Habs make good pick-up

The Montreal Canadiens made a good pick-up in signing UFA Roman Hamrlik. He will bring stability to the Habs defence, and is a better puck handler than Souray. The Habs also signed right handed center Bryan Smolinski, who had finished the season in Vancouver when dealt at the trade deadline. Smolinski knows the NorthEst division, having played in Ottawa for several years before being dealt to Chicago along with Martin Havlat.

I hope Brian Burke knows what is doing in signing Todd Bertuzzi to a two year contract for 4 million per season. Big Bert played only 15 games last season with Florida and Detroit. If Bertuzzi can gain his 2005-06 shape where he scored 25 goals and totaled 71 points, it will be a good signing for Burke, if not it could turn into a nightmare for the Ducks.

Darren Dreger from TSN, breaks down Daniel Briere's contract. I think in the next CBA, the league should limit contracts to five years or make sure they don't overlap into the next one. Contracts are insurred up to five years, after that the player must purchase their own insurance. Just to say, Briere thirteen years ago was about to play junior hockey in Quebec for 60.00$ a week, and now is a multi-millionnaire.

My good friend Spector, makes good points in his soapbox comments about the UFA signings in the last two days. François Giguere in Colorado, Glen Sather in New York, Paul Holmgren in Philadelphia and JFJ in Toronto will be nervous guys next year, they will be hoping that their off-season moves will payoff quickly, if not the natives will get restless and demand their heads or trades, but wait, I can't trade, no cap space, the contracts are sinking my ship. I guess a pink slip may be less expensive then.

Daniel Tolensky at HockeyBuzz.com, wrote a good article, that should be read by fans all over the NHL. The avalanche of coin we have seen over the last few days, makes you wonder if the lock-out was worth it.