It turns out that the innocuous lunch meeting the other day turned out not to be innocuous. David Tanabe has signed a one year, $900k contract with the Canes.
I haven't paid a visit yet, but the folks over at the Canes boards must be going nuts. The overall sentiment during the "rumor" part of this was that they'd rather become Sabres fans than see Dave Tanabe in a Canes sweater again. I kept saying that it might not be a bad idea, that he might hit that magical turning point that defensemen seem to hit when they turn 26 years old (he just turned 26). I kept saying that we need to get some depth in case the injuries to Frantisek Kaberle and Bret Hedican turn out to be big. Tanabe might not be the best defenseman in the world, but he's decent. More importantly, he is quick, passes the puck well, and likes to join the rush. These are qualities that make him fit right into the new Canes system. In the old system, players with speed (Sami Kapanen) didn't really fit in, and especially if they were defensemen. Now, it's a requisite quality.
Tanabe has lots of NHL experience, and has earned the loathe of fans for his less than spectacular play and his occasional defensive lapses. Some go as far as to call him a "defensive liability". I won't go that far. And I'm sure that he'll be better than Canes fans remember him being, and better than Bruins fans will say he is.
At any rate, he signed for just $900k. If things don't work out, it's not that big of a deal.
According to the same article, the Canes are very close to signing Brad Isbister. Honestly, this is the first I've heard of this. Honestly, I don't know that much about Isbister, and I've only seen him play a few times. Based entirely on reading his scouting profile, he sounds a LOT like Josef Vasicek. We don't need a replacement Vasicek, but Isbister has better consistent numbers. My initial reaction is "eh", but we'll see. I'd still rather see us grab Anson Carter, but right now nothing is set.
In other NHL cities, some "real" news that I begged for yesterday. JP Dumont is signing with the Preds. Apparently, he has signed a two-year deal valued at a total of $4.5M. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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5 comments:
And, as we have discussed, look at Commie.
And by that, see how mid- to poor- performing defensemen can thrive under PLV.
I'm just sayin'.
Also, if you're not listening to Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians," then you are likely not (as I am) staying in a swanky hotel room in San Juan in which the previous guest left a copy of the CD in the Bose Wave Radio. How did I miss this shit all these years?
I'm with you on this one. He's an OK D as it stands, he's still got some time/room to get better. And if not, hell, he only cost $900K, which is a steal for a mediocre veteran blueliner in this market.
I'm just not sure where we're going to put him. We're now back up to nine NHL-caliber D's if you include Babchuk and Hutchinson, but maybe they want both of them to play every night in Albany for a while. Or perhaps there's a Tevvy trade in the works (please please please). Who knows?
Nine NHL-caliber blue liners? I can think of one team that wouldn't have minded having that depth in June...
Yeah, Kevin. We certainly remember your depleted blue line and the fact that there was nothing you could do about it. Some of these guys might end up doing time in Albany, but it's nice to have guys with real NHL experience in the pipes. Also, not a bad idea to stockpile Albany. Last season, we didn't do a good job of stocking Lowell, and they ended up with a bunch of scrubs.
I'm certain that JR has something in the works to unload Tverdovsky, who, although being a very good NHL defenseman in theory, played like a beer league defenseman.
I'm sticking to my theory that Tanabe is going to turn the corner this year. He won't make as much of an improvement as Commy did, but if Tanabe doesn't turn into a reliable, quality defenseman, I'll eat my hat.
I also can't stress enough that although this puts us at nine defenseman, Kaberle and Hedican have big question marks regarding the start of the season, and we really want to get rid of "Own Goal".
If everybody's healthy, and Tevvy makes a 180, then we'll have a VERY stout defense in Albany.
someone tell me why we didn't make a run at DuMont. And why Anson Carter is still on vacation...
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