I'm not too familiar with the free agent pool yet for this summer. All the talk is about Bouwmeester leaving the Panthers and where he will go. He will be expensive (bc he's a bad ass) and he won't come here.
After that, it's hard to say. Guys might be cheaper this year because the cap is expected to stay the same next season, and then actually shrink the year after that because of the economy.
The Stars will have to be careful, because while their forwards looks to be in good shape next season, Eriksson and Ott need new deals in the summer of 2010. Those guys are due for significant raises. Neal will get a significant raise as well. I doubt we'll be able to keep all of those guys for 2010/2011.
So when going after defense in free agency, they have to keep that in mind.
Realistically, I don't see us doing anything very exciting. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sydor re-signed, and Niskanen given more responsibility going forward. Which sucks.
They have a kid named Ivan Vishnevskiy in the minors right now who is supposed to be this puck moving/Zubov kind of guy. I saw him at camp and I wasn't impressed, but he's only 20 years old. He's got a lot of room to grow.
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