The good, the bad, and the ugly - Trades of summer 2011

Philly got its share of attention on my last post. Now it's time to focus on the other big deals that have been pulled off this summer. Not in any particular order, I just dug those out from some listing in the net.

Zach Parise was tagged for one more year in the Devils uniform. Seems like after last season he's pretty much through with the team and just wanted to give one more year out of common courtesy before jumping to a more modern team. He's a brilliant young talent and will likely thrive in a more attach oriented and balanced team. New Jersey may bounce back with the big guns blazing, but will fall short of anything spectacular. Solid season in the pipeline for Parise, but if the Devils don't improve, he'll see a decline in his production too.

Brent Burns signed for five years in sunny San Jose. He'll be the backbone of the Sharks team for the coming years. A all star level defenceman with great playmaking skills and proper toughness around the net is definitely a good building block to carry on. San Jose will be even more dangerous with Burns on the defence and may even pull the best effort of the franchise history if the offense keeps on producing like in the past.

Keith Yandle took pretty similar approach as Burns before, agreeing on a five year contract on the Coyotes. The desert dogs will not be cup contenders in the coming years, if ever. It's actually more likely that Yandle will end this contract on a franchise with another name, or location, or both. If someone sorts out the financials, the hockey in Arizona will come to its end in the coming years. Yandle was phenomenal last season on the offensive end and finished close to the top of production rankings for defencemen. His skills on the own end are not as good as e.g. Burns', but he'll keep on improving and being the defensive leader of the young Coyotes' team.

New York Rangers managed to keep their heart and soul in Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. On top of that they reeled in the big fish in Brad Richards to spark up the finesse of team's offense. Callahan and Dubinsky keep on pounding gritty goals and frustrating the opposition's top lines. Richards was brought in to create some magic. Admittedly, it was a fantastic sales position for Richards, and Rangers are taking somewhat of a risk with a massive contract, but it will be thrilling to see what he can bring the Big Apple. Given the proper supporting cast, Brad Richars can pump the Rangers back to being a playoff team.

Steven Stamkos got basically anything he asked after last season's efforts. This guy has potential to overtake even Crosby and Ovechkin in raw and powerful productivity. If he can carry on playing with Marty St. Louis, the duo will keep on embarassing opposing goalies throughout the coming season. Stamkos may have ran out of gas a bit in the end of last season, but he's gained massive experience from it and will surely return even more dangerous. A must keep for Tampa for numerous reasons, the least not being success and fanbase.

St. Louis Blues took an interesting angle in acquiring graybeards Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner for one more year. These two have had some ups and downs on the latter part of their careers, depending on the roles they've been put in the teams they've played for. Both of the men have very good seasons on their resume and certainly have proven themselves as high caliber NHLers. It only remains to be seen where will they land in the youthful, but highly inconsistent Blues. Given the right role and embracing it might prove this move to be brilliant in letting the veterans pull off another solid season while rubbing some experienced calmness and rationality to the younger corps. If not, these guys will not hit the headlines too often, just like the rest of the team in St. Louis.

One of the most exiting trades this offseason was San Jose and Minnesota swapping Dany Heatley and Martin Havlat. It's a swap of two incredibly talented, but a bit unbalanced players. Heatley just hasn't been the same since the unfortunate car accident in the past and Havlat's inconsistency is it the top of the league. With different weapons in Heatley's deadly shot and Havlat's incredible speed and moves it is more than just a swap of jerseys on the backs of guys. As highly paid top line forwards, both demand attention and adjustment of the rest of the line and team to extract maximum value on the palyers' talents. If done properly I can already see this being a really good trade for both. San Jose has some younger snipers following Heatley's footsteps and ready to fill up the gap in shots on goal. The obvious question is how many breakaways will Joe Thornton set up for Mr. Havlat this season? My guess is in the three digits. If Havlat stays healthy, he could well return in the top of the scoring race like few years back. On the Minnesota end of the rink I can easily see Heatley's linemates, led by Mikko Koivu, digging in the offensive end corners to just ship the puck for a one-timer for Dany-boy and personal notch on the assists column. Minnesota top line will be a threat to anyone. The question remains, who else is there in the team?

