NHL Free Agency: The Head Scratching Moves

In the words of Ray Davies, "it's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world", and while it's fitting, the Kinks singer wasn't talking about the past week in the NHL. 

As with every off season, not every team will make moves that seem all that great.  Here's a look at a few teams who have made their own head scratching moments this offseason.

Columbus Blue Jackets:  You have to love the players they brought in.  With Mike Commodore, Christian Backman and Fedor Tyutin, the Jackets have a legitimate defense, while Kristian Huselius is a great secondary scoring option.

What's amazing is that another year has gone by and the Jackets have not filled their biggest hole—center. Yes, they brought in R.J. Umberger, who had a great postseason, but he was also on the Flyers fourth line at times.

If he doesn't pull through, their backup option is Mike Peca. After seeing Brendan Morrison sign with Anaheim, Columbus should really look into prying Pavel Demitra from the grasp of the Canucks. Outside of him, there isn't a realistic option for a number one or two center via free agency, and it could hurt the Blue Jackets—again.

New Jersey Devils: Kudos to Lou Lamoriello for snagging Brian Rolston, who was rumored to have offers from more than half the league (the other half must have been crazy not to want him).

But $2.5 million for Bobby Holik?

The Devils had problems at center last year, both offensively and defensively, which makes Rolston a great pickup.  But bringing in Holik only makes sense if he takes over the checking role from John Madden (who moves into a scoring role after a career offensive year).

But that would also mean the end for Travis Zajac, a 23-year-old right handed center entering his third pro season, which happens to be a contract year.  Lou isn't one to sign someone he doesn't need, but if a trade isn't in the works (he never addressed the team’s defensive woes), this one goes down as a head-scratcher.

New York Rangers: While the Holik signing was strange, unlike their major rivals, at least the Devils can't say they got worse.  After New Jersey beat them out for Rolston, the Rangers turned around and gave $39 million to defenseman Wade Redden (the most overrated and now overpaid defenseman in the league) along with $20 million to Michal Rozsival. 

Last season, they each had 38 points. 

By contrast, Ron Hainsey (formally Columbus, now in Atlanta) had 32 points, and Mark Streit (formally Montreal, now NY Islanders) had 62 points, and each signed for less that Rozsival and Redden. 

The Rangers also decided to let Sean Avery walk, as he signed with the Dallas Stars.  With Avery in their lineup, the Rangers won over 60 percent of their games, without him, the number is closer to 30 percent. 

GM Glen Sather then decided to trade one of his better defensemen for a forward that has been a complete bust (Nikolai Zherdev) and sign Markus Naslund to replace Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka, both of whom left the NHL. 

Straka and Jagr combined for 112 regular season points (Straka missed 17 games) and another 25 playoff points. Naslund has declined in scoring every season since the lockout. Looks like it's time for Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to earn their money.

Florida Panthers:  The only move the Panthers have been able to make has been dealing Olli Jokinen to the Phoenix Coyotes. While the deal has solidified their defense by adding Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton, they haven’t been able to resign Jay Bouwmeester.

The Panthers also haven't added anyone to pick up the slack from Jokinen's loss (Cory Stillman isn't going to cut it).  It wasn't all that long ago where this team looked to be just a piece or two away from making the playoffs, but they seem to prefer regression. 

At this point, their best bet may be to trade Bouwmeester for offense, as no Panther forwards really have game changing ability.

Tampa Bay Lightning: It appears the reason that hockey has a hard time working in Florida isn't fan base, but management. The Lightning have learned nothing about putting too much money into a few players. This time they are drastically overpaying Ryan Malone.

Malone is nothing more than Mark Parrish. The only reason he has good numbers is because he played with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. If he's not playing with Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis (which is unlikely after the signing of Vaclav Prospal), he will never live up to the deal.

They would have been better off keeping Brad Richards. Then they trade Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich to the San Jose Sharks for Matt Carle, who is young and offensive, but regressed so badly that he was part of a deal for Wade Redden before Redden used his no-trade clause.

Tampa has also decided to focus only on offense by signing every forward they can fit on their roster and having only offensive minded defensemen.  Newly signed goalie Olaf Kolzig must be pleased he picked Tampa Bay. 

Anahiem Ducks: Brian Burke is the Paris Hilton of the NHL. After tons of speculation about jumping ship to Toronto and more fighting with Kevin Lowe, the league’s most over-rated GM has managed to put his team over the cap for the second straight year.

Burke already knew Scott Niedermayer was coming back. After signing another former Canuck in Brendan Morrison while buying out old line mate Todd Bertuzzi, the Ducks are worse than last season and don't have the room to resign Teemu Selanne.

The best player the Ducks can deal is Mathieu Schneider, but the 39-year-old has a hefty price tag ($5.625 million) and does not have the value to bring back roster players who can really help this team.

The Ducks will be good this season, just not better.