What I'm thinking since 7/1

Couple quick things I’ve been pondering and/or believing since last Wednesday:

- To start with, I like the Montador signing. Anything that adds a butt-kicker to this roster is good by me. About the only downside I can see here is a scenario in which none of our current blueliners are dealt away, both Meyers and Weber make the big club, Montador is relegated to 7th/8th Dman duties, and he puts up a hissyfit because of it. I really don’t see that happening. That said I agree with Kevin in this post in that more needs to be done to fix this team. I’m not one of those fans who gets all pissed off on July 1 because the Sabres haven’t made three or four moves, but I will be pissed off if that’s still the case come training camp. Work those phones, Darcy.

- I’ll miss Spacek and all but I’m not losing any sleep over his departure. Regarding the “who will replace his points production?” argument, I’ll just quote myself from the comments of this post:

One could argue that since 22 of Jaro’s 45 points came on the PP then whomever replaces him in that position will get those points. Now will that replacement have the same shot as him? Probably not. Will said replacement make the same passes that lead to goals? Who knows. But assuming that being a pointman on the first PP unit means you get X points, then logic says that those X points will now go to someone else.

Sure, none of the current defencemen may work out and our PP may end up taking a hit. Then again someone like Butler may, with the increase in experience and icetime, end up matching if not surpassing Jaro’s PP contributions. I simply haven’t seen enough evidence either way to call it. Until then I won’t panic.

- For as busy as the Habs have been, they really have only been trying to get themselves back to where they started. In terms of roster spots, bringing in Gomez, Gionta and Cammalleri hasn’t even made up for the loss of Koivu, Kovalev, Lang, Tanguay, and Higgins (who was dealt away for Gomez). On defence they lost Komisarek, Schneider and Boullion and have only brought in Spacek and Gill. So they’re not any further ahead in terms of warm bodies. The real question is whether or not they will be further ahead in terms of goodness at hockey. Honestly I don’t have a gut feeling one way or the either. I will say though that they waaaay overpaid for Gionta. I mean the guy has scored 25 goals or fewer each of the past three seasons, and is now on the wrong side of age 30. That’s definitely serviceable, but it’s not worth a Bucky Special (5/$25M).

- I really like the addition of Knuble for the Caps. It’s one of the more underrated signings thus far and they didn’t overpay for him. Sure it would have been nice to get him on the Sabres, but can you really fault a guy for choosing to play on Ovechkin’s wing?

- Bouwmeester is now a Flame and will earn $6.6M/yr. Clearly the Flames plan on devoting 95% of their cap space to five players and filling out the rest of their roster with Denis Hamels and Doug Janiks. Who knows, maybe that will work out for them.

- Taylor Pyatt is now the top remaining UFA forward in terms of PK effectiveness. Discuss.

- Other things I learned from said Mirtle post: I want Tanguay (if the money’s right) and Malhotra.

- One final thought:

Henrik Sedin: Plays center, is 28 years old, netted 1.00 pts/gm in 2008-09, signed a 5yr deal worth $6.1M/yr.
Mike Cammalleri: Plays center, is 27 years old, netted 1.01 pts/gm in 2008-09, signed a 5yr deal worth $6.0M/yr.
Nik Antropov: Plays center (sometimes), is 29 years old, netted 0.728 pts/gm in 2008-09, signed a 4yr deal worth $4M/yr.
Player X: Plays center, is 28 years old, netted 0.979 pts/gm in 2008-09, signed a 2yr deal worth $4.5M/yr.

Let those numbers sink in a bit. If you’re like me, you’re singing “One of These Things is Not Like the Others” to yourself right now.

Yes, Player X is Tim Connolly, and based on those numbers I come up with two main thoughts.
1) There was an obvious shortage of point-per-game centermen who are under 30 years old on the UFA market this year. Had Connolly hit the open market, I’m certain that he would have received a deal just shy of the one given to Sedin and Cammalleri, with his injury history being the only thing keeping him from matching those two contracts.
2) Am I ever glad the Sabres got him on a new contract at that amount. Essentially they’re getting 82 points for the price of 60. Had they not re-signed Timmy they would have either been forced to enter the bidding war for one of the four players listed, or they would be in a situation where they are trying to trade for a scoring center in addition to trying to trade for a veteran forward and/or a mobile defenceman (depending on whose rumors you choose to believe). Good signing, Darcy.