Illegal Curve Hockey

Categories: General NHL

Late signings: Gaborik, Gionta, Havlat and Sullivan

The Oilers are meeting with Dany Heatley tonight. Heatley is bothering everyone in the hockey world. Just end this circus already.
Brian Gionta has signed with the Montreal Canadiens for 5 years, $25 million. A lot of money to throw at Gionta, but the Habs have clearly demonstrated their intention to go with speed and skill moving forward. Aside from Hal Gill, the Habs have gotten smaller this off-season and I didn’t know that was possible.
The Flames have signed Fredrik Sjostrom. He will fit in nicely on the fourth line and on the penalty killing unit. He’s a strong defensive player with good speed.
Chris Neil returns to the Senators. His heart was always there.
Marian Gaborik has signed a 5 year, $37.5 million contract. That is a lot of money to be giving to a big-time injury risk. People can talk all they want about getting rid of Gomez, but that is one large injury risk to give a five-year deal to.
Steve Sullivan has re-signed in Nashville for 2 years and $7.5 million. David Poile does a nice job limiting this contract to two years. If Sullivan stays healthy, this is a bargain, but the risk involved for both sides makes this deal very reasonable.
The exodus from New Jersey continues as John Madden signs with the Hawks for 1 year and 2.75 million. He isn’t the player he once was but should have enough gas in the tank to help out the young Hawks.
TSN is reporting that forward Martin Havlat has a verbal agreement to play for the Minnesota Wild for 6 years and $30 million. Decent signing by the Wild after they lost Gaborik. Of course it would appear they have gained an injury prone Czech after losing an injury prone Slovak. Hopefully for the Wild, Havlat’s 81 games last season wasn’t an anomaly.
Sticking with Minnesota, Michael Russo says that Saku Koivu is sleeping on the offer the Wild made. He also has some interesting tweets from Havlat which would seem to indicate that Havlat is less than pleased with Chicago.