[Nyuk]

Sportsnet.ca has this cool free agent tracker which you can sort by 08-09 salary, and I noticed that of the 30 highest-paid guys, 15 are unsigned:

Joe Sakic
Mathieu Schneider
Mats Sundin
Alex Tanguay
Sergei Zubov
Manny Fernandez
Saku Koivu
Alex Kovalev
Robert Lang
Mike Comrie
Sergei Federov (not really available, as he's signed in Russia)
Derek Morris
Martin Gerber
Maxim Afinogenov

Many of these guys are still available largely because they previously had high salaries and were overpaid, e.g., Fernandez, Koivu, Lang, Comrie, Gerber, and Afinogenov. Sakic will probably play for the Avs or retire. But that leaves

Schneider
Sundin
Tanguay
Zubov
Kovalev
Morris

Any of those guys would be a good addition at the right price (I'd be especially interested in Zubov or Morris).

From the second page, i.e., the next 30 highest-paid UFAs, the following are still available:

Martin Biron
Miroslav Satan
Christian Backman
Filip Kuba
Nick Boynton
Niclas Havelid
Brendan Morrison
Greg de Vries
Kyle Calder
Todd Marchant
Ales Kotalik
Darryl Sydor
Philippe Boucher
Petr Sykora
Kyle McLaren
Manny Legace
Viktor Kozlov
Rhett Warrener

I think it's interesting to see how many of these guys are still looking for work on July 4. Was it like this last summer? 33 of the 60 UFAs who were highest-paid last season are now looking for work (and that's not even counting the guys who retired or took off to Russia). What kind of pay-cuts will they have to take in order to find jobs?

Could Gerber, Biron, or Legace be available for back-up wages?

Would Satan, Kotalik, or Sykora take somewhere between $1-2 million on a one-year deal to re-establish themselves?

Would Kuba, Boynton, Havelid, or Boucher be willing to take $2 million or so?

We'll see. Not that many teams have much cap room left, and there are a lot of guys without contracts. You can try to demand $5 million all you want, but if nobody has $5 million in cap room, you ain't getting it.

Thoughts? Anyone from the above lists you think we could/should get?

[Happy Gilmore]

I don't think we need any more forwards.
One of Schneider, Zubov, Boynton, Morris, and McLaren would be decent additions.
So would Kuba, if he was an UFA.

This post has been edited by Happy Gilmore: 04 July 2009 - 11:09 AM

[luongo55]

why not go for seidenberg? he would be a good puckmover @ a decent price

[Nyuk]

Happy Gilmore, on Jul 4 2009, 12:09 PM, said:

I don't think we need any more forwards.
One of Schneider, Zubov, Boynton, Morris, and McLaren would be decent additions.
So would Kuba, if he was an UFA.

Hmmm ... Sportsnet says he's a UFA, but they could be wrong. Did Ottawa resign him or something?

[therosberg]

Nyuk, on Jul 4 2009, 12:06 PM, said:

Hmmm ... Sportsnet says he's a UFA, but they could be wrong. Did Ottawa resign him or something?

he signed with ottawa.. and we don't need anymore upfront focus on the back end adding a defensemen (either seidenberg, boynton or morris) and put sandman as our back up.