NHL 2006 Off-Season

So there’re only two teams left in the NHL now eh? Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Well my Habs were eliminated in the first round and I want to know what’s up with them. I know there’re a lot of other hockey fans out there who want to know the same about their team(s).


Well I came across a website (http://www.geocities.com/floridapanthers2000/free2006.html) with the information on every restricted and unrestricted free agent in the league. I was excited to find it, but found it was too difficult to navigate because the players weren’t organized in terms of position (defense/forward/goalie). But have no fear, yours truly, Hockey_Expert, had nothing to do today when all of Saturday’s hockey was over (except homework…HAH) so I decided to watse my entire day revamping this list so it was easier to go through for everyone.

BEHOLD

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If anyone plans to post this list somewhere else, feel free to do so. If you do, make sure to give credit to the website (http://www.geocities.com/floridapanthers2000/free2006.html), not me.

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UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT (UFA): If an unrestricted free agent accepts an offer, his former team has no right to match the contract. (ex. Atlanta offers Dunham $1mil/year, Ottawa offers Dunham $1.5mil/year, Dunham accepts Ottawa’s offer, Dunham is a Sen for $1.5mil/year)

RESTRICTED FREE AGENT (RFA): If a restriced free agent accepts an offer, his former team has rights to match the offer, or let the player go and get a draft pick compensation. (ex 1. Boston offers Bryzgalov $4mil/year, Anaheim matches the offer, Bryzgalov is a Duck, Boston gets nothing) (ex 2. Boston offers Bryzgalov $4mil/year, Anaheim does not match the offer, Bryzgalov is a Bruin, Anaheim gets one of Boston’s draft picks)

Note: highest amount of money offered is irrelevant.

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*****ALL LISTS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY TEAM*****

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*————–GOALTENDERS————-*

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Unrestricted Goalies:

ANA – No unrestricted goalies

Mike Dunham – ATL

Steve Shields – ATL

BOS – No unrestricted goalies

Martin Biron – BUF

Brian Boucher – CGY

Martin Gerber – CAR

CHI – No unrestricted goalies

COL – No unrestricted goalies

Martin Prusek – CBJ

Johan Hedberg – DAL

Manny Legace – DET

Chris Osgood – DET

Dwayne Roloson – EDM

Jamie McLennan – FLA

LAK – No unrestricted goalies

MIN – No unrestricted goalies

Yann Danis – MTL

Cristobal Huet – MTL

Chris Mason – NSH

Scott Clemmenson – NJD

Wade Dubielwicz – NYI

NYR – No unrestricted goalies

Dominik Hasek – OTT

Jamie Storr – PHI

Curtis Joseph – PHX

Dany Sabourin – PIT

Patrick Lalime – STL

Nolan Schaefer – SJS

John Grahame – TBL

Ed Belfour – TOR

Wade Flaherty – VAN

Maxime Ouellet – VAN

Brent Johnson – WSH

Restricted Goalies:

Ilya Bryzgalov – ANA

Michael Garnett – ATL

Kari Lehtonen – ATL

Adam Berkhoel – ATL

Andrew Raycroft – BOS

Hannu Toivonen – BOS

Michael Leighton – BUF

Ryan Miller – BUF

CGY – No restricted goalies

CAR – No restricted goalies

Adam Munro – CHI

Vitaly Kolesnik – COL

Peter Budaj – COL

Marc Denis – CBJ

Pascal LeClaire – CBJ

DAL – No restricted goalies

DET – No restricted goalies

EDM – No restricted goalies

Roberto Luongo – FLA

Mathieu Garon – LAK

Josh Harding – MIN

David Aebischer – MTL

Brian Finley – NSH

NJD – No restricted goalies

Rick DiPietro – NYI

NYR – No restricted goalies

Ray Emery – OTT

Mike Morrison – OTT

Antero Nittymaki – PHI

David LeNeveu – PHX

Phillipe Sauve – PHX

Andy Chiodo – PIT

Marc-Andre Fleury – PIT

Jason Bacashihua – STL

Curtis Sanford – STL

SJS – No restricted goalies

TBL – No restricted goalies

Jean-Francois Racine – TOR

Mikael Tellqvist – TOR

Alex Auld – VAN

Mika Noronen – VAN

WSH – No restricted goalies

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*—————-FORWARDS—————*

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UFA Forwards (worth mentioning):

