Lalime Retires

Two goalies announce their retirement in two days, the first being Chris Osgood and then on Wednesday, Patrick Lalime calls it a career after 12 NHL seasons.

Lalime played for Pittsburgh, Ottawa, St. Louis, Chicago and Buffalo in his career and saw his best years with the Senators, where he ranked in the top 40 in pool scoring for three seasons (2002-2004), finishing as high as 4th in pool scoring, thanks to a 92-point season.

In 2011, Lalime fell down the Sabres depth chart, only getting 365 minutes worth of ice time (seven appearances) and only picked up 1 assist in those appearances, no wins at all.  Lalime was getting bumped by Jhonas Enroth, who ended up taking more starts down the stretch and then backed up Ryan Miller in the playoffs.

A rough way to finish up the career, but it looks like it is time.

Roster Signings on Wednesday (July 20)

It appears the Red Wings have found their back-up for Jimmy Howard in 2012, as they have dipped back into the past and have signed Ty Conklin to a 1-year deal, worth $750,000.  This will be Conklin's second stint with the club, playing there in 2009.  In 2011, Conklin played with the Blues, picking up 8 wins and 2 shutouts for 20 points, ranking him 51st among goalies.  He will be in a battle with Joey MacDonald for the back-up role, but Conklin should be the favourite going in.

The Phoenix Coyotes avoided an arbitration hearing with forward Lauri Korpikoski on Wednesday by signing him to a 2-year, $3.6 million deal in the final hours before the hearing. Korpikoski ranked 145th among all forwards in the 2011 season, scoring 19 goals and 21 assists in 79 games.  The 24-year old Finn is slowly developing into a top six forward in the NHL, making small leaps and bounds every season.

The Lightning also avoided arbitration with Teddy Purcell on Wednesday morning, signing the breakthrough forward to a 2-year deal, valued at $4.725 million in total, just under a $2.4 million cap hit per season. Purcell played in 82 games in the 2011 with the Lightning, setting career highs in every category, 17 goals and 34 assists, ranking him 84th among all forwards.  He should be a good pick-up in some pools, if he hasn't wasted all of his magic on one season.

Stamkos Signs on the Dotted Line

Technically, the biggest free agent this Summer, albeit a restricted free agent, has now come to terms, as Steven Stamkos has now officially signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, putting pen to paper on a new 5-year deal, said to be worth $37.5 million.  This means that Stamkos will have a cap hit of $7.5 million per season for the Lightning, a very respectable cap hit for a potential 50-goal scorer every season, 2nd on the team to Vincent Lecavalier, who signed his monster deal in 2008.

There is no real doubt that Stamkos has the potential for 50 goals, having already done it once in 2010, so flashes of his potential have already been seen.  Stamkos now belongs in the argument for being taken 1st overall in any hockey pool draft, along with the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and the Sedin twins.

In 2011, Stamkos finished 7th overall in pool scoring, 5th among all forwards, 2nd on the Lightning, with 91 points (45 goals and 46 assists) in all 82 games, which was somewhat down from his 2010 numbers, but still mightily impressive.  A slight hiccup in his overall production really cost Stamkos a scoring title in 2011, both the Art Ross and the Rocket Richard, but you would have to believe that he will be back in the mix in 2012.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Martin St. Louis	Brett Clark	Dwayne Roloson
Steven Stamkos	Victor Hedman	Mathieu Garon
Vincent Lecavalier	Pavel Kubina
Ryan Malone	Eric Brewer
Dominic Moore	Matt Gilroy
Steve Downie	Marc-Andre Bergeron
Ryan Shannon	Bruno Gervais
Nate Thompson	Mattias Ohlund
Adam Hall
Dana Tyrell
Tom Pyatt

The addition of Stamkos nearly rounds out the team table for the Lightning, who have done a good bit of re-toolling in this off-season, looking to improve upon their run in 2011. With 11 forwards, eight defensemen, two goalies and two buyouts on the books, their current projected cap number now stands at $57 million, giving them $7.3 million left to spend on a couple of forwards, if needed.  The Lightning are setting up well for a good run, both on paper and on the budget.

Sabres Re-Sign Sekera

On Wednesday, the Buffalo Sabres announced that they re-signed 25-year old Slovak defender Andrej Sekera to a new 4-year deal, reportedly worth $11 million, a $2.75 million cap hit per season.  Sekera was a restricted free agent this Summer, who had an arbitration hearing scheduled for Monday, which has now been cancelled with this new deal being in place.

