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2016 NHL Free Agency Thread

CanadaCanes said:
Victor Hedman wins that crown hands down and twice on Sundays.
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Yeah, but three years ago Hedman was considered a big old bust. Larsson might be a slow developer and honestly I'm not mad at what I've seen from the kid thus far. Hall has proven to be an injury problem and is fixing to be really expensive when his contract comes up again. I dunno ... this might just work out in the end for the Oil ... despite the current public opinion.

As for Subban for Weber ... jeez. Clearly the Habs wanted to go shorter term on the big spend on the big number one D, but I dunno. Clearly there's something else in play for that to make sense for them.
 
Did not expect that one.

Not sure how I feel about that. I'd almost rather see him play some, and not a big fan of Hainsey in the top pairing.
 
Wisniewski had 1 year left at 3 mil. So they are not saving very much at all. I guess 47 seconds is the record for shortest Canes career.
 
I think today is deadline for buyouts so that guys can sign elsewhere tomorrow. It might make more sense depending on other moves by the Canes.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Did not expect that one.

Not sure how I feel about that. I'd almost rather see him play some, and not a big fan of Hainsey in the top pairing.
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Considering the shortage of righty shooting dman, I'm surprised too. With Biega not qualified, that leaves Faulk, Pesce, McKeown and Murphy. Farther down the food chain, we have Tyler Ganly and Josh Wesley. Both dmen we drafted this year are lefties too.
 
Scratching my head over this one. It's not a big deal either way, but with plenty of cap space, I would have thought we had no urgency to do anything with him. If we're considering some deal making, wouldn't it be better to include him in some package. Maybe it'll be clearer tomorrow.
 
Add me to the club that doesn't think this makes sense. This reeks of a pure penny pinching move and scares me as it moves Jordan and Murphy closer to the top 6!! I hope something else is coming via UFA on the D.
 
Canes save $2 million cash this year and owe $1 million more next year.

As everyone already is thinking, what the heck does this mean for the starting lineup? We had Wiz penned in as one of our 6 DMen and thought we needed a #7 so Carrick, Fleury and McKeown could play in Charlotte and maybe be filtered in if injuries required. Now we need a top 6 and a #7 Dman ALTHOUGH in theory you can cover that #7 Dman spot with Carrick, Fleury, McKeown, Lowe, Chelios and just call these kids up when there is a road trip or a need (not my preference).

Let me spin my thought process as to why we did this, and I had talked about this concern in a prior post in another thread. We DO need to make a DMan available in the expansion draft. Its obviously not going to be Faulk, it couldn't be pending UFAs Wiz or Hainsey, and unless we have no alternative, it doesn't have to be Pesce, Slavin or Hanifin who I believe should all be exempt (maybe someday the NHL will fully explain what a 2nd year pro really is). The DMan we make available MUST have played either 40 games this coming season OR 70 games combined over this and last year AND be signed to a contract already in the 17-18 season at the time of the expansion draft. We have NO ONE that fits that now who we would want to get rid of (ie Faulk, Hanifin, Slavin, Pesce). So what to do about that? Buyout Wiz and sign on the cheap a #6 Dman to a 2 year contract who will clearly make the 40/70 NHL game cut. He becomes our Expansion draft DMan and covers that requirement, protecting our kids and Faulk. I have already offered up Ryan Murphy as a potential option to fill that role (don't hurt me JB!), and with Wiz now gone, its now much easier to get Ryan Murphy to that 70 games over 2 season requirement. OR we could just sign a vet DMan off the scrap heap to a 2 year deal and accomplish the same thing provided he hits those games played numbers.

If we sign Ryan Murphy for 2 years OR sign a UFA DMan to a 2 year deal its going to be hard to convince me that this wasn't 100% about thinking ahead to the expansion draft more than trying to save a buck or thinking that Wiz wasn't worth $3 million. Heck if its Ryan Murphy on a 2 year 2 way deal he just has to play 35 NHL games for us this year. If he's a disaster after 35 games you replace him with whichever kid deserves the spot and put Murphy back in Charlotte. Presto, Ryan Murphy is your unprotected DMan that checks all of the boxes. IF he's is claimed in the expansion draft great! If not trade him or let him play one more year in Charlotte and cut him loose after that.

That's my theory at the moment.
 
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McKeown/Fleury. One of them. Maybe they have either pencilled in? I dunno. In that scenario I would also expect that somebody, another defender maybe is going out via trade. Who knows whats up. Not huge, but there goes some experience. Faulk is ready though.
 
So, Francis has a news conference scheduled for 3 pm tomorrow. And I'm guessing he's not just dragging everyone in to wish them Happy Canada Day.

We're also still short of not only the cap floor (perhaps, Rask being a bit of an unknown), but also still well short of normal team salary budget. Many millions short.

Therefore, my hope is that we are part of some team's move for one of the high-priced free agents, by providing cap room for picks and futures (no salary back, please).

Incoming talent! :thumbup:
 
HNIM said:
Maybe the rehab wasn't going all that great.

And no. Don't use Murphy.
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Then we're looking at a left handed Hainsey playing his off side. He did that a lot last season, when paired with Slavin.

Cmal, I understand where you're coming from but it seems a foolish move for a team that was below the floor to free up space to sign a dman to expose in the expansion draft.
 
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