Teemu Selanne – ANA

Jeff Friesen – ANA

Tyler Wright – ANA

Marc Savard – ATL

Peter Bondra – ATL

Scott Mellanby – ATL

Ramzi Abid – ATL

Mariusz Czerkawski – BOS

Tom Fitzgerald – BOS

Brad Isbister – BOS

Marty Reasoner – BOS

Mike Grier – BUF

Chris Taylor – BUF

Andrew Peters – BUF

Shean Donovan – CGY

Mike LeClerc – CGY

Craig MacDonald – CGY

Chris Simon – CGY

Craig Adams – CAR

Matt Cullen – CAR

Mark Recchi – CAR

Doug Weight – CAR

Eric Daze – CHI

Eric Meloche – CHI

Mark Cullen – CHI

Joe Sakic – COL

Jim Dowd – COL

Dan Hinote – COL

Antti Laaksonen – COL

Jan Hrdina – CBJ

Trevor Letowski – CBJ

Jody Shelley – CBJ

Jason Arnott – DAL

Mattias Tjarnqvist – DAL

Brendan Shanahan – DET

Mark Mowers – DET

Steve Yzerman – DET

Radek Dvorak – EDM

Todd Harvey – EDM

Georges Laraque – EDM

Rem Murray – EDM

Fernando Pisani – EDM

Sergei Samsonov – EDM

Mike Peca – EDM

Denis Shvidki – FLA

Derek Armstrong – LAK

Valeri Bure – LAK

Mark Parrish – LAK

Jeremy Roenick – LAK

Marc Chouinard – MIN

Randy Robitaille – MIN

Jan Bulis – MTL

Aaron Downey – MTL

Niklas Sundstrom – MTL

Yannic Perreault – NSH

Mike Sillinger – NSH

Patrik Elias – NJD

Viktor Kozlov – NJD

Jay Pandolfo – NJD

Erik Rasmussen – NJD

Jamie Langenbrunner – NJD

Travis Brigley – NYI

Wyatt Smith – NYI

Justin Mapletoft – NYI

Steve Rucchin – NYR

Martin Rucinsky – NYR

Martin Straka – NYR

Petr Sykora – NYR

Steve Martins – OTT

Vaclav Varada – OTT

Donald Brashear – PHI

Brian Savage – PHI

Boyd Deveraux – PHX

Mike Ricci – PHX

Geoff Sanderson – PHX

Eric Boguniecki – PIT

Robert Scuderi – PIT

Martin Strbak – PIT

Aleksey Morozov – PIT

Dean McAmmond – STL

Dallas Drake – STL

Petr Cajanek – STL

Ryan Johnson – STL

Jamal Mayers – STL

Vladimir Orzagh – STL

Scott Young – STL

Scott Thornton – SJS

Alyn McCauley – SJS

Ville Nieminen – SJS

Chris Dingman – TBL

Clark Wilm – TOR

Jason Allison – TOR

Eric Lindros – TOR

John Pohl – TOR

Anson Carter – VAN

Jarkko Ruttu – VAN

Trevor Linden – VAN

Richard Park – VAN

Chris Clark – WSH

Brian Willsie – WSH

Andrew Cassels – WSH

Jeff Halpern – WSH

RFA Forwards (worth mentioning):

