Lukewarm

There seem to be two camps of Habs fans at the moment: the staunch supporters and the doomsday merchants.

I fall roughly in the middle of the two groups and I'm feeling a bit lonely at the moment. I wonder if there are many others out there who feel neither hot under the collar, nor coolly unstirred, but lukewarm.

Two signings took place yesterday for the Canadiens: Hamrlik and Smolinski. 24 million dollars was spent for 5 years worth of service.

Hamrlik career
Smolinski career

From one point of view, the players we got were good considering the circumstances. From another, the money we spent was disappointing. In terms of this year, we have the cap space, so we might as well spend the money. So, in my books the Smolinski signing is alright. The remaining 3 years for Hamrlik won't be looking so good if it costs us some young guys down the line.

In a best case scenario, Hamrlik will play good defense, mentor a youg player and manage to play for his whole contract; and Smolinski will chip in 40 points and help some young guys learn how to play in the league. At worst, they'll be drags on the team and block our capability to sign other players. Given these two guys have been pretty consistent over 990 games each, I don't see the latter scenario as likely.

I really just can't get too excited about all this, can you tell?