Non Sequitur: Whatever Happened to Jan Bulis?

Sundin, Sundin, Sundin

Ah, looks perfect, doesn't he? First things first, I must give credit where credit is due, and that certainly means to whoever did that photoshop.Seriously though, let's consider this whole Sundin situation. Before the free agent season opened up and shortly after Mr. BG acquired Alex Tanguay from the Flames, Montreal was in a state of euphoria when it was revealed that Montreal had gotten the exclusive negotiating rights to Mats Sundin. The drool was pouring out of our mouths at the prospect of a Tanguay-Sundin-Kovalev line, but once the initial waves of jubilation wore off, we - or at least I, anyways - were left to analyze the situation more carefully.

If you can't already tell from that photo, Sundin is old. He turns 38 next February. Going bald was not of his own volition. More and more, injuries have become an issue and just last year, his groin acted up four times in the span of less than 2 months.

Even without the question of injury, Sundin has never been the fastest skater on ice. But with the progression of age, he has slowed down further - does he have the legs to keep up with a high-tempo, odd-man rush, transition game Canadiens team? Unless he was stuck on a line with Lats (no offense, Tenderness) or Laraque, his linemates would have to wait for him to catch up at the blueline. I have no doubt he can still produce on the powerplay, but that is a limited role in which he can excel.

Finally, the last thing to consider is his salary. Vancouver offered up $10 million/year for his services. It is believed that Montreal's is a more reasonable $15M/2 yrs. Either way, $7.5 million is a lot to pay for one player, regardless of what other teams in the league are doing. I don't believe superstar forwards are necessary to win the Cup (which is, after all, the goal in everyone's minds right now), though they certainly help. Rather, balanced scoring, combined with exceptional goaltending and defense is what brings home the bacon. The Canadiens already have balanced scoring... I don't see why they need any more.

An Epiphany...or Simply a Grand Delusion?

I came to the realization, a while back, of a possible gem in the UFA signings - or, rather, of two gems: Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi.

Naslund signed for 2 years with the New York Rangers at an even $8 million; Bertuzzi signed with Calgary for $1.95m/1 yr.

Alone on separate teams, each might or might not succeed, depending on the linemates they'll play with and how well each deals with their new environment: Naslund has struggled the past few seasons with Vancouver and is out there to prove he can still be a leader and a top scorer; Bertuzzi...well, you know the story.

However, consider this: why not sign both of them to the same team? Imagine the Habs with those two in the lineup: they would have 3 legitimate scoring lines with the likes of AK-Plekanec- Kovy, Bertuzzi-Koivu-Naslund, and Tanguay-Higgins-SK. When they were together in Vancouver along with Brendan Morrison, they proved to be one of the most potent and dominant lines in the league; there's no reason that chemistry couldn't be re-ignited today, even without Morrison (Koivu plays a similar style and would likely fit in). Bertuzzi and Naslund each want to get their careers back on track...I don't think there would be any better way than by re-uniting on the same team.

Moreover, the greatest reason these deals would make sense is because of their salaries: both signed relatively cheaply in an off-season that has been anything but. Consider this: would you rather have Naslund and Bertuzzi for $6 million altogether, or Mats Sundin for around $7.5 million? I know which one I'd pick.

First Post!

Hey all, I'd like to welcome you to my blog. First things first, let me introduce myself: I go by the pen name indavidual and for those of you astute enough to have noticed the typo, it actually isn't one (clue: my name is in there somewhere). Anyways, I've decided to start blogging in the middle of the dead season for hockey, as I figured there are crazy habs fans who are always in need of any kind of hockey talk (I confess: even I've been sucked into EKlown's (i.e. www.hockeybuzz.com) whirlwind of inane rumors (Kopitar for Gerber and Meszaros! um...sure) in these very lackluster times)

So here goes...
The UFA Season (So far) in Review

Well, let's start off with our dearly beloved habs. With today's signing of Ryan O'Byrne to a 3-year contract (per TSN), that leaves Montreal with all of their RFAs signed for next year. Of course, it also means there is less cap space for the possible Mats Sundin signing - 6.5 to 7 million. However, the cap shouldn't be much of a problem still, as call-downs to Hamilton or the waiving/trading of a minor player would take care of the difference (the Habs' offer to Sundin is believed to be around 7.5 million). Reviewing Bob Gainey's resignings of this year, they've all been respectable and Andrei Kostitsyn's was a steal (especially considering Jeff Carter got nearly 2 million more something like a week earlier). Bob's only UFA signing, Georges Laraque, initially seems like a good idea, as well, though how well he meshes with the rest of the group remains to be seen; if he does not fit in the system, he'd be a costly 1.5 million for 3 years. Ultimately, Bob has done his job for this off-season and if he does not manage to do anything with the cap space remaining from this year, there is still next year to factor in: Kovalev, Koivu, Tanguay, and Komisarek are UFAs and Higgins and Plekanec are RFAs...they're not going to come cheap.

Moving on to the rest of the league, I don't feel like analysing anything, but rather choose to laugh at Chicago in particular (good luck with getting rid of Khabibulin, guys). It's hard to say who the winners or losers will turn out to be yet (though you've got to admire Tampa's strategy of using 20 forwards), but right now it seems as though pretty much all the teams who dipped into the free agent market are losers: this year, the contracts have been grossly inflated (see Finger). It simply does not make sense to tie up large amounts of money into long-term deals, as I seriously doubt that the cap can keep on going up at the same pace forever, or we'd better prepare ourselves for another lock-out. The Russia signings have also grabbed headlines, but I'm not worrying too much...yet. They've managed to get washed-up veterans who once upon a time knew fame and glory, but now just want to cash the bigger paycheck. Once they can get more youths into their league (and they can't keep signing guys like Radulov to absurd amounts), then we'll see.

Anyways, that's my ramble for today. 'Til later.