Rupp just signed with the Rangers - 3 years, $4.5 mil.

I know we couldn't keep everyone, but this is turning into a bad day,

And the Rangers - Mike Rupp (3Y, $4.5M). Good for Rupp (and Talbot, for that matter) for getting the bucks. Word is a bidding war broke out for Rupp and kind of caught people by surprise. Although I'd be curious to know what value the Pens put on him - I'd have thought $1M per was in line for what he brought to the team.

Detroit signs D Mike Commodore (1Y, $1M).

Here's a rarity - a free agent LEAVING Philly. Brian Boucher goes to Carolina (2Y, $1.9M). C Jiri Tlusty stays in Carolina (1Y, $525k). G Peter Budaj goes to Montreal (2Y, $2.3M).

Alan

I think mainly because it was being portrayed as very likely, if not probable, that Jagr was returning to Pittsburgh. And this wasn't initiated by the Pens - Jagr started the talk. He was even quoted as saying how much admiration he has for Mario Lemieux, how much he owed Lemieux, and how he'd play in Pittsburgh for less. Here's the quote - “I would play for the minimum salary. I would play for $350,000 just for him because I owe him my hockey life. I want to pay him back because he has made me what I am…besides my parents.” Then he gets an offer for $2M and proceeds to drag it out looking for more money - and kudos to him, he got it. For the record, I suspect it was as much his agent, Petr Svoboda, as Jagr himself - I've never been one of the people who bought into the whole hating Jagr thing for the "dying alive" quote and subsequent trade to Washington. So, good riddance to the drama that's gone on the last few weeks. Kudos to Ray Shero for not hedging his bet and going after Kennedy instead of waiting around like he did w/Hossa a couple years ago.

Alan

Good news on the Pens front - Steve Sullivan, 1Y, $1.5M. This could turn out to be a very good signing - Sullivan's got a fair bit of talent and will not be the bulk of the offense here.

Alan

Edmonton signs D Cam Barker (1Y, $2.25M). Montreal signs RW Erik Cole (4Y, $18M). Washington signs D Roman Hamrlik (2Y, $7M) and RW Joel Ward (4Y, $12M). The Isles sign C Marty Reasoner (2Y, $2.7M). Dallas just signed D Michal Ryder (2Y, $7M).

Alan

I'm not that excited about Sullivan....older and injury issues.

Well, Boucher was shown the door-does that count as leaving? Also, kicked to the curb-Carcillo and O'Donnell.

Leino gets 6 years $27 mil from Buffalo? No wonder the Flyers didn't resign him-that's nuts. If it were my money I'd have said "see ya"!

By Sarah Baicker
CSNPhilly.com

After multiple meetings between the Flyers and Ville Leino’s agent Bill Zito failed to result in a deal, the winger signed a six-year, $27 million deal with the Buffalo Sabres instead.

The Flyers were unwilling to pay Leino more than about $3.5 million a year, but the 27-year-old and his agent long believed he was capable of bringing in more. Once the Florida Panthers signed Tomas Kopecky (a similar player, two years Leino's senior, who had poorer stats) to a four-year, $12-million deal and the Flyers agreed to a $3.3 million contract with Jaromir Jagr, Leino's chances of returning to Philadelphia had all but disappeared.

Zito and the Flyers had talked a number of times over the past few weeks, but those meetings were put on hold while the team considered whether to submit an offer sheet to Tampa Bay restricted free agent Steven Stamkos.

Earlier this week, general manager Paul Holmgren said yet again he had hoped the Flyers would be able to reach a deal with Leino, who registered 19 goals and 34 assists last season as part of the team's most consistently successful line made up of Leino, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell. But it wasn't to be.

Versteeg traded for picks
The Flyers’ flurry of moves continued on Friday when they sent winger Kris Versteeg to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a second-round pick in 2012 or 2013 and a third-rounder in 2012.

Versteeg spent 27 games with the Flyers last season after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in February. His cap hit was $3.083 million.

The 25-year-old had seven goals, four assists and was a plus-4 during the regular season and added a goal and five assists during the playoffs.

