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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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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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?