"It's always great when you can acquire a young NHLer on the FA wire. They don't come often, and we feel Bailey will be a secondary scoring asset going forward"
The Buffalo Sabres are delighted to announce the signing of Ryan Getzlaf to a 7 year, 60.9m dollar contract, that will play him 8.7m per year. The contract includes a full NMC. We are delighted to have Getzlaf a part of our organization for the next 7 years. We were confident we would reach an agreement with him after we traded for him at the deadline, even though he decided to test FA. He will be a huge part of our offense, now and in the future. We feel he was the perfect center for our #1 spot, and look forward to seeing him in a Sabres jersey for the foreseeable future.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have solidified themselves in net, adding a former Vezina, Conn Smythe and Jennings winner in Tim Thomas to a 2yr contract paying 5M in total.
"We are estatic obviously to add probably the best goalie of the past 4-5 years to our roster" GM T_Cage beamed. "Reimer is a promising blue-chipper, but has lacked that veteran mentorship to take him to the next level. We feel with the 2 of them splitting the workload that we will immediately become a playoff-calibre team"
A New Wardrobe; Hires, Fires, Trades and Signings in Columbus
The Columbus Blue Jackets continued to re-work the culture of their franchise, culminating with a flurry of activity this weekend beginning with the firing of head coach, Todd Richards.
"Todd is a very good coach in this league, but we felt a new direction was needed for our team to fully succeed and completely reboot the franchise." Jackets GM TribalPhoenix stated in a release this afternoon.
The team didn't wait long to fill the position, as it was announced later on that the club had hired former Toronto Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins as the new head coach to a multi-year contract.
"Dallas Eakins is one of the best young coaches in hockey, and deserves a chance to show what he can do in the big show. His work with the Marlies has been spectacular, and he has shown the ability to develop young talent, as well as work with established pros. These are skills that are sorely needed with our club. We're thrilled to have him aboard."
The work didn't stop there - the club also announced the signing of free agent forward David Clarkson to a 4 year, 16M$ contract.
"David is a two-way talent that is going to really shore up our right wing position. We see him in a top-six role, along with newly acquired Teddy Purcell, which will give Brett Connolly the time to properly develop his craft in the AHL where he should have been from the beginning."
Finally, the club pulled of a trade to give itself it's first established veteran netminder in recent memory, as the club acquired goaltender Tomas Vokoun from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the Jackets 2nd round selection ni the 2014 Entry Draft.
"Tomas is a veteran guy who can play 50-55 games for us, while Sergei Bobrovsky gives him a reliable backup to provide the rest he will need. We see Tomas as being a long-term solution for us in net, and have already contaced his agent about a possible extension. We feel this tandem will give us a reliable solution in the nets while guys like Oscar Dansk and Zac Fucale continue to develop in junior and the AHL. We're very happy with this trade."
Sign Josh Bailey to a 1yr deal valued @ 1.25M
