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SPECUL-AGENCY-Datsyuk to the Capitals? |
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Welcome to the first installment of "Specul-agency!" (What a God-Awful name!...sounds like some sort of medical test you need to drink some disgusting pink fluid for...other name ideas for this series are welcomed!)
As Jon Stewart described "The Internet" in his brilliant book AMERICA, (and I have called him to see if I can steal this slogan to be the official slogan of Hockeybuzz.com), "The internet is a technology combining the credibility of anonymous hearsay with the excitement of typing."
With snow and ice falling outside my window this morning, and the northeast winter refusing to release its not-so-subtle "death grip," it is a bit hard to think about July 1st. It is on that holiday, Sunday, that "UFA DAY 2007: A Free Agent Frenzy" will begin. Crazy (and as exhausting to me) as it feels, this year the rumblings are already beginning! (hoorah, see ya in September beautiful wife and children)
I guess it is not surprising when you look at the list of impact UFA's and how "UFA DAY" will make the trade dealine look like a walk in the park, that the murmurs are already out there...For the most part, (you would think) we will have to wait until the season is over until the real rumors start to fly.
That being said, and since UFA's are a fun thing to talk about and speculate on...here is the first official rumor of UFA DAY 2007.
And it is an interesting one to say the least. A source told me yesterday afternoon that word among some of Datsyuk's friends are that his dream is to play with Ovechkin and that he may take a bit less money to make it happen. The source also added, "The price that Datsyuk is giving the Wings right now is extremely high. This could be to bide time and see if the Caps are willing to get into this come July."
It should also be noted that Ted Leonsis, the extremely progressive owner of the Washington Capitals, recently went on record saying that the team is preparing to make a very big splash this off-season. Datsyuk is a splash.
I am going to start adding some UFA's to the ever popular "Chart" over the next week or so...Again, I don't expect many UFA rumors to swirl between now and the end of the regular season as everyone is geared toward the playoff races. The rumors that will surface are likely to involve teams like the Caps who are out of the playoffs.
Who are the UFA's this summer?
THE LIST:
(here is a list of just some of the impact UFA's we will be tracking, painstakingly alphabetized...thank God for Antti Laaksonen and Ossi Vaananen )
Nikolai Antropov
Tyler Arnason
Niklas Backstrom
Stu Barnes
Eddie Belfour
Todd Bertuzzi
Bryan Berard
Martin Biron
Jason Blake
Peter Bondra
Daniel Briere
Jan Bulis
Kyle Calder
{~)
Chris Chelios
Mike Comrie
Pavel Datsyuk
Greg De Vries
Chris Drury
Pascal Dupuis
Radek Dvorak
Nils Ekman
Ruslan Fedotenko
Peter Forsberg
Mathieu Garon
Martin Gelinas
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Scott Gomez
Bill Guerin
Roman Hamrlik
Michal Handzus
Scott Hannan
Scott Hartnell
Dominik Hasek
Ric Jackman
Curtis Joseph
Paul Kariya
Viktor Kozlov
Vyacheslav Kozlov
Antti Laaksonen
Robert Lang
Ian Laperriere
Mikko Lehtonen
Eric Lindros
Kirk Maltby
Andrei Markov
Danny Markov
Dean McAmmond
Josef Melichar
Glen Metropolit
Jaroslav Modry
Bryan Muir
Ladislav Nagy
Ville Nieminen
Teppo Numminen
Michael Nylander
Sean O'Donnell
Scott Parker
Mike Peca
Ville Peltonen
Yanic Perreault
Chris Phillips
Tom Poti
Tom Preissing
Taylor Pyatt
Brian Rafalski
Erik Rasmussen
Mark Recchi
Craig Rivet
Gary Roberts
Joe Sakic
Sami Salo
Cory Sarich
Matt Schneider
Teemu Selanne
Brendan Shanahan
Martin Skoula
Bryan Smolinski
Ryan Smyth
Brent Sopel
Sheldon Souray
Patrik Stefan
Brad Stuart
Jozef Stumpel
Mats Sundin
Darryl Sydor
Petr Sykora
Kimmo Timonen
Keith Tkachuk
Ossi Vaananen
Josef Vasicek
Vitaly Vishnevski
Scott Walker
Wes Walz
Kevin Weekes
Todd White
Ray Whitney
Richard Zednik
Dainius Zubrus
That's all for now and thanks for visiting...
Hockeybuzz.com: "Combining the credibility of anonymous hearsay with the excitement of typing."
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