NHL teams go to Plan B
The rich got Richards, while the rest of the National Hockey League teams will soon begin closing their wallets now that two days of free agent shopping have concluded.
Once the New York Rangers won the Brad Richards’ bidding at $60 million US for nine years, runners-up such as Toronto and Los Angeles made their Plan B moves and 30 general managers paused to catch their breath and double-check their salary cap computations.
Other than Richards and Toronto’s two-year, $9.5 million deal for Tim Connolly, the most significant deal Saturday was the Kings reeling in left winger Simon Gagne for two years at $7 million. After a decade in the Eastern Conference, Gagne joins ex-Flyer teammate Mike Richards on a team that has let its draft picks mature the past couple of years and now seeks veterans to make them a playoff threat.
Gagne told the Los Angeles Times that the strong Philly connection on the team, from executive Ron Hextall and coach Terry Murray down to players such as Richards and Justin Williams was as much the deciding factor as a contract stalemate with Tampa Bay, where he’d rejuvenated with a long playoff run.
The great goaltending gyration continued into Sunday with Tomas Vokoun finding a new home in Washington. Vokoun didn’t move as quickly as thought on Saturday, then found his old job in Florida going to Jose Theodore before he finally found a spot with the Caps. With Semyon Varlamov traded to the Colorado Avalanche for a first rounder, the Caps will team Vokoun with second-year man Michal Neuvirth.
Vokoun has a .917 career save percentage, but the knock against him was failure to get the Nashville Predators out of the first round and later, give the Panthers a lift into the playoffs. He will get $1.5 million this season and a year to prove his critics wrong.