006 Finals run was amazing, an entire spring of uncharted territory for a city that was starved for hockey success. Edmonton earned it, having gone through the agony of nearly losing the team, trading away fan favorite after fan favorite, suffering the humiliation of being one of the NHL's great franchises yet being on the outside of all serious hockey talk. Free agency, deep playoff runs, individual awards, these were not discussions that involved the city of Edmonton. 2006 was a reward for a lot of suffering, not everything we wanted but far more than we could have ever hoped for. And yet despite the success, the attention from the entire hockey world, the awe and praise for 16,839 Oh Canada-singing fans, the re-ascension of the long-dormant Oilers into a major force in the NHL once again, something was missing. A lot of players went into that Finals run, but a lot more of them weren't around to reap rewards borne from years of futility. 2006 was about Pronger, Roloson, Smyth, Smith, and Horcoff, but it was also about Weight, Joseph, Marchant and the recently traded Reasoner, Brewer and York. I predict right now that the Oilers will win the Northwest and make some noise in the playoffs this season. It'll be great to watch, another generous reward for two pretty tough seasons, but it'll be missing a few pieces. I long thought of Stoll as a future Oiler captain and Greene at times indeed looked like the heir apparent to Jason Smith. After Ryan Smyth, Stoll was my favorite Oiler, and any success the team has with Visnovsky will always have the same twinge of sadness that the 2006 Oiler team had. Godspeed good sirs, you'll be missed!