NHL offseason & Coyotes rumors

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The Kings just traded a second round pick to Vancouver for Dan Cloutier. While I am not a Cloutier fan at all, he has proven to be a legit starter. Goaltending was clearly their biggest weakness, and Cloutier could be the answer. Just another move that makes our division even stronger. The Pacific is going to be absolutely wild this year.

 

[boondockdrunk]

Does anyone think that the Front Office is not signing a top-six forward (or didn't for that matter) is because they are saving that spot for Enver Lisin to win out of training camp?

Also, does anyone think that Matthew Spiller might be on his way out? With the Coyotes surplus of defensemen, he might be the lone man out.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Just read Laraque to Phoenix, but can't verify....

 

[boondockdrunk]

Just read Laraque to Phoenix, but can't verify....

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=170605&hubname=nhl

The Phoenix Coyotes have signed winger Georges Laraque to a two-year contract.

The deal, which includes a no-trade clause, will pay Laraque a total of $2.4 million.

''I'm very excited to come to Phoenix and play for the Coyotes,'' said Laraque. ''The Coyotes have made a lot of great moves this summer and we will be a very competitive team next season. I'm looking forward to playing for Wayne Gretzky.''

Laraque said he was in tears making the decision and he wanted badly to stay in Edmonton. He said he would have accepted ''several hundred thousand dollars less'' if the Oilers would have agreed to the no-trade clause, but they did not.

Laraque, 29, had two goals, ten assists and 73 penalty minutes in 72 games with the Oilers last season.

In 490 career games (all with Edmonton) Laraque had compiled 43 goals, 68 assists and 826 penalty minutes.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Still waiting on that top six forward...

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Still waiting on that top six forward...

Unfortunately there werent very many of them on the market to begin with, and the only elite one stayed with his team.

 

[howlincoyote2k1]

Right now, I think we've just gotta worry about resigning our RFAs. If we're going to succeed next year, we *NEED* Nagy. Badly.

I think we should just re-sign Sanderson and be done with it. Next OS will be the year of the elite, top 6 forward apparently.

...but Laraque? Why do we need him? Don't we already have enough penalty magnets as it is?

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Wasn't one of Laraque's goals against us last year?

If you want to be really optimistic, you could believe that the Laraque was signed as protection for a forthcoming top six forward..."look who we just got...no worries about getting injured now."

 

[howlincoyote2k1]

Wasn't one of Laraque's goals against us last year?

If you want to be really optimistic, you could believe that the Laraque was signed as protection for a forthcoming top six forward..."look who we just got...no worries about getting injured now."

All I remember was back in 1998-99, in a horrific 7-1 loss to Edmonton at AWA, he got his first NHL goal. Lordy, I remember that night...every puck that left an Edmonton stick was finding the net that night. *shudder*

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The one thing that has to be commended for with this signing is that the organization is being proactive in identifying and improving team wide weaknesses. The franchise last year proved that from top to bottom that it was too soft physically, and signing Laraque is just the latest move to help fix it. If there was one team, and even one player that made it so painfully obvious that the team needed to get tougher all around, it was the Anaheim Ducks and Todd Fedoruk. In the eight games between the two teams last season, the Ducks absolutely manhandled the Coyotes, resulting in seven losses. The Ducks weren’t the only team that exploited this weakness, but they made it clearer than any other opponent. I don’t believe that the team is getting tougher solely because of what happened with Anaheim, but their experience had to be in the back of the minds of management personnel when making some of these moves. I do not think that the answer to the goonery displayed by guys like Fedoruk and the others the Coyotes faced is to respond with goonery in kind, but signings like this one will help ensure that Phoenix is not ragdolled out of the building nightly.

That said, the kind of contract Laraque received is going a bit overboard for what he brings to the team. The money per year ($1.2M) is reasonable, but giving him two year is questionable, and adding in a no-trade clause is puzzling. For one thing, Laraque plays less than seven minutes a night. That is incredibly low, even for a fourth liner. He will not contribute at all to an offense that at times last year was stagnant. Pairing him with Ricci will make for a very slow line. Despite his faults, Laraque will add plenty of intangibles that one can’t see on a stat sheet. In addition to bringing some of the toughness that went missing last year, he has the heart and character that every successful team needs. One of the positives I see in this offseason for Phoenix is the quality leadership brought in. Jovanovski, Boynton, Roenick, and Laraque all bring strong leadership qualities to the club. There will be few legitimate excuses for this team to play with a lack of effort on game night with this group.

