The clock is ticking.
NHL free agency begins at noon on Sunday, and like past years it ought to be
a wild day. Where will Drury, Briere and Gomez end up? How about Schneider and
Souray on the blueline? And perhaps most importantly, how busy are the Thrashers
going to be?
It's unlikely that GM Don Waddell will be going after the big names that will
be commanding top dollar. It's just not practical given that both Kari Lehtonen
and Marian Hossa are going to need new contracts after next season. As
Craig Custance said on his blog last night, Slava Kozlov remains the
wildcard. If he stays with Atlanta then we can do fine with an additional center
and some depth players. If Slava leaves then Waddell is going to have try to
find some more scoring, whether it's through free agency or trades.
Either way, don't expect to see any signings for $5-6 million a year in
Atlanta this summer. So-called second-tier players are much more likely to end
up here, especially guys who are looking for a new role or a chance to play with
a top-flight winger like Ilya Kovalchuk. That's a huge bargaining chip for
Waddell, and there should be some mid-range centers out there who would be
licking their chops at the thought of setting up Kovy on a nightly basis.
If you're like me you'll be glued to your computer tomorrow, waiting to see
how things play out. Remember- just because the Thrashers haven't locked up any
of their UFA's yet (Kozlov, Belanger, Dupuis, Sim, Boulton, Vigier, MacKenzie,
Sutton, de Vries and Hnidy) it doesn't mean they won't be back. It's not unusual
for free agents to test the market (to be honest, I wouldn't pass up free agency
if I were in most of their shoes) and then come back to their team and say that
they'd like to stay. Some guys will use free agency as leverage and others want
to see what the market says they're worth. Some might take less money in Atlanta
than they're offered elsewhere because they don't want to uproot their families
and learn a new system with a new team. If the money is the same or close it's
not hard to choose stability over upheaval.
Here are some handy free agency related links to get you ready for tomorrow:
Scott Burnside's Free Agency Preview:
TSN's Free Agent Lists:
NHL Numbers- Salaries, Cap Hits and
Contract Lengths
Spector's Trade/Free Agent
Rumors
I'll be online all afternoon tomorrow, waiting to post any Thrashers news,
but keep in mind that NHL team sites can't post about signings until they're
official whereas sites like TSN and ESPN can stick stuff up as soon as an agent
calls them and says his player is signing with team X. Hopefully I can break
some news, but if I don't you'll know why.
