Which Free Agent Would You Sign?

[bombTHEice]

Don't know about his status -restricted/unrestricted- but I would'nt mind seeing Ales Hemsky in a Habs jersey. I would sign Horcoff as well, if he was available.

Hemsky is just 22 years old, he won't go anywhere.

[InsaneHABSfan]

Not sure how accurate it is, but I use http://www.hockeytraderumors.com/article-6004--0-0.html to look at who is available to sign.

Which is why I had brought up David Legwand at one time as he is a UFA which means the Habs can keep the youth intact. I think the days of over paying a superstar are over as some guys will sign with a club that can win. This is why Kovalev signed with Montreal, he likes the city and the team. there will always be teams that pay top $$$ and Kovalev is a little high on the pay scale but he does try.

I hope Montreal just goes after younger free agents to gell with this team. Some older guys just want to do things their own way which will not help the ultimate goal.

Ooops, almost forgot. KUDOS to all the memebers of this board for not voting for that Leaf defenceman with liabilities at playing defence. A very offensively gifted gentleman but the Habs sure made him look silly skating around him this year. In Toronto they are crying that he is not signed. I also want them to sign him, then I know Montreal will score in every contest against the Leafs this year. (Every little bit helps)

Edited May 20, 2006 by InsaneAVSfan

[ch_nl]

Does anyone have a complete list of UFA for this offseason?

[Komisarek the Cruncher]

Does anyone have a complete list of UFA for this offseason?

Go to Spectors website an click on the free agents list on the left hand side.

http://spectorshockey.tripod.com/default.html

[ch_nl]

Thanks a lot. But could you also give a short breif about what exactly Group III means?

Is that the same thing as a RFA?

Edited May 22, 2006 by ch_nl

[Komisarek the Cruncher]

Thanks a lot. But could you also give a short breif about what exactly Group III means?

Is that the same thing as a RFA?

Scroll all the way at the bottom of the list, and you will have an explanation for each group.

Basically, only group II and IV are restricted, the rest are UFA.

[PB]

Go to Spectors website an click on the free agents list on the left hand side.

http://spectorshockey.tripod.com/default.html

The Spector's list now seems to be more accurate than its original self or than other alternative lists I have seen. Players like Briere, Affinogenov or Dumont have been moved to group 2 from group 3,....its a bummer

but at least ( according to age and years played ),...its accurate.

Compared with the aboundance of UFA players made available during the lockout years,.....its night and day.....never mind that the listed names appearing on the list will never make it on the market if re-signed by their own respective teams.

Anyway if the CH could managed to obtain two forwards to complement Kovalev the team could end-up improving on two fronts.

1)The team's power play performances,...( specially with two right handed forwards ).

2) The team's scoring deph...(Kostitsyn could join the Plekanec line).

If the CH would considered leaving its defensive alone and concentrate its cash for forwards alone.....it would

be in pretty good financial shape......not to the extent of getting an Arnott-Elias combo mind you....yet enough

to make things happen.

Forwards free agents being scarce and more expensive this year.....the CH would probably need to transact in order to get one of the two forwards.....but here are my fantaisy LW + Center combo costing around 8,000.000

UFA right handed center Arnott + UFA right handed LW Parrish.

or UFA LW Elias + right handed center Fisher (obtain for Aebisher).

or UFA right handed LW Samsonov + right handed center Lang (obtain for Zednick-Aebisher).

Selanne is also right handed but might not like playing of-wing as a left winger,....and there is also the big right handed center Yashin which could turn out to be reasonnably cheap if his contract got bought out by

the Islander team.

Overall, the golden opportunities of the lockout years are just not there.....any GM that would managed to

uplift his team's destiny from such scarcity ( specially the forwards ) will have to be considered as a pretty

hot one.

Edited May 24, 2006 by PB

[dark_faerie87]

Just took a look through that list. Realistically speaking, I only saw a few forwards I would like to see on the Habs, but a good ten different defensemen. Kubina was about the only top notch one that I think we have a shot at, but I fear bidding wars will make his contract undesirable. Nonetheless, adding a top-4 would really soldify our blue line without costing an arm and a leg. Just say no to Redden/Chara/Jovo/McCabe!

[The-Habby2919]

Kubina may also be more easy to get now that Tampas funds are 8million a year lower to resign some of their key players.

:hlogo:

[dark_faerie87]

Kubina may also be more easy to get now that Tampas funds are 8million a year lower to resign some of their key players.

:hlogo:

Well yes, that is true, however I would be shocked if Montreal is the only team interested in Kubina. And now with Richards getting 7.8 a year, how will that affect Kubina's price? I honestly would not be surprised to see a bidding war erupt for him along with Jovo, Redden and Chara and see a repeat of the Aucoin re-signing. That is one bidding war I'm sure glad we DIDN'T win!

