Tuesday, August 29, 2006

 

Tanabe and Dumont Finally Cash In

Two of the rejected arbitration award winners, JP Dumont and David Tanabe, found new teams willing to pay for their services.

1. JP Dumont signs a two-year deal with the Nashville Predators:
He has agreed to a two-year contract worth $4.5 million. He will be paid $2-million the first year and $2.5-million in the second.

The 28-year-old forward became an unrestricted free agent in early August when the Buffalo Sabres walked away from an arbitration ruling awarding him a one-year $2.9 million contract.

Predators general manager David Poile explained the club was happy about the Sabres' decision to walk away. "This was a guy who was not on our radar when the off-season first came about. But because he was made a free agent he became very attractive to us. The Buffalo Sabres thought they lost a really good player and a really good person."
A really good person? Ok....If he was a really good player, the Sabres would have spent the $2.9mil to keep him. Obviously, he wasn't THAT good.

On the other hand, the Nashville Predators needed more size and offense up front. Even if Dumont is pillowy-soft, he'll add some more skill up front to a Nashville Predators team that is looking scarier and scarier as we approach the season. $2.25 averaged over two seasons for a guy who pots 45-50 points a season is a justifiable for a team that is trying to make the big push like the Predators are.

LadyPredator suspects that the Preds' forward lines will look like this...
Radulov/Arnott/Kariya
Sullivan/Legwand/Dumont
Hartnell/Vasicek/Erat

Impressive...most impressive...

2. David Tanabe signs a $900,000/1yr dealio with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes have dipped into their past and have signed free agent defenseman David Tanabe to a one-year, $900,000 contract.

Sources tell TSN Tanabe spent last Friday meeting with Hurricanes management and worked out for the club in an effort to prove some of the injury issues the 26 year old has struggled with are behind him.
I know Tanabe has been somewhat of a disappointment, but the guy
1. has 371 games of NHL experience
2. is 26, and it's quite likely that he'll make quite a 'leap' this season as defensemen are notorious for peaking a bit later than forwards.

This is a low-risk, high-reward signing for the Hurricanes. At the very least, they get a guy who can play 3rd-line ice time without sucking too many eggs. If Tanabe does make a leap and provide more at both ends of the ice than he has in his career, the Canes make out like bandits. Two thumbs up!

Comments:
Oh snap!

The Predators are looking better and better on paper. And how can they "only" be around $38 million in payroll? They seem to have added a lot of players.

They might have a shot of overtaking the Wings this year.
 
I don't think the Sabres walked away from Dumont because they think he's not good enough. They were going to run into cap issues if they accepted the arbiter's ruling. Especially since they haven't signed Ryan Miller yet.

Also, I think that they decided that the town of Buffalo was only big enough for one guy named "J.P.". With JP Losman as the clear-cut starting quarterback for the Bills this season, it was obvious that Dumont had to go.

Secretly, I was hoping that you would think our signing of Tanabe was bad. I've gone on record as saying that if he doesn't show marked improvement this season, I'll eat my hat. I wanted to give you a chance to redeem yourself for the Andrew Hutchinson/hot dog fiasco.
 
Speaking of Hutchison...

YOU STILL OWE ME A HOT DOG!

- Duc
 
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