With the NHL trade deadline now past the next notable round of player movement won’t occur until June, 2008, and most of it will be free agents signing with new teams.
While the focus as always will be on unrestricted free agents, this summer the threat of offer sheets is now a very real one, thus hockey fans will be nervously watching the contract talks of their favorite restricted free agent players as July 1st approaches.
Many teams haven’t wasted time this season, locking up their best RFA players to lengthy, long-term contracts now rather than risk another club either setting the price or plucking them away.
As a result, the list of the top RFA players has shrunk considerably since the start of the season, but there still remains some quality talent who, if unsigned by July 1st, could be tempting targets for offer sheets. It’ll be interesting to see how many of the following are re-upped by the end of June:
Anaheim: Corey Perry.
Columbus: Pascal LeClaire.
Detroit: Valtteri Filppula
Edmonton: Tom Gilbert and Joni Pitkanen.
Florida: Jay Bouwmeester.
Minnesota: Pierre-Marc Bouchard.
Montreal: Andrei Kostitsyn.
Nashville: Martin Erat, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.
Man... that's a hell of a lot of defensemen!! Heck there's a pretty good starting line-up there if you ask me.
Being an Oil fan I'm confident that Gilbert will be signed before anyone can give him an offer... Pitkanen on the other hand is great... but I wonder if Edmonton is gonna give another team a chance to sign him and then decide on whether the picks they'll get in return are worth more than what they'll get out of him in the coming year. Don't get me wrong, I'm a uge Pitkanen fan.
Then there's Jeff Carter. He's having a good year and putting up nice numbers considering he isn't playing on the first line. I wonder if Philly can afford to sign him. I wouldn't be surprised if they let him go for picks, or traded his rights to another team for a defenseman.
1) If we were betting we'd say that at least 1/2 of those never see RFA status come July 1st! A couple may be draft day trade fodder as well.
2) Not surprising that the huge list of potential RFA's that many saw last fall has evaporated. As we wrote back then, GM's should thank Mr. Lowe for opening the RFA Pandora's box, and most won't want to tempt fate.
http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/09 /extension-fever.html
Last edited by fauxrumors5 on March 7th at 10:20 AM.
Hey Spector, any news on Ryan Miller out of Buffalo? I heard a rumor that after his contract is up that he would definitely be signing with the Red Wings. As excited as I would be to have my favorite goalie come play in Hockeytown, I was wondering if there was any truth to that rumor or any possibility.
Ryan Miller to Detroit? That would solve the question of who will be the goalie after Hasek is done? And with the defensive depth that the Red Wings have he would not left all alone like he is in Buffalo now.
The Red Wings will resign Stuart since his arrival in Hockeytown he been reborn and with Lidstrom back next week the Wings would welcome the Hobey Baker winner from Michigan State.
Sign him Holland!
Thanks Spector but since Miller is from MI (East Lansing) he would fit with the fans and the team.
And we can hope right. He would like to play near family and friends.
hey I bet he is hoping for that deal.
But whatever Miller will be a top goalie whereever his team is.
Thanks again Spector.
So what happens in Pittsburgh Spector? The bank will be blown a part if the Pens try to sign Hossa and Malkin. I'm not sure when Malones' contract expires, which would be more sauce for the goose because of Fleury. Too many players.. not enough money to go around. Who needs to pick up a change of address form after this season?
Can the Flyers resign Jeff Carter and still have room to add and resign other players. They certainly have a log jam at the forward position. A trade would be an option, but I think they would be better off seing if he gets an offer shhet and taking the picks.
I'm kinda expecting Corey Perry to sign an extension within a few weeks. He's cooling his heels (actually, his quadricep) recovering from injury. I don't expect Burke to rest on his laurels and give other GMs a hint that Corey won't be in an Anaheim jersey, next year.
Brian has to be sweating bullets, estimating what the salary cap will be next year. Regardless... SIGN COREY!
No way Buffalo can afford to let Miller walk, if that happens then they minds well just sell the rest of the club off and shut the doors.
Spector, any rumors of the Sabres being interested in Jeff Carter? The rumblings around here is that they may pull an Edmonton and try to sign him to an offer sheet come July. I really think they might be better off finding some Defensive help but Carter has looked real good in the second half.
I think that might wishful thinking, the Sabres signing Carter to an offer sheet. As you noted, they need to bolster their defence more than they need another scoring forward.
Are the Caps going to let Mike Green drive up the price on the market? He is due for a huge raise next year. He is probably going to get about 3.5 a year if not more. I see that the Capitols have the space to sign him. With his age and talent, teams are going to drive up the price. He is a restricted free agent, please elaborate the rules for us.....
Green won't "drive up the price". His agent and Capitals management will sit down and attempt to work out a deal. His agent will try to land him a contract comparable to defensemen of his skill and experience, and the Capitals will try to sign him to what they can comfortably afford. The rising salary cap is what will "drive up prices" as teams will have more money to spend.
If the Caps are smart, they'll re-sign him to a long-term contract worth between $2.5-$3 million per and do it before July 1st, to prevent him from getting an expensive offer sheet from a rival club. It's the offer sheet that has the potential for him to get a contract that would be worth considerably more than $3 million per.
With all the cap room the canucks are about to recieve assuming naslund and morrison aren't goin to be resigned who do you think they'll make a play for? unrestricted or restricted.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