[kaos]

It will be interesting to see what Elias, Redden, Chara, Jovanovski and some of the other UFA ask for now that Richards has signed for $7.8 Million. The above players can now be considered out of Montreals reach, money wise. They will probably all command $6.5 million + per season. What will be left? It'll be interesting to see who's still on the table after July 1st

[InsaneHABSfan]

It will be interesting to see what Elias, Redden, Chara, Jovanovski and some of the other UFA ask for now that Richards has signed for $7.8 Million. The above players can now be considered out of Montreals reach, money wise. They will probably all command $6.5 million + per season. What will be left? It'll be interesting to see who's still on the table after July 1st

If the cap goes up to $43+ million, then the Habs could seriously go after a Redden. I would not pay top dollar for Chara or Jovo or Elias though they probably deserve it. Redden looks to me to be one of those defenceman that will be a real player in the future you can count on. Just my opinion of course...

[kaos]

If the cap goes up to $43+ million, then the Habs could seriously go after a Redden. I would not pay top dollar for Chara or Jovo or Elias though they probably deserve it. Redden looks to me to be one of those defenceman that will be a real player in the future you can count on. Just my opinion of course...

Would you really wanna pay $7+ Million for him though? I don't think he's worth it.

As well I think Ottawa will resign him first and then work on Chara. Redden is the better defensman.

[Komisarek the Cruncher]

Would you really wanna pay $7+ Million for him though? I don't think he's worth it.

As well I think Ottawa will resign him first and then work on Chara. Redden is the better defensman.

I agree, we don't need Redden at 7M$, that would mean we can't afford to improve our offense which is our biggest problem.

Our D is not great but it's good, we don't need a 7M$ D. Look at Buffalo and Carolina, they don't have a superstar D. In fact, we have the better D of all 3 teams in Markov.

BG needs to improve our offense and I'm sure that he's well aware of that.

Funny how people keep talking about improvng the D when we finished 13th overall for goals against and we are very close to the top 10 while we only finished 20th overall for goals for.

Besides, we lost to Carolina because we couldn't score, not because we were giving up too many goals.

Edited May 25, 2006 by Komisarek the Cruncher

[InsaneHABSfan]

I agree, we don't need Redden at 7M$, that would mean we can't afford to improve our offense which is our biggest problem.

Our D is not great but it's good, we don't need a 7M$ D. Look at Buffalo and Carolina, they don't have a superstar D. In fact, we have the better D of all 3 teams in Markov.

BG needs to improve our offense and I'm sure that he's well aware of that.

Funny how people keep talking about improvng the D when we finished 13th overall for goals against and we are very close to the top 10 while we only finished 20th overall for goals for.

Besides, we lost to Carolina because we couldn't score, not because we were giving up too many goals.

Why would you be impressed with 13th overall as this is not good. I watched every habs game this year on the tube and the defence was medocre to OK, nothing that will win a cup. (Which actually was better than I expected at the start of the year)

Yes I would pay the $7Mill for a defenceman in his prime and would improve the team. Besides, Montreal's "D" let Carolina walk all over Huet so lets not put the blame entirely on the offense.

Edited May 25, 2006 by InsaneAVSfan

[habschris]

Good point insane avs fan, i have been saying it all year. At best they are an average D, too slow, don't move the puck well enough and don't win one on one battles. Redden at 7 million would mean Souray could be moved saving 2.5 million. Redden is a huge upgrade over Souray. I think the habs need to go after a top line D, if it's a left D trade Souray, a right D trade Rivet.

[Komisarek the Cruncher]

Why would you be impressed with 13th overall as this is not good. I watched every habs game this year on the tube and the defence was medocre to OK, nothing that will win a cup. (Which actually was better than I expected at the start of the year)

Yes I would pay the $7Mill for a defenceman in his prime and would improve the team. Besides, Montreal's "D" let Carolina walk all over Huet so lets not put the blame entirely on the offense.

We finished 13th because we had an idiot in net for most of the season (Theo). The guy could not even stop a beach ball. Our stats are in the top 5 with Huet in net, which is impressive. Don't be fooled by the overall stats becasue Red Light Theo was there...which now you are stuck with in Colorado...I pitty you. You will know what I'm talking about next season.

Our D played well in the playoffs. You are missing some facts. Carolina crashed the net illegaly which stoped or they were penalized for at the end once BG told the league to watch out for this. No D can stop that, even 6 Prongers can't stop that.

What did Redden do against Buffalo...absolutely nothing !!!

