Clemmensen returns,Bernier and Gionta re-sign

The New Jersey Devils continued to prepare for the 2014-15 season with the signing of one player and re-signing of two more.

The return of Scott Clemmensen from Florida almost certainly means that we have seen the last of Martin Brodeur in the Red and Black,at least as a player anyway.
Clemmensen has spent the last five seasons as a backup with the Panthers and will return for an interesting training camp showdown with Keith Kinkaid.
The winner of the duel will be the backup to Cory Schneider with the Devils and the loser will likely be the top backstop in Albany with the AHL Devils.
This also is the unofficial goodbye to Martin Brodeur and despite all that Brodeur has meant to the franchise,this is the right move.
Brodeur is not a number one goalie at this time and the team cannot afford to go through another season with Brodeur and Cory Schneider unhappy over playing time.
The move secures Schneider as the number one goalie going into the final year of his contract before his entry into free agency.


The Devils retained two-thirds of their occasionally explosive line by signing Steve Bernier to a one year contract and Stephen Gionta to a two year pact.

The 29 year old Bernier had the least successful season of his three in New Jersey last season.but his game is well worth the 600,000 for one season,especially when you consider that Bernier took a pay cut to remain with the team.
Bernier will never be what he looked like he could be early in his career at other stops before New Jersey,but he's solid enough to be worth retaining at the price.

The 30 year old Stephen Gionta scribbled his name on a two year contract at 850,000 per year.
I might not have signed Gionta to a two year deal,but all things considered,the energy that Gionta brings to the ice could make this an OK signing.

If the Devils find a way to bring Ryan Carter back at a reasonable price,I'd be in favor of that signing.
It's not that any of these three are going to turn the world on with their smile,but they play extremely well together and if the price is right,why break them up and take a chance over such a small amount of money?

The Devils might have room for one more signing of significance,although they may not sign anyone yet in order to retain some flexibility under the cap.

I still have to get to the big news with the Cavaliers and I'll try to do that next time!

Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat Newest Devils!

Lou Lamoriello didn't wait long with his attempt to revitalize the New Jersey Devils offense as the team quickly added two players that will hopefully add numbers to the teams sagging offense from last season.

The big news is the signing of Mike Cammalleri from the Calgary Flames to a five year deal worth 25 million over the course of the contract.
Cammalleri looks to be the big scorer that the team needs,but is he?
Well,Cammalleri scores everywhere he's been and if he plays a full season-he's good for 30 goals.
The last time,he was able to do that,he scored 39,but that was five years ago!
Cammalleri scored 26 last season in 63 games,so I think the goal scoring touch is still there,but still he missed 19 games.
A season after signing the concussion-prone Ryane Clowe to a long term deal,Lou Lamiorello is rolling the die again that Cammalleri can be healthy to somewhat plug the gap in the offensive lineup.
If Cammalleri plays,he'll score.
The big question is to me is how much will he play?

The Devils kept throwing at the craps table (dice not players) with a one year contract with Martin Havlat worth a million and  half at the right winger.
Havlat does add offense at the right wing,which is the weakest spot of the Devil forwards, and at 33,should have enough left in the tank for 20-25 goals.
IF indeed he plays enough to do that,that is.
Havlat has not played more than 48 games in any of the last three seasons and was never known for toughness in his prime.
On the positive-he should score if healthy,the cost is right,the risk is small and his friendship with Patrik Elias is a plus.
Elias has tended to be a huge influence on players brought to the team in the past and perhaps Havlat could be the latest steal for the Devils.

To sum up-Mike Cammalleri is the type of offensive producer that the New Jersey Devils need and Martin Havlat could easily be a supporting character on an improved club.
However,the Devils have gambled (especially with Cammalleri) that these players can stay healthy.
I understand why the Devils may have overpaid a bit for Cammalleri,but for a player that will hit 37 at the contracts end,this could be an issue near the end of the deal.
I'm OK with the deals,but being realistic and after the questionable signing of Ryan Clowe last season with health issues that returned to Clowe,there are some concerns on my part...

Back later with Cavaliers news....

Devils buyout Volchenkov!

