Panthers trade and 1st round review!

The Panthers have found their goaltender by trading their 2008 1st round pick and two second round picks to Nashville for Tomas Vokoun.  Vokoun is a top 10 goalie in the league and had very good numbers for Nashville despite having a thumb injury.  Belfour will not be re-signed now and either Auld or Anderson will be the backup.  I love this trade for the Panthers.  They had the cap room to take the $5.7 million hit for the next 3-4 years and they needed a goaltender.  I think now that they have a bona fide #1 that they can count on all season, they are a playoff team, especially if they can add one more scoring forward. 

With the 10th pick the Panthers selected Keaton Ellerby, a defenceman from Kamloops.  He is big, fast and supposedly has all of the tools needed to be a top flight defenceman in the NHL.  Scouts are concerned because they aren’t sure he can put the tools together to become a #1 or #2 defenceman.  I have to have faith that the coaching staff and the player development guys can develop him.  This isn’t a bad pick for the Panthers.  This is one of the weakest draft classes that I can remember.  There were very few prospects that project to be more than secondary players. 

The Panthers have picks in each round for the rest of the draft that happens later today.  Hopefully they can find a gem or two that can become servicable NHL players.

 Thanks for reading.

Lunch Post!

 A quick post while on my lunch hour:

 There was a rumour on hockeybuzz.com yesterday that the Oilers might put together a “huge” package together to try and trade for Jokinen.  I don’t know how huge a package the 6th worst team in the league could offer.  I’m assuming it would include one of their goaltending prospects (Devin Dubnyk or Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers) and then a few of their young forwards like Pouliot, Schremp or Cogliano.  These prospects are solid but not the elite, can’t miss prospects you would want for one of the true #1 centers in the league.  No one on the Oilers roster excites me other than maybe Hemsky but I can’t see Lowe trading him since he would probably want to pair him with Jokinen.  I think if the Panthers put Jokinen on the market they can get a better return.  I understand why the Panthers might want to trade Jokinen because he is the only player they have who is in his prime.  I think they should only trade him if the package includes two young players who can make an immediate impact in the NHL.  Otherwise he is being paid a reasonable salary and he’s the face of the franchise so it’s no harm to the long term future of the Panthers if they keep him.

 BREAKING PANTHERS NEWS!!!:  TSN reports that the Panthers have signed Horton to a 6 year deal for $24 million.  I only had him pegged for around $1.75 million this year but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a contract structured like Rick Nash’s deal.  The Panthers have the cap room for this deal and Jacques has said that he wants to keep his core players intact.  I expect Weiss and Bouwmeester to sign multi-year deals this summer.  This is a good signing I think.  Horton is now under the Panthers control for the next 6 years.  I don’t believe the Panthers will be making a big splash in free agency now.  Not with Allen/Horton taking up $7 million of the cap. 

Quick cards update:  A few people are interested in trading for the Hickman auto I pulled.  I’m hoping to get 4 of the 25 draft pick autographs for it.  That would be a great start to the first auto set I have tried to collect.

Thanks for reading.

First Cards Post!

I was in Ottawa this past weekend and I picked up a box of 2006 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Baseball. 

The “hits” of the box were as follows:

Autograph:  Tommy Hickman blue “refractor” numbered to 150.  The book value is $80 for this card so it pretty much paid for the box and I have already received 4 messages about trading it after posting my box break on the Beckett message boards. 

Future games prospect jersey card:  Phillip Hughes of the Yankees who might be the best pitching prospect in baseball.

Refractors:  Brett Logan “XFractor”, Carlos Villaneuva “Blue Refractor”, Joe Smith and Brian Anderson “Refractors”

White Parallel:  Chris Parmelee

I am very happy with the box.  I’m trying to trade for the regular draft pick autos since there are only 25 of them and none of them are particurlarly expensive. 

What I’m trying to collect is as follows:

Baseball:  06 Draft Picks & Prospects, eventually 07 Bowman

Football:  06 Bowman Chrome

Basketball:  06-07 Bowman Draft Picks & Stars (I have opened 3 boxes of these, I’m going to try and trade for the regular set and complete it.  I don’t think I will be collecting the refractor set just because it is a little much and I want to move on to other sets).

Hockey:  Undecided.  I completed my 05-06 Upper Deck Series 2 hockey set at the big Toronto Card Expo in May when I bought an Ovechkin rookie.  I’m not sure what I’m going to collect next. 

I will update with what I end up trading in the next couple of weeks.

Panthers and other NHL news!

Panthers News:

As soon as I write about the Panthers off season plans they make two moves.  One was signing Brian Allen to a 5 year $14.5 million contract.  I do not like the length or the money paid on this contract but Allen was a much better player over the last half of this year.  I don’t understand why a 5 year deal was made.  I don’t think Allen is a core player like Jokinen, Horton, Weiss and Bouwmeester.  I hope he proves me wrong.

