Ovechkin Signs Record Contract

It was reported very early at On Frozen Blog, TSN then said "Hang on a sec..." and now TSN is declaring it officially finished.

Yes, Alexander Ovechkin has shockingly re-signed with the Washington Capitals. My condolences to all Habs and Preds fans.

"What's the price?" you might be asking? Well it's the steepest price in history. It weighs in at a 13 years and a whopping $124M US. I have trouble fathoming having that amount of money.

"What is he going to do with it?" you might ask next? Whatever the hell he wants!

Alexander Ovechkin now has the richest contract in the NHL and the dollar values are well-deserved. He's scored more goals over the past 3 years than anyone in the NHL and he did it with virtually nobody around him.

However that begs the question of how you build a team when nearly 1/5th of your cap amount is going towards one player?

Add in contracts to Michael Nylander and Alexander Semin, both around $4.5M next year, and you've got the makings of a Tampa Bay Lightning squad.

Of course for now they have Olie the Goalie to shore up the pipes but he's a UFA at the end of the year and is 37 years of age.

He's not a long-term solution and they may not be able to afford a top-tier goaltender once they fill up their roster for next year.

Hopefully Mr. Mcphee can pull it off and start drawing some crowds so the other teams aren't paying for the privilege of having Ovechkin score against them!

Danny Markov Signs in Russia

Paul Kukla reports that Danny Markov has signed with Dynamo Moscow in Russia. The deal is believed to be for 2 years at around $2M US per year. The deal has an out-clause so he could return to the NHL if a team presents him with an offer he agrees with.

Was there seriously no team willing to give this guy a deal on similar terms? He was reportedly looking for a $3.5M per year deal during the offseason so signing for almost half is a bit surprising.

However, he is from Moscow and may have weighed the option of playing in his home country as worth more than the extra cash he was looking for in the NHL. Good luck to him.

Senators Sign Fisher to Extension

The Ottawa Senators have signed Mike Fisher to a five-year, $21M extension. Fisher, while mildly "injury prone", is an extremely hard worker on the ice. He has tons of grit and leadership and he can also put points on the board with 48 points in 68 games last season.

Some folks are worried that one of their big guns in Heatley and Spezza have been forced to be expendable. However Redden ($6.5M) will likely hit the free market feeding frenzy in the summer and Murray will be doing all possible to dump Gerbers salary ($3.7M).

Taking in a 0% increase in the cap, that leaves the Senators with $14M in cap space. Plenty left to sign a quality backup and fill out their forward roster. Don't worry Sens fans, it will all work out.

Roenick Sharking It Up

Jeremy Roenick isn't retiring after all. He has signed a one-year contract for $500K with the San Jose Sharks. It's surprising that a decent team signed him rather than a team looking for some veteran presence. The Sharks have a young squad but also have players such as Marleau, Thornton, Grier, Rivet, McLaren, etc. to bring the veteran presence.

If he finds a good spot on the 3rd or 4th line and contribute, then he's an excellent deal for the Sharks at almost the league minimum. If he can't, well he just might retire after he finds the net 5 times to reach 500 in his career. It'll be no real skin off the Sharks back.

Marleau Signs 2-year Extension

The ballyhoo is over and Patrick Marleau has signed a 2-year extension with the Sharks. The deal pays him $6M per year and keeps him in teal through 09/10. So it appears some folks were wrong on thinking Marleau would be shipped out, even when Wilson continually denied it. And it appears other folks were right saying he wasn't going anywhere. I'm not saying who those people were but I'm sure you can all figure it out.

Patrick is consistently one of the most underrated players in the league, possibly due to the expectation people had as he entered the NHL as an 18-year old WHL phenom. He hardly misses a game (20 missed games in 9 seasons), has deceptive speed, great patience and good hands. The last 2 seasons he's been a point-per-game producer and, while having an off series against Detroit, has been an excellent playoff performer.

