On the day the Maple Leafs buy out Tim Gleason, we look back at a run of poor contracts on the Toronto blueline that will cost precious cap room down the road.
Did it start with the Mike Komisarek deal? Remember the five-year, $22.5-million deal that became a disaster about two years in? The Leafs bought out the final year of that deal, but not before they had foolishly signed John-Michael Liles to a four-year, $15.5-million deal that the Leafs moved when they dealt Liles to Carolina for Tim Gleason. Gleason had two-and-a-half years left in a deal with an AAV of $4 million, and as of Monday, he is being bought out.
Dion Phaneuf, meanwhile, only this coming season begins the seven-year, $49-million deal that every hockey voice one speaks to regards as heinously overpriced.
Leafs fans can only hope their team stays out of the free agent market, where the really bad contracts get signed.
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Jarome Iginla and the Boston Bruins are not completely over, but it’s a long shot that the big right winger returns to Beantown. If not, there are at least five teams interested, though the Iginla camp refused to make those public.
Thomas Vanek has a long list of suitors, but could still choose a shorter three-year deal in Minnesota. His history tells us he won’t get that seven-year deal anywhere. Vanek’s playoff performance hurt his market value.
Does the glut of centres in Colorado mean Paul Stastny is on his way out of Denver? Nathan MacKinnon is ready for more minutes, Matt Duchene is the Avs’ No. 1, Ryan O’Reilly is there, and now Daniel Briere is also in town. Sounds to us like Stastny will be moving on. There are six or seven teams showing interest, chief among them the St. Louis Blues. Edmonton sniffed at Stastny, but were scared away by term.
Speaking of centres, Mike Ribeiro will likely be a July 5 or 6 signing. He’s a tad radioactive after the comments about his lifestyle by Arizona GM Don Maloney, who bought Ribeiro out.
The longer it plays out the less likely Mike Cammalleri is to re-up in Calgary. The Flames can’t afford to lose his services, but this new “interview period” has allowed Cammalleri’s agent, Ian Pulver, to make the rounds. Cammalleri, who wants more term than the Flames have been willing to give thus far, will be having a sleepless night on Monday.
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Michael Del Zotto broke in with the New York Rangers as a 37-point rookie defenceman back in 2009-10, then two seasons later racked up 41 points. Today he is an unrestricted free agent, after the offence-starved Nashville Predators couldn’t see the logic in offering him a qualifying offer.
This, in a market that is starving for puck-moving defencemen who can help teams on the power play. How do the mighty fall that far?
“Not committed or dedicated enough,” said a front office voice who knows him well. Del Zotto will find work, likely for less than the AAV of $2.55 million he had been playing for. But it’s time for him to take things more seriously, or his next stop will be in Europe.
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If you want a prime example of what a huge UFA deal can do to a player’s stock, look no further than Christian Ehrhoff. The big German blueliner was a valuable piece to the Vancouver Canucks in their 2011 run, when he was surrounded by Alex Edler in his prime, Kevin Bieksa, Dam Hamhuis, and a younger Sami Salo.
Then he signed that 10-year, $40-million deal with Buffalo and his game fell off the edge of the earth. It was a combination of being forced to be a top pairing defenceman for the first time in his career, combined with the edge lost when a player cashes $18 million in salary in the first two years of the deal.
The moment his pending buyout hit the waiver wire, the ears of one GM — Craig MacTavish in Edmonton — perked up. He’s got a need for a puck-moving, power-play defenceman. And, MacTavish is also likely to be breaking in a young German draft pick named Leon Draisaitl this season. The veteran Deutchlander Ehrhoff would be the perfect roommate to help Draisaitl assimilate to the NHL.
Or perhaps not. We asked a scout to give us his opinion on the state of Ehrhoff’s game: “He skates well, joins the play, has a great shot,” the scout texted us. “Does not play well in corners, and stick checks. Defending (is) below average. Uses his speed to make up for poor defensive decisions.”
Ehrhoff will likely sign within 24 hours of the deadline however — any team that was talking about Dan Boyle would settle on Ehrhoff as a Plan B. Tampa fits that bill, if they don’t land Boyle. Also hearing Detroit has much interest in Ehrhoff.
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Two similar right wingers in play are Arizona’s Radim Vrbata and Ales Hemsky, who finished strong with 17 points in the final 20 games with Ottawa.
Hemsky left Edmonton and proved he could be productive playing next to a legitimate No. 1 centre in Jason Spezza. Vrbata has been a Coyote for five pretty productive seasons, and after bouncing around a bit has found a nice groove in the desert. Hemsky turns 31 in August, while Vrbata is 33 as free agency opens up on Canada Day.
“Hemsky is a better player,” said a Western Conference scout we asked for an evaluation. “It has nothing to do with skill and ability. It’s their motivation to play every night. If I had to take one guy, it would be Hemsky.”
Both players’ camps reported plenty of interest in their services as of Monday. I like Vrbata’s chances of staying with Arizona. As for Hemsky, he was on the block annually as an Oiler, and could land anywhere on July 1. How about on the Island, where New York is thin on the right side after Kyle Okposo?