The Gustavsson Watch: He Chooses Toronto?

Seems as if the Gustavsson Watch here at TDSA has finally come to a close.  Reports are saying that the Swedish goalie has chosen to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs over the other three candidates.  I am generally pretty decent at predicting hockey outcomes – but I am genuinely surprised by this move – I was pretty sure he’d go with Dallas.

I’m liking Burke less and less.

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The Gustavsson Watch: 7/5/2009

While no real updates or news have passed throught he lips of the Swedish goaltender in some time, Dallas isn’t letting Brian Burke be the only guy who can try to push him in their favor.  Apparently, Neiuwendyk has recruited Fabian Brunnstrom – an ex-teammate of Gustavsson – to try to convince him that Dallas is indeed the place he needs to be come the start of the season.  Brunnstrom had dinner with Jonas in Sweden recently and we can only hope that he knows just what to say – I assume he’s better with his native tongue than he is with English, after all.

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The Gustavsson Watch: July 3rd

There’s still nothing even resembling an answer from the Swedish goalie.

“It is very difficult to say. It may be tomorrow, or in a week,” Gustavsson told Expressen.  But as soon as possible, I would like to have everything clear, but it has to be the right decision.”

All four teams (Colorado, Toronto, Dallas and San Jose) are supposedly still on The Monster‘s list though many still report that the list is actually shortened to just Dallas and Toronto at this time.  You have to think that Colorado and San Jose themselves gave up on July 1st with the procuring of two goalies trying to shore up their situation at the position without relying on the 25 percent chance that the goalie will choose them.  Should Dallas do the same?  At this point it’s looking more and more like a good idea – but I still stand behind Joe’s decision to wait at this point.  That’s not to say I will still be such a great supporter tomorrow or the day after.

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Following Free Agency: End of Day 2

Well the day will have officially come to an end by the time this is published.  To call it exciting would be a lie – it was pretty slow compared to yesterday’s flabbergasting state of affairs.

The day had three major points (though they were probably more minor in the scheme of things) –

1. Gustavsson still delays even though Burke meets him in Sweden to talk him into Toronto
2. Zubov is apparently getting quite a few offers from other teams, NYR and St. Louis two of the top contenders.\
3. Skrastins signed for 2 years.

While Dallas finally made a move on the Free Agent market, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as anything that resembles exciting.  But it did ease my soul a bit and made for a nice “brain apocalypse” on the Stars defensive line.  I had time to read around about the new guy.  If you didn’t read earlier or haven’t explored him since the signing – here are a few key facts about Skrastins:

• Finished with a +9 last season with the Panthers playing 80 games
• Won an Iron Man award for his lack of injuries and holds the record for most consecutive games played by a defensemen.
• Averages 20 minutes ice time per game.  For a lot of the first half of the season he played the most time on the PK of anyone else on the team.
• Blocks a ton of shots.

That said he’s a 34 year old Defensive Defensemen who was drafted by Nashville then went to Colorado for a bit before heading to Atlanta.  In between those he played in Latvia – his native country (not in Mexico).  If nothing else it will be a nice change for us to snag someone who isn’t going to go out for half a season every season after the season we had last year and the problems we’ve had with our veterans lately.

It begs the question – what role is taking up and where does that leave the defense core as a whole?

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The Gustavsson Watch: 7/1/2009

Reportedly Brian Burke (Toronto GM) is on his way to Sweden to try and coerce Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson into a Maple Leafs jersey.  This probably doesn’t bode well for Dallas though we can hope he sees this as desperate and annoying.  Let’s hope that over zealous agent of his does his job and lets the kid decide without outside influences like a desperate GM flying over seas to see him, making things difficult – or that Joe flies over there too and they battle to the death.

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The Gustavsson Watch: 6/30/2009 (Pt.1)

According to Gustavsson’s “People” – he is supposed to make his decision before July 1st.  It hasn’t been made as of 6:30 am (CST) – that means we have until midnight tonight to hear from him.  I suppose he could technically give us his answer ON July 1st but that would be evil of him and who wants an evil goaltender on their team? We already have Marty Turco to punish us for our sins with terrible seasons and painful goals that involve him traveling out to the blueline or checking oncoming players.

At any rate, this entry is a primer that will hopefully lead to another later today that tells us just wear the young man chooses to tend this coming season as his first in the NHL.  In case anyone has forgotten, he’s listed four and while many were under the impression he had cut it down to two – he reaffirmed that as of yesterday (29th) he still has all four on his list.

• Dallas
• Toronto
• San Jose
• Colorado

And also I was directed to a nice article over at “The Goalie Guild” by Andrew’s blog about the destinations that you can find here: http://thegoalieguild.com/2009/06/20/a-blind-step-over-the-edge/

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