12/21/24
July 01, 2004
NHL Summer '04 - Free Agent Fest: As the free agency deadline elapsed last night, there were some surprising candidates that made it to unrestricted free-agency(Zhamnov, Recchi, Shanahan, Bondra, Kariya, Kovalev, and Lindros) along with the expected signings. The prize of the class, imho, Zhamnov.
Here's a full list of available free agents, the free agency group they belong too, and explanations of the different groups. It should be pretty interesting to see what happens over the next couple of days....or months. I'm sure there will be a couple of big signings and then other teams will feel they have to compete by signing a big name or two as well, despite the CBA situation. I've heard that even my lowly Pittsburgh Penguins are looking at a couple of players, like Recchi. Alot of the lesser names on that list are probably going to be free agents for quite a while.
posted by Stan Fields at 11:32 AM on July 01, 2004
Sorry Garf, Zhamnov is a good player - but hardly the class of the year. You watch - he goes somewhere for about $3 - 4 mil. I think Kovalex, Recchi and Kariya all do better. It's the restricted free agents that get interesting. Will St. Louis match a huge Pronger deal?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:37 PM on July 01, 2004
Zhamnov gets no love, but he has been averaging a pt/gm for years on the shitpile that kindly referred to as the Blackhawks. Kovalev, well, now that he's no longer a Ranger again, he might turn out to be a truly great player. Recchi, his game relies on attributes he really can't call his strengths anymore. Kariya is a good challenger to Alex, I'll give you that. Paul is a superior finisher, while Zhamnov is a superior set-up guy. And no, St.Louis won't match a Pronger-type deal. Those days of ridiculous NHL contracts are over. Unless of course some GM wants to thoroughly embarass himself.
posted by garfield at 02:06 PM on July 01, 2004
ION: Turek re-works is ridiculously bloated contract to enable the Flames to keep the best player in the game today.