MiltonSearch.com blog

If TSN can have an all-day show as well as a pre-show show for NHL Free Agent Frenzy (as they’ve so cleverly coined it), then it must be worth chiming in with some thoughts…

After hammering the Leafs for some of their earlier moves, I didn’t mind the Jason Blake signing, even for five years (I actually didn’t mind the Toskala pickup – I was just questioning the fact that important high draft picks which are badly needed were given up AND it just reeked of a panic move, in which JFJ felt he needed to “correct” the Raycroft acquisition, which I’ve been ripping for over a year now…).

If they were in rebuilding mode (which they should be), then it’s a brutal move, but hell, they’ve shown that rebuilding definitely isn’t part of the long-term plan, so I guess it’s ok. They got the best second-tier free agent available after the big boys signed with predictable clubs and I guess it gives them the chance to “win now” - which means a chance to make the playoffs, basically.

Now let’s hope Blake gets some time flanking Sundin. Coming off a 40-goal campaign, it seems like the right thing to do. I don’t even know how long I’ve been screaming at the Leafs to acquire someone even remotely comparable to Sundin’s talent level for him to play with (I won’t go through the list now – I’ll save that for when Mats hangs ‘em up with hundreds of points less than what he should have had in his career thanks to his time spent in Toronto wasting time playing with a series of ham ‘n eggers on his lines, under Pat Quinn’s questionable coaching and of course, what I’ve coined as the “Dead Puck Era” of the NHL: 1995-200?). Blake isn’t the answer, but he’s close. He can bury the biscuit and he won’t shy away from the corners, which is sure to be appreciated around these parts. Put him out there with Tucker and McCabe, and you’ve also got the beginnings of an all-star squad of yappers as well…

How will this work out for the Leafs? Well, they’re probably looking at another dogfight for 8th in the East, but “Free Agent Frenzy” day saw some of their Eastern rivals move both up and down the depth charts.

First, let’s start with the hated Flyers. Did I mention I hate this club/franchise/city? I have to give GM Paul Holmgren credit: he was there on Nashville’s front porch first in line waiting for the fire sale to begin, allowing him to get Hartnell and Timmonen in exchange for hockey tape and a used mouthgard; then, armed with a suitcase of Ed Snider’s hard-earned cash, he snapped up Daniel Briere. With Flyer fans doing cartwheels through the streets, he followed up those bold moves by sending Joni Pitkanen to the Oilers for defensive pillar Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul, who struggled mightily last year, but has some SERIOUS upside. I said I hate the Flyers, right?

This is EXACTLY why I wanted the Leafs to start shedding contracts over the last couple of years. Philly took it on the chin and were a laughingstock for a year, but now they’ll probably be challenging for first overall in the East with this revamped roster. If you’re Florida, Nashville, Long Island, Phoenix, Washington etc., rebuilding from scratch can be a crap shoot – but cities like Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, Detroit have an advantage in that they’re hockey cities – as long as they draft well (a big if), these teams will always be able to fill the final few holes with free agents. Cold weather? Not an issue. Yes, I’m sure some players see the advantages in being able to hit a round of golf on a gameday in January, but most won’t even flinch at playing in a cold-weather city. These guys aren’t the spoiled babies that are NBA players…

Anyhoo, this is my point with the Leafs – I could have sat through one or two “lean” years if it meant icing a kick ass team for years to come afterwards…. Instead, we’ve got an 8th-11th place club for the foreseeable future. And, if the Leafs somehow squeak into the playoffs, they’ll be dispatched quickly, no doubt. The Flyers? After the league put the collective boots to them last year (I savoured the Leafs 4-0 record vs. them – I just knew it would be short-lived), they’ve now got a great up-and-coming team with some of their own prospects ready to bloom, the young guys from Nashville entering their prime, and a veteran leader on D in Smith and up front now in Gagne. Pardon me while I throw up.

With Drury and Gomez heading to Broadway and Ryan Smyth headed to the Avs, my only other thought on “Free Agent Frenzy” is that the rich are getting richer… It suddenly feels as if it’s 1998 again… Wasn’t the whole lockout/salary cap thing a way to try to level the playing field?? If you look at the last few cup winners and some of the best teams from last year (namely Ottawa, Buffalo), I’d say it was working. But out of nowhere, the cap number keeps growing by leaps and bounds every year, which has suddenly allowed the big markets to snap up the big guns. As much as I hate the Sabres, you have to feel for them being on the cusp of greatness and suddenly losing their two biggest studs…

We’ll have to see how the two big signings work out for the Rangers – where historically, they have been the club where big-name free agents have decided to flee to and never be heard from again… The question I want to ask however, is how the NHL can justify increasing the cap figure each year by such a substantial amount. A million or two per team, maybe, but we’ve seen it jump from 39, to 44 (or 45?), now to over 50. I realize it’s tied to revenues, but we know they’re making a big fat nothing from NBC, and the other TV deals (Versus, CBC, TSN) are still the same (correct me if I’m wrong). I don’t recall any big deal being announced or signed recently which would mean a big infusion of cash for the league either… Help me out with this one folks – and don’t tell me they’re selling a lot of Crosby and Ovechkin jerseys in China or Japan.

The conspiracy theorist in me will now state the obvious: after the Cup has been paraded around in cities like Tampa Bay, Raleigh and Anaheim in the last three years, methinks the NHL would like to start seeing some major U.S. markets back in the hunt (this means you Philly, NY, Chicago and LA), and by raising the cap and pricing the smaller markets out of “Free Agent Frenzy 2007”, they may be well on the way to doing this. The problem is, you still have to play the games…

After all the smoke clears next year after 82 games, a month-and-a-half of playoffs and the NHL’s efforts to bolster the large U.S. markets, wouldn’t it be ironic if we faced off with yet another small-market Stanley Cup final?

This is the way these things seem to work out for the embattled Mr. Bettman these days… If his track record continues as it has over the last decade, say hello to a Buffalo/Calgary Stanley Cup final.

Chew on that one, Gary!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.