I’m going to keep this thing updated as the day progresses. So pick up your socks and wash off your monitors, because you’re gonna want to check this thing like ALL day. Who’s excited? You’re excited? Feel these ni… you know what, I’m not going to do the BASEketball reference. I’ll refrain. Clearly I’m excited, as should you be. Granted it won’t be a big day for the Rangers. But we do want to see those re-signings!! If we don’t re-sign Marc Staal I might personally go to Glen Sather’s house and pay him a little night cap (no pun intended). Well lets get underway.
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1:44PM – So far, nothing blockbuster yet. Unless you consider Sergei Gonchar blockbuster. I don’t. I don’t think Gonchar is even that good.
Look, he’s even got his olé technique down. Just let him go right by. He gives up, not a guy anyone should want. Have fun Senators.
Well as for the Rangers, Erik Christensen hit the open market and realized no one wanted him, so he re-signed with the Rangers. I’m fine with that.
Interesting stats via NHL: Rangers are 5-1-0 when Christensen scores a goal, and 12-3-2 when he registers a point.
Also, we signed the man I was praising yesterday as the most talented on my list, Martin Biron. To check out what I said yesterday, click here. I’m not gonna lie, its a good feeling when you call someone that we should sign, and we actually do it. Especially with the unpredictable Glen Sather. Biron will make $1.75 million ($875,000/yr) over the next two years. A little more than I was hoping, especially when considering he was splitting starts last year for almost half a million less and he ain’t getting any younger. Otherwise – good signings.
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3:06PM – Sometimes I hate being a Ranger fan. My first to report is we lost Jody Shelley. What seemed like a lock became wide open. Shelley signs with the Philadelphia Flyers for 3 years and $3.3 million. This is quite a shock to everyone. Can’t exactly blame Sather for this one at least.
But what you can blame Slats for is his signing of Derek Boogaard just now. Probably going to be the WORST signing of all free agency, the Rangers and Slats give Boogaard a four year deal for $1.65 million a year. Does he even know who Boogaard is? This is a guy who hasn’t scored a goal since the 2005-2006 season. I have so much rage right now as a fan. I can not say anything positive about this signing. I guess drafting four fighters wasn’t enough, now we have to sign them and throw money at them. This guy has 14 career points in 5 years. I think I might become a Red Wings fan, maybe Sabres, at least they’re New York. Ugh. I want Boogaard as much as I want cancer.
3:40PM – Pittsburgh Penguins are getting a little scary. Clearly everyone jumping on the Dan Hamhuis train is dumb. When I was at the draft party, I met some Nashville Predators fans (all two of ’em – I gave him some jabs, all in fun) and he said Hamhuis was a pain in the ass to re-sign and said have fun to anyone that wants to sign him cause he’ll just overprice himself. Although, most big defenders are gone and being one of the few big D-men left, he’ll probably get a big contract, surprisingly. Pred fan has his own blog, too, and it isn’t bad either.
Back to Pitt, they signed Paul Martin and Z Michalek today. Loading up their already nice defense. Like they’re not already tough enough to play 6 times a year.
3:58PM – Okay, everyone in our division is locking up a solid defensive core to a ridiculous degree. I’ve already gone over the Pens, but also the New Jersey Devils getting Henrik Tallinder and the Flyers re-signing Braydon Coburn and signing Sean O’Donnell. Not a big player, but he’s solid. They also traded earlier for Andrej Meszaros. Stacked. And here we are, and we still haven’t re-signed Marc Staal. Ugh.
4:25PM – Dan Hamhuis finally appears (not finalized as I write this) to sign to the Vancouver Canucks. Good move for both of them. It also appears that he actually turned down more money to be in Vancouver. The deal is for six years for $4.5 million/year. Also, New Jersey makes up more for the Martin by signing Anton Volchenkov. Two good defenders make up easily for one great defender anytime. Good for all of them.
Now if you want a good laugh, Darryl Suter the GM of the Calgary Flames re-acquired and signs Olli Jokinen for two years at $3 million a year. Thats $3 million too much. This guy is almost as dumb as Glen Sather, did he not see how useless he was in Calgary AND New York.
5:18PM – Not much huge has been happening. Been trying to be okay with the Boogeyman signing. I do have to admit, I would like to see him bang Crosby, Malkin, Mike Richards, Brandon Witt, and David Clarkson against the boards. Here’s a nice compilation video of him.
6:30PM – Rangers re-sign Vinny Prospal for $2.1M for one year. I’m fine with this as I’ve stated many times before. He was useful and hopefully will continue to be. Besides, who can’t love his excitement after he scores a goal? It’s like he just scored his first goal. Every goal.