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No more hype. No more speculation (sorta). The very first day of the 2012-2013 season is here. Let the silly season of free agency begin! Even without the certainty of the CBA, boys are gonna get paid. No GM is gonna sit and wait until the CBA is finalized to go after the best available.
Oh what I wouldn't give to be a mediocre talent right now. This free agent class is pretty sparse when it comes to home-run players. That comes down to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Both will likely command a minimum of $7M. Yet anyone below them, in that second tier of mediocre free agents, is going to receive a nice payday. We saw this last year with the crazy contracts offered by Florida and Buffalo.
The Ducks have a ton of money they can spend, with or without, the internal budget Henry Samueli puts on the team. If Samueli lets Bob Murray go crazy and spend up to the cap, we've got about $30M currently available. You can earmark about $4.5M for Teemu Selanne, so make that about $25.5M available before budget restriction. While it may not seem necessary, the Ducks should at least take a swing at Parise and Suter. Maybe they'll get hit on the head, and in their confusion, sign with Anaheim.
Blah, blah, blah, Bobby Ryan might/will be/could be traded. Blah, blah, blah.
This thread will be open all day to discuss whatever happens with the Ducks and all around the league. SBN News will post breaking news at the top of the page, should there be any. Then one of us will follow up with some analysis.
Anyone else nervous? Yikes.
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New Ducks!
Bryan Allen (D) 3-Years for $3.5M each
Here's his stat page on Yahoo!
First signing of the day for Anaheim: Brad Staubitz (or as I'm calling him, Brad Starburns). Sounds like it's for two-years. giving him the old Andy Sutton treatment. Enjoy your new team around this time next year. Starburns is likely replacing the departing George Parros. It sucks, but Parros deserves more minutes. He wasn't going to get that under Boudreau.
Contract details: Two years, $625K for year one and $650K for year two. Bargain basement pricing, that's for sure.
