Free agent signings - winners and losers

It's about half way through the NHL season and a good opportunity to look back at the free agent class of 2011.  The biggest dollars went to Brad Richards and Ilya Bryzgalov.  Richards has lived up to his billing but not Bryzgalov in fact the Flyers goalie was watching the Winter Classic from the bench yesterday.  So far the Flyers are the big loser and if he can't find his form then a long run in the playoffs will not likely happen.

Yet the best buys have to be Tomas Fleischmann, Michael Ryder and Erik Cole.  Each have more goals than Richards, on pace to score 30 goals and cost their teams considerably less.  In contrast, Ville Leino and Tim Connolly have been a bust.  They have just 5 goals between them.  While Brian Burke suggested that Tim Connolly was the consolation prize for the Brad Richards auction, it seems only in dollars.  Fleischmann would have made a much better centre for Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul.  But at least Connolly was only signed for two years.  Leino and James Wisniewski both signed for six years.  If they don't improve those will be tough contracts to swallow.

	AVG SALARY	YEARS	G	A	PTS
Fleischmann	$4.50	4	15	19	34
Richards	$6.67	9	14	15	29
Cole	$4.50	4	16	11	27
Ryder	$3.50	2	15	11	26
Bieksa	$4.60	5	4	19	23
Tanguay	$3.50	5	5	17	22
Laich	$4.50	6	8	13	21
Connolly	$4.75	2	6	12	18
Gagne	$3.50	2	7	10	17
Ehrhoff	$4.00	10	3	14	17
Wisniewski	$5.50	6	2	15	17
Kaberle	$4.25	3	0	16	16
Pitkanen	$4.50	3	3	9	12
Leino	$4.50	6	3	7	10
Brewer	$3.85	4	1	9	10
Jovanovski	$4.12	4	2	6	8
Hamrlik	$3.50	2	1	3	4
Upshall	$3.50	4	1	2	3
Markov	$5.75	3	0	0	0
			GAA	SV%
Bryzgalov	$5.67	9	3.01	0.990