2010-2011 Unrestricted Free Agent Defencemen

[elocomotive]

i know it will never happen, but i want the pens to make a semi-respectable splash this offseason. obviously that's tough with malkin, sid, staal, MAF, etc. on the books. but the one thing i know i DONT want is sarge. not for anything more than 3.5 mil. the man wants 5+mill for 2-3 years.....in the infamous words of max talbot ha ha ha ha...good one.

Pittsburgh is in a tough position there. I think he's really important to their PP, but they really can't afford to pay him that much given other commitments.

I know people say they are paying Malkin, Crosby, and Staal so much, but those guys are worth every penny. It seems to me the real killers on their cap are Chris Kunitz (who is not productive per the $ if he's playing at all) and MAF, who is a better than average goalie making franchise goalie bucks.

 

[forty_three]

The Ottawa Sun (also known as the Ektard of print) are reporting that the Capitals are offering $5 million for the A-train. Reports are that Volchenkov has put his Ottawa area home up for sale.

The Caps can say what they would offer, but they can't actually talk about it with Anton yet.

That said, Volchenkov and Ovechkin are friends. BUt I'd imagine he's going to get an offer from almost every NHL team.

And the house thing is true. I guess that lets you know his stance on negotiating with the Defence killer.

 

[puckhead]

The Caps can say what they would offer, but they can't actually talk about it with Anton yet.

They certainly can't mention his name and anything to do with a hypothetical contract or value publicly.
Leafs got shit for merely mentioning that they would be interested in the Sedins if they would have become UFAs.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

In light of the fact that my favorite team has a mass exodus at the blue-line in the off-season, I thought it would be interesting to assess the UFA defencemen. The Pens currently have only 3 NHL ready players on the blue-line:
Brooks Orpik, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski (sometimes he's only AHL ready).

So, I gathered up what I thought of as quality UNRESTRICTED D-men off of NHLnumbers.com, and here is the list:

- Scott Neidermayer, ANA
- Pavel Kubina, ATL
- Dennis Seidenberg, BOS
- Henrik Tallinder, BUF
- Toni Lydman, BuF
- Brian Pothier, CAR
- Kim Johnsson, CHI
- Brett Clark, COL
- Ruslan Salei, COL
- Brett Lebda, DET
- Andreas Lilja, DET
- Nick Lidstrom, DET *** is this correct Wings Fans???***
- Randy Jones, LA
- Paul Mara, MTL
- Dan Hamhuis, NAS
- Paul Martin, NJ
- Mike Mottau, NJ
- Andy Sutton, OTT
- Anton Volchenkov, OTT
- Zbynck Michalek, PHX
- Adrian Aucoin, PHX
- Sergei Gonchar, PIT
- Mark Eaton, PIT
- Jay McKee, PIT
- Jordan Leopold, PIT[/COLOR]
- Nick Wallin, SJ
- Rob Blake, SJ (might retire?)
- Garnet Exelby, TOR
- Shane Morrisonn, WAS
- Jan Jurcina, WAS
- Joe Corvo, WAS

I can't remember a season in recent memory where the Penguins had as many as 4 UFA off the blue-line. It's going to be a lot of work to piece together a quality defensive core for the Pens, and it's a glaring weakness that was revealed in this most recent playoffs.

But, just in the UFA pool alone, there are a lot of quality d-men that will be looking for greener pastures, shortly. Sergei Gonchar, as good as he is running the Pittsburgh Power-play... his defensive game has been on a steady decline. If he is really expecting another 5mil./per.... I don't see how Pittsburgh can afford him.

What does everyone think Ray Shero and the Pens will do? And, what do you think your team will do with their UFA D-men from this list??

If I fucked up the list... please let me know

I hope other gms are using the same list as you because then the canucks can get the under the radar Kurtis Foster for cheap - i doubt it

6 foot 5, led his team in points from dmen (doubling the second place dman Hedman), 20th in the league in points by defensemen, 6th in the league in power play points from a defenseman

I wish Vancouver would have signed him last July when his agent came calling