Monday, June 30, 2008
Draft day to free agent frenzy. How to improve your team in two weeks
MCN Sports had a ring side seat for the Steve Stamkos draft in Ottawa two weekends ago. As most predicted, although you never really know until the name is called, Stamkos went as projected, first overall and it was a sight to behold in the stands with what looked like as many as forty family and friends present to congratulate him on becoming an instant millionaire. Not to suggest he didn’t work for it because despite raw talent which you must have clearly this is a young man with a tremendous work ethic. If that alone did not improve the Lightning’s lot on life their transactions since certainly have. Bagging Ryan Malone is the coup de gras at the moment but no less of an impact was the signing of Gary Roberts and yesterday, (June 29) the announcement that Brian Rolston has joined the fold after three seasons in Minnesota where along with being a veteran presence he has worn the C. Tremendous acquisitions for Tampa Bay. They are far and away the most improved team since Lidstrom hoisted the Cup in Pittsburgh after game six.
Other notes from the draft; appearing soon on our site mcnsports.com will be interviews with Dave Brown from the Flyers, Eddie Mio, with Phoenix, Phil Myre with the Florida Panthers and a couple of beauties to finish off – Steve Yzerman with Detroit and Cam Neely with the Bruins. Neely has been brought into the Bruin fold and has made his presence felt big time. Interesting to note various connections in the hockey world as to a large extent it remains an old boys club but in addition, contacts made in some cases as young men end up being a mainstay reason that the same two parties will hook up years later. Case in point with the Boston Bruins super scout in the making, Wayne Smith who jumped over to the Bruins from Columbus two years ago under the Peter Chiarelli regime, is a long time friend of Chiarelli’s. Also on their mast head as Director of Player Personnel, long time Bruin Don Sweeney who played in Harvard with Chiarelli. In hockey the long time adage, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,’ does not hold. You see this all the time and frankly the cases of it leading to success far outweigh the stories where it doesn’t as in Tampa with the Esposito brothers or the other high profile example, in Phoenix with Wayne Gretzky. The Bruins are another team headed in the right direction only problem is the whole NHL is so competitive right now there are no guarantee’s of anybody making it back to the final let alone winning a second Cup in a row. As much as many fans think this Detroit team is the cock of the walk, let’s see how they do next year. My view is they are not as good as the ’02 team and I put that right to Yzerman in the interview where of course he downplayed the notion but again, just my opinion, I think the ’02 team which was the most experienced team to ever win the Cup would have handled this version of Detroit for sure. Then again, you’ve got eight players on both of those rosters so hard to compare. 14 players on that ’02 roster were 30+ in age. That’s an all time high in Cup history.
Aside from being present for a record thirteen transactions in the first round the other eventual sight on first round night was the ovation given to Wayne Gretzky by the Ottawa fans. Remember that Ottawa was the city where he played his last game in Canada and I’m quite certain that was not lost on the crowd, a full house by the way, 18,500 and the ovation gave me goose bumps. It was great to see. Captain Daniel Alfredsson also received a huge roar of support but he cut the salutation short by taking the microphone while the crowd was still verbally ringing his name. Still a great moment.
So now it’s on to the free agent feeding frenzy. GM’s have been very careful to avoid any tampering charges or so it seems. The rumour mills are all flourishing right now and all that’s left are for the cards to fall on the table. I said it on my show today, master the obvious but I just can’t see Sundin signing with Montreal. As much as I’m sure Bob Gainey attempted to broker a tremendous deal for the big Swede at the end of the day I think they’ll refocus on Marian Hossa and we’ll see how that plays out because frankly, if they offer him any more than 7m a year to me that will be a colossal mistake. Time will tell. It’s officially Canada Day tomorrow but for some players it’s going to be Christmas in July in a big way.
Other notes from the draft; appearing soon on our site mcnsports.com will be interviews with Dave Brown from the Flyers, Eddie Mio, with Phoenix, Phil Myre with the Florida Panthers and a couple of beauties to finish off – Steve Yzerman with Detroit and Cam Neely with the Bruins. Neely has been brought into the Bruin fold and has made his presence felt big time. Interesting to note various connections in the hockey world as to a large extent it remains an old boys club but in addition, contacts made in some cases as young men end up being a mainstay reason that the same two parties will hook up years later. Case in point with the Boston Bruins super scout in the making, Wayne Smith who jumped over to the Bruins from Columbus two years ago under the Peter Chiarelli regime, is a long time friend of Chiarelli’s. Also on their mast head as Director of Player Personnel, long time Bruin Don Sweeney who played in Harvard with Chiarelli. In hockey the long time adage, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,’ does not hold. You see this all the time and frankly the cases of it leading to success far outweigh the stories where it doesn’t as in Tampa with the Esposito brothers or the other high profile example, in Phoenix with Wayne Gretzky. The Bruins are another team headed in the right direction only problem is the whole NHL is so competitive right now there are no guarantee’s of anybody making it back to the final let alone winning a second Cup in a row. As much as many fans think this Detroit team is the cock of the walk, let’s see how they do next year. My view is they are not as good as the ’02 team and I put that right to Yzerman in the interview where of course he downplayed the notion but again, just my opinion, I think the ’02 team which was the most experienced team to ever win the Cup would have handled this version of Detroit for sure. Then again, you’ve got eight players on both of those rosters so hard to compare. 14 players on that ’02 roster were 30+ in age. That’s an all time high in Cup history.
Aside from being present for a record thirteen transactions in the first round the other eventual sight on first round night was the ovation given to Wayne Gretzky by the Ottawa fans. Remember that Ottawa was the city where he played his last game in Canada and I’m quite certain that was not lost on the crowd, a full house by the way, 18,500 and the ovation gave me goose bumps. It was great to see. Captain Daniel Alfredsson also received a huge roar of support but he cut the salutation short by taking the microphone while the crowd was still verbally ringing his name. Still a great moment.
So now it’s on to the free agent feeding frenzy. GM’s have been very careful to avoid any tampering charges or so it seems. The rumour mills are all flourishing right now and all that’s left are for the cards to fall on the table. I said it on my show today, master the obvious but I just can’t see Sundin signing with Montreal. As much as I’m sure Bob Gainey attempted to broker a tremendous deal for the big Swede at the end of the day I think they’ll refocus on Marian Hossa and we’ll see how that plays out because frankly, if they offer him any more than 7m a year to me that will be a colossal mistake. Time will tell. It’s officially Canada Day tomorrow but for some players it’s going to be Christmas in July in a big way.
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 12:19 PM 
