D-men starting to thin out

I fought the temptation to title this post "oh, brother"

The Ahaheim Mighty Ducks made big waves today, signing the most sought after defenseman in the market. They have come to terms with Scott Niedermayer on a 4-year $26.9M deal. They also re-signed his brother, (a winger) Rob to a four-year $8M deal.

The Sabres made their first move by signing Teppo Numminen to a one year deal. The Sabres' defense took a blow when they lost Zhitnik to the Islanders. I don't think Numminen, who recently turned 37, is the answer to that problem. I don't know what the terms of that contract are, but unless they got him real cheap, I don't think it was a good move.

The Blackhawks also picked up a d-man, signing Jaro Spacek to a 2-year $2.25M deal. They also added a potential 20-goal scorer by signing Martin Lapointe to a 3-year $7.2M deal. I'm not sure if Lapointe is worth a contract of that size.

No more info on the rumors about Gagne and/or Hamrlik to Carolina. Actually, the one tidbit of additional data is that (as the rumor goes) the Canes are interested in sending Radim Vrbata plus picks to the Flyers for Gagne. That would work for me. Vrbata never panned out. Not in Colorado, not here. He's got a ton of potential, but it hasn't worked out as of yet.

What's going on with the "Roenick to Phoenix by way of LA" deal? I sure as hell don't know. Nor do I know what's going on with the Jason Allison situation.