Monthly archives for July, 2014

Spotlight on Radim Vrbata

The free agent sweepstakes kick off in less than two weeks, and already pundits are guessing which players will find new homes and which will re-up with their existing teams.   Among available forwards, there are some big names: Thomas Vanek, Marian Gaborik, Paul Stastny and Jarome Iginla, to name a few.   Each comes […]

Free Agent Bargains Part II: Benoit Pouliot

Originally published June 26, 2014 Last week we pointed out that a team looking for a steal in the free agent market should snap up Radim Vrbata if they could get him for anything like his 2013-14 salary of $3,000,000. Benoit Pouliot might be an even better buy. At first glance, Pouliot’s numbers are solid […]

Drafting by Position: The difficulty of forecasting young players

At last week’s 2014 Entry Draft, Aaron Ekblad became the first defenseman to go first overall since Erik Johnson in 2006. Since the NHL began its draft in 1963, only 13 defensemen have been picked first overall. The first was Barry Gibbs in 1966 (and no, he did not later go on to found The […]