Crazy Start to the Holiday Season

This years start to the NHL Free Agency period has been as crazy as any other that I have ever seen. In addition to many changing teams, there have been some pretty lengthy contracts as well, highlighted by Marian Hossa's new deal in Chicago for 12 years. But although many teams benefited from the free agency, some also saw some key components leave, see Detroit with Ty Conklin, Tomas Kopecky and Marian Hossa taking the walk. But never the less, this activity is making for some exciting thoughts of the coming season.

Some noteworthy signings and trade acquisitions include;

Minnesota
Martin Havlat
Greg Zanon

Montreal
Brian Gionta
Hal Gill
Jaroslav Spacek
Scott Gomez
Mike Cammalleri

Rangers
Marian Gaborik
Chris Higgins
Donald Brashear

Tampa Bay
Mattias Ohlund

Chicago
Marian Hossa
Tomas Kopecky
John Madden

Islanders
Dwayne Roloson

Leafs
Mike Komisarek

Atlanta
Nik Antropov

Calgary
Jay Bouwmeester

Edmonton
Nikolai Khabibulin
Dany Heatley?????

I apologize for the ones I left out as I tried to do this from memory, but as you can see it wa sa very active and productive day league wide.

Here is where I thought I would give my first official Stanley Cup prediction for the 2009-2010 season. I will update my ideas and give my final prediction rigfht before the season starts, but for now, here it goes.



West
1. Detroit
2. Vancouver
3. San Jose
4. Chicago
5. Calgary
6. Columbus
7. Anaheim
8. Minnesota

9. Edmonton
10. Colorado
11. St. Louis
12. Los Angeles
13. Nashville
14. Dallas
15. Phoenix

East
1. Montreal
2. Pittsburgh
3. Washington
4. Boston
5. Tampa Bay
6. Philadelphia
7. Ottawa
8. Islanders

9. Carolina
10. Rangers
11. New Jersey
12. Florida
13. Buffalo
14. Toronto
15. Atlanta

Stanley Cup Champs are the Montreal Canadiens over the Chicago Blackhawks in 6.

Thats all I've got for now... more later.

-Bryan