The Winnipeg Jets did enough today to get their name in the press, but they were hardly the biggest newsmakers on Day 2 of Free Agency.
- The Winnipeg Jets inked future #1 goalie Michael Hutchinson and AHL defender Will O’Neill to contracts today – Hutch gets a two-year deal worth $1.15m total but only the second year of his deal is one-way. That seems to suggest that another goalie may be brought in to “force some competition” behind Ondrej Pavelec which shouldn’t be too hard. O’Neill gets a one year, two-way that will likely keep him on the Rock.
- Olli Jokinen is no longer a Jet as he heads south to join the Nashville Predators – Olli was clearly replaced by the younger and cheaper Mathieu Perreault yesterday, so he was forced to look elsewhere and found a one-year deal worth $2.5m per season in Nashville. He’ll remain in #ConferenceIII and likely torment the Jets next season as that’s how things happen here. I wonder if he’ll drop the “X” arm formation when he scores at the MTS Centre as an opponent.
- Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin join the Islanders as package deal – This saddens me, as I clearly wanted them to be a package deal here in Winnipeg. And while there was some rumoured interest in Grabovski from here in the River City, it didn’t pan out. You have to wonder if they were one of the four teams interested:
- John Scott is still an NHL player for some reason after signing in San Jose – The monstrous face-puncher continues to find work in the NHL, as the Sharks make yet another questionable move this off-season. $700k is a lot to pay a guy to “deter”, especially when you can’t really provide much else of substance on the ice.
- Steve Downie finds work in Pittsburgh as the Pens make a solid gamble – Downie is your prototypical sh&*-disturber, but he’s an effective player when healthy and not doing dumb things. At one-year and $1m, it’s a solid signing as long as his concussion issues don’t come back and the Penguins should benefit from this.
- The Canucks sign a bunch of minor-leaguers – Dustin Jeffrey, Cal O’Reilly and Bobby Sanguinetti all signed to help bolster to Utica Comets as the Canucks continue to rebuild the mess that Mike Gills left them.
Four NHL teams were interested in signing Mikhail Grabovksi and Nikolai Kulemin as a package, according to agent Gary Greenstin.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 2, 2014
