Per Ledin
-1yr/undisclosed amount
-Played nearly his whole career in his native Sweden, most recently for HV71 (yes, that is a team name), a team I am somewhat familiar with from hockey video games.
-It doesn't seem that much is known about him, much like the Hlinka signing last year, but based on his stats and the minimal amount of information I could dig up on him, I think a decent comparison to an NHL player would be Darcy Tucker, a comparison I made to my father earlier this morning. His job is to piss people off as the 'agitator', but he also has a nice scoring touch it seems.
-I assume the contract will not be worth much, so this is a small risk/big reward possibility that I fully support.
Andrew Raycroft
-1yr/$800k
-Has had a very up and down career.
-Won rookie of the year in 03-04 with the Bruins.
-Great year in Toronto in 06-07. Horrible year in Toronto in 07-08 (in a backup role).
-Like the Ledin signing, it's a small contract so there's not too much risk involved. I think this is a good signing because it will bring some competition into training camp for the goalie position which will hopefully cause Budaj to step up his game a bit. In a perfect world, Raycroft will develop into a solid backup goalie and a nice compliment to Budaj on his nights off.
Darcy Tucker
-2yr/$4.5M
-Our biggest/most well-known signing of the day.
-The type of player that you love to play with, but hate to play against.
-Similar style of play to Lappy, except he possesses more of a scoring touch.
-Per Ledin = Darcy Tucker Jr. You heard it here first, folks!
-I love this signing. He's the kind of guy that you love to have on your team because he gives his all on every single shift. We will be a better team this season because of his presence.
Here are the guys we lost to free-agency today:
As many have speculated recently, Andrew Brunette has returned to the Wild, with a contract of 3yr/$7M. I cannot even begin to express my disgust with the fact that we let him walk and sign with a division rival for such a small amount. Bruno has been our most consistent player over the last three years on our roster and is criminally under-rated by nearly the entire league. I would've been more than content to keep him at $4M a season, so seeing him sign elsewhere (especially with rival Minnesota) for less than $2.5M per year broke my heart. I will never understand FG's reasoning behind this and may not ever forgive him for this. In my eyes, this is the worst decision that the franchise has ever made.
Thanks for the memories Bruno. You will be missed more than you know.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite Brunette moment from the last three years. His series clinching goal against the Stars in the first round of the playoffs three years ago would probably be my favorite, but close behind is complete undressing of Luongo on a goal this past season (you all know which one I'm talking about).
It seems I am one of the few Kurt Sauer fans out there these days, so I am sad to see him go. However, I am more than satisfied with him going to Phoenix because I somewhat follow the Coyotes and don't completely despise them, as I do with Bruno's new/old team. Sauer got a contract of 4yr/$7M, and I couldn't be happier for the guy. Do I think he's worth that much? Not really, but I really hope he gets the ice-time he deserves down in the desert and I will be cheering for him to succeed on each and every shift. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in the hockey world and he will be missed in Denver. Not that he will ever read this, but thank you Kurt for telling me when practice was at Frozen Fury last year!
My favorite Sauer moment other than getting the chance to talk to him a bit this past fall at Frozen Fury would have to be his tip-in goal from Sakic in game one of the playoffs this year against the Wild. He was the last person on our roster that I would expect that from, but he came through when it counted.
In one of the more ludicrous contracts signed today, Jeff Finger has signed with Toronto for 4yr/$14M. It seemed like he was very well-loved in the Avalanche community, and as much as I love the guy, I cannot justify a team spending that much money on him and I'm sure most of you are in the same boat as I am on this one. He played very well for us last year, a lot better than most of us could've expected. Our most physical d-man and also our defensive leader in goals last year was sure to demand more than his $475k salary of last year on the open market, but I never thought it would end up being that much. The organization was in a tough spot with him. FG seemed to genuinely be interested in bringing him back, but he would've been the 7th d-man on our roster and would see significantly less ice-time than if he were to sign as a top-six guy somewhere else. I'm glad to see him go somewhere where he'll get the playing time he deserves. Although they overpaid for him, they will get a solid game on both ends of the ice each and every night from Jeff and a lot of Avs fans will be bittersweet about the fact that he's no longer ours.
Besides all the big hits Jeff threw for us the last couple years, my favorite moment of his came at Frozen Fury a number of years ago when he fought Sean Avery and killed him, for lack of a better term. From that day forward, I was always rooting for him to make the roster and I'm glad I got to see him play for us, even though it didn't last very long
The Avs community will be torn on this one as Jose Theodore has signed with the Capitals for 2yr/$9M. As an Avs fan, you either loved or hated Theo. To be honest, I absolutely HATED the trade originally as I loved Abby and Theo seemed to have lost his trophy-winning form by that point. But somehow, this season he started to regain his previous form as the season went on, and I was soon cheering for him every night. Theo haters, let's face it.. he was the reason we won that series against Minnesota back in April. Yes, SuperJoe was Mr. Clutch as usual, yes Bruno had some key goals, yes Footer and Sauer shut down Gaborik, but the backbone to our wins was Mr. Jose Theodore. That said, he completely fell apart once again in the Detroit series and we once again couldn't win a second-round game with him in net. I would've been fine with him coming back for around $3M/yr, but I would've been very disappointed in FG if he gave him the $4.5M/yr that Washington did. Good luck in Washington Theo. Thanks for one round of good games!
As far a favorite Theo moment, just look at how he shut down the Wild in the first round of the playoffs this year. He seemed to be back in Vezina form and the Avs nation was rallying around him like never before, only to see him revert to the Theo we expected in the next round.
Final Day One Thoughts:
There were seven Avs-related moves today, involving Ledin, Raycroft, Tucker, Brunette, Sauer, Finger, and Theodore. Based on contracts and the like, I will give FG a plus/minus for each player gained or lost:
+Ledin
+Raycroft
+Tucker
-Brunette
+Sauer
+Finger
+Theodore.
While I would've loved having Sauer and Finger back in the mix, FG did the right thing by letting them go somewhere where they would earn more money and be able to play more so I respect his decision on those two. Overall, FG earned a +5 on day one of 2008 free agency. Looks like maybe we should be adding FG to the roster with that plus/minus rating from just one game (day), eh?
Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to ex-Av Ossi Vaananen as he is back in the NHL playing for the Flyers. Hopefully he gets some solid ice-time there and can stay in our league for many years to come.
Here is a picture of me and Vaany at Frozen Fury '06:
Good luck, Ossi!
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