July 1 Was The Time For Dean Lombardi To Gamble

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Signing Scuderi was a good move by Lombardi to add a solid defenseman with some experience to his blue line corps. Nevertheless, after allowing the unrestricted free agent train pass him by on July 1, one has to seriously question if he really knows what he’s doing.

Indeed, after stating that his roster has a hole on left wing and that his team needs a scoring winger to fill it, Lombardi was unable to sign Marian Hossa, who signed a whopping twelve-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks that was reported to be worth $63.6 million, an average of $5.3 million/year.

Rich Hammond of the Daily News and Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times have reported that Hossa was the Kings’ primary target and they received permission from the Detroit Red Wings to talk to Hossa prior to July 1 (see Hammond: “Lombardi July 1 Quotes” and Elliott: “Free Agency Games Begin, But The Kings Stay On The Sidelines”).

If the Kings had signed Hossa prior to July 1, the Red Wings would have received compensation from the Kings.

But it was clear that Hossa was looking to go to a team with a good chance to win the Stanley Cup soon and the Kings are clearly not one of those teams—they had absolutely no chance to sign him.

Regardless, something very revealing came to light in the Kings’ pursuit of Hossa—that they were willing to sign him to an expensive, long-term deal, even twelve years.

But once Hossa moved himself out of Lombardi’s reach, Lombardi clearly put his hands in his pockets and left them there, despite the fact that two other players who could have filled that hole on the left side were available...wingers Marian Gaborik and Martin Havlat.

Gaborik, who is a legitimate sniper, should have been Lombardi’s next option, followed by Havlat, who is not quite the scoring threat but is better defensively. But, according to Elliott and Hammond, Lombardi was not willing to offer Gaborik the five-year deal averaging $7.5 million per season that he signed with the New York Rangers because of his long history of injuries.

Lombardi had similar concerns about Havlat, who signed a six-year deal with the Minnesota Wild that is reportedly worth an average of $5 million per season.

Regardless, it was time for Lombardi to take a chance.

In Gaborik’s case, it has been widely reported that his chronic groin problems were caused by a deficiencies in his hips. He had right hip surgery on December 24, 2008, followed by left hip surgery on January 5 to correct the hip problem (see “Wild’s Gaborik To Have Hip Surgery

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