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With training camp upon us, most of this year's crop of Unrestricted Free
Agents (UFAs) found new homes; a few stayed put. We take a look at the teams
that really did upgrade their line-up with UFA signings as well as the teams
that triedand the teams that did not.
First - The Winners:
1. Dallas Stars: The big winner in the UFA sweepstakes this year has
to be the Dallas Stars. It was a bit surprising to see the organization wade
into the free agent market once again. After losing Brett
Hull and then signing free agent flops Donald
Audette and to a lesser degree Pierre
Turgeon, and then trading popular Joe
Nieuwendyk and Jamie
Langenbrunner for rent-a-player Randy
McKay and the often injured Jason
Arnott, we’re sure there must have been some trepidation about dipping
into the free agent market this off season to play with the “mix” once
again. However, landing Bill
Guerin, Scott
Young, Ulf
Dahlen up front, with Philippe
Boucher on the blue line -- and picking up dependable Ron
Tugnutt at the draft -- the Stars are a markedly better team than when
they finished out of the playoffs last year. And perhaps the biggest
addition is behind the bench, with the hiring of former LA assistant Dave
Tippett. Tippett will bring a new offensively oriented system to the
Stars. Expect that to bring music to ears of Mike
Modano, Jere
Lehtinen, Sergei
Zubov et al. Pierre
Turgeon is just too good a player not to rebound this year and being
reunited with Scott
Young should help. Jason
Arnott remains a bit of a question mark, as he is more effective as a
center than a right winger, but with the new guys signing, Arnott may have
to get used to patrolling the right side: expect this to adversely affect
his numbers. Boucher’s arrival means less time for Derian
Hatcher on the PP, and may bite into Darryl
Sydor ’s spot as well. Sergei
Zubov should be pleased as he now has more than a few options on rushes
up the ice. Tugnutt adds great character to the dressing room and a more
than capable alternative between the pipes should newly anointed No. 1 Marty
Turco falter. All in all the Stars meant what they said about re-tooling
their team. If they can get the new guys on board right away, they could
challenge Detroit and Colorado in the west for best record.
2. New York Rangers: A surprise to some to have them here, but lets
face it: even though they paid ridiculous amounts of dough for Bobby
Holik and Darius Kasperitis there is no questioning that those two
players will help improve the 30th best penalty killing team and the 30th
ranked defensive team in the NHL. New head coach Brian Trottier brings a new
attitude, a new system, and a wealth of experience with him in ex-coaches
Terry O’Reilly and Jim
Schoenfeld. That said, can the two new skaters right this ship by
themselves? Well, no. But a full season of Bure -- and more importantly a
full season of good defensive forwards in Rem
Murray, Radek
Dvorak and Roman
Lyashenko – will assist in the burden. Petr Nedved’s days as a
Ranger have to be numbered as the glut at center is not improved by
resigning of veteran captain Mark
Messier. We wonder if Tom
Poti will realize his potential, or is he destined to follow the bad
habits of Vladimir Malakhov? Lots of question marks to be sure, but at least
the Rangers went out a got a few key UFAs.
3. Detroit Red Wings: With Dominek Hasek’s retirement from the
game, it did not take long for GM Ken
Holland to find the next best thing in Curtis
Joseph. On some nights, Cujo alone brought the Leafs to a measure of
respectability. Last season he played hurt, and through the playoffs
everyone could see that this was not the Cujo of old. But then again, Hasek
did not have to be the best goalie in the world last year to flirt with 40
wins either. The Red Wings aren’t done by any stretch and have the gaze
firmly on acquiring the cup again this year. The rest of the NHL has to hope
that the grueling grind through the playoffs and the loss of injured Stevie
Y will have a tremendous adverse affect on the Wings – we are not
convinced. Cujo has something to prove; particularly to the media and the
fans of Toronto that criticized his play down the stretch and into the
playoffs. Detroit’s ability to re-load is eerie, and it also ensures that
they be making noise in the playoffs come June.
4. Phoenix Coyotes: We have to like the overachieving ‘Yotes going
out and attracting a legit 40 goal scorer the likes of Tony
Amonte. With more lucrative offers from the Leafs and Isles to ponder,
the signing of Amonte in the desert reflects the personality of the Dawgs
management: unassuming and deadly. Amonte instantly becomes the “go-to”
guy in Phoenix and should help them sell tickets for their new arena. The
Coyotes won‘t be a surprise around the league anymore, and with Amonte’s
signing, Phoenix has ensured that they won’t falter in the very
competitive western conference. With big seasons from the top two lines,
Phoenix should be at least as good as last year surprise breakout.