First,a PSA-Sorry I missed a few days due to the internet issues at work.
At this time of year with games to get to,the blog work is often done later in the evening at the road office.
If connection issues are present,it often KO's the blog for a bit.

With free agency starting today for both the NHL and NBA,things will fire up shortly with thoughts on the Devils and Cavaliers decisions.

Lou Lamoriello and the Devils started the period one day before with two moves along the blueline that kept a young player happy and saw the team say goodbye to a veteran.
New Jersey used its final compliance buyout on veteran defenseman Anton Volchenkov and as a result saved 4.25 million on the team salary cap for each of the next two seasons.
Every team was given two compliance buyouts to be used in the two years following the mess caused by the lockout and had to use them or lose them.
The 32 year old Volchenkov will still get money from the Devils,it simply will not count against the salary cap.
Volchenkov was a signing that I thought would be a huge help,but a sudden decline in his speed along with a succession of nagging injuries never really gave the Devils the player that they thought that they were signing.
I think this was the right player to buyout,although some preferred Bryce Salvador as the selection.
Volchenkov's contract was more expensive than Salvador and had two years to run rather than the one on the deal with Salvador.
I liked Volchenkov,but this was the best decision for the Devils in what will hopefully be an attempt to add firepower to a popgun offense....

The Devils also signed Adam Larsson to a one year deal for 900,000 dollars.
Hopefully,Larsson will show the talent that I think he has and Peter DeBoer will actually use him this year!

The team also extended qualifying offers to a number of players including Mattias Tedenby and Alexander Urbom.
Both Tedenby and Urbom will be playing in the KHL next season overseas,but by giving each of the pair qualifying offers,the Devils retain their NHL rights if and when they would decide to return.

That catches up on the Devils,what about the Cavaliers?
Well,they have some big news too and I'll have that later along with any other signings for either team with the start of free agency today.

Devils finish first round with John Quenneville

The New Jersey Devils finished the first round of the NHL Draft with the pick given back to them from the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle in the 30th slot with the selection of John Quenneville.
Quenneville is a relative (second cousin) of Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville for those of you wondering.

Right off the bat,a full admission on Quenneville.
I don't know much about him.
When it comes to the NHL Draft,I don't know an eighth of what I know about the other three sports drafts.
If the Devils have a top ten pick,I can patch my way by because there is a fair amount of available information on the top 10-15 players or so.
Past that and to me,the names are just that-names and statistics.
Therefore,I'm not going to pretend that I like or dislike the pick other than that Ivan Barbashev was a slipping player available that was projected to go much higher and on the surface might have been worth a go.

Quenneville did score 25 goals last season for the Brandon Wheat Kings and being a forward is the position of need in the Devils system,so that was fine as far that goes.
For more on Quenneville,click here to go to
In Lou We Trust's report on him.....

Cavaliers pick Andrew Wiggins first overall!

The Cleveland Cavaliers followed my advice and used the first overall pick in the draft to tab Andrew Wiggins, the 6'8 small forward/shooting guard from Kansas.

I discussed yesterday why I felt that Wiggins was the better selection for Cleveland than Jabari Parker, but here is how I see Wiggins affecting the Cavaliers.

Wiggins will instantly upgrade the Cleveland defense as at 6'8 he is tall enough to tower over two guards, yet he is quick enough to be able to guard them.
Wiggins will also be very effective in defending small forwards with his athleticism and right off the stick will be a plus defender.

On the offensive end, Wiggins is going to be in transition on a team that desperately needs a player that can finish off the wing and will produce his share of points just doing that before we even get further.
Wiggins can knock down the open shot and even though the Wiggins shot still needs some refinement, opponents will not be able to play off him.

Cleveland needed help at the small forward and the selection of Wiggins makes sense.
Jabari Parker might have the height that you like at the small forward position, but even now, Parker was not going to guard players at the three spot now, let alone in a few years.
I'm not saying Parker is a bad player, I'm stating that his game is that of a power forward and time wouldn't change that.
When you look at the Cleveland roster before Wiggins, the small forward spot was manned by Anthony Bennett (really better suited for the 4 position), Luol Deng (likely to leave as a free agent), and Alonzo Gee (lacking on the offensive end), so not only was Andrew Wiggins the best player in the draft, in my opinion, he was the player at the biggest position of need.