The Panthers then sent Chris Gratton to Tampa Bay for a 2nd round pick.  I like this trade because they received good value on a fourth line centre.  Plus this opens a forward spot for a younger player to take over.  From what I read in the Florida papers, Gratton did not get along with Jacques Martin so hopefully this a good move for the locker room as well.  How does this change my projected budget?  Now the Panthers have 13 players under contract for approximately $22.5 million.  They still have a lot of room to go after one big name free agent or two or three second tier players. 

Other NHL News:

Mike Keenan was hired to be Calgary’s new coach.  I don’t know if this is the right move for Sutter since Keenan has not been a successful coach since he was in St. Louis.  I wonder if Huselius will be the same player next year because Keenan was the reason he was traded from Florida for a #6 defenceman and a low draft pick. 

Nashville traded the negotiating rights of Kimo Timonen and Scott Hartnell to Philadelphia for the first round pick that Nashville had traded to Philadelphia in the Peter Forsberg trade.  Philadelphia then signed Timonen for 6 years at $6.3 million per year and Hartnell for 6 years at $4 million per year.  Timonen is a good player but he is not a $6 million a year defenceman, especially in 4 or 5 years when he is 36 and 37 years old.  Hartnell at $4 million is a risk given the length of his contract and that this contract is signed on the potential of what Hartnell will do and is not based on past performance.  I think Nashville did well for themselves in this trade since they weren’t going to sign these two for this much, no matter who the owner of the team is. 

More NHL news as the draft approaches on Friday night.

Who should the Panthers try to sign this summer?

For my first Panthers post I am going to review the list of possible unrestricted free agents and see who the Panthers should try to sign. The Panthers have almost $26 million committed to 22 players (thanks to Irish Blue’s salary cap website and player salary spreadsheet). This includes salaries of some players who played in the minors last year and will probably play in Rochester or the ECHL this year. Taking these players out we have approximately $21,000,000 in 13 players. These players are listed below:

Forwards: Jokinen, Gratton, Peltonen, Olesz, Booth, Campbell, Larman and Stewart

Defencemen: Van Ryn, Salei, Bouwmeester, Mezei, Murphy

The team’s restricted free agents that I think they should keep and what I think they will be paid are as follows:

Allen ($1.75 million), Globke (600,000), Horton ($1.5 million), Jacina ($500,000), Kolnik ($1.2 million), Kreps ($650,000), Sprukts ($600,000), Weiss ($1.5 million), Welch ($750,000). I basically took last year’s salary and added small raises. I did not include Auld or Anderson (the goalies) or Montador or Semenov. I think the Panthers can go in a different direction from Alex Auld. I would not be opposed to Craig Anderson being brought back as a backup if the Panthers can get a #1 goalie who can play 60 or 65 games. I also did not include Montador or Semenov since the Panthers already have 7 defencemen under contract and I think if they are going to add anyone to this group it should be someone who can play in the top 4.

The Panthers have the following unrestricted free agents: Stumpel, Gelinas, Belfour, Vallin and Pelletier. I think the Panthers should re-sign Stumpel to a one year deal for $2 million. This is a small raise from what he made the last two seasons.

This leaves 23 players under contract for just over $32 million. I am assuming the Panthers are going to spend between $42 and 45 million which is lower than the current $47 million cap and will not come close to the expected $50-52 million salary cap. I will break down who is available and how much they should spend at each position:

Goalies:

Available free agents: Ed Belfour, Alex Auld, Craig Anderson, Jean-Sebastian Giguere (Ana), Dominik Hasek (Det), Jussi Markkanen (Edm), Mathieu Garon (LA), David Aebischer (Mtl), Kevin Weekes (NYR), Robert Esche (Phi), Curtis Joseph (Phx)

The Panthers could re-sign the Belfour/Auld combo for around $3 million but I don’t think this arrangement works. Belfour needs to be the #1 goalie to be effective and the Panthers do not have the margin of error to rely on Eddie for a full season. If I was Jacques Martin I would try to package the #10 pick in the first round of this year’s draft for either Vesa Toskala from San Jose or Ilya Bryzgalov from Anaheim. Both goalies can be #1’s in the league and have affordable contracts. Then the Panthers can re-sign Craig Anderson as the backup.

If this doesn’t work then I think then two of the Aebischer/Garon/Auld/Weekes group should be signed for around $3 million. A pair from this group could keep the team in games and the skaters should be better than last year.

I do not think Giguere is the answer for $7 million a year. I don’t think $3 or $4 extra million could make up for any additional production that Giguere could provide over the above options. Assuming the Panthers sign two goalies for a combined $3 million the Panthers would have $7 to $10 million to spend of forwards and defencemen.

