Wild Weekend and a Manic Monday

When I wrote my Thursday Throwdown article, I figured “there probably won’t be enough that happens from now until the next weekend to warrant a post about recent happenings.” Well, how wrong I was.


Sergei Samsanov dealt to Chicago for Jassen Cullimore and Tony Salmelainen
Gainey pulled off a fast one and removed the biggest albatross from his roster in the horribly underachieving Samsanov. IN return they took a small albatross of Chicago’s hands in Cullimore and immediately bought him out with a $600k cap hit over the next two years. Also thrown in was twenty five year old Tony Salmelainen who may still make the NHL, but unlikely at this point.

Chicago is banking on Samsanov regaining some of his scoring touch, and most likely replacing the departure of Handzus who they most assuredly will lose to free agency. If he continues to play poorly, he will be a UFA and off of Chicago’s hands. Of course if he plays well he will be an added boost and quite possibly a valuable trade deadline commodity.


Flames hire Mike Keenan as coach
Good god, how does this man keep getting a job? I thought it would be years until his name even came up again after nearly single handedly destroying the Panthers. But apparently Daryl Sutter thinks that his old teacher is the flame needed (no pun intended) to spark his team after coach Jim Playfair apparently would not hold his players accountable.

Some are saying this is just what the Panthers need and that if things go wrong Sutter will easily dispatch of Keenan. I have no doubt of the latter, but the former is quite the “if.” Keenan always wants things his way, and he always aggressive in getting it. And outside of the few players like Messier and Jokinen all come to hate his guts. This is especially risky with the Flames top two player in Iginla and Kiprussof going into contract years. You can bet that if one of those two (but probably both) go to Sutter and say “I go or he goes” Keenan will be out of a job once more.

I give it this year.




Bruins fire head coach Dave Lewis
This took everyone by surprise even more than Keenan’s hiring. Lewis was assured at the end of the season his job was safe, only to have it ripped out from under him. It came at an odd time too. But then again I guess this is what you can expect from Jeremy Jacobs, and I do mean Jacobs because though I don’t think Chiarelli has proven anything as GM, I don’t think he is that dumb.

Here’s a hint for the Bruins: it’s not the coaches fault the owner keeps ruining the team, though the sheer amount of bench bosses there has suggested so. Lewis may not have been great, but he was far from the biggest problem of that team.




Senators fire John Muckler and promote Bryan Murray to GM
Not much was said as to why Murray got the boot, though speculation has he was not enough of a risk taker at the deadline, or even his failure to land Gary Roberts “at any costs.” The former is definitely true though, as he was always cautious in his player movement.

Murray, the former GM of the Ducks, who had quite the hand in building the team that beat him in the cup finals, may be what the Sens need in someone who takes risks and immediately addresses team needs (how many years in a row did we hear the Sens needed to be tougher?).

This off season will be interesting for Ottawa.



Flyers trade for, and sign, Scott Hartnell and Kimo Timonen
Flyers GM Paul Holmgren yet again made a splash, but before free agency even started. He handed back the Predators the first they gave them in the Forsberg deal and got the exclusive rights to negotiate with Hartnell and Timonen.

However, the for what the Flyers gave these players (Hartnell 6 years $25.2 million, Timonen 5 years $37.8 million) they might as well have gotten into a bidding war, because these are what the salaries would have looked like if one had happened. Six years is a long time to have a cap hit, especially for $4.2 and $6.3 a year respectively. Timonen will be 38 when his contract is up, and I sincerely doubt by then he will be playing like a $6.3 million dollar guy (if he ever had). Good luck getting rid of that contract. And $4.2 million for a guy that had one 20 goal season is a lot, though they are obviously paying for potential.

Many are saying this is the sign of cost cutting for the Predators. I say it was a smart move. It became obvious they were going to lose both of these guys even before the announced sale. Liepold had been going on about how he’s been losing money for years, and they already had $33 million locked up in thirteen players for the coming year. Their leaving was inevitable with Hartnell’s young age and grit, and Timonen’s All Star year. They did good to get something rather than nothing.


Bruins hire Claude Julien as Coach
Of course AFTER i post this there is more happening with the Bruins hiring Julien as coach. Such a quick hire could mean that this was planned for weeks, and Lewis got the ax after the Bruins negotiated a deal with Julien.

Man, what a weird year for coaching...


Rumored: Sens sign McAmmond to 2 years, $1.75 million deal
I stress unconfirmed. Seeing reports that Muckler had come to this agreement and Murray plans to honor it, but as always, dont believe a rumor until it's official.



Bret Hull leaves NBC
I know a lot of people hate him, but a lot of these people think Roenick would be a good replacement. But that's like replacing an Oldsmobile with a Ford Pinto. If you think Hull is a dumb jackass, Roenick far surpasses him because Hull at least gave insight into the game. but that's a subject for another time.


-Jordan