[Mr.Coffee]

People just get caught up in free agency and the exciting big names, but in reality if you take a look at the big picture so many contracts are just colossal mistakes and huge catastrophes. Seriously I am constantly amazed at the money tossed around in the NHL, there is an ocean out there of undeserved contracts. I could list like 20 guys off the top of my head, and Richards is no exception.

I remember thinking this signing would have been a trainwreck, just like how I think the recent Perry signing is a trainwreck for the Ducks. Yeah, good this year, maybe next but... nobody on Long Island is happy that Alex Yashin is sitting in a Russian palace receiving hilarious Islander paycheques. Horcoff, 7mm? Lecavalier? Dipietro?

If you're a GM, pass. There's quite literally no reason to chew up valuable cap space for the present and sacrificing your future, in fact that's a stupid thing to do and poor asset management. You need to not only pay players on what they're worth today, but what they're going to be worth. It's not that hard to predict in most cases where guys are trending. And signing a player for anything over 5 years is extremely risky. Why assume all the risk as the organization? Fata that, these are kids playing a game making millions of dollars... let them take the risk. Small years, bigger dollars on short term only if necessary, and absolutely no trading restrictions. But not big dollars over long term, that's idiotic. It's time for GM's to start taking control of their teams.

And that is what terrifies me when Feaster says he opened up all this cap space by moving Iginla and Bouwmeester. He should be locked in a phoneless room on July 1 through 10. Leave it alone Jay, keep the space and make smart cap space decisions. NO sense in overpaying for anyone unless it's Sidney Crosby, and we don't have one of them.