There were two intriguing free agent signings Tuesday, and they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One was relatively surprising and came virtually out of nowhere, one was expected, and then seemed to fall through, and then expected again. First, 41 year old goalie [b]Ed Belfour[/b] signed with the Panthers for a modest $750,000 for one year. Belfour's best days are definitely behind him and he is coming off a sub-par season with the Leafs where he made $4.5 million. However don't cry for Eddie, as he also got paid about $1.5 million to leave Toronto when they declined the club option on his contract. Belfour will form a tandem with Alex Auld in the Panthers net, and neither one will be as effective as former Panther and new Canuck Roberto Luongo. The Panthers were a bad team with a great goalie, and now they look to be a better team but the goaltending will be a huge question mark. Auld will likely be the starter, and he failed to take the underacheiving Canucks to the playoffs last season. They will find out if you can indeed win without a top goaltender, as the team in front of them figures to be better with the addition of Todd Bertuzzi and the maturation of Nathan Horton, Anthony Stewart and Stephen Weiss. When all is said and done, Belfour will be a good insurance policy should he be able to stay healthy, and will provide needed leadership in the dressing room. He can provide solid goaltending in relief, and if Auld mis-steps or proves he can't handle the load, he could conceivably fill that role also. And at $750K, the price is right for the Panthers. =========================================================== The second big signing was the surprising 6-year, $24.6 million deal that the Edmonton Oilers gave to young potential superstar [b]Ales Hemsky[/b], thus avoiding salary arbitration. Hemsky becomes the Oilers' higest player, and is the last key ingredient from last year's Stanley Cup final team. They still have to sign Joffrey Lupul who they acquired in the Chris Pronger deal, and they need to drastically improve on their defense corps if they hope to come close to repeating last season's surprising run. Giving Hemsky a six year deal is a mistake. He is a very good player but making giving him 6 years at such a high number is taking a huge chance. He led the team in scoring this past season and was second in playoff scoring, but six years is a long term and in my opinion a contract of that length for any player is too long. Anything over 4 years is too much of a commitment in this "new NHL" where the salary cap fluctuates every year. What happens in two or three years when the cap comes down and they are still committed to a player for another three years at over $4 million. Its not just Hemsky, but any player of that stature. Hemsky is making almost 4 times (in average salary) more than what he made last season. Is he really worth twice as much as Jarret Stoll? Stoll signed a very respectable 2 year deal worth $4.4 million total, which was very fair in my opinion. I don't know if they needed to break the bank for Hemsky. It seems to be the latest in a long line of the Oilers overpaying players (Roloson, Pisani, Horcoff), who each turned a career year into a windfall contract. Time will tell, but being a fan of Canadian hockey, I hope it works out for them in the long run. ============================================================== [b]Follow-up[/b] [b]Scott Gomez[/b] was awarded a one year, $5 million deal by the arbitrator. This will likely force Devils GM Lou Lamarillo to deal him, or another high profile player on the New Jersey Roster. One option is to find a team that has lots of available cap space that they will not be using and package Gomez (or someone else) with the contract of Vladimir Malakhov. The retired Malakhov's $3.6 million is still on the books for New Jersey although it is just a paper number and they will not have to pay him. Therefore, if someone has the cap room they can absorb the contract under their cap and not have to pay him, they could accept a player for the use of the cap space. Who would be willing to do the Devils that favour though, and if they package Gomez with it, what would the return be? The Devils would almost be forced to give up the players for a draft pick, since New Jersey is firmly entrenced between the proverbial rock and a hard place and still need to sign some key players like Brian Gionta and Paul Martin.