Doug Wilson's quote from the official release sums it all up:
“Patrick understands what we are trying to do, where we’ve been and where we’re going,” said Wilson. “He appreciates what our goals are and where we need to go. That is very important. Patrick is among the game’s top forwards and his stats speak for themselves”

Ducks Let Penner Walk

The Anaheim Ducks have let Dustin Penner march on to whiter pastures as he is on his way to Edmonton to play for the Oilers. The Ducks will receive a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round draft pick as compensation and that #1 could be a top-ten pick. As long as Niedermayer doesn't announce his retirement tomorrow - thereby shedding the necessary cap space - then this is the right move for the Ducks.

They still have to sign Perry and Getzlaf before anyone can toss an offer sheet their way next year. They also have a spot or two to fill at forward for this year though that's likely waiting to have a rookie step in. Bobby Ryan perhaps? Or perhaps Teemu will take a hometown discount to come back and defend the cup.

I didn't think the Ducks would match this offer since it meant shedding a lot of salary. I wasn't the only one as I think the majority of bloggers didn't see the Ducks matching this one - and a lot thought Lowe was nuts. Nuts he may be as Penner could fade into oblivion after one decent, full NHL season under his belt. But hey, he'll fade away as a millionaire.

Avery Awarded $1.9M, Rangers Accept

The Rangers have accepted the arbitrators decision of a 1-year, $1.9M contract to agitator Sean Avery. It was a bitter negotiation by all accounts and likely left Avery and Sather with some residual bitterness towards each other. So basically, just like anybody else Sather knows or deals with.

As for their cap situation, the best summation is found in the NY Daily News. It is still making assumptions - Kasper sent down and Staal making the team being the most notable - but they are reasonable assumptions.

Parise Signs Multi-Year Extension

The Devils locked up Zach Parise for an extra four years at a cost of $3.125M per season. Not a bad price for their leading goal scorer (31) who will fill the LW spot on the Devils now defunct EGG line. Will it now be ZEG line? The PEG line?

Why an offer sheet wasn't extended to Parise, I don't know. Best guess, most teams knew it would cost them a whole lot of first-rounders to pry Parise away from the Devils. Especially since the Devils still have a good chunk of cap space left.

Oilers Sign Penner to Offer Sheet

It was just reported on tsn.ca that Kevin Lowe has tendered an offer sheet to RFA Dustin Penner and he has signed it. At a price of $21.5M over 5 years, it's kind of deal Penner couldn't pass up and the kind of offer that the Ducks may be forced to pass over.

Anaheim only has $2M in cap space at the moment with their $7M dollar defenseman still pondering whether he will retire or not. Brian Burke has stated he will match any offers to Penner but what GM would say "Offer away, we won't match."

The compensation to the Ducks would be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick. So Burke has some interesting options to weigh as we all wait for the profanity-laced press conference that will come once Burke has made his decision.

Pitkanen Signs One-Year Deal

Joni Pitkanen has signed a one-year, $2.4M deal with the Oilers. So in return trading away their long-time captain and one of the other pieces of the Pronger trade, they were able to secure an offensive defenceman who has yet to realize his potential and will be a free agent again next year.

That has to be a bit disheartening to the Oilers and probably the Oilers fans. They've got an offensive blueliner in Souray, who had a career year he likely won't match, locked up long-term and now another offensive blueliner who has untapped potential, but he's only locked up for a season.

That's bass-ackwards if you ask me.

Aebischer Signs One-Year Contract with Coyotes

David Aebischer has signed on with the Phoenix Coyotes for the upcoming season. It's the third team for the 29-year old after stints with the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens. With the Avalanche he posted respectable numbers until the blueline crumbled. He was then shipped to Montreal for fellow fledgling goaltender Jose Theodore. Both goaltenders joined the .300+ club which is definitely not a club you strive to join.

I haven't seen any confrimation on salary but have read that it's $600,000. That is a big step down from his previous salary but it's a chance for Aebischer to prove his mettle as a #1 goaltender. He'll be battling it out with Mikael Tellqvist for that position as well.

