BEST JULY 1 FOR STARS

Silly signing day is upon us once again but don't expect Jackson, Hull and Company to go super shopping. They bought the groceries at the trade deadline when Brad Richards was brought to town so this should be a rather quiet Free Agent Free-For-All for the DStars.

Therefore instead of listening to me spitball about potential signees, the Boy looks back at the Club's summer signing history over the past decade.

1998 -- Brett Hull - team needed a goal scorer to capture a Cup, Gainey went out and got THE goal scorer. (And a future decision maker)

1999 -- None to speak of

2000 -- Van Allen, Tabarracci, Helenius...Who? Yawn!!!!!!

2001 -- Dimaio, Turgeon, Audette, Kamensky - this was like Ishtar or Waterworld, a total disaster. Dimaio was the best of the crop and did work as a Stars scout this season. Turgeon delivered about half of what was expected. Donald Audette proved to be just as useless and selfish as advertised. And Val Kamensky had one foot in retirement (Maybe that's why he fell all the time)

2003 -- Guerin, Young, Boucher, Downey - Kind of a mixed bag. Other than Boucher's record setting 2006-07 season, some goals from Billy G, and Downey's DJ work and one punch ability, most of them contributed only modestly to the cause. Guerin was bought out in 2005, Young retired with a bad back and Downey won a Cup with the Wings this year.

2005 -- Coming out of the Lockout teams had to buy a lot of players, and the Stars did ok.

2006 -- Halpern, Barnaby, Lindros and Barch. Who'd have thought Krys Barch would be the long termer. Barnaby is on TV, Lindros is involved in the NHLPA, and Halpern is rehabbing a destroyed knee in Tampa.

2007 -- Disappointed Stars fans wanted some star power, instead they got promissory notes and some toughness (Winchester and the short stay of Todd Fedoruk)

Happy Canada Day Y'all!