Stanislav Chistov – ANA

Chris Kunitz – ANA

Joffrey Lupul – ANA

Andy McDonald – ANA

Travis Moen – ANA

Patrik Stefan – ATL

Patrice Bergeron – BOS

Brad Boyes – BOS

Josh Langfeld – BOS

Maxim Afinogenov – BUF

Daniel Briere – BUF

Tim Connolly – BUF

Jean-Pierre Dumont – BUF

Paul Gaustad – BUF

Ales Kotalik – BUF

Adam Mair – BUF

Jason Pominville – BUF

Taylor Pyatt – BUF

Derek Roy – BUF

Kristian Huselius – CGY

Chuck Kobasew – CGY

Matt Lombardi – CGY

Jamie Lundmark – CGY

Erik Cole – CAR

Chad Larose – CAR

Eric Staal – CAR

Justin Williams – CAR

Mark Bell – CHI

Rene Bourque – CHI

Kyle Calder – CHI

Michael Holmqvist – CHI

Tuomo Ruutu – CHI

Pavel Vorobiev – CHI

Radim Vrbata – CHI

Cody McCormick – COL

Brett McLean – COL

Marek Svatos – COL

Alex Tanguay – COL

Jaroslav Balastik – CBJ

Jason Chimera – CBJ

Dan Fritsche – CBJ

Manny Malhotra – CBJ

Michael Rupp – CBJ

Alexander Svitov – CBJ

Nikolai Zherdev – CBJ

Niklas Hagman – DAL

Niko Kapanen – DAL

Steve Ott – DAL

Jaroslav Svoboda – DAL

Dan Cleary – DET

Johan Franzen – DET

Jason Williams – DET

Ales Hemsky – EDM

Shawn Horcoff – EDM

Jarrett Stoll – EDM

Greg Campbell – FLA

Nathan Horton – FLA

Juraj Kolnik – FLA

Vaclav Nedorost – FLA

Serge Payer – FLA

Jon Sim – FLA

Stephen Weiss – FLA

Sean Avery – LAK

Eric Belanger – LAK

Dustin Brown – LAK

Mike Cammalleri – LAK

Derek Boogard – MIN

Pierre-Marc Bouchard – MIN

Brent Burns – MIN (has played all positions but goalie)

Pascal Dupuis – MIN

Marian Gaborik – MIN

Mikko Koivu – MIN

Steve Begin – MTL

Pierre Dagenais – MTL

Chris Higgins – MTL

Garth Murray – MTL

Alexander Perezhogan – MTL

Mike Ribeiro – MTL

Michael Ryder – MTL

Denis Arkhipov – NSH

Martin Erat – NSH

Vern Fiddler – NSH

Adam Hall – NSH

Scott Hartnell – NSH

David Legwand – NSH

Jerred Smithson – NSH

Jordin Tootoo – NSH

Scottie Upshall – NSH

Brian Gionta – NJD

Scott Gomez – NJD

Arron Asham – NYI

Sean Bergenheim – NYI

Eric Godard – NYI

Trent Hunter – NYI

Justin Papineau – NYI

Mike York – NYI

Blair Betts – NYR

Marcel Hossa – NYR

Dominic Moore – NYR

Colton Orr – NYR

Jed Ortmeyer – NYR

Jason Ward – NYR

Tyler Arnason – OTT

Martin Havlat – OTT

Chris Kelly – OTT

Brian McGratton – OTT

Chris Neil – OTT

Peter Schaefer – OTT

Jason Spezza – OTT

Antoinne Vermette – OTT

Matt Ellison – PHI

Simon Gagne – PHI

Branko Radivojevic – PHI

RJ Umberger – PHI

Mike Comrie – PHX

Sheldon Keefe – PHX

Oleg Kvasha – PHX

Ladislav Nagy – PHX

Oleg Saprykin – PHX

Fredrik Sjostrom – PHX

Jeff Taffe – PHX

Andy Hilbert – PIT

Krys Kolanos – PIT

Konstantin Koltsov – PIT

Milan Kraft – PIT (played in Europe this year)

Ryan Malone – PIT

Tomas Surovy – PIT

Jesse Boulerice – STL

Jay McClement – STL

Mark Rycroft – STL

Peter Sejna – STL

Timofei Shishkanov – STL

Mike Zigomanis – STL

Marcel Goc – SJS

Alexander Korolyuk – SJS (played in Europe this year)

Milan Michalek – SJS

Scott Parker – SJS

Mark Smith – SJS

Grant Stevenson – SJS

Dmitri Afanasenkov – TBL

Nikita Alexeev – TBL (played in Russia this year)

Evgeny Artyukhin – TBL

Martin Cibak – TBL

Ryan Craig – TBL

Ruslan Fedotenko – TBL

Brad Richards – TBL

Nik Antropov – TOR

Matt Stajan – TOR

Alexander Suglobov – TOR

Kyle Wellwood – TOR

Jozef Balej – VAN

Tyler Bouck – VAN

Wade Brookbank – VAN

Artem Chubarov – VAN (played in Russia this year)