Let's not put the blame on the offense??? Are you kidding me !!!! Are goals against was very good in the playoffs and it would have been excellent if Souray would not have screwed up a few times. He's are main liability at D, the rest is fine. But how many chances did the forwards missed because they stink....a zillion. Buffalo as no problem scoring against Ward. It's time to realize that many of our top 3 lines players are not goal scorers and have hands of steel.

Man I can't believe some people can't see what is so obvious.

Even BG said in is post season comments that offense was the #1 area to improve. Don't expect BG to go after a big D because you will be disapointed. He will improve the offense, Ribs being is #1 priority.

[habschris]

Didn't Theo take his team 1 round further then Huet? The big change happened when Julian was let go, players were quickly playing for jobs. Stop blaming Theo for all the canadians problems. He wasn't great but his team was awfull in front of him.

I do agree the offense needs to be addressed as well. The likes of Ribiero, Zednick, Bulis, Sundstrom will most likely not return. Having NHL talent playing center and wing with Kovalev will certainly help.

[kaos]

I think its safe to say that if your going to spend $6 or $7 Million to bring in a player, an offensive forward would do more for the team than a defensman. THis teams defense played well this year, the forwards were not as good and thats where the upgrade should be made

[Komisarek the Cruncher]

Didn't Theo take his team 1 round further then Huet? The big change happened when Julian was let go, players were quickly playing for jobs. Stop blaming Theo for all the canadians problems. He wasn't great but his team was awfull in front of him.

I do agree the offense needs to be addressed as well. The likes of Ribiero, Zednick, Bulis, Sundstrom will most likely not return. Having NHL talent playing center and wing with Kovalev will certainly help.

No, Theo did not take is team further then Huet, the team carried Theo one round further then the Habs.

If you watched the Colorado-Dallas games, which I doubt because you would not have made that comment, the Avs completely dominated Dallas (just look at the shots on net). Theo played horrible except the last game where he got 50 shots. Even I could have been in net for that series and advance to the next round. If you are going to bring a point, compare apples with apples and take all the factors in consideration, not just the obvious result that goes in your favor. What did Theo do when the Avs needed him in the second round???? Absolutely NOTHING !!!! The media over there riped him apart for is poor performance. Theo was the worst #1 goalie this year. Look at the stats, all 29 other #1 goalies have better stats then him, even Grahame...ENOUGH SAID.

Since when did I blame Theo for all the Habs problem??? You guys need to read properly before putting things in other peoples mouth. Yes Theo was the main problem for the Habs, put poor offense as also a problem. The D is fine. Souray (divorce) and Komisarek (mother died) had personel problems and Dandenault needed some time to adapt to new teammates and a new system, but once all these things past, the D was very good at the end of the season and in the playoffs.

Yes our D could be improved, but so is all other 29 teams, you can always improve any position, but what we need the most is offensive help...PERIOD. Getting a Redden won't score us more goals, except maybe a half dozen goals.

You say that putting NHL talent at center and wing with Kovalev will help, well where do you think that NHL talent will come from, the clouds??? BG as to go out and get that talent, therefore, we need to invest in offense, not D, thank you for contracdicting your self and proving my point at the same time.

All of you dreaming of a top D, time to get back to reality, it won't happen. BG will look to improve the offense. He might make one change at D, but it won't be for a 7M$ D, a 4M$ D top. Replacing Souray by a 4M$ D would only cost us 1.5M$, but forget the big top D.

[ch_nl]

I like our defence as well. I think they are underrated, and that might be a good thing.

Andrei Markov has taken another step and I think you could call him a legitime number one blueliner.

Souray had some trouble early on in the season and has a enormous slapshot.

Craig Rivet stopped using Brisebois as a role model and has cut in his errors. Solid.

Francis Boullion... Do you realize that if he works on his shot he could be among the top scorers from the blueline? Look at his stats. He shoots a lot.

Dandenault is a utility player. Can play forward. That's an insurance.

And finaly Komisarek whom has been better and better in his positioning play. Will be even better when he realize how good he can be.

[kaos]

I honestly have no idea what Gainey will do.

With Zednik, Plekanec, Souray, Bonk, Markov, Rivet, Dandenault, Begin, Koivu, Kovalev and Kostitsyn under contract for around $24.5 Million

Gainey will probably sign Bouillon, Komisarek, Higgins, Murray, Perezhogin, Ryder, Danis, Downey and Huet for around $10.5 Million

Bulis, Sundstrom, Simpson, Ribeiro, Aebischer and Streit are all up in the air.

Dagenais is history.

So thats 12 forwards and 6 defensmen and 2 goalies signed for around $35 Million. With a cap around $45 Million dollars and the Habs not wanting to bump up against it, the Habs really have about $5 or $6 Million to spend. They'll want the other $3 or $4 Million to spend on injury replacements and trade deadline aquisitions.

