Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey is still seeking an impact
forward via the UFA market but he still had time to ensure one of his promising
young forwards remained a Hab.
Gainey re-signed winger Andrei Kostitsyn to a three-year
contract worth $3.25 million per season, which has to be considered an
affordable signing for the Habs as it was speculated he could net over $4
million per season, particularly as he could’ve been a target for an offer
sheet.
Kostitsyn is also believed to have received offers from
Russia worth over $5 million per season but spurned those to remain with the
Habs to play alongside his brother Sergei.
In his first full NHL season this past year Kostitsyn
established himself among the Habs top six forwards, with 26 goals and 53
points in 78 games.
Should he continue to improve his new contract could look like a bargain in a couple of years.
With the NHL trade deadline now past the next notable round of player movement won’t occur until June, 2008, and most of it will be free agents signing with new teams.
While the focus as always will be on unrestricted free agents, this summer the threat of offer sheets is now a very real one, thus hockey fans will be nervously watching the contract talks of their favorite restricted free agent players as July 1st approaches.
Many teams haven’t wasted time this season, locking up their best RFA players to lengthy, long-term contracts now rather than risk another club either setting the price or plucking them away.
As a result, the list of the top RFA players has shrunk considerably since the start of the season, but there still remains some quality talent who, if unsigned by July 1st, could be tempting targets for offer sheets. It’ll be interesting to see how many of the following are re-upped by the end of June:
Anaheim: Corey Perry.
Columbus: Pascal LeClaire.
Detroit: Valtteri Filppula
Edmonton: Tom Gilbert and Joni Pitkanen.
Florida: Jay Bouwmeester.
Minnesota: Pierre-Marc Bouchard.
Montreal: Andrei Kostitsyn.
Nashville: Martin Erat, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
