Alex Semin signs one year 7 million deal With Carolina

  The Carolina Hurricanes decided to make another big splash by singing Russian forward Alexander Semin to a one year 7 million deal (that is a lot of money for one year). The news came first from Yahoo's Puck Daddy contributor Dmitry Chesnokov who tweeted the singing out about an hour ago. This certainly came as a surprise to most seeing Carolina was done with moves after getting Jordan Stall from Pittsburgh and paying a lot for him.

Peoples reaction from twitter anyways was "what? how could you pay 7 million for him?", while i see why they would be confused this singing is a great move by the Canes. It gives a very talented offensive player a fresh start with some sick line mates to choose from (either Eric or Jordan Stall, it gets him out of a bad situation in Washington, and hopefully he will get a hell of a lot more ice time than he did with the Caps.

Despite a down year with the Caps, Semin has shown again that he can put the puck in the net despite people saying "he does not try, he is lazy" (which to me is absolute garbage to say about an NHL player) I see Semin thriving especially having the chance to play with a young core like Jeff Skinner, Jordan Staal, and Jussi Jokinien.

Carolina is going to be a ton of fun to watch and they have made themselves serious playoff contenders (that is if there is a season). I really hope Semin does well because nothing I like more than to see haters being shut down. I also find it funny how easily Mike Green got off the hook when Semin was there, if anything Mike Green was just as bad. Goes to show you should judge the players around one before you start to judge Alex Semin. He is a great young talent that will help Carolina finally have a positive season since their cup win.

Stay Classy.

Rick Nash? No thank you.

While friends Zach Parise and Ryan Suter make millions, millions,and millions one player that has wanted out (can you blame him its Columbus) is Jackets forward Rick Nash. The two time 40 goal scorer has voiced out saying that he wants a change out of Columbus. So far 5 teams have shown interest, The Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, (no surprise they tend to go after everyone) Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins , and the San Jose Sharks. I am writing to let you know why Rick Nash really is not worth the trouble and the players.

Firstly he has not gotten any better as he gained more experience as a player. From 41 goals to 30, his plus minus getting lower,  and his point production getting lower are you really going to possibly trade a future cornerstone or draft pick for a dude who is suppose  to be in his prime and soaring, instead is decline and not getting any better? I wouldn't especially not with that enormous 7.8 Million dollar cap hit contract yikes.

Secondly He does not seem to have that leadership step in him.He went 7 games without points and has had minus in those games so consistency is lacking and for a player who is payed like he his and how much hype Rick Nash gets this is concerning and worth a look through before saying he would be a good fit.

Finally  During the Blue Jackets short and i do mean short playoff stint Nash has only managed a goal and 2 assists while getting hit with a minus 4 rating. Now i know that the Jackets are not a good team whatsoever and Nash had little or no support while in Columbus during his playoff run However, only averaging one goal for the whole series is not what you would hope for for Nash. If you are a top contending team like Philly or Boston not having Nash perform in the playoffs is a concern when you expect him to help lead your team through the cup finals.

Rick Nash will eventually get dealt, i mean can anyone stand Columbus for their entire career? i doubt it, i couldn't that's for sure. Just make sure you are not the one acquiring him because a player like this could hurt Your team in the short and long term. Some of those prospects could turn out to be important even to a team like Columbus. The cap hit is huge and if you are the team that acquires him be very very cautious of what you give up because with a player like Nash the risk is far more higher than the reward, but hey for what it is worth, he did score a pretty cool goal once that you can see above.

Stay classy folks.

James Gleason (@jaysgleason)

P.S. he also was the cover athlete for nhl 2k9 so yeah there is that.