Mats Sundin seems to have injected an element of uncertainty in the free agent marketplace. Despite his age, he is the premiere player in the market - except he isn't quite sure if he actually wants to be in the market. At noon on July 1 he became a free agent and within an hour GMs around the league were scrambling to sign free agents. But Mats is on his own schedule. The problem is neither he or anyone else knows how that schedule looks.
So if you are an NHL GM, do you wait him out or just fill up your cap space with other player? Can you afford to let others bid for Jagr, Demitra, etc. and come up with nothing? There are 15 teams with enough cap space to still sign Sundin. Three teams (Los Angeles, Columbus and Atlanta) are well below the minimum cap of $40 million and could use Sundin to get to the cap, but Sundin would likely never play for these teams. There are at least 6 other teams that he would not give serious consideration (Florida, Pheonix, Minnesota, Buffalo, Islanders, and Colorado). That still leaves 6 contenders - Toronto (yes, there is a chance and cap space), Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, New York Rangers, and Pittsburgh.
For me the Pittsburgh scenario is intriguing. With Hossa signed with Detroit, they have cap space for Sundin. And they would have had difficulty into the future with a long term contract with Hossa. A two year contract works better for the Penguins since he frees up money in two years for their younger stars. If you are looking at teams that Sundin could put over the top, maybe Pittsburgh has even more potential than Montreal, Ottawa or the Rangers.
12 years ago
