NHL Free Agent Frenzy (and a Roberto Luongo trade update?)

July 1st NHL “Free Agent Frenzy”

July 1st – a date that is circled on every GM’s calendar. It marks the beginning of the upcoming NHL season for management teams all around the league. As contracts expire, GM’s need to weed through their lists of Restricted and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) and try to keep the players they believe will best help them reach their goal – a Stanley Cup Championship. Players are either re-signed, traded, or left untouched leading up to the day known as “Free Agent Frenzy.”

We’ve already seen some notable deals go down in the past few weeks, including the movement of Stanley Cup winner Jordan Staal (to Carolina), budding star James van Riemsdyk (to Toronto), and point-producing forward Mike Ribeiro (to Washington). In addition, we have also seen the resigning of big name players, including:

Sidney Crosby (PIT): 12 years, $104.4M ($8.7M per year)
Jonathan Quick (LA): 10 years, between $55 and $60M (stay tuned for official number)
Cory Schneider (VAN): 3 years, $12M ($4M per year)

While the boys at Cyclone Taylor Sports (CTS) will be off celebrating Canada Day in true hockey player fashion (personally, I will be chilling in Cabin Country up in Lake Montana, BC), GM’s around the NHL will have a never-ending onslaught of phone calls to deal with, herding offers and voicing their own throughout the day. So what’s still available out there? We recently ran a poll on our Facebook page asking which player our fan’s would target on July 1, 2012. Based on the responses up until this blog post, we completely agree with their top 3 choices (briefly discussed below):

1. Zach Parise – received 50% of the Facebook poll votes. What do we like about Zach?

He’s currently in his prime, at the age of 28 (turns 29 on July 28, 2012)
He’s averaged over 0.82 points per game in his career so far. Best season? 45 goals, 94 points, in 82 games.
He has solid playoff experience, having dressed in 61 games so far (including 6 games in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final)

2. Ryan Suter – received 32% of the Facebook poll votes. What do we like about Ryan?

Also currently in his prime, at the age of 27 (doesn’t turn 28 until January 25, 2013)
He can shutdown the other teams top players and also put points up on the board; an outstanding two-way player!
Only 2 other defensemen logged more minutes-per-game on the ice (Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith). He’s a horse!

3. Justin Schultz – received 14% of the Facebook poll votes. What do we like about Justin?

Fresh out of 3 extremely productive years patrolling the blueline for the University Wisconsin (NCAA Division 1)
He was the highest scoring defenseman in college hockey last season, potting 14 goals and 44 points in 37 games.
He can sign for a maximum of $925,000 per season. At this price, his pro potential is well-worth pursuing him.

Roberto Luongo Trade Update

Since we are located in Vancouver, BC, we thought you might be interested in a little update on the status of Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. The following screenshot was just sent to me by one of our other CTS staff members.

Source: George Richards (@GeorgeRichards), who covers the Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. Hmmm…

Happy Canada Day!

And lastly, we just wanted to wish all of our customers, followers, fans, and blog readers a very Happy Canada Day! Canada turns 145 years old on Sunday; get out there and enjoy the day with your friends and family…and in the meantime, check out some of our country’s greatest moments on the world stage. We’re proud to be 100% Canadian – enjoy!

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