Silver Nuggets: Free Agent Madness

You are in your senior year. Face a little pockmarked. Kinda skinny, perhaps you recently got rid of your braces, but not everyone has noticed yet. You have a crush on THE GREATEST girl in school. She's smart, popular and very good looking. You decide that she is going to be your prom date, but you figure that for a girl like her, you need to do something drastic. So you get a romantic speech all prepared, make sure you look your best, make sure the fireworks are set on the timer, and you start walking towards her to ask. As you approach, what is that you see? Another guy brought an entire orchestra and is serenading her? Uh oh. Look at that, now she's going with him.

However, you've already told your buddies you are going to do something drastic to get a prom date today, and the fireworks are already set, so you do the only thing you can do to save face; you say the speech and set off the fireworks for the very next girl you see, regardless of the fact that she isn't actually your crush. You go to the prom, you have a fine time, but its not the same as you look over at orchestra boy having the night of his life.

This is, I imagine, how free agency goes. Every year, a team that promised its fans it will load up, misses out on the prized free agent and goes to plan B, and gives that player WAY more money than they should have gotten, just to ensure that they DO in fact get a date.

Last year, the belle of the ball was Brad Richards. Considering he is having a fantastic playoffs and his team is two wins away from the Stanley Cup final, I'd say that Orchestra-Boy Glen Sather is having a lovely time.

Brian Burke, however, who missed out on the Richards sweepstakes is slightly less excited about having Tim Connolly on his team. Tim, who has been notoriously injured for the last 5 years, got almost 10 million out of Burke on July 2nd last year. He proceeded to play in 70 games and put up just 36 points, and the Leafs missed the playoffs.

So who is it going to be this year? What player cashes in on a desperate team that missed out on Zach Parise or Ryan Suter? Its the summer time (can't you tell by the weird article today?) so humour me, and throw your predictions in the comments: who, where and for how much?

Links after the jump!

Senators Links:

• To go with the story above the jump, Varada takes a look at the free agent class as a whole, and feels quite nauseas. This is a great, thorough and funny look at the players available. [WTYKY]
• MOAR FREE AGENTZ! The guys at Senshot like the look of this Ryan Suter fellow... anyone heard of him?
• Nice little story on Jesse Winchester being a keynote speaker at the Ontario Hockey Association graduation. [Setnyk]
• After passing the 20 year mark, here is a look at the Hockey Writers' all-time Senators team. I have to admit, we've been blessed with some great players over the years. Let me know what you think in the comments, I think some of the selections are a little questionable. [THW]
• And in case you missed it, Bobby did an excellent job this morning of looking at another top prospect, this time Alex Galchenyuk. [SSS]

League Links: