First day of free agency much ado about nothing

By Mark Madden
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/sports/
July 2, 2012

The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Tanner Glass to a 2-year deal worth $1.1 million per year. Glass, 28, is a native of Saskatchewan and has played five NHL seasons with the Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks and the Winnipeg Jets. Glass had five goals, 11 assists and 73 penalty minutes in 78 games with Winnipeg last year.(Rich Lam/Getty Images North America)

July 1. The first day of NHL free agency.

If Badger Bob Johnson was alive, he would have trouble characterizing July 1 as a great day for hockey. It might be the exception to his rule. Canadians sit paralyzed in front of their TV screens on a national holiday, waiting to see who goes where. American puck addicts play along pathetically.
Me, too. I’m no better.

Rumor rules. One of my tweets summed it up thusly: “Everyone has made offers to everyone. More to follow.”

On the club’s website, the Minnesota Wild trumpeted making offers to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Positive PR. The Los Angeles Kings’ Twitter feed quickly ridiculed the Wild.

It took the Kings 45 years to win a Stanley Cup. Does that earn the right to mock?

I’d love to see the Kings host the Winter Classic: Street hockey on Sunset Strip. Can’t wait ‘til that Cup run gets exposed as a lucky couple months. That should happen by Christmas.

Penguins fans spent Sunday waiting for Parise and Suter. They got Tanner Glass and Dylan Reese instead.

Glass is a physical winger who can’t really play. He has 13 goals and 306 penalty minutes in 262 NHL games.

Reese, a defenseman, doesn’t need whatever the Penguins pay him. He’s from Upper St. Clair, he’s a Harvard grad and his father was a telemarketing pioneer. Reese’s secret-handshake friends probably wonder why he’s still fooling around with hockey.

Reese is solid: Fluid skater, good puck skills. He exemplifies the Penguins’ defensive preferences. But where does he fit?

Arron Asham went to the New York Rangers, thus realizing his dream of playing for every team in the Atlantic Division. Colby Armstrong got bought out by Toronto Saturday, but got signed by Montreal yesterday. Thank God, too. Otherwise every caller to my radio show today would have clamored for Armstrong’s return to Pittsburgh.

Sunday in a nutshell: Nearly everyone who signed got overpaid.

For marginal talents like P.A. Parenteau and Brandon Prust, July 1 should be celebrated annually with a fervor usually reserved for New Year’s Eve in Times Square, V-J Day and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. How did Sheldon Souray, at 35, get a three-year pact worth $11 million when he spent 2010-11 in the American Hockey League?

Parise is an interesting situation. Credible sources give totally opposing news on Parise. One says the Penguins are Parise’s first choice. Another says Parise doesn’t want to play third fiddle behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

If the latter is true, it’s a popular affliction. The cure seems to be inking a long-term agreement with another team, like Jordan Staal did with Carolina. Ten years, $60 million: It's the same deal Staal got offered by the Penguins, but turned down.

Staal isn’t greedy. He is ambitious. He’s a franchise center now.

The Penguins are definitely going hard when it comes to pursuit of Parise and Suter. If General Manager Ray Shero doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll be back in the trade market.

But he won’t trade for winger Rick Nash. Shero would never be dumb enough to gut his team’s depth and youth to get Nash, one of hockey’s most overrated. Nash has only topped 70 points once in nine seasons with Columbus, and has little hockey sense.

Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).