Notable Pool Updates from the Frenzy, Part 3

The Minnesota Wild also came up big with one of the bigger prizes during the frenzy, as they walked away with Thomas Vanek, signing him to a 3-year deal, worth $19.5 million. Minnesota was reportedly the favourite destination for Vanek in the off-season, having a history in the state and now he will be bringing his 27 goals and 68 points to the State of Hockey.  Added offense from Vanek should make the Wild into immediate contenders for the Central Division title in 2015, which makes that race all the more exciting.

The Montreal Canadiens addressed a glaring need on Tuesday and that was filling out their blueline roster. The Habs signed free agent defenseman Tom Gilbert to a 2-year deal, worth $5.6 million and then re-signed Mike Weaver to a 1-year deal, worth $1.75 million. Now, Gilbert is the player of note here, as he finished 59th among defensemen with 3 goals and 28 points in 59 games. Moving to Montreal may be a good move for Gilbert, who does like to move the puck quickly.

The New Jersey Devils were not content with stopping at signing Mike Cammalleri on Tuesday, as they practically rounded out their forwards with the signing of forward Martin Havlat to a 1-year deal, worth $1.5 million. His inclusion on a Czech-heavy line-up may be the boost he needs to have a slight revival of his career.  Jaromir Jagr and Patrik Elias should be excited to have another compatriot on the team, but the Devils do lack some ability down the middle, which may be their undoing.

For a team that just finished a playoff run in the Stanley Cup Finals, the New York Rangers sure had a lot of spots open on their projected roster for the 2015 season. With that being said, the Rangers did go out and sign up a lot of depth, but they did add one key piece, signing veteran defenseman Dan Boyle to a 2-year deal, worth $9 million.  Boyle was the 34th ranked defenseman in the 2014 season, scoring 12 goals and 36 points in 75 games and will add some leadership to a fairly young team.

The goaltending situation in Philadelphia really turned on Ray Emery, who was enjoying some ice-time in the 2013 season, but Steve Mason took over in 2014 and just ran with it. That didn't deter the Flyers from re-signing Emery, however, giving him a new 1-year deal, which will pay him $1 million.  Emery was at the bottom end of the back-up spectrum, ranking 59th among goalies, but with Mason not being a lock for a full season still, Emery may still have some hockey pool value left in him.

Speaking more to the back-up goaltender race, there looks to be one brewing in Pittsburgh, as the Penguins added Thomas Greiss to the mix, signing him to a 1-year, $1 million deal.  Greiss won 10 games with the Sharks in 2014 and he'll be fighting for a job with Jeff Zatkoff, who won 12 games for the Penguins last season.  We'll see who wins out of training camp and it could be a good place to get some wins for your hockey pool team.

I'm not sure what is with all this back-up goalie talk, but the biggest fish that the Tampa Bay Lightning landed at the start of the free agent frenzy was goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who signed a 1-year deal for $1.55 million and he will be expected to play behind Ben Bishop in the 2015 season.  Nabokov won 15 games for the Islanders in the 2014 season, picking up 39 points and was the 32nd ranked goalie in the year.  Injuries got the best of him last season and he was once a starter, but is now going to be relegated to back-up.  Not a bad back-up to have, I'm thinking.

There is a possibility that the biggest signing on opening day for the Toronto Maple Leafs, from a hockey pool perspective, would be forward Leo Komarov, who has spent the last couple years in the KHL. Komarov played 42 games in the 2013 season, before taking off to Russia, scoring 4 goals and 9 points in that time. There is some large expectations on Komarov, but I think they should be tempered, because there haven't been too many KHL'ers to come over and really put up a lot of points, especially if they haven't played a great deal in the NHL already.

The Vancouver Canucks were not going to sit idly by as their goaltending situation sat with much uncertainty. The team's new GM made good use of some of his previous contacts and made a pitch to Ryan Miller and signed him on for a 3-year deal, worth $18 million. Between Buffalo and St. Louis last season, Miller won 25 games and picked up 54 points, ranking 20th among all goalies in the NHL.  Now it will be a battle to be the back-up in Vancouver between Eddie Lack and Jacob Markstrom.

The free agent frenzy was like a trip to the supermarket for the Washington Capitals, as they had a list of players they wanted to go out and get, then picked them right off the shelves. They didn't even wait for the deals or use any coupons, as they signed a couple of the big ticket defensemen to some long-term deals. Matt Niskanen was given a 7-year, $40.25 million deal and Brooks Orpik took home a 5-year, $27.5 million deal.  Niskanen was the 13th ranked defender (46 points in 81 games) and Orpik was ranked 139th (13 points in 72 games).  Both will feature largely on a very crowded blueline in Washington.

Oh, let's not forget another back-up goalie, as the Capitals added former Hurricanes back-up, Justin Peters, giving him a 2-year deal, worth $950,000 per season.  He had 7 wins and 18 points in the 2014 season.

The Winnipeg Jets were desperate for some scoring help to start this free agent frenzy and they may have given some help to some of their top wingers, signing centre Mathieu Perreault to a new 3-year deal, worth $9 million. Perreault provided some good depth down the middle for the Anaheim Ducks last season, scoring 18 goals and 43 points on the year and his role will be elevated on a Jets team that has a much shallower talent pool. Perreault's numbers may indeed improve, as he will likely feature with someone like Blake Wheeler or Andrew Ladd, possibly Evander Kane, if they don't trade him away.