Lee Goren – VAN

Josh Green – VAN

Ryan Kesler – VAN

Jason King – VAN

Daniel Sedin – VAN

Henrik Sedin – VAN

Kris Beech – WSH

Matt Bradley – WSH

Ben Clymer – WSH

Rico Fata – WSH

Boyd Gordon – WSH

Brooks Laich – WSH

Matt Pettinger – WSH

Brian Sutherby – WSH

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UFA Defensmen (worth mentioning):

Ruslan Salei – ANA

Niclas Havelid – ATL

Hal Gill – BOS

Brian Leetch – BOS

Jiri Slegr – BOS

Ian Moran – BOS

Rory Fitzpatrick – BUF

Teppo Numminen – BUF

Jay McKee – BUF

Cale Hulse – CGY

Bryan Marchment – CGY

Niclas Wallin – CAR

Aaron Ward – CAR

Glen Wesley – CAR

Frantisek Kaberle – CAR

CHI – No unrestricted defensmen

Rob Blake – COL

Bob Boughner – COL

Brett Clark – COL

Karlis Skrastins – COL

Radoslav Suchy – CBJ

Jamie Pushor – CBJ

Jon Klemm – DAL

Patrick Traverse – DAL

Willie Mitchell – DAL

Cory Cross – DET

Jason Woolley – DET

Chris Chelios – DET

Niklas Lidstrom – DET

Jaroslav Spacek – EDM

Dick Tarnstrom – EDM

Igor Ulanov – EDM

Sean Hill – FLA

Jamie Allison – FLA

Alexander Karpovtsev – FLA

Joe Corvo – LAK

Nathan Dempsey – LAK

Filip Kuba – MIN

Andrei Zyuzin – MIN

Francis Bouillon – MTL

Todd Simpson – MTL

Danny Markov – NSH

Brendan Witt – NSH

Tommy Albelin – NJD

Ken Klee – NJD

Joel Bouchard – NYI

Kenny Jonsson – NYI

Tom Poti – NYR

Zdeno Chara – OTT

Wade Redden – OTT

Brian Pothier – OTT

Eric Desjardins – PHI

Kim Johnsson – PHI

Chris Therien – PHI

Jamie Rivers – PHX

Chris McAllister – PHX

Lyle Odelein – PIT

Kevin Dallman – STL

Steve Poapst – STL

Bryce Salvador – STL

Pat Rissmiller – SJS

Cory Sarich – TBL

Pavel Kubina – TBL

Alexander Khavanov – TOR

Luke Richardson – TOR

Bryan McCabe – TOR

Ed Jovanovski – VAN

Nolan Baumgartner – VAN

Sean Brown – VAN

Sven Butenschon – VAN

Keith Carney – VAN

Jason Doig – VAN

Eric Weinrich – VAN

Ivan Majesky – WSH

RFA Defensmen (worth mentioning):

Joe DiPenta – ANA

Todd Fedoruk – ANA

Maxim Kondratiev – ANA

Vitali Vishnevsky – ANA

Steve McCarthy – ATL

Tomas Kloucek – ATL

Andrew Alberts – BOS

Nick Boynton – BOS

Milan Jurcina – BOS

David Tanabe – BOS

Brian Campbell – BUF

Jeff Jillson – BUF

Dmitri Kalinin – BUF

Toni Lydman – BUF

Henrik Tallinder – BUF

Andrew Ference – CGY

Mike Commodore – CAR

Michal Barinka – CHI

Duncan Keith – CHI

Jim Vandermeer – CHI

John-Michael Liles – COL

Kurt Sauer – COL

Ossi Vaananen – COL

Ron Hainsey – CBJ

Trevor Daley – DAL

Brett Lebda – DET

EDM – No restricted defensmen

Jay Bouwmeester – FLA

Ric Jackman – FLA

Lukas Krajicek – FLA

Branislav Mezei – FLA

Steve Montador – FLA

Alexei Semenov – FLA

Mike Van Ryn – FLA

Tim Gleason – LAK

Mike Weaver – LAK

Brent Burns – MIN (has played all positions but goalie)