5. Columbus Blue Jackets: GM Doug McLean’s ability to sell Columbus
to Andrew
Cassels as a great community with relatively close proximity to Toronto,
combined with the promise of significant ice time, should have an impact on
the success of the Blue Jackets this season. The Cassels signing leaves the
Blue Jackets with a prototypical No.2 center in the NHL. If Cassels can stay
healthy he should anchor the powerplay and provide much needed punch to one
of the worst ranked offenses in the NHL. McLean also took some steps to
improve a rather porous defence by signing stay-at-home Scott
LaChance and rough-and-tumble Luke
Richardson (who has a chance to regain his pre-Flyer Oiler form). By
themselves, these two defensemen won’t make the Blue Jackets significantly
better, but they will certainly cut down on the amount of second scoring
chances that beleaguered Marc
Denis faced last year. All things considered, the Blue Jackets are
trying to make themselves competitive... whether it works remains to be
seen. Remember Tampa Bay in the early years? Similar M.O.
The "Also Rans":
6. Washington Capitals: You’d think the signing of decent two-way
center Robert
Lang that this would be a win-win for the Capitals. But scoring goals
wasn’t their problem last year: preventing chances was. Admittedly, Olaf
Kolzig should rebound from a less than Kolzig-like start, but a glimpse
at the Caps defence speaks volumes about where they should have spent their
money. Notwithstanding Sergei
Gonchar, the Caps are left with average at best Ken
Klee and Brendan
Witt, as well as often injured Sylvain
Cote and Calle
Johansson. “Slow footed” is an accurate characterization. That, and
we are not convinced that Lang can fill the shoes of the departed Oates.
Granted he’s a solid two-way centerman, but he’s firmly in the
spot-light now, and will face the opposing teams best centers. It will be an
uphill climb to be sure. Throw in a rookie head coach with the likes of the
enigmatic Jagr and at times flighty Bondra and well… the Caps might not be
the world beaters that many pundits have forecasted. They may be better, but
whether they will challenge will require a huge defensive effort.
7. Vancouver Canucks: You could almost certainly insert any Canadian
team in this slot, save the Leafs (and we’ll get to them later) but no
team did less to cover the loss of players to free agency than the Canucks.
Sure, the team’s up for sale and ownership just can’t afford to spend
huge dollars on free agents, but the Canucks reliance on another year of
“seasoning” could blow up in their faces – much like it did early last
year. Does anyone really expect that Bertuzzi and Naslund are going to have
the same seasons that they had last season without some help? Granted the
‘Nucks had the best record in the league after the All-Star break, but
that was with Andrew
Cassels and Scott
Lachance in the line-up. We’ve seen this movie before (just last year
in fact). As a Fantasy Hockey GM, you should be cautious.
8. Colorado Avalanche: Hard to think that a team that is getting the
best all-around player in the game back this season (do we have to actually
say Peter Forsberg?) can be found in this bone pile, but in the immortal
words of WWE wrestler Kurt Angle – “it’s true, it’s true!” Last
year the ‘Lanche started without Adam
Foote and it showed. Pascal
Trepanier did his best, but the Avalanche defence was routinely exposed
after Blake, Foote and the emerging Craig DeVries. Losing Darius Kasperitis
may have been by design, but the ‘Lanche need to find someone to pick up
his minutes and be able to clear the front of the net. If Foote or Blake, or
both, miss any time, which is likely given their past track records, the
Avalanche do not have the horses to fill in as they once did. Forsberg will
help, but without some help back on the blue-line, the Avalanche look
fallible.
9. Toronto Maple Leafs: It’s not like the Leafs management wasn’t
trying to land some UFA help, they just kept coming up short, and that’s
not a good thing. Does Ed
Belfour still have something to prove? You bet. Can he do it? We
aren’t so sure. Belfour arrives in Hogtown to replace Curtis
Joseph, and those are mighty big pads to fill indeed. Without playoff
hero Gary
Roberts until 2003, the Leafs were already looking for more offense and
without getting help via free agency, they remain searching. Question marks
continue about their blue-line, most notably, can Robert
Svehla be better than Dmitri
Yushkevich, can Karel
Pilar and Petr
Svoboda contribute regularly? Alyn McAulley looks poised to make a
greater offensive contribution, but the expectations may be too high. All in
all, the Leafs haven’t improved themselves as they needed to and without
some help soon (now likely via trade) they may take a step back.
10. New York Islanders: Once again GM Mike
Milbury goes from goat to great and back to goat again in a hurry. Hard
to figure how he missed the boat on securing a scoring winger after letting
the Polish Pistol, Marius Czerkawski, go for the gritty, but less talented
Aaron Ashym. Alexei
Yashin will still get his points, and Dave
Scatchard will try and replace Mike
Peca on the 2nd line until Peca’s return sometime in December, but is Mark
Parrish the answer on the right side of Yashin? When one describes
"streaky," Parrish is upfront early in that definition. Milbury
moved Czerkawski and was desperate to try and move Roman
Hamrlik to give himself some cash flexibility to sign Guerin, Amonte, or
even Scott
Young. None of that came to fruition, and now the Isles are faced with
relying on Parrish and the likes of Raffi
Torres to replace the lose of offense. This could be a very tall order,
and the Isles may take a step backwards this year.
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