After spending the summer embroiled in a contract stand-off with defenseman Andrej Meszaros Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray resolved the problem on Friday night, dealing Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard plus a first round pick in 2009 which the Lightning had acquired from the San Jose Sharks.

The deal came after speculation in recent days of the Lightning attempting to sign Meszaros to an offer sheet, which they were unable to do as they lacked part of the appropriate compensation, their third round pick in 2009, which they’d dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins back in June for Ryan Malone.

Reportedly the Bolts tried to re-acquire the pick from the Penguins but there were conflicting reports suggesting the Penguins management were unwilling to deal it back or that a deal was in place but the Lightning were trying to directly acquire Meszaros via trade.

Regardless of the aforementioned intrigue the move is yet another in a string of significant roster-altering deals made by the Lightning since new ownership and management took over back in June.

Meszaros is a promising young defenseman but Murray made this move as the young blueliner was reportedly seeking a deal in the range of $4.5-$5 million per season, comparable to the contracts recently signed by Nashville’s Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, Washington’s Mike Green and Chicago’s Brent Seabrook.

The Senators unfortunately lacked the cap space to pay Meszaros that much and still have enough remaining to land a scoring winger, plus there were reports out of Ottawa suggesting that his struggles last season also made Murray leery of committing that kind of coin to him.

Murray got back a pretty good return for Meszaros, fulfilling both a short-term need with the experienced Kuba (who’ll likely play on the second pairing with Christoph Schubert) and possibly a long-term one with Picard, who at 22 still has time to develop into a decent NHL defenseman.  Landing a first round pick in next year’s draft was also a nice catch, demonstrating perhaps Murray’s management experience over that of the Lightning’s new group.

Meszaros is a good pickup for the Lightning and could be a key part of their future but he doesn’t address their glaring need for more experienced defensive depth. He’s only got three years of NHL experience and with Kuba now gone that makes he, Matt Carle and Paul Ranger the Lightning’s most experienced defensemen.

That’s a promising young defense corps but one that could find itself struggling against strong offensive opponents this season.

This move also means the Bolts will still have to shed some payroll, for while they moved Kuba and Picard’s combined $3.8 million salary for this coming season re-signing Meszaros to his anticipated $4.5 million per season salary still leaves them closer to the cap than ownership would prefer.

Perhaps Jussi Jokinen, Michel Ouellet and/or Jason Ward could be packaged for an experienced defenseman, but given new owner Oren Koules’ comments this summer over his happiness with his young defense corps it might be picks or prospects those forwards get shopped for.

This deal works well for the Senators as the combined salaries of Kuba and Picard are close to what Murray was originally offering Meszaros ($3.5 million per season) and still leaves enough cap space to pursue a scoring winger .

In the long term this deal could work out for the Lightning but in the short term it appears to favor the Senators.  

Not much really going on now in the hockey world. The NHL UFA spending frenzy has wound down, Mats Sundin is still being coy over his future plans, the war of words between the NHL and KHL over player transfers cooled down a bit this past week, and there’s been no surprise offer sheets to the few decent unsigned restricted free agents this summer.

So here’s my quick take on what passed for NHL news this past week:

Translation: whenever an NHL team or general manager announces a “youth movement” next season  - hello there, Mike Gillis of the Vancouver Canucks – it really means the team is rebuilding.

See, the “R” word doesn’t sell well to fans, particularly those you’re counting on to purchase or renew season tickets, as that suggests the club might not make the playoffs next season.

Make no mistake, the Canucks are rebuilding but it remains to be seen how that affects their playoffs chances.

-Speaking of the Canucks, they’re supposedly interested in Senators forward Antoine Vermette, who appears headed to arbitration if the Sens cannot re-sign him to a new contract.

The Sens hope to re-sign Vermette and defenseman Andrej Meszaros but they also need an offensive blueliner to anchor their powerplay as well as another scoring second line forward, and new contracts for Vermette and Meszaros will eat up a considerable chunk of their valuable cap space.

