Bits: Reviews of Isles moves, division rivals' free agency plays

The dust has settled and some prominent hockey media members finally get to take their vacation, but there are still some names out there on the free agent market. And for the Islanders (and several other teams), prospect camp begins this week, highlighted by the open-to-the-public Orange and Blue prospects scrimmage on Thursday.

Among the names still out there is Jaromir Jagr, whose agent says he has interest from multiple teams but that it "may take a while." It appears teams are re-assessing after the first wave of signings.

Here is a roundup of some news and moves, with a focus on the Islanders' competition in Conference Whatever next season.

• In a salary dump ($3.375 million cap hit), the Devils have traded defenseman Henrik Tallinder to Buffalo for Riley Boychuk, who Lou Lamoirello concedes is "a minor league player."
• The Devils try to explain their Ryan Clowe contract. And they say Clowe, Michael Ryder and Rotislav Olesz have them in good shape.
• The Rangers were pretty quiet, signing Dominic Moore and Aaron Johnson, almost as if cap troubles force Glen Sather to not get drunk on big-splash UFA deals. They sound close to re-signing Ryan McDonagh too. Damn you Bob Gainey.
  
• The Penguins retained Pascal Dupuis for 4 x $3.75 million and brought back Rob Scuderi on a 4 x $3.375 million deal with NTC control that could haunt them.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets made the big splash by betting on Nathan Horton's health for the next seven years. Shoulder surgery will keep him out until December, but it's an interesting team that will join the Isles in the [Your Sponsor's Name Here] Division.
• Meanwhile, the Capitals did nothing other than let someone else pay way too much and too long for Mike Ribeiro. The Hurricanes signed Anton Khudobin to play about as much as he played in Boston, and Mike Komisarek to play way more than he played in Toronto. (Yes, these teams are in your Division X next year. Get used to it.)
• In case you missed it before the market opened, Claude Giroux re-signed with the Flyers for eight years, $66.2 million. Even if he didn't tweet it, Ken Campbell probably thought something like, "Hope Giroux is ready to be the next Ilya Bryzgalov."

Ex-Islanders Category

• Sticking with the Flyers, Yann Danis is in their fold for the AHL and the if-Steve-Mason-and-Ray-Emery-stink role.
• Copper & Blue looks at the Oilers' decision to give Jesse Joensuu a raise and two years and goes WTF? Add that to the re-signing of Ryan Jones, and it's a double WTF?
  
• By the way, here is C&B's judgment on winners and losers of free agency so far. And Puck Daddy's post on underrated signings also likes the Bouchard move.
• Rick DiPietro says he will play again. ("Ex-Islanders Category." See what I did there?)
• Current Islanders: Here is the official site's take on the new signings.

Elsewhere

• Speaking of WTF, what is Dave Nonis doing with the Leafs?
• Interesting read from Elliotte Friedman theorizing on where things may have gone wrong for the Senators and Daniel Alfredsson. The upshot of Friedman's theory: When a franchise player takes discount after discount, don't low-ball him in his old age.
  
• Ironically, the Sens got better anyway because they traded for Bobby Ryan and added Clarke MacArthur.
• Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli kind of trolls the Senators.
• $5.5 million for Alfredsson (including potential bonuses) sounds like a lot. So does $6 million for Jarome Iginla, but it too is a small base ($1.8 million) with the chance for big bonuses.
  
• Dallas made a ton of moves, including trading for Shawn Horcoff. Here is a mc79hockey defense of Horcoff's tenure with the Oilers.
• And here is Dallas already having to deal with external "character" issue things around Tyler Seguin. For the record, Seguin says his Twitter was hacked, but he has a history.
• The Blues gave Derek Roy $4 million. They also added punk Maxim Lapierre.
• Not free agency at all: On accounting for shootout randomness, and not calling the other thing "a loser point."

Here is nhl.com's full running list of contract signings with links to stories, usually without terms disclosed because those are only posted on CapGeek. If you were living under a rock that tragically does not include Lighthouse Hockey, here is all of our free agency coverage and chit-chat from the weekend.