2017 Free agency thread.

Hawks just signed Tootoo and Roszival. Looks like a Cleary type of signing (guy coach loves but sucks and is in decline) on the surface.

The extensions were made, in part, to secure minimum games played requirements to expose players to the expansion draft. There has to be X number of players with 40gp last year and 70 over the last 2. In other words, this means Bowman can shop his prospects and young players like Hartman, knowing they can still be protected. It keeps Chicago from exposing some players they didn't want to expose.

Kind of a weird place to start the thread, but there will be quite a few deals with playoff, CBA, and expansion draft related consequences and I thought they should start getting posted up here.

 

this is strange and it looks to me like cheating. i hope your have both of 'em next year. for the duration.

 

I don't think it's cheating, it's not much different than GMs giving their toys an extra year in my opinion.

Roszival has been Q's woobie and everybody likes the Sober Tootoo, it seems, even though he's bad at NHL hockey. They get a gauranteed contract to stick around playing hockey. Because the contracts are one way, neither will likely get claimed when/if waived. There's a real good chance one of them, or both, gets to be up with the big club for a quite a while. If another player emerges, they'll get buried or find themselves on LTIR somehow.

The only real loss with the contracts are the contract slots. Since they protect Hartman, and since Bowman doesn't have piles of players to sign, the contract slots shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

Lots of teams signing their draft picks that finished their college season.

 

Signing Antipin would probably help the Sabres next season. Buffalo is one of about a half dozen teams in the Bayreuther sweeps, and if he signs he's probably Rochester bound for a minimum of one year.

 

Someone is going to be real excited about landing Aston-Reece........Until they forget they have him next season.

 

Would the NH boy rather play in Rochester or Round Rock, (Austin)? Hmmm, I've been to both places and Austin is (a lot) more fun. But, if he is more concerned about hockey...

 

I would rather live in Austin. No brainer for me.

 

Someone is going to be real excited about landing Aston-Reece........Until they forget they have him next season.

i am more excited about gaudette as a 5th rounder. who knows...

 

Hockey ain't horseshoes. Close sucks.

G. Bayreuther has chosen to sign with the Dallas Stars. The Sabres were close.

Close sucks.

 

Keep Austin weird! Id rather go there too.
dont sweat it Dan, more likely that he doesnt have a long NHL career than he does.
agreed rediis, you have the better NU Huskie.

 

True dat, Matty.

I also want help for Rochester. And I hope to never see a prospect called up from Cdn. Juniors on an emergency basis again.

A lot of teams need D. The Sabres need D and D depth. (I expect Antipin will help. B. Guhle will be a pro next year, and there's a good chance W. Borgen will be too. Hopefully TM does enough to allow them to be seasoned in the AHL.)

 

Quick question, and I recognize that we're not talking current NHL'ers at the moment, but several of you have better insight on this than I, and he is a pending free agent:

What are the odds of the Panthers being able to re-sign Vanek, if they'd like? Has he shown a preference to being one place or the other, before? Is he strictly a "highest contract" guy, a "best place to win the Cup" guy, a "where I feel at home" guy, etc.? Any insight would help. I appreciate it in advance.

 

(* edit for sake of the page break)

Tommy has been there, done that. It did not work out too well for him.

He once pined for the money and for Minnesota. Now he pines for the money - but his expectations have been lowered since the Oil signed him to that ridiculous offer sheet back when. Ridiculous because Darcy Regier felt compelled to match after the Sabres had lost Drury and Briere that July.

I think that Florida has a better than equal chance of signing him if that's what they want to do.

 

Ya I'd think Florida has the inside track to resign him as long there's interest to pay market value.

Haven't seen Vanek in a Fla jersey yet, dline do you like what you see so far? How's he fit in on the roster?

 

They're so broken on offense that he looks great.

 

First, KilkennyDan, I appreciate the feedback. That's good to hear.

Second, to your question, Matty - unfortunately, I teach during pretty much every Panthers game in a given week, so I'm usually trying to catch a replay, but from the little Vanek has played for Florida, and what I've seen of that, I appreciate what he's bringing. The fact is, based on the way this team is run (and the players on it), finding offensive production has been really difficult. While this past game was an outlier, Vanek had four assists. He helps out a ton with the fast break persona that our forwards feed on, and is another capable scoring presence on a team that could use them. I think we've been one competent forward, one competent defenseman, and one competent coach away. Vanek addresses one of those things. I'd love to see them keep him, as I think he'd fit in very well with multiple line combinations - another problem we've had is that our personnel tends to be tough to move. A guy like Marchessault just doesn't fit everywhere, neither does Trocheck, or Jokinen, etc. I think Vanek adds a weapon to any line.

Or, to sum up more succinctly, as Bob said - our offense is, currently, broken.

 

One thing I read recently is the higher-ups really like Vanek and his contributions he's already made.

The one knock ive heard on Vanek is he's always moving and seems to go stale during the playoffs.

I think if he has some more good productive games down the stretch the Panthers org will offer him a deal he cant refuse.

Just speculation on my part, of course.