Trade Rumours:

Here are a list of names rumoured to be available, as per things I've read in newspapers, seen on TV, heard on the radio, and found online (using discretion of course).

ALEX SEMIN - might be available. The Caps are obviously disapointed with their playoff loss, and here is a very talented underachiever with 1 year left on his deal.

return? I would expect any trade involving this guy to be more of a shake up type trade. The Caps will be looking for someone else who is high profile but different. They might even take a slightly lesser player if he comes at the right cap hit. Like a 60 point player, hard nosed, who earns under $5 mil.

TOMAS KABERLE - You know what Burke wants for him. A top 6 forward (young) and maybe more. Burke has repeated many times that his priority is not to bring in a 1st round pick, despite popular belief.

destination? New Jersey keeps popping up, Buffalo, St.Louis, Anaheim, and supposedly there are 5 teams very interested, these may or may not be 4 of them.

PATRICK SHARP - Really good all around player, could be the cap casuality. You know that its going to be someone (or someones) in Chicago, and its likely it could be Sharp.

return? Someone cheap and talented/prospect/draft pick. I wouldn't be surprised to see a team deal a late 1st rounder for him. My own speculation: Anaheim deals the Flyers pick (acquired in Pronger deal) 29th overall for Sharp.
destination? Latest news says Columbus or Toronto are interested.

JEFF CARTER - Believe it. The Flyers will be in a tough situation with regard to cap numbers, and the latest is that Carter could be the odd man out. The Flyers might be moving one of their higher paid forwards to free up the necessary space to get a legit goalie and another top 4 d-man. Other names rumoured are Briere, Hartnell, and Gagne.

return? A goalie, or a less expensive, equally interesting forward. The speculation from one paper is a Carter for Nate Horton swap. I think Carter for Vokoun makes more sense. (or Gagne for Vokoun makes even more because I wouldn't trade Carter...)

JONATHAN BERNIER - Kings continuing to add more star power up front could use hot shot goalie prospect Bernier as trade bait if they miss out on UFA's like Patrick Marleau or Ilya Kovalchuk.

I'll add more to this later

Free Agents I'd like to see the Leafs target

A month away from free agency, this is not a good year in terms of star power but there are a handful of solid role players who could help a lot of teams including the Leafs. Here's my wishlist

Depending on what kind of trades Burkie makes at the draft and throughout the summer, this wishlist could change but I'd like to see him add a couple pieces to make the team competitive for next year:

FIRST LINE FORWARD:

This is a must. I think he'll go the trade route but if he does go with a free agent I'd be interested in the following -

Ilya Kovalchuk - ya I want him. 6 years $45-50 mil, something like that (7.5-8.2 cap hit roughly)

Patrick Marleau - I don't love the guy but he would be a good pick up, 6 years $33-36 mil would be the highest I'd go (5.5-6 cap hit), or 3 years $21 mil.

Ray Whintey - I love him, look at his point totals in each of the last 5 years, and I was really impressed with the way he played in the couple of Canes games I watched. 1-2 years only for the 38 year old, under $2.5-3.5 per season.

Vinny Prospal - He'd be a 1st/2nd line guy, and would only be a 'plan B' for me. I don't think he's a Burke type guy, but he's a decent two way player and can score goals.

TOUGHNESS/SECONDARY SCORING:

I like the idea of Burke adding some muscle up front, preferably a player or two who can also score up around 20 goals.

I'd like to see one or two of these guys signed to 1/2 year deals:

Bertuzzi, Holmstrom, Modin, Cullen, C.Armstrong, Cooke, Artyukhin, Boogaard (maybe), Nichol, Burrish, Malholtra, Nystrom, Ivanans, Pyatt.

Red Wings offseason

Disapointing to see the Red Wings go out in 5 games to the Sharks, especially considering I felt that Detroit was the better team in 3 of the 5 games in that series. There could be some cap issues this summer, and Lidstrom may retire, Maltby has said he'll probably test free agency, Tomas Holmstrom will likely come back, and Jiri Hudler is coming back over from the KHL.

Here is my offseason plan for the Red Wings, but it would require the great Nik Lidstrom to return at severely reduced pay. But you figure Stevie Y was playing for $1 million later in his career for Detroit so I wonder if Lidstrom would take a page out of his book and play for a little over $3 million?

FORWARDS:
Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Cleary, Draper, and Filpulla are all under contract for next year and aren't going anywhere, add Jiri Hudler to the mix ($2.875 million), and you've got a few spots to fill.

- Tomas Holmstrom re-signed, 2 years $3.5 million (cap hit = $1.75 mil)
- Darren Helm re-signed, 2 years $2.2 million (cap hit = $1.1)
- Justin Abdelkader re-signed, 2 years $1.9 million (cap hit = $950k)
- Drew Miller re-signed, 2 years $1.5 million (cap hit = $750k)

- UFA Slava Kozlov is coming off a very weak year in Atlanta, he's an old Red Wing and could be worth taking a gamble on, let's look at the type of money Prospal, Afinogenov got etc. for a comparison and say he that Kozlov (39) could be had on a 1 year deal for $1.1 million. This would be more of a gamble but would be cheaper than re-signing Bertuzzi.
- UFA Adam Mair could fill the role of tough guy, he was up and down with Buffalo this year but I think the guy can still play and could be affordable as the 13th forward, let's say $550k.

DEFENSE
Rafalski, Stuart, Kronwall, and Ericsson are all still under contract, and although I'm not a fan of Jonathan Ericsson, he is cheap and he'll be retained.

-Nik Lidstrom re-signed for $3.25 million on a 1 year contract. If he would accept this type of salary, in order to stay competitive then this plan could be somewhat realistic, but its up to Nik.
- Andreas Lilja re-signed 2 years, $2.3 million (cap hit = $1.15 mil)

-UFA Aaron Ward, who bounced around from Boston, Carolina, and Anaheim in the past year is 38 years old, and is not spectacular, but can get the job done as a depth guy. I figure he'll go for around $800k. He might be interested in playing for a big time team like the Wings at this stage in his career as well.

GOALTENDING

As much as this pains me to write, I guess Osgood's time is passed. He was a great goalie and really underrated but I think the Wings will move on. If he can be moved to play elsewhere then that could be an option, if not then they'll have to get his salary off the books another way.

Jimmy Howard.... This guy is pretty good but I don't see him as a Stanley Cup goalie, at least not right now. He choked against the Sharks and was just okay agains the Coyotes. Looking back to 1996, Chris Osgood was the young starter for the Red Wings but they lost in the final 4, the Wings came back with Veteran Mike Vernon in 1997 and won the cup and then Osgood came back as the starter in 1998 and was ready to be a champion. I think the Red Wings would benefit from some grade A goaltending and shouldn't be so cheap.

UFA Marty Turco, 3 years $12 million (cap hit = $4 million) I don't think that price is unreasonable for either side, and Turco (who still has good hockey left in him) would get a chance to win the cup.

This team would fit under the cap as per capgeek.com, and would breakdown something like this:

Hudler - Zetterberg - Franzen
Fillpula - Datsyuk - Kozlov
Cleary - Helm - Holmstrom
Miller - Draper - Abdelkader/Mair

Lidstrom - Rafalski
Kronwall - Stuart
Ward - Lilja/Ericsson

Turco
Howard