Kurtis Foster – MIN

Alex Henry – MIN

Nick Schultz – MIN

Daniel Tjarnqvist – MIN

Mike Komisarek – MTL

Mark Streit – MTL

Dan Hamhuis – NSH

Brad Ference – NJD

David Hale – NJD

Paul Martin – NJD

Colin White – NJD

Chris Campoli – NYI

John Erskine – NYI

Denis Grebeshkov – NYI

Michal Rozsival – NYR

Fedor Tyutin – NYR

Tomas Malec – OTT

Christoph Schubert – OTT

Lance Ward – OTT

Joni Pitkanen – PHI

Paul Mara – PHX

Dennis Seidenberg – PHX

Matt Spiller – PHX

Brooks Orpik – PIT

Christian Backman – STL

Eric Brewer – STL

Matt Walker – STL

Jeff Woywitka – STL

Rob Davison – SJS

Christian Ehrhoff – SJS

Jim Fahey – SJS

Josh Gorges – SJS

TBL – No restricted defensmen

Carlo Colaiacovo – TOR

Jay Harrison – TOR

Karel Pilar – TOR

Ian White – TOR

Bryan Allen – VAN

Mathieu Biron – WSH

Steve Eminger – WSH

Shaone Morrison – WSH

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That’s it.

Once again, I got all this information from this website:

http://www.geocities.com/floridapanthers2000/free2006.html

I just rearanged it so it would be esier to navigate.

Sorry if I missed any important players, go ahead and correct me if I did. The same goes for typos, or any other mistake for that matter.

Keep in mind I can’t verify that the list on the wesite is even 100% accurate either.

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So now, onto my opinion. Gainey should (and probably will) sign both Heut and Aebischer to give the Habs that one-two punch in goal he was looking for the Habs to get. I wouldn’t mind giving up Danis as I don’t any potential in him beyond the role of a third string goalie. If they let him go, however, they would have to sign a new third string goalie (unless Lasak is good enough to take Danis’ job now. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen Lasak play). Personally, Downey is the only Montreal UFA forward I’d like to see back. Bulis is fast, but other than that, he doesn’t serve much purpose besides a minor physical presence (and a diving coward). The Habs could do better than him with either prosects, or a newly signed player. Sundstrom is nothing but a fringe player. He can be good both offensively and defensively…when he decides to (which isn’t very often). If the Habs were to keep him, he would have to come cheap. As for the RFA forwards, Begin, Higgins, Murray, Perezhogan, and Ryder will all stay. Ribeiro might go to make room for a newly signed second line centre. If not, he better come cheap. Dagenais is gone, gone, gone, as far away as he can go. On defense, Bouillion is a MUST sign, while the lackluster, though physical Simpson, I wouldn’t mind saying good-bye to. If he stays he’ll be a fringe player which means he’ll come cheap. Whether Simpson stays or goes, I don’t really care. There is no way Mike Komisarek won’t be resigned since he’s a RFA. Streit better be gone next season, but I supose Gainey could always give him a second chance.

IF the Habs were to do as I would, I would see to it that the Habs look to sign the following players:

To replace Ribeiro (second line cetre – offensive):

UFAs

Marc Savard – ATL

Matt Cullen – CAR

Doug Weight – CAR

Jan Hrdina – CBJ

Mike Ricci – PHX

Alyn McCauley -SJS

RFAs

Scott Gomez – NJD

Brad Richards – TBL

Unrestricted free agents are easier to sign than RFAs if you exclude the fact that there will be a lot more competition for them, league-wide. Marc Savard, Matt Cullen, and Doug Weight would all fit nicely as second (and maybe even first) line centres on the Habs if Ribeiro were to leave Montreal. Hrdina, Ricci, and McCauley would be my “plan B”s (if other teams beat the Habs in the race for Savard, Cullen, and Weight).

