NHL Free Agent Signings: East
New York Rangers Win, Sabres & Devils Lose Eastern Conference Draw
Thanks to some big name free agents changing addresses, there may be a bit of a power shift happening in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Both the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils lost significant pieces of their respective puzzles.
The team making the biggest splash in the East was the New York Rangers. The Broadway Boys were firmly in the middle of the pack last season. Signing the top 2 free agent centers, Chris Drury from Buffalo and Scott Gomez from New Jersey, ought to change that.
Drury and Gomez can skate, score and play both ways. One will be lucky enough to have Jaromir Jagr on his wing. Both ought to thrive. As an added bonus for the Rangers, and everyone else, the signings stripped the top 2 teams in the conference of their best centers.
The Sabres also waved goodbye to Daniel Briere, who signed with the Flyers. That means Buffalo lost arguably their 2 best players. And it might have been even worse. Edmonton signed restricted free agent Tomas Vanek to a massive 7-year, $50 million offer sheet, forcing the Sabres to match it or lose yet another star.
The Devils are in a similar boat to the Sabres. Losing Gomez was like taking a hard jab to the jaw. Losing puck moving defenseman Brian Rafalski to Detroit was more like a hay-maker to the temple.
It’s not all despair for Devils fans, though. To offset those losses, GM/coach Lou Lamoriello inked big forward Dainius Zubrus, who split time last year between Washington and Buffalo, and former Rangers blueliner Karel Rachunek. Jersey’s defensive system allows for interchangeable parts, so the Devils might be able to absorb the losses of Gomez and Rafalski.
The same can’t be said for the Islanders. The Isles lost 5 important cogs from last year’s team. It would be 6 if you counted Alexei Yashin, although he wasn’t so much lost as he was kicked to the curb. Of the other 5, 40-goal man Jason Blake took his act to Toronto, defenseman Tom Poti and forward Viktor Kozlov bolted for Washington while forward Richard Zednik split for Florida.
Individually, though, none of those deletions compares with losing Ryan Smyth. As part of their effort to eke into the spring showcase, the Islanders mortgaged a huge hunk of their future at last year’s trade deadline to land Smyth and his gritty leadership from the Oilers.
Now, Smyth’s flown the coop for the fresh air of Colorado. No matter how the Isles try spinning this, bringing in the well-traveled Mike Comrie, aging power forward Bill Guerin, former Tampa forward Ruslan Fedotenko and worker bee Jon Sim won’t change the fact that, as a team, they took the biggest free agent hit.
Meanwhile, the Conference’s bottom feeders were making out well.
Philly’s signing of Briere to an 8-year, $52 million deal adds instant offense to the lowest-scoring club in the Conference. The Flyers weren’t as bad as they looked last year and this signing is a huge step in the right direction.
The Washington Capitals missed the playoffs by 22 points. They may not make it to the post-season this time around either, but you’ve got to give them marks for trying. In addition to signing Kozlov and Poti from the Islanders, the Caps also brought in veteran pivot Michael Nylander from the Rangers.
No matter how you slice it, the sheer volume of free agent movement in the Eastern Conference means many teams will sport new looks next season. Of course, new doesn’t necessarily mean improved.
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