Garth Snow's Worst Day Of The Season? 7/1

Here it is the worst day in the calendar year for Garth Snow..........July 1st.

The days of Parenteau, Moulson, Streit are long gone where Snow signed the right players at exactly the right time.

Sure the UFA classes have not been very good for several years, this one is no different. 

Too many Pierre Marc Bouchard, Peter Regin summers since.

I know Snow tried for the top free agents last July 1st, without front-loaded money it was not going to happen, and the over-35 players were not interested.

He could not get a Mike Cammalleri to put with Tavares.

Anders Lee looks like his best alternative for now.

I do not see anyone touching Grabner's five million dollar contract for anything.

Just take a look back at last July 1st-2nd if you have any doubts about Snow's recent struggles in UFA.

Also the failure in Bridgeport goes on Garth Snow. The Sound Tigers have had one first place year since their inaugural season, and far too many well out of contention.

Snow needs to develop at the AHL level but he also needs some players who can win games, those fans have endured some horrible seasons, and it's not improving with Johan Sundstrom, John Persson gone from the AHL for good. 

Folks forget how bad this team was going to be based on last July, it was obvious in preseason they were a 29th place team with no defense until other teams had to unload players to clear cap space.

Without those trades Garth Snow/Jack Capuano are out of a job today. 

I wrote about it long before that final preseason game in Bridgeport, where the Bruins barely let the Islanders register a quality chance, and dismantled them with physical play.

John Tavares is two summers from UFA, you can bet he wants some proven scorers who will get their twenty goals, and give him space on the ice. 

Twenty million for Grabovski, a career center, who came here, not to be a center until the final playoff games, struggling to produce far too often between concussions.

Seventeen million for Kulemin, who played to his career trends, which was not bad, but hardly the answer at first line left wing  or should have been there in game seven, regardless what he did in game six. 

Cory Conacher, who got far too long a look, and did not produce with Tavares or in the AHL until he went to another organization.

Jack Skille claimed off waivers.

T.J Brennan, who was placed on waivers when he got to Chicago, with even Snow passing on reclaiming the player he signed. 

Two years for Chad Johnson, who outplayed Halak in camp, only to regress to the point he could not be trusted in goal, it was a miracle to unload the second year.

Snow does not need home runs this July, and has a lot of his lineup set, but he does need players with a resume or true potential who can really help.

Donovan at his age is a loss, we never got to know if he could help here. Expect the Colin McDonald, Eric Boulton, Tyler Kennedy, Lubomir Visnovsky, Matt Carkner era to end. 

The one on my list with be Jiri Tlusty, who struggled on some injured Canes teams, but has hands/skills and ability lacking among the veterans here, he was traded to Winnipeg at the deadline.

I'm sure some remember how many games he dominated against the Islanders?

No, he's not the answer for Tavares on paper, and I don't see Kirill Petrov the answer either. 

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