Follow @james_tanner123 The Unrestricted Free Agency market features very little in terms of name recognition or star power, and, as usual you can expect NHL GMs to hand out ridiculous contracts to a bevy of mid-range players that they will no-doubt immediately regret.
That doesn't mean, however, that there isn't value to be had.
Should you pay Mike Green like he's the same player he was five years ago? No you should not. Even excellent players, guys like Frolik and Beleskey, are long-shots to provide value on massive contracts.
I wouldn't go near Beleskey, though Frolik is a guy I am a fan of, but who I think won't be as good to a team if you have to overpay to get him, since every dollar you spend on him is one you can't spend on someone else. He's a strong possession player, but over 100 players had more ES goals than he did and he's really just a 20 goal scorer, though he helps in possession. If a team goes over four million for him though, they're nuts.
Anyways, on to the best D available Wednesday.
Mike Green
Mike Green is a contract disaster waiting to happen. He's supremely talented and his value is often underrated by the same people who don't understand why Erik Karlsson is still the best defenseman in the world even if his actual defense isn't the greatest.
That being said, if someone goes over $5 million on Green, he won't provide value. The Oilers for example are always mentioned as a team that should sign him, but they have Justin Schultz who was a positive possession player on a terrible team last year and who only scored four points less at even-strength. Schultz also had a lower PDO and can be re-signed for half of what Green will command.
The Oilers are primed to compete for the Cup during McDavid's ECL years because they'll have possibly the NHL's best player on a dirt-cheap deal, not to mention several potential stud-defensemen and Draisaitl. (Yakupov is also super cheap as well). To waste money on Green would be to shoot their built-in advantage in the foot.
The best team to sign Green is actually the Coyotes. They could use him to replace Yandle and he'd be a great role-model for guys like Murphy and Gormley. The Coyotes could protect his minutes and since they'll never spend to the cap, who really cares if they're getting good value on the deal?
We interrupt this blog to say that it's total horse-crap that Eric Lindros was passed over for the Hall of Fame, yet again. What credibility is left the Hall of Fame at this point? They recently added world-wide punchline Rob Ford to their committee and continue to make bizarre decisions.The Hall of Fame is not a place that votes on morality or character. It is a designed to recognize the best hockey players. Not the best hockey players who are also nice guys. Lindros may not have a great reputation, but outside of Mario Lemieux, no one was close to him for seven years. If you're the best player for seven years, you go to the Hall of Fame. Case closed.
Carlos Colaiacovo
It's too bad CC has only ever made it to 70 games twice in his career, because otherwise he'd be a star player, or close to it. Bottom line is this though: He makes Joffrey Lupul look like Cal Ripken Jr.
Last season in 33 games, he put up 6 ES points and a 56 CF% . Those are great numbers. If any team wants to take a flyer on him, he'll put up value for his contract. Who knows, maybe he'll finally catch a break and be healthy - in which he'd be an absolute steal.
Andrej Sekara
He's a great player who puts up good possession numbers and he scored over 40 points two years ago. The problem with Sekara is if he starts getting over $5 million, how much value do you get out of him. I also think Paul Martin and Cody Franson are good players, but not for how much their likely to get paid on Wednesday.
I think Martin on a short term deal would be ideal for team like Edmonton. I think Franson would be a steal at $5 million, but anything over that is getting crazy.
Michalek is also good, but he'll get paid too much. I sure like him better than Grossman, whom the Coyotes picked up earlier in the week, but some team will likely go bonkers here and give him crazy money. Same with Erhoff.
As for value, Karl Stollery and Jamie McBain are two more guys I think who'll give you some good bang for your buck. They might not be great players, but they'll be cheap options on the bottom pairing and allow teams to allocate money in better ways.
All in all, I don't think the UFA market is too great here. For most teams, a better use of their money might actually be to call up a team in cap-trouble and offer to take back a bad contract in exchange for a decent unproven puck-mover.
Thanks for reading.