Tom Kostopoulos is Coming! Let's Dance!

This is what we at FHF feel in our hearts, with the news of our latest acquisition. We just want to dance.

Opa!

The Morning Skate for Wednesday, July 4th

Bullet points for what you missed while having nightmares of the U.S.A. taking over our game (though I would sure love if they took over our Sportscentre)...

• The Habs finally make a big signing, and it's Tom Kostopolous! All our problems are solved;
• Flames get Iginla and Regehr to sign long extensions;
• The Gazette's Pat Hickey recaps Gainey's press conference from yesterday. Bob's basically done spending. Bring on 10th place.

Well with the Habs' UFA season essentially over, FHF can now turn to important questions, like will Kobayashi's jaw injury be a factor in today's hot dog eating contest. Happy 4th of July to all the U.S. hockey fans out there. May all your game feeds be from the CBC, unless it's Cole-Neale announcing.

My New NHL 3

The rich millionaires started to save while the poor millionaires began spending. That’s what happened when the six-year collective bargaining agreement was signed in the summer of 2005. Rather than embolden the small market teams, the new CBA created huge reserves for the wealthy ones, huge reserves that would allow them to make serious splashes in the UFA pool when the cap would start rising again. It stood at 38 million dollars for Year 1 of the CBA. Now, at Year 3 it has climbed up to 52 million. It has gone up by 37%. Poof!

In an environment where the playing field is in the process of expansion, a gap starts to emerge, between the Haves and the Have-Nots. The field was flattened at a 38 million dollar cap, where everyone could allocate that amount in salaries. Today however, not all pockets around the NHL are 52 million dollars deep.

A New order is rising. It happens to be the Old order.

While the NHL was deflating spending to 38 million dollars a couple of years ago, the wealthy teams who were spending over 70 million were making significant savings. Today, with a cap that’s over 50M teams like the Red Wings and Rangers are still saving about 20M a season compared to their pre-cap splurges. That money could not really come in handy with everyone being obliged to run in a potato sack race. Now that the rules are changing and are allowing participants to run the race with the latest and most sophisticated engines money can buy, some teams will still have to resort to the best potato sack money can buy. This is when the savings of the last 2 years are going to pay huge dividends for the Rich of Yesterday. In fact, they are the ultra Rich of today and the uber Rich of tomorrow.

My New NHL 2 (from 2005-2007) was a flattened league. My New NHL 3 is a system of castes again.

Who’s in trouble? The small market American teams, that’s who. They are spending the same American dollars today as they did before the CBA. The Canadian teams, while relieved somewhat by the cap correction of 2005, have much more to thank in the surging Canadian dollar.

In 2001 the dollar was agonizing at 61 cents. Today it’s trading at 94.

The Canadiens’ payroll in 2001-2002 was 41.2M, meaning they were paying 66.3 M Canadian. Today that would mean a 43.7M payroll in Canadian funds. In today’s league figure the Habs will take up the entire cap room and spend the allowed 52M; in Canadian funds, with a 94 cent dollar, it will cost them 55.1M, 11 million dollars less than in 2001 despite a cap that is 11 million higher! God Save the Queen.

What has rescued Canadian hockey is the dollar, it actually has little to do with the cap. There was a time (that time was 2 years ago) when the cap did restrict the wiggle room and level the playing field. A 25M payroll did not have to compete with the 80M T-Rex roaring out of Manhattan. Today, the cap is rising and the tide is going to turn. At that turn, you will find Scott Gomez and Chris Drury in their new Ranger uniforms.

The Canadian teams can weather the storm and ride the momentum of a strong currency. The more tepid American teams however will have no luck in finding such solace. They are the Canadian teams of old. Which is why the Pittsburghs and Nashvilles are going to turn over their business AFTER the CBA was signed, because they know what’s coming. They’ve been there before.

No B.S. for the BS brass

Accept things the way they are. And according to Sabres general manager Darcy Regier, this is the only way to see things for now:''We're going to be less competitive without Danny Briere and Chris Drury. But we'll figure out a way somehow to be better." What else is the man supposed to say? Your team just moonwalked back into the Darren Puppa years and you're going to sell the fans anything other than the WAY IT IS? Not in Buffalo.

La creme in Montreal don't see things that clearly.

For the next few days we are going to hear all about Smolinski and Hamas being terrific acquisitions for this team, about how bright the future appears. That won't sit well with the fans. I want to see Bob Gainey come out and say "Geez Louise, we tried hard we did, and we're peeved Briere opted for Philly cheese steak over Putin (i.e.playing alongside Kovalev and a Tit)".

