[Signing] Rangers sign Stempniak (1 yr, $900k)

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The NHL is starting to mirror the NFL where all the money is going to starters in their prime and veteran players are left to fend for the scraps in free agency. There have been some players in the NFL like Urlacher that still had a year or two in them retire rather than accept lowball one year deals.

Stempniak is better than a lot of players on every NHL roster but most teams simply don't have the cap space to allot money or term to a player that is good but not great.

How is 900k bad? That's more than CFL players. It's a salary cap league and giving average players large percentages of the cap leads to losing franchises. There are thousands of people that would jump at the chance to take Stempniaks place, anyone that plays in the NHL is fortunate

[Freeway]

Fun fact: Stempniak has an economics degree.

Good guy, good signing. His wife just had twins at the end of the season, if I remember right, and he'll be closer to home more often than he was in Calgary. I believe he lives in the Boston area.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Has to be a decent discount to choose his destination. I think stemps was a solid utility guy for is who slotted in fairly well almost anywhere (not saying he excelled, but definitely was not horrible).

Seems like a great dude, glad to see him sticking around. Probably a "show me" out east where he will likely increase his production in hopes of getting a nice retirement contract

[BlackWallStreet]

Atta boy LEE! Getter done this season. 30 goals