Fringe Signings (July 12)

How about the return of Scott Hannan to San Jose? Hannan scored 3 goals and 12 points in 2014 with the Sharks, which had him ranked 145th among all defensemen and he signed a new 1-year deal with the Sharks, reportedly worth $1 million on Thursday.  Normally, you would be looking for top 100 defensemen for your hockey pool team, but the 35-year old blueliner might still have a spark in him and then he would only be a hot streak away from being a waiver draft pick-up mid-season.

The St. Louis Blues also had themselves a bit of fringe signing in 31-year old forward Steve Ott, who re-signed with the club on Thursday, getting a new 2-year deal, worth $5.2 million.  Ott only had 9 goals and 23 points in 2014, splitting time between Buffalo and St. Louis.  Ott was ranked 246th among all forwards, but a complete season with the Blues and some more familiarity with his newer teammates and he may find himself back in the ranks of the hockey pool worthy forwards.

The Tampa Bay Lightning got in on the fringe fun, signing 35-year old forward Brenden Morrow to a 1-year, $1.55 million deal on Friday, giving him a new lease on his NHL life. Morrow had 13 goals and 25 points in 71 games in the 2014 season for the St. Louis Blues, but wasn't able to provide that extra spark the team needed in the playoffs, so he was allowed to move along through unrestricted free agency.  Morrow will have a solid opportunity to play with some quality young players in 2015, making full use of his leadership qualities and it could lead to a jump in the rankings for your hockey pool team.

Ducks Add Heatley

He may have finished outside of the acceptable pool-worthy range of scoring in the 2014 season, but I think Dany Heatley's unrestricted free agent signing in Anaheim is post-worthy, as he will have the opportunity to resurrect his career with a more potent offense, where his talents won't be looked towards as being terribly crucial.

On Wednesday, Heatley signed a 1-year, $1 million deal to join Anaheim for the 2015 season and he may have the chance to either be the opposite winger to Ryan Getzlaf & Corey Perry or be the number one winger for Ryan Kesler on the second line.  Of course, Heatley had those kind of opportunities for top-six ice in Minnesota last season, but with only 12 goals and 28 points in 76 games in the regular season, there was no real surprise when he was a healthy scratch or him being demoted to the fourth line.

With only a $1 million cap hit, the pressure will be off, but if he does want to succeed in Anaheim, he will have to surpass some reasonable young talent, which the Ducks have been growing from within.  It will likely prove to be quite the challenge for him.  This may, in fact, make him into a pool-worthy player once again.

The Ducks are building quite the contender in Southern California and they are doing so with some good frugal sense. The addition of Heatley now gives their projected roster 20 players and they are still working with about $16.1 million in cap space for the last three spaces. This space will likely be saved for some bigger moves during the year, which likely means that they will be players for some bigger ticket potential UFA's at the trade deadline and they'll push for that Stanley Cup in 2015.

Long-Term Extension Wednesday

The Chicago Blackhawks made a major announcement on Wednesday, as they locked up the two biggest pillars of their championship model in the Windy City. The Blackhawks signed both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to identical 8-year deals, each worth $84 million. Those deals work out to have cap hits of $10.5 million for each season, which doesn't kick in until the 2016 season. Both Kane and Toews are working on $6.3 million cap hits for the 2015 season, but now they won't have to worry about being free agents for the longest amount of time possible.

After following the goaltender contract debacle in Vancouver, Cory Schneider signed himself a long-term deal with the New Jersey Devils.  The deal was reportedly for seven years and worth $42 million, which works out to be a $6 million cap hit per season.  Schneider is on the last year of his current deal, which will pay him $4 million, a deal he signed while he was with the Canucks.

Schneider is set to become the true number one goalie in New Jersey and now the Devils will start paying him that salary, starting in the 2016 season.

Wingels Signs On For Three in San Jose

The San Jose Sharks took care of some necessary business on Monday, signing restricted free agent forward Tommy Wingels to a new 3-year deal, reportedly worth $7.4 million, just below a $2.5 million cap hit.

The new deal will take the 26-year old into the first couple years of unrestricted free agency, which he'll be eligible to test in the Summer of 2017.

Wingels had a decent year with the Sharks in 2014, finsihing the year with 16 goals and 38 points in 77 games.  He finished 203rd overall in pool scoring, 144th among all forwards, suggesting that he'll have a comfortable spot in this year's hockey pool draft.

The Sharks haven't cleaned house of their big centres just yet, so there is no reason to think that the regular season will be all that different to start the regular season.  I would think that a guy like Wingels, who will sit in the top six this season, by projection, will need one of those centres in Joe Thornton or Patrick Marleau, to stick around and help him get the puck.  There hasn't been many flashes, from what I've seen, of a player that can do most of the scoring on his own.

The Sharks should have more than enough space to fill up the rest of their gaps with the cap room they have left.  I have the Sharks in with a projected roster of 17 players, leaving six spots, at a cap hit of $53.7 million, leaving $15.3 million in space.  Moving either Thornton or Marleau will likely have to have a return of NHL players in a straight hockey move, because moving that much cap space will be hard to fill up with quality players, especially through free agency.

James Sheppard and Jason Demers now remain as the only two key restricted free agents left on their plate.