The Morning Skate for Tuesday, July 3rd

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of the Habs playing in the second round of the playoffs. Man our expectations have been lowered...

• The author of The MS is on vacation and thus The MS will be a little late this week, or not posted at all, depending on the hangover level;
• You've time-travelled back to 1996. Scroll down to the next post if you don't believe me;
• Apparently, Souray refused a four-year, $22 million offer from the Habs. Insert Mrs. Souray or child support joke here;
• Nylander to the Caps, Lang to the Hawks, Handzus to the Kings, Bertuzzi to the Ducks. We're getting down to the dregs now for the Habs.

Alrighty we're still waiting for Bob to find some scoring. Check back for all the FHF snark when we decide Pierre Turgeon is the anwer to all our problems.

Gainey invents time travel, returns from 1996 with two free agents

Well, the talents of the Habs general manager know no bounds of time and space. Elite level hockey-player and defensive titan, loving father and husband, leader of men, Stanley Cup magnet, and now, master of the space-time continuum, Bob has gone into the way-back machine to snag Roman Hamrlik and Bryan Smolinski as free agents. With former #1 pick Hamrlik's offense from the back line and Smolinski's speed and hands added to the talent already in place (led by all-universe goalie St. Patrick!) good things are ahead for the Habs in 1996-97.

Wait, what? It's 2007? Well damn. That changes my outlook a little.

Free Agent Frenzy III: No Big Name UFA's at Chez Paree This Year

After Panger reported on the big Rangers splash last night, by this morning it looks like the Habs have lost out on two more big names as Ryan Smyth goes to Colorado and Paul Kariya goes to the Blues. Not that I wanted Kariya, but boy Smyth would have been nice.

So the only real viable big name left looks like Nylnader. But he's not big or physical and is 34. Habs need some scoring dammit. Yeesh. Maybe we can get Mickey Ribs back in a trade. [[pauses to clean vomit off of keyboard]]

Free Agent Frenzy II: Rumble From the Bronx*

OK, maybe MSG isn't in the Bronx, but the Rangers made the biggest splash in the UFA pool this year by signing not one, but two of the top three UFA centers, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury (officially, "The Next Messier"). This means the Habs definitely have a shot at Mikael Nylander, and maybe Ryan Smyth. Jason Blake goes to Loserland to fulfill his destiny as next season's version of Sergei Samsonov (then again, Samsonov didn't have Sundin passing him the biscuit. But they're paying Blake as an established 40-goal scorer, but I doubt he will consistently score 40 for the Leafs) Outside of that, my two sleeper UFA's have already signed: Vic Kozlov in Washington - nice fit with AlextheGr8 - and Josef Stumpel resigned earlier this week in Florida, where he has the privilege of watching Richard Zednik skate miles to avoid the slot area for the next couple of years. Robert Lang's still around, though.

Scott Hannen lands in Colorado, leaving Brad Stuart and Sheldon Souray as the only top tier blueliners left. My bet is Souray ends up a Shark, pairing up with Craig Rivet again. Boy I hope Josh Georges has got some potential that Habs fans haven't yet witnessed.

So the Habs lose out on Briere, and really don't have any big name options besides Brad Stuart, Paul Kariya, Todd Bertuzzi and (arguably) Nylander. I hope Gainey is arranging to invent a teleportation device so Souray can go back home to SoCal every night to be with Hottie Wife and kid. I don't want to face a season of Darryl Sydor setting up the PP.

*(I didn't actually watch TSN at all today, although I did hit "refesh" on my finacee's crackberry roughly 500 times on Sunday.)

Free Agent Frenzy I: Bye Brière, We Hardly Knew Ya

Thank goodness I didn't live blog the 2 hours of TSN's Free Agent Frenzy, because nothing happened. No really, nothing.

But later in the day Brière signed with the Flyers, for 8 years and $52 million. 10 mill in the first year!!! In related news, Francophone media in Montreal begin drinking heavily.

Elsewhere, Red Wings get Raflski and Ducks get Schneider. Flyers, Red Wings, SoCal. Yup, parity in the NHL is working.

The Big Day Is Finally Here!

So after a well-deserved day off prior to the big day, the FHF is back for, well, the big day. It's about an hour until the UFA period begins, and we're giddy with excitement!

Teams are made or broken on this day. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but one good UFA signing can change a team as easily as one bad signing can.

TSN's Free Agent Frenzy will be on in the background as we do laundry and clean the bathroom today, so we'll pop in with insta-analysis of any news possibly as it happens.

Oh yeah, and it's lke, our national holiday or something. Happy Canada Day, eh?