Another poster made a good point about all the potential penalty magnets on this team. Doan and Scatchard will probably both have over 100 PIMs each this season. Guys like Ballard, Boynton, and Jovanovski could come close. Laraque picked up 73 PIMs last season, although 45 of them were for fighting (thus not affecting the manpower situation). That is a lot of penalty minutes for one team, who will kill all these penalties? The Coyotes penalty kill ranked a very poor 22nd last season, and it does not seem much has been done this offseason to make it better. Unfortunately, Laraque received almost zero PK time with Edmonton, and should not be looked upon here to do much more. This is one area I would still like to see Phoenix make a move to improve on between now and training camp.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Pacific division offseason grades from Sportsline:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Pacific Division
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Anaheim Ducks: They've dropped the "Mighty" from their names, maybe a little bit too early. Anaheim was a powerhouse in the second half and had visions of a Stanley Cup stopped only by an Oilers team led by Pronger. Well now they have the big defenseman to play alongside another Norris winner, Scott Niedermayer, giving them as good a 1-2 punch as can be. More important, they still have a lot of young talent, and losing Lupul will only mean more playing time for two other first-round choices, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Bobby Ryan, taken second overall last summer, is knocking at the door as well. Grade: A [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Phoenix Coyotes: Wayne Gretzky's first year as coach had many challenges, but the Great One will have a lot more talent to work with this season, especially on defense. Phoenix signed All-star Jovanovski and traded for Nick Boynton, improving a blue line that already had Derek Morris and Keith Ballard. An 11th-hour deal landed them Jeremy Roenick, who is vowing to bounce back from a miserable year. And with nearly $20 million in cap room and 14 players already signed, the Coyotes have lots of latitude to make even more changes. Grade: A [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] San Jose Sharks: The Sharks have been relatively quiet. They have lost a few role players, but they signed RW Mike Grier from Buffalo and C Curtis Brown from Chicago, players who will add some of the grit they lacked during their playoff loss to Edmonton. The Sharks are still in great position because they have 15 players signed for about $28 million. Look for them to move one of their two goalies -- Evgeni Nabokov or Vesa Toskala -- and get a pretty decent return. Grade: B [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Dallas Stars: They bought out Bill Guerin a year too late and lost high-scoring Arnott but still have a good core of veterans to rally around. The Stars would have done better to keep Mitchell from jumping to Vancouver, but adding forwards Jeff Halpern and Patrick Stefan improves their overall skating. Dallas will need more consistency from Marty Turco because their offense looks a lot weaker now. Grade: C [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Los Angeles Kings: Los Angeles started overhauling early with new GM Dean Lombardi and coach Marc Crawford, but they'll have a familiar look next season with defenseman Blake back in the lineup. The Kings signed the 36-year-old former Norris winner to a two-year, $12 million deal, a big move for a team that took a low-key approach in the early days of the offseason. Los Angeles added free-agent role-playing forwards Alyn McCauley, Scott Thornton and Brian Willsie but, after missing the playoffs, has not really kept pace with division rivals. Grade: C[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]http://cbs.sportsline.com/nhl/story/9541702/2?NHL070506
[/FONT]

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Offseason notes from ESPN:

We know nothing

Hands up all the hockey prognosticators who predicted former Olympian Jovanovski would end up in the desert? Not you, Mike Barnett. All concerned in the hockey world and their trained chimps expected Jovanovski would end up in Florida with Todd Bertuzzi, but Coyotes GM Barnett made the best early strike of the offseason by showing up at the doorstep of Jovanovski's agent, Don Meehan, and signing the big puck-moving defenseman to a five-year, $32.5 million deal, thus changing the dynamics in the West.
Yes, Jovanovski is coming off an injury-plagued 2005-06 campaign in which he played just 44 games, but he is made for the new NHL. Along with the addition of big Nick Boynton, the Coyotes suddenly have one of the most interesting blue line corps in the league, with Derek Morris, young stud Keith Ballard and emerging blueliner Zbynek Michalek. The desert dogs still lack enough offensive zest to be a contender, but Barnett has taken care of the most important part of building a playoff team.
As for the addition of the hard-lobbying free agent Jeremy Roenick, there are two possibilities. Either he becomes a candidate for comeback player of the year or he becomes Brett Hull redux. As much as Roenick claims he's all about hockey and not the glamour, we encourage Hull to make room on the tee box.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=2509753

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The Coyotes were named an offseason winner according to Fox Sports. In the division, Anaheim was also listed as a winner and the Kings a loser.

Phoenix Coyotes
The Coyotes made great strides in shoring up their problems on the blueline by signing unrestricted free agent Ed Jovanovski and acquiring Nick Boyton in a trade. Jovanovski can also chip in on the power play and he adds a back end offensive dimension the Coyotes were in dire need of.
The big question is whether Wayne Gretzky can get Jeremy Roenick to concentrate more on hockey and less on trying to be the conscience of hockey. J.R. speaks a great game and now that he is in the autumn of his career he should deliver his best to Gretzky and do it on the ice.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/5761226

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Brendan Shanahan is off to the Rangers with a one year, $4M deal. That seems like quite a bargain for a guy that buried 40 pucks in the back of the net last season.