Sekera had a very good season with the Sabres in 2011, finishing 50th among all defensemen in scoring with 3 goals and 26 assists in 76 games for the club.  He should be considered a definite hockey pool defenseman, especially with the improvements that the Sabres have made in the off-season.

It will be interesting to see where Sekera fits in the picture, with a couple more names on the blueline through trades and free agency coming on board, but the pairings should be solid down the line.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Thomas Vanek	Christian Ehrhoff	Ryan Miller
Brad Boyes	Tyler Myers
Ville Leino	Jordan Leopold
Drew Stafford	Andrej Sekera
Jason Pominville	Mike Weber
Tyler Ennis	Robyn Regehr
Derek Roy	Shaone Morrisonn
Nathan Gerbe
Paul Gaustad
Jochen Hecht
Cody McCormick
Patrick Kaleta
Ales Kotalik

With the addition of Sekera to the team table, the Sabres are now projected to be over the salary cap ceiling for the regular season, but not necessarily over the ceiling for the off-season, yet.  The Sabres now have 13 forwards, seven defensemen and a goalie on their table, plus a buyout on the books, for $66.7 million, projected for the end of the season.  That currently sits $2.4 million over budget and the team still needs to add a back-up goalie to the mix, officially.

The little bit that is over-budget should be easy to overcome, as that could mean a player like Ales Kotalik gets bumped down to the minors again, which would leave $600,000 to use for a goalie and the team would be able to play, so it isn't a very big deal at the moment.

Osgood Retires

The Detroit Red Wings and goaltender Chris Osgood had a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to announce the retirement of the 38-year old backstop after 17 NHL seasons with the Red Wings, Islanders and Blues.

Osgood leaves the game as one of the most controversial goaltenders, more so about his value as a player in the league during his 17 seasons, rather than anything else, as he was a very good role model for young goaltenders and other players during his tenure in the league.

In his career, Osgood finished up with 401 wins, which ranks 10th all-time among NHL goaltenders, won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings and did have numerous other accolades, but the real debate about the credits he has earned belong to the great teams he has played with in his career, which discounts his worthiness to be spoken with some of the other NHL greats.

In terms of the hockey pools, Osgood has seen his fair share of ups and downs in the rankings, but the decline in minutes and the loss of the number one job to Jimmy Howard in the past couple of seasons has now fully diminished his fantasy value.  In 2011, Osgood finished 62nd among all goalies, even outside of the normal back-up goalie realm, with only 5 wins and 10 points.  According to my rankings, which only date back to 2002, Osgood did finish as high as 21st in overall scoring, back in 2004, when he finished with 31 wins and 3 shutouts.

The real debate out of all of this is whether or not Osgood is actually Hall of Fame worthy.  If the numbers, awards and Cups are supposed to be an indication of a player worthy of the call, Osgood does have some impressive stats.  I, personally, do lean to the side of the debate that suggests that maybe his teams have had a lot to do with his overall successes, which would probably keep votes away from an eventual inclusion, but there may be a day where the class of players that are ready to be inducted are poor enough that Osgood does make the leap into the hockey shrine.

Ducks Sign Cogliano

The Anaheim Ducks have come to terms with restricted free agent forward Andrew Cogliano, avoiding an arbitration hearing, which was agreed upon before his trade from the Edmonton Oilers not long ago.

Cogliano is a quick forward that didn't really meet some high expectations with the Oilers in his term in Edmonton, so he will get a new set of expectations after signing a 3-year deal, said to be worth $7.17 million in total, a $2.39 million cap hit per season.

In 2011, Cogliano scored 11 goals and 24 assists in all 82 games with the Oilers, ranking 172nd among all forwards and was dropping down the depth charts quite quickly, especially with the drafting of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in June.

