"Names don't score goals. Just because somebody gets paid a lot of money, that doesn't make them really great. Has everybody lost their hockey mind? Some of the GMs have a short attention span."--Carolina owner Peter Karmonos (on the offseason spending frenzy)

Yeah, you read that right. Now, I'm not going to argue with Mr. Karmonos' implication that a lot of players are overpaid, but let's look at that statement. "Just because somebody gets paid a lot of money, that doesn't make someone really great." Well, no, but a lot of players who are really great end up earning the big bucks. After the few teams who overspent on players they could suddenly afford this summer realize what a mistake they've made and how little cap room they have left, the days of insanely overpriced mediocre hockey players will be just about at an end. Perhaps if Peter Karmonos stopped to think "Hey, this guy can really score, so let's tailor his salary accordingly," they'd end up with some quality skaters. Past Erik Cole and Eric Staal, the 'Canes have a huge drop-off on their depth chart, with Rod Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney, and Cory Stillman - basically utility men, at this stage of their careers - expected to pick up the slack. Same story on defence, where the signing of Oleg Tverdovsky shored things up a little, but not much...and don't even look at their goaltending situation. It hurts.

In short, Mr. Karmonos might want to stop being jealous that the other teams signed players before he did, get out his wallet, and start throwing some money. Does anyone wonder why not even Carolina likes the Carolina Hurricanes?

Meanwhile, on Long Island...

Alexei Yashin has been named the Isles' captain. According to GM Mike Milbury, "At that kind of money ($7.6M per season), he's got to be the go-to guy." Now, there aren't a lot of players on the Islanders who I would give a C to, but Yashin certainly isn't one, either. They're really lacking quality leadership at this point, and Alexei Yashin isn't going to supply any - just look at what a jerk he was in Ottawa. Held out on the team, donated a million dollars to the local arts, then took it back...and was a dressing room cancer. Now, New York is in a tight spot here, because with the loss of Mike Peca and Adrian Aucoin - both born leaders - they have virtually no other holdovers who are anywhere near ready for that big letter on the jersey. Janne Niinimaa would be a better candidate, but he's also been threatening to go to Europe and stay there, so he's a liability. All in all, Yashin was the best of a bad choice, and it will be interesting to see how that affects things in an already-tense situation on the Island.