Kunitz Re-Ups in Anaheim

Something very interesting happened in Orange County today. No, it's not more surfing penguins on a movie lot. But the Ducks signed Chris Kunitz to a 4 year , roughtly $15 million contract. Whether Kunitz is worth that or not is debatable. But the fact that he's signed prior to Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry, is very surprising.

There is one of two things at work here. Either a) the agents for Getzlaf and Perry have insisted their clients are going to become restricted free agents and Burke had no choice but lock Kunitz up. Or b) Getzlaf and Perry contracts are nearly done and they just haven't been announced yet because of the situation surrounding Scott Niedermayer's possible retirement. For the sake of Ducks fans we hope it's the latter.

Kunitz is a solid overall player...he benefitted considerably from playing a lot with Andy MacDonald and Teemu Selanne, and we think it will be a stretch for him to repeat his offensive success of last year. He may get matched up with Getzlaf and Perry, which will help them defensively, but that's probably it.

Kunitz - neutral (or slightly negative)
Getzlaf - neutral
Perry - neutral

Peca - where is he going?

With what appears to be the imminent signing of Mike Peca with the NY Rangers, TSN is reporting that the Columbus Blue Jackets are interested in the 33 year old center's services as well. With the Rangers current cap between $51-55M in salaries, it would appear that the Blue jackets, closer to $38M, have the space to offer Peca more in terms of guaranteed $. Peca's impact will now no longer been on the regular season stat sheet, but comes in the dressing room and when the playoffs arrive. Poolies should not be convinced that Peca can turn back the hands of time to re-gain some of his offensive flare, as he's suffered some horrific injuries and has a lot of miles clocked on his hockey odometer. That said, Peca's signing would have a very good impact on the younger Blue Jacket players and bring some much needed leadership and spirit to a team that appears to be devoid of it. The Jackets have even more space with Alexander Svitov signing up over-seas. He'd see more playing time in C-Bus and play a larger role there. If he signs with the Rangers, it means Peca's focus is on on trying to win a Cup this year. His impact won't be a large with the Rangers, but would certainly be felt once the playoffs began.

Peca - positive w/ CBJ and even w/ NYR
PK - positive
Playoff Impact - big positive at both places.

Fantasy Hockey Sites vs. Hockey Rumour Sites

The debate over the value of hockey rumour sites rages on blogs all over the net. My own personal views on anonymous rumour bloggers and other speculation-driven sites aside, I think that's important that we address where the Puckjunkie Blog fits.

Rarely will we ever report a "unique" rumour. That's not our job. Most times what you'll hear from us when it comes to trade/signing speculation will be the fantasy impacts of these rumours. The best example of this would be the two-part entry we did on d-men (July 15th and 20th). None of the rumours in there were new...they have been bandied about on a number of sites for quite a while. What we wanted to do was talk about what could happen to the players' fantasy value if they actually DID happen or, possibly speculate on other homes for these guys based not on what media folks bandy amongst themselves in the dog days of summer, but on team needs, cap space and a small dose of logic.

And that's really where we see our role in this era of the overly speculative bloggers. We have an obligation to our readers to let you know the potential impacts from all these "what-ifs". But that doesn't mean that we'll comment on every crazy rumour out there...and believe me there have been so many wacky ones of late, it's hard to keep up.

Thanks,

Jonathan Kinney, President
Puckjunkie.com

Auld on the Move

Phoenix - The Coyotes are certainly changing the face of their goaltending; Curtis Joseph is out and David Aebischer and Alex Auld are in. That said, the 'Yotes goaltending consists of a bunch of tier II calibre goalies: Aebischer, Auld, David LeNeveu and Mikael Tellqvist. This should prove an interesting battle for the #1 and assuredly #1A spots between the pipes in the desert. With this list, we think it's pretty obvious that the organization wants to ensure that Tellqvist can be a #1. For the Coyotes, this deal is a low risk high reward. None of these guys is paid much by NHL standards, but they all have the ability to carry a team for a stretch of 20 some games. That said, some time, you get what you pay for. Here's how this signing impacts the fantasy picture in Phoenix:

• Auld - Positively.
• Aebischer - Negatively.
• Tellqvist - Negatively
• LeNeveu - Negatively.