Finally, the most interesting goalie move of the offseason. Thomas Vokoun was given the final chance to take a shot at being a Stanley Cup winner in the high expectation Washington Capitals. He just has to take a firm grip on the number one goalie spot on the team, show why his career stats are simply brilliant after playing for low end team, and keep up the pace in the unfamiliar territory of playoffs. Not the easiest task in a team that is expected to keep on winning, but doable with Vokoun's undeniable talent. In the worst case it's still going to be good for Washington to have a veteran goaltender putting some pressure on the young keepers and keeping them sharp.

Very interesting summer indeed. I'm anxious to see how the games start and what tracks these biggest movers and shakers take. A fresh new NHL season up ahead!

First half of the season

Well, since I'm back, I might actually write something about hockey too. Thanks for reading.

Last season ended with Chicago taking over and bringing the cup back to original six. That sure was an impressive run. The roster they ended up having in the end of the season would have probably taken twice the current salary cap on this season's paychecks. Really impressive team, very solid all around and even some superstars either peaking (Hossa) or still in the making (Kane, Toews). Sorry, fellow defencemen, no one really counts us as superstars. But this is so last season, I'll move on. Lots to cover in one posting.

2010-2011 has started with somewhat traditional pace. The strong ones are still strong and the rest try to keep up. New Jersey Devils is the exception confirming that rule. What a sorry bunch. And some sort of a wake up signal for the GMs shopping superstars for decades. Come on Kovalchuck!?

Vancouver, Philly, Detroit are leading the pack with very solid rosters. Tampa, Pittsburgh and Washington follow up close with superstar centered approach. I'd be surprised if the eventual champion isn't one of these. And if it's the Lightning, that'll count as a surprise also.

I'd say that the biggest surprise so far is Dallas Stars. They've been good in the past, but the current names on the roster aren't really this good. I can feel happy for the fellow Finn Kari Lehtonen in the goal. Finally playing healthy for a longer stretch and hopefully going through the whole season without surgical operations. Brad Richards is seriously pumping air in his future contract. If the guy is really this good, everyone wants him. Learn from this on playing the last year of your contracts, kids!

The players then. Sidney Crosby seems to have pushed some extra to leave the Sid-or-Alex discussion behind him. No question, he's the one this season. Hopefully he'll come back from the concussion soon. Superstars keep the game entertaining. Ovechkin has somehow slumped (well, against the expectations at least) with the whole Capitals team. Haven't seen the 8-2, 9-3 scores from them lately, but some grinding of 2-1 victory over the Oilers or something instead. Not impressive victories at all and thus not going to be enough in the springtime. Have to improve. Ovechkin barely leads the shots on goal stats? Alex, everyone expects more. Fill in the buckets of ice for the sore wrists!

Steven Stamkos has proven to be a hell of a sniper. Playing with a great playmaker like Martin St. Louis is definitely a recipe for scoring. Maybe the second half will show some slowing down on this duo, but they'll carry on the impressive start for top-5 finishes in the scoring race if nothing dramatic happens.

Gotta love the Sedin twins. It's hilarious to see these guys post point for point and while competing wich each other, making a serious case for taking over the scoring in the whole league. Semi-casually, low-key, the Swedish way. Those Swedes.. The supporting cast in Vancouver seem to be improving every year too. The energetic defensive forwards have started posting big points and all of a sudden this is the team to beat in the league. Some say that Vancouver is one of the nicest cities in the world, probably the cup wouldn't mind ending up there either.

Well, the defenders then. Hats off to misters Bufyglien and Lidström. Big Dustin is wiping the ice with the rest on the scoring race. And old Nick is as good as new. Those Swedes..

Ohh.. this post is bloating. I'll cut off here and continue with the rest of the observations later on another post. There's plenty to cover, I've built a whopping backlog. Later then.