The frenetic period of free agency wheeling and dealing that surrounds the annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is done and dusted for another year, after some interesting trades and signings.
Here are my Free Agency losers.
Calgary Flames: Yes, President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke got Jonas Hiller from Anaheim to solve some goaltending woes, sure, Mason Raymond will be okay in place of the departed Mike Cammalleri but the real head-scratcher here is Deryk Engelland getting $8.7 million over three years. No wonder the former Penguins defenceman was so happy to take his talents north to Calgary for the next three years.
It’s crazy, crazy money when you take into account what Engelland was on in Pittsburgh – a relatively meagre $575,000 – and that’s when the light bulb really goes off for me. They got Engelland because he can fight. Oh yeah, he’s good at swinging punches and taking them, and will definitely help keep the Flames offensive players safe out there.
At the end of the day, though, I keep coming back to the money. $8.7 million for three years equates to nearly three million per year. I thought Burke was smarter than that. Honestly, Engelland, a sixth or seventh defenceman, deserved to be on the Winners list in the vein of new Capitals blue-liner Brooks Orpik with the money he’s just pulled in. Sometimes I wonder whether the hockey world’s gone mad.
Martin Brodeur: The former New Jersey Devils goaltender/legend can’t seem to take a hint. When the Devils signed journeyman Scott Clemmensen to back up Corey Schneider in net, Brodeur, the NHL’s all-time leader in wins, shutouts and just about every other statistical category during a sparkling career in Newark, was left out in the cold.
And remains there. Brodeur has never been in the position of needing to look for work. It’s always come to him. Nor has he ever had to face the fact that, at best, he’s going to be a back-up getting 15-25 games a season. He also wants to play another season, with a team that’s likely going to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. That, of course, makes his options few and far between.
I wrote a few weeks ago that it was time for Brodeur to call it quits. He’s had a great career, and deserves to be lauded as the greatest New Jersey Devil to ever play – and that’s damn near a certainty. It’s sad to see him still a free agent, and apparently not figuring in anyone’s plans. Hanging on and trying to play for another club, where he’d spend most of his time riding the pine, cheapens his incredible legacy. There’s a time to graciously bow out of the game, and this, for Brodeur, is it.
Washington Capitals: Good lord, are the Capitals, with a new head coach in Barry Trotz and a new GM in Brian MacLellan are throwing ridiculous money around the place, or what? They gave Brooks Orpik (a definite Free Agency winner now with a pretty heavy wallet), a player whose best days are behind him, $27.5 million over five years and will probably backfire pretty quickly, given that he will be thirty-four before training camp is done.
They also splashed out on Orpik’s former Pittsburgh teammate, Matt Niskanen, who was handed a $40.25 million and seven years. Now, Niskanen is good, but is he great? Great enough that he deserves five and a quarter million dollars per year?
Not from where I sit.
The Caps have tied up a lot of money in guys who are either old or unproven, and it looks like, despite new faces, the same old song and dance in the American capital. Their obvious defensive inefficiencies have led them to make some ill-advised signings. It could be a pretty spectacular blow-up-in-your-face situation for the Capitals before too long.
Detroit Red Wings: For a team who normally make a big splash around free agency – and around the trade deadline, for that matter – the Red Wings were very quiet in 2014, ending up with not much of anything, really, hence their appearance on this list.
Obviously looking to shore up their defence, Ken Holland, as savvy a GM as there is anywhere in sport, and his team prepared offers for Brian Boyle (who signed with the Rangers) , Stephane Robidas (Toronto), Anton Stralman (Tampa Bay) and even Christian Erhhoff (Pittsburgh) and were rebuffed by all of them.
A bunch of good blue liners slipped through Detroit’s fingers, and the best the Red Wings could do was re-sign Kyle Quincey for $8.5 million and two years. Now, Quincey is a pretty solid player at the back end, but he’s no superstar, and most definitely not the name Holland and the Wings were expecting to land during free agency.
Particularly interesting in the cases of Boyle and Robidas is that Holland’s offers were more than the Rangers and Toronto paid for those two players, which makes me wonder. I mean, back in the day – by which I pretty much mean right up until the last year or two, and for about a decade before that – guys were falling all over themselves to get to Detroit.
Why? Because Detroit always represented a solid chance at Stanley Cup glory. You hesitate to say it of a club who had been so resilient for so many years, it seems that the Wings are being perceived as on a slide. Things change pretty quickly in this game, don’t they?
Disagree? Talk hockey with me! Follow me on Twitter @akitchener
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