Rabbit151 Posted July 6, 2006 Report Posted July 6, 2006 In today's Regina Leader Post, a CP article talked about what on earth some of the GM's are thinking. Prominent in the examples were the Blues signing of McKee. Also, mention was made of the Leafs, after watching the Flyers behemoth d-men get burned by the Sabres, signing a behemoth of their own in Hal Gill. They also called out the Leafs 4 million signing of Kubina, an offensive defenseman who will play the PP, behind McCabe and Kaberle. I'd put the article on here for you all to read, but I haven't got a clue how to do it. Heck, I don't even know how to make those yellow faces appear in my posts, or how to put the grey box of someone else's quote in my post so you know my reference point. Sorry gang. To me the internet is for checking out sports and boobies. Lots of boobies. Did I mention the boobies?
inkman Posted July 6, 2006 Report Posted July 6, 2006 Well, you need to be a subsriber a have access to the aticle, otherwise I could have linked it up for you. :(
bob_sauve28 Posted July 6, 2006 Report Posted July 6, 2006 In today's Regina Leader Post, a CP article talked about what on earth some of the GM's are thinking. Prominent in the examples were the Blues signing of McKee. Also, mention was made of the Leafs, after watching the Flyers behemoth d-men get burned by the Sabres, signing a behemoth of their own in Hal Gill. They also called out the Leafs 4 million signing of Kubina, an offensive defenseman who will play the PP, behind McCabe and Kaberle. I'd put the article on here for you all to read, but I haven't got a clue how to do it. Heck, I don't even know how to make those yellow faces appear in my posts, or how to put the grey box of someone else's quote in my post so you know my reference point. Sorry gang. To me the internet is for checking out sports and boobies. Lots of boobies. Did I mention the boobies? The Sabres seem to have gotten a better player, cheaper. I have no idea what the Blues GM was thinking
X. Benedict Posted July 6, 2006 Report Posted July 6, 2006 VANCOUVER -- The NHL's free-agent frenzy is beginning to subside, and while many general managers have helped their teams, some others have made moves that leave you scratching your head. The St. Louis Blues are at the top of the list. Here's a team generally thought to be going nowhere, on the short term at least, although head coach Mike Kitchen certainly had them working most of last season and deserved to be rehired. But if this team is going to have trouble making the playoffs this season, as most believe, why would they go out and spend $4 million US on Jay McKee, a defensive defenceman. If you're going nowhere, wouldn't you be wiser to spend that money on a player with a little flash and offensive ability, something to give the fans in St. Louis a reason to come to the rink. Nobody ever came to watch McKee play. Then again, maybe the plan is to win right away. After all, new ownership just started its rebuilding program by bringing in two 36-year-olds in Doug Weight and Bill Guerin, both of whom have almost certainly seen better days. So what is the plan in St. Louis? Is it to try to make the playoffs with two aging forwards in a league where the move is toward youth, or is it to dazzle the already abused fans with McKee's fancy footwork? How about the Philadelphia Flyers? For the longest time general manager Bobby Clarke couldn't get a goaltender. While he seems to have two competent goalies now, his defence is a problem. His experiment to go with three giants last season in Mike Rathje, Derian Hatcher and Chris Therian was an unmitigated disaster. Recently he spent $2.4 million US on Nolan Baumgartner, a player so uninspiring the defensive-challenged Vancouver Canucks didn't think he was worth half that money. Baumgartner will bring a terrific attitude with him to the Flyers, but if he's worth that kind of money, McKee should have had $7 million. Toronto G.M. John Ferguson Jr. liked the way the behemoths on the Flyers defence worked so well during the playoff series with Buffalo, he went and signed Hal Gill. Evidently he liked what Aki Berg brought to the table last year and wanted more of it. And already having spent big to re-sign offensive defencemen Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle who had 19 power-play goals between them last year, he went out and spent another $4 million on Pavel Kubina, yet another offensive defenceman. How Kubina is going to get any power-play time with these two already back there remains a total mystery, but at least it makes more sense than Gill. Then we come to the Chris Pronger trade. By acquiring Pronger, GM Brian Burke has made the Anaheim Ducks a Western power and a top-five bet to win the Stanley Cup next year. It's hard to knock anyone who has done that, so this really isn't criticism. But the way he managed his team's assets is certainly making people around the league scratch their heads. If Burke was going to expand his payroll to accommodate Pronger's $6.5-million US salary, why not spend another million and get Zdeno Chara without losing any players or draft picks. And given Chara would have been coming to a Cup contender, he may have taken less money than the $7.5 million Boston had to pay him to go to that hapless franchise. Burke could have saved Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid and all those draft picks by paying just another million bucks. The only explanation is Burke thinks Pronger is just that much better than Chara. And given Pronger will be back with his Team Canada buddy Scott Niedermayer, Burke might be right. But there are certainly lots of GMs and agents wondering about the wisdom of the move.
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