Bayda, Brookbank, Conboy signed

Before Carolina took care of their major business on Tuesday, they re-signed three players. Winger Ryan Bayda and defenseman/winger/tough guy Wade Brookbank were both signed to one-way NHL contracts. Also, defenseman Tim "We got us a great big" Conboy was signed to a two-way deal.

Bayda and Brookbank were signed to identical contracts. One year at $475k. Conboy's is a two-year deal that will pay $475k at the NHL level or $100k at Albany.

The Canes now have 11 forwards signed to NHL deals and five defensemen.

Here's how things look:

Ray Whitney / Eric Staal / Justin Williams
Sergei Samsonov / Rod Brind'Amour / Scott Walker
Tuomo Ruutu / Matt Cullen / Patrick Eaves
Wade Brookbank / Chad LaRose* (Trevor Letowski*) / Ryan Bayda

Tim Gleason / Joe Corvo
Nic Wallin / Joni Pitkanen*
Frantisek Kaberle / Anton Babchuk (Dennis Seidenberg*)

Cam Ward
Michael Leighton

Pitkanen hasn't signed anything yet, and LaRose is a free agent.

I don't think the Canes will be making any moves in the market other than to re-sign their own RFAs. Look for Dennis Seidenberg and Trevor Letowski. They may end up elseshere.

More later.

Conboy suspended eight games

As a result of his actions in a line brawl between the River Rats and Phantoms on Wednesday night, Rats defenseman Tim Conboy has been suspended by the AHL for eight games, starting with Friday's game in Philly. If his suspension is not served in full during this playoff season, the balance will carry over to next regular season.

Here's the graphic video of Conboy destroying some poor kid. Sure it was dirty for the Rats to have two guys pounding on one guy, but I think someone wiser than I once said "All's fair in love and line brawls"


The suspension is ostensibly in accordance with rule 70.6, concerning leaving the bench to participate in an altercation. However, it looks to me like Conboy was on the ice when the whole thing got started. He wasn't the sixth guy. It looks like they were in the midst of a line change, and it's just unfortunate. What he did was wrong, and he deserves to be suspended, but I don't like that they're citing that rule as the reason.

There has been bad blood between these two teams all season long, including another line brawl back in October.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the bad blood will spill over to Friday night. From the AHL's website, you can pay $6 to stream live video of a game. This one might be worth it.