Free Agents

This story comes to me by way of Save Prucha, with whom I've temporarily decided to stop feuding, because he posted this story that I now get to repost. Also: an internet feud is just me yelling at a guy who's never heard of me? Anyway, the point is: Sports Illustrated, following in the grand tradition of making sports-related lists of stuff, has made a list of 25 NHL Free Agent Busts: the 25 worst NHL free agent signings of the last...arbitrary period of time (the list goes back to 1997, but 20 of the 25 are from this decade, and 13 are since the lockout).

Now, before we get into it, I just wanna go on record here: I think these lists are a dumb idea, I think this shows sportswriters' incredibly short memories, and I don't agree with some of their conclusions at all (Daniel Briere to the Flyers? Kasparaitis to the Rangers? Really?) So, generally, this list is another big hunk of bullshit from the sportswriting (or, in this case, sportspicturetaking) community. That said, I think it's pretty funny how shitty we (the Rangers) are at our job.

There are actually 26 signings listed (Paul Kariya is counted as only 1 of the 25 for being signed by the Avs in 2003 AND the Blues in 2007). Those 26 are spread among only 11 teams (of the league's 30). The runner-up spot for "most shitty signings by a single team" goes to the Blackhawks and the Avalanche, each with 3 on the list. The Rangers, the only team with more, claim 8. Eight. And three more on the list were Rangers immediately before the signing listed (Sean Avery before becoming a Star in '08, Michael Nylander before becoming a Cap in '07, and Theoren Fleury before becoming a 'Hawk in '02).

Now, obviously, that can be meaningless: Avery, for example, was a shitty move for the Stars, but great for us. Fleury and Nylander? Less so. The point is that, even discounting those 3, and even though SI is wrong about some things (I still stand by signing Kasparaitis, and I liked the Holik move, we just used him wrong, which is a coaching problem), we are responsible for 8 signings on this list, and our runner up is responsible for 3. Something Is Wrong.

(For the curious: Scott Fraser in '98, Stephane Quintal in '99, Valeri Kamensky in '99, Darius Kasparaitis in '02, Bobby Holik in '02, Chris Drury in '07, Scott Gomez in '07, Wade Redden in '08)