Here's how I spent FA Day.Napping on the sofa with Ziggy and Casey (dog sitting for a friend) at my parents' house.
Here's my brief recap on the quasi-interesting moves of the day (that I got updated through my DS or my brother coming down the stairs laughing):
Columbus Blue Jackets
I knew Wiz would get 6-million dollars. Technically he got 5.5, still INSANE contract that the Habs were not going to give him nor had the room to give him let alone a roster spot. And for 6 years? Now the 7th round pick becomes a 5th, and Columbus finally looks like it's serious about actually getting past the 1st round. (Depends on Mason). My brother's face on this deal was hilarious.
Buffalo Sabres
SIX YEARS, 27-MILLION DOLLARS?! Ville Leino has 30 goals in his whole FOUR YEAR NHL career with TWO TOP TEAMS, and 19 of them were scored last year. Ville Leino was supposed to be a small move-type deal, scoring a reasonable 2 or 3 year deal, max 4. Instead, he went from making 800k to 4.5 million dollars, which is an increase in salary at a percentage a calculator would explode upon computing! And who wants to spend 6 years in Buffalo?!
Then they went and gave Christian Ehrhoff 10 years at 40 million, which is a lot more shoveling than Leino will need to do.
Hilarious that the Buffalo Sabres are now currently spending 7-million more than the Montreal Canadiens. Let's hope for their sake that building fills up, regardless of how deep their new owner's pockets are.
Washington Capitals
Two-years, 7 million dollars to Hamr? And now they want to pair him with Mike Green? We're usually told if we don't have anything nice to say, don't say it but just those two sentences really do the job for me.
They even gave Halpern a little raise!
Dallas Stars
...are now the 2003-2004 Montreal Canadiens by signing Michael Ryder and Sheldon Souray. Heyoo!
Colorado Avalanche
Speaking of stupid, the Avs traded a first and a second to Washington for Semyon Varlamov that has a high potential to be a lottery pick. Then they signed him for 3 years at Carey Price money. Then signed Giguere as his backup for 2 years. The Avs love them groin pulls.
Boston Bruins
Replaced one under-achieving former-Hab (Ryder) with another (Pouliot). Wonder how homer Jack Edwards will spin this one, considering in Game 3 he called Pouliot the most disappointing failure of an NHLer ever! (And obviously never heard of Alexander Daigle).
Probably just signed Pouliot to save Krejci from getting KOed again.
Philadelphia Flyers
There are 446 bridges in Pittsburgh, and Jagr just burned all of them. Meanwhile, Talbot? Never sign Talbot for more than 2-3 years. I think this is right up there with Komisarek going to the Leaf for 500k more.
Shhhh! Superstar treatment!Toronto Maple Leafs
No movement on July 1st, also known as their "Draft day". Brian Burke was in Afghanistan making iced caps for our troops instead of signing players for his club. (And yes, I support our troops, but this is just weird. A bit like Gary Bettman hiding behind the widow and orphans at this year's Draft so he wouldn't get booed). Though he did what he needed to do before leaving, including the last minute important signing of Jay Rosehill to a one-year, one-way contract of 600K. The Cup is theirs!
He's just waiting for Brad Richards. Yea, how did that work out with the Pens and Jagr? He went to a cross-state rival.
But fret not, Leaf fans. Day 2 of Free Agency Day had them sign Tim Connolly for 2 years and a bit more than what Erik Cole is making. And apparently his concussion history is a cause for concern considering he just claimed that "playing for the Leafs is like playing for the Yankees".
Los Angeles Kings
Speaking of concussion history, Kings just signed Simon Gagne for 2 years, 7 million dollars. At least he gives a care more than Dustin Penner. Still a couple of bucks left to sign up Drew Doughty for life too.
Florida Panthers
...will now be known as the Florida HodgePodge Salary Dump.
Detroit Red Wings
Just signed Ian White as a cheap secondary option to Wiz. I'm sure Holland will probably still be referred to as a genius. Oh and they signed Mike Commodore before that. Rolling in money.
Tampa Bay Lightning
STOLE AWAY MY JT WYMAN! Bitches.
New York Rangers
Signed Brad Richards to a 9-year, 60-million dollar deal. I'm sure they hope to pair him with Gaborik in order to break a record of "worst +/- ever".
Pittsburgh Penguins
Countered Jagr's smack in the face by signing Steve Sullivan, hoping he'll at least smack talk some Flyers fans.
Chicago Blackhawks
WTF ARE YOU DOING SIGNING DAN CARCILLO?! NOT HAPPY, STAN!
Edmonton Oilers
Signing Ben Eager to piss off Vancouver and to get those kids some penalty killing practice.
Winnipeg Jets
So apparently their big first splash in Free Agency is...signing a defenceman who's got a terrible +/- on the Red Wings only because he was born in Winnipeg. I'm all about signing guys who are homeboys but Derek Meech? Whatever?
Ottawa Senators
Trying Alex Auld again, but as a backup to Craig Anderson.
So who did the Habs get? Noted-Habs killer and fan from nearby upstate New York, Erik Cole. Yea we don't have Eric Staal...but Pleky's a sneaky passer, and this gives the team a large forward who also had his neck broken which--even though I'm confident in Patches--is good to help our youngster who just went through a similar ordeal. Replacing Auld is the happy Slovak, Peter Budaj. Thinking that Ubisoft will sell ad-space on his Assassin's Creed mask?