Ohlund To Lighting: Interesting
The financially strapped Lightning, in the midst of an ownership struggle, spent lavishly to hire free agent defenseman Mattias Ohlund to mentor to second overall draft pick Victor Hedman.
Good for Ohlund, who will collect more than $24 million on this deal. Good for Hedman, who has a class act to emulate.
But how will the Lightning afford all this? Can Tampa Bay employ these two on the blue line and still afford to keep Vincent Lecavalier now than his $85 million extension kicked in?
Stay tuned . . .
BTW, congrats to Vancouver for keeping the Sedin Twins on five-year deals. Those guys never wanted to leave and the Canucks never wanted to overpay to keep them — and both sides got their way.
Also, if Marian Hossa ends up signing in Chicago (and TSN predicts that will heppen), that will not be good news for Blues fans. Martin Havlat had a nice year for the Blackhawks this year, but Hossa would offer an upgrade.
Havlat hoped to remain in Chicago, but that door appears to be closing.
Hockey is troubled by the team’s inability to lock up Roman Polak. If another team makes an offer, let’s hope the Blues match it. He is a top 4 defender here.
After chasing the Sedin Twins and Vincent Lecavalier, will Canadiens GM Bob Gainey be excited about dealing for Scott Gomez and signing winger Brian Gionta? Probably not.
Hossa is turning into a pain in the rear. Hope he does go to Chicago and takes them down with him. After what Hossa pulled off this year, is he really a good addition for the young Hawks? Hossa layed 1 big fat egg in the Cup Finals against his former team and lost the Cup for the 2nd year in a row. He might put up some regular season stats but if you disappear in the post-season what good are you?……….the Blues better sign Polak, that’s all I can say. I get the impression Polak’s agent is being a little unreasonable here, JD was quoted they other day saying that the Blues pride themselves on being fair, so I’m not sure why they haven’t signed by now. It’s gotta be Polak’s agent. Not good, the Blues need him, and I guess that’s why the agent is holding out, cause he knows the Blues have to have him. I hope both sides settle soon before it gets ugly.