List of Upcoming Free Agents

[juice71285 2]

Does anybody know where I can find a list of upcoming free agents for all teams.

[Sevumar 0]

http://nhlnumbers.com/freeagents.php

That's a decent place to start.

[Son of a Wing 1,644]

Also a good list on HF Boards

[hxcduff83 0]

so, whats the diff between restricted and unrestricted free agency?

[Son of a Wing 1,644]

so, whats the diff between restricted and unrestricted free agency?

An unrestricted free agent can sign with any team and his previous team is not owed compensation. A restricted free-agent, on the other hand, beings along a compensation requirement in the form of draft picks. The number of draft picks goes according to the new salary of the player, with the most lucrative contracts requiring the team signing the player to pony up five first round draft picks.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Son of a Wing

[Mudvayneowns91 0]

so, whats the diff between restricted and unrestricted free agency?

i could be totally wrong, but i think it goes something like this. the rfa can get offers, but I think the team that has the rfa can match it. if another team does sign them, the team that rfa left is entitled to draft picks. also, the better the player is, the more picks early picks there are. i'm pretty sure that's how the Penner deal to the Oilers went down. the Oilers got Penner and the Ducks got some of their picks including the 1st pick.... gross!

Edited February 28, 2008 by Mudvayneowns91

[Kp-Wings 3]

What's the point of having a free agent list? We all know Holland won't be signing any of them!

[VM1138 1,921]

What's the point of having a free agent list? We all know Holland won't be signing any of them!

It's not the best crop of UFAs ever, but there are a couple I'd be interested in:

Hossa

Satan

Fedotenko

Rolston

[epps 0]

Why are people bothering to talk about this? Holland has demonstrated he will not sign big free agents. Other than Rafalski he has not signed one FA that wasn't a cheap-bargain player. All of our money will go to resigning our own players, including even frickin Lilja. Holland will not change his M.O.

[stuart6 0]

It's not the best crop of UFAs ever, but there are a couple I'd be interested in:

Hossa

Satan

Fedotenko

Rolston

As you can see the NHL free agency is starting to look like the NFL... every team will resign their own top players and guys like Hossa will go out and sign a crazy contract with some team that has plenty of cap room - example = Flyers and Rangers last year splashing the big cash for Briere, Gomez and Drury. Team like Colorado went out and signed Smyth because they have cap room and he wanted to play with Sakic, we went out and signed Rafalski which was a need after Schneider signed with the Ducks and that was that. The only regret i have is that Holland didn't resign Bertuzzi because we had 5 million in cap space and Bert would have only cost us 4 million this year and 4 million next year. Sure he had back problems and probably didn't deserve that type of money but sometimes you have to over pay to keep a guy and that was the time to do it.

The only time i see us landing a top notch FA is in 2009 when Ryan Miller becomes available, Buffalo will try to resign him but i doubt he would want to stay there after all the players they have lost. One of the guys on TSN during the trade deadline said that Miller is the goalie Holland wants for the future and Ryan would be very interested in coming back to play in Michigan.

[Kp-Wings 3]

It's not the best crop of UFAs ever, but there are a couple I'd be interested in:

Hossa

Satan

Fedotenko

Rolston

Oh sure, I'd take those guys. But Holland won't. He'll give us the usual "we want to save money for the deadline" speech, and not sign anybody. Strangely enough, he won't use that deadline money either.

My comment was a direct stab at Holland, not the free agent crop. I like who's out there, but I seriously doubt Holland will sign any of them.

[stuart6 0]

Free agent crop?? come on now... Satan (ever since leaving Buffalo) and Fedotenko have done NOTHING for the Islanders and Hossa is gonna cost at least $7 million per year which is too much for a guy that has only performed well in the playoffs once in 2003 with the Sens. Rolston is from Flint so maybe we can get him for the right price but other then that none of these players are really worth it.

Here are some more interesting names:

Holik, Bobby

Recchi, Mark

Ward, Aaron

Conroy, Craig

Langkow, Daymond

Peca, Mike

Foote, Adam

Brunette, Andrew

Theodore, Jose

Blake, Rob

Demitra, Pavol (i like him)

Ryder, Michael

Smolinski, Bryan

Pandolfo, Jay

Shanahan, Brendan

Commodore, Mike

Redden, Wade

Campbell, Brian

Naslund, Markus

Morrison, Brendan

Sundin will probably stay with the Leafs.

