OK, I can’t believe it’s the offseason. I’m bored already.

And I am getting unbelievably antsy for two Game 7’s tonight. I may be going out of my mind tonight.

Think the NHL’s ecstatic right now? The Rangers in the second round. Pittsburgh in the second round. And potentially Ovechkin in the second round.

To save face, I need San Jose to win since I picked the Sharks to win the Cup.

So I was just playing GM because after all, I am a know-it-all.

I was looking at all the places Brian Rolston could potentially go if he doesn’t re-sign here. This, of course, is discounting whether or not these teams would be even interested because obviously we don’t know that yet.

Essentially, I was looking at cap hits for the next couple years and who would have the space to give Rolston the $4-5 million he’d probably be offered to leave here.

The two best teams no doubt would be the Rangers and Canadiens.

Now, the Rangers, who could probably only afford him if Jagr’s gone, will have the room, but would Rolston make the mistake so many players make and go to the Rangers for more money that at the end of the day would be equivalent if not less than here?

After all, you don’t get the same bang for the buck playing in Manhattan due to taxes (like city taxes), etc., as you do in Minnesota.

However, it just occurred to me Rolston once told me his wife is from somewhere in New York.

The Canadiens would be nice. It’s a skating team, so Rolston could be a monster there. But their top six seems to be set.

The other teams that could throw piles of money at him are teams that missed the playoffs, so would Rolston really leave here for there?

The Islanders have tons of cap space and Rolston is very, very good friends with Bill Guerin, who’s got another year left on his deal. But does Rolston really want to play on the Island (which pains me to say because I grew up 10 minutes from the great Nassau Coliseum)?

Columbus will have tons of room, and I know he’s respected there. In fact their GM is the old Oilers’ assistant GM, and the Oilers made a run at Rolston as a free agent back in 2004.

Lastly, there’s Atlanta. The Thrash has lots of room because they’ve gotten rid of Marian Hossa, will lose Bobby Holik and Steve Rucchin and may buy out Alexei Zhitnik.

You know Todd White would love to land Rolston. 

However, they do have two top-line left wings with Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Kozlov, so there might not be a fit.

Just some thoughts. Nothing scientific here. Just a bored sportswriter with nothing to do. The question is if the Wild offer Rolston, say, $3.5-4 million on a three-year deal, would Rolston stay for that? I think there’s a good chance even though somebody’s bound to offer more after July 1.

The one thing I’d say, the Wild has to re-sign him before July 1. If it gets to free agency, I think he’ll be gone because dollar signs will understandably be flashing in front of his eyes.

– If Jacques leaves, the Wild will no longer get Barry Trotz. The Nashville coach signed an extension there. That would have been a natural fit here. Same type of coach, very smart and obviously you have the history with owner Craig Leipold.

OK, I’m outta here for now. I’ll try to keep the blog fairly fresh during the offseason, although the posts will be a little less frequent.

Good day. Watch tonight’s Game 7’s. No better drama.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.