Hence the trade rumors swirling about those two, and the reason the Canucks are linked to Vermette is their depth in blueliners, although half of them (Willie Mitchell, Sami Salo, Mattias Ohlund) have “no-trade” clauses and aren’t willing to waive them.

The Canucks need second-line scoring depth, so these two teams appear a natural fit, at least in the eyes of those dreaming up trade rumors.

Maybe there’s something to it, but I’ll say this right now, I doubt very much the Canucks would’ve “laughed off” an offer of Vermette for Kevin Bieksa straight up.

-Some folks were surprised when NHLPA honcho Paul Kelly denounced the International Ice Hockey Federation  (IIHF) for suspending six players (including former Predator Alexander Radulov and Blue Jackets rookie Nikita Filatov) pending investigation into their contract situations with their new teams.

Kelly’s condemnation shouldn’t be surprising. Russia’s KHL gives NHLPA members another option to earn big dollars if they’re unable to find suitable deals with NHL clubs.

Most importantly, the KHL provides players and their agents with additional leverage in squeezing NHL teams for more money.

And don’t cry about how that would squeeze lesser players out of NHL contracts, as they can find employment – and more money – in the KHL, as that appears to be this summer’s trend for the NHL’s unemployed free agent lesser lights.

By the way, players unable to land NHL contracts have for years been signing with European teams, it's just that this year the KHL is offering the best contracts which is why so many former NHL'ers are signing with KHL clubs.

-While on the topic of the KHL and Russian hockey, just to clarify: I don’t hate Russia, Russian hockey or Russian hockey players.

I’ve been a fan of Russian hockey since the 1972 Summit Series. I may be Canadian and of course I support my country’s players but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the talent from other countries.

Heck, I’ve been one of the few hockey columnists/bloggers over the years calling on the Hockey Hall of Fame to induct more European stars who made a significant impact upon the game outside of the NHL.

And I believe the Russians in particular, and the European leagues in general, have a legitimate beef with the NHL regarding the pittance in compensation they receive for players signed away by NHL teams.

That doesn’t mean I can’t be critical of Russian hockey, particularly the decline in player development over the last ten years, or what I consider will be an exercise in futility on the part of the KHL to tempt away big name NHL talent with big money contracts.

Ultimately the KHL isn’t doing this to be a competitor with the NHL. They’re doing it to try to force the NHL into accepting a more fair system of compensating Russian teams for players signed away from them by NHL teams.

It’s all about the compensation, folks, don’t lose sight of that fact.

- For the last two years there were constant reports of the Boston Bruins trading forward Glen Murray, how the San Jose Sharks either wanted to reunite him with Joe Thornton (or Thornton was pulling strings to get Murray to San Jose), that the LA Kings wanted “to bring him home” and of how hot and bothered Kevin Lowe of the Edmonton Oilers was to land him.

This week Murray, whose career has sadly been in a slow decline since his career year in 2002-03, went unclaimed on waivers and will be bought out by the Bruins, highlighting how out to lunch those rumors were.

Tough way for Murray’s career with the Bruins to end, though, but they really had no choice. Re-signing Dennis Wideman put them over the cap and Murray’s $4.15 million salary for next season was eating up too much valuable cap space.

Maybe Murray will get signed by another club desperate for affordable second line scoring (Ottawa, perhaps?).  

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.

Ottawa: Andrej Meszaros.

Philadelphia: Jeff Carter.

Pittsburgh: Marc-Andre Fleury.

San Jose: Ryane Clowe

Washington: Mike Green.

The fear of the offer sheet has once again resulted in another potential restricted free agent being re-signed well before the summer of 2008.

This time it's center Mike Richards, who today has reportedly re-signed a contract extension with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Reportedly Richards' new contract is for twelve years and $69 million, breaking down to a cap hit of $5.75 million per season, with a "no-trade" clause that begins in the 2011-12 season. It's the second-longest contract in the NHL, behind the fifteen-year deal of the NY Islanders' Rick DiPietro.