Skaters:

The Panthers depth chart looks as follows with the players above:

Peltonen-Jokinen-Horton

Booth-Weiss-Olesz

Stewart-Stumpel-Kolnik

Sprukts-Gratton-Campbell

Extras: Larman, Globke, Jacina, Kreps

Salei-Bouwmeester

Van Ryn-Allen

Welch-Murphy

Extra: Mezei (Mezei can not be counted on as a regular. He is hurt too often).

The forwards do not have enough front line talent. They need two top 6 forwards and maybe a top 4 defenceman.

Available forwards that the Panthers should be interested in: Teemu Selanne (Ana), Daniel Briere (Buf), Chris Drury (Buf), Eric Lindros (Dal), Robert Lang (Det), Todd White (Min), Paul Kariya (Nsh), Scott Gomez (NJ), Jason Blake (NYI), Viktor Kozlov (NYI), Brendan Shanahan (NYR), Mike Comrie (Ott), Bill Guerin (SJ)

Of this group I don’t know if any of these guys are the answer.  They can’t afford to give Briere or Drury $6 or $7 million a season.  I think of this group they can go after Robert Lang.  I’m thinking he will need around $3 million to sign.  Todd White would be a cheaper option but I’m not sure you can be a playoff team with him in the top 6.  I don’t see the older guys on the list like Shanahan, Kariya or Guerin coming to Florida because they will want to go to teams they think they are Cup contenders.  I think the Panthers sign Lang for a deal around $3 million.  Peltonen would have to be the 6th forward in this situation.  This leaves $4 to $7 million to spend on a top 4 defenceman.

Available  defencemen:   Teppo Numminen  (Buf), Brad Stuart (Cgy), Darryl Sydor (Dal), Mathieu Schneider (Det), Aaron Miller (LA), Sheldon Souray (Mtl), Kimmo Timonen (Nsh), Brian Rafalski (NJ), Tom Preissing (Ott), Craig Rivet (SJ)

I think the Panthers should go hard after Kimmo Timonen.  A top 4 D of Timonen, Bouwmeester, Salei and Van Ryn would be just as good as everyone else in the league and a Murphy/Allen 5-6 pair would be very good.  Otherwise the Panthers should try to get one more physical D like Miller or Rivet so Allen can be the #5 D where he can excel.  Timonen would cost probably over $5 million which would take the rest of the cap room.  Miller or Rivet would probably be $2.5 to 3 million.

After the above signings the Panthers would be in better shape than last year.  It will not be a lock that the team will be in the playoffs but this is a team that is building to win in two or three years when Weiss, Horton and Bouwmeester hit their primes.  Goaltending will probably be the difference in whether the Panthers can make the playoffs or not.  If the Panthers can get a Bryzgalov or a Toskala I think the team will make the playoffs, otherwise the youngsters will have to make another step forward to carry the team.

Thanks for reading.

Cavs Game 3 Tonight!

Unfortunately the first two games of the NBA Finals went as I thought they would. I’m just sitting down to watch Game 3 tonight. I knew the Cavs would be overmatched by the whole atmosphere of San Antonio. Popovich is on another level as a coach compared to Mike Brown who only seems to know how to coach on the defensive side of the ball. They need to play a small lineup and just play an uptempo game and stop wasting 12 or 13 seconds of every possession just getting into their offense. Brown has nothing to lose with playing James, Gibson, Pavlovic, Gooden and Anderson. Even if Hughes plays he should not get a lot of time. He can’t guard anyone right now. I never expected the Cavs to win this series. But I do expect them to win game 3 or 4. If they want to have any type of shot at the title they have to win tonight. Down 2-1 at home gives them a chance to win Game 4 and make it a best two of three. Here’s hoping they can do this.

Cavs in the Finals

The Cavaliers are going to the NBA Finals! I can’t believe it. I thought that this team was 2 or 3 years away from winning the East. They seemed to be two or three pieces away from being a title contender. When your superstar scores your last 25 points and most of them are spectacular shots I guess you don’t need all of the pieces. This will be a good experience for the Cavs. I just hope that just because they won the East they think this team is a finished product like San Antonio, Phoenix or even Dallas. This might be the worse team to ever make the finals. This team might not even be better than the late 80’s/early 90’s Cavs teams. Upsets happen all of the time in professional sports now though. This team did sweep the Spurs in the regular season. All the Cavs can hope for is a split in the first two games in San Antonio. Then it’s anyone’s series with the next three games in Cleveland. With Oden and Durant going to the West, LeBron’s performance in game 5 and the experience the Cavs will get in the Finals playing a team that knows how to win, this could be the start of dominance in the East for the Cavs. Next year though they will probably have a tougher road than Washington without Arenas and New Jersey in the first two rounds.

Thanks for reading.