Hasek is a Wing, Rucinsky is a Blue, and the rest of the past few days...

Team Carolina	Wednesday, August 02, 2006 Signed forward Jesse Boulerice to a one-year contract.
Chicago	Acquired the rights to forward Vaclav Pletka from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for forward Eric Meloche.
NY Rangers	Agreed to terms with defenseman Fedor Tyutin.
Ottawa	Signed forwards Dean McAmmond and Serge Payer to a one-year contracts.
Pittsburgh	Signed forward Libor Pivko to a one-year contract; re- signed defenseman Alain Nasreddine to a one-year contract.
St. Louis	Signed forward Martin Rucinsky.

Team	Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Buffalo	Agreed to terms with forward Maxim Afinogenov on a multi-year deal.
Chicago	Signed defenseman Jim Vandermeer, forwards Brandon Bochenski and Matt Keith and center Craig MacDonald to one-year contracts.
Columbus	Named Clint Malarchuk goaltending coach.
Nashville	Signed forward Scott Hartnell to a one-year contract.
NY Rangers	Agreed to terms with defenseman Michal Rozsival on a contract.
Pittsburgh	Re-signed center Dominic Moore to a two-year contract.

Team	Monday, July 31, 2006
Detroit	Signed goaltender Dominik Hasek to a one-year contract.
NY Rangers	Named Frank Effinger professional scout.
Washington	Re-signed left wing Matt Pettinger to a three-year contract.

Team	Sunday, July 30, 2006
Buffalo	Re-signed center Paul Gaustad to a multi-year contract.

Team	Friday, July 28, 2006
Buffalo	Agreed to terms with center Tim Connolly on a multi-year contract.
Florida	Signed defenseman Mike Van Ryn to a four-year contract.
Ottawa	Re-signed left wing Peter Schaefer to a multiyear contract.
Vancouver	Signed defenseman Yannick Tremblay to a one-year contract.

NHL Jeff's Take: Due to lost time, from these transactions, I will only be commenting on those that I feel are extremely significant.

Detroit's decision to bring back aging goaltender Dominik Hasek is a controversial one. Although I really dislike teams trying to ride old goalies for too long, and I dislike this signing, it seems to be relatively low risk with possible high rewards. The Wings will only shell out $750,000 if Hasek doesn't pan out, and if he does pan out, they pay him a little bit over a million. If they end up having to give him the bonus money that will have meant that he has played to his usual level of one of the top netminders in the league and the Wings will have gotten stellar play at a very low price as compared to other teams. The Wings did what they had to do to work well with the cap as well as not give up players. What I would have liked to see them do was to trade for Martin Biron, J.S. Giguere, Egeni Nabokov, Vesa Toskala, David Aebischer, or Robert Esche. That would have made things a bit more interesting and exciting while also alleviating some team's goaltending issue with having :2 number 1's.

Quickly, on the Rangers signing of Rozsival, I think it was extremely necessary for them especially if they wanted to maintain a solid defense while also having some scoring from the blueline.

Sabres' GM Darcy Regier seems to really be getting everything together now with only 3 of the 12 players that filed for arbitration actually having to go through with the hearing. Afinogenov was an extremely significant part of last year's team puzzle and it is great that they will have him back.

The Sens made a great choice for some added veteran leadership with Dean McAmmond. Not only is McAmmond a proven leader, but he is also able to chip in a decent amount of points throughout the season. Great addition.

The Blues seem to be hoping to make a push back into the playoffs. Tkachuk, Guerin, Weight, and now Rucinsky, are a great offensive core. I was a bit sad to see that Rucinsky didn't re-sign with the Rangers. I fear he may not play as well as last season with out all of his fellow Czech countrymen from the Rangers.