Free Agency: Week 1 Analysis.

Hello friends and family of the Wilderness. While this year's Free Agent Frenzy could hardly be called a frenzy so far this year, it doesn't mean significant changes haven't been made by teams this year. We can look at what the Wild have done so far and smile and salivate at the thought of finally making a comeback to the playoffs, but what about the other teams standing in our way? I've taken the liberty of analysing a couple of the changes our good ‘'friends'' in the Northwest division have made, since they're the ones the Wild share nearly 30% of the regular season with. What I've done is enumerate all of the free agent signings as well as all the re-signings, because they were technically free agents. So don't tell me ‘'they already had that guy'', I know! I've also listed the departures from each team, their salary cap status and my thoughts. I thought Bryan and Nathan would jump in, but it turns out they were busy, so I'm flying solo this time around, but it may be just as well, because this analysis turned out to be pretty lengthy.

(Salary cap info from capgeek.com)

Make the jump and prepare to study our opposition.

Cap situation:    Payroll: 56,846,028

                        Bonuses: 975,000

                        Cap space: 3,528,972

                        Roster spots filled : 23 (Which is the max: 20 dressed, 3 scratched. We have the most spots filled in the league!)

The Wild have certainly become a better team, regardless of what anyone who wanted Boogey re-signed says. For one thing, they got rid of Boogs and Scott, two fighters, not hockey players. In their stead, we've got Brad Staubitz and Eric Nystrom, two hockey players who can certainly hold their own in a fight, play with energy and *gasp* can actually score more than 0 goals in a season (Sorry Boogs, please don't find me and punch my face off!). I will give credit where credit is due though, the both of them were fun to watch destroy their hapless competitors and they almost matched James Sheppard's production this season.

We've still got some cap space left, but no more roster spots to fill (Which I find strange, since we don't officially have a back-up goaltender signed just yet), meaning the most reasonable course of action would be trades, but it seems CF has either had some troubles selling the very little assets we have, or the right deal hasn't come along yet.

I love how thehockeynews.com considers the Wild to be one of the three losers in the Free Agent Frenzy, when we made our team considerably better than it was by letting dead weight go and getting a top six forward. Calgary of course, wasn't one of those three losers, because well.... you figure it out! The columnist doesn't even really explain why the Wild did badly enough that they were one of three teams to be considered losers. I just don't get it. They don't see it from a Wild fan perspective I guess...

Our latest signing of goalie Dennis Endras gives us even more depth at a position we're already strong in, and gives us some more trade options, plus if we do trade away a goalie, we'll still have a good starter, a good back-up, and 2 good goalies in Houston, which is fine by me. In fact, this signing could very well mean the departure of a goalie in the near future.

Wild fans, we're on the right track. Brace yourselves for the playoffs.

Cap situation:    Payroll: 58,033,333

                        Bonuses:  None

                        Cap space:  1,366,667

                        Roster spots filled : 22

A Bieksa for Filatov rumor has been floating around, which could be bad news for us, because if you remember well, in his short time in the NHL, he scored a hat-trick against the Wild.

They've added a couple of depth players in Joel Perrault and Jeff Tambellini (son of Oilers GM Steve interestingly enough!)

Cap situation:    Payroll:  58,250,000

                        Bonuses:  None

                        Cap space:  1,150,000

                        Roster spots filled : 21

Thoughts:

He re-invited Alex Tanguay and Olli Jokinen for another round in CGY, which made many eyebrows go crazy and a lot of drinks spit out by Flames fans. While I do think Sutter's reasoning for bringing back Jokinen is utter idiocy, it's not as bad a move as everyone thinks. Let me explain: In his first stint with the Flames, Jokinen cost 5.5 million to underachieve rather badly. This time around, he costs 3 million, which is much more reasonable for a guy who had 50 points. While he's far from the form of his Florida days, the move shouldn't be dismissed so quickly, although I think we should all understand Flames fans, because after all, Shep's been re-signed!

Other than that, I think Tanguay's not too bad of an acquisition in itself; not too expensive, played not too bad hockey in CGY, but the thing is, they're planning to make an Iginla-Jokinen-Tanguay line as their top line, which to me looks kind of iffy. But then again, who are we to talk?

Fan favourite Nystrom is now on our side, and they seemingly replaced him with Raitis Ivanans, who is a feared fighter, but not much else. They might as well have signed Boogaard. That being said, Ivanans will bring order and fear on the ice during his few minutes of play.

Cap situation:    Payroll:  48,646,167

                        Bonuses:  3,977,500

                        Cap space: 14,731,333

                        Roster spots filled : 20

 They've acquired Kurtis Foster. It will not be fun to have to see him in an Oilers jersey that often, not only because of sentimental reasons, but because he's coming off a career year in which he finally proved he's a good player in this league.

They've also made quite a few depth improving moves, which will help because Lord knows they've got a habit of playing lots of different players during the course of a season.

They should also look to try and get rid of the Bulin Wall and get a new #1, because JDD isn't ready yet. The Oilers won't be in the cellar of the NHL this year, but I would be surprised to see them make the playoffs because they still have a ways to go.

Cap situation:    Payroll: 37,686,667

                        Bonuses:  2,787,500

                        Cap space: 24,500,833

                        Roster spots filled : 19

We've fared pretty good against the Avs this year, but they're going to be even more dangerous as guys like Matt Duchesne, Ryan O'Reilly and Peter Mueller (assuming he re-signs; he's a RFA) continue to grow.

It would be hard to imagine them not making the playoffs this year, but it may depend on their off-season moves and a quick start like they had last season.

Overall, I believe the Oilers are the most improved team, followed by the Canucks, then the Wild, the Flames and finally the Avs.

The Oilers shed a lot of cap space, drafted Taylor Hall, got rid of many underachievers (with a bit of luck and shrewd moves).

Then the Canucks, for the obvious reason that they got 2 top-4 d-men and a great 3^rd-4^th liner, albeit they overpaid for all of them.

 4^th on the improvement chart would be the Flames because even though they made some questionable acquisitions, they made more of them than the Avs. Plus, Jokinen DID have 50 points this year, which is more than we can say about guys like Winnik

The Avs are last for now because they haven't done much at all, but that's likely to change during the course of this week.

Other things I have noticed:

Hope this gives you an idea of what we'll be up against come October, I'll have another update for you next week, and every following week until the end of the free agency period!