Fisher Felled by Achilles Rupture

Nobody wants to see injuries to anyone and it does seem a little bit worse when a hockey player goes down in the off-season. Mike Fisher of the Nashville Predators will now miss a good portion of the first half of the NHL season, as the team confirmed that he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon and his estimated time out of action is around 4-to-6 months.

Even around the 4-month mark, that would put Fisher into the beginning of November for a return, missing out on the first month of the season.  It would seem more likely, however, that Fisher figures in somewhere in the middle of that projected time frame, so I wouldn't be prepared to put any stock in him until the first waiver draft of the hockey pool season.

Last season, Fisher played in 75 games, scoring 20 goals and 49 points, ranking 115th overall in pool scoring, 86th among forwards.  That would have likely put him into the first five or six rounds of the hockey pool draft, depending on the rush of defensemen to begin the draft.

Even with Fisher in the projected line-up, presuming he would have been 100% healthy, the Predators still had $14.7 million in projected cap space for three players, which would have been ear-marked for an improved blueline.  The Predators, who will likely be in the Central Division mix this season, assuming everyone else is healthy, may look to the free agent market to fill the void, but there are rumours abound that they may try to swing Vincent Lecavalier out of Philadelphia, who carries the same cap hit as Fisher at $4.5 million in 2015.

Adjust your 2015 pool projections, if you got them!

Oilers Re-Sign Petry

The Edmonton Oilers announced the re-signing of restricted free agent defenseman Jeff Petry on Monday morning, giving him a 1-year deal, reportedly worth around $3.1 million.

Petry was Edmonton's most high-profile remaining RFA at the time of the signing and after this deal, he will be heading to unrestricted free agency, barring an extension, next Summer.

In 80 games last season, Petry scored 7 goals and 17 points, which made him 101st in defenseman scoring.  With a restructured blueline and some more tweaks to the Edmonton line-up, a guy like Petry may find some more time to use a few more of his offensive gifts.  He certainly carries the potential to be a top-100 blueliner, but of course, he will need some help to get there.

After the first week of free agency, I now have the Oilers clocking in at 15 players on their projected roster, coming in with a cap hit of $54.7 million. They have eight forwards, five defensemen and their goaltending tandem signed on and it will be interesting to see how the team fills in some of those gaps. They have five forward spots and three defender slots open with only $14.3 million left in cap room.

Notable Pool Updates from the Frenzy, Part 5

Day 3 of the free agent frenzy, on Thursday, was nowhere near as memorable as the first two days of the session. I think the frenzy is kind of dead from here.

The Toronto Maple Leafs did add one pool-worthy player and added one with some potential to come out of the woodwork as a sleeper. The Leafs signed forward Mike Santorelli to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal on Thursday, after having a bit of a bounce back season with the Canucks, scoring 10 goals and 28 points in 49 games. His season was cut short by a shoulder injury and his numbers couldn't really improve.

Much like the signing of Leo Komarov earlier in the week, the Leafs also added Finnish centre Petri Kontiola, giving him a 1-year deal, worth $1.15 million for the 2015 season.  Kontiola was an Olympian in Sochi in February, helping Finland to bronze medal and is touted as a solid playmaker.  Kontiola did play in 12 games with the Blackhawks in the 2008 season, picking up 5 assists, but that's the extent of his NHL career, before heading back to the KHL.  I don't have either Komarov or Kontiola on the projected roster yet, but their salaries suggest they will get some long looks at camp.

The 4th of July had more fireworks in the Canadian capital than anywhere else in the NHL free agent world. The Ottawa Senators signed centre David Legwand to a 2-year, $6 million deal on Friday and that now gives Kyle Turris some real support down the middle and a 1A/1B centre situation on the team.  The Senators will have a lot of mixing and matching to do in training camp this year, trying to find the right combinations of centres and wingers, but at least they have a bit of both to work from to find that mix.

Notable Pool Updates from the Frenzy, Part 4

Day 2 of the free agent frenzy didn't quite have the bang that opening day had, but there were still lots of pieces in play. The Nashville Predators didn't make their first move until Wednesday, when they dropped a new deal on Olli Jokinen's lap. The 35-year old centre signed a 1-year, $2.5 million deal, as he currently rounds out the Predators forwards for the coming year, according to my projected roster.  Jokinen joins James Neal as the two biggest pick-ups for the franchise this Summer and now they can focus on their blueline, as their forwards should have enough depth going forward.

The New York Islanders were also rounding out their forward group early in free agency, as they landed a couple of ex-Maple Leafs on Day 2 of the frenzy. Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin were both signed to new 4-year deals, worth $20 million and $16.5 million, respectively.  Grabovski played in 58 games for Washington, scoring 13 goals and 35 points, while Kulemin played in 70 games for Toronto, scoring 9 goals and 20 points.  Both players have been better hockey pool candidates in previous years, but maybe a reunion will spark their offense.

The Vancouver Canucks made another splash in the free agent pool on Wednesday, signing forward Radim Vrbata to a 2-year, $10 million deal. The offense for the Canucks in 2014 was abysmal and this was a solid step to help revive the goal-scoring prowess of the team. Vrbata had 20 goals and 51 points in 80 games with the Coyotes in 2014 and immediately gets pointed to as the new trigger man for the Sedin twins.  The Canucks are beginning to show signs of re-tooling, more than rebuilding.

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.