Well the day is finally here. July 1st is tomorrow and it’s akin to Christmas morning. The NHL world will be a buzz with rumors all day then then after noon the flurry of signings are likely to come crashing in. 

 Most teams have been taking a youth movement and budget woe’s approach in the media but for some that is just a cover as they will spend willey nilley as usual (see the Rangers, Leafs and Bruins). Some times will use the money wisely (Red Wings) and some won’t (again the Leafs and Rangers). I am excited to see allthe signings but for now let’s dig into my Canes and Isles.

I have alot more to say about the Canes b/c they have been saying alot more about the spending the last few weeks. And since I am a full season ticket holder for almost 10 years now I feel I am around enough and kinda have a vested interest in it as well.

First the Jock has a RANT. The # 1 thing I am enourmously pissed about it this crap Rutherford (canes GM) said a week or two ago. He stated that  the Canes intend to spend to their own cap of 43-46 million. Well genious, right now the team is sitting at 42 millionand 11 forwards 3 defensemen and 1 goalie under contract. This is not including Sanguinetti, Nash and Matsumoto that were acquired on draft day (all 2 way or minor deals which won’t impact the cap much). 

Next is the looming Rod Brind’Amour question. He is most certainly going to either retire, or be bought out.  His salary is 3mil (cap hit of 3.6, don’t ask it’s a long story for cap stuff that I don’t entirely understand to spell it all out here). He is now 39. Now, if my research and calculations are all correct he signed his 5 year deal when he was 34 and not yet 35, THIS IS HUGE. Under the salary cap rules if a player who had not hit 35 yet ends up retiring after 35, his retirement removes the ENTIRE cap hit. If this is so this is a no brainer. He is clearly done and word from some sources of mine in the end of the season said that his parents and children were at the last couple of home games in planning to see Rod’s last games as a player. So my only Q here is why the wait? He is clearly going to stay in the area with his kids and I am betting work for the Canes (like Ronnie Francis does) in some way. Is he waiting for them to buy him out so he can squeeze that last little bit of money out of them? This seems unlikely b/c that would kinda screw the team a bit. If he is bought out for 2/3 of his contract remaining (here 1 year). That amount would be a cap hit over twice the number of years of the remaining contract (here would be 2 years total). Granted 2/3 is just roughly 1 mil a year over the next 2 years. BUT, why hurt the team you will likely work for after retirement? Also, would you give a job to a man who just screwed you (even slightly) for the next 2 years? It all doesn’t add up and I hope he retires and if what I said was right the team gets abot 3 mil added to its cap space.

EDIT: Naturally just as I post this Brindy has announced a new conference to Retire. I have to say I will miss him as a player. (not that he was good last year I will just miss the real Brindy). He has always been one of the Jock’s fav players of all time. He fought hard on each and every shift and gave 150% to his team every night. No one will ever forget the heroics he showed in the cup run of ’06. Welcome to the front office big guy. Now let’s retire 17 next year. It needs to be done.

So back to the FA. So if the Canes and their own Cap have somewhere in the area of 2-3 or 5-6 mil (depending on Brindy) to spend then it’s going to be a crappy summer for us Canes fans. Here are the 2 scenerios. 1 It’s a summer like last summer where they signed the likes of Yelle, Andrew Alberts, Jay Harrison and trading for Aaron Ward (The Ward trade was the only one I liked of the bunch- A player who gives all of himself every night he is on the ice). As you can see not much of a splash. In fact it was a huge THUD which helped lead to the crap-tard season we had to deal with. OR 2. Ruhterford shows us the brilliance that was the signings before the lockout and 06 Cup year. He signed a bunch of low key guys who ened up gelling and making HUGE contributions. Names like Stillman, Whitney, Commodore and Cullen. Household names now in Carolina but before that I was unimpressed as a whole with the signings but I am the 1st to admit he did a GREAT job that year with the right signings.

What do I think? I think again, that we are screwed. I expect to see a summer full of me running to the transaction pages and listening to XM home ice every day only to be let down when we either don’t sign anyone or sign complete crap that won’t make much of a difference. They will likely be trying to use as many young guys as possible and get away with lower salaries this year so prolly not a whole lot of signings. Needing about 8 forwards at least 4 D men with 6 million max isn’t going to happen. So since they are now 17 mil! under the cap, I am hoping (well praying!) that they spend to around 49-50 mil range and prove me wrong.  I can also see them going with Peters as the backup most or all of the year, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they signed one of the ton of goalies out there to back up Ward and be there in case his back acts up again.

The Islanders have a lot of “work” to do. Yet, they have a shit ton of cap room. Roughly 33 mil! in cap room.  I say “work” b/c they have an amazing core of youth on the team. Tavares, Okposo, Bailey, Neilson, Comeau,Moulson. The Work is going to be getting some depth another role player and hopefully one or two decent bigger names up front.  On the back end they still have a stud in Streit and then it gets so so. Witt is a grinder and heart guy but at 35 he;s getting a bit slow (and likely to be bought out as well). Martinek(Injuries), and Gervais make decent 4/5 D men but they really lack a 2/3 or just say a true 2nd set of D (I am not sold on Freddy Meyerand Hillen to me is a wild card could be good could be a POS too early in his career to tell). There are only a handful out there so stay tuned on that.

My outlook for the isles? I think it’s going to be more fun to watch what the Isles do tomorrow then what the Canes do. I think the Isles might throw some money around and get a few exciting signings in. The only precaution is if Wang tightens the wallet a bit to try and make the books look good for the threatened sale thats been rumored, and more importantly the fact that FA’s don’t want to play in the Colluseum. It’s just a wretched building now. What used to be a hockey mecca is now just a piece of shit out of date building. And guys don’t want that.

Stay tuned, with any luck tomorrow afternoon and evening I should have some thoughts on the Day that was in the NHL Free agent frenzy day 1.

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