Shit. Pronger's an Ontario-born guy. Perhaps the Leafs will get him. Fuck McCabe's contract, rip it up. He isn't worth $4M, let alone $5.8M. I thought Pronger was one of the more overrated defencemen in the league (and I maintained that through the Olympics), but he really picked up his play before the playoffs and into them as well. He was a difference maker. Leafs traded away a great prospect in Tuuka Rask for Andrew Raycroft. I hope Raycroft can have a better season than last year and thrive in Toronto. Because if he doesn't and Rask turns into this amazing goaltender, I'm going to be pissed. We got a steal with Nikolai Kulemin at the 44th spot. Does anyone remember his amazing cut-in goal against the US at the World Junior Championships? Some say that if Malkin wasn't overshadowing him at Mettalurg games all last season, he'd be a top 15 pick. Reminds me of Mogilny. Calgary just vastly improved by getting Tanguay. Wow.
If the Canucks can sign Luongo long-term, we're set. It's been a long time since Vancouver has had an elite goalie. Edit: Luongo has signed a 4-year deal.
Hmm. I wonder who the Ducks traded for Pronger. I heard the roster player was Lupul. It should be illegal to have both Scott Niedermeyer and Pronger on the same team.
Why is everyone so nervouse of Anaheim having two elite d-men on the same team. Do you remember the St. Louis Blues, they had Pronger and MacInnis and the best they ever did was make it to the conference final. In my opinon this was realyl a stupid trade by the ducks. If they wanted to solidify thier team they should have solidified their goaltending, otherwise this team looks really good. When you can go all seaosn playing Lupul who is a 1st or 2nd line player on the 3rd line, you know you have a solid team.
If Anson Carter signs with another team, I wonder how many goals they'd expect from him. If he doesn't sign with Vancouver, there's no way in hell that he'll get over 30.
There's alot of talk about him coming to the Leafs. They're lacking depth on the right side. If he was to play with Mats, I'd give him around 25 goals, tops. Mats is one of those players that can make everyone around him play better. For example, in the last 15 or so games last season, he helped lesser-skilled players like Ponikarovsky/Antropov average over a point-per-game, when they were put up on the first line with him by Quinn. One can only hope that a higher calibre player like Carter can click with Sundin and turn into a good one-two punch on the first line. Throw an up-and-comer in Steen on the top line, and you've got a decent first line. I just hope we don't overpay, like we did with Kubina, McCabe, and Gill. Kubina actually turned down 5 years at $5.5M/season from St. Louis to sign with Toronto for $5M/year for 4 years, so it could've went higher. We don't have very much cap room left at all ($4.5M, and JFJ wants wiggle room for trades during the season), and that's not including the re-signing of a player like Lindros for cheap. It's going to be interesting to see how they fit it all in.
Even though team rosters are nearly not set, with arbitration coming and whatnot, what do you expect your favourite teams to look like? Vancouver Canucks Naslund - Morrison - Cooke Sedin - Sedin - Schultz (0.45?)/FA (Carter?) Pyatt - Chouinard - Kesler Burrows - Reid/Santala - Linden Spares: Bouck Ohlund - Mitchell Salo - Bourdon Krajicek - Bieksa/FA Luongo Noronen The Canucks need more offense, and at least 1 decent defensemen for depth.
1. Steen --- Sundin --- O'Neill -- There's a reason Lowe was asking for Steen in the Pronger trade, he's a gem. Sundin needs a speedy winger like him on his line. O'Neill will bounce back with Paul Maurice behind the bench, his old coach in Carolina who got a 40 goal season and a couple of 30 goal seasons out of him. 2. Ponikarovsky --- Wellwood --- Stajan -- This is our speedy youth line. Wellwood's one hell of a playmaker, and Ponikarovsky and Stajan have the size and finishing touches to dominate in the corners and score on Wellwood's feeds. Stajan was treated very unfairly by Pat Quinn because of his love of veterans. Once all of our veterans started going down, Stajan was moved up to a second-line role and he thrived in it, with 6 goals and 9 points in his last 12 games. 3. Kilger --- Peca --- Tucker -- Kilger led the Leafs in hits last year and is one of the more underrated players on the team. All three of these players are forechecking beasts who will undoubtedly thrive in a rough playoff atmosphere. Tucker's 28 goals last year were a plus, and with Peca and Kilger being defensively sound, this could be quite the tandem. 4. Pohl --- Antropov --- Suglobov -- Pohl led the Marlies in points last season and had 3 goals in 7 games up with the Leafs. Maurice wanted to put Antropov back to his natural position at centre, so this is where I fit him. Suglobov is a speedy sniper who's one of our best prospects. He has a bright year ahead of him if he makes the team out of camp. He still needs work on his defensive coverage, though. Spare: Belak McCabe --- Kaberle Kubina --- White Gill --- Colaiacovo Spare: Harrison Raycroft Aubin Tellqvist will likely be traded. Prediction: Leafs will finish 6-8th in the conference.
Montreal picked up Samsonov! And Colorado got Arnason from the Hawks! Not bad but not too active either, anyways Leafs lost Lindros which I'm not sure is bad/good for the team!
With the additions of Jan Bulis (who Nonis said would play a top-six role), and Tremblay, I wonder if there are still going to be any more major moves before the season begins. The Canucks still need to lock up some RFA's, noticeably Kesler, Krajicek, Noronen, and Burrows, as well as re-sign Linden.