So its a question of what Gainey can do with $5 or $6 Million, provided that Gillette will let him spend it.

[MAK]

I honestly have no idea what Gainey will do.

With Zednik, Plekanec, Souray, Bonk, Markov, Rivet, Dandenault, Begin, Koivu, Kovalev and Kostitsyn under contract for around $24.5 Million

Gainey will probably sign Bouillon, Komisarek, Higgins, Murray, Perezhogin, Ryder, Danis, Downey and Huet for around $10.5 Million

Bulis, Sundstrom, Simpson, Ribeiro, Aebischer and Streit are all up in the air.

Dagenais is history.

So thats 12 forwards and 6 defensmen and 2 goalies signed for around $35 Million. With a cap around $45 Million dollars and the Habs not wanting to bump up against it, the Habs really have about $5 or $6 Million to spend. They'll want the other $3 or $4 Million to spend on injury replacements and trade deadline aquisitions.

So its a question of what Gainey can do with $5 or $6 Million, provided that Gillette will let him spend it.

bulis sundstrom and simpson, streit are gone for sure

the kids shouldn't get more than 1.2M

huet should get around 4M

bouillon maybe 2M

given the fact that we sign huet, we trade aebischer and save 1.9M

so if we have around 6M for a player, we could get a great player for that kind of money...redden, elias, jovo...

Edited May 26, 2006 by marky_and_komi

[PB]

There is no doubts that it would be nice if the team had more than 5-6 millions to invest....maybe they

will, ( if Zednick (1,900.000) and Bonk (2,300.000) would somehow not be back on the payroll next year and also if Gainey would stretch its spending even further to the cap than we imagine possible ),....so reaching 8,000.000 top might not be that unrealistic,.....likely improbable.....but not impossible.

So far players that are not to be expected back with the CH next year are virtually all forwards...and this should in itself point in which direction the CH will be shopping. Komisarek the Cruncher as pointed out a few good reasons why we should expect the CH to be shopping for talented forwards.....after all our

total goals scored last season was one of the lowest in the EAST......we need the scoring depth that successfull Eastern teams have.....Bufallo and Carolina have respectively 6 and 7 twenty+ goals scorers in their teams while we had 4.........and if Bulis is not coming back.....we are down to 3.

Dany Dube ( analyst covering all the CH's games on CKAC ) as stated after the last game played that

the CH's top agenda in the off-season would be trying to get a right handed center, (Dube has a close relationhip with the CH's group).

Wether they can get exactly that... its a different matter,...but, forward talents it's what they are looking for.

In the end, they have descent money to bring in a talented UFA,.....and they also have some descent assets

( Zednick, Ribeiro and specially Aebisher) to even bring another one trought a transaction.

With a little luck this summer, ( combined with our own internal offensive upgraded expected from our youngs playing their sophomore years and the likely arrival of Kostitsyn ) this team could very well end up having one of the best scoring depth out there next year.

If the CH was lucky enought to get a hight pointers low salary forward like Prospal(1,9000.000) via a

transaction in return of Aebisher, Zednick, Ribeiro, etc...they would than be able financially to afford getting

any LW UFA regardless of price.

Elias, Prospal, Kovalev

Higgins, Koivu, Ryder

Perezhogin, Plek, Kostitsyn

Begin, Lapierre, Murray

Even with Elias at 6.5 to 7 millions I doubt if the CH payroll would exceed 40 millions. Cheaper alternative

than Elias could also do the trick...like right handed LW Shanahan as an exemple.

Anyway the combined aquisition of two forwards via trade and UFA would catapult the power plays

to new hights while deepening the team's scoring to new depth.

It's a viable upgraded path but but not an easy one to get materialised in the real world.

Edited May 26, 2006 by PB

[BTH]

Our defence is fine the way it is. There's no reason to go out and sign Jovonovski or Redden when we can use the money on guys like Elias. Of course, getting Kubina would be great but we would do much better getting the small name, underrated players then 1 star. David Vyborny anyone? Possibly the most underrated guy in the league, puts up pretty big numbers on a bad team yet should come for no more than 3M. On defence, there are guys like Willie Mitchell (though he appears to be leaving to Vancouver), Ruslan Salei, Keith Carney and Filip Kuba available. All are great players who will command pretty small salaries. Teemu Selanne and Peter Bondra are two guys who thrived with 1 year, 1 million-dollar contracts last year. They'll cost more this year but for they'll be bargain prices for what they can do for the team. In the forward position, I think the best UFA out there would be Vyborny followed by Selanne, Arnott and Bondra but it looks to me that the best way to find the player we want would be via trade, using guys like Zednik, Ribeiro and Aebischer.

But if all we can get is Elias, so be it.