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No. The starter at this point is still Luongo. Followed by Price in the 2nd spot. The third is up for grabs between Crawford and Mike Smith. For me, Smith is better than Price, and should challenge Luongo for the starting job if he effs up.
As far as "dominate", you realize we're ranked 5th? The best team in the tournament is probably Sweden. All the top end talent, plenty of grit, some of the best puck movers in the game on the blue line (along with Kronwall) and Henrik Lundqvist in net.
Then you have the Russians, playing on home soil, who can put out a Kovalchuk / Malkin / Ovechkin first line. No one in the tournament matches that. They have the reigning Vezina winner in net. No defense, though, and honestly I won't be sold on Bobrovsky until he plays a full year.
As far as the US goes, their #1 centre, whoever it is, wouldn't make team Canada. Goaltending can only get you so far.
Both the US and Canada are at a distinct disadvantage playing on international ice. Canada never does well at these tournaments. If they don't choose the right team, they'll get eaten.
Canucks have signed RFAs Dale Weise, Yann Sauve (AHL/ECHL) and Jordan Schroeder. They got Schroeder for 600k which is a coup as I thought he'd cost double that. Re-rosterbate now that almost everyone is signed (bold indicates not signed):
FORWARDS
Daniel Sedin ($6.100m) / Henrik Sedin ($6.100m) / Zack Kassian ($0.870m)
David Booth ($4.250m) / Ryan Kesler ($5.000m) / Alexandre Burrows ($4.500m)
Chris Higgins ($2.500m) / Jordan Schroeder ($0.600m) / Jannik Hansen ($1.350m)
Mason Raymond ($2.275m) / Brad Richardson ($1.150m) / Dale Weise ($0.750m)
Tom Sestito ($0.750m) / Mike Santorelli ($0.550m)
DEFENSEMEN
Dan Hamhuis ($4.500m) / Kevin Bieksa ($4.600m)
Alexander Edler ($5.000m) / Jason Garrison ($4.600m)
Yannick Weber ($0.650m) / Chris Tanev ($1.200m)
Andrew Alberts ($0.900m)
GOALTENDERS
Roberto Luongo ($5.333m)
Eddie Lack ($0.750m)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,278,333
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $21,667CALCULATOR LOG
Yup. A year too long and a million too much. When the deal kicks in he'll be 30. Compare that to Lecavalier, who signed a deal for 4.5M this summer at age 33, or 75% of what the Sharks are paying Pavelski. Would you rather have Vinny at 33 or Pavs at 30? I'll take Vinny.
Basically this deal sort of kind of makes a tiny bit of sense if the plan is to trade Thornton and Marleau and Boyle this year and rebuild on the fly. Except it doesn't because with the cap this low, no one can afford to take them on.
Everyone hopes that but it never happens. Let's face it, would you rather have Thornton or David Clarkson? I think we both know the answer, and as a result, who is worth more money.
Thornton gets 6.5 per at LEAST, and if the term is less than 5 years, possibly 7. Marleau gets at least 5.75. Boyle, if he has another good year, probably 5 per for 2 years. If not, maybe 4. Please keep in mind when you're asking for 3 a season that Carl Gunnarson just got more than that and he was an RFA with basically no negotiating power.
These guys are UFA's who can be top 3 guys on a team. Without fail, they will always have other options willing to drown them in money.