With the Ducks, he has the possibility of playing on a 2nd line winger role or possibly down in a 3rd line checking centre role, with some good mentors in defensive coaching and some veteran players.  I would wait to see what his role becomes in training camp before making a bold decision as to whether or not you put him on your hockey pool lists, because it can really go either way.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Corey Perry	Lubomir Visnovsky	Jonas Hiller
Ryan Getzlaf	Cam Fowler	Dan Ellis
Bobby Ryan	Toni Lydman
Saku Koivu	Kurtis Foster
Andrew Cogliano	Francois Beauchemin
Jason Blake	Luca Sbisa
Brandon McMillan	Sheldon Brookbank
Dan Sexton
Matt Beleskey
J-F Jacques
George Parros

With Cogliano on the team table, the Ducks move up the projected salary cap table, sitting with 20 players signed (11 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies) for a total of $52.9 million, safely between the salary cap floor and ceiling.  The Ducks should be adding a couple more forwards to this table and they have ample room to fit in some younger talent, possibly Andrew Gordon, Kyle Palmieri and/or Emerson Etem.

Wheeler Re-Signs in Winnipeg

The Winnipeg Jets have re-signed forward Blake Wheeler to a new 2-year deal, reportedly worth $5.1 million, which works out to be a $2.55 million cap hit per season.

Wheeler played in 81 games between Boston and Atlanta in the 2011 season, scoring 18 goals and 26 assists, ranking 122nd in pool scoring among all forwards.  Wheeler is projected to be a top six forward with the Jets in the 2012 season, which should help his scoring numbers out significantly, where he wasn't getting those prime minutes out of the Bruins earlier last season.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Andrew Ladd	Dustin Byfuglien	Ondrej Pavelec
Bryan Little	Tobias Enstrom	Chris Mason
Blake Wheeler	Ron Hainsey
Evander Kane	Johnny Oduya
Nikolai Antropov	Randy Jones
Eric Fehr	Mark Stuart
Alex Burmistrov
Chris Thorburn
Jim Slater
Tanner Glass
Tim Stapleton

The Jets are currently spending like a budget team in the NHL, but with a lack of good player talent on the free agent market, it was going to be difficult to find the players to help spend the money and being as though it is going to be their first season back in the NHL, they will likely have to see what the market can bear for them going forward. With the Wheeler signing on the books, I now have the Jets sitting with 19 players (11 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies) at an annual projected cap hit of $46.1 million, just $2.2 million shy of the cap floor.  Look for two forwards and another defensemen added to the table to round out the number and push their cap number above the cap floor.

A Long Weekend Away Recap (July 15)

On Friday, the Calgary Flames re-signed unrestricted free agent forward Brendan Morrison to a new 1-year deal, reportedly worth $1.25 million. Morrison was a post-training camp add for the Flames in 2011, playing in 66 games for Calgary, scoring 9 goals and adding 34 assists. Morrison added some much-needed depth down the middle for the Flames, until a knee injury claimed the last 16 games of the year.  He'll likely be looked upon to provide some more 2nd/3rd line depth in 2012, possibly moving up further from time-to-time.

The Blackhawks made a couple of key signings on Friday last week, re-signing forward Michal Frolik to a 3-year, $7 million deal and then dipping into the unrestricted free agent pool by signing defenseman Sami Lepisto to a 1-year, $750,000 deal.

Frolik split his 2011 season between Florida and Chicago, playing in 80 games and scoring 11 goals and 27 assists.  Frolik is projected to possibly become a top six forward for the Blackhawks and the new contract that he has received is a pretty good indication that now is his time.

Lepisto played all 70 games with the Coyotes in 2011, picking up 4 goals and 12 assists in the process, good enough for 108th among all defensemen.  He'll add a little bit more depth to a re-shaped blueline in 2012, with some potential for decent point productions.

This isn't an official roster signing from my standpoint, but it is as close as one comes, as Erik Gudbranson has agreed to terms with the Florida Panthers, just narrowly missing out on actually coming out of the training camp last season with the big club. With bonuses in tow, Gudbranson stands to make upwards of $3.2 million in each of his three seasons with his new entry-level deal and it is believed that he has a spot to lose in camp in September.

The Los Angeles Kings were busy on Friday, signing seven players to new deals before the weekend started, most notably signing forward Trevor Lewis to a 2-year, $1.45 million deal. Lewis played in 72 games in 2011, scoring 3 goals and 10 assists in a bottom six role. I think we could expect a lot of the same from him in 2012, assuming that someone else doesn't usurp his spot. Also signing 1-year deals on Friday: goalie Jeff Zatkoff, defensemen Patrick Mullen and Andrew Campbell, and forwards Richard Clune, David Meckler and Marc-Andre Cliche.