So basically there are two very good d-man in Campbell and Redden... but we are not in the market for that. If you look at the rest of the list i wouldn't mind trying to get Naslund to come here (Swedish connection) or even some guys with local ties like Morrison or Smolinski.

Edited February 28, 2008 by stuart6

[alienanxiety 23]

this stuff is fun, in an EA Sports kinda way...

2008-2009 Detroit Red Wings

Filppula-Datysuk-Satan

Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Brunnstrom

Malone-Hudler-Cleary

Maltby-Draper-Franzen

Lidstrom-Kronwal

Stuart-Rafalski

Chelios-Meech

Osgood-Howard

[igortheg8 0]

Free agent crop?? come on now... Satan (ever since leaving Buffalo) and Fedotenko have done NOTHING for the Islanders and Hossa is gonna cost at least $7 million per year which is too much for a guy that has only performed well in the playoffs once in 2003 with the Sens. Rolston is from Flint so maybe we can get him for the right price but other then that none of these players are really worth it.

Here are some more interesting names:

Holik, Bobby

Recchi, Mark

Ward, Aaron

Conroy, Craig

Langkow, Daymond

Peca, Mike

Foote, Adam

Brunette, Andrew

Theodore, Jose

Blake, Rob

Demitra, Pavol (i like him)

Ryder, Michael

Smolinski, Bryan

Pandolfo, Jay

Shanahan, Brendan

Commodore, Mike

Redden, Wade

Campbell, Brian

Naslund, Markus

Morrison, Brendan

Sundin will probably stay with the Leafs.

So basically there are two very good d-man in Campbell and Redden... but we are not in the market for that. If you look at the rest of the list i wouldn't mind trying to get Naslund to come here (Swedish connection) or even some guys with local ties like Morrison or Smolinski.

It's probably pointless to talk about the free agent market this summer based on the Wings new policy of fiscal restraint, but there are four more interesting UFAs I would like to add to the list above.

Ryan Malone (6'4", 224 lbs, 20 goals, 18 assists): If Hossa lives up to his potential for Pittsburgh in the playoffs, the Penguins will feel the payroll pressure and Malone may not be satisfied with what they can offer.

Niklas Hagman (6'0", 205 lbs, 22 goals, 12 assists): If Brad Richards recreates his Tampa Bay glory days while helping Dallas in the playoffs, the Stars may have difficulty keeping Hagman and Richards.

Radim Vrbata (27 goals, 24 assists): Highly unlikely that Phoenix would let this integral cog in their young machine get away, but worth watching.

George LaRaque: If you think Downey stands up for his teammates, think what LaRaque would do when Pronger or Phaneuf misbehave. Again, Pittsburgh may be needing to dump some salary and LaRaque could be available if the Wings could make room for such a one-dimensional player.

[Opie 308]

My preference would look like this in order of top choice

Rolston

Demitra (doubt this will happen with his relationship with Gaborik)

Malone

Naslund

Other than that if Holland does make a move great, but I don't see a lot of those UFA's being on his list or Det being on theirs, he may not like the 4 I put on my list so who knows.

[thedisappearer 291]

What's the point of having a free agent list? We all know Holland won't be signing any of them!

After Ewe Krupp, can you blame him?

[LeftWinger 4,968]

...aw jeez, here we go. Haven't we learned out lesson? We'll all compile a list of players we think the Wings can use, they can definately afford and would make our team better. We'll hear sports analysts talking about how Holland is gonna be a buyer this UFA season and we'll hear Holland on draft day explain to all of us how he wants to add a top 6 scorer and a big defensman. After hearing that, we'll all get excited, make another list of players that would fit in here, help get bigger and better and add scoring punch. We'll show each other our projected line-ups and again listen how "The Hockey Buzz" and "ESPN" all say Detroit is interested in (insert superstar player's name here) and how if the Wings sign this guy they will be instant favorites to win the Cup. Then come July 1st, Holland will have trouble getting his own UFA's to re-sign right away, saying he'll wait to hear from them about their future. He'll tell Chelios and Hasek if they want to come back let him know and he'll wait for them most the summer, sitting idley as most, if not all top level UFA's sign elsewhere for much less than we have all predicted the Wings could afford to pay them because they wanted 5 year deals not 1 year deals. He will eventually re-sign CLeary, Chelios and Hasek to a salary that is WAAAAY overpaying these guys, Hasek will get $4million Chelios $1million and Cleary will get $5.5million and Holland will tell us all how Cleary is an important cog in the machinery that is Hockeytown, only for him to pull a Kris Draper and have his stats drop off almost entirely compared to his "contract" year. Oh yeah, while Holland is waiting for Chelios and Hasek to decide whether or not to retire and while all the quality UFA's sign with our Western Conference rivals, he will sign 34 year old Haken Peupen out of the Finnish Beer League for $2.5 million per season.

