Free Agency: Day One Thoughts

Well day one of free agency is in the books and what a wild one it was! Let's take at look at the Pens moves (or lack of moves)

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Resigned Pascal Dupuis.
Dupuis looked pretty good the short time he was in a Pens uni. He skates very well, has great energy, and can put the puck in the net on occasion. I would like to see him score more, esp. when he's being set up by the "Wizard of Cros", but let's give him a full year and see what he does then.

Scary stat: Dupius had roughly the same points last year as Staal and Talbot, 27 (12+15) and **GULP** HALL GILL, 24 (3+21). Talbot makes $650M/year. Staal makes $850M/yr, but is due for a raise due to his tremendous upside potential.

Last year salary: $880,000. New Contract: 3 yrs. at $1.4 MM/yr. (Delta +$550,000/yr.)

Reasigned Mark Eaton.
On the plus side Mark Eaton is one hell of a defensive defenseman WHEN HEALTHY. And therein lies the problem.

Scary Stat: He's only played 71 out of 164 regular season games! That's playing a mere 43% of the season! He missed the 2008 playoffs entirely. Eaton says he'll be ready to go this fall coming off of a recontructed knee (MCL). We'll see. He also has lingering wrist issues having missed games in Pgh and Nashville thanks to that.

Bottom line: Eaton is an excellent complementary defenseman, esp. with Gonchar. He would get far more money if he could only stay healthy.

Last year salary: $1,600,000. New Contract: 2 yrs. at $2.0 MM/yr. (Delta +$400,000/yr.)

(Neither + or -)
Lost Ty Conklin to Detroit Red Wings.
The Red Wings pulled of one of the steals of the draft, in my opinion, signing Conks to a 1 yr $750,000 deal. (Their only mistake - they should have signed him for two yrs. ) Especially when other far less -or maybe, similar- talented goalies (Theodore, Auld, etc.) got at least 2 yrs. at $2 MM/yr.! But I can see where Conks gives a discount due to the fact that he will have arguably the league's best defense in front of him when he plays...and they're set up to take a run at another Cup.

Last year's salary: $500,000. New Contract: 2 yrs. at $750 M/yr. ($500M off the books)