I am thrilled with the addition of Andrew Wiggins and I'm convinced that he will be a long term star in the league.

Cleveland added Joe Harris of the Virginia Cavaliers with their second-round pick.
Harris is a shooter on a team that could use help with the outside shot and Harris could prove to be helpful if he can knock down opportunities from the three-point line.
Harris looks to be the type of shooter that may be one dimensional, but on the right team could be quite effective.

I hear that Cleveland has another deal in the works, so if it comes down-I'll be back with it tonight and the New Jersey Devils have their draft tonight, so I'll be around with the newest addition to the Devils system as well tonight!
 

Wiggins or Parker for Cleveland?

The Cleveland Cavaliers somehow lucked into the top pick in what appears to be a loaded draft and what happens?
Speculation on who they will pick or a trade down.
That's Cleveland basketball and for all of the lunkheaded decisions that the team has made since a certain someone took his talents to South Beach, they cannot afford to botch this one.

Now that Kansas center Joel Embiid is out of the picture (note to teams, the track record of big men that are "projects" and come with back and/or foot problems, usually don't live up to the risk) due to back and foot problems and let's assume that the team is smart and does not trade down (unless it's to target Embiid and take the risk along with adding a player besides) for these purposes.
That leaves Andrew Wiggins of Kansas and Jabari Parker of Duke and I'll take a look at which I'd rather see in Wine and Gold tomorrow night.

Andrew Wiggins is a 6'8 small forward that will immediately step in and be a force on defense, which happens about as often as an appearance from Halley's Comet from a 19-year-old with one year in college.
Wiggins has great athletic ability, can run the floor in transition, will find his way to the foul line a handful of times a night and will play the team game.
What's not to like about Wiggins? The rap on him is a less than strong outside shot, but I think that's somewhat exaggerated.
You don't hit 34 percent of your three-point attempts without being able to shoot a little bit.
Could there be some improvement? Sure and that could come with teaching, but I wouldn't go as far as to say Wiggins is a bricklayer that is a lost cause as a shooter...

Jabari Parker is 6'8, which is the same height as Wiggins, but they have far different games.
Parker can hit the outside shot but is more of a power forward type.
Parker will bang the boards and looks like if he can keep his weight under control, he might be one of those players that you can write down 20 points and 10 rebounds a night and feel like that's a pretty safe guarantee.
Many comparisons have used for Parker's game, but the one that I like the best is this one that goes back to the old school- a taller Adrian Dantley.
Capable of scoring inside with the bulls and capable of hitting the jumper to make defenses unable to play off him, Parker is going to score in the league and looks to be the readiest for the league right now.

The downsides?
Well, Wiggins does have some detractors that don't like his shot and think that he is not the type of player that aggressively snatches control of a game.
Parker's doubters look at some bad defensive tendencies and that he has gained weight since the end of the season that staying in shape could be an issue.
Parker also has been accused of bombing his workout in Cleveland on purpose, so he would go to Milwaukee at the second choice.
If that's true, that shows not just immaturity, but also a player that might not be at his best when things don't go his way.

Both players are going to produce in the league, I don't doubt that, but I would take Andrew Wiggins.
I love the defensive skills and I think he's going to grow into things on the offensive end.
Imagine a prime Shawn Marion with offensive skills and that might be what you get from Andrew Wiggins.
Jabari Parker may be the rookie of the year next season, but my pick for the long haul would be Andrew Wiggins...

On the signing front

We return to the signing front in an attempt to keep that pile down!
At this time of year,resistance is often futile,but it might keep it from growing to two piles soon!

We start the signing front with the Chicago White Sox doing double duty with the Winston-Salem Dash visiting Frederick and the Kannapolis Intimidators hitting Hagerstown.
The Dash didn't have a large amount of cards,but I did have a sprinkle of things.
The most notable were Courtney Hawkins on a Bowman and a Bowman Blue Wave Refractor,
Tim Anderson on his Bowman and Rize and Jacob May on his Bowman and Great Falls Voyagers card.
However, I was happy to get Brad Goldberg on his Great Falls card and asked the former Ohio State star to add Go Bucks! to his cars.
When guys from Ohio State and Xavier have cards,I like to get that inscription on the card.
I think it makes it pretty cool,in my opinion and since they are my cards.....

