First of all, Happy Canada Day to our friends north of the border. Hope everyone enjoys it!
I'll be taking the day off myself today, not because of the holiday, but because I love to sit back and watch all the "sometimes crazy" activity on July 1st. Shortly after noon, I will open up a "live thread" here on the blog so that we can discuss what's going on around the league and keep track of all the transactions in one place. I will also make separate blog and Twitter postings about anything Canes related.
The Hurricanes are expected to be quiet, but you never know what will happen. We will stay vigilant here just the same.
Some teams will attempt to buy themselves a Stanley Cup today, but that strategy usually does not work. Let's take a quick look at some of the July 1st deals from last year and see how they panned out.
- Mike Green signed in DC for 21M over fours years. (no complaints on that one.)
- Brad Stuart signed in Detroit for 15M over four years. (maybe a touch high, but pretty good value)
- Pascal Dupuis signed in Pittsburgh for 4.2M over three years. (reasonable deal).
- Corey Perry signed in Anaheim for 26.6 over five years. (big contract for elite player).
- Radim Vrbata signed in TB for 9M over three years. (stop laughing)
- Jose Theodore signed in DC for 9M over two years. (lost job to Johnson, then lost it to a rookie. thumbs down)
- Jeff Finger got 14.4M over fours years in Toronto. (Jeff Who?)
- Cory Stillman got 10.6 over three years in Florida. (can be a point a game player when he is on his game)
- Cristobal Huet signed for 16.875M over fours years in Chicago. (still not impressed with him)
- Darcy Tucker got 4.5M over two years in Colorado. (does not seem worth it)
- Olaf Kolzig got 1.5M for one year in TB. (another loser deal for Tampa)
- Patrick Lalime signed for 2M over two years in Buffalo. (pretty good value)
- Brian Campbell signed in Chicago for 56.8M over eight years. (not even the best dman on the 'Hawks roster last year)
- Mike Commodore got 18.75M over five years in Columbus. (had a good year)
- Brian Rolston signed for 20.25M over four years. (ended up on fourth line. has not lived up to it, yet)
- Darcy Hordichuk signed for 1.5M over two years in Vancouver. (too much for a goon with 5 points on the year)
- Michal Rozsival got 20M over four years in NY. (we will see)
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Bobby Holik got 2.5M for one year in NJ. (money would be better spent on bloggers)
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Wade Redden signed for 39M over six years with NYR. (now trying to dump contract and player)
- Mark Streit signed in NY for 20.5M over five years. (worked out well for Islanders. led the team in scoring)
- Michael Ryder signed in Boston for 12M over three years. (had a good year but still do not like the deal)
As you can see, there was a ton of activity for just one day. But also as Jim Rutherford said, there is not a lot of value there. The prior year was when the Rangers signed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to those huge contracts. (Gomez was just traded yesterday.) Then of course the Danny Briere deal is another questionable one.
If Radim Vrbata can get a 9 million dollar contract, you can't really blame Cole and LaRose for seeing what they can do. Crazy things do happen.
What mistakes will be made today? Will Cole and LaRose be in the mix? We will be watching.