Warren Peters was one of my team’s best checking forwards, usually playing alongside Francis Wathier and Scott McCullough. He had 11 games in Dallas but was probably on fourth line based upon his stats. I guess he was an unrestricted free agent, Warren received a two-year offer with the Minnesota Wild organization. Jeremy and I hope he lands a spot on their roster otherwise he’ll be in Houston playing against the Stars which will suck. I doubt he’ll be the only “casualty” during all the horse-trading happens in the NHL, AHL and ECHL.
Meanwhile, Chicago may have won the Stanley Cup but they’re losing the Salary Cap! A little mean-spirited humor as the one-Cup wonder team who will have to enjoy another 48-year drought paying for Maid Marian Hossa, Fiddy Cent Kane and Toew-jam’s enormous salaries. My Flyers had $10 million to maneuver with so they won’t need a fire sale to score a better goalie and potential improvements. Rumors were flying about Nabokov (no thanks, good yet fickle), Turco (probably the best choice) and Ellis (too late, gobbled up by Tampa as Nitty went to San Jose) while Jeff Carter is being used as trade bait. Then today came a fairly surprising piece from CSN Philly, Simon Gagne, the only player left from the 2003-4 and 2007-8 run which fell short both times, waived his no-trade clause. It would be a shame to lose him after how long he has been with the Broad Street Bullies, especially when he had a phenomenal scoring run as the rest of the team disintegrated during the embarrassing 2006-7 season (40 goals!). Simon’s absence frees up $5 million though. If Clarke were still GM, I’d start to panic because he trade Simon, Carter, Boucher and several trade picks for Ilya Kovalchuk. Thankfully Philly is avoiding this crazy free-agent derby except for the nobody defenseman they took from Tampa.
Fingers crossed for Marty Turco. He had a long stint at Dallas and he’s no cancer in the locker room unlike Ray Emery or Roman Cechmanek.