Who's Next?

...as we slide into the dog days of summer, Baroids Bonds is about to sully the most impressive single achievement record in professional sports, the hockey poolie has to be wondering "what's going on with my team?" as training camps are now a mere 5 weeks away. Here's the latest off the rumor wire...Edmonton - now that GM Kevin Lowe has p-o'ed his good buddy GM Brian Burke, [but really, should Burke be that peeved that Lowe over-spent for Penner? Was he supposed to take a bigger risk in poolies' eyes and sign Bertuzzi to the same $ but only over 2 years? Is it Lowe's fault that few, if any, free agents want to come to Alberta's capital?], rumor has the Oilers and Thrashers talking about a potential move of Ilya Kovulchuk to Edmonton in return for draft picks and 3 players - Cogliano, O'Marra and Matt Greene. This is a similar rumor to that coming out of San Jose, where the Sharks management is worried that they may not be able to sign Patrick Marleau in 2008 and as a result, are looking to see what they could get for the soon to be UFA. In Atlanta, an ownership squabble has forced the Thrashers to trim payroll to $40M. GM Don Waddell has got to move either Kovulchuk or Hossa, whom the team would rather try and sign as he is the more complete player, but Hossa is going to be a UFA in 2008 as well....in Montreal, after signing Patrice Brisebois to a one-year deal, the Habs are rumored to be in the market to sign Danny Markov, and unite the Markov brothers. Detroit is still trying to bring the burly d-man back as well. Wherever he signs, don't expect a lot of offensive production. The Brisebois signing begins anew the love-hate relationship between Hab-fans and Brisebois. Brisebois does provide them with some veteran presence as well as a 2nd unit PP QB....Peter Forsberg remains unsigned, and most teams are rumored to be interested in seeing how he heals up in the next few weeks before beginning serious talks. Rumor has the Canucks trying to land Forsberg with an incentive laden contract to let him play with close friend Markus Naslund. However, the smart money is that Forsberg wants to play in Colorado one last time - assuming he's ready to go by training camp....Mike Peca has been advertising his desire to return to Buffalo and pilot the team where he saw the greatest success in his career. The Sabres are said not to be interested, particularly given that Peca is looking for $4M for a one year deal. If he comes down to the $2M per season level, the Sabres, Habs, Canucks and Coyotes are rumored to be "kicking the tires"....Anson Carter remains unsigned, and might remain that way right into the start of training camp. Carter had a brutal season last year, and any thoughts of him singing for more than $1M per season are ludicrous. He needs the precise situation to succeed - he had it in Vancouver two seasons ago but got greedy and now may be on the outside looking in for quite some time....

Penner an Oiler

What impact will Brain Burke not matching the Oilers' offer sheet for Dustin Penner have? Well, the only thing we know for sure at this point is that Kevin Lowe isn't going to be on the Anaheim GM's Christmas card list this year.


But other than that...it's all up in the air. Penner will be expected to play on the top line. He will be expected to meet or exceed the 29 goals he had in 06/07. And, most importantly, he'll have to deflect the scrutiny of the Edmonton faithful who may resent the fact that this money should have been directed towards re-signing Ryan Smyth at last season's trade deadline.


The lineup in Anaheim is still a bit uncertain. GM Burke signed Todd Bertuzzi as insurance against Teemu Selanne jumping ship...not against losing Penner. As a result, he's still one forward down. But he can't go out and trade for a big name without knowing whether Scott Niedermayer is going to retire. Add to this the fact that Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry (who are RFAs next summer), will be looking for Penner money PLUS, in order to lock them up early.

So out of this what do we see for production:

Penner - even (or maybe a drop)
Hemsky - even (similar to his production when Smyth was in the lineup)
Perry and Getzlaf - improved (doesn't matter who they match with them)