...and when asked if he even offered any of the upper level UFA's (Hossa/Rolsten) a contract he responds by saying, "...we like where we're at with our club. Danial Cleary is healthy and signed now for 5 years and we got veteren leadership on the blue line along with argueably the (formerly) best goaltender in the world. We like our core, we have great young players who are going to get more icetime and we were able to retain Lilja for pennies on the dollar, he adds a much needed nastiness to our blue line. We knew the players that were available but when our guys were discussing who we'd like to offer a contract to, not everyone was on board with offering contracts to some of the players who were available on July 1st. We're comfortable with our team and feel we can compete for the Presidents Trophy again this season." (no mention of the Stanley Cup)

...so go ahead, get you wishlists out now, do all the Cap math, make-up all your line combos. Even show some combos with RFA's you wish to have. After you are all done, print it out take it with you to the toilet, read through your wish list and combos while you do your business then when you are done, wipe your ass with it, because Holland will only disappoint again this year as he has done for almost every year he's been in charge.

Edited February 28, 2008 by LeftWinger

[Rice 42]

...aw jeez, here we go. Haven't we learned out lesson? We'll all compile a list of players we think the Wings can use, they can definately afford and would make our team better. We'll hear sports analysts talking about how Holland is gonna be a buyer this UFA season and we'll hear Holland on draft day explain to all of us how he wants to add a top 6 scorer and a big defensman. After hearing that, we'll all get excited, make another list of players that would fit in here, help get bigger and better and add scoring punch. We'll show each other our projected line-ups and again listen how "The Hockey Buzz" and "ESPN" all say Detroit is interested in (insert superstar player's name here) and how if the Wings sign this guy they will be instant favorites to win the Cup. Then come July 1st, Holland will have trouble getting his own UFA's to re-sign right away, saying he'll wait to hear from them about their future. He'll tell Chelios and Hasek if they want to come back let him know and he'll wait for them most the summer, sitting idley as most, if not all top level UFA's sign elsewhere for much less than we have all predicted the Wings could afford to pay them because they wanted 5 year deals not 1 year deals. He will eventually re-sign CLeary, Chelios and Hasek to a salary that is WAAAAY overpaying these guys, Hasek will get $4million Chelios $1million and Cleary will get $5.5million and Holland will tell us all how Cleary is an important cog in the machinery that is Hockeytown, only for him to pull a Kris Draper and have his stats drop off almost entirely compared to his "contract" year. Oh yeah, while Holland is waiting for Chelios and Hasek to decide whether or not to retire and while all the quality UFA's sign with our Western Conference rivals, he will sign 34 year old Haken Peupen out of the Finnish Beer League for $2.5 million per season.

...and when asked if he even offered any of the upper level UFA's (Hossa/Rolsten) a contract he responds by saying, "...we like where we're at with our club. Danial Cleary is healthy and signed now for 5 years and we got veteren leadership on the blue line along with argueably the (formerly) best goaltender in the world. We like our core, we have great young players who are going to get more icetime and we were able to retain Lilja for pennies on the dollar, he adds a much needed nastiness to our blue line. We knew the players that were available but when our guys were discussing who we'd like to offer a contract to, not everyone was on board with offering contracts to some of the players who were available on July 1st. We're comfortable with our team and feel we can compete for the Presidents Trophy again this season." (no mention of the Stanley Cup)

...so go ahead, get you wishlists out now, do all the Cap math, make-up all your line combos. Even show some combos with RFA's you wish to have. After you are all done, print it out take it with you to the toilet, read through your wish list and combos while you do your business then when you are done, wipe your ass with it, because Holland will only disappoint again this year as he has done for almost every year he's been in charge.

...and let me guess, LeftWinger, you'll ***** about the Wings not signing marginal players like Adam Hall and Sergei Fedorov. Am I right?

Edited February 29, 2008 by ARice89

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

I'd like to see Rolston, Malone or Ryder and a guy like Orpik. Not too crazy to think at least one of them could be signed.