It's not surprising that Holmgren made this move. Richards is enjoying a breakout season, leading the Flyers in goals, assists and points, but he's also perhaps their best defensive forward, with a+10 rating and is the only player on the team to score shorthanded this season, having done it three times.

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren had earlier stated his intent to re-sign his key RFAs like Richards, including forwards Jeff Carter and RJ Umberber, and we can likely expect more re-signing by Holmgren as the season progresses.

He obviously has no intention of allowing contract negotiations with his best RFAs to drag into next summer when those players could become potential offer sheet targets.

A number of talented young players are eligible for restricted free agent status next summer, including Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, Calgary's Dion Phaneuf, Florida's Jay Bouwmeester, Nashville's Shea Weber, Ottawa's Andrej Meszaros and St. Louis' Brad Boyes

But that list has been slowly but steadily shrinking, and most if not all of the aforementioned will likely re-sign with their current teams well before July 1, 2008.

**UPDATE** James Mirtle has a very interesting take on this signing on his blog, specifically the dangers lurking behind such lengthy contracts, citing Jose Theodore, Jim Carey and Sergei Samsonov to make the case. Even NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman privately doesn't believe they're a good idea under this CBA as it offers no opportunity for re-negotiation.

I concur with Mirtle and Bettman on this. While I understand the rationale behind these contracts, the length is fraught with peril, and if the player signed to that deal ends up a spent force midway through, it's a lot of precious cap space per season tied up in one player. Even demoting said player to the minors or buying them out is still a costly experienced for a team, even if it doesn't count against their cap space.

The list of potential targets for offer sheets next summer grew smaller on Friday when the Ottawa Senators announced the signing of center Jason Spezza to a contract extension.

Spezza, who was eligible for restricted free agent status in July, received a seven-year contract worth $49 million, or $7 million per season against the Senators salary cap.

TSN.ca breaks down the deal as follows:

For the first three seasons (2008-09 to 2010-11) Spezza receives $4 million in base salary with a $4 million signing bonus.

For the next two seasons (2011-12 to 2012-13) he’ll receive $6 million in base salary with a $2 million signing bonus.

He’ll receive $5 million in 2013-14 and $4 million in 2014-15.

The site also reports that, like linemate Dany Heatley, Spezza’s new contract also comes with provisions for a no-trade clause.

Some might question if Spezza is worthy of this contract, as the deal is close in dollars per season to Heatley’s new $7.5 million per season contract, but Spezza’s numbers over the past two seasons are comparable to Heatley’s. Indeed, they might’ve been similar had Spezza not missed an average of 15 games per season in that period to injury.

The bottom line is the Senators weren’t going to break up one of the best offensive “one-two punches” in the NHL. Spezza and Heatley power the Sens offensive attack and with both now in their prime should continue to do so over the next five or six years.

With this signing the Senators have now committed over $41 million in salaries for next season for 12 players. Assuming the salary cap increases to $52 million for 2008-09 that’ll leave just over $10 million to fill out the rest of their roster.

Three key players to re-sign will be defenseman Wade Redden and checking forward Chris Kelly, both eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2008, and defenseman Andrej Meszaros, like Spezza eligible for RFA status.

Kelly might accept a raise from his current $1.262 million to between $2-$2.5 million per, while Meszaros could be in line for around $3 million per, a figure a rival team might be willing to pay via offer sheet should the Senators balk.

The big question is Redden, who’s earning $6.5 million this season. Senators GM Bryan Murray claims he wants to retain Redden but unless he’s willing to accept a pay cut that doesn’t seem possible. Even if Murray were to trade Martin Gerber and his $3.7 million per season salary between now and next July that still might not free up enough to retain Redden, re-sign Kelly and Meszaros and still flesh out the roster for 2009-10.