The Kannapolis visit saw me get one Hagerstown card as Drew Ward signed his Panini Elite insert.
That's a neat card because it is numbered one of 200 as in the first one off the assembly line.
At least it was to me.
Kannapolis was led by second rounder Tyler Danish,who was dominating in his start against the Suns and was soon to be headed to Winston-Salem to join the Dash.
Danish signed all four cards for me -his Bowman,Elite,Bristol and Appalachian top prospect card.
Other nice additions were Andrew Mitchell (USA and Great Falls),Trey Michaelswski and Cleutius Rondon,but my favorite might have been former Rockies prospect Carl Thomore.
Despite being in the Rockies system,Thomore had never been to Hagerstown and I always like getting older (in some cases) cards signed that I thought would be buried in the box....
I also was able to get Nationals roving instructor Jeff Garber on his 1991 Line Drive (Love those) and long time favorite Buddy Bell on his 1976 SSPC with the Indians with the V-8 juice Indians uniforms....

I also took Rachel to Frederick for the Potomac Nationals and her hero Will Pinwica-Worms.
While Rachel got to see WPW,I added three cards.
Shawn Pleffner on his Bowman,John Simms on a USA Chrome and Oscar Tejada on his last year's Indianapolis Indians issue.

Thanks to Jason Christensen for his shipment of stuff from Binghamton and cards from the visiting Portland Sea Dogs.
The biggest addition from Binghamton was Kevin Plawecki on his heritage,but the best (as in Carl Thomore above) was Cody Satterwhite,who finally signed his USA card from years ago.
Satterwhite had suffered injuries while in the Tigers organization and I bet that card had been up and down the East Coast several times!
The best Portland additions were Deven Marrero and Travis Show,but Jason was able to fill in a lot of the Salem 2013 championship team set.
That was a great idea by Salem and I wish more teams would consider doing those types of sets...

I started working on the Hagerstown Suns team set during their series with the Lakewood Blue Claws.
This worked out mainly because I had a total of three cards for Lakewood.
The Suns main prospects are mostly pitchers other than third sacker Drew Ward and I got all of them quickly in Lucas Giolito,Austin Voth,Jake Johansen and Nick Pavetta...

I did a postgame trip to Harrisburg with Derreck and Brad for the New Britain Rock Cats.
I didn't have a ton for the Rock Cats,but I did manage to get a few finished with the most notable being former Brave Sean Gilmartin and pitching prospect Adrian Salcedo.
My favorite was an older Panini that I missed on last season with Pat Dean in his Boston College togs.
That was the last year that Panini had the college rights for logos and Upper Deck took them away,only to do nothing with them from the baseball card side of things...

I had only a few stragglers for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans,but some were big ones.
Joey Gallo and Jorge Alfaro signed their Top 100's,Cody Buckel signed three (Derreck would get the other two for me later in the week),Victor Payano signed his new Bowman and Chris Bostick signed both his Bowman's (2013 as an Athletic and 2014 with the Rangers).
This series reminded me of a joke on Rachel,who loves David Lyons,a star of the television show Revolution.
"Rachel ,do you want to go to Frederick and see David Lyon today".
"ARGJHHH,Really?,he will be in Frederick?"
"YEP"
"ARGGHHHH,five minutes of excitement"
"You are really this excited over David Lyon?"
"YES!"
"All over a backup catcher?"
"Huh?"
"David Lyon,the backup catcher for Myrtle Beach"
Shows her a David Lyon card.
"ARGGHHH,Dad! I hate you so much!" With a smile and laughing.
"Oh,you got me there,that was a good one,Dad,I have to admit"!

Two Certified cards from the non-baseball world with
LPGA golfer Anna Rawson and one of my favorite players of my youth-Campy Russell of the Cavaliers.

We finish up with thanks to Tom O'Brien for his help with the Erie SeaWolves.
Tom got me Gerald Perry to add to the 88 and 90 Score collection and two top Tigers prospects in Steven Moya and Eugenio Suarez,who has already been promoted to the big league club among other players from Erie.

The pile is reduced,but far from finished,so count on another signing front soon!