I'm actually surprised at the low salary. Even though Aebischer hasn't shown himself to be worth much more, the Coyotes are still trying to crack the minimum salary defined by the cap. Plus they have enough players under contact at the moment to ice on opening night. So it should be interesting to see what they have planned.

Sheldon Souray Signs with the Oilers

Sheldon Souray has agreed to terms with the Edmonton Oilers so we can finally put to rest any and all rumours about where he may be headed. Admittedly it was a bit strange that he wasn't snapped up within the first 2 or 3 days of free agency but you can somewhat understand the reason teams were reluctant.

While putting up big numbers with a booming point shot, he isn't the most defensive minded defenceman out there and is often made to look like a fool in one-on-one situations. However the Oilers made it clear that they were looking for defensive help and couldn't find any takers on the trade market after the Pitkanen deal.

With Souray and Pitkanen on the blueline, the Oilers will certainly have upgraded their powerplay unit. The question is whether they have degraded the overall defensive quality of their blueline.

Lundqvist Signs One-Year Deal

Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers have agreed to terms on a one-year, $4.25M deal. I know a lot of people were expecting - or hoping - for a $3M deal but you had to know that was a pipe dream. You know what else was a pipe dream? Getting all these guys signed under the cap amount. As it stands, the Rangers sit with ($1.399M) in cap space. Those parentheses...that's accountant speak for "negative".

They currently are over the cap and need to bring themselves under. And did anyone mention that they still don't have a full roster? There are rumours of sending Kasparaitus down to the minors which would free up almost $3M in cap space. That would allow them to sign Avery for about $1.6M and be right at the cap. The only problem there is they still need a couple more forwards to fill out their offense.

EDIT: Ok, so after reading on some other boards it appears the Rangers have more cap space than most people think. If you assume that Kasparaitus goes to the AHL - or gets suspended after refusing the assignment - and they defer Shanahan's bonuses to next season, they have $3.23M available. That should be enough to sign Avery, Hossa and maybe one more depth forward to fill up the roster. It does mean that Shanahan's bonuses will likely count against next years cap which is obviously not ideal but if the cap goes up again, they should be all right.

And they need to hope that Marc Staal is a stud on the blue line this coming season.

Shanahan Signs with Rangers

Brendan Shanahan has signed a deal this afternoon that will keep him with the New York Rangers. Terms have not yet been released but it is likely a one-year contract and the rumour is that it will be an incentive laden deal with a discounted salary. It is confirmed that the deal is for $2.5M with an additional $2.8M bonus structure. The first $2M bonus is for playing in at least 10 games this coming season and the rest are related to playoff performance.

The Rangers already made a huge splash in signing both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. With Shanahan on board, the Rangers will have two excellent offensive lines this upcoming season since, in case you didn't know, they have Jaromir Jagr as their franchise wingman.

The only question is how close to the Cap the Rangers end up being after this signing. Since Shanahan signed for $2.5M, that leaves them with $5.6M in cap space. At the moment they only have 10 forwards signed according to nhlnumbers.com and of course have yet to re-sign #1 goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and uber-pest Sean Avery.

I think it's a safe bet that Henrik alone could take up most of that remaining cap space leaving $1M or $2M to fill out the roster. So what will the Rangers do?

Sydney Crosby Signs Five Year Extension

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sydney Crosby agreed to a five year, $43.5M contract extension this morning. His cap hit this season will still be $850,000+bonuses but starting next year, he's a 9 million dollar man (or close enough anyways). After winning the Art Ross and Hart trophies in only his second year of play, it's an obvious move on the part of the Penguins.

Crosby was said to be pushing the Penguins to give him assurances that Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal would remain vital cogs in the Penguins re-birth. Crosby is smart enough to realize that no matter how great a player he is, he needs a supporting cast to head for the Cup. With a trio down the middle of Crosby, Malkin and Staal, they're well on their way.

This signing was rumoured for a while and isn't much of a shock, particularly after the Vanek offer sheet. There is no way Pittsburgh wouldn't have matched whatever a team threw at Crosby and you can almost guarantee a team would throw the league max of just over $10M.