[awingsincebirth 0]

Okay, this is directed to those who seem to think that Holland will never sign another free agent and will always leave himself $5 mil short of the cap.

I think that it is safe to say that Holland has dropped the ball this year. He left money for the deadline, I'm sure he had something in mind, then obviously something went wrong. I think that he just screwed up, plain and simple. Do you honestly think that it is Holland's new plan to always operate 4 or 5 million below the cap? Maybe he feels like challenging himself by operating under a self-imposed handicap? No. Were this actually the case, and if Holland never actually has the intention of using all the cap space at his disposal, then he indeed does suck, and he should be fired. However, Holland has hopefully learned from this mistake and will keep it a bit closer to the cap, hopefully like $1 mil left for the deadline, which when pro-rated, can get you a pretty nice role player.

/rant

In all seriousness, I'm really hoping that Minnesota and Rolston part ways (not sure how their contract talks are going or what it looks like). I think he would be a great addition to this team for a year or two. I'd pass on Naslund, though. He is chronically overrated, and I just don't think we need another player of his style on this team. But that's just me.

[LeftWinger 4,968]

...and let me guess, LeftWinger, you'll ***** about the Wings not signing marginal players like Adam Hall and Sergei Fedorov. Am I right?

...no, I've learned my lesson on that issue, but I am excited to see this Haken Peupen guy out of Finland...

...j/k, I could care less who and if the Wings sign anyone. I'm done trying to figure out what could work here. Seems Holland would rather have an excellent regular season team rather than a playoff team...

...I am sticking to my guns. I will not support or cheer for this team until Holland is gone. I will continue to read on here and post once in a while, but as a card carrying Wings fan, I'm done. The NHL is a Nancy sport anymore anyway. If Holland is there for another 20 years oh well, then I guess I just fade away as a fan. Have fun cheering for them, I will be back tomorrow to laugh hysterically when they lose again. They lost me when someone put their personal feelings ahead of the team when trying to get Fedorov. Fedorov is still better than everyone on our team not named Zetterberg/Datsyuk or Lidstrom. But that certain someone would go and cry to mom if Holland would've traded for him, so as soon as the General Managment Group started spelling the word team with an I, I decided to turn the card in. No I am not jumping on another team's bandwagon and I look forward to the Wings losing in round one so I can laugh my ass off and listen to Holland say we just didn't have enough secondary scoring (again.)

Edited February 29, 2008 by LeftWinger

[awingsincebirth 0]

Okay, this is directed to those who seem to think that Holland will never sign another free agent and will always leave himself $5 mil short of the cap.

I think that it is safe to say that Holland has dropped the ball this year. He left money for the deadline, I'm sure he had something in mind, then obviously something went wrong. I think that he just screwed up, plain and simple. Do you honestly think that it is Holland's new plan to always operate 4 or 5 million below the cap? Maybe he feels like challenging himself by operating under a self-imposed handicap? No. Were this actually the case, and if Holland never actually has the intention of using all the cap space at his disposal, then he indeed does suck, and he should be fired. However, Holland has hopefully learned from this mistake and will keep it a bit closer to the cap, hopefully like $1 mil left for the deadline, which when pro-rated, can get you a pretty nice role player. To say that it is Hollands new plan to leave so much space based solely on the mistake he made this year is a little closed-minded I think.

/rant

In all seriousness, I'm really hoping that Minnesota and Rolston part ways (not sure how their contract talks are going or what it looks like). I think he would be a great addition to this team for a year or two. I'd pass on Naslund, though. He is chronically overrated, and I just don't think we need another player of his style on this team. But that's just me.

[Rice 42]

Okay, this is directed to those who seem to think that Holland will never sign another free agent and will always leave himself $5 mil short of the cap.

I think that it is safe to say that Holland has dropped the ball this year. He left money for the deadline, I'm sure he had something in mind, then obviously something went wrong. I think that he just screwed up, plain and simple. Do you honestly think that it is Holland's new plan to always operate 4 or 5 million below the cap? Maybe he feels like challenging himself by operating under a self-imposed handicap? No. Were this actually the case, and if Holland never actually has the intention of using all the cap space at his disposal, then he indeed does suck, and he should be fired. However, Holland has hopefully learned from this mistake and will keep it a bit closer to the cap, hopefully like $1 mil left for the deadline, which when pro-rated, can get you a pretty nice role player.

