The NHL’s unrestricted free agent market starts on July 1st, 2008. Here’s a listing of the top UFAs as per their current teams (hat tip to NHLnumbers.com).
ANAHEIM: Selanne, Teemu Weight, Doug
ATLANTA: Hedberg, Johan Holik, Bobby Recchi, Mark
BOSTON: Auld, Alex Metropolit, Glen Ward, Aaron
BUFFALO: Kalinin, Dmitri
CAROLINA: Samsonov, Sergei Wesley, Glen
CALGARY: Conroy, Craig Huselius, Kristian Joseph, Curtis Langkow, Daymond Nolan, Owen Vandermeer, Jim
CHICAGO: Williams, Jason
COLUMBUS: Hainsey, Ron Tarnstrom, #### Vyborny, David
COLORADO: Brunette, Andrew Finger, Jeff Foote, Adam Forsberg, Peter Liles, John-Michael Sakic, Joe Sauer, Kurt Theodore, Jose
DALLAS: Hagman, Niklas Holmqvist, Johan Miettinen, Antti Norstrom, Mattias
DETROIT: Chelios, Chris Hasek, Dominik Lilja, Andreas Stuart, Brad
FLORIDA: Montador, Steve
LOS ANGELES: Blake, Rob Nagy, Ladislav
MINNESOTA: Demitra, Pavol Rolston, Brian
MONTREAL: Ryder, Michael Streit, Mark
NASHVILLE: Ellis, Dan
NEW JERSEY: Asham, Arron Pandolfo, Jay Salvador, Bryce
NY ISLANDERS: Berard, Bryan Satan, Miroslav Vasicek, Josef
NY RANGERS: Avery, Sean Malik, Marek Mara, Paul Rozsival, Michal Shanahan, Brendan Straka, Martin
OTTAWA: Commodore, Mike Kelly, Chris Redden, Wade Stillman, Cory
PHILADELPHIA: Prospal, Vaclav Smith, Jason
PHOENIX: Vrbata, Radim
PITTSBURGH: Conklin, Ty Hossa, Marian Laraque, Georges Malone, Ryan Orpik, Brooks Roberts, Gary Ruutu, Jarkko
SAN JOSE: Campbell, Brian Roenick, Jeremy
TORONTO: Sundin, Mats
VANCOUVER: Miller, Aaron Morrison, Brendan Naslund, Markus
WASHINGTON: Cooke, Matt Fedorov, Sergei Huet, Cristobal Kolzig, Olaf
Ruutu is so underrated; I loved him in Vancouver. Some dumb penalties but truly entertaining to watch and he was great for the community here.
I understand the need for Fox to watch what is posted, but seriously, that has to be annoying. It's annoying reading it and I'm not the author!
Be interesting to see what happens with the Rangers and what direction they'll take. I suppose you can add Jagr to the list.. That leaves them with their top offensive d-man and 3 potentially VERY productive forwards to resign AND Avery.
1) Definitly a dearth of quality goaltenders this summer for a team in need of adding one:
2) Hedberg, Auld, Theodore, Conklin, Huet, Kolzig. (Didn't include the geriatric Hasek or Joseph)
3) Of that only Huet, and MAYBE Theodore could be considered starters. The remainders are backups (despite Conklin's efforts this year)
From the Detroit list you take Daniel Cleary's name off, Chris Chelios is going to stay (he will not retire soon), Andreas Lilja is not going to block shots anywhere next year he will do that in Detroit, Brad Stuart has been playing without the limelight and pressure of LA and if anyone outside of Detroit has noticed he has been playing great for the team (he sign for more than the others on this list with the exception of Cleary he has earned every dollar he will make and will make), Hasek if the Wings win the Cup is expected to move on to another team or retire a winner. That will leave money for Stuart and Cleary.
As Chelios always signs for 1 mil or extra in bonus.
Lilja will around 1 mill.
All of these contracts with the one for Val Filpulla get done. That is my observation.
Holland cannot let Cleary and Stuart (based on his playoff performance--i am staying optimisitic here) get away.
I will be waiting to find out how it gets done in Detroit.
I hope Sather has a plan. Given that Dubinski's developed into a top center, it's hard to imagine Chris Drury as anything but a first- or second-line winger next year. The farm is stocked nicely, but I'm not so sure they're prepared for the big league.
Hopefully Roszival gets a decent contract. Mara and Malik are probably not coming back. If they sign Roszival, that leaves them with five starters; Roszival, Staal, Tyutin, Backman, and Girardi. Another top-tier defenseman would be nice.
delOH, Rev_Jester and brettuzzi - Just wanted to let you (and anyone else) know that you can turn the censor off. Just click on the BLEEP and you can easily choose to turn it off.
Malone and Orpik will probably be back and possibly Laraque, but word on the street is that Ruutu will be looking for a team where he can get more ice time.
I wouldn't mind seeing Shero signing Metropolit for the Pens checking line. He always seems to be a Pens-killer when we play the B's.
If you don't think Laraque is worth a million to the pens, you're crazy. Having the heavyweight champ on your team creates a lot of space.
As for the group, I think that there are a lot of usefull players here. I don't think that signing the best of the best to long term contracts is the way to go. Develop your tallent and signing mid level talent is the way to go, otherwise you wont be able to afford to hold onto your own guys.
I didn't say that I didn't think that Laraque was worth resigning. I'm just not sure if he will resign. H*ll yeah he's worth it. He not only can fight he has a little talent with the puck too...bonus!
Last edited by BlackGoldPenguin21 on March 11th at 10:43 AM.
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.
