So I decided to take a long weekend away from life and major changes have been going on in the hockey world. The first of which is.....
The Shiny New Toy has a name finally- The Winnipeg Jets (2.0). They are still logo-less and handed their draft picks a standard black jersey with the NHL shield on the front. Imagine waiting your entire life to hear your name picked by a team and all you get is a generic black jersey while everyone else gets a real team one. Takes some of the thrill away I'd think, but at least these guys knew what their team name was which was a step up from moments before the draft began. Winnipeg is taking baby steps obviously and by the time training camp opens, they will have hopefully leaked their colors to us. In the meantime....
The Flyers decided on Thursday that baby steps won't bring home a Stanley Cup and decided to speed up the process by trading Captain Mike Richard to LA and Jeff Carter to Columbus. The cap money saved by moving them allowed the team to sign goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a 9 year $51 million dollar deal. Bryzgalov is clearly who the Flyers are banking on instead of a tandum of young goalies, but the Western conference is different than the Eastern. He played less games because of more travel out West and the Flyers are going to be relying on him to need less rest due to an easier travel schedule and play more games. He was good goalie on a decent team in Phoenix, but I have a feeling Flyers nation is going to put the weight of the world on this guy. I hope he doesn't collapse under it because Philadelphia fans are some of the most brutal in the country, regardless of the sport. At least he will have his choice of parks to visit when he needs some quiet time.
I think the real winner in this trade were the Blue Jackets. They finally have a big name player with the stats to back it up to play with Rick Nash, even if it took Carter over 4 days to come out of his shell and announce he was happy about the future. Of course not without pointing fingers at Holmgren and beginning a war of words with his former GM. Wouldn't you love to see the Blue Jackets in the East to play against the Flyers more often. Carter has some serious fire in him now. Hopefully it's contagious to his new teammates at the very least.
Speaking of wondering which team would benefit coming East after this season, the NHL is forging ahead with the concept of changing up the alignment. It is actually a decent idea and definitely will have a positive impact on the travel schedule, especially for the Western Conference teams. There is no way to split the country evenly to make every team happy, but this be the first step in that direction. Since we are at least a season away from that and have other pressing matters at hand, like #jagrwatch, we are going to move on from this topic for now.
#jagrwatch is reaching epic proportions on twitter and should be crashing down sometime tomorrow. The Penguins made a one-year offer to Jagr today, days after the Red Wings gave him their offer. Since he waited for the Penguins to make an offer, this just reaffirms that idea of Jagr rejoining the team that drafted him. He was rumored to have spoken with Lemiuex and apparently still owns a house in the Pittsburgh area. He was too lazy to sell it he claims, yet he left the Peguins a decade ago. I really wonder if a man who was too lazy to sell his house in a city he hasn't lived in in 10 years has much desire to search for a place in Detroit for 1 year (the term of the contract he is seeking). If you can't figure out my guess on this, please click the x in the upper right corner of this page. Jagr playing on a team with Crosby and Malkin? Yes please. Shero signed Mike Comrie last year and I think we all forgot he existed and the Kovalev experiement at the trade deadline did just as well. Jagr can only be an improvement plus he's still playing at an NHL level. Yes, he will cost more than half a million dollars (Comrie) or a late round draft pick (Kovalev) and might inspire some fans to bring back some of the worst hair ever seen, but he's worth the experimental price Shero might have to dish out. Plus it's a cool side story for Crosby to say he played with both Lemieux and Jagr during his career, since they were both playing in the NHL before Crosby was on his first real team (unless 3year olds in Canada have hockey teams to join. I'd believe anything since they are nuts about hockey up there.)
The Penguins have also been busy shaping the rest of the roster. Shero decided to not qualify Tyler Kennedy who is looking for a payday after a season that allowed him more playing time and therefore better stats than usual. Shero still wants him back, but he won't overpay. Whatever Shero says goes because he has made few missteps since being named GM of the Pens. Max Talbot wants to test the market (not really shocking) but I can't say I'll be surprised whether he leaves or not. Unless another team gives him something drastically better than the Penguins offer, it really is a crap shoot. A Jagr signing could really help shape the loose ends of the roster. Pascal Dupuis inked his new deal today for 2 years at $1.5 a season. He took the hometown discount to stay which I had a feeling would happen. Crosby most likely wanted him back and Dupuis has 4 kids that are young and I'd guess 3 of them only know Pittsburgh since they are so young. Most guys with a family like that tend to stick around, especially when they have a solid team around them. Few guys will walk away from a team that's a contender every year later in their career unless they are clashing with players and management. Plus how can you let him walk after he made 24/7 history with his "f**k you Geno" greeting out of the blue. There's a quote we need the back story too!
Mike Rupp and Aaron Asham are also UFA's and we haven't heard much on that front. I'll take Rupp and let Asham walk. Other than Rupp's hockey grinding ability, he has a physical size we need since the overall team stature seems to be shrinking rapidly. Dustin Jeffery should be getting his shot with the big club come training camp, as should Eric Tangradi which would be good because they are bigger guys. Sadly I believe Tangradi will be once again be in WBS. There just seems to be something off with him when he gets called up. Maybe a summer of non-stop coffee will help him (per his twitter, he's a coffee addict).
Back to #jagrwatch and hopefully when the dust settles, he will be in a Pens uniform again. Friday is July 1. Free agency begins then. Monday is 4th of July. This is shaping up to be a busy long weekend. October will be here soon(ish). I have also given up on wondering about the NFL and it's status. At this point a football season will be a bonus. Sort of like the Black Friday game NBC is giving us. Till next time..
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