The cap space cleared by Versteeg’s trade will likely go toward efforts to sign Wayne Simmonds, the forward who came to Philadelphia as part of the deal that sent captain Mike Richards to the L.A. Kings.

Voracek, Lilja signed
The Flyers have also agreed to a contract with free agent defenseman Andreas Lilja and have signed winger Jakub Voracek to an extension.

Voracek, who was acquired as part of the deal that sent Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets, has signed a one-year deal with $2.25 million.

Lilja, 35, played a complete season just once in his career, and spent last season with the Anaheim Ducks, where he registered one goal and six assists in 52 games.

O'Donnell heads to Chicago
Veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell has signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks worth $850,000, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.

O'Donnell, 39, was the Flyers' sixth defenseman, and was known as a great presence in the team's locker room. The Flyers could have afforded his salary, but appear to be looking to add some youth on the blue line and will likely look to either Lilja or Oskars Bartulis to fill O'Donnell's spot.

Boucher to Carolina
Brian Boucher, who had completed his third stint with the Flyers this season, won't be back for 2011-12. Boucher has signed a two-year, $1.9 million deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.

It does if it helps my point!

I'd heard that Carcillo was gone, but I didn't remember hearing Boucher or O'Donnell.

What's the feeling about Leino leaving? I've seen some things that said the "trade" of Jagr for Leino will turn out poorly for the Flyers. We'll see what happens this year - if the Flyers win the Cup, then it was a good deal. I saw quite a few comments on the PG's blog that the Flyers' moves the past two weeks have made them worse. I'm not buying that, at least not in the short term. Maybe five-six years from now the Flyers will say, "If only we hadn't...", but I don't necessarily think they're worse off than they were before the Richards and Carter trades, especially if the rumors about the locker room stuff are true. That said, if Richards was a morale problem, as one thing I saw claimed, then Jagr isn't necessarily an improvement (he's not necessarily going to be a morale problem, but he does have a tendency to be moody).

As for the Sullivan signing, if he stays healthy, 20-25 goals isn't out of the question. He's not going to be a banger, but he certainly can't hurt the power play. If not, it's not that much different than the Comrie signing, only more expensive.

BTW - I saw that ten teams were bidding for Rupp, which drove his price up. And there are apparently rumors that the Flyers might go after Brad Richards.

Alan

One last signings post for the day...

Chicago signs F Dan Carcillo (1Y, $775k). Edmonton signs D Corey Potter (1Y). Washington signs C Ryan Potulny. St. Louis signs G Brian Elliot (2Y, $1.2M). Colorado finally gets the big goalie, signing Tomas Vok...check that, Jean-Sebastien Giguere (2Y) - not sure where that leaves Vokoun now, not too many teams looking for someone for the slot he'd fill. Colorado signs RW Chuck Kobasew (2Y, $2.5M). Edmonton gets C Eric Belanger (3Y, $5.25M). Florida signs LW Tomas Fleischman (4Y, $28M). San Jose signs D Jim Vandermeer (1Y, $1M). Dallas signs D Sheldon Souray (!) (1Y, $1.65M). Carolina signs Alexei Ponikarovsky (1Y, $1.5M). Vancouver gets LW Marco Sturm (1Y, $2.25M). Buffalo get LW Ville Leino (6Y, $27M - second biggest deal of the day, I think). New Jersey re-signs G Johann Hedberg (1Y). And Boston signs LW Benoit Pulliot (1Y, $1.1M).

Alan

Good luck with that one.

I think there were mixed feelings on Leino-he played too soft and faded in the last 1/3 of the season. A good player-not worth that money at all.
Most, not all fans were pretty pleased with the Richards/Carter deals and the 1st round draft choice.
Most, not all were happy with Jagr-all were happy with Talbot.
I've heard Brad Richards to NY Rangers is gonna happen not heard a word about him coming here, but then I had no idea about Jagr!
The locker room stuff is 100% true-but it has not been revealed who actually slept with Hartnell's wife. One thing for sure is management was not happy with Carter and Richards living the young, single dude nightlife a bit too much.
Briere's wife left him for a cop in my old hometown-man, that's gotta hurt.
Jagr could be a douche, but it's worth a one-year gamble because he could be awesome as well.

