Well, now that the playoffs are officially over, you can come here to talk about anything that has to do with the NHL offseason now. Please keep the talk about the finals in the playoff thread, as I will leave it open for a bit.

First off, The Vancouver Canucks have found their new coach. And he is....John Tortorella? Not sure if this is a good move at all though. Seems like somebody that would not be good for their team. I am not for him at all anyways, so I can't see him going anywhere to be honest.

Briere and Bryzgalov are being bought out in Philadelphia.

Kiprusoff is retiring in Calgary.

Berglund resigns in St. Louis.

Anisamov resigns in Columbus.

That is some of the other news. The draft is coming up this weekend and free agency next week. There will be a lot more stuff going on soon enough.

Lecavalier is getting bought out in Tampa Bay!

I'm not too surprised by this but this allows him to go to another team at a reasonable price. 7+ million cap hit for 7 more years for him is insane.

Also, Kunitz got a new contract from Pittsburgh.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=675349&navid=nhl:topheads - buyout tracker. Shows which teams have used the buyouts and on which players. Kind of neat to follow.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=25880 - UFA signing tracker. Again pretty neat to look at. It shows who got signed and for how much/years etc. It'll be better once free agency starts but still neat to see right now.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=675507&navid=nhl:topheads

Calgary to Colorado trade. Calgary getting younger again.

Tanguay and Sarich for Jones and O'Brien. I'm okay with this. It's a pretty even trade to me.

   Didn't really want to post here before the draft was over, but there were some big moves before the draft. First off, Letang is close to getting an 8 year, worth $58 million extension. Sounds like way too much money to me. With a lower cap this year, it does not sound like this would help the Penguins at all.
   
  Then up next is New Jersey sold their first round pick for Cory Schneider. I'm extremely surprised by this because first, this means Vancouver is going with Luongo once again as their number one goalie. And it also brings up the Marty Brodeur factor. Now, Schneider will most likely be the backup goalie, but will probably get more playing time than most backups do. But there is also the possibility that Marty won't even come back for next season as well. Either way, this seems like a pretty weak trade for the Canucks. I thought they would be able to get more out of it.

mrfe : Any thoughts on it?

   And then finally, Nathan MacKinnon got drafted 1st overall by the Avalanche. It didn't seem like they were going to go with him, but it seems like a good pick to me.

   Well, a lot of things have been happening. First, Vincent Lecavalier got signed by the Flyers. He was the first player on most teams minds, and he went pretty quickly. And the Lightning's signing after he left was Filppula. A former Wings player, but I think they overpayed. Iginla gets signed by the Bruins, Derek Roy goes to the Blues, the Wings signed Weiss and Alfredsson.
   
I feel both of our signings could be huge swing-and-miss kind of signings. Alfie is late in his career, and might end up like how Modano did, and not have a good year with us. But Weiss is more because of the injury issues he could have. I really hope they can both stay healthy, because we need people to step up more this year.

   And there are still some good free agents left. Jagr is still available, as is Timmy Thomas and Bryzgalov. Damien Brunner is still out there as well. Dustin Penner, Brenden Morrow, and Milan Hejduk. Lots of good choices left. Wondering where some will end up.

I cannot wait to see how Vancouver does this season having Tortella as the coach and I am so surprised Kovalchuk left for the Russian league. I knew he talked about it last year during the contract period but I didn't think he would do it. Poor Devils fans... not really loll

Can't believe Kovalchuk is retiring at 30... with so much time left on his contract.

Islanders resign Nabokov and show interest in Tim Thomas. That might be a good enough combo to get them back into the playoffs this season!

   Well, not sure what's really been missed, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins just got his contract extended for another 7 years, and $42 million. Not sure how that will work, because he's been injured so much of his time in the pros. But he still has a huge upside. 

Well, the offseason is officially over. here is the regular season thread. Go Wings!

~Closed~