Beauchemin in Kaberle out? Good On Senators

Brian Burke was at it again Monday as he signed UFA defenseman Francois Beauchemin to a 3 year 10M dollar contract. The 29 year old adds that much more to the defensive and physical fold the Leafs are currently building. Now if they could only get a stable goaltender in net, Toronto could be a dangerous team to play against next season.

Jonas Gustavsson is expected to make his decision on where he will sign tomorrow. The front runners are the Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars, but with Marty Turco in net for Dallas, you'd have to wonder what would coax the "Monster" in signing on for a year to ride the pine behind Marty.

The Senators also took a splash into free agency on Monday by signing sniper forward Alex Kovalev to a 2 year 10M dollar contract. While it is not a discount of any kind, it's just that much more talent being stripped away from the newly renovated Montreal Canadiens. The decision not to retain past key players such as Sheldon Souray, Mark Streit, Mike Komisarek, Saku Koivu and now Alex Kovalev will prove to either be the best decision Gainey has ever made, or by far the worst.

Also on the Senators front, it's believed that Eugene Melnyk and Brian Murray no longer give a shit about the Heatley fold. They'd like to part ways with the demanding forward, but also understand that making him wait around for a while isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Heatley needs an ego check because it's now as big as his old Ferrari.

The Chicago Blackhawks avoided any possible spills with defenseman Cam Barker by signing him to a 3 year contract today. The NHL concluded it's investigation on the Blackhawks qualifying offers to their RFAs and fearing it would lead to the players becoming UFAs, the Chicago front office jumped the gun and began negotiating deals left and right to lock them up. Maybe next time they'll remember to follow proper procedure instead of chasing down Marion "I'll-never-win-a-cup" Hossa.

Micheal A. Aldred
michealaldred@hotmail.com