I was frustrated by the limitations when trying to sign players. Apparently it's not allowed to sign or approach players from different Canadian leagues. Anyway, I decided to look further, but no single NHL team wanted to gamble on an unproven Dutch manager, so I resigned from Kamloops, added myself again as manager a week before the Draft and took over a NHL team who were looking for a new GM. I usually play in the Eastern Conference, but the only team available was Rangers and I hate the Rangers. So I had to chose between Anaheim and Columbus. Anaheim finished just outside the play/offs and Columbus ended up 14th, with twice the points (73) of wooden spoon St Louis Blues (37). With Nash, Foote and Zherdev they do have some good guys and I took over the Jackets. Blues won the Draft Lottery, I got 2nd overall pick and took Jordan Staal. Michael Frolik went to St Louis by the way. There were a lot of expiring contracts, with goalie Marc Denis and RW David Vyborny as the only big guys. I let them both go and decided to spend the $10.000.000 i had left on salary on a goalie and some good forwards.
Well, finding a good goalie is not so hard, but I ended up with David Aebischer. Not my first choice, to be honest. He didn't ask a lot of money and he is still a very good player, so Aebischer took the place between the sticks. Next in town was Olli Jokinen, a proven guy who is a star player for a team like the Jackets. Marc Savard, Mark Parrish and Petr Sykora went to Columbus as well. In October I traded Suter to Columbus for Brule. My line-up for most of the games was:
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Nash - Savard - Zherdev
Fritsche - Jokinen - Sykora
Holmstrom - Svitov - Parrish
Picard - Stoll - Hinote
Suter - Berard
Klesla - Foote
Ballard - Westcotte
Aebischer
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The season started with 4 home games, followed by 2 on the road and I won them all. Even better, I blasted away all teams. I quickly took the top spot in the Central Division and never gave it away, giving me the 3rd place in the West at the end of regular season. Stars and Flames were a lot better, but my .671 win percentage wasn't bad. I played Nashville in the play-off and earned a hard fought 4-1 win. Canucks were swept in the semi final and despite a win in Dallas, the Stars won the Conference final and eventually the Stanley Cup.