Restricted free agents are much harder to acquire because their teams will be able to match offers. Others may be unrealistic when it comes to RFAs, but not me. New Jersey is already tight on cap space, and with Elias, Kovloz, Pandolfo, Rasmussen, Langenbrunner, Gionta, Martin, and White still to sign, it will be hard to fit Gomez in. There is always, of course, the pssobility of New Jersey dumping one of the aforementioned players to make room for Gomez. If they don’t, the Habs could make a bid for Gomez. Here’s how the Habs get Richards: Tampa Bay is already severely tight on cap space, Richards is making between $1-2 million this season (think he’ll want a raise?), and Jay Feaster (GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning) has leanred the valuable lesson of goaltending being extremely important, no matter what the cost. Basically, Richards is gone from Tampa Bay unless he decides to take a pay cut. He might as well be a free agent. That means the Habs won’t be the only team interested in him though (however, if Richards wants to be close to home, Montreal is the place to be). It’d be nice to have Richards as a 1st/2nd line centre, even if it cost Gainey a little more than he would like to pay him.

The Habs are lacking depth on the left wing (especially if they were to let Bulis go, and I’d like to see Zendik traded, so that’ll mean even less depth), so I’d like to see them go after the following players:

UFAs

Jeff Friesen – ANA

Antti Laaksonen – COL

Trevor Letowski – CBJ

Georges Laraque – EDM

Sergei Samsonov – EDM

Boyd Devereaux – PHX

Geoff Sanderson – PHX

Eric Boguniecki – PIT

Dean McAmmond – STL

RFAs

Mikko Koivu – MIN (hehe)

Martin Havlat – OTT

Oleg Saprykin – PHX

Ruslan Fedotenko – TBL (RW shoots left)

Brad Richards – TBL (C shoots left)

Friesen won’t be going anywhere if Burke has anything to say a bout it, but if Friesen doesn’t want to be in Anaheim, I’d like to see him in a Habs uniform. Laaksonen is a solid depthful defensive forward who’d look good in a Habs uni. The same goes for Letowski and McAmmond. Laraque would be a good fit with the new and improved tough, hard working Habs, as would the powerforward, Sanderson. Samsonov, Devereaux, and Bouguniecki would also all be nice speedy, team players to have on the LW.

Mikko Koivu. A guy can dream can’t he? Havlat could be leaving Ottawa because of their free agent crisis, but I’m not so sure I’d want to have him as a Hab because he could challenge Higgins’ for the top line spot, and Higgins needs time on the first line to develop. Oleg Saprykin would be a nice speedy addition to the Habs’ LW, Fedotenko would be too. I added Brad Richards to the list because the Habs could use him as a LW as well as a centre.

Last, but not least, defense. This is something the Habs’ve had to imrove on for years and with Theodore’s massive contract gone, Gainey might finally be able to afford a good defensive squad:

UFAs

Jay McKee – BUF

Karlis Skrastins – COL

Radoslav Suchy – CBJ

Willie Mitchell – DAL

Zdeno Chara – OTT

Wade Redden – OTT

Eric Desjardins – PHI

Kim Johnsson – PHI

Cory Sarich – TBL

Ed Jovanovski – VAN

RFAs

Paul Martin – NJD

Colin White – NJD

McKee, Jovanoski, Chara, Redden, and Johnsson will probably all be hard to come by as there will be a lot of competition to sign them. Of course, Chara and Redden are the biggest names on defense this year because it’s likely that at least one of them will be leaving Ottawa, and there isn’t a single team in the league that wouldn’t want either of them. Now that McKee has been exposed as the great defensman he is, both his stock and popularity will rise. So if he chooses not to remain in Buffalo, Gainey should give his agent a call. Jovanoski would be a risk to take on because his salary could come at a high price for an injury prone defensman. Desjardins, Skrastins, Sarich, and Mitchell are all quite underrated and there’s a chance they could slip under most teams’ radars. If they do, it would be nice to have any one of them playing for the Habs. There are some other big name defensmen I didn’t put on here only because I think they’ll want too much money (ie. Lidstrom).

I only chose Martin and White as RFA defensmen for the Habs to go after because of New Jersey’s cap trouble. If New Jersey lets them go, Montreal is where I’d like to see them.

So that’s my opinion on what the Habs should do this off-season. Now that you have the information, what do you think your team should do?