FanHouse MichalHandzus

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

Every July, various team owners and GM's, despite their better judgment, lustily rush out to sign whatever slab of UFA meat they can catch to the biggest, longest contract that they possibly can afford.

Salary inflation? Dimishing returns? Chemistry concerns? Cap issues? Those factors mean little when a fairly good player is on the free agent market, and a bevy of other teams are vying for the same player.

So, which of these unrestricted free agent players have actually been a good investment thus far?

Chris Drury - 2007 salary of $7.1 mil (28GP 6-13-19 -2)
Despite the fact that Drury has never proven himself to be more than a pretty good second liner, the Rangers decided to fork over superstar money without a second thought. I wouldn't say Drury's production has been disappointing, given that it's in line with previous totals of his, it's just that Drury is definitely overpaid for the type of player he is.

Scott Gomez - 2007 salary of $10mil (28GP 5-16-21)
Gomez is definitely one of the better playmakers in the league, but has always had consistency and coachability issues. Again, the Rangers forked over large amounts of money for somebody who is not a superstar (he had only 60 points last season), and they aren't getting rewarded for their investment. Gomez just doesn't have the same chemistry with Jagr that Michael Nylander had, and will probably never live up to his huge contract.

Of course, it's always easy to pick on the Ranger$, so let's look at some other squads.

While the Rangers and Capitals have made the big headlines, the Los Angeles Kings have quietly had a great summer on the free agent market.

Instead of going ape-crap over the big name free agents and signing albatross contacts, the Kings went after some good, lesser known talent, with mid-range contracts that are reasonable in length and amount.

Brad Stuart (pictured) - 1 year at $3.5mil per

Tom Preissing - 4 years at $2.75mil per

Michal Handzus - 4 years at $4mil per

Ladislav Nagy - 1 year at $3.75mil per

Kyle Calder - 2 years at $2.75mil per

Jaroslav Modry - 1 year at $1.2mil per (Re-signed)

On the flip side, the Kings haven't lost very much in the way of key players. Other than goaltender Mathieu Garon going to Edmonton, none of the other Kings UFAs are really going to be missed severely.

With about $43mil in cap commitments, the Kings still have to address the one issue that hurt them last year: Goaltending. Dan Cloutier is eating up $3.1mil in salary cap space, and was one of the worst in the league last season. Giving him another chance is just folly. Buying him out and using the cap space to find another goalie would be the smartest solution.

Still, Kings fans can be happy that their team has had a great off-season adding offensive oomph and defensive depth without hurting their team in the long run.