Fantasy La Kings

Every July, various team owners and GM's, despite their better judgment, lustily rush out to sign whatever slab of UFA meat they can catch to the biggest, longest contract that they possibly can afford.

Salary inflation? Dimishing returns? Chemistry concerns? Cap issues? Those factors mean little when a fairly good player is on the free agent market, and a bevy of other teams are vying for the same player.

So, which of these unrestricted free agent players have actually been a good investment thus far?

Chris Drury - 2007 salary of $7.1 mil (28GP 6-13-19 -2)
Despite the fact that Drury has never proven himself to be more than a pretty good second liner, the Rangers decided to fork over superstar money without a second thought. I wouldn't say Drury's production has been disappointing, given that it's in line with previous totals of his, it's just that Drury is definitely overpaid for the type of player he is.

Scott Gomez - 2007 salary of $10mil (28GP 5-16-21)
Gomez is definitely one of the better playmakers in the league, but has always had consistency and coachability issues. Again, the Rangers forked over large amounts of money for somebody who is not a superstar (he had only 60 points last season), and they aren't getting rewarded for their investment. Gomez just doesn't have the same chemistry with Jagr that Michael Nylander had, and will probably never live up to his huge contract.

Of course, it's always easy to pick on the Ranger$, so let's look at some other squads.

The Phoenix Coyotes have had some serious goaltending issues since before Britney Spears went from a somewhat cute lip-syncher to a drugged-out bad excuse for a mother.

Since the Anaheim Ducks decided to waive Ilya Bryzgalov bye-bye, in order to let Ilya have his #1 opportunity elsewhere, the Coyotes jumped on that freebie and were rewarded with a nice 1-0 shutout over the LA Kings.

"I will paint Phoenix colors on it for sure," Bryzgalov said of his mask and gear. " . . . I just walked into the locker room and my new teammates were excited and made me feel like I've always been here."

He went out of his way to praise the Ducks organization, in particular General Manager Brian Burke, calling him "a great man." Burke accommodated his wish to be a starter and put him on waivers Friday, knowing he would surely lose a quality goalie and get nothing in return, other than picking up $250,000 in salary-cap room.

So, the waiving was simply Burke upholding a promise? Hmm, that doesn't sound totally right.

In any event, Bryzgalov is a far superior goalie to what the Coyotes have had playing for them this season. Even if Bryzgalov runs off somewhere after the season (given his pending UFA status), the Coyotes will benefit with a nice short term boost to their netminding.

Career SV%'s:
Ilya Bryzgalov 91.1%
Mikael Tellqvist 89.2%
Alex Auld 90.1% (88% the past two seasons)

Los Angeles Kings winger and party animal (pictured, left) Michael Cammalleri was one of the league's best players that you didn't know about. Playing for a West Coast team nowhere near the playoffs, Cammalleri finished with 80 points in 81 games, good for 27th overall in the NHL point-scoring race.

His agent, Mike Gillis, seeing a big fat commission and new chrome siding for his Porsche, had his client demand $6 million per season!! This for a guy with just 220 career NHL games and only ONE very good season under his belt.

Now, I can see how they would ask for the moon, given how a guy like Markus Naslund racked in that kind of coin, and produced even less than Cammalleri. Having watched Kevin Lowe toss around $7 million for the likes of Thomas Vanek must have made Cammalleri confident that he'd score big, too!

The Kings countered with a more modest $2.8 million per season, citing the fact that Cammalleri has still not established himself as a true star. Obviously, the two sides were so far apart that no pre-arbitration agreement was going to happen.

Yesterday, the arbitrator ruled in favour of the Kings, with an award of $6.7 million over two seasons, far less than Cammalleri and his greedy agent were hoping for. Unlike the 'good old' days of NHL arbitration, the new line of arbiters seems to be heavily skewing their awards in favour of the NHL clubs, and not the players.

Unfortunately for the Kings, Cammalleri is going to be an unrestricted free agent in 2009. While the Kings will get Cammalleri at a very reasonable salary for two seasons, they may wish that they could have secured their diminutive star for a longer-term deal for an extra million or two. Knowing how Mike Gillis operates, don't expect a home-town discount any day soon.

