Pre-draft Craziness

Anyone in Philadelphia reading this? If you are, can you call the proper authorities and get the water checked out there? Something is seriously wrong with the Flyers organization, yo. I mean, I just read that they traded a first-rounder (which they acquired from Nashville) to the Pre-dators for the two-week exclusive window to negotiate with defenseman Kimmo Timonen and forward Scott Hartnell.

Looks like a genius move on the surface...until you remember that their GM is former Hartford GM, Paul Holmgren. The Flyers then turned around and overpaid for both players on a seriously massive scale: both guys got six-year contracts that will pay them serious bucks (Timonen averages $6.7 million and Hartnell gets $4.2 a year) to wear the black and orange next year.

Bold move by Holmgren and Comcast to be sure but c'mon, dudes. We are talking about Timonen and Hartnell here! This is not an in-his-prime Denis Potvin here. Timonen is a time-eater and a good play to be sure...but is he is SIX-MILLION DOLLAR MAN? And Hartnell is a young guy on the rise but does he deserve FOUR-MILLION DOLLARS a year? What the hell is going on in Philadelphia? I mean, these are cap-cripplers just like the Yashin contract was thought to be? And if the Flyers are swirling around like the Tid-e-Bowl Man again this upcoming season, how long is it before the Flyer fans are giving those guys the old Santa Claus Treatment? I mean, there are moves you make to let the fans know that you're serious about turning the thing around and then there are moves you make that leave outsiders shaking their heads.

What does this mean for the Islanders? Well, for starters, it means that the free agents are sitting around waiting for July 1 because the bar has just been raised. A guy like Jason Blake has got to see these kind of numbers and think that someone is going to throw bundles of cash at him in a couple of weeks because he has proven to be a better player than Scott Hartnell. It also means that the top free agents like Ryan Smyth are going to be getting some serious offers from a lot of teams (not unlike the Islanders) who want to make a splash and buy themselves some credibility.

Yes, it's true. With these foolhardy moves, the trickle-down begins. And Ryan Smith just got harder to sign for Garth Snow and Charles Wang. Teams like the Maple Leafs see not only a full rink but a chance to buy themselves another big ticket Band-Aid. If they could land Smyth, the entire nation of Canada is going to stand up and applaud because the Leafs have brought Captain Canada home. And again, even though the rink is always full, the team will "do a Beckham" and sell so many #94 sweaters that whatever they pay Smyth would be worthwhile because the Ontario Teachers Pensioners would rake in even more money. And that is all that matters to the Toronto front office.

Now that I have typed that out and it makes so much sense for Smyth to go to Toronto, I think I will throw up in my mouth. If I think about it any longer, I can probably make a case for him to sign with any team in the league because every team in the league wants true character guys like Ryan Smyth.

Let's switch gears. We've all heard a lot about the Flyers wanting to sign Daniel Briere. Does this Hartnell nonsense price them out of the Briere sweepstakes? I'm thinking that it doesn't. The Flyers traded Peter Forsberg last season so they got that huge salary off the books. They played the last half of the season with a roster full of the AHL Phantoms and with young players, the team is probably not shelling out a ton of money. My best guess is that they'll take a run at Briere or Chris Drury; but logic tells us that the Sabres will be able to bring one of them back for next season.

The draft is Friday, of course, and we could be seeing a lot of movement as teams try to get ready to reload with free agents in July. The Islanders, of course, don't have a first-rounder this year but after the first shot has been fired by the Flyers, it looks like the draft could really be exciting this season with lots of teams moving assets before the calendar hits July 1st. Sit back and hold on.