 

[howlincoyote2k1]

Brendan Shanahan is off to the Rangers with a one year, $4M deal. That seems like quite a bargain for a guy that buried 40 pucks in the back of the net last season.

Well, you gotta consider the guy's getting up in years, and I believe he played on a line with Datsyuk as well. He'll do well in Manhattan, I think, but he won't be putting up another 40 goals.

I'm actually kinda glad the Coyotes didn't end up getting this guy.

 

[boondockdrunk]

The Brendan Shanahan signing means Petr Sykora won't be back with the Rangers, but Martin Rucinsky is expected to be re-signed to a one-year deal. - NY Post, NY Daily News

I think he is out of our price range (since we still need to resign a number of players) but he is worth a look at.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Bottom line is, we still need at least one player that can put the puck in the back of the net. Our offense last year wasn't very good, and unless we make a trade, it appears we won't take care of a major need. I love the defensive pickups, and I think Roenick will help, but we still don't have the offense yet to be a serious contender.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Bottom line is, we still need at least one player that can put the puck in the back of the net. Our offense last year wasn't very good, and unless we make a trade, it appears we won't take care of a major need. I love the defensive pickups, and I think Roenick will help, but we still don't have the offense yet to be a serious contender.

I agree that the offense is still too weak. Another free agent pickup looks unlikely (due to cap room and the fact that the FA pool is pretty empty), but given the fact that Barnett loves to make trades, I wouldnt be surprised to see some sort of deal before training camp.

Unfortunately a rumored target of ours, Mark Bell was just traded to the Sharks a few days ago. Its a shame the Coyotes could not pull off a trade for Bell, he could have helped our scoring troubles as a second line winger. I think the Sharks got a great deal for Bell, only giving up Preissing and Hennessy. Bell is going to look great playing next to Thornton or Marleau next season. I dont think Ive ever seen a entire division make as many moves in one offseason as the Pacific has this year. This division has quickly become the toughest in all of hockey, all five teams have made great strides to try and stay competitive.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

"No on Lindros

One player who likely won't be joining the Coyotes is Eric Lindros, the top pick in the 1991 NHL draft.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Barnett said the Coyotes have not made a contract offer to Lindros, an unrestricted free agent."

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/0713coyotesnb0713.html

 

[boondockdrunk]

Seven NHL teams are interested in Oiler free-agent right winger Radek Dvorak. - Edmonton Journal

Radek Dvorak is a solid winger that could really help out our team, especially since we just traded away Johnson. He could also come cheaper than Johnson because he made $1.596 million last year and should expect to take a pay cut after his below-average season.

Just a thought to mull over during an uneventful day.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

From Gambo:

he Phoenix Coyotes did show interest in Eric Lindros last season. But there have been nothing to the rumors that the organization is interested in the former first-overall pick in the NHL draft this time around. Lindros had 11 goals in 33 games for Toronto last season. The Coyotes are expected to have a payroll of around $40 million and, depending on the arbitration results for Ladislav Nagy and Mike Comrie, will likely be at $38 million after those decisions are rendered.

There is room for the Coyotes to add another top-six forward at the right price or through a trade. The Coyotes went hard after Jason Arnott but weren't willing to give him the fifth year that Nashville eventually gave him. They could decide to bring Oleg Kavasha back if the 6-5 forward, who is an unrestricted free agent, would play for close to what he made last year, around $1 million. There is little chance that Oleg Saprykin will be back with the team. If he accepts his qualifying offer, the Coyotes could look to trade him.

Nice to see the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins coming to the Glendale Arena next season, but the NHL needs to get back to having a team play every other team in the league at least once.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/columns/articles/0714rant.html

 

[Scott MS]

From azcentral.com today:

The arbitration date for center Mike Comrie has been changed to Aug. 4.

Left wing Ladislav Nagy also is scheduled to have his salary determined that day by an arbitrator.


• Goalie Phil Sauve, defenseman Matthew Spiller and forward Oleg Saprykin accepted their qualifying offers before Saturday's deadline.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Now it appears Phoenix is content to give players such as MacLean, Patrick Fischer of Switzerland, and prospects Bill Thomas and Joel Perrault shots at cracking the top three lines.


Per AZCentral...talk about a letdown, we were promised two top line offensive players at the beginning of the offseason, and looks like we'll end up with zero. I like the team, but with our current offense, we'll have no legitimate chance to make noise next year.

 

[boondockdrunk]

Oleg Saprykin signed for $1.064 million. A little much for my tastes as I never liked him too much at all. He has the potential to be a top-six forward in the NHL but he does not have the heart to do it. I would have sooner given Freddie more money.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Eric Lindros is set to sign with Dallas, big sigh of relief that he will not be playing for the Coyotes like rumored.