For fantasy players, hang onto this guy! He's on an up-and-coming team with an offensive-minded coach and he's surrounded by some good talent (Frolov, Kopitar, Nagy, and Handzus). Cammalleri is a great skater and has improved at a steady rate for the past few seasons. Anything less than 65-70 points next season would be an utter shock.

Although it's one year too late -- and what former NHL player is going to give up a fishing trip for this? -- the Florida Panthers will celebrate their Cinderella run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals this weekend. Panthers alumni like John Vanbiesbrouck, Ray Sheppard and Bill Lindsay will join the majority of the players (sans schedule-conflicted Rob Niedermayer and Robert Svehla) who led Florida to the Finals in only the third year of the franchise, before being swept away by the Colorado Avalanche. There's a golf tournament, player appearances and an exhibition game at BankAtlantic Center on Saturday that will give hockey fans something they've long dreamed about: another chance to witness the majestic skating of Terry Carkner on NHL ice.

The Panthers, who will unveil their new uniforms at Saturday's game, have dubbed the celebration "Weekend of the Rat" after the single most significant memory from the team's Stanley Cup run. The Sun Sentinel remembers the fun:

In 1995-96, they finished third in their division (41-31-10, 92 points) and fourth in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, then beat in the Bruins 4 games to 1 in a seven-game series, the Flyers 4-2 and the Penguins 4-3 before losing to the Avalanche in four games in the finals.

Right winger Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the dressing room with his stick minutes before the home opener that season, then scored two goals that night, prompting Vanbiesbrouck to declare Mellanby's feat a "Rat Trick." Throwing plastic rats on the ice after goals soon became a phenomenon.

"We accomplished some pretty lofty things with a group of guys who were considered mediocre players at the time," Lindsay said.

"Mediocre players at the time?" Has history been that kind to Johan Garpenlov and Jody Hull? Florida Panthers fans have every right to celebrate this unexpected season of meteoric success, lest they fall deeper into the depressing reality that their franchise is now known more for losing Roberto Luongo and failing to make the playoffs in the Southeast Division than plastic rodents. But for the rest of us, this weekend begs the question:

Are the Florida Panthers the most mediocre Stanley Cup finalist of the last 25 years?

Ladislav Nagy has long teased coaches and fantasy GM's alike with his immense talent. Sadly, injuries and other factors have kept Nagy from being a true scoring star, and have relegated him to the B or C-classes in fantasy leagues.

I, myself, have taken the risk a few times, only to get burnt or end up disappointed as I didn't get the expected point payoff.

Now that Ladislav has found a new home in Los Angeles, with former Blues teammate Michal Handzus, is the little punk worth taking a chance on, once again?

SEASON TEAM   GP G A PTS
 03-04 PHX    55 24 28 52
 05-06 PHX    51 15 41 56
 06-07 PHX/DAL  80 12 43 55
 

For the most part, Nagy has been a pretty productive player the past few seasons, except for the fact that ...

While the Rangers and Capitals have made the big headlines, the Los Angeles Kings have quietly had a great summer on the free agent market.

Instead of going ape-crap over the big name free agents and signing albatross contacts, the Kings went after some good, lesser known talent, with mid-range contracts that are reasonable in length and amount.

Brad Stuart (pictured) - 1 year at $3.5mil per

Tom Preissing - 4 years at $2.75mil per

Michal Handzus - 4 years at $4mil per

Ladislav Nagy - 1 year at $3.75mil per

Kyle Calder - 2 years at $2.75mil per

Jaroslav Modry - 1 year at $1.2mil per (Re-signed)

On the flip side, the Kings haven't lost very much in the way of key players. Other than goaltender Mathieu Garon going to Edmonton, none of the other Kings UFAs are really going to be missed severely.

With about $43mil in cap commitments, the Kings still have to address the one issue that hurt them last year: Goaltending. Dan Cloutier is eating up $3.1mil in salary cap space, and was one of the worst in the league last season. Giving him another chance is just folly. Buying him out and using the cap space to find another goalie would be the smartest solution.

Still, Kings fans can be happy that their team has had a great off-season adding offensive oomph and defensive depth without hurting their team in the long run.