Not quite as certain as a roster player in 2012, but still notable, the Devils signed their 4th overall pick from this Summer's entry draft, Swedish defenseman Adam Larsson, to his 3-year entry-level deal on Friday, beating out an NHL/European agreement deadline, which would have made it rather difficult/expensive for the Devils to have Larsson in North America to play, if the deal didn't get done.  The word out of prospect camp seemed to be lukewarm, but at least he will have some freedom to find out if he can make it in the Fall.

The Devils were not finished at Larsson, nor were they finished signing toughness for their upcoming season, as they signed unrestricted free agent forward Eric Boulton to a 2-year deal, worth $662,500 against the cap in each year.  Boulton scored 6 goals and 4 assists in 69 games for the Thrashers in 2011 and can obviously handle himself with 87 minutes in penalties.  With Cam Janssen at his side, the Devils will have a pretty tough 4th line to manoeuvre through in the 2012 season.

Finally, the Washington Capitals secured one of their key restricted free agents and moved even closer to the off-season salary cap ceiling number, as they gave defenseman Karl Alzner a new 2-year deal, which will pay him $2.57 million for the duration of the deal, a $1.285 million cap hit per season.  Alzner played in all 82 games for the Capitals in 2011, scoring 2 goals and adding 10 assists, used mainly as a shutdown defenseman.

A Long Weekend Away Recap (July 14)

The Devils added some toughness to their existing roster, as they have signed Cam Janssen to a 1-year, $525,000 deal, bringing him back to the team that originally drafted him in 2002. Janssen played in 54 games for the St. Louis Blues in 2011, scoring 1 goal and 3 assists, but also had 131 minutes in penalties during the year. Janssen can help a fantasy team that has PIM for points, but otherwise, he is a gritty depth forward that doesn't get very many minutes on the ice.

The New York Rangers managed to sign another one of their key restricted free agents, as Brian Boyle was locked up to a 3-year, $5.1 million deal on Thursday. The cap hit remains a reasonable $1.7 million per season, which looks good on a player that scored 21 goals and 14 assists in all 82 games for the club. Boyle proved to the rest of the league that his hands are just as good for goal scoring as they are for some pugilism, making him into quite the double-threat.

The Senators have rewarded young forward Bobby Butler with a 2-year deal after impressing the team's brass with some good appearances with the club on a number of recalls through the 2011 season, with depth being the only reason why he was being sent back down.  In 36 games with the big club, Butler picked up 10 goals and 11 assists, which gave him a very respectable (even pool sleeper worthy) points-per-game ratio.

The Maple Leafs added another depth piece to their roster table on Thursday last week, re-signing forward Darryl Boyce to a new 1-year deal, said to be worth $700,000. Boyce played in 46 games for the Leafs in 2011, scoring 5 goals and 8 assists for the club. He was one of a number of forwards to play in a bottom six role and with the games played on his side, he should have a good chance in camp to make the opening night roster.

Huselius to Miss First Half

Harsh off-season news for the Columbus Blue Jackets, as Kristian Huselius has suffered a torn pectoral muscle while working out this week. Huselius is scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday and he is expected to be out of commission for the next 4-to-6 months, which could set him back until January at the latest.

This injury comes on the heels of an injury-plagued 2011 season, where the offensive winger only appeared in 39 games for the Jackets, scoring 14 goals and 9 assists.  First of all, he missed time with an ankle injury and then an undisclosed lower body injury, missing at least 20 games in each stint.

If the Blue Jackets were a cap ceiling team, then the silver lining would be that they would be saving half of Huselius' $4.75 million cap hit, but they are closer to a budget team and will likely drop a little closer to the cap floor in their projected totals when the Long-Term Injury Reserve numbers eventually kick in.

Canes Re-Sign Sutter

The Carolina Hurricanes have come to terms with restricted free agent forward Brandon Sutter, signing the 22-year old to a 3-year, $6.2 million deal on Wednesday, which will work out to under $2.1 million per season as a salary cap hit.

Sutter played in all 82 games for the Hurricanes in 2011, scoring 14 goals and 15 assists, which comes in at a disappointing 208th among all forwards in the league scoring.  The two-way forward has a lot to give, but that doesn't necessarily mean offense, so his scoring totals may be slightly disappointing from year-to-year, but the Hurricanes won't mind, he will give them a good chance to win every night.