Eastside's Hockey Elite Collide

NHL -- NOT EHEC! -- Free Agency starts today!

Any thoughts about the league or your team? Anyone care?

My favourite team in NHL is Columbus Blue Jackets: I hope that they won't sign Paul Martin

Canes fan here:

Thought they would've kept Semin around for one more year to see if he would bounce back, but not terribly surprised they didn't. Makes me think they've got someone in mind at RW and have already made a tentative deal.

Thought they would've kept Semin around for one more year to see if he would bounce back, but not terribly surprised they didn't. Makes me think they've got someone in mind at RW and have already made a tentative deal.

I'm suprised, to be honest. I saw 10-15 games of Canes playing with Semin and I can't say he played bad in every single game...The truth is, he played pretty well, he just didn't get to score very often, but you can't put the whole blame on him. Canes have had very hard times to stay in the offensive zone and keep the pressure in any game, against any opponent last season. I think he just needed better teammates. Now I hope that Caps will re-sign him. He played well in Washington, hopefully he'll bounce back there. Canes still got a lot of work to do, to even think about the play-offs, in my opinion.

Caps won't re-sign him. Not unless they're going to throw out Troy Brouwer. He pretty much trashed Semin after they got rid of him.

Semin looked good in some games, and invisible in others. Maybe his wrist injury was still bothering him, who knows. I'm betting there is more behind the scenes that we don't know about. Everything from locker room issues, to the whole "enigmatic Russian" silliness that some people (hi Don Cherry!) still buy into, to just not buying into the new coach's schemes. I watched about 30 Canes games last year (NHL Center Ice ftw) and Semin was a non-factor in most of them.

Yeah, they need to get better all around, but he didn't look to be making the players around him any better either.

Semin looked good in some games, and invisible in others. Maybe his wrist injury was still bothering him, who knows. I'm betting there is more behind the scenes that we don't know about. Everything from locker room issues, to the whole "enigmatic Russian" silliness that some people (hi Don Cherry!) still buy into, to just not buying into the new coach's schemes. I watched about 30 Canes games last year (NHL Center Ice ftw) and Semin was a non-factor in most of them

Yeah, I agree, there has to be more behind that, that we, the mortal ones , don't know about. Just take the fact, he's in the US 10 years or so, and still can't speak English. Talk about laziness. Maybe he'll end up in KHL, who knows (even though, KHL has its own problems too), but I hope he'll bounce back somewhere in the NHL again.

Anyway, I believe Canes had a good draft and the newcomers Eddie Lack and James Wisniewski will help them. Hopefully, Haydn Fleury will make the team too. He'd be definitely better than Ryan Murphy. He's a bust IMO. Reminds me of Jonathon Blum a bit.

ts been a rough offseason for canuck fans

Happy with Bieksa' departure? I have seen some Canucks fans happy about that and some angry about that.

Rob_Wild wrote:be kind to lack, he's precious. its been a rough offseason for canuck fans.

We're gonna try! I think it'll depend on how his D plays. The fans are already happy to have him!

I hope Murph's not a bust; but I think this is his make-or-break year. It's tempting to rush Fleury and Hanifin to the pros and beef up that backline...but unless either/both have amazing camps, I think they'll be back in juniors/college. Consensus seems to be that since Red Deer are hosting the Memorial Cup next year, that Fleury will def be back with them. We'll see.

Dallas Stars GM wrote:My favourite team in NHL is Columbus Blue Jackets: I hope that they won't sign Paul Martin

Rest easy. He's now the missing piece in San Jose. #stanleycup2016

Kessel to Pittsburgh.

Cleaned out by Ji.my Rutherford in a trade. What a disaster.

Pittsburgh man here, loving Kessel for spare parts!!! Kapanen could turn out to be good, but nothing like Kessel level good.