Free Agency is Almost Upon Us. Don't Expect Much

With the renewed interest in trying to build the franchise back up by playing the kids, the Islanders will still have to sign and pay some veteran players to make the floor of the NHL salary cap. In case you missed it, the cap for this upcoming season is $56.7 million and the floor is just a shade over $40 million. The Isles are nowhere near $40 million for the upcoming season--and Greg Logan is reporting that the team bought out Shawn Bates this week-- so somebody out there is gonna get paid.

The McCabe rumors in Toronto are purely speculation at this point. In fact, both dailies in TO (the Sun and the Star) are reporting that Leafs "management" are mulling over the prospects of just having Bryan McCabe sit home and not attend training camp if he is not moved by then. Because of his no-cut/no-trade contract, the Leafs can't even send McCabe to the AHL Marlies to keep his salary off the big club's books like some teams have done with overpaid players from previous regimes.

Naturally, because McCabe's wife is from Long Island and the family has a home there, the media think the Isles should just be happy to take this egregious salary off the Leafs hands without some other kind of compensation. Chris Botta mentioned that the Isles need to have the deal sweetened before anything like this could happen and man, I happen to agree.

What it surprise me if McCabe played for the Islanders this season? No. Not at all. It would surprise me if the Islanders gave up anything more than a conditional pick for McCabe and some other considerations (cash or picks) from Toronto. The CBA, as currently constructed, does not allow for one team to assume a large chunk of a player's contract while he plays on a different team than the one he signed the contract with. Brian Burke is trying to get that one changed but as of right now, no dice. Of course, there are other ways of "compensating" any team that takes on McCabe's contract. This is the NHL. There's gonna be a loophole.

Other rumors floating around have the Islanders making a play fro superpest Sean Avery. I could write books about why I don't want this to happen. ESPN's Scott Burnside makes a great point with a quote of Avery's where he said that he never wants to play in Canada because Canadians take hockey too seriously.

Umm...come again? Do you want to get behind a guy and pay him when you know that hockey isn't his first priority?

If Avery ends up playing for the Islanders--and I think he would really, really like to do so now that the Rangers have given up on him--I'll be about as happy with him as I was during the Yashin Era. He's wearing the sweater and all, but he'll embarrass me nonetheless.

Saying that...the Isles could use some of his hyper-competitiveness. Is it worth putting him in the room with a ton of impressionable kids? Do we need Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo thinking that interning at Vogue is a better idea than playing hockey and working at their real careers? What happens between him and Mike Comrie when Avery hits on Hilary Duff?

It's just a nightmare waiting to happen. I was one of the few who loved what the Islanders did at the draft (although people are starting to come around if I am to believe what I have read) and the last thing they need is to bring a disturber like Avery into the room to brainwash the kids.

Ideally--and I don't know how much is left in the tank--I would like to see the Isles go for Brian Rolston; who almost signed with the Islanders when he went to the Wild earlier in his career. Rolston is a hard worker who gives all he has on every shift. If he is willing to play with the kids and show them the light, then I would be all for overpaying Brian Rolston for two or three years so that he can work with Richard Park, Mike Sillinger, Bill Guerin, and Brendan Witt and mold the next generation.

Enjoy this weekend and all the speculation. Come Tuesday, the landscape of the league is going to change. There really is no off-season any more in professional sports.

We'll have more on Shawn Bates upcoming once the news of his buyout becomes official.