Absolutely, the Jagr thing is worth the gamble, even at $3.3M (if you have the cap space) - with a one-year, even if he flops, it's not going to destroy you. The big key for the Flyers this year is going to be Nabokov. That's been their Achilles heel the last few years. And all this on a team that disappointed this season by...winning the division. I have to think it's going to be a dogfight for the top spot again. Of course, once the playoffs start...

There seem to be quite a few people around here not happy w/the Sullivan signing, but pending health he's an offensive increase over anyone they lost. Yeah, he's had health problems, but the Pens had Crosby, Malkin and Staal each miss about half a season last year, and Crosby and Staal both had pretty decent health resumes to that point.

I can't believe the Rangers were able to get the opportunity to match any offer Richards gets (at least according to TSN). Sounds like everyone and their brother are throwing everything and their sister at him.

Alan

Jagr came into the league in 1990. This is 2011. In 2005 with the NYR he had 54 goals. 2006: 30. 2007: 25. He was clearly declining at that point and that was 4 years ago. Other than his name, I don't know why anybody would want to pay him $3 million +, even if it's for 1 year. He'll be lucky to sniff 20 goals this year and that's if he doesn't get injured, which he always is.

A few more signings have trickled out - NY Rangers re-sign F Ruslan Fedotenko (no terms). Florida signs F Sean Bergenheim (4Y, $11M). San Jose signs C Michal Handzus (2Y).

But the big news is that TSN is reporting that Brad Richards has signed a nine year, $58.5M deal with the Rangers.

Alan

Kings signed Simon Gagne, 2 years $7 mil, don't like the deal. Another signing for broken down goods.

The Richards deal turned out to be for $60M.

Tomas Vokoun signs for one year in Washington, $1.5M, and portrays it as "a chance to play for a contender" instead of "I was supposed to be the best goalie available and everyone went in a different direction and this was the best I could do". To be honest, I'm a bit surprised at this - I though Philly might have taken a run at him before the Nabokov deal, but they could't/wouldn't/shouldn't have given Vokoun that kind of term. Despite the speculation, I'm not surprised Colorado didn't go after him - I think the best window for Vokoun is the next 2-4 years, and Colorado's not likely to be rebuilt in that time frame. Washington's actually a pretty good fit, but I don't think this is the deal he fell asleep dreaming about June 30.

Alan

Alan:
Since you keep saying it, I know it's just a faux-pas, but the Flyers have Bryzgalov not Nabakov!

Another big Sharks/Wild trade yesterday.......
Dany Heatley for Martin Havlat

Very interesting......probably good for both teams as with the Burns/Setoguchi deal.
Maybe better for the Sharks...gives them more cap room to maybe retain Burns or do other things.
The Wild will be a more exciting team to watch.

Remaining UFA's
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=5683 ... L|NHL|home

DOH! Did I mention ?

Yes, Bryzgalov - those Russian goalies from the Western Conference all look the same to me!



The Heatley deal was a bit of a surprise, but it shouldn't have been - the Sharks needed to shake things up a bit, and a bit more than just the Burns deal. I don't think they need to burn things to the ground, but they weren't getting it done as things were.

The analysis here is that the Pens are essentially done with free agency for the year - possibly a role-player signing, but that's it. Shero said the big thing for the team is getting a healthy Crosby and Malkin back in the lineup and having those two and Staal for the season. He also said the big free agency concern is in two years when they can redo Crosby's and Staal's deals. Two years from now is going to be VERY interesting around the Penguins - barring trades, their pending free agent list looks like, well, a roster - Adams, Dupuis, Kennedy, Crosby, Staal, Cooke, Letestu and Lovejoy all become FA that year according to the report I saw.

Alan

Tomas Kaberle - 3 years, $12.5 mil - Carolina Hurricanes
Andrew Ladd - 5 years, $22 mil - Winnipeg Jets
Keith Yandle - 5 years, $26.25 mil - Phoenix Coyotes