Saturday, July 05, 2014

Notable Pool Updates from the Frenzy, Part 5

Day 3 of the free agent frenzy, on Thursday, was nowhere near as memorable as the first two days of the session. I think the frenzy is kind of dead from here.

The Toronto Maple Leafs did add one pool-worthy player and added one with some potential to come out of the woodwork as a sleeper. The Leafs signed forward Mike Santorelli to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal on Thursday, after having a bit of a bounce back season with the Canucks, scoring 10 goals and 28 points in 49 games. His season was cut short by a shoulder injury and his numbers couldn't really improve.

Much like the signing of Leo Komarov earlier in the week, the Leafs also added Finnish centre Petri Kontiola, giving him a 1-year deal, worth $1.15 million for the 2015 season.  Kontiola was an Olympian in Sochi in February, helping Finland to bronze medal and is touted as a solid playmaker.  Kontiola did play in 12 games with the Blackhawks in the 2008 season, picking up 5 assists, but that's the extent of his NHL career, before heading back to the KHL.  I don't have either Komarov or Kontiola on the projected roster yet, but their salaries suggest they will get some long looks at camp.

The 4th of July had more fireworks in the Canadian capital than anywhere else in the NHL free agent world. The Ottawa Senators signed centre David Legwand to a 2-year, $6 million deal on Friday and that now gives Kyle Turris some real support down the middle and a 1A/1B centre situation on the team.  The Senators will have a lot of mixing and matching to do in training camp this year, trying to find the right combinations of centres and wingers, but at least they have a bit of both to work from to find that mix.

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