/rant

In all seriousness, I'm really hoping that Minnesota and Rolston part ways (not sure how their contract talks are going or what it looks like). I think he would be a great addition to this team for a year or two. I'd pass on Naslund, though. He is chronically overrated, and I just don't think we need another player of his style on this team. But that's just me.

Cap space was left out there not only for the deadline but also because there were no great UFA forwards out there. Holland intended to sign another defenseman (Stuart, Sopel) but couldn't get a deal done. What other forward out there would've been that much of an improvement over what we've got? There's no way Holland left all that space solely for the deadline. When taking prorated salary into account, the Wings could've taken on something like $20 million in full-season salary. That wasn't going to happen as it would take a ton of young players and draft picks to take on that much salary.

Plus, Holland admittedly had interest in Forsberg. I'm sure the front office took that into account when leaving that space open as opposed to signing a forward who would not have been that effective anyway.

Rolston would be a great addition to the second line.

[Lou_Siffer 1]

...aw jeez, here we go. Haven't we learned out lesson? We'll all compile a list of players we think the Wings can use, they can definately afford and would make our team better. We'll hear sports analysts talking about how Holland is gonna be a buyer this UFA season and we'll hear Holland on draft day explain to all of us how he wants to add a top 6 scorer and a big defensman. After hearing that, we'll all get excited, make another list of players that would fit in here, help get bigger and better and add scoring punch. We'll show each other our projected line-ups and again listen how "The Hockey Buzz" and "ESPN" all say Detroit is interested in (insert superstar player's name here) and how if the Wings sign this guy they will be instant favorites to win the Cup. Then come July 1st, Holland will have trouble getting his own UFA's to re-sign right away, saying he'll wait to hear from them about their future. He'll tell Chelios and Hasek if they want to come back let him know and he'll wait for them most the summer, sitting idley as most, if not all top level UFA's sign elsewhere for much less than we have all predicted the Wings could afford to pay them because they wanted 5 year deals not 1 year deals. He will eventually re-sign CLeary, Chelios and Hasek to a salary that is WAAAAY overpaying these guys, Hasek will get $4million Chelios $1million and Cleary will get $5.5million and Holland will tell us all how Cleary is an important cog in the machinery that is Hockeytown, only for him to pull a Kris Draper and have his stats drop off almost entirely compared to his "contract" year. Oh yeah, while Holland is waiting for Chelios and Hasek to decide whether or not to retire and while all the quality UFA's sign with our Western Conference rivals, he will sign 34 year old Haken Peupen out of the Finnish Beer League for $2.5 million per season.

...and when asked if he even offered any of the upper level UFA's (Hossa/Rolsten) a contract he responds by saying, "...we like where we're at with our club. Danial Cleary is healthy and signed now for 5 years and we got veteren leadership on the blue line along with argueably the (formerly) best goaltender in the world. We like our core, we have great young players who are going to get more icetime and we were able to retain Lilja for pennies on the dollar, he adds a much needed nastiness to our blue line. We knew the players that were available but when our guys were discussing who we'd like to offer a contract to, not everyone was on board with offering contracts to some of the players who were available on July 1st. We're comfortable with our team and feel we can compete for the Presidents Trophy again this season." (no mention of the Stanley Cup)

...so go ahead, get you wishlists out now, do all the Cap math, make-up all your line combos. Even show some combos with RFA's you wish to have. After you are all done, print it out take it with you to the toilet, read through your wish list and combos while you do your business then when you are done, wipe your ass with it, because Holland will only disappoint again this year as he has done for almost every year he's been in charge.

Thats so spot on its scary....my prediction would be exactly the same as yours, even down to the quotes. Very well done!

[Rice 42]

...no, I've learned my lesson on that issue, but I am excited to see this Haken Peupen guy out of Finland...

...j/k, I could care less who and if the Wings sign anyone. I'm done trying to figure out what could work here. Seems Holland would rather have an excellent regular season team rather than a playoff team...

Yeah, because the likes of Hall and Fedorov would've instantly won them the Stanley Cup this year.

The playoffs haven't even started yet and you're already calling a loss.

This is the same team as last year with a better defense and much less dead weight (Lang, Bertuzzi, Calder) in the forward corps.

If the Wings go out early, ***** all you want. The fact of the matter is neither of us have a clue as to what's going to happen in the post-season yet. It's a crapshoot.