Who knew staying inside a small and cramped radio studio for 6 hours on Canada Day would be exciting, but thanks to 30 NHL General Managers who had money to spend and no time to waste, it certainly lived up to the hype of a “frenzy”.
The Senators were very active on Day 1. A player joined, a player re-signed and two players left. That’s a lot of movement for one day.
A ton of people were excited with the news of Sergei Gonchar coming to the Senators, but as more time passes, the more negativity is starting to creep in amongst the faithful.
Look, there are pros and cons to virtually every free-agent signing, but I think the Gonchar signing offers more pros than cons.
Pro: Gonchar brings more veteran experience to the Sens locker room
Alongside Chris Phillips, Gonchar can be expected not only to help out Erik Karlsson in the next couple of years, but also all the young and talented defensive prospects that the Sens are counting on to be NHL-ready in a couple of years.
Pro: Gonchar will help aid an inconsistent Sens power-play.
And at times, calling it inconsistent would be very nice. Detractors to this will point to the fact the Pens powerplay in the regular season was only .3% better than the Sens. However, I will counter with the fact that Gonchar was third amongst NHL defencemen in power-play points a year ago.
Con: Gonchar could be considered injury-prone in the late stage of his career.
Granted, he missed 20 games due to various problems last season and is coming off a major shoulder injury two seasons ago that caused him to miss 50+ games, but in the three years with Pittsburgh before 2008-2009, he played 78, 82 and 75 games respectively. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that the injuries were due to circumstance and not due to body structure.
Con: Gonchar might not be the same guy towards the end of the contract.
No one can say for sure what he will/won’t be able to do in that all-important third year, but based on point totals from the previous five years with the Penguins, there’s nothing to suggest that his output is in danger of falling rapidly.
Extra Notes:
Headline reads: Sutter Confident that Jokinen Can Produce More for Less Money…this has to be the hero/goat move to top all hero/goat moves…he’s either gonna make everyone eat their words or he’s gonna be out of a job…I’m gonna go with the unemployment logic myself
Love how the Oilers are not only relying on the great youth to pull them out of this huge hole…the brass have clearly come into this off-season with a clear direction…if you don’t fit with this new direction, take your business elsewhere! Goodbye Ethan Moreau, Robert Nilsson, Patrick O’Sullivan, Sheldon Souray…the stink of losing is being discarded very quickly…
Headshaker: Thomas Berdych into the finals at Wimbledon…that’s a headshaker along with the headline of: “Berd is the Word”